Weird FPS issue w/ 8800gt and CoD4

[Defacil]

Hey everyone,
When I play CoD4, the first 30seconds to a minute of gameplay is silky smooth running at constant 70-90 FPS. However, after a minute or so, the FPS (from cg_drawfps in console) turns to a red text and varies at 30-40.

No matter what I do in the settings, the fps drops and stays red. I changed my resolution from 1680 widescreen to 1024x768 and turned everything to medium and the same thing still occurs.

Here are my PC specs:

CPU: Core2Duo e8400
MOBO: Asus P5K
Vid: eVGA8800GT 512mb
OS: Win Vista 64bit (legit)
RAM: 4gb Corsair Dominator Ram
HD: WD250AAKS x 2 in RAID

My pc has never had this problem until recently and I dunno if it's the summer causing my vid card to run hot/slower (my room sits around 72 degrees) or if some software is hindering performance. For the record, I use Kaspersky protection but I've disabled it to see if it did anything and it didn't.

Thanks for your time,
Grant

 

[Defacil]

bump ;x

 

[airhendrix13]

Kind of sounds like your GPU is throttling back (which is generally caused by heat). Try running furmark in windowed mode and use your favorite GPU temp monitor and keep an eye on your GPU temp and FPS. If your GPU is truling throttling back, your FPS will drop a fair bit. If it indeed does throttle back, check what temp it is at and try to find a way to keep your GPU under that temp (3rd party cooler or simply raise your fan speed).

Good luck!

 

[badnewcastle]

Definately sounds like the GPU is throttling back, how long a go did you get you 8800 GT seems like the ones first released by EVGA had heat problems.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: badnewcastle
Definately sounds like the GPU is throttling back, how long a go did you get you 8800 GT seems like the ones first released by EVGA had heat problems.

They did not have heat problems, they had fan speed problems with translated to improper cooling.

@OP make sure you update the bios on your card to get out of the fan speed locked at 30% problem. Use Nvidia Monitor to cehck your temps (leave it running in the background) and take a look at your temps once you notice the issue

 

[Defacil]

My evga 8800GT was actually purchased about a month ago. I use the latest non-beta Nvidia drivers. I also downloaded evga's precision tool to check my gpu temperatures. On idle, my gpu ran at 62C and in CoD it jumped to 70C. I think that's well within moderation.

Also, although I had played the game in 1680 resolution on my 22" widescreen. I changed the resolution to 1024x768 and kept the optimal settings and the game still did the exact same thing. The first minute was solid 90 fps and then after 30s to a minute, the game went to 20-30fps.

Could it have anything to do with sound? I have an old old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 XS that's plugged in but not used. I have Vista set to use my onboard audio and I am currently using onboard audio.

 

[Defacil]

any other suggestions? ;/

 

[lavaheadache]

hey try this... I may be having a similar problem. As soon as you notice your fps tanking reload your graphic settings. You can do this easily without exiting the game or changing anything by going in to the game option menu by hitting escape during play. Then go into the video settings and change your aspect ratio from whatever ratio it is at to auto and hit apply. when you go back into the game, see if your fps go back to normal again.

On my rig, with an hd4870, 1920x1200 8XAA.... Game runs flawlessly for an unspecified amount of time and then will tank into the upper teens. But get this it only happens when I face a certain direction or certain objects. My GPU is not overheating and it is not overclocked I have the fan speed bumped up to 50% and temps never go over 50c. I can repeat this everytime in certain areas of the game if I play a level to a certain point. All I have to do to get my Fps back up to where they should be is reload the grapics settings in the game by the method previously described. I just switch back and forth between 16/10 and auto. I believe the hd4870 my have a memory leak in cod4 and certain areas of the game with 8xAA are hitting a frame buffer limit, and I have to "clear" out the memory by reloading the settings.

When the frames chug, I can turn around and shoot, run, blow stuff up, whatever and everything is good. The second I face the other way my fps tank even if I'm facing a wall.

This only happens under 8XAA, not with anything less