SW Galaxies and computer lag proplems (1 Viewer)

[Kevin_Graham]

Last week I purchased Galaxies and I've really enjoyed it. I have been completely frustrated though with my computers lack of ability to play this game without hesitation. So I'm turning to the HTF computer experts once again. What part(s) of my computer need to be upgraded to play this game smoothly?

P4 1.6A
512mb RAM
80mb hardrive
Geforce3 Ti 200 64mb
XP home
DSL connection

 

[Kelley_B]

The GeFORCE3 Ti200, although the 1.6A isn't helping you out much, have you tried to OC it yet? The usually can be OC'ed up to 2.0Ghz with little trouble.

I'd recommend getting a Radeon 9500 Pro if you are looking to get off on the cheap, if not look for the regular Radeon 9800 they cost less then the 9700 Pro and run just as fast.

 

[John_Berger]

The usually can be OC'ed up to 2.0Ghz with little trouble.

Yeah, it also has no problem obliterating any warranty that might still be on his system. Over-clocking is not something that should be done just because it can be done.

 

[Joel Mack]

Criminy.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Check your network and what kind of throughput you're getting to the SWG servers. Try the ping command to see how long it takes to ping; it could also be that the SWG servers are overloaded just as well as a problem on your end.

Make sure you check out the SWG forums and see if there are any others experiencing lag on a more systematic scale or if it is just you.

The 1.6 GHz machine and Geforce 3 should be fine, but surely you can try turning down graphics detail to see if that has any impact whatsoever.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

Thanks for the replies!

My throughput to the servers is not an issue. There's a huge amount of activity on my hardrive and that's when the lag time appears to be happening. Before I installed Galaxies I had run Norton's against the hardrive. I fixed whatever errors there were and defragged the disk. The hardrive is nowhere near full so I'm wondering if this activity is due to the windows swap file or maybe the video card holding things up.

Any other ideas?

 

[Richard Travale]

Do you have a lot of stuff going on in the background? Stuff like Norton's and other things in your sys tray?
Disable whatever you think is unnecessary while you're playing. That will probably help to speed things up.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

I forgot to mention that I do disable Norton before playing.

 

[John_Berger]

The hardrive is nowhere near full so I'm wondering if this activity is due to the windows swap file or maybe the video card holding things up.

The Windows swap/paging file is the worst implementation of a paging system in any modern operating system - bar none. The idea that you should access the hard drive when you still have hundreds of megs available in hard RAM is abominable and should be a huge embarassment to whatever moron thought that it was a good idea.

Based on what you've noticed the problem is one of two things: you have too much running thereby making Windows think that it needs to go to its f**king swap file or there is a memory leak in the game (can you say Ultima 9?) where memory is not being released properly. The latter does involve the swap file, but it's not Window's fault per se since the problem is with the game.

The thing to do right now is to shut down everything that does not absolutely need to be running when you're playing the game. Additionally, you should try to reboot your system before you play the game as it will clear out memory and swap and ginve you a clean slate when you play the game.

Of course, check LucasArt's web site for any patches to the game on a regular basis.

Additionally, LucasArts has message boards on their web site. It is possible that others have mentioned this and might have responses that could help, or at worst you could post a message on your own. I do believe that LucasArts' tech support people do look through the forums.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

How do I remove programs from my system tray?

 

[Greg Rakaska]

I was a Beta tester for SWG and the system I played had was the same as yours except I had a 1 Ghz PIII, XP Pro, and cable modem (512 mb RAM, Ti200). I only noticed lag in large groups in the cities. I left the graphics at default detail levels.

I did not notice the hard drive activity you mention. I believe that the advice others gave you about reducing the number of background programs is sound. Something is causing a lot of swap activity. Your system has the power to play SWG smoothly at default graphic details, with only some minor lag in busy scenarios.

Is your PC a Dell, Gateway, or similar brand name. If so, then it is probably LOADED with non-essential, running, programs.

Go to http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and check out the list of XP services. Learn which ones you need, and which you don't TAKE GOOD NOTES of what you change, just in case you stop a critical service. Learn to use and understand MSCONFIG, especially the "Startup" tab options. Stop everything you do not need. Google is your friend. Search for the programs in the Startup tab if you do not know what they are.

I have since upgraded my system to a 2.4 PIVc, 1 gb Dual channel DDR, GF4800, and SWG plays very smooth with details cranked up 1/2 - 3/4 on most sliders.

If you feel the desire to upgrade your hardware after optimizing your software, get a better vid card, and another 256 mb RAM. SWG will use 768 mb if available. In the nVidia line, the GF 4200 is considered the best price/performer at about $100. Some folks like the newer ATI cards better, but I know nothing about them, so cannot advise on that. the FX5900 is the top of the line, but will run $400 or so. BUT fix the swap problem first!

 

[JamesHl]

Personally, I find the best way to deal with the swap problem is to set the swap file as a fixed size. That seems to cut down on hd activity a lot.

 

[John_Berger]

In the nVidia line, the GF 4200 is considered the best price/performer at about $100.

I just saw (ad bought) a GF 5200 for $99 at Best Buy, so you can get a bit of extra bang for the same buck now.

 

[Greg Rakaska]

I just saw (ad bought) a GF 5200 for $99 at Best Buy, so you can get a bit of extra bang for the same buck now.

This is not meant to be a flame, troll, or fanboy response, but if you do a search on the web you will find that the 5200 is a notorious "dog" in all performance benchmarks.

Here is one example: http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic...0-5200-03.html

The 5200 is almost half as fast as the 4200 in most benchmarks. (say "half fast" 10 times )

Admittedly it is a bit deceptive for nVidia to use the 5200 designation. It would be a normal response to assume the a 5200 would be faster than a 4200!

If I understand your post correctly, you indicated you just bought one. BB has a 30 day return policy if you want to take advantage of it. I have several times with vid cards that i bought that did not live up to expectations.

....from nVidia's own website:

GeForce4 Ti 4200 w/ AGP 8X
---------------------------
Memory Bandwidth: 8GB/Sec
Fill Rate: 4 Billion AA Samples/Sec
Vertices per Second: 113 Million
Maximum Memory: 128 mb


GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
---------------------
Memory Bandwidth: 10.4GB/sec
FillRate: 1.3 billion texels/sec
Vertices per sec: 81 million/sec
Maximum Memory: 128MB

 

[John_Berger]

Well, there's an eye-opener! Yes, I just bought it, so I can return it tomorrow.

Thanks for the notice!

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

More memory is never a bad thing, and 512 MB more won't break the bank. Might be worth it.

I remember when I was trying Anarchy Online, the rich people were buying huge amounts of RAM and putting the swap file into RAM-disks just to be able to play the game with passable speed and no disk swapping...

 

[Shane Martin]

I would suspect its a cpu issue combined with a video card. VI's games requires tons of both and you can never have enough of either for games designed by VI(verant). My friend upgraded to a Geforce 4 TI4600 and the issues were all but gone.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

Apparently this is an issue for many GeForce users. I have upgraded to a Geforce FX 5200 and I'm going to add another 512 of memory tonight. Hopefully that'll take care of the lag time.