Having major slowdown drop in Chap 3

Corvus Corax · 09-14-2011, 02:01 AM

Basic system specs: Dell XPS, 3.4 single core (two logical cores), 4 gigs RAM, nVidia GF9800GT, XP SP3. Running at 1280x1024 with default settings. I'm at level 59 at the moment.

I'm having a major framerate drop in Chapter 3 when fighting battles. In many instances it's nearly impossible to aim because the FPS in so low. Is this because my system is pretty elderly (even with vid card upgrade, etc.) or is something else going on here?

I'll try lowering the settings next to see if that improves things.

Thanks for any help.

blorf · 09-14-2011, 09:01 AM

This has happened to a few people with older machines. Oddly my dev machine is only 2.4 Ghz and runs just fine. On our troubleshooting forums you can find some notes on how to relieve the issue a bit. But I also plan to do further optimizing to help with it as well. It would be helpful if you added your system specs and dxdiag info to our troubleshooting forums. We are looking for system commonalities that cause this issue.

The issue is definitely your CPU getting overwhelmed by the AI though. It isn't really video card related. You can lower the effects sliders though as that will take some slight load off the cpu.

Corvus Corax · 09-14-2011, 11:55 AM

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I kind of thought it was my cpu choking on the game. I've got a gig of video RAM on the card, which would seem sufficient. I'll check out your troubleshooting forum and add the info.

ptmadman12 · 09-20-2011, 11:33 AM

I've had this in its minority with the worst case being during the last 9000 defender x (or called something along those lines) side mission. All I could do in the end was run and let them all blow themselves up in my wake with the only real control being how hard i pressed the key w and direction. Am yet to try it with the reduced effects but will be having a look at what i can do without.

Corvus Corax · 09-20-2011, 03:46 PM

I still have the problem, but it's not game breaking. I'm level 83 now and am in chapter 4. I directly control a carrier with one huge turret as its only offensive weapon (cannon boosters on everything else). The turret is AI-controlled so I don't have to worry about aiming when I get into low FPS situations.

P51mus · 09-22-2011, 10:21 PM

Not sure what you're using, but I had to turn some particle settings all the way down when I was using a huge ship with 3 drone bays because in large battles I'd start to get some lag. (2.93 ghz dual core processor) Think that mostly happened in chapter 4 with certain zombie battles, though.

09-14-2011, 02:01 AM	#1
Corvus Corax Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 250	Having major slowdown drop in Chap 3 Basic system specs: Dell XPS, 3.4 single core (two logical cores), 4 gigs RAM, nVidia GF9800GT, XP SP3. Running at 1280x1024 with default settings. I'm at level 59 at the moment. I'm having a major framerate drop in Chapter 3 when fighting battles. In many instances it's nearly impossible to aim because the FPS in so low. Is this because my system is pretty elderly (even with vid card upgrade, etc.) or is something else going on here? I'll try lowering the settings next to see if that improves things. Thanks for any help.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

09-14-2011, 09:01 AM	#2
blorf MinMax Games Ltd. Join Date: Sep 2008 Reputation: 287 Posts: 708	This has happened to a few people with older machines. Oddly my dev machine is only 2.4 Ghz and runs just fine. On our troubleshooting forums you can find some notes on how to relieve the issue a bit. But I also plan to do further optimizing to help with it as well. It would be helpful if you added your system specs and dxdiag info to our troubleshooting forums. We are looking for system commonalities that cause this issue. The issue is definitely your CPU getting overwhelmed by the AI though. It isn't really video card related. You can lower the effects sliders though as that will take some slight load off the cpu.

09-14-2011, 11:55 AM	#3
Corvus Corax Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 250	Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I kind of thought it was my cpu choking on the game. I've got a gig of video RAM on the card, which would seem sufficient. I'll check out your troubleshooting forum and add the info.

09-20-2011, 11:33 AM	#4
ptmadman12 Join Date: Mar 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 4	I've had this in its minority with the worst case being during the last 9000 defender x (or called something along those lines) side mission. All I could do in the end was run and let them all blow themselves up in my wake with the only real control being how hard i pressed the key w and direction. Am yet to try it with the reduced effects but will be having a look at what i can do without.

09-20-2011, 03:46 PM	#5
Corvus Corax Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 250	I still have the problem, but it's not game breaking. I'm level 83 now and am in chapter 4. I directly control a carrier with one huge turret as its only offensive weapon (cannon boosters on everything else). The turret is AI-controlled so I don't have to worry about aiming when I get into low FPS situations.

09-22-2011, 10:21 PM	#6
P51mus Join Date: Sep 2010 Reputation: 0 Posts: 24	Not sure what you're using, but I had to turn some particle settings all the way down when I was using a huge ship with 3 drone bays because in large battles I'd start to get some lag. (2.93 ghz dual core processor) Think that mostly happened in chapter 4 with certain zombie battles, though.