So my CPU is lacking for this game?

[Archived Post]

According to this thread my CPU must be the culprit of my FPS woes.
http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=109259

My Athlon 64 X2 3.2ghz only gets a score of 5.12 with the calcs stated.

Rest of my rig:
GTX 260 896mb
4gb ram

Just outside of the training hall by Defender in Millennium City I get 15-22 FPS just looking around. This is on recommended or maximum settings. Going lower than recommended looks like poo, but I do get up to 30-40fps.

So seeing how my CPU is the weak link and this game has been out for awhile now what advanced settings are the most taxing on the CPU? How can I get the best FPS for my buck?

I run at Native 1680x1050 and going to lower resolutions does not help at all. I tried the lowest 16:10 1280x800 and my FPS didn't budge.

I don't feel like spending an hour tweaking settings to figure out which if any will help.

The most frustrating part to me is everything else I play runs well.

[Archived Post]

To be honest I'm suprised you can run at all with that processor, it is several generations old. You should consider upgrading it, and since any modern AMD processor is not going to use socket 939, you're going to have to upgrade at least your motherboard and CPU.

(Id recommend switching to Intel if you're going to go to that fuss: their processors have consistently outpaced AMD for several years now. You don't need an i7 or even an i5 processor, but the only market that AMD is superior in any way in is the "budget" market.)

[Archived Post]

I am waiting on new generation AMD to see how they pan out before I decide on new rig with Intel or AMD. Apparently for this game the Architecture of the Athlon 64 X2 is not good. As I said though most other games I play the 3.2ghz and dual core comes out ok.

I know I need a new CPU and will build a new rig in the next year or less. This and EQ2 are the only games my current PC has had any issues with. I play lots of MMOs, FPS & RTS games and those are the only two games that I get horrible FPS in. So even though I'd like to play this game a bit, I am not going to buy a new rig just for it.

Just amazing how different games act. Was just playing Two Worlds 2 which is beautiful with everything cranked and no FPS issues.

Am playing with settings now but have not found anything good. Just looking for settings that help to most due to poor CPU for this game, if any.

[Archived Post]

Ehh inside isn't too bad at 30-40 FPS but still less than ideal.

[Archived Post]

Most games really don't take advantage of the power offered by modern processors. The ones that do, tank noticably on lower-end CPUs.

[Archived Post]

Your processor should be able to run the game. You'll just be stuck at around 40 frames per second on minimum graphical settings. You can turn things that don't push the processor way up, but need to turn down things that do push the processor. I don't know what the "recommended" settings look at, but I wouldn't be surprised if it only looks at the video card.

Try turning off SSAO, depth of field, dynamic lighting, and shadows, setting anti-aliasing to 4x MSAA, and maxing everything else. See if that gets you 30-40 frames per second in Millennium City. That's kind of my default settings for people who come in with, "I've got a decent computer but my frame rates are too low".

The only graphical setting that I know pushes the processor is the physics computations, so you could turn down the number of physics objects. If that, together with the settings listed above, isn't enough, then try turning off other settings one at a time until you see something that makes a big difference.

It's also possible that if you're overclocking the processor, you're making it overheat, so that it clocks down severely. The Athlon 64 X2 topped out at 3.2 GHz, so either you got the highest clocked bin of it ever released (and long after Intel had Core 2 Duo processors that were much faster), or else you've overclocked it.

You could also try attaching your DxDiag file to show what else you've got. Sometimes people don't have what they think they have.

[Archived Post]

Try disabling other players names being visible, Options>HUD then scroll almost all the way down, to other players, uncheck 'Always' and change to 'MouseOver' or whatever you fancy.

Something has changed and my fps is suddenly diving when lots of people are around, this cures it but I don't know fully what is causing it as cpu, gpu, vram, system ram never go over 30% utilisation. This is on a watercooled i7 oc'd to 3.8Ghz with SLI'd GTX260's and 6gb Ram with all temps well within limits and no part of the system being stressed. It's not an SLI issue as I can achieve exactly the same performance in single gpu mode, I'm beginning to suspect it could be a driver issue but I get the same results on various newer drivers. You could always try some older drivers like the trusty 197.45's which I'm considering trying when I get round to it.

And before you go replacing any part of your system you should monitor temps and utilisation of all your components.

[Archived Post]

Turning off SSAO tends to lead to appreciable (20-40) FPS jumps so this is the first thing Id recommend turning off. It doesnt even look that good (IMO) in a lot of areas (it makes Aftershock 1 and Serpent Lantern look terrible IMO)

[Archived Post]

Can't attach but here is what you need. Nothing is OC unless it came from Manufacturer that way. I expect it is just one of those things and it doesn't play nice with my CPU. It was same way during beta. I thought perhaps some code had been change since, but I am gathering it has not.

System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 7/24/2011, 22:48:34
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: GBT___
System Model: GBTUACPI
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+ (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 2095MB used, 6091MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 64bit Unicode

Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 260
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_05E2&SUBSYS_12553842&REV_A1
Display Memory: 2668 MB
Dedicated Memory: 877 MB
Shared Memory: 1791 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: Acer AL2216W
Monitor Id: ACRAD74
Native Mode: 1680 x 1050(p) (59.954Hz)
Output Type: DVI
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,n vwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 8.17.0012.7533 (English)
Driver Version: 8.17.12.7533
DDI Version: 10
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 5/25/2011 02:09:12, 15223912 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-46A2-11CF-9F46-59321FC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x05E2
SubSys ID: 0x12553842
Revision ID: 0x00A1


I don't expect it to run any better I don't think. I don't OC and temps I expect are fine. Rig is in 70F degree room. If I jump in again soon I'll turn some more stuff off to check. But alas I am not gonna play if it has to be ugly to get good FPS. By ugly I mean everything outside of 30 yards looks like Minecraft :D

Thanks for all your input.

[Archived Post]

Try tweaking individual settings, not just the main slider. It might be some particular setting that your system doesn't like for some reason. Try starting with the settings I suggested above, and then tweak up and down from there.