Knaxia Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 System Specs: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (S939) 1GB dual Channel DDR400 (2x512MB) ASUS nVidia GF7600GS 512MB PCI-E w/ Forceware 93.71 Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 24Bits w/ Latest Drivers Windows XP SP2, DirectX 9.0c, GTA PC V1.0 (original, nothing modified) ------Graphic Drivers settings------ Anti-Aliasing : Off Anisotropic: Off Image Quality: Quality VSync : App Controlled. ------Ingame Settings------- Draw Distance : med-high Mip Mapping : Off Anti-Aliasting : Off Frame Limiter: Off Visual Quality : High and Low tested. Resolution: 1152x864x32 -------------------------------------------- I only noted that in MTA:SA, I rarely play Single Player much more... but I recall it also happened once while testing. alright, it's getting a bit annoying, It's really random.... At random time, the game will hit a big spike and drop to 1FPS for like 2 to 5 seconds then go back to full speed! It's really annoying when you're racing against someone nose to nose then you hit a spike, and you drop from like 3 places... It doesn't matter if Im going fast or not. It can do it 3 times in a row or only after 2 minutes... - I had multiple hardware changes recently but I tried deleting my settings file and redo-ing it all and it's the same result. I tried all FX quality settings also. I don't want to use 16bits 'cause it makes sky, smoke and some effects look like crap, I don't want to lower resolution 'cause the games runs smooth and over full speed all the rest of the time. any solutions....? ____________________________________________________________ Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 erm.... alright... so I guess no one knows... I checked GTA3 and it does the same (single player), no one has a slight idea what it could be? Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4279343 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demarest Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Hey, Knux. How have you been? You see how far along GTA:LC has come? If it's happening at random times, it's likely not SA at all. Do you have anti-virus running or something like that? The only thing I can see that would give your game any grief is 32-bit. But that would lead to a more generalized slowing down, so that's probably not it Wish I could help. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4279762 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Hey, Knux. How have you been? You see how far along GTA:LC has come? I've been doing fine, still doing some stuff related to GTA (admin on a MTA:SA server). I've checked and posted over the GTA:LC forums some months ago while checking updates, it's nice to see it didn't die If it's happening at random times, it's likely not SA at all. Do you have anti-virus running or something like that? Yes, but even shutting it down will cause it to still happen sometimes (a bit less tho), it does it on GTA:SA and GTA3, but I never noticed it when running emulators/UT2004/other 3D stuff The only thing I can see that would give your game any grief is 32-bit. But that would lead to a more generalized slowing down, so that's probably not it Wish I could help. Do you think it could go with my sound card? maybe the EAX stuff gives a problem... Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4286738 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 (edited) Make sure that all the settings in ForceWare control panel are set to application preference. Better yet, restore all of the settings to the back to defaults (if it does this for you automatically). Here's a nice guide for you: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html I had multiple hardware changes recently but I tried deleting my settings file and redo-ing it all and it's the same result. I tried all FX quality settings also. I've heard T2 Support mentioned about some files in the main game folder that you have to delete as well, if you were having the same performance problems as before. I would be surprised if uninstalling/reinstalling works. Edited June 10, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4287410 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 thing is, it also does it in GTA3 (fresh install). Sometimes it will be only 3 or 4 spikes in 1 sec, sometimes the game will freeze for 2 or 3 seconds (and I'm thinking it just crashed) then it resumes.... Really annoying (ever more when playing MTA... battleing for 1st, big spike, lost 2 positions... my video card settings are set to the forceware default already. I actually had my video drivers fully uninstalled and reinstalled not long ago. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4288409 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Maybe it's just the graphics engine of San Andreas. Did you try testing to see if everything is fine w/o the SA-MP mod? Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4289619 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 I don't even use SA-mp, and as I already said, it also does it with a clean GTA3 install.... Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4291414 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 (edited) Well I have a X1950PRO (which is better than your card) / Athlon 64 3200+ / 1GB of RAM, and on the maximum settings, it's capable of averaging 25 fps. But for whatever weird reasons - it averages 10-15fps in certain areas and cutscenes. So to explain everything fully, it looks like there's a bottlenecking factor with your system and as well as the game engine. You might need a faster hard drive, more ram, or a dual-core processor! Knux, instead of setting the settings in the FW Control Panel to the defaults, try changing the texture and image quality settings to the lowest and up the performance level. Use the guide I gave to you if you need help. From my experience, I hardly see any difference - but if that is the case, I am afraid you may need to upgrade your computer. Edited June 11, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4291523 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 I would think it's either my sound card drivers acting up, I'll try to use my normal onboard one to try if it still happens... I think before I changed video card & sound card, everything was running fine.... I have a 2nd OS installed (XP x64) so I'll also try running GTA3 and GTA:SA there.... I know GTA3 was running fine on my older system.... I really need to find what's the reason of those lag spikes... Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293127 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) I would think it's either my sound card drivers acting up, I'll try to use my normal onboard one to try if it still happens... Yeah that could be true; I even remembered when I never updated my Realtek onboard drivers - the CPU usage in Task Manager would go really high, cause severe lag, and then all of sudden my sound cuts off entirely! Updated drivers and now I never have to worry about the CPU usage being high while playing my games. And I've heard the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 series were infamous for bringing audio crackes and bad sound quality? I know GTA3 was running fine on my older system.... I really need to find what's the reason of those lag spikes... Could you explain what are "lag spikes"? You mean just the game lagging and then not lagging thereafter? I have a 2nd OS installed (XP x64) so I'll also try running GTA3 and GTA:SA there.... Might only make things worse (IMO) since you'd have to worry about newer set of drivers, and the OS is 64-bit. I've heard that GTAIII and SA have been notoriously a computer resource hog unlike Vice City. GTAIV that is coming cut is going to give multiplayer experience a real headache. I think before I changed video card & sound card, everything was running fine.... Just a repeat: make sure you delete the [.set] file, and uninstall/reinstall the game fully by deleting the root folder as well before doing so. BTW, you should know that if you play multiplayer online - you'd expect the cable modem/NIC hardware to be bottlenecking your computer even more. Thus, expect to see lower performance than when only playing Single Player. FRAPS should give you much more fps in Single Player mode than in Multiplayer mode. Edited June 12, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293254 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 as for "lag spikes" I mean the game will suddently slow down to like 5% of the normal speed for some seconds then go back full speed like nothing happened. Sometimes it will even freeze for 3 or 4 second then resume.... for the sound card, I don't have any sound quality problems, all my drivers are the latest ones (video, audio, chipset, etc). Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293643 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) as for "lag spikes" I mean the game will suddently slow down to like 5% of the normal speed for some seconds then go back full speed like nothing happened. Sometimes it will even freeze for 3 or 4 second then resume.... What you are commenting happened to me as well. It's just that your hard drive is slow or you need more RAM or CPU horsepower. Doubt it's the graphics card since you even tried it on the lowest settings (in FW Panel too?) Remember San Andreas requires a great computer to run smoothly throughout the entire game! I mean the game will suddently slow down to like 5% of the normal speed for some seconds then go back full speed like nothing happened. Like where... during cutscenes, massive scenery areas, or certain visual effects? The problem I think is because normally in Vice City when the hard drive hasn't finished loading up everything, it does freezes by showing a "Greetings from Vice City" screen. What is happening in SA is that you are driving in an area when the GPU hasn't finished processing everything yet because of the slow hard drive bottlenecking it like crazy. Edited June 12, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293656 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 it's all random when I'm playing, I can be just walking around or so and it will do it. sometimes I can run around the whole city without problems, sometimes it will happen, even if I don't move or I'm just walking around... Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293863 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) it's all random when I'm playing, I can be just walking around or so and it will do it. sometimes I can run around the whole city without problems, sometimes it will happen, even if I don't move or I'm just walking around... That's sound familarly, as in it happens when the CPU usage is high. But I am not sure. Hmm... onboard audio - I have the feeling that you have to still update the drivers for it even though you have the Sound Blaster Audigy card. I am only guessing because I have this feeling that whatever is on the motherboard still needs to be all updated! You never know if the CPU is sending data to the onboard sound card or if it is disabled, because northbridge/southbridge components work together. I would like you to compare the dates in dxdiag to these driver dates... just to be sure: Graphics driver - http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_94.24.html ( looks like it is different from what you posted above) Realtek driver (HD Audio/AC'97) - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downlo...&Level=3&Conn=2 Audigy driver - http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/d...ype=1&x=27&y=17 Chipset driver - ? http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-140.zip (Mainboard tab) Uninstall/Reinstall older drivers before installing new ones. Anyway, whenever the freezing occurs, does the game remain slower forever? If so, Alt-Tab out and check the CPU usage (during gameplay or after exiting). Edited June 12, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4293929 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaxia Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) 1: my audigy drivers are already to the latest, there hasn't been any updates forever. 2: New video ones just went out, they weren't there some days ago 3: Onboard and chipset drivers are already up to date. (and I really reinstalled them not long ago) 4: I'm a Computing Tech. , the main drivers were already up to date (except some really recent updates), I tried almost everything, I just find it weird that it only happens with the GTA serie and not any other games... 5: no, after the freeze it just resumes as nothing happened. Edited June 12, 2007 by Knux Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4294215 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring_of_Fire Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 (edited) Well, we know already that the lag spikes you are experiencing has something to do with fps and the game lagging because of a bottlenecking factor. If your hard drive is too slow, the lags can appear randomly at any time and in any location around San Adnreas like what you said. Even in Vice City - sometimes I experience lag when the fps drops so suddenly in FRAPS, and then I get constant fps everywhere else. I think going back to the same area again that caused the lag before, wouldn't be there anymore because the GPU wouldn't have to render it again as it is stored in VRAM. So, the only way to fix the "Freezes/Lags" is to buy a better computer. I mean, it's not like you and anybody else around here can consider your system specs a monster gaming machine? I tried almost everything, I just find it weird that it only happens with the GTA serie and not any other games... Does it happen in Vice City? I think you would benefit from a defrag but I doubt it. I know GTA3 was running fine on my older system ? 5: no, after the freeze it just resumes as nothing happened. Yes, the game is just lagging/stuttering that's all! Edited June 13, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/277847-random-lag-spikes/#findComment-4295294 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now