Game just started to lag...

[Mr. Derp]

Alright, I decided to post here since all my previous efforts have been unsuccessful. I bought Vice City for PC a while ago but was only recent I installed and played it. I have been playing for a long time with no problems at all. here is my machine specs.

 

Nvidia Geforce 7600GT 256MB

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.3Gh

2GB of DDR RAM

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24bit

 

I've been playing the game with Frame Limiter on, 1400x1050 resolution with 32bit color. I have VSync on and AA 8x on in Nvidia Control Panel. Now I have had no lag issues at all until recently. I run no mods. I just started up Vice City this morning and found the game to be unplayable. It is sooo laggy. I tried everything to see what it was but I'm at a loss. And by lag, I mean the game "skips". Like it studders and stuff. It's worse when I go top speed in a car. The game menu is also lagged and music also skips when the game studders. Here is what I have tried so far.

 

I tried reinstalling the game.

I tried turning off AA and VS.

I tried all different Resolutions but still lag

I tried running defragmentation

I tried deleting the .set file

I tried installing the 1.1 patch. (I know it was for graphical glitches, but hey, I'm trying anything here)

I tried stopping all unnecessary services and processes.

I tried uninstalling all recent programs that might conflict.

I tried switching to Windows 98 compatibility mode.

I tried updating all video/audio drivers.

I tried turning off all sound.

 

I am at a loss here. If anyone can help me it would be most appreciated.

 

[Ring_of_Fire]

It's definitely the CPU and hard drive bottlenecking the video card.

 

I'd upgrade hard drive to a WD Raptor X 10000RPM. And if that doesn't help, then a dual-core Athlon X2 CPU.

 

 

I have VSync on and AA 8x on in Nvidia Control Panel.

Reset to the factory defaults for the nVidia Forceware panel. It can lag up games if you overdo the settings too much.

 

 

1400x1050 resolution w/AA 8X 

GeForce 7600GT 256MB can't handle that resolution especially on high-quality settings! Set it to a max of 1280x1024 or preferably 1024x768 (whatever your monitor supports).

 

 

I tried all different Resolutions but still lag

You freaking kidding. 640x480 and lagging. Liar! OK, go and give us the benchmark or tell us the frame rate that FRAPS said at the top of your screen!

 

http://www.fraps.com (We need proof and screenshots or a movie.)

 

 

I tried reinstalling the game.

I tried turning off AA and VS.

I tried all different Resolutions but still lag

I tried running defragmentation

I tried deleting the .set file

I tried installing the 1.1 patch. (I know it was for graphical glitches, but hey, I'm trying anything here)

I tried stopping all unnecessary services and processes.

I tried uninstalling all recent programs that might conflict.

I tried switching to Windows 98 compatibility mode.

I tried updating all video/audio drivers.

I tried turning off all sound.

Bleh, and still lagging. Download FRAPS now!

 

 

and found the game to be unplayable. It is sooo laggy

What do you call unplayable, what do you call lag? Over 30fps?

Edited September 18, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Mr. Derp]

I was gonna upload a movie showing the lag but FRAPS just makes the game even more laggy when I hit F9. And I should note again, I have been playing the game all this time (48% done) with no problems. And a 7600GT can very well play the game with 1440x1050 res. Hell, I play Elder Scrolls Oblivion on that setting maxed.

 

I'll try and get a movie up. I benchmark what fps I get before and after changing resolutions.

 

Ok, here is my fps with various Resolutions.

 

640x480 - Idle - 30 Car top speed - 15

1024x768 - Idle - 30 Car top speed - 20

1280x1024 - Idle - 30 Car top speed - 17

1440x1050 - Idle - 30 Car top speed - 15

 

But it doesn't really help. FRAPS doesn't catch when the game just "studders". Like, it pauses for a fraction of a second. I'll try and get a movie up.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Mr. Derp

[Ring_of_Fire]

 

I was gonna upload a movie showing the lag but FRAPS just makes the game even more laggy when I hit F9

Thanks for giving us the movie. But all that requires without the necessary lag is taking a screenshot of Vice City's in its horrible graphics (640x480 16bit, no draw distance) and the frame rate that FRAPS is showing. Make sure ForceWare is to the factory defaults (application preference).

 

Another alternative to FRAPS is GameCam, your video capturing software that came with the capture/TV turner card, cellphone, or digital camera/camcorder...

Edited September 18, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Mr. Derp]

Here is the video.

 

Notice the pauses and studdering when driving. It gets worse when I'm around lots of vehicles and people.

[VCHolmes]

 

I just started up Vice City this morning and found the game to be unplayable.

Did you try undoing anything that you did between the time when the game was playable and the game was not? Maybe you should use system restore and restore Windows to an earlier restore point.

[Mr. Derp]

 

I just started up Vice City this morning and found the game to be unplayable.

Did you try undoing anything that you did between the time when the game was playable and the game was not? Maybe you should use system restore and restore Windows to an earlier restore point.

I would do that....but I turned off System Restore when I installed Windows.

 

I can confirm that the game played under the same directory, under Windows Vista, works perfectly. I am duel booting Vista and XP together and when I play the game from the XP drive under Vista, it works fine. This is very puzzling as it seems the problem lies somewhere in XP. I might have to just wipe XP clean and reinstall.

 

Could this be a codec problem? I uninstalled various codecs recently and installed others. Oh well, I'll play under Vista for the time being.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Mr. Derp

[Ring_of_Fire]

 

Here is the video.

 

Notice the pauses and studdering when driving. It gets worse when I'm around lots of vehicles and people.

Seriously, that looks like you played on high-quality settings. And it kinda looks normal.

 

I said I want a screenshot of:

 

1. The settings you use in Vice City Display Setup.

2. Proof that all options are set to application preference in ForceWare Control Panel (or any other "factory default" button).

3. The framerate that FRAPS tells you!!!

 

(I need proof)

 

 

 

Nvidia Geforce 7600GT 256MB

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.3Ghz

2GB of DDR RAM

With these specs, I know you are giving us a hard time.

 

 

My specs:

 

ATi Radeon X1950 PRO

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz

1GB of DDR RAM

I run Vice City smoothly on...

 

1. 1280x1024 32bit

2. Draw Distance on max

3. Catalyst Control Center to factory defaults (maxing out AA/AF will make areas get laggy because of the CPU and hard drive bottlenecking factor, but then it returns back to normal framerate).

 

So basically you need to use something much less that what I used.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Mr. Derp]

Dude, it IS NOT A HARDWARE ISSUE.

 

Just trying to get that across here. When I started playing the game ran fine.

 

Its not the "crappy hardware" lag.

 

It's the "something is taking 100% CPU in background" lag.

 

Like I stated above. I am running the game fine on Vista. The problem lies in XP itself. I figured it was the codecs I recently uninstalled and installed.

[Ring_of_Fire]

 

It's the "something is taking 100% CPU in background" lag.

I thought you said you ended all non-essential processes in the background?

 

Anybody wants to do a fresh install of Windows XP?

 

 

 

Athlon 64 3200+ 2.3Ghz

You ever know something called a processer driver? http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Techni...71_9706,00.html Download this -> http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_ty...ities/setup.zip

 

 

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24bit

http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/Drivers...B_1_04_0077.exe

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

 

Download these in the mean time. If you can tell me your chipset info, that'd be great.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Mr. Derp]

It's the "something is taking 100% CPU in background" lag.

I thought you said you ended all non-essential processes in the background?

 

Anybody wants to do a fresh install of Windows XP?

 

 

 

It's the "something is taking 100% CPU in background" lag.

Hold on... edit post

I did but that was just to show you what kind of lag it is. Like if you run a virus scanner and play a game it has that lag. Thats the kind of lag I'm getting but I have no processes running.

[Ring_of_Fire]

I've edited my previous post above.

 

 

I did but that was just to show you what kind of lag it is. Like if you run a virus scanner and play a game it has that lag. Thats the kind of lag I'm getting but I have no processes running.

I have an idea. Run Vice City, and go into Task Manager. The CPU Usage under the "gta-vc" process should say 99% and for nothing else. Now try to exit the game and see if Task Manager says that the CPU Usage is 0%. If it is way over that, then look for the process and close it down.

 

Another thing to try is use MSCONFIG, and knock off all the startup process there. Restart computer and launch Vice City.

[Gouveia]

Man, I have a Nividia 440MX, with 512 RAM running on a Pentium 4. No lag. But now it isn't installling lol. Anyway, everytime I'm running Mozilla Firefox and I start playing, dunno why, it lags SO MUCH.

[Mr. Derp]

Just so you know.

 

My GPU is running this driver.

My Sound card is running this driver.

[VCHolmes]

I did but that was just to show you what kind of lag it is. Like if you run a virus scanner and play a game it has that lag. Thats the kind of lag I'm getting but I have no processes running.

Maybe its Virus/Spyware? Scan your PC.

[Ring_of_Fire]

 

Just so you know. 

 

My GPU is running this driver.

My Sound card is running this driver.

You said that Vista itself worked perfectly and you would like to get it running in XP as well. Why are you using worrying about a Windows Vista driver!? XP Driver

 

As I said, the best bet is to do a fresh installation if you can't figure out the problem or scan for viruses and spyware like VCHolmes recommended. You might also inspect the contents of Add/Remove Programs for suspiciousness.

 

Oh, and please confirm to this post:

 

 

I have an idea. Run Vice City, and go into Task Manager. The CPU Usage under the "gta-vc" process should say 99% and for nothing else. Now try to exit the game and see if Task Manager says that the CPU Usage is 0%. If it is way over that, then look for the process and close it down.

 

Another thing to try is use MSCONFIG, and knock off all the startup process there. Restart computer and launch Vice City.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[nealmac]

Here is the video.

 

Notice the pauses and studdering when driving. It gets worse when I'm around lots of vehicles and people.

Haha, you suck at driving

 

But I want to say something. I totally agree that it's not your hardware at fault. I'm running xp home on a pentium VI, 256mb of ram and a crappy graphics card. While VC won't run immaculately, I'm not experiencing any lag at all.