Performance & Texture Issues

[Deuce Deuce]

Recently, I've been experiencing all sorts of graphics and performance issues with SA. The game will frequently stutter upon entering and exiting interiors, and the game just generally outputs a really measly framerate. Running it on full draw distance, 3x AA, visual quality set to very high at 1600x1200 (16-bit) it'll do about 40-55fps. You might be thinking at this point it's a PC spec related issue, but running the game on the absolute lowest settings (as in 0x AA, 0x draw distance, visual quality set low at 640x480 res), I'll only ever get slightly higher than 60fps at most, which doesn't really add up. But with that, I present you with this screenshot:

 

 

My PC should be up to snuff to run the game on high in most areas at a decent framerate, but seemingly not.

 

As I say, the game often stutters besides the low framerate and I'll see a lot of texture lag and corruption - as can be seen in the screenshot above. This doesn't even apply to driving in a car or on a bike at full speed; textures will appear blurry until I get right up to them most of the time. I'll often see flickering in the distance, too.

 

Here are my specs:

 

AMD Athlon 64 3700+

2.25GHz

2GB DDR RAM

ATi Radeon X1800XT 256MB

Windows XP

Service Pack 2

 

...which leads me to believe it's a problem within the game itself, not a spec-related issue.

 

I've tried downgrading my graphics drivers, updating them, I've reinstalled twice and have tried deleting gta.sa_set. To no avail.

 

Sound acceleration is set to basic.

 

Can anyone provide any useful input? When I first played it, it ran like a dream. It ran as well as I thought it would with my specs.

 

HOWEVER, I have read about performance issues specifically with ATi cards. But what baffles me is that it ran nicely on the drivers on the CD, which, for the record, I installed earlier that gave no apparent fix. Some have said to downgrade to the Catalyst 4.9 drivers, but they apparently don't support the card I'm using.

 

Again, any help would be much appreciated.

[gtamodder]

I think it is the game itself.

 

I have 3.5GB DDR2 in my Games PC, With a Quad Core, and a 8800 GTX, and sometimes I still get this

 

I used to be able to get 100fps @ 1680 x 1050 with 3 x AA, but now, with Fraps it said I am only getting 40-50fps at the same settings with nothing changed.

 

I was able to fix it a little, by ending as many Processes as possible and the ones not needed, like FireFox, etc.

 

And after I did that I can get about 55-65fps, still @ 1680 x 1050.

[Deuce Deuce]

I've just reformatted my PC (I was in need of one anyway), so if the same problems persist, it's 100% a hardware or software related issue.

 

Wish me luck.

 

Edit: Well it seems to have rectified the stutter and framerate issue as far as I can see - I've yet to properly see with Fraps or anything. But the texture lag/flicker is still very much there.

 

Is it worth downloading the 1.01 patch?

Edited July 17, 2008 by Deuce Deuce

[Girish]

Is it worth downloading the 1.01 patch?

I don't think it'd be much help. I haven't heard the patch getting rid of lag or flicker.

 

As gtamodder has said, it's the game itself I think. I ran the game at the highest settings on a 3GHz Pentium IV with 1GB RAM and a 128MB on-board ATi graphic card with absolutely no lag when I got the game 2 years back. But now, after multiple OS reinstalls and trying all possible things, it lags heavily.

[gtamodder]

 

As gtamodder has said, it's the game itself I think. I ran the game at the highest settings on a 3GHz Pentium IV with 1GB RAM and a 128MB on-board ATi graphic card with absolutely no lag when I got the game 2 years back. But now, after multiple OS reinstalls and trying all possible things, it lags heavily.

This happened to me, when I upgraded to Vista, I was running 3gbs, 8800GTS 320MB, E8400 @ 3.0GHz then, and it lagged when I upgraded to Vista, even though it was fine on XP. So I went back to XP, but I still had lag. But it wasn't too bad.

[Deuce Deuce]

Well, I actually solved another problem I didn't mention where I was looking for a way to enable frame sync to rid of the lines across the screen when rotating the camera, causing it to look "unsmooth" so to speak. I just ticked the 'wait for vertical refresh' box in Catalyst Control Panel and now, even at 40fps, it still looks fairly smooth. But framerate and stuttering isn't an issue now I've sorted it. I want to get to the bottom of the flickered and garbled textures as well as texture loading delay.

 

Could it be a hardware related issue after all? Maybe my card isn't getting enough cooling?

[Girish]

Could it be a hardware related issue after all? Maybe my card isn't getting enough cooling?

I'm not sure about this, but fiddling with the speed of the fan could be an option. I suggest you try Speed Fan.

[Deuce Deuce]

Ah yeah, I completely forgot about that. I'll check the temps - what can be considered about average?

 

And say I do decide to speed up the fan - how long would it take to see a noticeable effect?

[Girish]

 

Ah yeah, I completely forgot about that. I'll check the temps - what can be considered about average?

Average is somewhere between 65C and 70C, but I'd prefer staying below 65C for optimum performance.

 

 

And say I do decide to speed up the fan - how long would it take to see a noticeable effect?

That actually depends on the extent of heating and how effectively Speed Fan can control your fans. I'd say keep checking the temperatures from time to time.