Online game performance lower than offline

[fatbob1080]

Hi, I dont know if anyone can help me, or even if this is supposed to happen or not but..

Basically, I find that when playing online games (via broadband), the frame rate is a lot lower than if i play the same game offline, it also seems to slow down a lot more when theres more other online characters nearby. I was wondering if theres some conflict or something with my ethernet card (3com pcmcia). Any ideas? (Im running Windows XP by the way (SP1) on a P3 1.1, 512mb ram, 20gb hd, s3 savage 4 video chipset(32mb shared ram), ac97 audio (FIC A360+ notebook)). I believe I have the latest drivers installed for the network card, video and sound cards and also via hyperion 4 in 1 drivers for the motherboard (although im not 100% sure i shouldve installed them) but dont know if theres a problem with the configuration?

(I posted this in the xp forum, didnt realise there was a network games forum!)

 

[sturm]

Nothing is wrong just more overhead for the computer to keep track of. Instead of all the characters being run by the computer it must send and receive info to the other computers where each character is at. I see it in ut2k3,diablo II:LoD and some other older games.
What game are you paling? Many notebooks, especially older ones, arent good at online games because of video speeds.

 

[fatbob1080]

The games Ive noticed it in are Halflife, UT, Diablo 2, Dungeon Siege, and a beta of an MMORPG, Priston Tale. Someone said to me that it could be a cooling problem with the cpu which is interesting as my cpu fan recently died and i noticed a high pitched noise coming from my cpu after itd been on a while. The fan's now replaced but i still get that noise occasionally.. You dont think the cpu mightve become damaged do you?

 

[sturm]

Have you checked the temperatures?
I use motherboard monitor and seems to work good and accurate. can find it here: <A HREF="http://mbm.livewiredev.com/" target="_new">http://mbm.livewiredev.com/</A>
You also might take off the heatsink and inspect the cpu for any damage. It could be damaged and just not running as fast. Also check the bios and see what it says it is running at.
Also check your computer for any spyware/adware that may be using resources and taking up bandwith.
You can also go thru the services and set the ones you dont need to manual or disabled. Go here for a list of what they do:<A HREF="http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm" target="_new">http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm</A>
Hope some of this helps. I know how its irritating when things run slow online and run fine off.

 

[ytoledano]

Maybe it only seems like a low fps and it's actually lag, it happens also on braudband becuase it's not primarily related to the bandwidth but the the ping to the online game server or the host. You'll know if it some online games seem to work better than others. Also, try playing games with hosts/servers that are close to your home, consider moving to the US if you don't already live there.

I had a much better usertitle but was caught trying to hack me a better one so I got my current title as a punishment

 

[Syndil]

It sounds like you may have a NIC that relies heavily on the CPU, which would explain the performance drop. Why are you using a PCMCIA NIC anyway? Is this a laptop system?

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[fatbob1080]

Hi, thanks for the tips. Its definitely not lag as i have the same problem when i host games and i can see other players moving around the screen smoothly but if i move in the level when someone is onscreen my framerate is bad. I'll check out the motherboard monitor and disabling services. My bios doesnt have any temperature info in it tho. I considered flashing the bios but last time, I think i used the wrong bios and ended up having to replace the mb+cpu! How can i check for spyware/adware as i wouldnt be surprised if thats on my system.

It is a laptop and hasnt got built in ethernet, hence the pcmcia card. Its a 3com fe574b and the drivers are date 04/01. The description says the inf file works with xp but operation under xp is unsupported.. so maybe thats the problem?

Well, thanks for your help. Much appreciated!

 

[jihiggs]

i dont see why every one thinks theres somthing wrong here. your laptop is not up to the task at hand. plain and simple. just another case of people jumping to the most complicated answer, KISS people!!!

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