do demos always run slow? -- F.E.A.R.

[morbidangel]

My system is pretty good,
amd 64 3200+ OC to 2.3 ghz
1 gb corsair 1024-3200xl 2225 6.5+ gb sec
raptor 74
audigy sound
geforce 6600 gt
all on a asus a8n sli deluxe
hyundai 8ms flat screen - games played at 1280 by 1024

And when i play the demo for fear with everything maxed, the damn thing stops or i get like 3-4 frames a second. I can play half-life 2, doom 3, halo and many other high demand games at max settings with no problems at all.
Now i know i should probably get at least a 7800 gt but looking at the benchmarks for F.E.A.R. on some sites this card (7800 gt) only does marginally better, around 10-20 fps.
Anyone know whats up with this?

 

[ChipDeath]

It's a next-gen game. It chokes on my system with everything maxed out:

A64 3200+ @2.55Ghz
1Gb Crucial Ballistix @ 255Mhz
SB Audigy
Asus 6800GT 128Mb
Epox 9NDA3J

The game looks better than any of the other games you mentioned though, even with a few things off (Soft shadows, and Volumetric lighting IIRC).

Of course, they will probably improve performance a little in the full game, and through patches afterwards, but it won't get <i>that</i> much better.

I could be wrong, but I think to get what I regard as an enjoyable/playable experience I had to run at 1152x864 or 1280x1024 with no AA (I never use AA anyway), soft shadows off, no Volumetric lighting and a couple of other things fiddled with. I think I did have 2x or 4x AF on though.

I saw it on a friend's 9800Pro machine. It choked big time. I think they definitely need to adress the performance on lower-level cards, but I don't know how much room for manuever they have in that area.

My personal standard is that I'll get a new graphics card (assuming I can afford it of course) when I can no longer play the games I want to play at 1024x768.... But different Strokes for Different folks...

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[morbidangel]

i see your point but:
1) this demo runs slow even on new 7800 gtx even in sli
2) I still think farcry and half-life 2 look better and my system runs them no problem.

 

[cefoskey]

You have a 6600GT. Enough said.

Your card is midrange from last generation. FEAR is a bleeding edge game. You can't expect to come close to "Maxing" it out. Upgrade, or live with lower IQ.

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon X800XT PE, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[SNeaKyTiKi]

yeah it runs like Deus Ex Invisible War did on my machine...i can only do mid-high graphic settings.

P4 2.4-533
1 Gig Kingston PC-1066
ATI 9800 Pro
Audigy Gamer

-I'm sorry, but the UN must be firm with you. Let me in, or else.
-Or else what?
-Or else we will be very angry with you... and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.

 

[ChipDeath]

1) this demo runs slow even on new 7800 gtx even in sli

In 1600x1200, with loads of AA and AF and all the effects on, it probably does.

Obviously there's an element of personal preference, but I think it's <i>definitely</i> prettier than half life 2 and Far Cry.

Like I said though, it's performance on a 9800Pro did some extremely poor considering.

and Sneakytiki:
Deus Ex :IW runs fine on a 9800Pro. Hell, that game was why I bought a 9800Pro in the first place (as it ran crap on my Ti4600), so you have something ill-configured somewhere...

The CryEngine is about the most scaleable engine I've ever seen though - You could have a playable (but a bit ugly) game on a Geforce2 card. The FEAR engine just isn't designed to scale back to run on older hardware, as well as others are.

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[coylter]

Wierd the demo run perfect for me on my 6800gt @ 1280 with everything at high minus soft shadow.

BTW, this game CRAWL on x800s, i dont know why :-/

Signature (up to 200 characters). You may use <font color=blue><b>Markup</b></font color=blue> in your signature<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by coylter on 10/01/05 02:43 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[pickxx]

I played it just fine with my computer...how about 16x12 and most things set at high or maxed. Only very select things lowered to medium. A solid 35+ fps...but i guess your 6600GT should keep up with my 6800GT...its only a "2" off..lol

I would say you have a bottleneck somewhere like your video card. Upgrade that, and then see how much better it runs.

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[ChipDeath]

Depends on definition of 'Perfect'..

I really can't tolerate any indication of slowdown, at any point.. so if it runs fine for the most part but slows <i>slightly</i> in one particular place in a level, I'll still drop the settings a little.

Call me a fussy bastard, if you like...

Plus, in virtually all games I can 'feel' the drop in framerate before it becomes visually obvious. Gotta be above 50 I think, but I've never really bothered looking. The only exception to that rule in recent times was DoomIII, which feels responsive even if the framerate's hitting the high 20s from time to time.. Weird

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[cefoskey]

BTW, this game CRAWL on x800s, i dont know why :-/

I beg to differ. This game runs quite well on my X800XT PE, all effects on max minus soft shadows.

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon X800XT PE, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[coylter]

You might want to disable vsynch, then even in the 20s the game still feel responsive, just like doom3...

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[ChipDeath]

Tried it on and off... Trust me, it doesn't. It'a a personal thing. I've seen plenty of people happily play at settings that give me motion sickness.

Horses for courses and all that.

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[coylter]

Whatever...Im a bit perfectionnist but maybe its just your comp sucking, because mine run smoothly almost at all time.

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[ChipDeath]

Tho my comp <i>is</i> sucking a little at the mo (you can see my thread in the mobo forum...), FEAR is actually one of those games that runs properly. Benchies have indicated there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, so I guess I just have higher standards :tongue:

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[mopeygoth]

MPdemo runs fine on my GF3 with min. details in 640x480

ASUS A8N-SLI-Deluxe - AMD64 3700+@4330+ (2.70ghz) - CNPS7000B-CU - 1024mb ddr500@492@2.5-3-3-7-11-16-3-2-1T - 7800GTX 485/1400- 500W 140mm NQ-4775 Psu - WD740GD - LG 4162B - 19" MAG 996PF2

 

[ChipDeath]

Good job you have a decent back-up system. Looks like it would struggle on your main rig.

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[mopeygoth]

I knoow, and thanx One should always have a P4 lying around in case you had to do wordprocessing..

ASUS A8N-SLI-Deluxe - AMD64 3700+@4400+ (2.75ghz) - CNPS7000B-CU - 1024mb ddr500@2.5-3-3-7-11-18-3-2-1T - 7800GTX 485/1450- 500W 140mm NQ-4775 Psu - WD740GD - LG 4162B - 19" MAG 996PF2