Terrible CS:Source Framerates...>_<

[ArcticZero]

My specs:

P4 3.0ghz
Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro AGP 512mb GDDR3
1gb Kingstom DDR400 RAM
400w PSU Dual 20amps @ 12v

Okay, so I play CS:S under full settings @ 1280x1024 resolution, AAx6/AFx16/TAAx3 and AAA enabled. I usually get about 100fps looking at a wall, or if there's no one onscreen, however when the round starts, or whenever there's more than two people in view (especially with gunfire), it drops significantly to about 20(!!!)fps. Is this normal? Simply walking often gets choppy sometimes, especially in cs_militia, where I'd be lucky to be getting 60fps. Shouldn't I be able to turn on all the eyecandy with my rig? I'm thinking my system may be underperforming, especially my GPU =/

Thanks in advance!

 

[Wolfy]

If it's over 30-35fps then who cares.

As for you I'd be reasonably happy to expect the level of fps you're getting with settings that high.

 

[stemnin]

Did you stop reading after he wrote 100? He said hes getting sub 20s when the action starts.

Are you forcing AA, AF and TAA, through drivers? Try setting to application controlled.

Other than that, the PSU maybe, is that what the x1950 needs is 20A?

Learn something new everyday!

The pair of screen shots taken from the cs_militia map really show how much of the tree foliage is made up of transparent textures. In fact, only the major branches of the trees are fabricated with geometry and opaque textures. When transparency anti-aliasing is disabled and you're moving through the woods on cs_militia, you really begin to notice aliasing on the foliage. It can become quite a distraction in the same way that texture shimmering can.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/04/07/transparency_adaptive_aa_explained/1.html

Might be hitting your card too much, remember, the x1950 Pro is no XTX aswell.

 

[ArcticZero]

Heya, thanks for the helpful reply!

Actually, I have my driver settings to Application Controlled, with the TAA multiplier at 3x, AAA/TAA and high quality AF enabled (can't set to application controlled...just enabled or disabled). But otherwise everything is set so CS:S can handle the basic AA and AF settings.

And the manual/box/website all indicate the X1950Pro requires 12V @ 30A, and I assumed that was in total (or from a single rail), whereas my PSU has dual 12V rails @ 20A, so that would be 40A total considering I used separate rails for both molex connectors...=/

And yeah, it's nice to learn something new everyday, and I guess I overestimated the X1950Pro a bit there. With so many people claiming to max settings and play at well over 60fps constantly, I guess I gave in to the hype and upgraded my AGP rig right away (should've waited at least for the X1950XT, which coincidentally came out a week after I ordered my card).

Oh well, I'll try lowering settings on cs_militia and see what I get. I do get MUCH better rates on less detailed maps, so that would make sense. =P

Again, thanks so much for the replies! Oftentimes it's hard to get help on stuff like this anymore. >_<

 

[stemnin]

With CS:S, you should be able to max it all out (unless youre using a ridicolous extreme ludicrous resolution), ask in the psu section, they might be able to help.

And the manual/box/website all indicate the X1950Pro requires 12V @ 30A, and I assumed that was in total (or from a single rail), whereas my PSU has dual 12V rails @ 20A, so that would be 40A total considering I used separate rails for both molex connectors...=/

 

[ArcticZero]

Well power issues aside (I tested it on a reliable 550w HEC PSU a friend brought over, and it performed pretty much the same), I can play very smoothly online with maxed settings, Quality Adaptive AA, TAAx3, Full HDR, AAx6, AFx16, etc. at 1280x1024, which happens to be the limit my old 17" CRT can display. 60-100+fps, except for cs_militia, but yeah, you pointed out the possible reason.

Playing with more than 7 bots offline makes it lag quite a bit, but not too much anymore with the Omega Drivers. I guess that's the point where my CPU starts to bottleneck my video card.

I guess I'll still be getting a quality PSU though. Wouldn't hurt to protect my rig.

 

[stemnin]

I see, P4 3.0 ghz, ouchers , I got a 3.2.. want a C2D so bad, but just gonna get a new rig when crysis ut3 come out.

 

[ArcticZero]

I'd love to get a new rig, but we're moving soon...and apparently it'll cost me an arm and a leg to ship a desktop PC overseas. I really want to OC my P4 a bit, but I heard Prescotts don't OC very well because of high temps. =/

 

[Wolfy]

I'm possibly wrong but since when has the power going to a gfx card affected frame rate? If power is insufficient the thing will either work or not work. You don't just get degraded performance altho I'm open to enlightenment on this.

Anyway if you play CS:S with bots your pc is gonna die because it's controlling the AI as well as running the game particularly with your cpu.

In response to Stemmin, I didn't stop reading after seeing 100, what I saw was 20 fps but he also states he gets 60 fps if he is lucky in militia.

 

[ArcticZero]

I heard about underperforming issues particularly on high end cards when supplied with insufficient power while I was doing some searching on Google.

By the way, I got over my FPS drops. Apparently my CPU wasn't up to snuff at stock. I OC'ed it to 3.6ghz, and all is well and stable. FPS never drops below 50 in similar situations before where it would dip into the low 20's. So yeah, anyway, I'm satisfied =P

 

[vir7uous]

didnt read through everything, maybe someone already pointed this out, but CSS is a CPU dependent game. your CPU is definitely the bottleneck.

 

[lordaardvark2]

glad you fixed your problems

and vir7uous, usually it is a good idea to read what other people say. just FYI. what if people ignore your post like you did to theirs? its not just a courtesy thing; people hate it when you chime in with the same information for the 3rd time or something.

just sayin'.