I'm currently running LFS on an Nvidia 6600 GFX card and Intel 3Ghz Multithread processor. It runs pretty well but does suffer serious slowdown when there are 5+ cars close by. It seems to run around 20-30 fps which i'm content with on with a 1280x1024 screen size with 32 bit colour.

I attach my settings. Please advise on what I should cut down to improve performance.

Quote from nigelpm :

I'm currently running LFS on an Nvidia 6600 GFX card and Intel 3Ghz Multithread processor. It runs pretty well but does suffer serious slowdown when there are 5+ cars close by. It seems to run around 20-30 fps which i'm content with on with a 1280x1024 screen size with 32 bit colour.

I attach my settings. Please advise on what I should cut down to improve performance.

you sure? i have a 6600GT (well, i used to have until i got SLi working), and i got ~80 fps on my own, and never got into the 20-30 fps range, what drivers you ogot?

Quote from nigelpm :

I'm currently running LFS on an Nvidia 6600 GFX card and Intel 3Ghz Multithread processor. It runs pretty well but does suffer serious slowdown when there are 5+ cars close by. It seems to run around 20-30 fps which i'm content with on with a 1280x1024 screen size with 32 bit colour.

I attach my settings. Please advise on what I should cut down to improve performance.

That system with those settings would have to give you much more than 20-30 fps.
Are your drivers up to date?
By 5+ cars do you mean other drivers online or AI cars? Because when racing with AI cars the performance will be less, because your LFS client needs to calculate the full physics for all cars, while this is not the case with other human players online.

So I don't think you should have to cut down the graphics.

Lowering graphics settings doesnt solve anything in LFS. Some people still think that they can get significantly better performance by lowering some details, but this speedup is in matter of 2-5 fps.

Better check if your CPU is not overheating. This is most common issue on Intel CPUs. especially Prescott core ones. Everything over 75°C is TOO high.

Quote from MadCatX :

Lowering graphics settings doesnt solve anything in LFS. Some people still think that they can get significantly better performance by lowering some details, but this speedup is in matter of 2-5 fps.

Better check if your CPU is not overheating. This is most common issue on Intel CPUs. especially Prescott core ones. Everything over 75°C is TOO high.

True.

I heard some bad P4 Prescott cores start throtling even at 65.

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

True.

I heard some bad P4 Prescott cores start throtling even at 65.

Then I got one...

There are programs that can detect if CPU throttles down(ThrottleWatch?), so get one and get a spin in Blackwood. Then you should know if CPU is ok or not....

cheers gents!

Might be the CPU - I'll have a look.

Drivers all up to date.

No CPU issues either!

hmmmm...

I did mention I'm running it at 1280x1024 32-bit colour didn't I?

I always ran around 20 fps, even with a lot of cars around, peaking at around 30 when alone. Try disabling v-sync, I read it somewhere else, tried it, and my fps improved with 5-10.

I think there really should be something done to driving from the in-car view. There should be a different in-car model, so the whole car doesn't have to be loaded, bc that's it what causes it to slow down. Why I'm saying this? After the v-sync testing, I tried how my fps would improve if I'd drive wheels view (wich I don't want to use), and it doubled my fps! Even slightly more, no problem getting up to 70 fps!

downloaded the latest DirectX 9.0c.

Seems to have helped slightly. I'm getting 30-50 fps range when hot lapping round blackwood.

Haven't tried a race yet.

Any other thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

<quote>you sure? i have a 6600GT (well, i used to have until i got SLi working), and i got ~80 fps on my own, and never got into the 20-30 fps range, what drivers you ogot?
</quote>

6600GT is roughly twice as fast as 6600 so maybe I'm getting expected speed.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/gffx/nv43-p03.html

Quote from nigelpm :

<quote>you sure? i have a 6600GT (well, i used to have until i got SLi working), and i got ~80 fps on my own, and never got into the 20-30 fps range, what drivers you ogot?
</quote>

6600GT is roughly twice as fast as 6600 so maybe I'm getting expected speed.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/gffx/nv43-p03.html

Yes, but this card is LOT faster than my old 9600XT with a Athlon 2800, and he was getting a lower FPS than me!

Go to Start>Run>type "dxdiag"

There go to card "Sound" and set the Sound acceleration to None or Basic. Sometimes can dodgy sound drivers cause significant fps loss.....

EDIT: And DISABLE Simple track!!!!!!

what's the deal on simple track??

I'm also going to delete the cfg.txt and run LFS again as it's possible the new nvidia drivers have caused some problem.

Good point on the sound acceleration - will have a look.

It disables car shadows on desired places, according to selection in graphics ontions. But this also makes Vertex Shading unapplicable, so the CPU is loaded by vertex operations and cannot focus on physics. Only usage of it is when you havent DirectX 8.1 fully compilant GFX.

thanks very much madcat - a scholor and a gentleman. I bet that's the problem.

I'll let you know how I go.

spot on madcat!!

Thank you very much indeed.

Now getting 70-80 fps!

I formatted my computer today, and forgot to install the drivers from ATI, guess what, my fps went from 30 to 50, is this normal?

I don't really have an urge to try, but if I'd install those drivers, would it go slower again?

Quote from sgt.flippy :

I formatted my computer today, and forgot to install the drivers from ATI, guess what, my fps went from 30 to 50, is this normal?

I don't really have an urge to try, but if I'd install those drivers, would it go slower again?

illepall just shows how much crap was on your old pc then, as installing the drivers will make it a LOT faster (hint, if you use ATi, try the omega drivers, there a lot better)

Downloading those drivers right now, I'll try it in a few, and I'll tell you guys what the result of installing them is. There wasn't much crap on my computer though, just the basics probably But now I'm all fresh, and I also did what someone else said, change my audio hardware settings to basic. Maybe that made it faster too.

In the mean while the driver is downloaded, so I'm off to try!

*EDIT*
After some tweaking, I managed to get 16x AF and 2x AA, with the same kind of FPS I used to have before I formatted. I'm not sure if 2x is really worth such a loss, so I might change it back to nothing to get a smoother image. Oh yea, I also changed LFS version, but I don't think that really matters. At least now I can set my monitor back to 85Hz

erm, why not put one lower and one higher? out of interest, what card do you have?

and anyway, i still reccomend the Omega drivers over the ATi drivers, they always gave me a moderate FPS boost, and together with ATi Tray Tools, it almost make me miss my good old 9600XT...

I got an 9200SE (128MB), and I used the omega drivers. And why not use different settings? Because AA really eats up my fps, while AF doesn't change a lot. I raced at kyoto today, and I was getting always around 40fps, wich for me is very good, I turned of AA again, I don't really mind that much.

Quote from MadCatX :

EDIT: And DISABLE Simple track!!!!!!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!Just read this and.....
Before i had every detail set to almost zero,had dynamic detail reduction and 1024*768.When i was on the starting grid with 20 people i sometimes only had 11 fps!(which was kinda dangerous^^)Now that i turned it off,i have 1280*960 and every detail set to high and of course i disabled dynamic reduction and im having constantly 45 fps(at a full starting grid around 19-22) Omg,im playing LFS for one year and i never knew,Thanks Man!I love you
S0ul

I have had 6600 & 6600GT with hardly any diffrence in FPS?

I think LFS relies on CPU speed rather than graphics card.

I tend to get between 60 - 80 fps with an Athlon xp2500+ @ 2.1Ghz

what do you guys get?

Quote from anttt69 :

I have had 6600 & 6600GT with hardly any diffrence in FPS?

I think LFS relies on CPU speed rather than graphics card.

I tend to get between 60 - 80 fps with an Athlon xp2500+ @ 2.1Ghz

what do you guys get?

I have the same results between GF6600@400/600(8pipelines) and GF7900GT(24pipelines).The 6600 started loosing only when I have moved from 4xAA to 8xAA and 8AF to 16AF.
I get around usually around 120FPS and sometimes a bit over 200 but thats due to AMD A64 3200+(2Ghz).