Help...FPS is giving me a headache!

[DeathStage_12]

I need some guidance on a graphics card. I tried to run Thief's Den and Tears of St. Lucia yesterday and consistently got 7 fps despite utilizing the performance tweaks. I suspect it's my graphics card. It ran Doom 3 at 50 fps, but I know that DM adds a lot of processing. So, firstly, looking at these specs, is it correct to assume it's the graphics card?:

 

Pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz

1 GByte of RAM

running XP service pack 3

 

graphics card is...(don't laugh)...

Radeon X550

 

So, I need some guidance on graphics cards that run this mod well. My budget is quite slim - 2 kids, 1 salary!!! If there is one for less than $100, great, otherwise, I'll need to start selling my wheat penny collection. It is unlikely I will buy a card new, so basically the oldest, used card I can get that will run well at 1024 x 728.

Thanks so much,

-DS:12

[greebo]

What kind of graphics bus system do you have on your mainboard? AGP or PCI Express?

[Komag]

You'll definitely be able to find a good performer for under $100. You might consider buying used, on eBay. Try looking for GeForce 6800 or 6800GT, pretty affordable nowadays. You can find them for $50-$100. And they come in both flavors - AGP and PCI-E.

 

As a matter of fact, since I got a new PC a few months back I have my old AGP GeForce 6800GT and also an AGP GeForce 6600GT I've been meaning to sell off. If you are in the US I could do $45 for the 6800GT, $30 for the 6600GT. Plus my wife's upgrade left behind a good AGP Radeon X1650, which I'd also sell for $30. And these offers are open to anyone here

 

(If moderators feel this is inappropriate, feel free to delete my post)

[DeathStage_12]

Thanks, Komag. I sent you a PM...I think...in fact I sent you two, but I'm not sure if they went through. This board is always trying to punk me.

-DS:12

[New Horizon]

If you can run vanilla doom 3 at 50 fps, I can't see why you wouldn't be able to run TDM at a reasonable rate...especially with the tweaks.

 

There should be a few additional tweaks that would help...such as enabling image compression in your doomconfig in the tdm folder.

[DeathStage_12]

If you can run vanilla doom 3 at 50 fps, I can't see why you wouldn't be able to run TDM at a reasonable rate...especially with the tweaks.

 

There should be a few additional tweaks that would help...such as enabling image compression in your doomconfig in the tdm folder.

 

Thanks, NH - I'm ready for an upgrade anyway. In order to play Oblivion I had to turn off everything in the wilderness so that the entire area looked like a golf course - and I still had some lag. I don't want to have to go below 1024 x 728. Plus, sometime this year a game is going to come out that will turn my PC to ash if I don't get some newer hardware in it.

-DS:12

[DeathStage_12]

...btw, I tried all of the performance tweaks that were listed in the wiki. FPS went from an average of 7 to about 10...still not playable. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have a new card and be zooming along just fine.

-DS:12

[New Horizon]

Hmmm. I can't remember, did we ship tears of saint lucia with the lighting optimization tweaks in the menu?

 

Go into the saint lucia and thiefs den folders and find the glprog folder. In there, rename interaction.vfp to interaction.old, or anything really. Just has to be renamed so it forces the engine to use the default D3 version. That should get your fps up.

[DeathStage_12]

Hmmm. I can't remember, did we ship tears of saint lucia with the lighting optimization tweaks in the menu?

 

Go into the saint lucia and thiefs den folders and find the glprog folder. In there, rename interaction.vfp to interaction.old, or anything really. Just has to be renamed so it forces the engine to use the default D3 version. That should get your fps up.

 

I renamed the file and it did improve the frame rate to about 25, which is still too low for me to enjoy the mission. It looks beautiful, though...I can't wait to see it at 60 fps!!!

I've learned to be ridiculously patient through the years. No big deal.

-DS:12

[New Horizon]

I renamed the file and it did improve the frame rate to about 25, which is still too low for me to enjoy the mission. It looks beautiful, though...I can't wait to see it at 60 fps!!!

I've learned to be ridiculously patient through the years. No big deal.

-DS:12

 

lol Well, 25 is better than 7 and should at least be playable. Try these settings in the doomconfig for each mission as well.

 

seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"

seta image_useNormalCompression "2"

seta image_useAllFormats "1"

seta image_useCompression "1"