This stuttering is bollocks!!

[danger55]

Perhaps some advice??

I've been playing bf2 for a long time now on a GeForce 6600GT, mostly medium settings but lights, etc on low. Performance was satisfactory with only the occassion slight bog-down. It was certainly playable.

However I recently did a complete XP reinstall when I got a new hdd as well as a reinstall of all other programs incl bf2 1.4. Since then, the game is unplayable with more stutter than a Saturday night at the pub. I can't understand 'cause settings are still quite low, resolution is still 1024x768, RAm is the same. The only thing I really changed is putting bf2 on a seperate partition and the pagefile on another hdd partition. Can't be that 'cause I tried changing it around to test it out. Also 3DMark05 shows a blistering average of 2-4 fps!!!!!! I assume it's some sort of bottleneck in the 6600 but how can I tell??? Anyway, any help is GREATLY appreciated 'cause.......
"I need a medic!!!!!!"

A couple of specs......
Athlon XP 2800+ (@2.08) -- Albatron GeForce 6600GT AGP128M -- Maxtor 250G hdd + Quantum Fireball 40G hdd -- 1x Kingston512M RAM + 2x 256M RAM (1024M RAM) -- Antec 450W SmartPower -- bit crappy DFI AD77 Rev.AG+ mobo -- WinXP SP2

 

[Sharkfood]

Start with the basics and build-upwards.

As you performed a total re-install, is it safe to assume you have SP2 installed as well?

I'd then get a copy of Driver Cleaner Pro, then proceed to add/remove all drivers you've installed to current.. then boot in safe-mode/administrator and use driver cleaner pro with multiple filters for all drivers installed.

THEN, in this order:
1) Install the chipset drivers for your motherboard chipset (reference from chipset manufacturer or motherboard website)
2) Latest NVidia Forceware drivers
3) Latest Soundcard drivers.
4) www.microsoft.com/directx and "Get latest version" for web update.

Try your game again after doing this. I'd also be sure you've defragged your drives as the install/patch and such can fragment the heck out of your drives. You may also want to ensure a static pagefile on a freshly defragged volume (i.e. set to 0/disable pagefile entirely, reboot, run defrag to completion on desired drive, then set to same min/max size.. say like 1536/1536 or 2048/2048 min and max).

Good luck!

 

[danger55]

Thanks Sharkfood....
I've did install SP2 and have tried to clean up with driver cleaner pro and installed directx9c. One driver I haven't updated though is the forceware driver. That's because I've tried the latest and performance appeared to be worse. I've tried about 4 different older drivers and before the reinstall, when everything was working ok, I found that one in particular was pretty good. Now, it's just as crap as the others I've tried.

Also tried defragged to the point where everything is sweet and reset the pagefile but no luck.

It could be more than this. I've found that when running 3dmark, the fps doesn't change at all whether I run with stock gpu settings 500/900 or a bit of overclock, say 550/ 1.08. I still get about 2-5fps, often 0-1. Also noticed in the 3dmark system info, it registers the vid card as gpu core=300mhz and memory clock=900mhz. This doesn't change even if I crank up card settings manually. I'm using NVTweak by the way.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[danger55]

Anyone able to help?????
I've tried EVERYTHING and simply cant work out what has changed since my system reinstall!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rik]

What speed are your ram sticks and how do you have them arranged in the slots?

 

[danger55]

What speed are your ram sticks and how do you have them arranged in the slots?

1x512 in 1st slot
1x256 in 2nd slot
1x256 in 3rd slot......all PC3200 (400mhz)
....or did you mean timings?

...but i've never really had a prob with the memory before and memtest= no errors