rec.autos.simulators

by **BRH** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:06:42

I have an AMD XP2600, Radeon 9700 Pro, I gig Ram running WinXP Pro.

I've been spending a lot of time testing various resolutions, AA
settings, etc at race settings for GTR in hopes of maximizing my
system's framerate. Here's what I found:

No matter what I set the AA, resolution and color depth to (using GTR's
3DConfig utility), there is no appreciable change in framerate. The
change is only 1 or 2 frames at most. I tried every combination from
800x600, 16 bit, Zero AA to 1024x768, 32 bit, 4X AA and the framerate
hasn't budged. The image quality (ie - jaggies) is better with 4X AA,
but that's about it.

Are any of you with ATI cards experiencing the same thing with GTR? My
framerate is about 37 in traffic under race conditions (16 cars, 9
visible), and that's with most in-game graphic settings set to LOW or
OFF. I feel that my system should get significantly higher frame rate
than that.

Presently I'm using an old-ish video driver (4.7 I think) so I'll
probably try the newest video driver tomorrow. But I'm also thinking
that perhaps there's something amiss in a BIOS setting.

Can anyone with a similar system to mine comment on whether these
framerates are all that I can expect? If not, does anyone have any
ideas on what I need to tweak? (ie - new video driver; BIOS settings, etc)

Thanks!

by **evente..** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:52:51

I haven't tried a ton of different resolutions, so I don't know if you
have a problem or not. I get around 40ish+ FPS in races, running
1152x864 32bit, 2xAA 4xAF. I'm also using the latest 5.1 cats, and
have slightly overclocked my 9700Pro (350core/340mem). I've got a
mobile Barton AMD overclocked to 3400+ speed, and 1gb of

There are a couple of bugs w/the 9700 - you get around a 10FPS drop
with the Motec dash on - I get over 80FPS in TV views. GTR has me
waiting for a price drop on the X800's.
I've also tweaked my PLR file to turn off all Motec recording, and to
turn off the mirror perspective changes (I don't like running w/o the
mirrors - kills the immersion for me). I've also read that enabling
"alternate pixel center" in the D3D compat settings is supposed to make
it smoother.
I think GTR is just really system hungry - though I'm surprised your
system seems so CPU bound. You could trying turning off the
super-high-rate physics and see if you get a jump in FPS. What are
your other system specs? Are you using m/b-based sound? A FFB wheel
with high CPU util? I've got an Audigy2 and ActLabs, both of which are
pretty good on CPU util.
Google SiSoft Sandra and get a copy - you can see if something with
your CPU or memory performance is off.

You've made me want to hook up the wheel again - I'll gather some
framerate figures and post again soon.

HTH,
Kendt

by **evente..** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:32:42

Ok I spoke too soon - Monza w/above settings, 23AI 16vis, gfx on global
high (+full player), high res***pit+cars, swaying trees off,
mirrors+motec disp on.
In a Qual session I average a pretty steady 42-48FPS. Starting a race
from 9th on the grid I had 22FPS, which went up to an avg of 38 as the
cars spread out.
TV view in-race shows high-30s to 70+.
I'm going to tweak a little more and see what I get. Pretty hard to
watch the FPS meter and drive (could let the AI handle it, but it may
affect the FPS by turning off FF or something).

Kendt

by **evente..** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:44:44

PS - you try getting on the little bit of old Monza banking yet ;)?

by **Joachim Trens** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 17:18:13

Usually if the fps doesn't change that would point to the system being CPU
limited, but since you have a good CPU - are you sure that Vertical Sync is off?

Achim

by **Michael Ziegle** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:24:58

BRH schrieb:

Hi

my system: XP2400, 1 GB ram, Radeon 9700np, SB Audigy.

My video settings: 4x AA, 8x AF.

10 cars vis, 26 in race, ingame graphic setting to medium.

I get about 27 fps at the start and 40- 50 fps while in race.
I disabled the mirrors, enabled the virtual mirror with a key from my TM
Enzo FF wheel, FF settings to low, with more I have stuttering in
corners. I have set a key to disable MOTEC, it gives 10 fps more.
In 2 weeks I will upgrade to a AMD64 3500, NForce4 board and an ATI
X800XL. A better CPU will give more fps, 1 GB ram is needed.

Michael

by **BRH** » Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:52:00

> I haven't tried a ton of different resolutions, so I don't know if you
> have a problem or not. I get around 40ish+ FPS in races, running
> 1152x864 32bit, 2xAA 4xAF. I'm also using the latest 5.1 cats, and
> have slightly overclocked my 9700Pro (350core/340mem). I've got a
> mobile Barton AMD overclocked to 3400+ speed, and 1gb of

> There are a couple of bugs w/the 9700 - you get around a 10FPS drop
> with the Motec dash on - I get over 80FPS in TV views. GTR has me
> waiting for a price drop on the X800's.
> I've also tweaked my PLR file to turn off all Motec recording, and to
> turn off the mirror perspective changes (I don't like running w/o the
> mirrors - kills the immersion for me). I've also read that enabling
> "alternate pixel center" in the D3D compat settings is supposed to make
> it smoother.
> I think GTR is just really system hungry - though I'm surprised your
> system seems so CPU bound. You could trying turning off the
> super-high-rate physics and see if you get a jump in FPS. What are
> your other system specs? Are you using m/b-based sound? A FFB wheel
> with high CPU util? I've got an Audigy2 and ActLabs, both of which are
> pretty good on CPU util.
> Google SiSoft Sandra and get a copy - you can see if something with
> your CPU or memory performance is off.

> You've made me want to hook up the wheel again - I'll gather some
> framerate figures and post again soon.

> HTH,
> Kendt

Thanks for the reply.

To answer your questions -- I use a TB Santa Cruz for sound, Logi MOMO
Force Wheel (red case, black wheel) along with TSW peds and Act Labs
Shifter.

Now questions for you -- I THINK that I've already turned off all MoTec
recording, but maybe not. Nothing shows in the little gray screen in
the center of the dash, so I assume that it's already off. (I use the
HUD). Is this correct, or could it still be on withour being visible.
How did you turn it off? (I also get much better framerates in external
replay views....)

How do you turn off "Mirror Perspective Changes"? and turn on "alternate
pixel center"?

Finally, I already have SiSoft Sandra. Exactly what tests should I run
to test the CPU and memory?

Thanks!

by **Scoob Droolin** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 01:04:13

> BRH schrieb:
> > I have an AMD XP2600, Radeon 9700 Pro, I gig Ram running WinXP Pro.

> > I've been spending a lot of time testing various resolutions, AA
> > settings, etc at race settings for GTR in hopes of maximizing my
> > system's framerate. Here's what I found:

> > No matter what I set the AA, resolution and color depth to (using
GTR's
> > 3DConfig utility), there is no appreciable change in framerate.
The
> > change is only 1 or 2 frames at most. I tried every combination
from
> > 800x600, 16 bit, Zero AA to 1024x768, 32 bit, 4X AA and the
framerate
> > hasn't budged. The image quality (ie - jaggies) is better with 4X
AA,
> > but that's about it.

> > Are any of you with ATI cards experiencing the same thing with GTR?
My
> > framerate is about 37 in traffic under race conditions (16 cars, 9
> > visible), and that's with most in-game graphic settings set to LOW
or
> > OFF. I feel that my system should get significantly higher frame
rate
> > than that.

> > Presently I'm using an old-ish video driver (4.7 I think) so I'll
> > probably try the newest video driver tomorrow. But I'm also
thinking
> > that perhaps there's something amiss in a BIOS setting.

> > Can anyone with a similar system to mine comment on whether these
> > framerates are all that I can expect? If not, does anyone have any
> > ideas on what I need to tweak? (ie - new video driver; BIOS
settings, etc)

> > Thanks!

> Hi

> my system: XP2400, 1 GB ram, Radeon 9700np, SB Audigy.

> My video settings: 4x AA, 8x AF.

> 10 cars vis, 26 in race, ingame graphic setting to medium.

> I get about 27 fps at the start and 40- 50 fps while in race.
> I disabled the mirrors, enabled the virtual mirror with a key from my
TM
> Enzo FF wheel, FF settings to low, with more I have stuttering in
> corners. I have set a key to disable MOTEC, it gives 10 fps more.
> In 2 weeks I will upgrade to a AMD64 3500, NForce4 board and an ATI
> X800XL. A better CPU will give more fps, 1 GB ram is needed.

> Michael

Hi, just a quick obervation: I always surprised at how many people use
anisotropic filtering at 4x or 8x. This is a frame rate _killer_, and
it is has nothing to do with the game, but is 100% video card
dependent. Turn this off, and your frame rate could easily double.
joe
image space

by **Michael Ziegle** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 01:25:24

Scoob Droolins schrieb:

Hi

not with GTR, it needs a fast CPU more than a fast GPU.
I tested it with AF 4x, 8x and Performance and Quality setting!
Almost no difference!

Michael

by **evente..** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 03:35:13

I think you only have the dash off - I set "Data Acquisition in Race"
to 0,.
The mirror setting is "Moving Rearview" - I figured it takes less
processing to not adjust the mirror view based on head position.
Alternate Pixel Center is one of the D3D compatibility settings on the
advanced display control panel.
I'd check the CPU arithmetic benchmark and the memory bandwidth
benchmark.
I'm going to try turning off AF - I doubt it'll make a huge difference,
and I'm worried the texture aliasing will bo horrible.

Kendt

by **BRH** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 03:53:30

> I think you only have the dash off - I set "Data Acquisition in Race"
> to 0,.
> The mirror setting is "Moving Rearview" - I figured it takes less
> processing to not adjust the mirror view based on head position.
> Alternate Pixel Center is one of the D3D compatibility settings on the
> advanced display control panel.
> I'd check the CPU arithmetic benchmark and the memory bandwidth
> benchmark.
> I'm going to try turning off AF - I doubt it'll make a huge difference,
> and I'm worried the texture aliasing will bo horrible.

> Kendt

kendt,

Thanks for the info. I made the above adjustments to my .plr file and
it helped a little. However, I still don't see where the Alternate
Pixel Center adjustment is. Is it in the Game settings somewhere or in
ATI's control panel? Either way, I can't find it.

Thanks!

Bert

by **evente..** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 04:10:05

No problem - I think it depends on the version of drivers, and I don't
use the Catalyst Control Center. On my 5.1s, I go to the 3D tab of the
advanced display settings, and near the bottom is a button labelled
"compatibility" - the second option on the page that comes up is the
alternate pixel center.
I've tried both, and I don't think it improves framerate, just seems to
make it look a little smoother when vsync is off.
I tried turning off AF completely - 1-2fps improvement max, and the
texture shimmering is as annoying as that "Racing on the Edge" song
Speedvision keeps playing with the bobsledding coverage ;). Sorry - I
had a Voodoo5 once and AA/AF is a must for me.

Kendt

by **BRH** » Tue, 01 Feb 2005 05:27:37

>>kendt,

>>Thanks for the info. I made the above adjustments to my .plr file

> and

>>it helped a little. However, I still don't see where the Alternate
>>Pixel Center adjustment is. Is it in the Game settings somewhere or

> in

>>ATI's control panel? Either way, I can't find it.

>>Thanks!

>>Bert

> No problem - I think it depends on the version of drivers, and I don't
> use the Catalyst Control Center. On my 5.1s, I go to the 3D tab of the
> advanced display settings, and near the bottom is a button labelled
> "compatibility" - the second option on the page that comes up is the
> alternate pixel center.
> I've tried both, and I don't think it improves framerate, just seems to
> make it look a little smoother when vsync is off.
> I tried turning off AF completely - 1-2fps improvement max, and the
> texture shimmering is as annoying as that "Racing on the Edge" song
> Speedvision keeps playing with the bobsledding coverage ;). Sorry - I
> had a Voodoo5 once and AA/AF is a must for me.

> Kendt

Thanks -- I found it now. I'm not sure if it makes any difference
though....

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