Re: Any tweaks to speed up games under XP?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Chris Catt (notknown_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 03/14/04 

Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 11:37:57 -0000

Hi, I would have thought that the video card was a tad elderly to be running
up to date games such as FS2004. Even my 9800XT struggles at the highest
setting in Halo when alot of action is going on.....
Chris C
"pjp" <pjp_is_located_at_@_hotmail_._com> wrote in message
news:u3fQ0uRCEHA.3024@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> XP Pro with integrated sp1 plus all criticals from Update site applied.
> Latest VIA 4-in-1;s applied as first install after OS up and going.
> DirectX9.0b, passes all DXDiag tests and there's "No Problem ..." all
> around.
>
> Tyan Trinity 400 S1854 motherboard
> PIII at 733Mz (to spec)
> 512 megs ram running at 133mz fsb (to spec)
> Radeon 64 DDR VIVO (7200)
> Xpert98 (2nd display multi-monitor)
> two wd hd's, 15 & 40 gigs with plenty free space on each
> Creative SB-PCI128 sound card
>
> 2 Logitech Rumblepads
> 2 Logitch wheels (MOMO Force & Racing)
>
> Mustek flatbed scanner "Twain", (lpt port pass thru model)
> Creative Webcam (also appears as a Twain scanner)
> Fuji digital camera as webcam or Mass Storage Device
>
> 3 printers, 2 Epson inkjets and an old Canon laser
>
> Logitech mouse
> Wacom pressure sensitive tablet
>
> Ethernet card connected to four other older 98SE pc's in-house (TCP/IP and
> Netbuie as protocols, including XP)
> USR Robotics 56K external modem
>
> 2 self-powered external four port USB hubs for all the USB devices. Does
> provide 500Ma spec to every port simultaneously, e.g. no attached device
> shows any kind of problem in use..
>
> The hardware seems stable an there was/is specific XP drivers for it all
(I
> was surprised I found scanner driver). The ethernet is up and running with
> printers and folders being shared as expected from both sides. I even
> managed to get the Guest account to be able to use a proxy server on one
of
> the other pc's to connect to the net after giving up in frustration at
it's
> refusal to allow use of the dialup modem connection even though it's
> specified as "shared by all" by the "Admin" account that set it up (Users
> are ok and can use it). The only problem hardware wise is, I can't get the
> back speakers working off the sound card as there appears to be only XP's
> built-in support for the card.
>
> This is the one thing I've found really makes a difference for games is,
use
> batch files to start the game so you can elevate it's priority, e.g. "cmd
/c
> start /High LinksLauncher.exe" is noticably faster (as I'd expect).
>
> I feel the basic problem is background "tasks" as Performance under
> Ctrl-Alt-Del shows cpu bouncing from 2 to 13% continually (but randomly in
> magnitude). I've tried to determine exactly what all these various
services
> do but when you try to research them it seems like the answer becomes a
> circular reference and it's never really explained. In particular, it's
> undetermined what's going on in the background regarding the ethernet.
There
> seems to be a number of various services that might be doing some type of
> "polling" for shares or something but as they're not really documented I
> have no idea what one's I can turn off etc. at no risk to basically
mucking
> up what works now (the Guest account can connect to web using a Proxy
server
> running on one of the other pc's as it "refused" anything to do with the
> dialup miodem connection). Basically, I'm very wary of blindly changing
> things under any version of Windows because as often as not "un-changing"
it
> doesn't bring the system back to what it was (e.g. unknown inadvertant
> consequences).
>
> For example, I have no idea what the "Alerter" service REALLY does, what
> "other features" absolutely require it to be running in order to function
> correctly nor what these "other services" also do. Ask help for "them" and
> you get another reference etc. which eventually seems to lead no-where
> usefull.
>
> I have turned off the obvious, e.g. disk performance monitoring service,
> indexing and the like.
>
> As usually MS's help isn't helpfull, just frustrating.
>
> "Chris Catt" <notknown@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:uhM4JnPCEHA.712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > Hi, all depends upon your hardware specs, we really need to know your
> > hardware specs before we can give you advice. What we need are cpu -
> > type/speed. motherboard, ram - amount/type, video card. If you have any
> > problems finding this out then here
> http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php
> > is a good tool to use. Suffice to say that XP hardware requirements are
> much
> > higher than those of win98, therefore if you've not much ram, say
128mbs,
> XP
> > will really need twice that before you get reasonable game performance.
I
> > expect Jimmy S will have more to say on this, over to you Jimmy :-)
> > Chris C
> > Chris
> > "pjp" <pjp_is_located_at_@_hotmail_._com> wrote in message
> > news:OiF0SEHCEHA.2308@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > > Just installed XP Pro as dual-boot with existing 98SE.
> > >
> > > Same game (NFS:U) running from same folder (e.g. just created new
> shortcut
> > > under XP) is basically unplayable under XP it's running so slow (slow
> > > motion) at 640x480 where-as under 98SE I can run it acceptably at
> > 1024x768.
> > > All other settings the same including under Properties DirectX
settings.
> > > Links 2003 and Flight Sim 2004 seem the same but not so exaggerated,
> > > probably because they're not high speed "action" type games.
> > >
> > > Is this typical? I'm running same revision drivers for the Radeon,
e.g.
> > Cat
> > > 4.3.
> > >
> > > I'm hoping it's all the crap running in the background so wondering if
> > > there's any site(s) document what all that crap actually does as MS's
> help
> > > doesn't even try to explain what they actually "do" in most cases.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

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