Re: Any tweaks to speed up games under XP?

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From: pjp (pjp_is_located_at__at__hotmail_._com)
Date: 03/14/04 

Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 13:59:33 -0400

Under 98SE I can play Halo at 800x600 with lots of eye candy. I'm as sure as
I can be without testing that under XP I'd have to lower that to 640x480 and
probably have to back off on the eye candy also.

I didn't like the game enough that it's high on my list of re-installs and
testing, I like Unreal II more :).

"Chris Catt" <notknown@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:%23kAsFjbCEHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> 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.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>