I wanted to add that while the windowing trick definitely helped, part of the improvement might be due to the fact that I just upgraded from Catalyst 11.12 to 12.1 beta, and hadn't checked performance before testing the game windowed.
It does seem to be a Catalyst 12.1 bug, I just tried it in pcars everything on max 15AI back of the grid 22fps drop to desktop and back 45fps the only difference is that in pcars there is no stutter with the higher fps. I'm also not convinced that changing the settings in Catalyst 12.1 are actually having any graphical effect trunning up the quality doesn't seem to help the looks.
I tried the 12.1 drivers and they did not increase performance. I went back to 11.12 because they are better for me. Actually I tried windowed mode and it did gain about 8-10 frames average. All settings on high, shadows med. It averages 34-40 Fps with 6 AI for me as well. My system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Dell - XPS 630i Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz, 3000 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.0.13, 5/5/2009 Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 1 Gig v-card
Yes, i got the boost in windowed mode as well -- maybe 20fps. Also noticed that rF2 seems to run better for me with higher graphics settings ("use application" where possible) for the details and textures. And enabling vsync made it smoother. CPU: 3.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Memory: 8 GB Video Card: AMD 6970 (12.1 drivers) Video Memory: 2G Operating Sys: Win7 64bit
I'll give this a try when I'm next at my gaming rig. I used to run GTR2 in windowed mode as it wouldn't alt-tab out of the game when I wanted to change the games processor affinity. I'll post back with my results.
Here's what I did to get decent frames. It's really simple and along with lowering AA is going to give one the best boost in frames. My native resolution is 1650x1050-- that's 16:10. I tried 1400x900, but that didn't do enough. I went into windows and added a 1280x800, which is also along the lines of 16:10 (widescreen). That resolution gave me the feel I wanted. No more lagging or minimal stuttering. And honestly and at least from my standpoint, things look pretty much the same, only a tad bigger. The trade-off of graphics to performance works for me. Alan
Update after letting Windows catch up with all the updates i'd skipped and loading the ATI 12.2 preview drivers... The bad news is: the advantage to windowed mode has gone. The good news is: the full screen mode is performing as well as the windowed mode had before.
I´m getting 60 ~ 90 ( sometimes 110 during replays ) fps with all settings in FULL, Opponents Detail in Medium, Filtering Trilinear ( if i raise to Anisotropic 16x it drops 20 ~ 30 from the overall ) , HDR Off @ 1920x1280 32bits AA = 1 CPU Spec: Core 2 Duo - 2.8GHz / 4GB DDR 2 800MHZ / Geforce GTX 560 2gb DDR 5
I run the game with HDR ticked, 1900x1200, Level 3, everything on Full ! No stutter and FPS around 95 ! Previously I had an HD5850 and I run around 45 FPS ! Now with a GTX570 the game is breathing ! Cheers, Oli
Is this in solo-practice ? AF ? Which drivers are you using ? And what are your settings in the nVidia control panel ?
12.2 preview drivers are out now too, though not tried them yet, still using the 12.1 http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst122Previewdriver.aspx
