Any tips/tweaks for slow computers?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by breick, Feb 14, 2013.

  1. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    But you have your CPU overclocked to 3.2 GHz according to your profile. But I am a little puzzled as well, since Max Angelo seems to be doing fine with his Q6660 at 2.4 GHz. Granted, he has the faster GPU, but the problem here is obviously CPU limiting. So I would also say, there must be something not quite right.
    Maybe it is a driver problem with the Nvidia card, from my experience with older cards from that manufacturer, from a certain point onwards, even though the card was still officially supported, their latest WHQL certified drivers gave me headaches with regards to performance and stability. I reverted to the non-certified driver version prior to that and all was fine. Any attempt to upgrade to even newer versions failed miserably. But before too long support was officially ended anyway. I think they wanted their customers to buy the new stuff by making them believe the card was broken. :p

    Yes, the default key binding is CTRL-C, the green bar shows the load of the graphics thread, which should be at full all the time. The purple bar shows the load of the physics thread. The perpendicular lines in the histrograms show the respective latencies in 1 ms steps, left most being 1 ms.
     
  2. Novis

    Novis Registered

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    I run with my Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz at times also without problem. The CPU usually is far from being the limit even at 2.4 GHz.

    As the problem turn up with additional cars I beleive it's a GPU problem with to high detail on the other cars. I'm not sure I read that the problem turn's up with every mod, and how many different car models is in use. Is it a problem offline with AI-cars?

    EDIT: Looking at images posted it is clear that AA settings change image quality so driver settings are probably correct. Funny result though with higher fps at higher AA modes.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 16, 2013
  3. Max Angelo

    Max Angelo Registered

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    Same thing here, with E6600 @ 2.4Ghz ... CPU load, according to the in game bar, is about 75% with 30 cars on track.
     
  4. breick

    breick Registered

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    Oh yes, you go to a mechanic saying your car has some engine cutting, its not using all the power, and he says: "buy a ferrari"

    lol
     
  5. breick

    breick Registered

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    is this ok?
    View attachment 6273
     
  6. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    That CPU graph looks good to me, virtually no latency of physics and some latency of graphics, which is to be expected.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 16, 2013
  7. Adrianstealth

    Adrianstealth Registered

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    The bars are useful going to give them a try!
     
  8. Novis

    Novis Registered

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    How do they look when the game is struggling with poor frame rate?
     
  9. breick

    breick Registered

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    i will try to print when this happens!

    Overclock to 3,25GHZ gave me "windows blue screen of the dead"

    Did a 45 minutes race with 3,14GHZ, no crash, i had some stutters but were less than usual, i hope there is some room for improvement on the next builds with optimization.

    Tomorrow 80 minutes race.
     
  10. Novis

    Novis Registered

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    What to look at is the physics thread bar, the purple one. It should not extend fully to the right. The lower part is a histogram and the more it fills to the left the better. I think there is some kind of color warning when the CPU can't keep up but can't confirm that now. Anyway, it is critical if the bar extends fully to the right.

    The green bar is the graphics thread. The bar should extend all way to the right. The histogram above work in the same way as for the physics thread and the more it is located to the left the better. The histogram should move to the right as the fps drops.

    I'm away from my gaming computer for a couple of days, but someone else can maybe fill in the missing stuff.
     
  11. Armando

    Armando Registered

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    Also the histograms should concentrate in a vertical line ideally.
    A lot of scattered dots in the green histogram means a lot of variations in the fps, which usually result in stuttering.
     
  12. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    To quote a post I made ages ago lol...
     
  13. Flaux

    Flaux Registered

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    Hmm my bars look like this, when in a field of cars:

    [​IMG]

    Does that mean my CPU is "okay" and my gfx is struggling?
     
  14. Novis

    Novis Registered

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    It is not necessary bad when your graphics thread bar is fully to the left. It means that your CPU is not the bottleneck and your GPU is fully utilized. However, to achieve higher fps you need a faster GPU. It is better to be GPU limited than CPU limited.
     
  15. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    From that screenshot I'd say yes, then I looked at your specs and you've a e6300@2.8GHz, do you run online at all?

    I originally had a e5200@3.3GHz and that was okay offline but inadequate at some tracks online, mind you that was in earlier builds perhaps these later builds are better optimised.

    Assuming your e6300 is a dual core Wolfdale like my e5200 (rather than an oc'ed Conroe) I'd try and overclock it a bit, a HD6870 is a decent enough card but it does need to be fed.
     
  16. Flaux

    Flaux Registered

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    Yeah it is a wolfdale. Did try to overclock it 2-3 times but it never really worked... dunno why. I bet I'm missing something...

    To be honest my online results are better than my offline ones...
     
  17. TIG_green

    TIG_green Registered

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    What you can say about this?:

    View attachment 6280

    No lagging when I'm driving...sometimes for a second when I leave the pits. I think the purple bar moves between 40-70%. Is that one high spike in green a point of lag? And are those spikes below the purple bar or what and what does they mean?
     
  18. Flaux

    Flaux Registered

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    Meanwhile in Germany I managed to get from 2.8 to 3.1 ghz and the game runs better now. I guess there is more to come but I go in small steps. On the other side, clocking the gfx didn't really work. Not much to gain there anyway. I leave it at stock speed for now.

    Won a 20 car race at Mills in the Clio 5 mins ago...

    Image1.jpg
     
  19. Gearjammer

    Gearjammer Registered

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    Ignoring the in game information, if you look at the system tools that show CPU usage, you will have a clear history of how things are going. You can even set the tool to save the information to a file for later review or keep it running while you race and have a look at it to see where your usage is at. I believe the information from the system tools is more accurate than the in game stuff to be honest when looking at CPU usage.

    @Flaux: If you overclock the GPU and don't see any better fps, then likely you are CPU bound and won't see better until you get past the CPU. If this were not the case, then overclocking would result in some performance increase. By overclocking the CPU you increase it's ability to perform the work required and end up being able to send faster information to the GPU, which should be able to output information faster unless the GPU is the bottleneck, which it is clearly not on your system based on what you have said.

    System building is all about balance. Your GPU won't work it's best unless the CPU is capable of feeding it fast enough. Your CPU can't perform at it's best if the GPU is holding it back while it tries to draw stuff to the screen. The art is being able to see these things and choose accordingly.
     
  20. lordpantsington

    lordpantsington Registered

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    All this talk about overclocking, yup that is what I did that also helped me the most. From 2.2 Ghz to 2.64. BUT in order to do so I stepped my Ram down to like 300Mhz from 400. Boosting that back up just about doubled my FPS. There is a trade off.
     

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