I'm having some video related problems. My card is a GeForce 550 Ti 1GB DDR5(not OC). It's a midtower setup w/ a 600W PS, ASUS AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (2.8GHz), 16GB DDR3 RAM, Win7-64 Pro, Vizio 32" @ 1798 x 900 resolution and I'm running RF1. About 6 months ago I was running the same mods with settings at max and it was rock solid, but all my troubles started when I updated the nvidia driver (rel. 332.xx). The PC would freeze and the display adapter crashed constantly, usually a blue screen. I went back to the original driver on the CD and no more blue screen. BUT the GPU runs hotter now and after 2 laps on any road courses it starts skipping every half second. I ran the MSI fan controller and it showed temps hit 55-65*C and that's when this skipping glitch starts. It does it on practice laps when you're alone as well as in a group of 15 cars so I think it's related to track textures. When I turned down track textures it seemed to get better. I'm guessing this card just can't hack it at this resolution. If anyone has some other ideas or settings to try I'm open to suggestions. Let's say I wanted to run at that 1798x900 resolution with all settings at max. What kind of specs should I be looking for in terms of memory, bitrate, MHz etc?? I think my MoBo only has 1 PCI-e slot so I don't think dual cards is an option. I don't like admitting defeat but it may be wiser to just turn the rez down and try that w/ max settings. What you genius PC builders do in this case? I'll take any suggestions you can throw at me.
Have you run the rf config exe? that needs to be done after driver updates. try a new player profile. try a lite install. Could be any reason as far as I am concerned but those 3 will at least rule some stuff out because what if..
Thanks for the reply. I ran the config again and tried running a smaller resolution, even in 16-bit. What's weird is sometimes it will not take my new changes. I have never gotten the "Windowed" option to work on this system. No clue why. I lowered the resolution to 1176x664 32-bit. Then in the game I have the following settings, and it will let me race glitch free and it's not too bad for quality... Circuit Detail: Full Player Detail: Medium Opponent Detail: Medium Texture: Full Texture Filter: X4 Special Effects: Medium Shadow: Low Shadow Blur: Off I just wonder what it takes to keep the FPS optimized with everything on full. My GPU was staying around 66*C, which is pretty hot.
http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-550ti/specifications Well as the thermal max is 100C I think that 85C would be sensible hot. I don't think 66 is that bad. If you are struggling with latest build try you AF to trilinear. I have had similar problems. I have a 780 but different bottlenecks... I had to do this to remove micro stutters.
Just to be sure we are on the same page, you said you are running rF1, not rF2, correct? You also said your system and the sim were working fine up to a couple of months ago and updated the graphic drivers. If this is the case, I would first start off with the information on this link to uninstall and install fresh drivers: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-ensure-your-drivers-are-installed-properly-/ The reason for this approach is because it seems evident that something in the new driver installation caused your issues and making sure that it is completely removed is required to ensure that you don't carry the issue over when you install older drivers. Let us know if this helps out.
Correct, RF1 only. Haven't taken the RF2 plunge yet because none of the mods I run work for that. When I first installed my extra RAM and this GT 550 Ti card I cranked all settings in the Video Display settings at max, running DX7. It handled it just fine. I do not have an FPS program to measure what the actual results were but it didn't glitch or skip at all. I don't think the drivers are the issue anymore. I reloaded Windows 7 completely with a brand new 1TB HDD 2 weeks ago just to rule out any of those problems. Rethinking things a bit, if you look at my settings posted above the shadows and special effects must be the culprit because turning up the quality on the cars and track didn't cause the glitch to start. I don't understand what "shaders" actually mean on a GPU but I'd guess things like smoking tires, dirt, debris and shadows fall into that category. In which case, having those turned down may be why I can avoid the glitches. I guess what I want to know the most is what kind of GPU is needed to run both RF1 and eventually RF2 (when I dive in) at full on max potential?? Cards from 2 years ago that were $150 would run things like crysis and WoW at very high FPS with max settings. So it makes me wonder why my $140 GT 550Ti can't keep up. I just don't know enough about video cards me thinks!
With that system you should not have any issues with rf1 to begin with. Its better then mine and for me rf1 runs smooth on max and rf2 runs good enough as well, better then I expected (current build giving some issues but that's part of the ongoing deal) so unless you are mainly focussed on graphics I don't see any reason to get a new system tbh. The glitching you are experiencing come from somewhere of course, and should be fixed (fixable) but getting a new system to solve it seems a bit over the top
When their new drivers came out it immediately created problems, even while running normal desktop functions. So the only thing I'd upgrade at this point would be the GPU. I'd probably lean away from nvidia because I know other gamers who had similar issues with 500 and 600 series GeForce drivers. My questions to nvidia fell on def ears. I have an old 512MB Galaxy OC 9600GT that would run circles around this 1GB 550 Ti lol. Maybe the answer is looking to 3rd party GPUs that have overclocked and tweaked drivers for nvidia cards, because I never had one issue with that old 9600, though I couldn't run it all on max settings (also only had 4GB RAM at the time).
Rendering shadows in any game is a frame rate killer. By this I mean that this one area will have a large effect on performance of cards. The fact that this started to happen when you upgraded drivers suggested that it was something that got changed when you upgraded and remained after you went back to older drivers, but it could be that it was just bad timing. Your system specs do look like they should be able to run it smoothly without any issues, so my suggestion would be that something has happened with the GPU. If you have cleaned out all dust and everything from the GPU and still have this issue, then even replacing with similar should result in getting back to where you were at before this happened. If you are planning on upgrading, nVidia seems to perform better than ATI right now for rF2, though there isn't really a single card out there that can guarantee perfect frame rates in rF2 with everything maxed or full as you put it. I would be thinking of the OC versions of the cards, as those are already factory overclocked and should perform better than the normal ones. Things to consider though are first, are you going to move up to triple monitors or stay where you are at? If you plan on running triples, consider a card that has a minimum of 3Gb of ram. If you are planning on staying with your current TV, then this is not an issue, but I wouldn't settle for less than a 2Gb card. I would also check the requirements of the cards to be sure that your PSU has enough connectors to power it. I am not familiar with the card you currently have, not having owned an nVidia card, but more often than not it seems the GPUs require two 6 or 8 pin connectors for power. Price wise, get the card you are the most comfortable with. I normally say buy the best you can afford, but with current games, that is not always required.
Great points jammer. I really don't know if I'll stick with this TV or not. Most likely I will, because it takes up less space and I already own it. My goal is build a rig in the basement for racing eventually but I doubt I'd do 3 monitors. I appreciate the suggestions. I'd just get another one of these 550 Ti's and run SLI (it is capable) but the MoBo only has the one slot. When the time comes for me to get a new card I'll do more benchmark research and if I can't figure it out, I'll bug you all heh.
When running multiple monitors, each card needs enough ram to draw all screens, so keep that in mind. Full 1080p X 3 is just over 6 million pixels. If you ad in the bezel correction, it gets closer to 6.5. So you would still want to think minimum 3Gb of ram on each card.
