Fix my BF2, win $1,000,000!!!

[Daywrecker]

Im holding a contest for 1 million $$$ in my very own nation after WW5 for whoever can figure out what's wrong with my BF2. Here's the gist of it. My performance is terrible in large battles with intense action going on. My frame rate drops to about 17FPS. As you all probably know i used to play BF2 all day long no problem. My resolution is at 1024x768 with all HIGH settings (i used to use 1280x1024 HIGH until this). I tried sound quality on X-Fi ultra high, Hardware medium, and Software medium; no change. I've reinstalled BF2, reinstalled video and sound drivers (which are the latest); still have problems. My 3DMark06 score is 3036 (SM2.0 1300, SM3.0 1094, CPU 1324). Video Stress Test in HL2 results in 101.28 FPS at a resolution of 1280x1024 all settings high. All my other games seem to run smooth as a baby's bottom at 1280x1024 with visual settings all maxed out (Doom3, HL2, UT2004, etc...)

Here's some of my computer's specs:
AsRock 775Dual-VSTA
Pentium 805D @ 2.9Ghz
GeForce 68000GT @ 440Mhz/2.24Ghz
Corsair XMS2 DDR2-1024 2048Mb
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty

[StarLord]

Hey Daywrecker, don't you think it would be a good start if you could give us your computer's spec?

[Daywrecker]

Here's some of my computer's specs:
AsRock 775Dual-VSTA
Pentium 805D @ 2.9Ghz
GeForce 68000GT @ 440Mhz/2.24Ghz
Corsair XMS2 DDR2-1024 2048Mb
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty

I thought that kinda covered it....

[Ash2Dust]

Each patch that EA released, lagged the game a bit more. Each map has its lagginess on top of the number of players being rendered.

The CPU and video card are both bottlenecking for high settings with 30v30. I'd say it should be on Medium settings (except for Geometry). Lighting should be on low.

You may try a clean windows install on a spare hard drive and see if that helps.

Also the Euro server was having issues this last Saturday with Special Forces (the mod has its own special lag).

[Insolvenzverwalter]

I might be wrong but it seems that your graphics card runs beyond default settings. Have you tried running it with default core and memory speed?
Maybe it cant handle the temps any more and throttles its core frequency down.
What I know from my own experiences BF2 does not like an overclocked system at all.

Regards,
Wally

[bakeratc]

Did you update and flash your bios. I just did that on mine due to an XFI Sound Card issue and all is well in my world now. If you haven't, might be worth a shot.

[Ash2Dust]

If its on auto, confirm that the motherboard is picking the correct frequency for your memory. Or set it manually.

Good point about the video card, try lowering the clocks a good chunk. Just in case its throttling down when under extreme heat.

Since you're still AGP, it could be other PCI items affecting the PCI bus. Sound, network, usb, etc. I had a pciclock tool that altered the agp video card's priority on the PCI bus. But that only helped with the initial 60 seconds of a new map.

Any bandwidth issues with your internet access?

[Daywrecker]

I have an Koolance Exos2 liquid cooler. That's why the video card is overclocked so much. But i have tried in on the default settings and still no good. Motherboard is up to date on the BIOS.

[Ash2Dust]

by request for pci latency tool for agp issues.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

Read this thread for insight on settings.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php ... did=121190

[Daywrecker]

Anyone know of any benchmarks or time demos i could use to test BF2 with some consistency instead of hopping on a server and hoping it's about the time as the last time i tested it? It seems like on a pub server i can play just fine cause everyone's running around like chickens with their heads cut off doing whatever they want, but in a GC battle, everyone is concentrated in a certain area and that's where i have a big problem.

[Ash2Dust]

I dont think theres a demo file you can run and go thru the exact same rendering. One of the complaints about the bf2 series.

Try filtering for small maps with full 64 players. It forces players closer together.

As for you feel the frame rate is the same no matter the resolution. That would indicate something is bottlenecking before the video card renders it. Is there something else sharing the video IRQ? I'm starting the think its a conflict.

[Daywrecker]

Nope. Video card IRQ is 16 and nothing else is on it.

[NateDogg25]

more RAM

[Ash2Dust]

Back to motherboard chipset drivers. What version did you install?

Back to RAM, what frequency is the motherboard setting it to? Use this proggie to see what its running at.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1340

Back to sound card, uninstall the drivers and then pull the card. Run BF2 without sound.

Back to AGP BIOS settings, any options disabled and what is the AGP Aperture (sp?) set at? I would choose 256 for that card.

I dont think the PCIlatency tool will do anything in this case, but they have newer versions on their website as that may be why you dont see nvidia video listed.

Virus and spyware hiding are also possible big problems.

Other than that, not really sure what else could be tried.

[Thur]

My bf2 runs much better with windows firewall and my AV software turned off. Not sure what difference it makes but it runs much smoother.

I am running 2.08 AMD w/1 gig ram /ATI X1300, not cutting edge but it is reliable most of the time. I cannot run any setting above low for GC battles. Try the low settings, maybe add shadows and 100% view distance.

I updated to the latest ATI drivers a couple of months ago, totaly screwed me. I rolled back to the Nov 06 driver for smoother play.

One last thing "Sound Cards Suck!" I have had 2 and neither ever worked better than my onboard and both interfered with something on my motherboard (I think my onboard sound was not properly disabling(sp?) not sure why I am no tech) . My advise, stick with onboard sound.