NFS Shift 2 Laggy?

toon_mad · 2 May 2011 at 09:43

Was wondering if anyone knows a fix to this, I got Shift 2 the other day, only got round to installing it yesterday and it started out OK but this game is laggy as hell, especially on the night courses. Ive applied the new patch (1.0.1.0) but its not much difference, my setup is:

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
700W OCZ ModXStream Modular PSU
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO USB3
AMD Phenom X6 1055T @ 3.85GHZ
MSI GTX 460 HAWK TwinFrozr 1GB @ 900/1800/1880
2x2GB DDR3 RipJaws 1600mhz
750GB Sata Hard Drive

Ive read a few posts from google people having similar problems with GTX 580 and other beefier cards, but this is a joke Shift 1 was smooth as hell. I can run most other games maxed out (AA is usually the only option I have to turn down depending on game).

Im running it at 1920x1080 resolution, using the latest Nvidia drivers (270.61). Ive tried turning shadows to low, and AA off - still laggy.

This is really annoying, I lost the mood for gaming and Im trying to get interested again, Shift 2 seems way better than the 1st but its choppy and FPS keep dropping.

Anyone else got or had these problems, have a solution for me to try?

Cheers

arknor · 2 May 2011 at 10:39

wierd because it runs great for me
1055t @ stock
GTX460 1GB @ 775mhz

im still using thr ancient 261 drivers and forcing 4x AA 2x transparency AA ,16x AF
all game settings maxed at 1920x1080

the next patch killed my fps by 10 though which is wierd because everyone else said they gained fps :S
now im getting 50fps most of the time where as before the patch i would be getting 60 with vsync on.

make sure physx is set to be running from the card i had collision stutters with it on the cpu

toon_mad · 2 May 2011 at 11:27

Will put PhysX on the GPU and try that.

Do you get any stutter at all? I get major drops in performance if there are lots of cars near me, at night it is unbearable.

In Nvidia Control panel how do you have it setup? Ive tried all 3 options:

Let the 3D Application decide
Use the advanced 3D settings
Use my preference emphasising

My hard drives have been defragged, nothing else running in the background either.

It cant be the newer drivers surely, I might uninstall them and try the drivers from the disk that came with the card. It seems lots of other people having similar problems too.

arknor · 2 May 2011 at 11:42

im forcing a profile with nvidia inspector.

if you know how to use it you need to save this as .nip and import it as a profile
http://snoop1050.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/shift2.nip

screenshot just to make sure all the settings get imported right

if you dont extract the customsettings xml file in the nvidia inspector zip file you wont get all of the advanced options you see on my screenshot

btw heres my gamesconfig everything set to as high as it goes from the ingame menu but with the games own AA turned off and blur turned off
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Reflection>
<class name="BRTTIRefCount" base="root class" />
<class name="BPersistent" base="BRTTIRefCount">
<prop name="Name" type="String" />
</class>
<class name="GraphicConfigData" base="BPersistent">
<prop name="Mode" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Vsync" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Windowed" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TextureFilter" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TextureResolution" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Brightness" type="Fct" />
<prop name="CarDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TrackDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="ShadowDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="MotionblurLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="EffectsDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
</class>
<data class="GraphicConfigData" id="0xBBF320">
<prop name="Name" data="" />
<prop name="Mode" adapter="0" width="1920" height="1080" antialias="8" refresh="60" />
<prop name="Vsync" vsync="0" />
<prop name="Windowed" windowed="0" />
<prop name="TextureFilter" texturefilter="5" />
<prop name="TextureResolution" textureresolution="2" />
<prop name="Brightness" brightness="10" />
<prop name="CarDetailLevel" cardetaillevel="2" />
<prop name="TrackDetailLevel" trackdetaillevel="2" />
<prop name="ShadowDetailLevel" shadowdetaillevel="3" />
<prop name="MotionblurLevel" motionblurLevel="0" />
<prop name="EffectsDetailLevel" effectsdetaillevel="2" />
</data>
</Reflection>

toon_mad · 2 May 2011 at 12:45

Never used it before, but will try it now cheers mate...

EDIT:

Ok I downloaded Nvidia Inspector, Imported your nip file, also overwrited my graphicsconfig.xml file with yours.

What do i need to do now though, do I need to keep Nvidia Inspector open? What happens with the Shift2 profile I imported?

Thanks

boosfuk · 2 May 2011 at 12:59

Lag problem was supposed to be fixed in the patch. What version of the game have you got? There is a known problem with applying the patch on certain digital editions and the Steam patch is not out yet (it leave game exe at original version I think). Lots of discussion on the No Grip forums.

toon_mad · 2 May 2011 at 13:08

Im using the Retail version, the Patch improved it somewhat but still I expected better performance considering my setup. Exe is 1.0.1.0 too.

Not sure how this Nvidia Inspector tool works, I imported the profile but now what? Do i need to do anything else?

arknor · 2 May 2011 at 13:24

no its just a custom profile like the nvidia ones already available in the drivers.

close nvidia inspector load it back up and check the shift2 profile saved. and make sure near the top left it says shift2u.exe like on mine.
you should instantly know if its working when you play shift2 anyway because the graphics should look a lot better.
just double check ingame that the AA is turned off or forcing it doesnt work.

i dont know if it will fix your performance problems but for me shift 2 runs great with those settings and looks much better than if you use the ingame AA which only effects specifc areas of the game.
heres how my shift 2 looks and runs even with fraps recording, this was for thre time trial competition we were doing on the forum so no other ai cars as it was time attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMdL-BvdoOQ set it to 1080p and go full screen.

there is no reason a 1055t and a 460 1gb card shouldnt be able to play this game all maxed out with atleast 50fps using 4x AA

toon_mad · 2 May 2011 at 13:49

Ok I got it setup, i tried it in career and there was much less lag (hardly any), got on the last lap of a race and the bugger crashed arggggg!

Think Im gonna reinstall the game and try that later today sometime.

And yeah I can see how smooth yours is running and you are practically using the same hardware.

Cheers for the help.

arknor · 2 May 2011 at 14:49

if you get desperate try the 261 driver i never bothered updating my drivers because ive not had any problems and nvidia hasnt released any new features so.. i stick with what works

toon_mad · 3 May 2011 at 00:26

Found and fixed the solution, I feel somewhat of an idiot now

I first installed the game, tried it out, it was laggy, I googled to see if others had same problem and they did. I tried the latest patch, it helped a little but not much. I tried the help you posted arknor and it helped abit too, but did not fix it. Because others had problems I didnt even consider it would be a fault at my end.

Turns out that my BIOS had somehow reset (electric tripped the other day which might of cause it), which put my overclocks back to stock, and because I did a reformat of Windows 7 the other day I put the wrong overclock in for my GTX 460. The processor at stock was not a major issue, but because the MSI afterburner was not stable overclocked it has been dropping the clocks right down (ie the core clock down to 400mhz or something). I put what I thought was my stable overclock in Afterburner, serves me right for copying from bits of scrap paper

Anyway, Ive got the 1055T overclocked to 3.92GHZ (4hrs Prime Stable so far), and the GTX 460 is running at 850/1700/1835 > so far so good, even at night time now with loads of cars, no lag

Gonna mess around with the AA tomorrow and some of the other settings.

Big DOH! from me