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Poor FEAR performance with X1950 pro 512MB

Phat_Larry

Phat_Larry

Phat_Larry

Associate
Joined
8 Oct 2004
Posts
62
I've recently upgraded my PC and I'm getting very disappointing performance in FEAR. Even with medium texture settings I'm getting a lot of hitching which I didn't get with my 6800GS at the same settings. The overall framerate is OK although a little bit lower than I expected at 25/50/120 in the stress test.

My current setup is as follows:

X2 4200
MSI K9N ultra MB
2x512 OCZ PC6400
X1950pro 512MB
Audigy 4
520w Corsair HX PSU

Has anyone got any ideas about what might be causing this or had similar problem using the same hardware and FEAR?
 
I noticed that hitching in FEAR was coupled with HDD activity. That was on a 6800GT. I only have 1gig ram, so that could have explained it (paging). Oddly, if I played the game for a couple hours, the hitching was much reduced (but still there occasionally).
 
I would put it down to RAM also, as it seems the rest of your system is fairly high spec its just the memory thats letting you down.
 
Agreed on the RAM issue, my budget wouldn't quite stretch that far unfortunately, but it appears that NCQ was the main culprit in this case once that was disabled the hitching was reduced to a much more acceptable level. XP seems to load faster now as well.

I was kinda hoping the extra VRAM might compensate for lack of main RAM but apparently not. Oh well, never mind eh. I'm sure I can live with a little bit of hitching until I can afford more RAM.
 
You not wrong there, I've just seen 2 GB of G skill ram here for £95. That's only £15 pounds more than I paid for the OCZ. Mayby the the OCZ will be going on ebay sooner than I thought.
 
When i played fear i upgraded to 2 gig because of that and it helped a lot as it was using about 1.4 gig and with 1 gig you using hd a lot it still did pause for a split second still when saving at checkpoint thought.
 
i wouldnt say its just your ram. i think the main issue is the ati card

fear ran really bad for me with a 1800xt and a 1900xtx with my current setup.

i then got a 8800 and it runs without the hitching and bad fps. Fear and ati dont go well trust

i 1st played fear on a 7600gt with an amd 3500+ @ 2.4 with 2gb of DDR1 and i completed it, enjoying the game! then i got a x1800xt, i was hoping the better card would improve performance on higher settings so i can complete it again but that wasbnt the case cos of the stuttering, i then went to a 1900xtx. still the same hitching but fps was a little better, then went to conroe (my current setup) and i bearly saw a difference. Then i got a 8800 and all my probs went away. NEVER going ati again. everyone who says fear runs fine on an ati card dont notice the stuttering/hitching like we do.
 
SameSuspect said:
i wouldnt say its just your ram. i think the main issue is the ati card
Click to expand...

I'm playing FEAR with the setup in my sig and its very smooth at max settings. Only thing i turn down is AF cuz i got some stuttering with it at max.
 
SameSuspect said:
fear ran really bad for me with a 1800xt and a 1900xtx with my current setup...... i then got a 8800 and it runs without the hitching and bad fps. Fear and ati dont go well trust.....
Click to expand...

You're comparing a 8800 with X1900??
 
SameSuspect said:
i wouldnt say its just your ram. i think the main issue is the ati card.
Click to expand...

I'm not out to get you but that's rubbish. It was far more likely to be something else wrong with your system.

OP, it's definitley a 2 gig job.
 
SameSuspect said:
i wouldnt say its just your ram. i think the main issue is the ati card

fear ran really bad for me with a 1800xt and a 1900xtx with my current setup.

i then got a 8800 and it runs without the hitching and bad fps. Fear and ati dont go well trust

i 1st played fear on a 7600gt with an amd 3500+ @ 2.4 with 2gb of DDR1 and i completed it, enjoying the game! then i got a x1800xt, i was hoping the better card would improve performance on higher settings so i can complete it again but that wasbnt the case cos of the stuttering, i then went to a 1900xtx. still the same hitching but fps was a little better, then went to conroe (my current setup) and i bearly saw a difference. Then i got a 8800 and all my probs went away. NEVER going ati again. everyone who says fear runs fine on an ati card dont notice the stuttering/hitching like we do.
Click to expand...

Sorry mate, again I'd have to disagree. Aside from occasional stutters, the game runs excellent, and Im running fraps constantly, so i can see if Im getting huge fps hitches ;)
Perhaps something was wrong with your card/drivers etc, but the general experience is it runs fine, it may even have been a conflict between ati/nvidia driver remnants if you didnt clean properly when switching between manufacturers.
 
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Fear needs 2 gigs for top I.Q to run smooth. Any card over an x1800/7800 should run it perfectly fine. I get something like 60fps avg @ 1680x1050 with my x1900xt.
 
ya don't really need 2 gig, even 1.25, or 1.5gig will do the trick. but if u want to upgrade, go to 4gig like me, never have ram issues again :D
 
Cyber-Mav said:
ya don't really need 2 gig, even 1.25, or 1.5gig will do the trick. but if u want to upgrade, go to 4gig like me, never have ram issues again :D
Click to expand...

Never have the 1T option either. Oh and a limited overclock in a lot of cases hehe.

I'm going to install Fear 2moro and test with my X1900 and 1gb of RAM and see how it goes. I'm not going to fork out for 2GB for this setup as I'll be moving to either Intel or AMD after AMD release their new CPU's. Saying that I have twin-x Corsair 2x512mb with LED's kicking about. Dual channel doesn't really have a huge performance gain in games does it?. I'd be happy to sacrifice the dual channel if the more memory would be more beneficial to me.
 
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