Poor performance in F.E.A.R.

barmyllama · 1 Sep 2009 at 20:10

I have a fairly decent PC, Q9550, GTX 260, 4GB and 300GB raptor running Vista 64.

I decided to reinstall F.E.A.R and it runs like a dog, no more than about 32 FPS no matter what resolution or settings I use. SP and MP are the same, yet any other game I can run without any problems.

FEAR is patched upto 1.08 and VISTA is also fully up to date and using Forceware drivers 190.38.

Anybody got any ideas what the problem could be?

Thanks

Nabz · 1 Sep 2009 at 20:46

bo offfense u dont wanna play it, the graphics are HORRIBLE..........good game maybe back in the day, but its HORRIBLE to play.

Happy · 1 Sep 2009 at 20:48

I know that the 38 drivers have been reported to have a memory leak in them causing similar symptoms to those you're reporting. Have you tried the 186.XX drivers? Does the game start fine, but then performance degrades pretty quickly or is it just crap from the get go?

Margaret · 1 Sep 2009 at 20:58

Nabz said:
bo offfense u dont wanna play it, the graphics are HORRIBLE..........good game maybe back in the day, but its HORRIBLE to play.

Horrible? Err, far too strong a word.

It doesn't look that bad at all.

barmyllama · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:05

Happy said:
I know that the 38 drivers have been reported to have a memory leak in them causing similar symptoms to those you're reporting. Have you tried the 186.XX drivers? Does the game start fine, but then performance degrades pretty quickly or is it just crap from the get go?

It's crap from the start.

I haven't tried any other drivers, surley if it was a memory leak then I would have problems in other games too.

uv · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:06

running Logitech setpoint software by any chance?

barmyllama · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:08

Nabz said:
bo offfense u dont wanna play it, the graphics are HORRIBLE..........good game maybe back in the day, but its HORRIBLE to play.

Although I am a GFX whore, a good game is a good game and I liked FEAR.

I actually reinstalled it for the MP.

barmyllama · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:09

uv said:
running Logitech setpoint software by any chance?

Yes, I got an MX 518 mouse and a G15 keyboard.

TheVoice · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:18

Happy said:
I know that the 38 drivers have been reported to have a memory leak in them causing similar symptoms to those you're reporting. Have you tried the 186.XX drivers? Does the game start fine, but then performance degrades pretty quickly or is it just crap from the get go?

Interesting you mention performance degradation, it happens to me in Extraction Point. After a few minutes the framerate slows to a crawl, which can only be fixed by exiting the game and re-starting it again. Got too annoyed at having to do that every 5-10 minutes, shame really.

arc@css · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:35

Due to Fear being a four year old game the chances tend to increase as time progresses with regard to incompatability, software / driver changes and updates etc. However, although it is probably one of the fewer games that ran better on ATi gpu's, it should nevertheless run like a dream with your setup.
All I can suggest is chopping and changing a few drivers and checking to see what other software you've installed of late.
Might be worth having a look on the website or try the nvidia forums.

kmufc77 · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:49

if i remember right when i installed F.e.a.r. on vistaX64 i had dreadful frames aswell, i tried lots of things to try to make it run smooth and searched for a solution online but never found one that worked.
i put the problem down to incompatibilty with VistaX64 ,F.e.a.r 2 runs great however on vistaX64/7

HangTime · 1 Sep 2009 at 21:58

barmyllama said:
Yes, I got an MX 518 mouse and a G15 keyboard.

That'll be your problem then, it's a known issue with logitech keyboard drivers. Try the game after uninstalling them (obviously you'll probably want to do this when you can have a 'free run' at the game, as you won't want to have to play other games without the drivers).

Nabz · 1 Sep 2009 at 22:14

Margaret said:
Horrible? Err, far too strong a word.

It doesn't look that bad at all.

NO WAY, its HORRIBLE, i played it @ 1920 x 1080 FULL AA and everything and the first level where u walk into the building with the pistol, URGHHHHH exited after that level because it look'd disgusting.

arc@css · 1 Sep 2009 at 22:19

An opinion is what it is, there is no right or wrong, imo it has aged a little but still looks pretty good.

barmyllama · 1 Sep 2009 at 23:30

HangTime said:
That'll be your problem then, it's a known issue with logitech keyboard drivers. Try the game after uninstalling them (obviously you'll probably want to do this when you can have a 'free run' at the game, as you won't want to have to play other games without the drivers).

I will give it a try without the drivers.

Thanks for the help.

Happy · 1 Sep 2009 at 23:50

TheVoice said:
Interesting you mention performance degradation, it happens to me in Extraction Point. After a few minutes the framerate slows to a crawl, which can only be fixed by exiting the game and re-starting it again. Got too annoyed at having to do that every 5-10 minutes, shame really.

What card you got, I had this with my 8800GTX on a huge list of drivers. I gave up in the end, though my problem was with the first game.

Margaret · 2 Sep 2009 at 00:21

Nabz said:
NO WAY, its HORRIBLE, i played it @ 1920 x 1080 FULL AA and everything and the first level where u walk into the building with the pistol, URGHHHHH exited after that level because it look'd disgusting.

Wow get a grip, I'm glad I don't have that attitude towards older games because a lot of the best games are from a few years back.