Danny5
Its over 39000!
I just have to share this ordeal here with people who might understand it. I just installed an older game (Sims 3). My computer handles all the new games on the highest settings, so what's keeping it from playing this one?
This game played better on my old computer, even back when it had a 2.7GHz Sempron (that was a tough old processor for a single core... managed to play GTA IV with that thing and a 9500 GT at a whopping 20 FPS at medium settings when it really needs 4 cores to play correctly. :banana: I wish I hadn't dropped it after replacing it and bending the pins... it's somewhere in a junkyard now. :sadbanana
Anyway, this game was lagging all the time, especially when it had to load a new lot. Sitting still, FRAPS was showing 120 FPS and above, sometimes well over 200 FPS. That's the thing; while this game isn't very GPU intensive, it is still CPU intensive, so the GPU is running wild and the CPU can't keep up. When it had to load a new lot, it would drop to single-digit FPS. Newer games my computer runs at around 60 FPS just fine with no lags or stutters. GPU and CPU usage are both at about 70% in newer games as well, and it does just fine.
The Sims 3? GPU usage: 50%. CPU usage: 90+%.The GPU was choking the CPU so it couldn't load the new lots very effectively. I tried using Vsync and frame limiters, but for some reason, I couldn't get a single one of them to work, it was still happily chugging along with hundreds of FPS. I actually had to downclock my GPU and then increase all the settings to be as GPU intensive as possible without adding much more load to the CPU. The end result is my FPS is now around 60-90 and only drops down to 30-40ish when loading lots with barely noticeable lag. The CPU is still being used 80-90%, but it's no longer having to keep up with such an enormous load just to supply the GPU with information.
It seems backwards and I have a headache now, but I'll just have to switch OC profiles when I play Sims 3 to the lower speeds, and then crank it back up when I want to play the newer titles.
I was about to go so far as to pull out my 6850 and use the integrated GPU on the motherboard to slow down the framerate so my CPU wouldn't be bottlenecked.
EDIT: Since this is a game that's popular with mostly light gamers, I think what they did was make the game to perform on most OEM computers, which generally have a decent CPU but a weak integrated GPU.
Wow thats weird. WoW works fine for me...
