*Get Your PC To Run Faster! = More Responsive Game

[electrickrypt]

I know a lot of people are complaining about bad performance when they have decent PC's. I would like to share I have a crappy PC and I get the game to run smoothly at an average of 60fps (I said 45 in a few threads, but after playing more.. I noticed its faster than I thought).

First off, My specs:
Model K7MNF-64 Mobo
AMD Athlon 3000+ 1.99Ghz
Radeon AGP 8x X700 Pro 256mb 425:432
1 Gig of Ram
300Watt Power Supply
Windows Pro SP2

I get about a constant 50-60 fps in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in MultiPlayer mode, and about 35 in SinglePlayer mode.
GPU temperatures around 65 degrees Celsius.


Update Windows
I prefer to turn Windows Automatic Updates off and doing it manually by yourself about once every 2 weeks (at least).

You can do this by going to:

Start/All Programs/Windows Update

or by going to:

http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate

With you Internet EXPLORER browser. (Will not work with Firefox or others.) Continue doing this until there are no longer any updates.

Uninstall All Unecessary Programs/Applications
Uninstall as many programs/applications that you possibly can. Anything you don't use. Also delete any media you no longer listen to or watch. I prefer to own an external hard drive and store all media and programs on there... giving you more hard drive space.


Do A Spyware Scan
I preferably use Spybot Search & Destroy. Its an excellent program and has many advanced features. Also is very tweakable. You can download it [url="http://www.safer-networking.org/"]here[/url
Make sure you check for updates. Also don't allow it to run on startup. Do a scan and/or a bootscan too.

Do A Virus Scan
I preferably use AVG Anti-Virus FREE. Nice anti-virus that catches everything. Also is very light on the memory usage. You can download it here

Make sure you check for updates. Do a full system scan.


***If you are having trouble removinghere, download HijackThis and run to create a log, then post your log on the forums and someone will assist you in removing your problems. The forums are excellent with helping.

Cleaning & Reinstalling The Latest Video Drivers

Download the latest video drivers.
*Do not install yet!

ATI users, I recommend Omega Drivers here

nVidia users, get the forceware drivers here

Download a driver cleaner.
After downloading your video drivers... you need to get a driver cleaner.

You can download Driver Cleaner here here

Install Driver Cleaner.

Uninstall your video drivers.

Uninstall you current video drivers. After uninstalling you will be prompted to reboot. Reboot, to allow the changes to take effect. After you reboot, a window will pop up saying it found new hardware.. keep canceling this.

Boot in safe mode and run Driver Cleaner.
Boot in safe mode. One way I like to boot in safe mode is to go to Start/run/cmd/msconfig. Click on the Boot tab and under start up options, check safe mode. Reboot. You now should boot in safe mode. How ever you boot in safe mode is your choice.

When in safe mode, open Driver Cleaner. Check choose multiple options. Then find and choose anything related to your video drivers. ATI or nVidia.

*MAKE SURE YOU DONT CHOOSE ANY NVIDIA OR ATI CHIPSET DRIVERS (nVidia network/ethernet or etc.)

Run Driver Cleaner.

After running Driver Cleaner, open up msconfig again, click on the boot tab, and check Normal Startup. Reboot.

Install video drivers.
When in normal mode... install your latest video drivers you just downloaded. Tweak them to your needs.

Getting Rid Of The Garbage [CCleaner].
Now we want to get rid of all the unwanted trash that is cluttering our PC.
Download & review CCleaner here

Install and run the program. Make sure you check for any updates.
Do a full clean from the Cleaner tab, check ALL available boxes. There are TWO tabs in the Cleaner Settings, make sure you check all on both tabs. Run cleaner.

Now scan and fix issues in the Issues tab.

Next in the Tools tab, you can review any programs/applications you still have installed in the uninstall part. Remove as much as possible.

Then in the Startup part, remove AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Anything that is unnecessary and you dont use/need on start up.

*Make sure you dont remove anything important or you may screw up your start up process.

Using this program will increase your PC's performance. But use it at your own risk. I hold no responsibility if you remove something you shouldnt and screw up your PC. As long as you dont remove anything that your PC relies on to run properly, you will be fine, and you will notice a performance increase.

Changing Your Page File Usage.
*This is recommended for people that only have 1 Gig of RAM and some free hard drive space. If you have 2 Gigs of RAM or more.. this will be unnecessary.

Click Start, right-click on My Computer, and click on Properties.
Now click on the Advanced tab. Under Performance, click on Settings.
Next click on the new Advanced tab. Under "Virtual Memory", look at your "Total paging file size..", If it's not at 2048, click on change.
Now highlight the hard drive you use and have Windows installed on.
Check "Custom Size" and by "Initial Size", put in 2048. Then click on the Set button.
Finally, hit all the OK's and Apply's.

Reboot your PC.


Deframent Your Hard Drive.
Use your defragging tool to defrag your hard drive. I preferably use Diskeeper. You can review and download it here

Windows does have its own defragger built into it. To run it, Click Start/My Computer; Right-click on your hard drive and click Properties.
Click on the Tools tab. Hit "Defragment Now". Defrag it.
May take some time. I usually allow this to run overnight or when I am away for some time.


Do A Final Reboot.
Self explanitory.

Other Tweaks/Settings. (optional)
During gameplay..

• Disable your Firewall.
• Disable your Anti-Virus.
• Disable "auto/check for updates" for all apps.
• Close all applications. ie. MSN, Xfire, any web browsers, Quicktime, Any auto updating apps.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Settings.
Many people are having trouble with performance issues. I can assure you that most of the problems are caused by trying to push the limits of their video cards. The biggest impact on performance with this game would be the lighting.

Start off by setting to Low or Medium Settings with Static Lighting (lighting off).

If you are running smoothly with great performance, bump it up to Medium or High settings.
If you are still running smoothly bump up to High or Max settings.
If you are still going smoothly, bump up the AF/AA THEN the lighting... continue this process.

If you get a bad performance from going from Medium to High.. (or Low to Medium) go back to Low or Medium settings. Then start turning the advanced settings up, one by one. Keep doing this process.

You should get the idea.

Here is a more broke down explaination of what I just explained:

With Static Lighting
Find your playable spot where your game runs FLAWLESSLY..

1. Low Settings > Medium Settings > High Settings > Max Settings.
2. Advanced Settings > (AA & AF) > Lighting.

Once you find the settings that runs flawlessly, you can start to bump up the advanced settings (refer to #2)
If you still run flawlessly with maximizing the advanced settings, start turning up the AF and AA slowly.
If you STILL run flawlessly, turn the advanced settings all the way back down, and bump up the lighting.
If your performance goes back down, turn your lighting back to Static, then go back and start bumping up your advanced settings.

SAVE BUMPING UP THE AA/AF THEN LIGHTING AS A LAST RESORT. THIS HAS THE BIGGEST IMPACT ISSUES.

Hope I didn't confuse ya :P

Make Sure Your PC Has Proper AirFlow.
Try to dust out your PC once in a while. Dust can build up in your PC and act as a blanket. Dont use a vacuum or anything like it. I've seen people use shop vacs to clean the dust out of their PC. Well, vacuums can really screw up your PC. Use some kind of compressed air.

Keep you PC tower off the floor. Having it on the floor tends to collect more dust. It also gets a better air flow when on a higher level.

Add more fans to your PC. You can get small fans for cheap. I preferably add fans pointing at your graphics card's fan's air-flow direction. This will help it breath and keep it nice and cool.

A note from me.
That's all I have for now off the top of my head. I am sure I missed out on a few things. I will be back to add/edit/update this post as anything comes to mind.
Hope that helps out.

Thanks.

-electrickrypt

[S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]

Nice list of steps there, in fact its sticky worthy

[Sirius_Oz]

Greetings; this is my first post on this forum. I only just recently started the game Stalker, partly inspired by reading the Strugatsky Bros. story decades ago, and watching (quite a few times) Tarkovsky's film. Also I want to experience the Russian/ Ukranian twist on gaming! My only comment on the business of speeding up one's PC is that, for me, the whole point of these FPS games is to up the ante realism-wise, which includes all of the fancy 3D features. So I guess I will be building a new box very soon. Machine specs: 5 year old Gigabyte GA-8IEXP mobo. Old (pre-hyperthreading) P4 2.8 GHz CPU AGP Gainward Bliss 7600GT, 256 mb. 1.5 Gb DDRAM about 450 Gbyte HDD space split across 2 drives on RAID controller. Audigy 4. XP PRO SP2. I think I will wait until DX10 vid cards and quad-core become "affordable" before I start the build. L8R, BBL

[unr3al]

Quad-Core should see a lot more popularity in quarter four 2007, and DirectX 10 cards based off of the 8000 platform (that aren't super-expensive 8800GTX's) are coming out very soon, so it shouldn't be too long for you.

By the way; Hyper-Threading is actually absent from all Core 2 Duos and probably from the Quads as well. Intel plans to re-introduce it later when it will be used more.

[Living Ghost]

Erm...What? The current Core 2 Duo quad-core processors out perform much worse than the dual core of equivalent price.

Plus the fact that windows cannot handle more than 2 cores correctly...

[wuyanxu]

a very nice list of things to do to make a casual gamer's clustered PC clean. CCleaner is a must

although i don't understand why is the page file need to be 2GB? will more than recommended page file slow down one's PC because more portion of the application (games, in our case) are stored in the page file?

[electrickrypt]

Originally Posted by wuyanxu

a very nice list of things to do to make a casual gamer's clustered PC clean. CCleaner is a must

although i don't understand why is the page file need to be 2GB? will more than recommended page file slow down one's PC because more portion of the application (games, in our case) are stored in the page file?

Nothing should be sent to HD unless your system memory is full. If your HD doesnt allow enough page filing, there will be no more room for memory when you run out (It's just one solution for the low RAMmers; Can work differently for everybody. You can always change it./back.). You could also use 1GB. More than likely it already is at 1GB.

I've been doing this ever since I got the game. No decrease in performance.

[wuyanxu]

i have 1GB, and windows's pagefile is automatically set to 1.5GB. is that enough? i always thought Windows manages memory by saving data proportionally across the pagefile and the real memory.

[electrickrypt]

If you are running the game at no problem, Then you should be fine.
If your game is locking up or performing really bad at load times (during which high memory usage is in process), You can try raising the paging file usage. I wouldnt recommend anything higher than 2GB.

[DoubleDose]

Originally Posted by Living Ghost

The current Core 2 Duo quad-core processors out perform much worse than the dual core of equivalent price.

What does that sentence even mean? "Out perform much worse"? Kinda like 'it's better than the dual but worse than the dual core'?

Much BETTER perhaps?

Engrish?

Oh and in case you didn't know...hyperthreading is ghey, dual core don't mean dual proc...games are only starting to be multi-threaded and therefore multi-core/proc faster..-able?

Engrish?