How to tweak out your system for more fps

Post by **MidnightQ4** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:23 pm

I got a pm asking me about how to get more fps, so I thought I would share what I did with everyone. Note this is for a ATI 9800 pro on a 3.0 P4 800

I started out with 36 fps on the ggl timedemo.

36 5.7 Catalyst

40 installed 5.10a

44 Some Graphics tweaks

53 More Graphics tweaks

55 oc'd graphics card

66 oc'd computer to 3.350 GHz (220 bus) also lowered some memory timing and upped the agp bus speed a bit.

?? Install new Omega drivers - still need to try this.

?? Softmod 9800 pro

9800 XT - yet to do.

Here are all the config tweaks I'm using:

seta r_displayRefresh "120"
seta r_gamma "1.5"
seta r_brightness "1.2"
bind "1" "seta r_gamma 1.5;seta r_gamma 1.6"
seta com_allowconsole "1"
seta g_fov "110"

seta s_musicVolume "0.0"
seta s_globalFraction "0.2"
set image_downSizeLimit "128" //1024 for 256 cards. 512 for 128mb gfx. 256 for 64mb gfx
set image_downSize "1" //use to enable above
set image_downSizeBumpLimit "128" //1024 for 256mb gfx. 512 for 128mb gfx. 256 for 64mb gfx
set image_downSizeBump "1" //enables above
set image_downSizeSpecularLimit "2"
set image_downSizeSpecular "1"
set image_useNormalCompression "2"

set image_useCompression "1"
set image_useCache "1"
set image_cacheMegs "512"
set image_cacheMinK "10240"
set image_lodbias "0"
set image_anisotropy "1"
set image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST"
set image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
set g_projectileLights "0"
set g_skipItemShadowsMP "1"
set g_skipPlayerShadowsMP "1"
set g_decals "0"

set ui_showGun "1"
set g_showhud "1"

set r_mode "4"
set r_forceLoadImages "0"
set r_shadows "0"
set r_skipBump "1"
set r_skipSpecular "1"
set r_skipNewAmbient "1"

seta s_maxChannelsMixed "32"

Those were the first ones, then I added these which seemed to help quite a bit also:

image_useCache 1
image_cacheMegs 384 //This is the setting for people who have 512 mb ram. For 1gb ram try a value like 192 or 256!
image_cacheMinK 3072
r_multiSamples 0
cm_backFaceCull 1
com_purgeAll //This setting reduces in game pauses while it increases loading time
r_vertexBufferMegs 64
r_orderIndexes 1
r_usePortals 1
r_useOptimizedShadows 1
r_useShadowCulling 1
r_useCulling 1
r_useInfiniteFarZ 1
r_useStateCaching 1
r_useCachedDynamicModels 1
r_useTurboShadow 1
r_useShadowProjectedCull 1
r_useConstantMaterials 1
s_force22kHz //This setting forces 22kHz audio which improves performance at the cost of audio quality.
s_clipVolumes 1
r_useIndexBuffers 0
r_useVertexBuffers 1
r_useTwoSidedStencil 1
g_showPlayerShadow 0
image_preload 1
image_filter GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST

Also you can get the latest ATI Tools and set the AGP latency setting to 64, supposedly it helps I dunno. Also it is good for locking a refresh rate, fixes the bug where refresh resets when you go to windowed mode.

Post by **axbaby** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:20 pm

thanks i'll try some of that out

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:02 am

is there actually a softmod to flash the pr0 to an XT, i am actually not aware of this.

there is extra hardware installed on the XT model Vs the pro model, so i would be interested in this, Unless its just another O/C to get it to XT speeds.

Post by **MidnightQ4** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:48 am

I'm not sure on the details, I think it just allows higher oc'ing or something which I agree is pointless. If I find out exactly what it does I'll let you know.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:58 am

thanks

Post by **booker** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:54 am

if your talking about the 800's you can't softmod it to a XT, I already checked. There are 4 pipes on the pro that are not connected. The XT has all 16 connected.

AmIdYfReAk wrote:is there actually a softmod to flash the pr0 to an XT, i am actually not aware of this.

there is extra hardware installed on the XT model Vs the pro model, so i would be interested in this, Unless its just another O/C to get it to XT speeds.

Post by **Rogue** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:28 pm

afaik it depends on the age of the 9800Pro, some were fitted with R360 cores and just downgraded to Pro. I have soft modded my 9800Pro to a XT using a flash utility called "Rabit" via msdos.

U can either use a BIOS from an existing XT card (with the same memory chips, Hynix, samsung etc) or u can backup ur current BIOS and then open it with Rabit and edit the speeds and other stuff.

When i did mine tho, for some reason i would get artifacts in Doom3, but not other games. I went back to my original Pro BIOS in the end tho.

Post by **Death_Gun** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:30 pm

where can i find a complet list of commands for tweakking? i put all these commands to my Quake4Config.cfg but the new comands disapeared from it when i looked again. then i made a tweak.cfg that i execute everytime i join q4. but i only puted these commands above on this file, but when i execute it, the game resolution change from 640x480 to 800x600. and i dont see improve at ggl timedemo with these tweaks. wtf.

Post by **MidnightQ4** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:23 pm

Death_Gun:

Run time demo on a netdemo using:

playnettimedemo demoname

The regular "timedemo" doesn't work, it returns basically the same fps for all setups.

Also, you can make a config called "autoexec.cfg" that the game will exec everytime you start without you having to do it.

If you want to use 640 mode, just find the line in the config "r_mode 4" and change it to 3.

Post by **Requ!em** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:26 pm

Death_Gun wrote:where can i find a complet list of commands for tweakking?

In the sticky post above or in the UpsetChaps Quake4 Guide

http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Quake4/FPSVisuals.htm
http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Quake4/fullcvarlist.htm

Post by **amgine** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 4:37 am

config i'm using.. gets pretty decent fps, a bit more strict than above though

http://www.runningzombie.com/amginecfg.cfg

Post by **Krazy_K** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:20 pm

For some reason r_vertexBufferMegs 64 is an unrecognized command when I try it.

Post by **Requ!em** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:39 pm

amgine wrote:config i'm using.. gets pretty decent fps, a bit more strict than above though

http://www.runningzombie.com/amginecfg.cfg

You'll find that r_vertexBufferMegs is unsupported in Quake4, it's only supported in Doom3.

Post by **Ground_Zero** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:04 am

Hey thanks MidnightQ4, that was my pm

I'll have to give some of that stuff a try!

Also, don't forget about the ati hotfix patch that was posted a few days ago. That file alone made a huge difference. UpsetChaps tweaks also helped make the visuals more suitable for mp.

*edit* Oops. Oh yeah. So looking out on the "main" area of fy1v1 from the rail, I would get 40-45 fps, and my machine is pretty solid (1 gig corsair xms, x850pro 256mb, amd 64 3500+). Now, with MQ4's tweaks and the hotfix, I'm getting a constant 63(43434343)fps in every 1v1 I play. :icon25: Haven't tried something rough like a massive ctf game or something, but I'm betting it will hold.

On a side note, is there a way to "uncap" the frames so they can display above 63-64?