M
Maxx1234
I recently upgraded to XP from 98SE, after upgrading
my machine (XP is demanding ...):
My specs:
MSI K7N2 Delta-L (nForce2 Ultra 400)
512MB PC3200 (@213Mhz dual channel)
AMD XP 2500+ Barton (@10.5x213Mhz)
HDD WD 120Gb 8mb cache
SB Audigy2
GF4 Ti4200 128MB
etc...
The gaming performace in 98SE was very smooth and
in accordance to the machine's capabilities.
In XP, while the various benchmarks produce
more or less equal scores, the gaming experience
is not satisfactory: jerky movement, brief pauses etc...
In applications that produce high frame rates w/o
the user interfering (like 3DMark2001), the picture
doesn't change smoothly like 98SE.
Also, games like Colin 3 are much worse in XP @640x480
than in 98SE @1024x768.
I tried many suggestions/tweaks/tricks found in fora
and web, changed drivers, relocated cards, etc etc
but to no avail ...
By chance, I noted that when DXDIAG runs, the CPU usage
that task manager reports is at 100%, even when the
system is idle (no disk activity, few processes running).
I changed DXDIAG's priority to LOW and then tried a
few games.
Surprise! The frame rate smoothness problem is
completely gone!
I don't know whether this is a driver-, system- or
platform-specific issue issue but I have also
read the same complaints from various gamers.
It is a wild guess, but probably it has something to do
with the IDLE SYSTEM PROCESS or the built-in HLT-command
cpu cooling function of XP.
If anyone finds this solution useful, please post here.
Also, if this is a general issue that affects many
XP users, it would be nice from Microsoft to provide
a solution (not a workaround) to this problem as a
system update.
Please respond!
my machine (XP is demanding ...):
My specs:
MSI K7N2 Delta-L (nForce2 Ultra 400)
512MB PC3200 (@213Mhz dual channel)
AMD XP 2500+ Barton (@10.5x213Mhz)
HDD WD 120Gb 8mb cache
SB Audigy2
GF4 Ti4200 128MB
etc...
The gaming performace in 98SE was very smooth and
in accordance to the machine's capabilities.
In XP, while the various benchmarks produce
more or less equal scores, the gaming experience
is not satisfactory: jerky movement, brief pauses etc...
In applications that produce high frame rates w/o
the user interfering (like 3DMark2001), the picture
doesn't change smoothly like 98SE.
Also, games like Colin 3 are much worse in XP @640x480
than in 98SE @1024x768.
I tried many suggestions/tweaks/tricks found in fora
and web, changed drivers, relocated cards, etc etc
but to no avail ...
By chance, I noted that when DXDIAG runs, the CPU usage
that task manager reports is at 100%, even when the
system is idle (no disk activity, few processes running).
I changed DXDIAG's priority to LOW and then tried a
few games.
Surprise! The frame rate smoothness problem is
completely gone!
I don't know whether this is a driver-, system- or
platform-specific issue issue but I have also
read the same complaints from various gamers.
It is a wild guess, but probably it has something to do
with the IDLE SYSTEM PROCESS or the built-in HLT-command
cpu cooling function of XP.
If anyone finds this solution useful, please post here.
Also, if this is a general issue that affects many
XP users, it would be nice from Microsoft to provide
a solution (not a workaround) to this problem as a
system update.
Please respond!