Someone help me (6800GT and CS:S)

M

Mojo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
1,569
I cannot comprehend why my rig gets such low FPS on CS:S. I mean I already have an Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB DDR400, 6800GT and a 4mbps Cable modem. In cs_office for example, on a full 20 person server my framerates can drop into the 20s/30s at times. (That's at 1280x1024, all settings on high, and 4X AA, 8X AF)

The funny thing is even when I turn all the settings down to low, resolution to 800x600, and a turn off AA and AF, the same trend stands. I still get drops into the 30s at the same spots on the map! I thought it could be my CPU/ram, but a settings change that dramatic would DEFINITELY 100% SURELY increase the framerates.

I'm convinced that this is a network latency coding issue. Why?
Because I tried creating my own cs_office server, with me the only one in it. And my framerates were 100% better, ranging from 70s up to the 140s. Never ever touching anything close to 30 (which is what I expect from this system).

There's no way in heck an Athlon 64, 1GB DDR400, 6800GT and a 4mbps Cable modem should be suffering this much. Or is there? Some people have told me the following and I was wondering if they're right.
-My CPU is too weak to get higher FPS in 20 person office servers.
-My PSU is too small (350w Enermax 26A 12v rail).

My pings are fine at 60-70ms, no loss and very little choke (ranges from 0-5 at peak), and I have all my network settings configured.

rate 20000
cl_rate 20000
cl_updaterate 30
cl_cmdrate 30

How can I get my framerates to increase? What am I doing wrong?
 
rate 25000
cl_rate 20000 (leave default)
cl_updaterate 101
cl_cmdrate 101

cl_smooth 0
snd_digital.. 1 if you have 5.1 setup

Set those and try again :)

You should never ever have choke with that internet.. NEVER
 
Huh I like CS :) So here is few basics that most of You know but are related to online and LAN Party gaming with CS.

Lag is Your Enemy. :)

There are few different types of lag.

There is a connection lag. Well that shouldn't be a problem. Though if You are playing on servers with high ping times then it can make problem.

Then there is a PC lag. Mostly made by week GPU, CPU amount of memory etc. Taht's wat Yo udoo not have .Though PC lag can be caused by bad installation or bad drivers.

Although mouse lag is also PC lag I would give it a specific category. Occasional Players mostly don't notice such small things but real Players know what it is. Most of a real Players have just one model of mouse that behaves how they wan't and that with just one surface. So if the drivers arent'installed or surface is bad or mouse has to low scan rate and low dpi's or USB doesn't function proper or mouse is bad it can cause bad case of unneeded lag.

Then there is a worse lag of all. Server lag. Funny but server can be clse to You and have great ping and still You have lag and low frame rates. That's when serverr can't handle nummber of players or one(or more) connected players has bad connection. You can have great mashine good installed great I net connection and great ping but You get only what is send to You.

Then You have als map lag. Some maps sometimes on some servers work good and then some maps work much slower. Well server has to calculate more things on more complicated maps or on maps that aren't that debuged.

There is a also lag that's map and server related lag but happens only when You at certain places on map (or on any place sometimes) and You all run on each other and You all move and shoot. Then it's too much informations and it can cause typical lag that is temporar (or allways on one place) and soon as few people die or go to other places everything works much better.

Well on some places on the maps there are different lightning, different poligon counts, different job that needs to be done. So frame rates vary non stop. No grafic card (or even grafic cards in SLI) can garanty You that You will have allways same frame rate een playing localy.

Drivers can also brake more stuff then they fix. Good driver deinstallers are really needed when ever You goo to new drivers (and You allways need new drivers).

Once used to one connection type and one server and online gaming on that server You can became prety good and with good connection it's almost LAN like feeling.
But acctualy once on LAN then You see how even 4 or 8 MB ADSL or cable Internet connection is laggy :)

To play good in CS frame rates should be somewhere arround 60 FPS. Then it will still dance from 30~40 FPS to 80~100 FPS. If that isn't obtainable change setup or lower a details, resolution or AA or AF settings till You have it.

To play CS version up to 1,6 even MX card is enough, also PIII 800 is enough (512 MB ram). CS CZ needs bit stronger grafic card and stronger CPU but 5900 will allready top it out. For CS:S You will need good directX 9 cardand stronger CPU even 5900 will not be enough. 6600 and up as well as ATi 9800 and up will be enough.

For CS versions that work with hit boxes 1024x768 resolution is enough for CTR monitors till 19" and 20" and TFT up to 17" (even though their native resolution is 1280x1024)

Higher resolution then that will just make hit boxes so small and distance things so small that they are much harder to hit.

For 19" and up TFT screens You will need 1280 and higher resolutions. Also when playing HL2 You can use higher resolution cause game is forgivable more then online people :)

So it's simple to see is Your problem server related. Just go to a fast server in unpopular time on same map and be shure there is just few people playing. If frame rates then fall it's Your setup.

Is Your Windows installation still good? Is there any viruses? How about spyware? How are Your drivers(chipset driver, grafic driver)? Where they good deinstalled before installing new once? Have You had maybe ATi card installed before? Are there traces of drivers for other card (ATi , onboard) ? Is IDE driver installed? Is AGP driver installed proper?
Wich drivers doo You use? Is Your card proper cooled and proper powered with enough juice? Is Your CPU good cooled (CPU throtteling?) Doo You have enough RAM (CS:S will endlessly swap on HDD on AMD A64 CPU when You have less then 1GB RAM)? Are any other file sharing programs active in background? How many processes are active?
Is Your antivirus functioning proper? Software firewall working good?

CS can lag also when HDD swaps and when some interups are used unproper.



Well there are to many things to check so start to work.



MD
 
Thanks a lot MD. I think it might be server lag because I've talked to other players on the server and they say the same thing.

Either way I'm going to get a bigger PSU and a better VGA cooler so maybe those will help. Thanks for the informative posts.
 
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