Major performance issues

from Stardock Forums

Hi

The game slows down to ridiculous levels when I play it. It can get as bad as a frame every 10 seconds.

The thing is this doesn't always happen, but most of the time. What tends to happen normally is it lags a little when you first start a map but then it speeds up after a few minutes and it's fine. I have ran it on a map of 14 planets and I had a full fleet and attacked the Pirates (and their fleet is obviously huge) and it ran fine, yet sometimes, I mean most times, it will run pathetically slow when I barely started a new game or even loaded an old one! At the beginning of loading an old game or starting a new one it will go as fast as when it's going to be ok, but then it will slow down, more and more until over a few minuts it's gone from running a little slow to as I've said, one frame every 10 seconds!! Restarting doesn't fix it bizarrely enough! It's like it's in a mood or something. What's going on??

Surely if it was my computer being slow, when I would quit to the menu it should speed back up, but no, it's just as s low through the menus even when I've quit the game. I went to desktop and opened task manager and it took up 1.5GB of memory, I mean even Oblivion doesn't take up that much! Is it some sort of memory leak?

I've tried the game on lower res / quality to the point of putting it on minimum everything and it's just as slow. I've tried with with everything (internet, zone alarm, everything) in windows closed, apart from the graphics drivers. I've also tried it on a different partition with a different copy of windows xp pro and again, just as bad.

I've got the 1.04 patch, and it is slow with and without the patch.

My system:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz

1GB RAM

ASUS A8N Deluxe

Powercolor RADEON X800XL 256MB, latest drivers.

SB LIVE! Value sound

Windows XP Pro SP2 genuine with all updates, also got latest Direct X.

My system is VERY well ventilated with several 12cm fans and copper heatsinks on both cpu and graphics so it's not that either.

Thanks in advance,

Inimbrium

technical
2,877 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Hi Inimbrium. Sorry to hear that you have these issues. A lot of people complain about performance in SoaSE. But I've not seen anythings like you have, so far.
I guess several more threads like this and Ironclad would finaly do somethings about it.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I myself never saw any performance issues until patch 1.4... before that with the stock game and previous patches, the game ran smooth as can be...
The 3 same items that we have in common:
I have XP Pro SP2, an ATI video card and a SB sound card...

in your case I would say upgrade the video card as everything else has enough power to run this game decently
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I'm confused, you say you have 1 gig of ram but also say the game takes up 1.5 gigs.

This probably won't help you much, but free advice:

Having a decent processor like that but an X800 and only 1 gig of RAM is a crime in this day and age. You can easily pick up a 2 gig pack of RAM for less than $50 without looking too hard. Also you can pick up a Geforce 9600 or if you feel more extravagant a 8800 GT for a very low price compared to how top-of-the-line cards used to be priced.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I am also having the same problems since the 1.4 pacth. The game used to run fine but now it laggs lihe hell sometimes.I have a AMD Athlon 3.0 dule core processor and 4 gigs ram with a g force graphics card ( 512 mb )with sound blaster live. It never did this before. Do u know what the heck is going on?
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
You may want to upgrade your ram. Also your video card may be a problem. if you want a good one id suggest and Nvidia 8600 or later that could help the problem. But the ram should be a priority
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Hmm.. I have performance problems as well, I too have a Sound Blaster... meaning ALL of us who are reporting problems in this thread thus far have a sound blaster. Perhaps it's the sound card that's causing this? It wouldn't be the first time Creative has been at fault when games aren't working properly.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
My graphics card is the ASUS GeForce 8600GT 512MB and my ram is very new it is the 4GB OCZ Dual Channel. I have also tried swapping out the sound card with other cards not by creative
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
i'm lagging horribly in game also, i've tried turning everything down and i still get horrible lag. my specs are:

XP SP2
P4 3.00ghz duel core
2ghz Ram
Nvidia GForce 8600GT 256meg (PCI express x16)
SB Audigy 2 ZS

the case is VERY well ventilated with excellent airflow. the HDs are not an issue either as both have well over 120gig free. i never played the full version before 1.4 but, the demo played flawlessly for over a month with 0 lag.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I get some lag too and notice (in Task Manager) that one of my cores gets is operating at 100%. It seems to happen when there are hundreds of ships in the game and particularly when a bunch of ships are fighting.

My rig:

Socket 939 nForc4 mobo.
Athlon X2 4400 (1 MB cache, overclocked to 2.4 Ghz).
2 GB RAM
8800 GT

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
I think when the fleets get really big you need an octo-core processor, 16 gigs of ram, and octo-sli or crossfire 9900GTS or HD 4870's.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
You didn't say if you were playing online or just solo. Try increasing the size of your hard drive paging file. System/system properties/performance options/advanced/virtual memory. I have mine set at 6 Gig, twice the recommended size.

I have a pretty much "Plain Jane" rig:
AMD 64, 3700 CPU clocked to 2.4 Ghz
Asus A8N premium nForce 4 SLI
2 Gig el cheapo Kingston DDR RAM
2 eVGA 8600 GT's SLI'ed running stock
Creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer sound
WD 740 Raptor SATA 10k rpm
All housed in a plain brown wrapper

Haven't had any problems so far but i haven't gotten to the level of 100+ ship fleets yet...

Increasing swap file size couldn't hurt and maybe de-fragging the HD would help.