46" @ 1080p + Well rounded comp = unplayable

from Sins Forums
Alright so I have a 46" panel hooked up as my main monitor, runs at the native 1080p (1920x1080).
I've got the following hardware:

Core2Duo E6550 @ 4Ghz
2Gbs OCZ 5-5-5-15 @ 2.2v
2x 500Gbs SATA2 Seagates
2x eVGA 9600GT (750c/2000m) SLI enabled
550W Stealthstream
eVGA 680i mobo
Vista Ultimate 64bit

Fairly decent build, but I can't play Sins at all, it takes it ages to boot up, and then when it does, I have no resolution options, no refresh rate options and the game runs like arse. It's the only game that does this, it's rather frustrating. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling and with dif patch versions.


I'm guessing somehow the HD panel is making Sins go screwy :S
Any ideas?
technical
4,901 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Just out of curiosity, what does your memory usage look like while it's crapping out?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
~80%.. of which 60 to 70% is used by the game, the other 20% is just sorta idling empty
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
how much vram do your 9600GT cards have?

I would think that the 9600GT is not the best choice for high resolutions as it is a mid-range card designed for 1280x1024 gaming.

SLI won't do you any good at this game
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
The card should be more than enough to drive that screen. It's roughly equivalent to 1600x1200 in resource requirements.

The probable thing to look for would be bad video drivers, lots of complaints on the 9x series with out of date drivers. If not, my guess is the memory. 2 gigs is a little light on the ram for a Vista ultimate gaming computer. Sins burns 700+ megs just starting up, with so little to spare you're really chewing through the stuff. Your page file access is probably quite heavy.

If you have a fairly fragmented install, that memory usage would be a severe problem. Fragmentation and high page file access do not mix. You could have twice the computer and it would still run like shit if the game files were scattered across several thousand fragments.

Although... Core 2 duo at 4ghz? If you actually have an E6550 processor, there's something wrong with your description. The Conroe is in the 2ghz range, either you're severely overclocked and the heavy processor use from sins is trying to melt your cpu's, or you're adding the cores together, a no no. Assuming you gave the right processor, either case is also a potential problem. Sins can be rather cpu intensive in the late game. Your description of right from the start crap performance doesn't relate real well to a cpu bottleneck, but I've got a couple 3.2ghz Xeons here and I see 40% utilization from startup so maybe.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Fixed the issue, just had to force the res and refresh rate, runs nicely at 60fps (capped by refresh rate, not that it really matters).

And yes, it's 4ghz per core, overclocked obviously, more precisely 3.99Ghz, but same difference, runs at about 40c idle, ~50c load, watercooled. And yes, it's the (at stock) 2.33Ghz 1,333mhz FSB Core2.

Cards have 512mbs each, run nicely, 96GTs aren't bad for high-end gaming, great price too.

And as for RAM, you can get Vista to run on 512mbs happily, lappy does it, has a 1.5ghz celeron as well, just requires some tuning, works nicely though.