Can someone help with my FPS?

[Vidiot]

Well this game is AMAZING. But I'm not quite understanding something. In some levels even in wide open spaces I get about 120 fps. But then other levels like DECK, it's will RANDOMLY drop to about 30fps. 30fps is fine but when it's around 80fps and then it jumps down to 30fps while you are battleling someone, it messes you up .

I also noticed that when the game FIRST starts, it is REALLY choppy for the first 30 seconds while it's "loading" everythign I guess. Before I got my new video card I didnt' have this problem. I'm running the game at 1280 x 1024 with EVERYTHING completely maxed, including FOV.

Here are my specs and drivers (I tried different drivers, no difference).

AMD X2 4000+ (overclocked to 2.9ghz)
Sapphire 3870 (overclocked)
2gb DDR2 4-4-4-12 timings
Two 74gb Raptor Hard drives in RAID 0 (that's 10,000rpm baby!!)
8.1 (brand spankin' new catalyst drivers)

I can run CRYSIS at 1280 x 1024 with everything maxed and get about 35fps so I don't understand why it drops BELOW that in UT3 when UT3 doesn't have as good of graphics .

If someone could tell me some .ini tweaks to fix this problem with an ATI card I'd appreciate it! ^_^

[omipax]

yes, decrease details. If you feel 30fps is fine, you can cap the game to 30fps in the .ini too.

Or maybe its something in background, like an antivirus. Close every windows application and try again.

[DeathmooN]

It's because Deck is a poorly optimized map. Play on DM-Deck-FPS to get the same gameplay without the framerate drops. (Hint: they just took out the ceiling).

[bclagge]

I have an 8800 GT and with everything on max 1920x1200 res I get well over 60 fps. But on rare occasion I too will dip to about 30 fps, in my case when first getting a vehicle. I have an AMD X2 4200+ 2.2ghz (overclocked to 2.55ghz) so perhaps we're both suffering from a CPU bottleneck? And please, tell me how you overclocked you processor so much. To be honest I'm not sure I believe you because of the difficulty I've had getting mine past 2.5.

[Vidiot]

I have an 8800 GT and with everything on max 1920x1200 res I get well over 60 fps. But on rare occasion I too will dip to about 30 fps, in my case when first getting a vehicle. I have an AMD X2 4200+ 2.2ghz (overclocked to 2.55ghz) so perhaps we're both suffering from a CPU bottleneck? And please, tell me how you overclocked you processor so much. To be honest I'm not sure I believe you because of the difficulty I've had getting mine past 2.5.

Yup I get this reaction all the time. Then people are like "well are you SURE it's stable?". Trust me dude, I spent about 15 hours of trial and error getting it up to this, AND it's with a mobo that doesn't let me raise the voltage!

Anyways, it definently isn't a CPU bottleneck. Not by a extremely long shot .

[Vidiot]

yes, decrease details. If you feel 30fps is fine, you can cap the game to 30fps in the .ini too.

Or maybe its something in background, like an antivirus. Close every windows application and try again.

Nope nothing is in the background. I usually have everything off. Seems like a problem with the game anyways :P. Besides, my computer is so uber I can have tons of stuff open and play a game without problems lol!!

Seriously man, you really think I need to lower the detail in the game? My rig is pretty awesome and I have a 3870. If my rig can handle Crysis maxed, it should handle this maxed with 4 times the FPS . Which it does...that's the problem. It usually has uber FPS on UT3 I just think there must be a problem with the game causing it to randomly drop FPS so much...

[Vidiot]

It's because Deck is a poorly optimized map. Play on DM-Deck-FPS to get the same gameplay without the framerate drops. (Hint: they just took out the ceiling).

Same problem with a lot of maps, not just Deck.

[omipax]

load a small map with good fps, no players, and play it. If these slowdowns still happen its an outside PC problem. If not, its simply a sudden complexity overload which causes these drops. and its time to decrease details to maintain stable highfps. Usually it comes from a not polished good enough map. deck17 was in ut2k4 also a pretty heavy map tbh. I got half the usual fps there.

And absolutely the first thing to do, is to stop listening to "my <insert rig here> is capable of running <insert crazy resolution here> with all details maxed at 1000fps" ppl. Drops are drops are drops.

If you say its happening randomly. Then play deck and move around _one place_ with good fps. Same pattern as above.

[MTL]

im gonna assume its just something in Deck and those other maps that makes it lag. maybe its a shader or something because when i turn world detail to 1, it works completly fine. Ill test it out later if it makes a diff with each number setting.

[Vidiot]

load a small map with good fps, no players, and play it. If these slowdowns still happen its an outside PC problem. If not, its simply a sudden complexity overload which causes these drops. and its time to decrease details to maintain stable highfps. Usually it comes from a not polished good enough map. deck17 was in ut2k4 also a pretty heavy map tbh. I got half the usual fps there.

And absolutely the first thing to do, is to stop listening to "my <insert rig here> is capable of running <insert crazy resolution here> with all details maxed at 1000fps" ppl. Drops are drops are drops.

If you say its happening randomly. Then play deck and move around _one place_ with good fps. Same pattern as above.

Let me give you an example. On SUSPENSE if I'm standing on a bridge looking one direction (where it's facing way off into the distance so it's gotta render all of that) then I get like 60fps (not sure but roughly..). But then I turn around and look the other way and it might drop to 30fps for some reason. And another thing I've noticed is that the FPS drop seems to happen more when I turn, like as I'm turning for some odd reason.

I can agree that some levels might have more detail at some areas, but not enough to go from 120fps down to 30fps in that area and then back up! Especially when "that area" is a small room in sanctuary or something >_>.

I still am positive it's a problem with the game, in fact I saw a huge 67 page thread with people with this problem. I'm just hoping SOMEONE has something I can do to the .ini files.

[FuKChAos]

hi im new to ut3 just finished buildin my first rig (specs below) ive been lookin round & every 1 keeps goin on about FPS but how do i cheak my FPS in ut3 ? ive been playin round with the settings & i can run ut3 maxed & it dosnt seem to judder or anything but it would b nice to see wot FPS im getting

[Masklin]

Press tab, then type "stat fps" without the quotation marks.

Reducing detail doesn't solve the fps problem.

[Vidiot]

Gahh!! Isn't there some sort of fix for this stupid problem? >. It's obvious other people are having the problem....

[omipax]

Yes, you can wait for MTL, or check the same thing too.

[MTL]

oh i didnt think anyone was really waiting for my answer but i checked it out a while ago offline with 11bots+me/1680x1050/2600XT 512MB DDR3/framerate smoothing off and there is a noticable difference between world detail 3 and 4 when on the bottom of Deck near the rocket spawn/portal. Normally on setting3 i wouldnt drop below 30fps when i was down there. On detail 4 it would scrape 18-24fps. And the noticable visual difference is the water leaks from the pipes and the heat distortion that it gives off. Going back and forth throught the ini, and i notice that DetailMode=2 was changed from 1 on detail3 setting. So i set world detail to 4 and DetailMode=0 and sure enough it seemed to fix the problem because i never dropped below 25fps.

I decided to test out vctf Containment also because that map gave me fps in the teens right from the spawn and with world detail4 and detailmode=0 it was in the 40's. The whole time i thought it was just because of the large map. It also improved the frames when i was in the ShangriLa courtyard.

so yeah anyways, set DetailMode=0 in ur UTEngine.ini and see if that helps yah out.

according to tweakguides.com it says:
"This setting controls the additional details on various maps, such as fog, ice and dripping water. Lowering this value to 1 or 0 removes such additional effects, which can reduce atmosphere but may increase FPS and also may provide a gameplay advantage."