Horrid game performance...

[treblesum81]

I got ahold of SH4 just today (I like SH3 and will continue to play it, but I want US boats too...), and I installed it successfully, but I've got absolutely horrid video performance.

System Specs:

P4 3.0GHz
2Gb RAM
GeForce 6200AX w/ 256Mb VRAM
SH4 v1.4

I've tried rebooting and defragging, but I'm unable to set the graphics up to even a medium level without my fps dropping down into the low teens or even below 10, despite the fact that my system meets the recommended specs. Is this the best I can expect out of this game, or is there something else going on here that needs to be changed?

If this really is the best I can get, please let me know so I can return it as I've no desire to sacrifice all but the minimum graphics so that I can even manage to do one action per minute.

Thanks,
Greg

[AVGWarhawk]

I had the Geforce 6200. It struggled with the game. Get a better video card. Make sure your power supply is up to snuff so it can run the new card.

[treblesum81]

6200AX is the best card my pc can handle, unless I go back to ATI... No, if there isn't a way to make this work with my current setup, I'll return the game. It says on that "Can You Run It" site that I should be able to use this card specifically, so if I can't I'm not going to go out and buy a whole new card just to play one game.

So I guess the next best question before I go back to the store is:

Can SH4 and the GeForce 6200AX be tweaked to work well together (I want good smooth performance with medium graphics settings at the least), or is it a lost cause and I should just stick to SH3 and forget about SH4 until I upgrade my CPU in a year or two?

[Syxx_Killer]

If I were you, I would at least hang onto SH4 and install it on your new computer whenever you get one. No sense in buying it again when you get a new rig.

Have you tried enabling Vsync? Also, have you tried running the game at the lowest settings and/or a lower resolution? You can enable graphic settings one at a time to see what your optimal setup might be.

[stabiz]

There is no way you will be playing on medium settings with a 6200, alas.

[MonTana_Prussian]

I'm using the 6200 and it's working great.

[treblesum81]

I'm using the 6200 and it's working great.

Whats your setup then? What settings in game and on the 6200? I was able to tweak it up to about 15 frames which is playable, but not really acceptable, so any tips are gratefully appreciated.

[maerean_m]

1. GeForce FX 6200 does not meet the recommended specs. It hardly meets the minimum requirements (for any game that has heard of Shader Model 3).

2. If you're running on an AGP motherboard (and I guess you do), you could get the nVidia 7800 GS (1500 points in 3D Mark 2006 SM3 test) or the ATi 3850 (which is twice as powerful: 3100 points in 3D Mark 2006 SM3 test).

[treblesum81]

System Reqs, as found on ubisoft's online store:

Supported OS: Windows® XP/Vista (only)
Processor: 2GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon (4 3GHz Pentium or AMD Athlon recommended)
RAM: 1 GB (2 GB recommended)
Video Card: 128 MB RAM DirectX® 9¿compliant, video card capable of rendering Pixel Shader 2.0 (256 MB RAM recommended) (see supported list*)
Sound Card: DirectX 9 ¿compliant sound card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c or later (included)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB
Peripherals: Keyboard and mouse, microphone, Logitech G15 keyboard; monitor capable of 1024x768 resolution at 60 Hz Multiplayer: 128 kbps upstream or faster (512 kbps upstream or faster needed to host online games)

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200/6600/6800/7800
ATI® Radeon® 9600/9700/9800, X300 to X850, X1300 to X1800

If this game does require Shader 3.0 as you say, I will not be playing it for some time (sadly, it looks so great) as I will not buy another AGP video card if I am going to be upgrading my computer before too long(Edit: Especially not one for $200).

If, on the other hand, it doesn't require 3.0, I would like to know specific settings used by people with 6200's to get good video quality at better than 10-12 fps (my frames dropped again as I quoted that from the control room, not thinking about the fact that it would most definitively be worse up top where the graphics really count).

[TheBlobThing]

I'm on a P4 3GHz with 2 gigs of RAM too, but my video card is Geforce 8800 GTS 512 and that runs the game smoothly. Except in ports, but that's probably the old processor acting up. Your video card is definitely the bottleneck.

[banjo]

I have an old 2.8 gig Dell w/2 gig ram and a 7600 GS 500 mb and the game runs well; however, the game installs at Medium level and there is no way it will run at that level. I have to set it at Low to run, but it still looks great and I get above 40fps. Try running it at the lowest level. Were I you, I'd invest in a better video card.

[AVGWarhawk]

6200AX is the best card my pc can handle, unless I go back to ATI... No, if there isn't a way to make this work with my current setup, I'll return the game. It says on that "Can You Run It" site that I should be able to use this card specifically, so if I can't I'm not going to go out and buy a whole new card just to play one game.

So I guess the next best question before I go back to the store is:

Can SH4 and the GeForce 6200AX be tweaked to work well together (I want good smooth performance with medium graphics settings at the least), or is it a lost cause and I should just stick to SH3 and forget about SH4 until I upgrade my CPU in a year or two?

I don't understand. What do you mean the 6200 is as high as you can go? Your AGP slot should be able to handle a much higher card. I went to a AGP 7800GS and new power supply on my 3 year old Emachine. The Game runs great.

[treblesum81]

I had not done any video card research at all since this time last year, and at the time, the resources I had available to me pointed towards the 6200AX being about the most powerful card I could put in my machine...

forthermore, it no longer matters that there are more powerfull AGP cards out there as I will not buy another AGP card when my next computer will use PCI-E. The fact is... and this may sound ever so stubbourn, but its something we should all expect... that if the minimum reqs say one thing, and you have better than that, and the recommended reqs say even more, and you have at least that, and recommended reqs are usually benchmarked for medium level settings or better, you should be able to run the game at medium level settings or better. If, on the other hand, the the recommended settings will give you low frame rates on even a low setting and you shouldn't even bother to try it with the mins because you'll be so slow that you can't do anything.... well, in that case (which this seems to be) perhaps they should have made the recs the mins and been honest about what you'll need?

Now, that may sound like nothing but whining, but its just one possibility... Truth is, I can see that some people here are able to run the program with similar setups with only minor difficulty, so thats why I really want to know what their exact option setups are (card and game) so I can try to join the rest of you in the Pacific. So, again, if you've got a similar setup to mine and you've got the game working, please don't just tell me it works, but tell me what settings you have in place so i can replicate it possibly.