Low FPS no matter what.

[franky200]

I'm no expert at computers, but this is just weird. I get 30-50 fps on HL2 on 800 x 600 on High settings( Low shaders),
But on HL1 engine games i get 5-30 fps on 640 x 480. I tried the "MSC on Low end computers" thread, it helped a little. Not much though.

MY SPECS:
Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
ATi Radeon HD3650
2.4 GB RAM
80 GB Hard drive
350 watt PSU

Yes i know this is old as shit but I am tight on money and cannot afford a new one.

 

[Jelly]

Have you updated your video card drivers?

 

[jon50559]

Updated drivers *could* be the problem, because ATI has awful OpenGL support. Sometimes their older drivers work a lot better in cases like this.

 

[Thothie]

ATi Radeon HD3650

That, combined with Vista/7 = OpenGL fail. :/ Like they said, upgrade/downgrade drivers - pray.

I'm also surprised, however, that it'll take a 350w PSU. The Half-Life2 games would surely ride the 12v rail harder than MSC, but that PSU is well below spec for that card.

If you want a painful, but probably free, solution, I'd try to setup an XP boot. ATI drivers, unlike nVidia, are still not native OpenGL in XP, but they are more so than under Vista/7 (one emulation layer, instead of two).

 

[franky200]

I am under XP. I will try to downgrade or see if there is any upgrade for the video drivers.

 

[FER]

Yeah MSC can run slower sometimes when on complex maps or due to the engine's optimization.

But on HL1 engine games i get 5-30 fps on 640 x 480. I tried the "MSC on Low end computers" thread, it helped a little. Not much though.

Even when just playing Half Life?

 

[franky200]

Yeah MSC can run slower sometimes when on complex maps or due to the engine's optimization.

But on HL1 engine games i get 5-30 fps on 640 x 480. I tried the "MSC on Low end computers" thread, it helped a little. Not much though.

Even when just playing Half Life?

Well, not really regular half-life. I do get a bit FPS drop though, It mostly happens in Multiplayer mods like CS(with about 17+ players) and Sven coop, MSC is just the worst though.

 

[Thothie]

MSC is by far the cruelest of all the HL1 mods, resource wise. :/

CPU tis a bit old... Maybe try setting HL.exe to high priority in the Task Manager. (Especially if this only happens in multiplayer, as it maybe a QOS thang.)

Ya might need an alternative task manager or third party prog, like Prio, to get that priority to save though.

 

[FER]

Or try with a different graphic card

 

[Thothie]

It's mainly the graphics card, tis true, but every bit helps.

 

[franky200]

Downgrading/Upgrading did not work. Priority made it lag even more. It got 40+ fps on my good ole Geforce 6200. I gave that to a friend. I guess my video card doesn't like my specs. Guess ill have to wait to upgrade my other parts. .
Most maps on MSC = 4 fps, even on singleplayer. Happens when I look at the part of the map that has the most entities(thats probably sopose to happen anyways)

 

[Thothie]

Priority made it lag even more.

Darn... Hrmm... It *maybe* the HL.exe is out-prioritizing the emulation layer that the driver uses, thus even more lag. The emulation layer, however, is probably protected, so you can't bump the priority of that (I really need to get me one of these ATI cards and fiddle with it).

If that is the case, and your P4 CPU supports Hyperthreading - ye might try to assign the HL.EXE to the second virtual core, and thus free up CPU time for the driver (Set Affinity - right below where you Set Priority). If there's no Set Affinity option, then the CPU doesn't support it, and yer SOL until you get a new graphics card.

One of the scrap systems here has an AGP nVidia 5600 on a Pentium D and gets 60fps in MSC, so if you can find an old nVidia graphics card with enough pipes (~$50) ye should be good. Tis Christmas after all.

 

[franky200]

Nope, no Set Affinity option. *sigh* Ill find somthing