11 replies to this topic

[turbotails23]

Hey, Ever since I have gotten a job I have been able to take a look at various things with various large programs, particularly modded games and the issue of lag.


Anyway, while doing so, and monitoring a few tech emails I get, I came across a newsletter which might have some relevant information. I won't mention specifics now due to uncertainty, but I think Ive getting closer to the lag problem.

Anyway, in order for me to verify a few things, I got to ask the community a few questions.


How much ram do you have? Do you know the speed/type of the ram? What is the Brand, Size, and Series of HD you are using? Does anyone here use RAID? Does anyone here use SATA, or do you all use IDE? Are you using a 64bit OS, or a 32 bit OS? Are you using Vista, or XP? Do you know how busy your CPU is when playing the game (Galactic mode)? (I only need the highest Core usage %) What FPS are you getting (Only in galactic mode, if your getting alot of lag in tactical mode, its fixable VIA upgrading.) And most importantly, How much Memory does the game use when it gets extremely laggy?


In order to really narrow this down, I need at least 7 replies, preferably about 10-12. It would also be best if atleast half of them were 64 bit users.


And no, I am not thinking about the maximum ammount of memory a 32 bit OS can use.


You can determine info about your HD (and probably most of the other stuff) by using http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

Edited by turbotails23, 21 April 2009 - 01:03 PM.

[Tropical Bob]

Well, we had a benchmark thread here where some members gave their system specs and recorded some data. You can check out some of that to see if it helps.

[turbotails23]

Ive noticed it before, and it helps some, but the big things I am after is how busy your CPU is when running the game, how much memory the game uses while its lagging, and the HDD info. That benchmark page gives some details about a few other things, but it may be looking at the problem from the wrong direction.

[Tony]

turbotails23 is offering help, but that might change if nobody participates.

I ran PC Wizard 2008 to get this full hardware report, if you need anything more or something was missed pm me or let me know here turbo.


• In galactic mode my CPU jumped up to 80% usage.

•540.036k memory used at peak of lag.

•I use 32 bit vista, the rest of specs are in the text doc below.

Attached Files

•  hardware.TXT   78.99KB   654 downloads

Edited by Tony, 22 April 2009 - 10:49 PM.

[Tropical Bob]

I haven't gotten around to playing PR lately. As soon as I do, I'll post up my info. Maybe tomorrow during political science.

[coinich]

I think it takes up at least a GB or 2 of RAM when I play. The older campaign versions do, anyway.

Edited by coinich, 25 April 2009 - 01:43 PM.

[turbotails23]

I think it takes up at least a GB or 2 of RAM when I play. The older campaign versions do, anyway.

Can you check that, as well as your CPU usage when its lagging?

[coinich]

Alright, its taking no RAM. None. No lag at all. This is weird.

EDIT: No, it took a full 2GB stick. Still no lag, but I couldn't build in space either.

Edited by coinich, 27 April 2009 - 03:32 PM.

[Phoenix Rising]

That benchmark page gives some details about a few other things, but it may be looking at the problem from the wrong direction.

It's possible, but keep in mind, we were basically clueless before the benchmarking. We now know, at least, that the CPU appears to be the bottleneck and that it's not the galactic AI, but something more basic than that, such as the free stores.

Anything else you can discover for us would be greatly appreciated, especially if you think it's fixable short of cutting units/planets. I'll get you my readings shortly... just have to get a clean copy. I'd encourage anyone else who's bothered by the lag to do it too, since we're basically out of leads.

[hausser]

Hi Turbo

I have
2 GB of Ram @ 800 Mhz
My Hdd is a
Seagate ST350032 0AS,
500 Gb, Sata2,
32 Bit Windows XP,
My CPU is a
q6600, cpu-load is at 24-25 % (e.g. one core at 99-100%) all the time,
RAM usage is between 850 und 950 Mb most of the time, sometimes a bit higher (~30-50 Mb, i guess, I'm not watching my taskmanager all the time

If you tell me how to show the framerate ingame I'll post that also,
but its verry low in galactic mode,
tactic mode is perfekt, its only slow down a bit if there are MANY Fighters and i change the camera angle

But another thing i have mentioned,
when i was playing the core campaign, the games becomes less laggy after i had conquered about 10-12 planets, and at the end of the game (i wiped out all pirate planets bevor i turned upon the rebellion),
the game had run (nearly) completley smooth.
Then, I've strated the outer rim campaign, (without quitting the game) and it was nearly as smooth as the core at it's end, but slowed down at the first 4-5 Weeks to its "standard-speed" :S

Hth

[maul52]

Hello, thanks for looking into this. I'll try to give you as much info as I can. I have 3.5 GB of DDR2 SDRAM, my hard drive is a Western Digital 320 GB with an SATA connection. In the device manager it says WDC WD3200AAKS-00SBA0 if that tells you anything. I have Windows XP, 32 bit I believe. I downloaded the PC Wizard, I cannot get it to display the CPU parameters while I'm playing the game, but I did a quick ALT-TAB when the game got laggy and saw that Core #1 Load was 72%. I do not know how to determine FPS or how much memory the game uses. If you would be willing to help me determine this info I would give it a shot.

Thanks again,

maul52

[Digz]

I'm going to re-download and re-install the mod to help you guys out as I wanted to play normal EaW for a while, I'll probably post some info during the weekend for you. Phoenix, if you could link this topic to some of the people you know who have the mod installed and I'll do the same, maybe we can get enough people here for turbo to work it out.