F.E.A.R. Performance

[MatrixEVO]

FEAR is a great game, but does anybody know why it can get so choppy? Everytime I turn a corner the game gets very choppy, and while doing this the hard drive seems to be very busy. I'm thinking it has something to do with the hard drive... what do you think?

 

[ADE]

Well
1. you only have 1GB of RAM. Even though it recommends that much, that FREE RAM, not total, cuz then It wants 1 GB but other applications are using it, so maybe only get 730MB...But you can lower that setting if you must.
2. lower any setting that makes a lot of stress on the computer
3. A really good Hard drive can help load textures fast.

 

[Geoff]

Well
1. you only have 1GB of RAM. Even though it recommends that much, that FREE RAM, not total, cuz then It wants 1 GB but other applications are using it, so maybe only get 730MB...But you can lower that setting if you must.
2. lower any setting that makes a lot of stress on the computer
3. A really good Hard drive can help load textures fast.

1. When it says it recommends 1GB of RAM, its talking about system memory, not just the memory for that game.

3. Hard drives only effect loading times.


Ryan, is this new or has it been happening all the time?

 

[diduknowthat]

FEAR is a great game, but does anybody know why it can get so choppy? Everytime I turn a corner the game gets very choppy, and while doing this the hard drive seems to be very busy. I'm thinking it has something to do with the hard drive... what do you think?

Are you playing it with max settings? Try killing AA and see if it still lags.

 

[MatrixEVO]

Ryan, is this new or has it been happening all the time?

It's not really new, it's happened since I got the game. I think it might load parts of the map on the fly, as I'm walking around. Maybe freeing up hard drive space would help? I already defrag my drive weekly.

 

[MatrixEVO]

Are you playing it with max settings? Try killing AA and see if it still lags.

Yep it's maxed out at 1280 x 960. I will try that and report back in a minute.


EDIT: Ok, I just tried no AA. It is still choppy in areas, but not quite as much.

you only have 1GB of RAM

I think you might have a point there. The game recommends 1GB, but that might not be enough to run it at MAXED settings. I was just playing Need For Speed Most Wanted last week when I was stuck with only 512MB of RAM, and it was similarly choppy until I got 1GB again. Maybe upgrading to 2GB sometime will get rid of my problem.

 

[ADE]

1
3. Hard drives only effect loading times.

Uh no. If His RAM runs out then the game will write info on the hard drive if it needs to. A slow hard drive can cause more lag then a fast one in this case. Believe me, I had to do it like this at one time. OH, and according to me G15, the game does actually take 1GB away from me.

Also, under the computer part of the options, lower settings in there where it concerns RAM.

 

[SubDude199]

I agree this is a GREAT game.. I play it all there time.. I have a group of guys i play it with and we download all kinda of extra maps.. and CO OP multiplayer mod..

None of us have any problems with the game at all..
are you using ATA or SATA hard drive(s).. that can effect the read time. SATA2 all the way!!

I only have a gig of ram right now and it works fine for me.. There is an option in the game to take some load off the processor and put it on the video card...

 

[Geoff]

Uh no. If His RAM runs out then the game will write info on the hard drive if it needs to. A slow hard drive can cause more lag then a fast one in this case. Believe me, I had to do it like this at one time. OH, and according to me G15, the game does actually take 1GB away from me.

Also, under the computer part of the options, lower settings in there where it concerns RAM.

No... Windows will move all other non-essential processes to the page file, but the game will remain only in the physical RAM. It simply will compress the data more to fit into the RAM, or only load so much, and have to load more data more frequently.

And the G15 tells you how much RAM is being used, but AFAIK it doesnt tell you what an individual process is using.

 

[maroon1]

Turn soft shadows off

 

[MatrixEVO]

I don't know if this is helpful, but I minimized the game during play and my PF usage was at 1.16GB.

 

[Geoff]

I don't know if this is helpful, but I minimized the game during play and my PF usage was at 1.16GB.

Because all your other apps that werent in high demand were moved to the page file.

How much RAM does it say FEAR is using when you ALT TAB it?

 

[MatrixEVO]

How much RAM does it say FEAR is using when you ALT TAB it?

Haha, only 32MB. I think when it gets minimized it goes into a silent mode and reduces the amount of RAM it's using.

 

[Geoff]

Did you do that when it was in the middle of the game? Because if you do that when its just at the menu screen or something, it wont show what it uses during gameplay.