UT2K3 DM-Icetomb performance feedback needed ASAP!

[Flavius]

Hey all, something is very odd with my 5900 clocked at 450/850 and 25.33 drivers in XP. It scores what it should in the 3DMarks. However, even when I play with 1024x768x32 4XAA/4XAF Quality with UT2K3 settings maxed, I drop to 17 FPS while in-game in DM-Icetomb, and once in a while down to SIX FPS! Yeah, a slideshow! Turning off AA/AF entirely, I still get FPS as low as 25 at 1024x768! That seems unreal, no pun intended, especially since Antalus and other maps run in the 40s at their slowest with 4XAA/8XAA! Can anyone reproduce this? Can anyone with an ATI card confirm this map is pretty fast? Numbers please? Thanks!

[Behemoth]

here are some fraps logs in dm-icetomb on my p4 3G/ 1G ram/9800 pro system, all @ stock clocks.
game settings maxed, bot skill: adept, use map bot count, resolution: 1024x768. enjoy :)

4xAA 8xAF quality, spectate session with horizontal watching angle.
2003-09-12 19:09:29 - UT2003
Frames: 135274 - Time: 2146234ms - Avg: 63.028 - Min: 34 - Max: 150

0xAA 0xAF quality, spectate session with horizontal watching angle.
2003-09-13 01:05:57 - UT2003
Frames: 21263 - Time: 270891ms - Avg: 78.492 - Min: 42 - Max: 135

0xAA 0xAF quality, play session and run through every corners in the map a few times.
2003-09-13 01:10:58 - UT2003
Frames: 20237 - Time: 271234ms - Avg: 74.610 - Min: 44 - Max: 118

[Behemoth]

antalus map, 1024x768

4xAA 16xAF quality, spectate session with horizontal watching angle.
2003-09-13 01:36:04 - UT2003
Frames: 21973 - Time: 394735ms - Avg: 55.665 - Min: 37 - Max: 73

4xAA 8xAF quality, spectate session with horizontal watching angle.
2003-09-13 01:43:46 - UT2003
Frames: 24384 - Time: 417812ms - Avg: 58.361 - Min: 38 - Max: 75

[Flavius]

Wow, thanks Behemoth, granted, I'm running P3 2.7 with 512MB, but since UT2K3 is GPU limited, not CPU limited, that should not account for the phenomenal speed difference. It is painfully clear to me that my 5900 needs to go back and I need to bid my time for 9800XT, which will probably never drop below 40FPS min on any of these maps. I like my STAT FPS to stay GREEN. :-)

[Behemoth]

no problem :)
by the way, check out the bf1942 performance too, you may want to throw your 5900 right away hehe, just kidding.

[Flavius]

Can anyone with a 5900 please post some DM-Icetomb scores? It seems the fog effects on this map are totally killing my FX card for some odd reason.

[RoachMojo]

1024x768 4xAA 4xAF All detail maxed except for physics=normal. 45.33 drivers, Spectate mode following a bot (Adept, Default number of Bots).

DM-Icetomb Fraps capture:

2003-09-12 18:59:18 - UT2003
Frames: 98 - Time: 4844ms - Avg: 20.231 - Min: 18 - Max: 24

2003-09-12 18:59:33 - UT2003
Frames: 208 - Time: 8922ms - Avg: 23.313 - Min: 18 - Max: 33

2003-09-12 18:59:49 - UT2003
Frames: 32 - Time: 2859ms - Avg: 11.192 - Min: 11 - Max: 12

Wow, this sucks. It wasn't this bad before.....and see my specs.

[Behemoth]

roachmojo, maybe your fraps logs were too short? all were less than 10 sec?

[RoachMojo]

Nah, it was pretty much the same for about 10 minutes of play. I don't think it got above 40fps the whole time, but 11fps was the lowest I saw.

I'm going to remove these drivers, install the 45.23, and try again.

[The Baron]

And I just tried to upload my DM-Icetomb demo (yes, the one I've been promising for way too long... stupid crap, meet the stick of death, stick of death, meet stupid crap), but realized I can't put it anywhere at the moment.

At 4xAA with my custom demo at 1024x768 with no AF, I am getting 42.289 FPS. At 640x480 and no AA/AF, I get 93.397 FPS. So, yeah, it's definitely GPU limited.

[OWA]

Just a rough estimate...

FX 5900 Ultra @500/960 45.33s, XP 2800+, 1 gig ram, WinXP
1024x768 4xAA / 4X AF / all game settings max

Just spectating seemed to hover in the teens for quite a bit of the map, turned off hardware 3D+EAX sound and got back to the mid-20s. Parts would hit 50s, 60s, etc. but most of the time I'd say it was hovering around 23fps if anything at all was going on.

It definitely wasn't what I'd consider playable. Oh, for what's it's worth, my highest 3DMark03 has been 6411. I don't think it is translating well to the gaming world though. I think I'm getting too much stutter in a few other games as well.

Edit: stutter was probably a bad choice. I actually think I have two issues. Lower than expected framerates in some games when using AA and AF and stuttering occasionally when the framerates actually appear to be fairly high.

[RoachMojo]

Well, I don't know what to say....

I went back to the 45.23 drivers and this is the result (same settings as before):


2003-09-12 22:06:01 - UT2003
Frames: 1243 - Time: 48875ms - Avg: 25.432 - Min: 11 - Max: 89

2003-09-12 22:09:28 - UT2003
Frames: 2566 - Time: 96781ms - Avg: 26.513 - Min: 13 - Max: 61

I don't remember ever seeing framerates drop as low as this before. What could be wrong? The 45.23 drivers are installed...

[The Baron]

Are you using EAX? It has that odd effect of halving framerates. Vsync is off? And, Icetomb should be a lot lower--it's way more intensive than even Slaughterhouse.

[Behemoth]

hmm sorry, i think i got my first fraps result wrong. it should actually be 4xAA 2xAF quality(not 4xAA 8xAF quality), here are correct 4xAA 8xAF results:

2003-09-13 13:20:55 - UT2003
Frames: 8781 - Time: 177797ms - Avg: 49.387 - Min: 30 - Max: 96

2003-09-13 13:26:25 - UT2003
Frames: 9261 - Time: 185938ms - Avg: 49.806 - Min: 32 - Max: 110

i found that out because i couldnt reproduce similar scores with 8xAF. i did that fraps log myself before flavius have asked, i thought it was 4xAA 8xAF, but now i remeber its 4xAA 2xAF becaues i used that to play gta3 b4 the benchmark :p

another 4xAA 2xAF log to confirm my point :)

2003-09-13 13:32:10 - UT2003
Frames: 7797 - Time: 119062ms - Avg: 65.486 - Min: 38 - Max: 107

baron: there seems to be no performance difference with or without EAX on.

[RoachMojo]

Originally posted by The Baron
Are you using EAX? It has that odd effect of halving framerates. Vsync is off? And, Icetomb should be a lot lower--it's way more intensive than even Slaughterhouse.

Yeah, eax and Vsync were off.

I guess maybe Icetomb was always crappy like that with bots..? I don't really know. It always ran the worst of all the maps for me anyway.

I guess maybe I'm getting a little paranoid now, heh.

[Bopple]

Maybe it is a shader-effect intensive map?

[hovz]

for whatever reason, the fx seems to be much slower with anis then the radeon in UT2003

[Flavius]

for whatever reason, the fx seems to be much slower with anis then the radeon in UT2003 Seems like it. Thanks all for confirming that 11 FPS issue with Icetomb. Even Rustatorium was giving me average frames in 20s, and thats with Quincunx and 4XAF, which is even more pathetic. I want to play my games maxed out in 1024x768 with 4x/8x, especially UT2K3. The 5900U simply won't cut it. It's not an issue with my system, because Code Creatures gives me the proper over 45 FPS average rate which is exactly what 5900U should get. So I'm waiting for the 9800XT. Someone on rage3d posted that their MINIMUM FPS on Icetomb was in the 40s with the 9800Pro and 4x/8x... so 9800XT shall be perfect.

[hovz]

i am also waiting to see the performance of the 360, but im rly getting impatient, i havent played ut2003 in months cuz my geforce 4 died an dim stuck with an mx. and i dotn want to rush out and buy the 9800 pro cuz i dont know how much of a performance jump the xt will bring



waits patiently

[Behemoth]

Even Rustatorium was giving me average frames in 20s, and thats with Quincunx and 4XAF
yeah lots of metal shaders in this map, its even more demanding than icetomb. ok i am frapsoholic: :)

same setting as before, 1024x768 0xAA 0xAF quality
2003-09-14 01:02:45 - UT2003
Frames: 5946 - Time: 91141ms - Avg: 65.239 - Min: 42 - Max: 91

[Flavius]

How does the 9800Pro do on Rustatorium at 4x/8x 1024? What is the min rate? If it's in the 30s, I am drooling for the 9800XT. I will preorder the damn thing!

[OWA]

If you're still interested I installed an ATI AIW 9800 Pro in the same system I listed above. I initially bought it for a 2nd system but I think for now I'm going to keep this in my main computer if the rest of the games run okay.

Stock core and memory since I don't know how to oc the ATI cards yet. :)

Anyway,

Icetomb map and just another rough estimate (spectate mode):

1024x768 4xAA and 4XAF: never saw it dip below 35fps and it seemed stay in the upper 40s to mid 50s most of the time. With the 5900U it seemed to say in the mid-20s and until turning of 3D hardware sound would also dip into the teens occasionally. The min of 35fps with the AIW was with hardware 3D sound + EAX still on.

Also, didn't do a clean install. Just used drive cleaner and installed the AIW after that. I was initially worried b/c my 3DMark03 score dropped to 5654 with the AIW 9800 Pro versus 6388 on the 5900Ultra (using the flicker-fix drivers). But, game-wise, at least with UT2003, it has performed much better. I haven't tried anything else but figured this might be a good comparison for you since I installed it in the exact same system I had the 5900 Ultra in.

[OWA]

Okay, last comment since the others are providing more detailed info anyway.

I went ahead and tried it with Quality settings (4XAA and 16XAF) and never saw it dip below 30fps and this was still with hardware3D + EAX sound on. I guess I have to admit I'm impressed so far.

[bkswaney]

U can OC that 9800 to 420+ core and 750 memory.
It will net u a lot more FPS. :)

Go over to rage3d.com and get the r3d tweak.

http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/

[OWA]

Thanks for the info. I was just starting to look for info on that. :) I've downloaded it but haven't tried it just yet.