F.E.A.R. running slightly choppy

system specs:

P4 Prescott 3.0gHz 800FSB (running at around 47-51C under load, 34-37C at idle)
ATi Radeon X800XL 256MB 8X AGP (running at about 43C at idle, dont know what at load) with the latest Catalyst drivers
SATA Raptor 10k RPM HD
2GB PC3200 Corsair RAM
Fresh load of XP and game
DX 9.0C

Aside from this problem:
http://forum.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=76891

This computer is SCREAMING fast (and that problem doesnt affect anything), for me anyhow. I have never been so impressed with how fast everything in and around windows is running.

Yet when I play FEAR, it is hesitating every 10 seconds or so. not majorly, but enough to notice. just a little blip. granted, i have most of the settings turned up pretty high, but with my specs i dont think that should be a problem.

 

I think it's more of an issue with FEAR itself then your comp. I have the same issues with it jumping every few seconds. Of course I also run it with everything maxed out and at 1600x1200. The stupid thing is, on the video test it actually says the lowest FPS that I get is 46 and the highest is 103. But yet the game lags. So in the end i just turned the settings down to moderately high and played.

I'm using a 7800GT. I've never found a solution for it, and everything else I've ever run on here I can run maxed out and have no lag, but FEAR sort of just jumps when you round a corner or something, as if it's loading the new area. I don't get lag when I go back over an area I've already been to.

 

yea thats basically the problem im having. i turned the settings way down it still does it though.

 

Yup, hopefully an update for the game will fix that later on or something. It's normal and unfixable at the moment really. I'm running it on a EVGA 7800 GTX ACS KO (OCed) and it does it at pretty much every new area I get to. I'm even running it at 1024 x 768 w/ 4x AA and 8x AF. What baffles me is why the game doesn't support 1280 x 1024..? That's usually what I run most of my games at cuz there's no point in running it higher than that on a 19" monitor.

 

Oh the game does support it. You have to add the resolution under the driver settings for the video card.

right click desktop->properties->settings->advanced->Geforce 7800GTX->Screen resolution and refresh rates-> add.

ALthough I've only read about people having to do that. 1280x1024 came up as a choice for me by default in FEAR and I never had to add it.

 

I would have assumed 1280 x 1024 would be a choice, otherwise anyone with a 19" LCD monitor would be screwed?

Unless you like playing games that are out of scale.

 

Side note: I'm still not fond of playing games on an LCD monitor. Still prefer CRT.
'

Also, shouldn't this thread be within the GAMES forum?

 

I agree, I too prefer CRT's for gaming.

 

I was having same issues with that game, but I though maybe it was my video card since I got a cheap one, Nvidia FX 5500 at 256mb. Maybe it's the game..

 

It maybe the game, but it may also be your card.

A 5500 is only a budget card and not made for demanding 3D games.

 

YET another thing to try:

Enable EAX 2.0, instead of EAX HD (or disable both!)

In the bios, check the see if AGP Fast Writes is turned on or not. If it is turned on, turn it off. Does this help?

What is your AGP aperture size? 128? Try setting it to MAX. Or 128, 64.....pending on how much ram you have.....

 

The 5200 - 5500 is the budget realm. No matter what kind of ram the video card has. Includes the 6200, btw.

The 5600 (6600) is the gamers realm.

Anything that is above x800 is the extreme elite realm.

 

That's an odd way to list off cards. You list budget, then gamer cards as nvidia and then elite cards you go to ATI. Not that it matters, I just found it odd.

Also, most of the cards mentioned in here would be PCI-E (not the 5500) so the AGP aperture size doesn't really come into play. It's just the way FEAR runs for people, they have a sort of jumpy loading for all the new area's that gets kinda annoying. DOOM3 had the same sort of issues with doors. Every time you'd ope na new door in DOOM3 it would lag for just half a second or so. Not very long but it does it on all systems.

 

I play Doom3 beutifully with this card and also I got Quake 4 and it jumps to much on the graphics. Is there a way I could posibly overclock this card? If so how do I do that. Or what kinda video card do you guys recomend?

 

AH your card is fine. I've run doom 3 on a Geforce 4 TI 4200 and it wa fine. FEAR also plays on it. Just not on max settings.

Just lower your settings a bit. If you really want a new card a 6600GT is in the decent price range for nvidia or something along the lines of an x800 for ATI.

 

I tried adding 1280 x 1024 the way that you mentioned. When I click add, it does nothing. I dont know why I can play other games in this res. but not this one. I prefer CRTs also for gaming. I use a 19" Samsung SyncMaster 997DF for games and it's pretty nice, I think. I use a LCD for just browsing the web/pictures, and stuff.

 

When you say clicking add does nothing do you mean the screen to add the resolution doesn't come up? Or do you mean once you add it, it doesn't make it appear as an option in the game?

If the add screen isn't coming up, I'd suggest updating your drivers. If it's not coming up in the game I don't know. I'd read that had to be done, but I've never done it myself. Like I said above I've always had the 1280x1024 option.