Windows 7 Game Performance

[juanbobo]

I recently migrated from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 and I've been really pleased with the new interface and performance for the most part. I am dissapointed however by game performance. For what it's worth I've got an Nvidia 8600GT which isn't top of the line by any means, but I've noticed a big decrease in performance in some games such as Frontlines: Fuel of War. I don't quite understand why this is the case, does Windows somehow monopolize video memory even when you're in a full screen game? Is there any way to improve performance beyond freeing ram and closing processes?

 

[torrentg]

Is there any way to improve performance beyond freeing ram and closing processes?

Hi. Yes. Install the latest driver from NVIDIA's site.

Use Rivatuner to overclock if you want.

 

[juanbobo]

I've got the most recent version of DirectX and the NVIDIA drivers, I don't think I'd like to overclock unless absolutely necessary.

 

[juanbobo]

For whatever reason the game doesn't suffer from the same jerkiness as it did the last few times I ran it now. It's slower, but tolerable, thanks for the response

 

[RonS WIN TEAM]

Thanks for the update there juanbobo. I'll keep an eye out for any additional fixes.

Cheers,
Ron

 

[juanbobo]

I can't say for sure, but I think this may be caused by Windows 7's greater memory usage which has caused the game to require the swapping to the page file.

 

[torrentg]

I can't say for sure, but I think this may be caused by Windows 7's greater memory usage which has caused the game to require the swapping to the page file.

How many GB system RAM do you have?

It's not advisable to use those free RAM programs. They actually slow your system down in more ways than one! Memory in use is a good thing.

You are putting the work of the highly trained Microsoft engineers funded with crazy amounts of money that designed the operating system to run as best as possible and then trusting that to some lone coder that is selling snake oil! heh heh

 

[juanbobo]

I have two gigs of RAM and I haven't been using any RAM optimizers. I've looked at the memory usage and it seems not all of the RAM is used so I am confused. I've read that it might be necessary to install video drivers as an administrator, but I doubt this is the cause of the slowness.

 

[juanbobo]

I stumbled upon the Windows 7 game compatibility list on this site:

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/5739-windows-7-pre-rtm-game-compatibility-list.html

It says only Frontlines: Fuel of War singleplayer works properly so it appears to be a compatibility issue in case anyone else is having problems getting it to work as well.

 

[ZeesuS]

Did you make clean install of Win 7, or did you use upgrade?
If you upgraded your system directly without formatting, I could say that there may be your problem.
Try to format your HDD and make a clean install of Win7 and install latest drivers for your system..

 

[superjose]

I agree with ZeesuS, if you did an upgrade you killed your computer. Clean install it.

I could also recommend to use cleaning programs such as Ccleaner, advanced system care, which cleans a lot of crap that has your computer. After that, you should defrag your disk so it can perform faster and better (I would recommend Auslogic Disk Defrag).

If none of that help you can either try Game Booster Ver 1.3 (NOT BELOW) or TuneUp uitilities 2010 Turbo Mode (Trial 30 days)- Which temporarily kills the Aero Scheme and some services that you don't use while on games.

As final recommendation, try to play without the use of background programs which sometimes may be the cause of that laginess and remember that XP was lighter than 7 and Vista. Plus, remember the game you are playing on Win 7 has direct x10 as a default, and on XP it was DX9, so, DX10 is a little heavier but much prettier and smoother, but DX9 is lighter but uglier and less smother.

 

[juanbobo]

I did a clean install. The singleplayer performs as well as XP so I don't know if it's some kind of network issue although I've disabled the Windows firewall. There is a possibility it is related to punkbuster, the game authentication software, but other games that use it work fine so I don't know.

 

[ZeesuS]

Its network problem then.. If you have some extra time you can browse these forums and youll findout that theres some solutions that might help..

 

[DjProDG]

Hi.
Usually services slow down the process. Try disabling some services that you don't need. You should see a little difference.

 

[juanbobo]

I can really try to optimize performance, but there seems to be a fundamental problem that causes the game to be excessively jerky.

I just tried joined a non-punkbuster server and it was no help.

 

[juanbobo]

The problem I've been having with Frontlines and other games to a lesser extent is due to some of the game data being swapped to/from disk. I have two gigs of RAM which should be sufficient for these games, but I am forced to turn off the page file to get acceptable performance. I don't know enough about the paging algorithm used in Windows 7, but I'd like to get the best performance without disabling the page file. I don't see why this should be an issue really, shouldn't anything not being used at the moment be swapped to disk to the give the largest amount of RAM to the process that needs it most? Any ideas?

 

[simmo]

I'd also consider installing more Ram..I assume your motherboard will support it...your system specs are ummm none existent but most motherboards these days support dual channel.