Ok, we all know that PE runs like a dog with three legs. The simple fact however is that some people have more problems than others.
Some people with low hardware run fine, others with the lastest PC cant play for more than 20 min’s. I have very few problems, I think I CTD about three times a year for instance.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and looking for an answer, I’ve gone over the most obvious stuff; RAM, Video & Sound drivers, processor speed, excessive heat etc, but none seem to be it.
I have had an idea.
I am quite possibly utterly wrong, which is where you guys come in. I want you all to post a reply stating two things. 1, your playing experience (no problems, occasional problems, utter nightmare, you know the kind of thing) and 2, the access mode of your hard drives.
Yup that’s right, I’m pointing the finger at the IDE bus.
My primary hard drive, with windows, swap file, and PE runs in “Ultra DMA Mode 5” and I have no problems at all.
Over to you.
EDIT:
Help to find you Hard Drive Mode:
Right click the My Computer icon and select MANAGE
Click DEVICE MANAGER from the list on the left
Expand the entry called “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers”
Double click the entry “Primary IDE Channel”
Check the “Advanced Settings” tab, make sure it’s for the hard drive tho.
Righto, I thought mode 5 was the highest, turns out that Intel dont like the DMA/133 or UDMA6 standard (probably cos they didnt think of it first or something) so as I’m using a motherboard with an Intel 915 chipset, mode 5 is the best I can do.
I cant get a direct link to the app, but it’s free and small. I used the short test and got these results:
Burst transfer max: 124.4 MB/s Average Transfer: 52.8MB/s Processor utilisation: 2%
It is my theory that people with lots of problems when an avatar comes onto the radar and related things are running possibly in PIO mode, so when the system needs to attack the hard drive to read a lot of textures, the processor get’s maxed out trying to read the drive, and the resulting lockup in performance causes the data stream to lag which causes a CTD. Hey it’s a theory.
Go! Download the app, post your results, those who have replied already, the edit button is your friend.
I will find the root cause of shitty performance if it kills me !
Well what to say … i can run 2 instances of PE at the same time from one computer without much lag (maybe 40-50 fps) … so i guess its good
2)As for the disks … atm PE is running out of quad raid 0 build upon nvidia southbridge raid controller … actually its 4 200 gb sata disks from maxtor
[/QUOTE]
Way to go Blade, you managed to show off, and ignore the question all at the same time! I’m impressed.
[QUOTE=Dirk]
Way to go Blade, you managed to show off, and ignore the question all at the same time! I’m impressed.
[/QUOTE]
I didnt ignore it ..
it does nto CTD at all even when running 2 clients at once … no timeouts no nothing it runs fine … cept you can only control one at a time and you can jsut watch at the other one
what else do you want to know ? in system its called NVIDIA STRIPE 759.68G and its serial ata raid… the controller is located on the southbridge so there is no slowdown from PCI limitations or whatsoever .
Well, ok, but most people dont run PE on a setup like that, so for the purposes of this enquiry, I’ll file this in the cylindrical filing system next to me
May be interesting to see if that HDTach prog will run on your hardware tho, care to try it and post those results?
Burst transfer max: Average Transfer: Processor utilisation:
[QUOTE=Dirk]
Well, ok, but most people dont run PE on a setup like that, so for the purposes of this enquiry, I’ll file this in the cylindrical filing system next to me
May be interesting to see if that HDTach prog will run on your hardware tho, care to try it and post those results?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=BI4dE]
I can try it once i figure where to download it
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Hmm, it’s one of those download links that hides the real file from you, I hate those and it seems not to work for everyone, so I’ve put a copy at PERC for a few days. The program is free so I dont think the makers will be too pissed at me, grab it while you can.
[QUOTE=Dirk]
Well, ok, but most people dont run PE on a setup like that, so for the purposes of this enquiry, I’ll file this in the cylindrical filing system next to me
May be interesting to see if that HDTach prog will run on your hardware tho, care to try it and post those results?
Burst transfer max: Average Transfer: Processor utilisation:
[/QUOTE]
i got burst at 245 MB/s average at 195 MB/s 11% cpu util random access 16 ms … but as i said am downloading something so it gotta be a little off
