3 fps - could someone check this hardware spec?

[zombieland78 42]

Just writing on behalf of a friend who I just got into DayZ.

 

After a week of installation problems (and I wonder if that's an element to the issue?) we got it running and played a couple hour session with his laptop running half decent.

 

Literally the next day he jumps on and is crippled with fps as low as 1, as high as 5, averaging around 3. Same server. Same everything as far as we can tell.

 

So, point 1 - if his spec handled it once, surely it can handle it again.

 

Here's his spec: Windows 8 64, 8gb ram, GeForce GT 425M card. Recently purchased, not an old overloaded machine or anything.

 

Point 2 - he lowered all his settings to unbearably low (in-game video settings) and it made zero difference.

 

Also updated his graphics card drivers.

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

Edited May 6, 2014 by zombieland78

[enforcer1975 1111]

What are the other specs, how much is half decent if you wanted to measure it?? Some people already have headaches if they have to play below 50fps, to others 5fps is a fluid framerate. A laptop will always have lower fps compared to a similar desktop system because of the overall frequencies. If he had more fps before it could also be the server that kills his performance ( if you can even call that performance ) or a recent patch did.

If you look on how many "NO" the GPU has on recommended requirements and the amount it lacks in % you can't call it a decent GPU. It even has -42% in ArmA 2...an for the Alpha shouters...this game is still in Alpha.

http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GT+425M/games

Edited May 6, 2014 by Enforcer

[zombieland78 42]

well, in terms of measuring performance, he never once mentioned issues upon first playing it. So good enough to not even notice fps. Next day it was utterly unplayable at 5fps and less.

 

we were playing the mod. First on Panthera, then he installed Epoch and got the same result on an Epoch server. 

 

What does the -42% mean? 

 

Edit: here's the min spec for Arma II - http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/arma-ii-operation-arrowhead/10994/?p=r

 

When I look at the min required GPU it scores about 250 on videocardbenchmark and his scores about 650. My laptop scores 1000 and runs it totally fine. Probably around 25fps at a guess. My PC runs it at 40-50. I'm going to have him play arma II on its own. But there's no reason why he should suddenly have that frame rate drop so much.

Edited May 6, 2014 by zombieland78

[enforcer1975 1111]

How about he downloads a benchmark like the DX10 version of 3DMark and shares the results? "Around 25fps" is kind of like barely made it to look fluid and yet not enough to run fluid. Numbers show the truth. Most of the times when i think my fps just went sub surface and i check it i still have around 35-40fps but to me it looks like a "half decent" dia show because from experience 50 fps in ArmA doesn't look like 50 fps in other games, that's the kind of "feels like 25fps" i'm pointing at.

[ultimatehawkeye 0]

Post more specs e.g. CPU, RAM

Seems strange that you can't play it, I run off of Intel HD4000 graphics.

However I do know of something that just maybe the problem, I have Windows 8 too and it does this thing called automatic maintenance and it is a pain for gamers with windows 8 as it takes up 99% - 100% Disk, my suggestion is looking up how to disable it (I can't remember :P ), it should be worth a shot, if it doesn't work then I don't know what causes it then.

[zombieland78 42]

Hmm, that really sounds like it makes sense actually. It could well be that Windows or something similar was working quite hidden in the background. He only played two times, the second time being when it was bad and hasn't tried since, but I'm almost willing to best that if he played a third time that it would be better, and that it was something running in the background. 

 

Worth a shot. Will report back.

 

Thanks :)

[ultimatehawkeye 0]

Also just to note if you do end up disabling automatic maintenance then I'd recommend performing maintenance manually at least once a month because the automatic maintenance acts almost like a Hoover cleaning up all of the unwanted stuff that takes up space.

[zombieland78 42]

right, well it's kind of odd. I asked him to fire up the game again, confident that it was something like Windows maintenance and thus would be quick now as opposed to last time. Sure enough it was quicker for him, at once stage getting up to 20 fps briefly (although a little up and down in quite short time frames).

 

So I told him my theory but he said he was aware of Windows maintenance, and when it was previously slow he had checked that every possible app and system tool was not running.

 

He's also tried Arma II Operation Arrowhead and said that was totally smooth.

[ultimatehawkeye 0]

Have you disabled antialiasing by any chance? When I get the chance later I'll check my settings and see if you have the same, antialiasing really took my fps down, as soon as I turned it off it went up to 30 fps.

Best of luck!

[zombieland78 42]

I'm pretty sure he tried that initially. Coz he basically went into his settings and turned everything so far down he could barely see anything. And was still getting about the same fps.

[ultimatehawkeye 0]

Have you tried pressing alt+tab whilst in game and then opening task manager fully an see if thee are any processes taking up space?

Have you tried Razer Gamebooster?

Post more specs also that'd be a good help

[zombieland78 42]

Will get him to install that Razer Gamebooster, thanks for the link.

 

Really annoying coz we had a session a couple of nights ago that was fine. He tried to join us again last night and got 2fps again. Same server, same everything. 

 

I'm fairly certain he's aware of any potentially draining processes running in the background. He also tried regular Arma II and it runs perfectly.

[zombieland78 42]

he just installed Razer and is now getting around 25fps!

 

won't hold our breath but so far it seems to be working :) many thanks for that suggestion. If it keeps happening I'll update so fingers crossed.