[806][Performance] Perf. degradation with latest iteration of the game

Hi,

The latest beta update has degraded performance to the point of not being able to beta test 3A anymore. When in the main menu, music doesn't play smootly, the new game dialogs are slow, and the background that "scrolls" isn't smooth either. After checking, those are symptoms of having the cpu's run at 100%.

My unorthodox setup is as follow:

Processor: AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 246,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM  
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
Display device name: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
Sound device name: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio

Please note that Beta 3A used to be working decently once the eye candies are disabled.

~~

Thank you for this wonderful game! :)

2,738 views 15 replies
Reply #1 Top

My system also suffers from degraded performance during the main menu screen.  The background that is supposed to scroll only does so grudgingly in fits and starts.  The last beta build, I had no problems during the startup menu.

 

CPU: AMD X2 4600

Mem: 4 gig

OS: Win Xp 32 bit, SP 3

Video card: ATI Radeon 3850

Sound: onboard: Realtek AC 97

Reply #2 Top

yup, performance has been getting worse and worse with every build. It's still playable but it is very uncomfortable. my computer is reasonably powerful too (3.0ghz dual core e8400, 4gb ram, 9800gtx+ 512mb).

Reply #3 Top

806 is DEFINATELY unplayable on my athlon x2 5200 w 4gb ddr2 800 gf7600gs EVEN in clothmap.

especially as all I can see is FOG and the music is stuttering which 805 did not, and was playable.

harpo

Reply #4 Top

Same here.

My stuff:
Windows XP
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.2 GHz
Graphics card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX
Sound card:
Creative SB X-Fi
1 GB Ram
189 GB hard drive

 

Reply #5 Top

Same here. 100% cpu usage in main menu and in the game. Laggy in game since 3A

 

Windows 7

Intel E8400@3200

Radeon 4870

4gb memory

M-Audio Revolution 7.1

 

Reply #6 Top

I would not say it is unplayable, it reminds me of playing Masters of Orion on an 33 Mhz 386 system but it is not unplayable. You just have to make sure you don't get button happy while waiting for CPU to catch up. If not you will have a lock up or CTD! I do agree the game is not running the way I believe they intended it to. Things seem to get real slow as the game progresses, not sure if it has do to the with the Goody Hut explosion of just more stuff being on the screen, or something else entirely. The big slowdown seems to come when you get a sizable army together. Well sizable being around 10, but just to make a 3 tile move with my Sov, and about 9 others, it was like I could almost see the Data Cycle working right in front of me. I could see the individual frames of the animation, and music sounded like it skipped.

Windows 7 64 bit

AMD 7850 Dual Core  2.8Ghz running at 3.01Ghz

Ati Radeon 4350, yea I know!

4 Gb DDR2 800 Mhz

Realtek HD Audio 7.1 Onboard AC 97

Reply #7 Top

I only have experience from Beta 3 and now Beta 3A. At least from those two, the Beta 3A build runs much less smoothly than Beta 3 did for me. I play the game on 1920x1200, everything maxed out which was fine in Beta 3. Now the main title screen has these cross hair lines running through it whenever I load and the back scrolling scene is extremely stuttery.

 

I have a fairly powerful system:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Intel Core i7 920 2.67Ghz running at 3.6Ghz

Nvidia GeForce GTX 295

6Gb DDR3 1800Mhz

Whatever onboard audio I have :p

 

Brad made a comment before that they noticed that more powerful systems had a greater difficulty with the game for whatever reason.

 

 

Reply #8 Top

Slow here as well... maybe the monster respawn and grouping functions are taking up too much resources / polling constantly?  It somewhat makes sense since those activities are always on.

By the way.. when I could not, reasonblity, play a medium map I moved to small and it runs smoother.. but still so-so.

System is a little dated, but should be more than adequate considering I threw frame rates down to 1/4 on the slider.. and lowered a bunch of things including down to 1600x1040 or so res.

Win 7 Pro 32 bit

Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.0ghz)

Nvidia 7900GO

2GB

Reply #9 Top

Still slow here - while I won't say it got worse and maybe a little better, but it's still jumpy/choppy/slow - especially music and graphics. Music is probably the worst for me, performance-wise with graphics (scroll background, opening movie, map scrolling (not the movement of the map, but when it has to load a new section of map - things freeze for a bit).

System specs:

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp.051011-1528)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~2.4GHz
Physical Memory: 2046MB RAM

Display Info
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
Display Memory: 1024.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (70Hz)

Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB Live! 24-bit External

Reply #10 Top

this last build has made the beta practiacly impossible to play

also i keep careful control of my grafic cards heat  and  normal runing lvl for  beta 2 was 49 degree when the fan is on max

this last build 806 has made my grafic card jump to 63 degrees when the fan is on max 

 

NVIDIA GeForce gts 8800 512

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2,83GHz / 12MB

4gb ram

vista 64

Reply #11 Top

My Game starts out great initially, but starts to slow a bit towards higher activity (medium map, 4 opponents, 4 sub opponents).   Near the end its uncomfortable, have to right click for a move then wait 3-10 seconds for the game to register the move.  Similar with end turns.

 

athlon x2 3800

4gb ram

ati radeon 4700 series

XP SP 3

Reply #12 Top

Terrible performance for me too.

 

Windows XP SP 3, Nvidia 260 GTX, 2 gigs ram, Intel Duo Core 6700 @ 3.00 ghz

Reply #13 Top

For me the performance is OK until I enter any of the kingdom screens (e.g. Technology screen) or the shop for the first time.

Immediately after that the graphics slow down so much that it takes about 30 seconds for a notification to appear and it sounds like the hard disk is accessed for every new frame.

This was not an issue on 805.

 

Windows XP SP3

Intel Duo Core 1.86 GHz, 1 GB RAM

NVidia GeForce 7650GS 256 MB

Reply #14 Top

Getting very low FPS (10-15) in the main menu and in-game as well.

 

Win 7 x64

E8400 3.6 Ghz

ATI 5770 1 GB

4 GB RAM

Intel X25M 80 GB SSD

Reply #15 Top

Full Window Mode is very poor. Crashes in +/- 25 turns, if that. In Windowed mode, better, 400-500, slows as you go turns, then BAM! Memory out.

I did read that they have found a Major Memory Leak and a code bit/byte that was totally out of whack. checks with N^2 or some such nonsense.

One last update before lock down should correct those. ;)


Windows Vista 64-bit

Quad core 9300 2.5ghz

7 GB On-board Ram

ATI Radeon 4850 X2