NWN & Graphic Cards [Post & Review your Rigs]

[Baaleos]

               Graphics Card Manufacturer: nVidia
Mode: Geforce gtx 460se
Memory: 1GB
OS: Windows 7 x64
OS Ram: 8GB
Processor Spec: AMD Phenom X4 64 Black Edition Quad Core @ 3.2ghz


Observations: While the graphic quality is very crisp etc, there are still slow downs and stutteryness - particularly when a group of creatures with cloth/clothing are running across the screen. Sometimes this results in Spagettification of Isaacs Greater Missile Storm, which ends up looking like big blue/white stretched lines across the screen for a second or two.

Unsure if this is because the graphics card is 'too' new or 'too' good for nwn, which is over a Decade old now.

On other games - The Old Republic, Skyrim, Garrys Mod, Dark Messiah, Half Life 2, and other visually intensive games, I can run them at high-Ultra settings and get at least 60-80 fps.

On NWN, I get 100 while idle, and not moving, and then it drops to around 27 or so in combat, and then to 15 or 10 in bad combat situations.


I am now upgrading to a Geforce gtx 580 - 3gb Video Ram(£500)
I wonder what the performance will be like on nwn, or will it stay the same?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Daralen]

               Alienware (Dell) M18x notebook
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (fully updated at the time of this posting)
Intel Core i7-2920XM @ 2.5Ghz
32GB DDR3 @ 1333Mhz
2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 460M @ 675Mhz with 1.5GB GDDR5 each, in SLI mode (latest firmware and (DELL) drivers as of this posting)
Seagate ST9750420AS 750GB HDD @ 7200RPM with 173GB free

According to FRAPS, I'm averaging around 15 FPS while wandering around Beggar's Nest.  I haven't even tested it with combat yet, but I'm sure it'll be even worse than that.  I've also noticed the FPS jump around a lot as well.  Sometimes it spikes up to 100~ for a few seconds.

The driver for my GPU is nearly a year old.  I believe it's some kind of repackaged Dell driver because when I first got this rig and tried running nVidia's updater, it told me I should get my drivers from my manufacturer.  Recently I checked again and there was a driver version I could get from nVidia, but that it may not work properly.  I gave it a try and noticed some oddities with other games (artifacts with Civ 5, etc.) so I reverted to the old ones.  Since I've been trying to get NWN up and running decently on this box in the past couple of weeks, I'll likely give the new driver a try again and see how it does.

I also haven't experimented much with the in-game video settings.  I did try setting up a profile for NWN in the nVidia control panel, but I'm not sure that it had the slightest affect on the game (I may need to setup the profile for NWNMAIN).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Empyre65]

               Maybe the multiple CPU cores is causing the problem. I remember years ago when I upgraded from an Athlon XP 3200+ to a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 6000+, NWN went from frames per second to literally minutes per frame. I could actually watch it slowly draw a frame. I don't remember the exact fix, but it involved making NWN use only one core. Look around the forums, and you'll find the fix I'm talking about.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_L_and_P21]

               if i remember correctly you have to go into nwconfig.ini file and change the number of cpus. for some reason i can recall someone saying that setting it to -1 helped. i am going to play around with this for a bit today

edit: the other thing i remember when i was asking a question about performance on the old forums was that someone mentioned having hardware sound enabled. i have an eclaro and for some reason i cannot enable hardware sound. so you might want to double check that for the performance
               
               

               

                     Modifié par L_and_P21, 21 janvier 2012 - 06:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Daralen]

               What I've tried so far:

1.  Turned off (or down as low as they go) all graphics options
2.  800x600 resolution (normally I run 1920x1080)
3.  Turned off hardware sound
4.  Client CPU Affinity=-1 and -2
5.  nwnmain.exe in compatibility mode for WinXP SP3

None of these has had any affect on my FPS that I can see.  FRAPS still reports an abysmally low 15 FPS when wandering around Beggar's Nest.  I'm about to give the new drivers I mentioned above, a try finally.  I'll post the results soon.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Daralen]

               The new driver seems to have made a huge difference.  My FPS generally stays over 100, can dip to around 60 in combat and occassionally drops down to about 30 for brief periods.  Here's what I had and what I'm using now:

Old:  267.64  (4/19/2011)
New:  285.62  (10/24/2011)

The nVidia website no longer mentions that I may have problems with this latest driver either.  I'm still seeing some tearing, but overall things seem to be running much smoother.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Artas1984]

               Phenom II X6 processor
8 Gb DDR3 in quad DIMM dual channel
Gigabyte 890GX motherboard
integrated AMD HD4290 with 128 Mb DDR3 side port memory (not shared)
1600x1200 resolution monitor
Windows 7 64 bit

Observations:

1) 1.68 would not even start
2) 1.69 freezes from time to time
3) sometimes game saves are deleted after crash
4) game is laggy on higher settings..
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Artas1984, 03 février 2012 - 04:30 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TimG]

               I have several PC's with NWN loaded.  The best performers I have are 9800GT Zotacs (in two units, one Win7 Systemax w I7 processor and one HP with XP Pro).  On stats the HP ought to be a dog and it is blazing fast.  The two Dells are both better processors and more RAM but are much lower FPS.  They have PNY Quadro cards 512mb each.  I just orded a Zotac GT520 and a PNY GT430 to try.  One Dell has a 1gb ATI 5450 (I think)? and it runs good FPS but can't handle shiny water.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               Quadros aren't for games, but neither is a GT 520.  I don't think the 520 is nearly as powerful as an HD 5450, and the 5450 is pretty weak sauce.  The 430 should be better than either the HD 5450 or the 520 (here is a comparison in which the 430 appears to be TWICE as good as the 520).

www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 03 mars 2012 - 11:56 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TimG]

               Truth is I don't know enough about the cards to even understand the comparison chart.  As soon as I get to try the GT430 and the 520 I'll post some results.  Anything these days is light years ahead of what was available when NWN was hot so it confuses me that FPS can be a struggle.  I follow the threads on video card selection but  as the phrase goes: "your mileage may vary".  The Quadro card on one of the work PC's has been a really good card.  When I had the chance to get one for home I thought it'd be okay.  The images are great but the FPS is low.  If I lower the resolution it gets better quick though.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               The Quadro is for CREATING new graphics elements, and is optimized for that usage, not for displaying high speed animated video.  The public continues to want cheap junk video cards like the GT 520, so the producers keep on churning them out.  Newness is meaningless when low price and low quality is the desired pair of determinants.  

The GT 430 was specifically designed for use in home entertainment PCs, for dealing with digitally stored movies and other video material.  It was about the same as the GT 240 card, an older model gaming card, and held its own for awhile with budget level cards such as the HD 5570 and HD 6570 Radeons.  Both the 240 and the 430 have been surpassed by Radeon graphics functions built into the Trinity family of AMD CPUs (referred to as "APUs" to reflect the addition of medium quality gaming level graphics at no extra cost).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TimG]

               You are certainly correct about the GT520, it is weaker than the EAH5450 by a good bit.  FPS during combat dropped into the teens with the 520 and stayed above 30 with the ATI card.  The GT520 is a Zotac 2gb, the Ati IS A 1g ASUS.  This is a clean Dell Optiplex  745 w/ XP Pro.  No other changes than the card.  I can't try the PNY GT430 yet as it was missing the low profile brackets.  I wonder if I should update the ATI drivers?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TimG]

               Just for kicks I updated the ATI drivers and seem to have lost some FPS.  From high thirties to high twenties in combat.  I may try rolling them back and retesting but no today as it is supper time.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               

Artas1984 wrote...

Phenom II X6 processor
8 Gb DDR3 in quad DIMM dual channel
Gigabyte 890GX motherboard
integrated AMD HD4290 with 128 Mb DDR3 side port memory (not shared)
1600x1200 resolution monitor
Windows 7 64 bit

Observations:

1) 1.68 would not even start
2) 1.69 freezes from time to time
3) sometimes game saves are deleted after crash
4) game is laggy on higher settings..

The 4290 is exremely weak sauce, even among chipset video chips.  You really need the add-on graphics card, something like an HD 7770.  That display is just MILES beyond what any onboard chip  is able to cope with.  Remember, when NWN was new, the high end displays were today's mediums. 
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               

TimG wrote...

You are certainly correct about the GT520, it is weaker than the EAH5450 by a good bit.  FPS during combat dropped into the teens with the 520 and stayed above 30 with the ATI card.  The GT520 is a Zotac 2gb, the Ati IS A 1g ASUS.  This is a clean Dell Optiplex  745 w/ XP Pro.  No other changes than the card.  I can't try the PNY GT430 yet as it was missing the low profile brackets.  I wonder if I should update the ATI drivers?

Both the HD 5450 and the GT 520 are "64 bit" cards.  They have very narrow memory systems, so that piling on loads of VRAM is totally meaningless in a gaming context.  Neither one will regularly use more than only 128 MBs of VRAM in a game, because the memory bandwidth is so narrow.  I don't think they ever have enough speed to occasionally use 256 MBs of RAM in certain circumstances the way many 128 bit Medium level cards can use 512 MBs occasionally, above their usual 256 MBs. 

Incidentally, I really do recommend tossing out that terrible skinny PC case you have, in favor of a normal one, with normal internal airflow for cooling.  

Gorath