C&C Generals ZH runs too slow !!!

[JC Denton]

right...

Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
nVIdia GeForce FX 5600 XT
700 MB SDR RAM
120 GB 7200 rpm HDD

game settings are on LOW and the frame rate in most of the maps is crap,
like 12-20. i get a 30 FPS only at some maps for the first 5 minutes!
the last general mission in zero hour expansion pack even starts to freeze for a few seconds. that makes the game time as twice as long as real time, making a battle frustratily long and boring...

is there any way to improve the speed?
except new hardware, but i doubt CCG ZH cannot run properly on this machine...

[Got EpOx]

New graphics card i would recommend, also defragement your hard disk.

[Rondog]

He is about to buy an entire new PC. Why bother with a new video card for an out of date machine. His machine will become a 24/7 folder, when he buys his new one. I WILL make sure of it.

In the mean time, try pausing F@H.

[JC Denton]

LOL...first of all as i already told u on MSN, F@H is paused while playing games.
and that computer is still a pretty long way ( decided to gather more greens for a better machine )
and u wont have to make sure of anything couse folding is an action of my own

[GrahamGarside]

Can image quality not be reduced?

[JC Denton]

dude the settings are on LOW.

all fancy things ( cloud shadows, 2D and 3D shadows, heat effect, extra particles, water waves and texture quality ) have been reduced to zero.

[GrahamGarside]

What video driver version are you using?

[dsio]

Lets get this guy some help rather than calling his computer a piece of crap lol.

Now your starting point is the TweaksRUs.com Xtreme-G 77.77 modified driver from the AOA files section. Get it and install it pronto and you will get a nice little improvement.

Second, increase the size of your AGP aperature to 128MB if it isnt set to that already.

Then, go into the C&C settings and turn EAX and any 3D sound OFF completely. This could have quite an impact.

Then, go and overclock your GPU a little bit.

That should make it heaps better.

[hoinar]

Originally Posted by JC Denton

right...

Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
nVIdia GeForce FX 5600 XT
700 MB SDR RAM
120 GB 7200 rpm HDD

game settings are on LOW and the frame rate in most of the maps is crap,
like 12-20. i get a 30 FPS only at some maps for the first 5 minutes!
the last general mission in zero hour expansion pack even starts to freeze for a few seconds. that makes the game time as twice as long as real time, making a battle frustratily long and boring...

is there any way to improve the speed?
except new hardware, but i doubt CCG ZH cannot run properly on this machine...

Your pc should be powerfull enough for CC Generals
Try the last XG driver for your NVidia card (ask Dsio what's the best driver for your card) ...set all your options to High performance...clean temp files...defrag your hdd...free some space on the partition where you run the game (Win likes to work better when it has at least 15-20% free space on the partition you run the programs). If this does not work...try overclocking your CPU and video card ...and when you play...stop F@h...and any other unnecessary process/service
Tell us if you manage to play that one!

[hoinar]

Lol mate (Dsio) we were writing at the same time..

[dsio]

yea I know lol. Try what I mentioned above and tell us what the results are like as you go through that list, and we might be able to make other suggestioned based on that. Also I'm interested in how those tricks (especially EAX and the XG drivers) effect your system.

[chrisbard]

Dudes the problem is that CC Gen. is heavily CPU dependent !!! I would not play that game on something that has less than 2 Ghz CPU and 5700 GPU 128 bit 128 MB !

[Submariner]

What video resolution are you running CC ZH in? I have a friend who can get it to play reasonably well on small to medium size maps, with a Pentium3 1GHz cpu, a Gf4200 video card and 512MB RAM, but only at 800x600 res. Oh, you should see it when he tries to play certain 8player maps, so slow, I thought it froze up. This game is really good to check out his overclock, really warms up the cpu.

BTW Try turning the Particle Cap, in custom video, all the way down. This can slow things down.

[JC Denton]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

Dudes the problem is that CC Gen. is heavily CPU dependent !!! I would not play that game on something that has less than 2 Ghz CPU and 5700 GPU 128 bit 128 MB !

well due to lack of financial resources i am FORCED to play games on this old-timer for the time being.
_________________________________
CPU and GPU cannot be overclocked ( CPU is locked, GPU was already tried to be overclocked and that made things only worse )

i ll try HDD clean up and defrag but will have to wait till thursday so i can get blank DVDs to get rid of 4 seasons of Stargate SG-1 on my PC ( that takes about 32 GB )

and yeah the HDD is quite full ( only 3 GB empty from a total of 120 )

Dsio: where do i get those drivers ? although i think that i still havent updated teh original nVidia drivers...

the game is run on 1024x768.

[hoinar]

Chris, You would not! but he is forced to so let's help him find a way to play that game!

[hoinar]

Originally Posted by JC Denton

CPU and GPU cannot be overclocked ( CPU is locked, GPU was already tried to be overclocked and that made things only worse )

That's not possible! It must be a way! You just need to find it

Originally Posted by JC Denton

Dsio: where do i get those drivers ? although i think that i still havent updated teh original nVidia drivers...

http://files.aoaforums.com/

Originally Posted by JC Denton

the game is run on 1024x768.

Dude...try lower
Cheers!!

[dsio]

Go to www.aoafiles.com and under drivers-> Nvidia -> TweaksRUs.com Xtreme-G 77.77 Driver.

Make sure when you install it, you use the Geforce FX option in the installer!

If you are still using the "came in box" drivers, expect a 20-40% improvement in performance and far better image quality.

I would try running at 800x600, but the drivers could let you run at 1024x768.

Your CPU is only multiplier locked, not FSB locked. By increasing the FSB, you can overclock that CPU considerably. The 1.4Ghz P4 I would imagine is very under-stressed and would OC quite nicely depending on your motherboard.

As for GPU overclocking, lets put that on hold for now and get you sorted driver wise. Overclocking is never as effective if you dont tune your system first.

Also what is your motherboard?

[aghastpumpkin]

Best thing to do is delete the "Options.ini" file in your My Documents folder, under a folder named "C&C Generals: Zero Hour."
This fixes any bugs and running issues you may have. It's a problem with the game, I found this solution ymself on EAs website, just delete this and it resets your options and should sort out any bugs.
Works a treat for me.

[Got EpOx]

Koowl, hope afghasts solution sorts it out. Also try raising your FSB if you can. I did with mine and i now achieve a 2.7Ghz overclock compared to 2.4.

[Submariner]

Do you have the latest CC ZH 1.04 patch for the game?

On a slower system, accessing the CD/DVD drive, may also cause slow downs. Do you have the DMA setting on for the drive if it supports it, or even better a nocd patch?