Low Fps issue ONLY online

[Jose Neira]

Hi all ive been having this problem which completely destroys enjoyment of the game

this is the scenario I play online for a bit say a few hours possibly evan a day then the game starts to loose frame rate down to about 10-15 or less and very unsmooth

but If I go offline the frame rates are fine 40-50 (im not sure how to check )

The only way to rectify this issue is to restart the pc and sometimes as well reboot the router as well.

So far ive tried to remove mods and re-install the games & re-install steam none of which seemed to have worked. Im now going to remove all the skins ive also tried a system restore , but machine refused to restore also ran AV and even double checked port forwarding and made a dedicated server to make sure it wasnt a firewall issue nothing so far has worked

Ill see what happens with the skins but to be honest im not hoefull

as well on game exit race 07 always crashes (EVEN AFTER I REINSTALLED IT AND STEAM) im sure this is connected to the same problem...

Like i said this only occurs ONLINE and only after a period of time....


Anyone got any ideas to resolve this please? im running out P

thx

Addum...

Removing the skins folder had no effect other than stopping the game crashing on exit. going to restart pc an see how it goes.... I know will work ok for a while but will the problem come back???


System

OS...... Window professional x64 edition sp2
Memory...... 5 gb ddr2667 premium memory
Motherboard....... Asus M2n4-sli
GPU....... Bfg Geforce 8800gtx 768mb
Processor....... AMD athlon 5200+ x2 x64
Antivirus....... Bifdefender total security 2011


Someone MUST know something plz help )

thx

 

[Dave Flower]

You've already worked out the crashing on exit being due to a bad car skin - If you want skins in game then I suggest reinstalling gradually - Its probably going to be one or two bad skins that are causing that problem - just reinstall a few at a time until you get the crash then remove those and install one at a time until you narrow it down to the bad one - keep a list so you know which youv'e installled.

The low FPS after a few hours sounds like what happens when an antivirus scan starts in the background or when security software starts to update. It could be some other program that auto updates itself, maybe even Windows Update. You could try disabling Windows Auto Update and your Security Package Auto Update and Scheduled Scan features and seeing if this solves the problem - but you MUST remember to manually update these - Programs that automatically update or run Scans are not Gamer Friendly as they always seem to do it just as your about to put the perfect lap in !

If that still doesn't solve it try ALT/TAB ing to desktop then CTRL/ALT/DEL to get task manager up when the low FPS kicks in - see if there is an Application running that shouldn't be or click on Processes and then sort them by CPU and then by Memory to see if you can identify what Process is hogging CPU and/or Memory.

If your still having problems are you sure you don't have overheating problems - its very unlikely after such a long time but if your system is getting too hot and 'throttling' back that could possibly cause the low FPS. I don't know about your hardware but just throw it in as a possible.

If its not any of the above are you sure your connection isn't slowing down? I remember when I was on a slower connection in my last place I had to more or less forget gaming at around 6-8pm at night - the only plausible reason being that there were a lot of people on the same exchange all arriving home from work and switching their pc's and the 50:1 contention ratio that I was on really did become 50:1... :frown:. Your may not be the same cause as that but could it be the connection in some way?

I hope you solve it and if you do please post saying how, so hopefully someone else doesn't have the same uninstall reinstall uninstall reinstall frustration that you have had..

 

[Jose Neira]

hi thx for replying Dave iv'e been reading your comments with plenty of thought:

Yes your right that would be the best way to find the skins causing the ctds and this would resolve this issue

however its this fps issue thats really the cause of my pains. The point about overheating could really of been the probabable cause cept for 1 main obstacle; why wouldn't it also effect the game offline?? whereby it runs perfectly so with this knowledge I dissmiss this possibility unless you know otherwise

anti virus hmm the thing is I use gamemode which I think stops these processes from happening in game

THe idea about opening task manager is one im not sure exactly how to go about; what should I be looking for in the task manager? I don,t think I saw anything suspicious but im not sure what im looking for?

Usually when win auto updates is under operation my pc will promt me to reboot just afterwards and this hasn't been the case

This point about the connection.. when you say are you sure your connection isnt slowing you down I would say yes BUT something i believe is getting into the system or program which is effecting this... I keep thinking rebooting solves the problem temporarily what changes does this have on the system and on the game? as that could be where to look

I KNOW that re-installing windows after a drive format would solve the issue but I don't want to do that 1 because its too much hassle but also because that is not actually going to find out the problem.. I don't have this scenario with any other game.. so does somebody at simbin who knows about the technical issues understand what could be the problem?

I will eventually if ALL ELSE FAILS re-install the os but only as a last resort as imo this is defeatist and also very time consuming

 

[Jim Cole]

How long are you staying connected before you see the fps drop?
How often do you reboot your system normally without doing it because the slowdown on fps?
How often do you shut your computer down and give it a rest?
How do you connect to the internet? What is your network setup? By this I mean are you on cable, DSL, ADSL or dialup? Is your network set to go directly to the internet through a modem, or are you setup to use a router as well as a modem? Keep in mind that the modem provided by your ISP for cable or DSL is still just a modem and not a router unless you have specifically been given a router version of their modem.

In your description of your system you don't specify which Windows OS you are using, just that it is the professional version and 64bit.

As for using the task manager, what was suggested is looking to see what application or service is using all of the resources during those periods when your fps slows down. Sort the list by clicking on the header for the column and sort by CPU usage and then again by memory usage to see what is using the most. If it is the game, then look at the second one in the list and see what that is.

Your system is an older system so your resources are going to be taxed a bit trying to run the game, and having to manage an internet connection at the same time can be part of the reason as that is more system overhead that has to be handled in order to play the game. Offline uses less system resources due to that fact and so might be part of the reason that you are seeing better performance from this mode.

In my opinion, and it is fairly well based on experience and education, your issue is due to a background task running when you least need it to and it is taking away from the game. What I would suggest is to start the task manager before you even start racing and look for tasks that you are sure you don't need to have running while you are racing. If you are unsure what the tasks are, do a search for them on the internet and see if you can find a decent description of the task and what it is used for. I have a total of 9 seperate tasks that have to run when I start my racing for the day. Those 9 are essential to being able to play online as well as being able to run windows in general.

 

[Jose Neira]

Lots of question s hehe but thats ok im just gratefull for some feedback as I don't know ho to resolve this problem )




How long are you staying connected before you see the fps drop?

It's usually a few hours very hard to be accurate but maybe somewhere between 3-6







How often do you reboot your system normally without doing it because the slowdown on fps?

Im not sure why you want to know this but my answer is a few times as needed, because the more times you restart, the more chance you have off a failure. I PC engineer once told me every time you reboot there is NO guarantee that it will succeed its like using up the mboards processor psu etc etc life expectancy at a faster rate. whilst leaving it on only puts greater workload on the fans and cooling system








How often do you shut your computer down and give it a rest?

this is answered above although it is usually just idle not running accessed programs just the ones that run in the background automatically the reason is explained above










How do you connect to the internet? What is your network setup? By this I mean are you on cable, DSL, ADSL or dialup? Is your network set to go directly to the internet through a modem, or are you setup to use a router as well as a modem? Keep in mind that the modem provided by your ISP for cable or DSL is still just a modem and not a router unless you have specifically been given a router version of their modem.

My su is adsl broadband 6 mb down and about .7 mb up with ive been told a low noise attenuation?
I use a (modem) router which has been portforwarded to allow the game to run without firewall issues my router is: Router: Netgear V2 DG934G








In your description of your system you don't specify which Windows OS you are using, just that it is the professional version and 64bit.


My OS: is windows xp professional x64 edition





Your idea I guess sound feasable to look at TM as I also think some background task is interfering with the system however im no expert. However im thinking when the game is running and particuarly when the problem arises if I took a screen shot of the task manager processess and posted them here do you think those who have more of an idea could possible identify what task could be interfering with the operation of the game? Remeber that this problem is NEVER apparent offline even when it starts and I go offline to check it isn't there anymore I also never have this usse with any other games ive run online )


Really appreciate your response, oh just to add im sure the leaving the machine on most of the time and as you put it not allowing it to "rest" is not really relevant because iv'e had the game and the machine for ages it this never happend in the past though i used the same policy

Please if you or anyone has any ideas or a solution something to check etc please let me know. I believe i'm going to need any and all the help I can to resolve this so appreciate any information I can get


thx

 

[Jim Cole]

I am willing to have a look at the screen shot of your running tasks and make suggestions.

As for the turning off of the machine, well leaving it on also has it's issues and neither is much of an issue any more. With the Windows operating system though, there have been and probably will always be memory issues which can't really be sorted out without a shutdown or at minimum a reboot of the pc. If need be, you can always pm me to get a bit more in depth into the troubleshooting of the system. I would also be willing to talk to you via steam or teamspeak to help out as well.

 

[Jose Neira]

Cheers man thx

Ill get back to you soon Jim

If anyone else has any suggestions help solution etc please feel free i appreciate any help ) imo the more feedback I get the more chance of understang this issue

Thx all

 

[Jose Neira]

hmm well Iv'e a feeling my only solution is going to be a complete re-install which is more of a pain in the butt than you might think for me

On top of the what ive tried above ive now tried anything else I could think of


changed the msconfig file to edit start up items

Looked into microsoft services and changed the background services running basically ive reduced this greatly in a hope of saving bandwidth

Downloaded

5.05.25.00_ntune_winxp_international.exe this was to monitor temperatures my results were usefull but in my view in no way concrete

GFX card seems to be running Hotter than it prob should between 85-93 deg C While the processor is running between 49-55 deg C and motherboard about 40 C which in both cases is cooler than expected

What get me about the card though is that its running at this temp regardless of whether i'm online or offline and/or regardless of whether iv'e recently rebooted (no fps drag) or not .... So does this point at the problem being the card?? im not convinced , however soon im updating the machine new card new processor and another fan

I have a strong feeling this WONT solve this issue based on what I already know... and im pretty sure re-installing the OS will but if thats the case there REALLY should be something else I can do... just don't know what it could be...

Sigh...

 

[Jim Cole]

First off, if your graphics card is sitting over 35 to 40 when idle, or over 80 when under load, then there is a cooling problem there. This in turn can create quite a bit of system irregularities. It is possible that the graphics load isn't nearly as much offline due to the system not having to hash out network code as well as local code. I know this doesn't pertain to a load on the graphics card, but if it takes up CPU time and in offline mode the game is able to pass part of the load to the CPU, then this could well be the case.

Your task manager is looking pretty clean. Seems you have your antivirus, audio and general system stuff, though I would kill the google toolbar myself as I hate those things

The very first thing I would do is troubleshoot the graphics card as getting this resolved may well resolve the other issues too. Another thing to consider is that nVidia's drivers have not been the most stable lately and it is possible that you might need to load an older version to get better stability. Make sure the fan is clear and clean. make sure it is running when you have the computer on. Find out if there is a setting that specifically sets the fan speed to a single speed and that's it.

 

[Jose Neira]

It maybe some time before I can upgrade my system bu you might want to know something I found out

At the moment the situation is the game works fine offline always, but if I play online I have the FPS issues after a period, and the only remedy is to re-boot the system then the game works fine both on & offline for a limited period

If however I close down the net connection when I reboot and then try playing the game online after lets say a few hours or many hours it works fine for a limited period whereas if I leave the internet on and try play the game online after a few hours, it will immidiatley have the FPS problem (even though I just started playing the game ).. This is why I believe the issue is caused by a net issue, I have recently disabled plugin-container for my browser firefox as that was causing cpu issues(apparently some bug in the software) and I think this whole problem is something similar to this, though I don't know what even though the cards temp is a little high

 

[Jim Cole]

It definately sounds like something with the internet is causing this. Have no idea what it might be though as you have very little running right now that I can tell.

 

[Jose Neira]

I sorted it, but TBH I could of done that without posting this thread and trying anything else as the sympoms were telling me it was software/net related and not hardware

Re-installed windows but that didn't let me figue out what the problem was :-( which is why I posted this thread in the first place, Would of liked to of figured out the cause incase it repeats and or somebody else has the same problem which believe me totally destroys enjoyment of the game for online play

So if anyone knows anything more plz 'id still like to know as many others would to I think


Thx

 

[Adam Jonas]

I sorted it, but TBH I could of done that without posting this thread and trying anything else as the sympoms were telling me it was software/net related and not hardware

Re-installed windows but that didn't let me figue out what the problem was :-( which is why I posted this thread in the first place, Would of liked to of figured out the cause incase it repeats and or somebody else has the same problem which believe me totally destroys enjoyment of the game for online play

So if anyone knows anything more plz 'id still like to know as many others would to I think


Thx

How much is your internet speed?

I'm not joking, but since I've switched to 5 Mbit download speed instead of 1 Mbit, my online FPS looks so good - at high graphics level, too!

 

[Jim Cole]

With his low fps online only after being on for a while I don't think it is directly related to his download package, but more likely related to something allocating resources and not releasing them properly.