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Performance issue with Windows 7


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Hi guys,

 

I recently re-installed Sacred 2 Ice and Blood version 2.65.1 on my PC and have been have a massive amount of performance issues, the game is choppy to the point where is is almost unplayable.

 

I have upgraded to Window 7 home edition recently and have even had problems playing flash games they are also choppy and laggy.

 

Solutions I have tried are... defraging, updating drivers, running the game in the lowest possible graphics, and shutting down most background programs.

 

My system specs...

 

Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz

2gb ram

Nvidea 8600 GT graphics card

 

As many solutions as I can get would be great, also I'm not the best with PC's so please keep that in mind when posting your technical answers (lol).

 

Thanks a lot in advance guys.

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Thanks for the link Dreeft.

 

While that did increase the general performance of my PC my Sacred 2 is still almost unplayable.

 

Back when I had Windows xp I could play on elite graphics and barley can any performance issues, now I can't even play on minimal graphics.

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Hi guys,

 

I recently re-installed Sacred 2 Ice and Blood version 2.65.1 on my PC and have been have a massive amount of performance issues, the game is choppy to the point where is is almost unplayable.

 

I have upgraded to Window 7 home edition recently and have even had problems playing flash games they are also choppy and laggy.

 

Solutions I have tried are... defraging, updating drivers, running the game in the lowest possible graphics, and shutting down most background programs.

 

My system specs...

 

Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz

2gb ram

Nvidea 8600 GT graphics card

 

As many solutions as I can get would be great, also I'm not the best with PC's so please keep that in mind when posting your technical answers (lol).

 

Thanks a lot in advance guys.

 

Exactly how old is that system you're trying to play on? Is that P4 chip a single core or dual core? That MAY be part of the problem - while it is a reasonably fast chip, it may not be up to doing the game justice. Especially if it's a single core.

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It is a single core, but even back when I had Window XP I could play on maximum graphics with Elite Textures on and I never had a problem.

 

The system itself isn't that old, everything has been upgraded to new in the past 12 months, except the graphics card.

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It is a single core, but even back when I had Window XP I could play on maximum graphics with Elite Textures on and I never had a problem.

 

The system itself isn't that old, everything has been upgraded to new in the past 12 months, except the graphics card.

 

Hmm.. My system is somewhat like yours. Except it's based on an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz) and my video card is a bit newer (Nvidia GT220). I'm also running the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Professional. I also have 3 GB of dual channeled RAM. Before I upgraded the RAM to 3 GB, I, too had similar issues playing the game. I also had an Athlon 64 single core previously. The upgrade that made the biggest difference - was RAM. Might want to disable any antivirus while you're playing and any other things running in your system tray.

 

One thing you can do - check the Windows Experience Index numbers. Look at the numbers - Sacred 2 runs best with a 4.8 or better rating on the CPU, RAM and video.

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Not sure if this solution is feasible for you, but it's what I ended up doing. I had Windows 7 64 bit and basically had same issues.

 

I ended up dual booting my pc with Win 7 and XP 64 bit. Play Sacred only in XP and all my crashes/performance issues went away. It's real easy to dual boot too from an existing Win 7 install. I can find the link/instructions that I used if you're interested.

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I had similar problem with Ice & Blood, but it did work though slowly and jerky. Then Gogoblaster posted about this Advanced System Care which is a availabe to download and has a free package option. It improved my performance wonderfully, but more to the point, one of its free associate program 'Game Booster' enables you to suspend system software that you don't use when gaming. THAT soved my problems and I now play Ice & Blood without any problems.

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Wow, thanks for all of the support guys.

 

@Wolfie2kX I have no idea where to find that one, lol.

 

@Knuckles I would love to dual boot Windows XP, but I only have my activation key and no xp CD itself.

 

@Podgie Bear I am downloading that now and will post again with my results.

 

Thanks again guys.

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Wow, thanks for all of the support guys.

 

@Wolfie2kX I have no idea where to find that one, lol.

 

@Knuckles I would love to dual boot Windows XP, but I only have my activation key and no xp CD itself.

 

@Podgie Bear I am downloading that now and will post again with my results.

 

Thanks again guys.

 

Simple enough - Click the Start button and find the Computer icon on the right hand side. Right-click on it and select Properties. The 2nd section from the top that says System should have an overall rating for your system. Simply click the link that says Windows Experience Index.

 

OR..

 

Simply Click the start button and then type in Windows Experience Index and it should show up on the express search for the start menu. Let us know what you've got...

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Wow, thanks for all of the support guys.

 

@Wolfie2kX I have no idea where to find that one, lol.

 

@Knuckles I would love to dual boot Windows XP, but I only have my activation key and no xp CD itself.

 

@Podgie Bear I am downloading that now and will post again with my results.

 

Thanks again guys.

 

Hey Hacksaw!

 

Along with these great suggestions we have had several threads over the last year with tweaks for Windows 7

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13567

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?sh...c=16965&hl=

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?sh...c=13627&hl=

 

All have been very helpfull

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Thank you Loco, I have tried all ideas except dual booting, I think the problem is that my CPU is spiking for some reason, even opening a web page takes it to 50-100%.

 

My Windows Experience Index score is 3.9, but none of my hardware has had any changes since I had XP.

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Thank you Loco, I have tried all ideas except dual booting, I think the problem is that my CPU is spiking for some reason, even opening a web page takes it to 50-100%.

 

My Windows Experience Index score is 3.9, but none of my hardware has had any changes since I had XP.

 

Are you having crashes to the desktop or what I call rubberbanding ( where the framerate slows then catches up while your running) like lag

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I'm not crashing, just rubber banding and getting a very low frame rate.

 

Nothing I do seems to work, I really wanted to get back into PC Sacred 2.

 

One thing I have noticed about Win7 in general is that just like Vista it is a resource hog. I gave my boys my old Dell Dual Core Pentium D at 2.8Ghz with 1Gb of ram and it is a dog running Vista or Win7 so that machine is destined to stay on XP until it dies.

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I think I will revert back to XP if I can ever get my hands in a disc, and some drivers, I don't think XP comes with all the drivers I need for sounds and things.

 

I do have a genuine activation key.

Edited by Hacksaw32
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Ask your friends/neighbors/co-workers etc for the disc and just use your activation key. As far as all the drivers, Windows should have several generic ones to get you started and then just go to the manufacturer's website and get the updated ones. One thing I would do though is get your Ethernet NIC/Card drivers before upgrading. I forgot to and had a bit of a hassle getting back online. Had to go on another pc and download there

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Sorry to hear that. I, on the contrary, would never change back to xp. I'd say Seven is best Windows OS I've ever used. Can't really say what could be the whole reason for your problems, really.

That memory should be sufficient. Running Seven with same amount and everything works smootly. No probs with Sacred 2 either. Though, truth to be told, I use dual core Athlon for CPU. That really is best for Sacred and Seven.

Just my two cents. ^^

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One thing I have noticed about Win7 in general is that just like Vista it is a resource hog. I gave my boys my old Dell Dual Core Pentium D at 2.8Ghz with 1Gb of ram and it is a dog running Vista or Win7 so that machine is destined to stay on XP until it dies.

 

Really? My Win 7 box is hardly a problem when it comes to resources. It ran Sacred 1 ontop of Win 7 Beta and RC just fine. The box was configured - at the time - with an Athlon 64 3400+ CPU Single Core (2.2 GHz) and 1 GB of RAM (2x512 MB) in a dual channel configuration. And it ran everything including Sacred 1 just fine.

 

It wasn't until I got to Sacred 2 and all the 3D stuff that I started getting into slideshow mode... I couldn't walk through Slowford from the point where you get Tutorial Hirelings to the North exit in less than 5 minutes. That's without stopping to visit the merchant or runemaster. (Yes, I know it's Sloeford - just making a joke)...

 

Adding a couple of GBs of RAM (2x1 GB) also in a dual channel configuration solved most of the bogging. But if I'm just doing work stuff on this system, there's just no problems with resources.

 

Right now, I've got IE 8 open with 11 tabs, Windows Explorer and PaintShop Pro 7 with one picture open and Task Manager is reporting memory usage is at about 1 GB. I had Sacred 2 open as well until a few minutes ago.

 

Now, when you installed Win 7 on that box - did you do it by way of a clean install or an upgrade?

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My opinion:

Your pc hardware and win7 combined are just not up to the task of running Sacred 2 with high graphics.

In fact I am stunned that you were able to run Sacred 2 in XP with elite graphics with your setup. :4rofl:

I was not able to get decent performance with elite graphics on a pc with;

XP 32bit SP3/Win7 64bit

Intel Duo E8500 @ 3.2Mhz

ATI HD4870 512meg

4gig RAM

While your system meets the minimum requirements, it falls well short of the recommended specs (which imho are the minimum anyways)

I also think that the Ice and Blood expansion increased the required specs ...need confirmation :lol:

 

How much memory does your 8600GT have btw?

Also Sacred 2 is very cpu intensive. Your Pent 4 will struggle.

 

I know people will disagree with me but I strongly suggest you stick with XP for a while longer.

I have a dual boot system with XP 32bit and Win7 64bit.

My XP is way more stable with Sacred 2 than my Win7 (though I admit that might also have something to do with 64bit being the problem).

And from my experience XP uses less resources than Win7.

 

I strongly suggest that, at the very least, you have a dual boot XP/Win7 setup.

 

I have an XP disc lying around if you want to use your serial.

I can post it to you.

Just PM me. :)

Edited by stubbie
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My opinion:

Your pc hardware and win7 combined are just not up to the task of running Sacred 2 with high graphics.

In fact I am stunned that you were able to run Sacred 2 in XP with elite graphics with your setup. :4rofl:

I was not able to get decent performance with elite graphics on a pc with;

XP 32bit SP3/Win7 64bit

Intel Duo E8500 @ 3.2Mhz

ATI HD4870 512meg

4gig RAM

While your system meets the minimum requirements, it falls well short of the recommended specs (which imho are the minimum anyways)

I also think that the Ice and Blood expansion increased the required specs ...need confirmation :lol:

 

How much memory does your 8600GT have btw?

Also Sacred 2 is very cpu intensive. Your Pent 4 will struggle.

 

I know people will disagree with me but I strongly suggest you stick with XP for a while longer.

I have a dual boot system with XP 32bit and Win7 64bit.

My XP is way more stable with Sacred 2 than my Win7 (though I admit that might also have something to do with 64bit being the problem).

And from my experience XP uses less resources than Win7.

 

I strongly suggest that, at the very least, you have a dual boot XP/Win7 setup.

 

I have an XP disc lying around if you want to use your serial.

I can post it to you.

Just PM me. :)

 

 

Now Stubbie - I wouldn't disagree with you on this matter at all. Your points are quite valid. When Hacksaw said the box barely rated 3.9, it was obvious that it wouldn't run worth a hill of beans as is. The spec for running Sacred 2 under 7 says everything should be a minimum of 4.8.

 

I would, however, disagree that XP is more stable than Win 7. I have a triple boot system here - I can boot to XP, Vista or 7 and 7 is by far the most stable and fastest of the lot. You may have a point with regards to 64 bit being the issue. Hard to say. But that's neither here nor there. Neither of our systems are the issue.

 

I'll go along with you that a dual boot system for Hacksaw might be the best idea. Just make sure that your version of XP (Home or Pro) is the same as his product key before you mail the disk off. It'd really bite big wind if they weren't a match and he couldn't use it.

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