Assassin's Creed FPS issues

So I picked up the game off steam for $5 yesterday. I started to play it but no matter what my settings I get rather low FPS and I get this problem where Ill be at 30-40 fps and every 2 seconds it drops to 7 or 8 fps then jumps back up. Kinda confused as to what it may be.

System
Toshiba Satellite P105
T2600 @ 2.35Ghz (76*c in game)
7900 GS 450/550 (75-78*c in game)
2Gb PC-5300 DDR2
200 Gb Hitachi (40Gb solo OS, rest partitioned to game as such)
Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7600
Reformatted and cleaned 1 week ago


I should be able to play at somewhat decent settings...but Im all the way down to 1024x768 all settings on low, no shadows and not getting more than 30 FPS and then getting the 3 second drop.

Things Ive tried...
1)drivers
2)processes
3)programs

 

Maybe the CPU or GPU is throttling?

your CPU temp is a bit high.

How about trying the undervolting guide?

 

Probably hard disk paging because of your low amount of ram. If it runs out of ram, and needs to load something from the hard drive, it can severely drop your framerate for a few seconds while the loading is taking place. Assassin's creed has some pretty wide open cities, and needs to stream alot of data from the ram, adding more would most likely solve this.

 

I dont think its throttling. I have monitored it and its staying fairly consistant.

Temp is just fine.

I dont see how lowering the CPU's performance can solve this issue. Could you futher explain why you suggested to undervolt?

Again, I have monitored the usage and the system uses about 1.3Gb total during game play. There is no paging going on.

 

Your specs look like it should run the game fine...Maybe trying reinstalling?

 

Going to try that today.

 

I actually think (taking into account the settings you chose)... you should be averaging about 20-25fps.

The recommended settings on the page or "min req" are desktop rated. Your gpu is bottlenecking your performance. Assassin's creed is an above average demanding game.

 

Undervolting does not lower the CPUs performence.
Underclocking would, but I didn't suggest it...

The reason I suggested undervolting was to lower your CPU temp.
But if you say temps are fine, then forget I mentioned it.

 

Ok so this same thing happens in Borderlands and also just running the 3d view in ATI tools it does it too. I can upload a short clip of it on filefront if someone wants to see what its doing.

I undervolted the CPU and its stable .125 volts lower than stock at the 13x multiplier mark...still issues.

Heeeelp plz

 

Get 2x2GB sticks of memory.

 

Explain how this in any way fixes my issue? Its not paging...and 32 bit OS wont use all of it anyways.

2Gb should be plenty.

 

Forget the memory, that costs money. First, run through free solutions: update your graphics driver with one from www.laptopvideo2go.com and ensure that the game is fully patched.

 

Done and done since day 1

Next? Im not against spending money on ram, but I honestly believe that if I do, the problems will still be there.


Oh, wanted to update, since undervolting CPU is at 68*c after 2 hrs of game play. Im still having issues though.

 

My, you are diligent.

I agree, RAM is not likely an issue here, especially with lowered game effects.

Given that all the bases have been covered in terms of software, it's time to consider whether there's a hardware problem at fault here. Do you have any problems running other games, such as artifacting?

EDIT: OK, nevermind the above. I don't think your CPU can handle this game. Take a look at the theoretical system requirements:

Your Core Duo is between 15-20% slower than a Core 2 Duo running at the same speed. Given that I ran AC on a 2.1GHz C2D (T8100) and maxed it out the CPU, that's probably what's causing your problem. I was also using an ATI Radeon 3450 GPU, which is equivalent to the 7900GS.

http://kotaku.com/347797/assassins-creed-pc-specs-your-pc-will-weep-like-a-scolded-child

 

I realize that. I actually gave up on Assassin's creed until I get a better computer.

Here is the issue...

Its doing it in the game Borderlands also.
1024x768 all settings on low

I def meet these...
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.4 Ghz or equivalent
Memory: 1GB (2GB recommended with Vista)
Hard Drive: 8 GB free
Video Memory: 256mb video ram or better (GeForce 9 series or higher/Radeon R8xx series)
Sound Card: Windows compatible sound card
DirectX: 9.0c



Here is the really big kicker...It does it with nothing else running except for ATI Tool in the "show 3d view".

^That is what really throws me off. Only thing I can think of is maybe my GPU is damaged...but its not all the time it does this. Often, but not all the time.

 

im not sure if your GPU is overclocked, but try removing any overclocks. could be the game is spazzing out at the strange clock speeds.
it should run on your system fine. runs on my 9200gs at 20-30 fps on medium with reduced res and 2x AA. thats with an overclock though. my fps only drops significantly when im on top of a viewpoint.

have you checked what happens if you disable anti virus? (turn your internet off first, just to be safe) what anti virus are you using?

 

Assassins Creed is VERY CPU dependent. Your CPU is the problem.

 

Something I wanted to add...I noticed when I record with fraps my FPS stays at 30 with no drops...

This is weird.

 

I had the exact same issue after buying Assassins Creed through Steam. Here is how I resolved the issue.

1. Uninstall all NVidia products and drivers.
2. Run Guru3d DriverSweeper to remove any remnants of driver/registry entries.
3. Reboot
4. Install Dox's 185.85 drivers
5. Install NVidia PhysX 8.09.04
6. Install NVidia PhysX 9.09.0814
7. Install NVidia System Tools (only the Performance Tool for overclocking) - Optional
8. Update your DirectX - Optional
9. Reboot

That ensures that the drivers you have are up to date and you have PhysX installed. Hopefully this helps.

All the best!

 

I am/was experiencing the exact same issue (google brought me here)

I am running a desktop on win7 64bit
intel Q9450 2.66ghz quad core on a xfx 780i board
xfx gtx295 1.7gb 630mhz o/c core, 6gb ddr2 ram
assassins creed is installed on my raptor 10,000rpm hdd which also houses windows,

i get above 60fps and every 2 seconds it lags right down to less than 10fps for a moment and shoots back up,

after some investigation turns out it must be temperature, CPU core 1 was at 98° (others around 90ish) and gpu was at 105°! this was with all fans at 70% and graphics settings were all at max 1680*1050 using dx10, i churned the fans to 100% in the nvidia control panel and it seems to have resolved my issue

my advice would be keep an eye on temp, and see if it gets any higher than 100 celsius, that seemed to be my issue

 

Sorry, just read that you have already monitored the temp... so must be a seperate issue to what i experienced!