FPS issues in CSS

Finally got my new laptop 2 days ago ad was excited to play my games on max settings finally. Anyway installed WoW, CSS and L4D2. All work fine except CSS for some reason. I play WoW on ultra settings with 100 fps to spare and L4D2 on ultra with like 50 to 60 to spare. As far as i know both these games are more demanding than CSS. Basically no matter what settings i play CSS on i never get more than 59 FPS but if there are alot of players it can dip to like 30 and i get lag. So not sure whts happening?

My pc specs are:
Windows 7 64bit
Quad core 1.73GHZ
4G RAM
and nvidia gefore 280M GTX

 

I guess your CPU is the Intel Mobile i7 820qm?

In CSS do you enable V-Sync in advanced graphics option?
Recommend you also turn down the shadow details as it tends to cripple preformance on mobile cards.

Other than that i dont really know what the problem could be but i recommend downloading the latest Nvidia drivers and optionally Intel chipset drivers too.
Source based games rely heavily on the cpu than the gpu so it could be the Turbo Mode Intel added to the new mobile i7's thats causing the problem on maps with a lot of players.

 

he doesn't need to turn down any settings with his 280m. my 260m gets 200+ FPS, with a P8700 at 2.53ghz

 

V-sync is probably on, thats why you dont exceed 60fps.

Whats your AA and AF set to?

 

I disabl myed v sync in advanced graphics but it did nothing to my fps. Im still stuck at 59 :S and my AA and AF are all set to max, but it doesnt matter i should easily be running CSS on max. ALso even if i turn all settings to lowest i stil dont exceed 59 fps :S

 

check to see if its Forced on via nvidia control panel->3d settings?

 

I disabled it and my fps rose to about 80 but i should still have waaaay more :S While playing it says like 200 fps are coming in and only 80 out. Does that mean anything?

 

Have you run the in-game video stress test / benchmark? I have a similar set up, and I use 1920x1080, take the graphics defaults and 4x AA and I get an end result of about 220 fps.

If you want to watch the fps/stats, go to dev console and do net_graph 3 and hit enter.

 

It doesn't matter anyway, you physically can't notice and don't need anymore than 60 FPS...it's just a number at that point.

 

i know but it still bothers me because i should have more fps...im just like that. And also it does drop to like 30 fps when there r like 20 players, which shouldnt be happening :S

btw i did the stress test and my averagefps is 74 :S Also turning down my AA and AF doesnt work already mentioned that

 

Ya, I feel you. The same thing happened to me, I used to pull 200 FPS on that game and now I average like 50 and nothing I do changed it. I haven't tried it yet though on this fresh install, I'm sure it's fixed now with the new drivers.

 

It is your CPU, cs:s doesn't support multicore like l4d. So you are playing cs:s on a 1.7 ghz CPU and it's a bottleneck. Your stress test should be higher though.

 

But he has a turbo mode i7 cpu.
It will automaticly disable unused cores and OC itself in single treaded programs.
Or at least it should do.

 

I wasn't aware that his CPU could do that but it still looks like a CPU bottleneck to me.

 

For the millionth time, that is a MYTH. The human eye does not have a magical set number of frames per second. Please, stop spreading lies about things you don't understand; you'll just end up confusing more people.

 

You're a complete and utter ....this forum would be better without people who speak to others the way that you do.

 

People can see over 60 fps and even if you couldn't see the frames the game engine is running at those fps.

 

The human eye doesn't, but the brain does as it can only process so much data. There may be no fixed limit to frequency for all human beings, but it certainly does exist.

Also, I doubt that anyone would deliberately spread misinformation. If something is posted on the forum that is incorrect, it seems reasonable to assume that its an honest mistake and should be treated as such. There is no reason to accuse people of lying.

 

have you tried setting the max fps higher? like fps_max 100

 

yeh i tried that :< Anyway i tried lowering my settings again and i did get better fps this time. Problem is i get like 30 fps in inferno and other big maps. Imay aswell pull out my old pc then cos i got better fps :S

So bottlenecking is my problem? CSS cant handle my CPU? Doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose of buying a very expensive gaming pc :/ Is there anything can do about this?

 

Well if valve decides to update cs:s to use multicore it should run really well. Are you sure your gpu is running at full clocks? I remember a thread where some one with a 9800m gt or gtx said that while playing cs:s his card would stay at 2d clocks.

 

ah not sure what that means xD how do i find out?

 

Thank you.

 

bleh gotta say this is pretty annoying...reason i bought a new pc was so i could play css on max and smoothly not worse than my old pc :S

 

If your screen only has a refresh rate of 60Hz, then any extra frames greater than 60 fps will not be displayed. Its wasted work done by the GPU.

 

Irrespective of whether the human eye can see more than 60 fps or not, your performance in Counter-Strike Source is dependent on high and consistent framerates. For example, on the notebook I'm currently using (HP nc8430) I'll average 50fps on 50 person office server (I enjoy noobing it up ) and I will always be disadvantaged against someone who is equal in every way (same reaction times, weapon, ping, positioning, aiming etc) but who consistently has 100fps. The person with the higher framerates will see what's happening on the server before the person with lower framerates, thus giving them a slight, but distinct, advantage.

But back to fps issues, my mate has just got a new notebook with a mr HD4570, 4GB of RAM and an AMD cpu (not sure what it is, but it's dual-core) running at 1600x900 with no HDR/Bloom or anti-aliasing but is getting around 30 fps. I've tried tinkering with his settings but it makes no difference. For reference, I get around 50 fps with a mr x1600, T2500 @ 2GHz, 2GB RAM running at 1440x900. It makes no sense!!! I used to run tobias' config (reduces a lot of the visuals) but it makes barely any difference to running it vanilla. I'm going to be at a lost if I don't get 100fps when my new notebook gets here

 

My notebook (Specs in signature) runs CSS at 60+ fps in 960x600.
All settings are turned to lowest so i can finally play zombie maps without any major lag spikes.

 

how do i increasemy screen refresh rate? because 60 fps is ok but it drops to like 40 in inferno and large maps and with 40 fps i do notice the lag...its so annoying

 

you can't increase your screen refresh rate, its built into the screen.

 

ah right ok :< So theres literally nothing i can do about this problem? Doomed to play with 60fps max and 30 fps with more than 20 players

 

There isn't much you can do.
Type in the console I think fps_max 300 or any number you desire.
That should lift the 60fps cap, but as said it's just a number.

And the stuttering and fps drop is common, I also suffer the same on my desktop with an E6750 @ 3.3Ghz and 8800Ultra's in Sli.
It's really annoying I know, but there is no fix that I know of.

Also, that Cpu is fairly slow, 1.87Ghz in't much altough it's a quad core, CSS isn't built to handle more then 1 core so you would be better of to have had a dual core @ 2.4 Ghz let's say then a quad @ 1.87Ghz.

Sorry to Hijack, but does anyone else suffer from the hl2.exe has stopped working error?

 

The i7 720m will OC to 2.8GHz on 1 core, he should be FINE.

 

Decrease your anti-aliasing

Don't overestimate your computer.

 

Ok thanks, i may just have to decrease graphics then. I lowered my resolution which actually helped alot. Also eh im suffering from alot of hl2.exe errors lately.

 

That just Steam fault.
Damn, i hate hl2.exe errors!

 

hl2.exe crashes everytime i exit css lol...

 

If it really is a case of Valve not updating CSS so it can take advantage of dual-core processors then that's inexcusable on their part (if this is right does that mean all other games utilise dual-cores properly?).

 

Well, L4D 1 & 2 support multi core cpus i think and also TF2 was patched some time ago for multi core support.

 

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Engine_Features

According to this, the Source engine does have multi-core support, and CSS does use the Source engine. A whole host of problems could be causing the OP's performance issues, but its obvious that his hardware is not inadequate.

 

Dod:s also supports multicore. I don't see why valve won't at least give cs:s multicore support.

 

Given that the Source engine supports multi-core, that implies that CSS does use multi-core technology unless Valve is using an older version.

Details on multi-core implementation in the Source engine, which is also used in DoD:S...

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2006/11/02/Multi_core_in_the_Source_Engin/1

 

Only "The Orange Box" Source Engine support multicore.
Wikipedia link

 

I have the same problem it's getting on my nerves.