Force Unleashed for PC issue

Well, my laptop seems to be handling FU just fine for some time on maxed out res (1280x800), and then the stuttering ensues (have to restart the game to get good frame rates back).
This is the only game I'm experiencing this issue on (Dragon Age behaves fine).
I overclocked my GPU by 20% from stock, and undervolted it to 0.89V (CPU is also undervolted to 1.038V).

I checked the temps while gaming to make sure they were fine, and indeed, they never went above 60 degrees (for both CPU and the GPU [under the new clocks]).

I also installed the 1.1 Patch that supposedly improves performance, and that didn't really solve the issue.

This game has serious issues in terms of memory leaks it would appear, and I'm not at all impressed (which is furthemore bad because LucasArts never took the time to properly optimize the game for PC-s and ended up as just as bad of a port like GTA IV).
Of course, I'm not excluding the possibility of my own hardware being inadequate of running it properly, but with such low temps under load, and decent performance in the game initially (even under scenes that appear quite 'heavy'), I do not think my hardware is the sole 'troublemaker'.
At other times though, the framerate holds at about 20 to 25 FPS.

Thoughts?

 

there is nothing wrong with your hardware. The fault is the game itself, its a crappy console port.

 

Darth Bane is right. I played this game on my desktop (see specs below) and still had periods of unstable frame rates. LucasArts changed their mind about making a PC release at the last second, and so they didn't do any optimization or even changes to the main menu of the game. The game is ported to run on x86, but that is all the porting that was ever done. Save your time on this one and just play something else.

 

I would tend to concur.
Btw ... my temps are actually at 50 degrees C for CPU and 55 degrees C for GPU when playing Force Unleashed(just checked), and FPS have been stable for the past few hours (my recent cleaning of the air vents further dropped the temps it would appear ... and the games requirements seem to be below Dragon Range in actuality ... had it been properly ported to the PC and optimized of course).

Oh well ...
Thank you anyway for the feedback.

 

Hi. trying to get intouch with you Deks, could you please tell me what programs or how you managed to undervolt cpu: 1.038V, gpu: 0.89V. Also what values you oc'd the gpu. Again sorry for posting here but I can't find any thread on how you did it. Keep well!

I have the same laptop and also run win 7 Ultimate x64

 

hey when you install the 1.1 patch you get a low option mode. before i installed the 1.1patch i was at default res + high everything and my fps was 1-2 fps, i did default res but checked the extra option (not enough graphic difference between low and high on same res) and my fps jumped to 60

 

Installing the 1.1 Patch never gave me any changes in the main interface for graphical options ... which was strange.
Some other people reported a similar issue ... then again, my C drive was running low on space during the installation of the patch and it's possible it never installed completely as a result.

Badly ported game, and the patch is even stranger ... why does it continuously write to the C drive, filling up 15GB of space (which is how much I have on the C in terms of free space) in the process of patching the game that's also on a completely different partition to begin with?

RanZion
I undervolted my cpu using CrystalCPUID (didn't allow me to go lower than 1.038V), and the gpu I undervolted to 0.89V by flashing the BIOS (you need GPUz, Nibitor, NvFlash and a DOS bootable USB stick ... the details are somewhere on this website, forgot exactly where).

As for overclocking the gpu ... I did it via the Control Panel actually.
My settings are as following:
Core: 600, Shaders: 1500, Memory: 900

Working stable here on those frequencies, though keep in mind that every gpu is different and will likely vary.
These clocks gave me an increase of about 20% on my gpu, while retaining the temps at 60 degrees.

 

Thank you Deks!
I will try this later this evening.
Keep well!

 

You're welcome.
Just remember to first undervolt your gpu to 0.89V (only the 'Extra' field should be modified with that lower voltage as far as BIOS flashing is concerned) and then play with the overclocks via the Nvidia Control Panel in Windows (it's safer when compared to the BIOS overclocking).

 

Hi again Deks,

Managed to undervolt my gpu. Works realy fine, but I'm having trouble with CrystalCPUID. In "Intel enhanced speedstep control" I try 1.063V and I get blue screen and the computer restarts. Try 1.087 and it seems fine. When I restart its back to "default". So I tryed "create shortcut on desktop". Do I have to dubbellklick this everytime I start win 7? Why can't I go as low as you did? Need some help I've searched without any results.

Tanks again!

 

It's entirely possible the lowest possible voltage for your CPU is 1.087V.
Bear in mind that different cpu's will have different minimum voltages.
Some people managed to get their cpu's below 1V, while others barely managed to get somewhat lower than what was set on stock.

Also, instead of using 'Intel Enhanced Speedstep', simply go to 'File', then 'Multiplier Management Setting' and play with the voltages there.
Save the stable settings (it's possible you can get lower v as a result) and use F3 to activate the settings.

The reason I recommend avoid using 'Intel Enhanced Speedstep' option is because it will lock your cpu to maximum multiplier and lower voltage and won't downclock the processor when you are not stressing/using it.

Auto activating the program is not doable (as least I was not able to acomplish it), so you will have to start it manually, then press F3 to activate the changes.

 

Thanks again,

Could you please uppload a screen dump of your settings in the "Multiplier Management Setting". Would be great to get something that I could use as guide line and make changes from that until I can find what settings are to be used with my computer. This would realy help me.

Thanks again Deks. Soon you'll be rid of me