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    Is it normal for smoke/fog to kill your fps?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Kain, May 12, 2008.

  1. Kain

    Kain Notebook Evangelist

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    During CS:S, if there are 2 or more smoke bombs in one place, my fps seems to drop quite a bit. Is this normal?
     
    Kain, May 12, 2008
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  2. MadHater

    MadHater Notebook Deity

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    Doesn't look like normal, especially not on such a strong card HD2600 is. I play CS:S 1.6 with my 7600GS and have no problems at all, even while I'm in a middle of strongest shooting and bombing (1024*768, everything on high). Maybe reinstall of game would help.
     
    MadHater, May 12, 2008
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  3. Kain

    Kain Notebook Evangelist

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    During the CS:S stress test I get 148 fps with the following settings:

    1280x800 with everything on high expect no AA/AF and no HDR.

    Sounds normal?
     
    Kain, May 12, 2008
    #3
  4. Rich.Carpenter

    Rich.Carpenter Cranky Bastage

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    Actually, my experience has been that, depending on the game, smoke/fog effects *can* take a heavy toll on FPS. It's like applying an additional lighting/shading effect to all objects already being rendered. Some games, however, shortcut the effect by reducing your view distance accordingly in order to make up for it.

    Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this has been my impression of it.
     
    Rich.Carpenter, May 12, 2008
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  5. 660hpv12

    660hpv12 Notebook Deity

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    thats true, smoke also stresses the GPU due to high particle count and objects behind the smoke has to be re-rendered/re-shadowed
     
    660hpv12, May 12, 2008
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  6. laptop4life

    laptop4life Notebook Consultant

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    It happens with me on my desktop and i get an average while playing 200fps and it falls around 30-50 fps sometimes not all the time though
     
    laptop4life, May 12, 2008
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  7. TonyZ

    TonyZ Notebook Evangelist

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    It's normal.
    Stress test on dual 8600 - i get 198fps

    In game fps with not much action going on - 130fps (all settings high 4xAA tri-linear at 1440*900)

    But when it comes to around 8 people shooting then fps drops to 80fps, when in smokes etc... around 80fps too.
     
    TonyZ, May 12, 2008
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  8. laptop4life

    laptop4life Notebook Consultant

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    CS:S: Is counter strike source, Not 1.6, Counter strike source uses the source engine off HL2 and its way way way more power demanding then 1.6 i could play 1.6 on a old computer very well, Thats just if you didnt know.
     
    laptop4life, May 12, 2008
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  9. TonyZ

    TonyZ Notebook Evangelist

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    I also had a desktop with a 7600GS
    I played with same maxed settings as I do now on my Toshiba laptop with 1440*900 aswell, fps on stress test was around 60, in-game fps around 40, when under heavy smoke / gunfire it goes around 25-30fps.

    Desktop was:
    Pentium 4 HT 3.06GHz
    Nvidia 7600GS AGP connection
    1GB PC3200 RAM

    I guess he added the 1.6 by accident maybe?
     
    TonyZ, May 12, 2008
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  10. piscian25

    piscian25 Newbie

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    Totally normal dude. happens to me constantly and I've got a 9600gt 512mb. It depends on how much is going on at once.
     
    piscian25, May 12, 2008
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  11. nbaumann

    nbaumann Notebook Deity

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    It's normal.
     
    nbaumann, May 12, 2008
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  12. eleron911

    eleron911 HighSpeedFreak

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    Smoke, dust,fog,usually all of these effects drop to fps quite considerably, since they all put a bigger strain on the GPU and CPU(if it`s moving and such).
     
    eleron911, May 12, 2008
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  13. dannywanny

    dannywanny Notebook Consultant

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    To be honest, my FPS doesn't drop very much in CS:Source on max settings with 8600m GT. On the other hand, playing CS 1.6 the smoke still puts me below 100FPS, definitely if there are 2 or 3 nearby at the same time. I think it might be something to do with nVidia (I think Half Life games prefer ATI), and the old Half Life 1 engine probably isn't very well optimised?
     
    dannywanny, May 12, 2008
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  14. Nirvana

    Nirvana Notebook Prophet

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    smoke always lower my fps, no matter what games I am in
     
    Nirvana, May 12, 2008
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  15. Harper2.0

    Harper2.0 Back from the dead?

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    burnout in nfs u2 does as well...
     
    Harper2.0, May 12, 2008
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  16. dmacfour

    dmacfour Are you aware...

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    Mine is on the verge of noticeably dropping with 1 smoke, with 2 things start go get shaky. I get 110 FPS on the stress test all max, 1440x900, 2xaa and 4xaf.
     
    dmacfour, May 12, 2008
    #16