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    is my processor the bottleneck in TF2?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Fittersman, Aug 25, 2008.

  1. Fittersman

    Fittersman Wanna trade?

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    so yesterday i tried overclocking my graphics card and lowering a bunch of visual settings to medium instead of high, but my fps went from ~30 to ~40... not much of an improvement.

    I also noticed that the temps in my graphics card are around 70 (really low), but during CSS my temps are around 90. This leads me to thinking that my graphics card isnt really working all that hard.

    Is my processor the bottleneck in TF2? I have heard this game is hard on the processor but i never thought it would bottleneck an 8600M GS...

    -Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 (2.0GHz)
     
  2. Tim

    Tim Notebook Virtuoso

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    I don't really think it is your processor. Duo Core 2.0GHz should be plenty. To be honest overclocking really doesn't improve your FPS very much. I think that's about as good as you will get it with the 8600GS. The temperature difference is a little weird.
    Tim
     
  3. Fittersman

    Fittersman Wanna trade?

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    yeah i didnt think so, but whats the deal with lowering the settings to medium AND overclocking but still only gaining ~10fps?

    I was able to get about 60fps when i dropped the high dynamic effect but without that it seemed to get really choppy so i put it back on to gain the consistency back.
     
  4. Harper2.0

    Harper2.0 Back from the dead?

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    what resolution are you running the game at?
     
  5. Fittersman

    Fittersman Wanna trade?

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    1440x900

    I have tried lower resolutions, but it looks smudgy (since 1440x900 is my native resolution). There should be other things i can do other than lowering the resolution though
     
  6. Harper2.0

    Harper2.0 Back from the dead?

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    I usually play at native res with low settings.
     
  7. xxERIKxx

    xxERIKxx Notebook Deity

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    i have a weaker cpu and it is the bottleneck in source games. tf2 is one of my worst running games because its so hard on my weak cpu. you can try this command: mat_queue_mode 2. it makes the game a little bugy but it gives me about a 10 fps boost.
     
  8. Ayle

    Ayle Trailblazer

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    Are you running with AA enabled?
     
  9. Fittersman

    Fittersman Wanna trade?

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    yeah i tried that command and it caused 3 second long stutters every 10 seconds :( (ie. made the game completely unplayable)

    no, that was one setting i turned off last night. I also moved AAF to biliniear (I may be mixing up AA and AAF, but one is off and one is on bilinear)
     
  10. xxERIKxx

    xxERIKxx Notebook Deity

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    really? it doesnt do that for me. only bugy thing it does for me is if i try to alt+Tab it crashes.
     
  11. Fittersman

    Fittersman Wanna trade?

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    yeah, i read around a bit and it seems to do different things to different people. I might have to try that again though after i changed some of the graphical settings. but other suggestions are still welcome :)