AMD64 3200+ weird lag issues

[TehTux]

Hey everyone,

First my machine specs:

OS: Ubuntu 6.06 Server (apt-get KDE) AMD64 bit
CPU: 3200+ AMD64
MEM: 1024MB Geil DDR400
HDD: 300GB SATA150 Seagate
GFX: Gigabyte Geforce 6600GT (500/1000 stock GPU/MEM)

I installed 2.0 recently but found some weird lag issues. To test, I lowered everything to minimal (640x480. 16bit, Lowest detail, 8K sound, all options OFF) and found my FPS would still drop to 20FPS and lower when there is a lot of activity and wide open spaces.

I've done some searching on these forums and found plenty of performance posts, but this setup SHOULDN'T hit extremely low FPS when there's plenty of bots or large open spaces.

I ran 'top' while windowed (I usually play fullscreen) and noticed that I have plenty of free memory (over 300MB free and nothing in virtual) though my CPU was maxed out. I also checked to see if I was IO bound and I wasn't, my %wa was in the single digits.

So, does anyone know what's going on? Is there a known bug that is causing FPS to drop in huge numbers when you get into a 'busy' area?

I know (from other posts) that the models are causing some pretty intesive graphics processing, but comparing my FPS in Nexuiz 2.0 against UT2004, Nexuiz is performing quite badly.

It takes me back to Quake 1 performance on my K6-550!!

Anyway, hopefully someone can help me (and others if it's common) out and tell me where the magical 'make game perform smoothly' option as playing seriously is hard when in the middle of a heated battle your FPS drops by half or more.

Thanks

P.S. I may come off like a troll, first post and all, though I'm all for Nexuiz and can't wait for some more enhancements and spin off games!!!

[TehTux]

A bit more info:

I ram 'tdem demo1' with my usual UT2004 settings of 1280x1024, 16bit and medium detail (though all effects were still off).

The max FPS was 24 (which happened just once at the start) and the lowest was 6 FPS.

Then I turned the res down to 640x480 16bit and lowest detail and to my HORROR, the max FPS was still 24 (and that same spot, just 2 seconds into the timedemo) and lowest was again 6 FPS.

Can someone help me out, I'd love to have a few more games to play rather than just Quake III, 4, UT2004 and Doom3!

Oh, just on that topic, Quake 4 runs like a dream, without any issues...

[SavageX]

Now, that's strange. My guess would be that perhaps the AGP settings are wacky or that something else is consuming CPU time as if there'd be no tomorrow.

I'm using x86_64 Ubuntu 6.06 on an Athlon64 3000+ with a 6800LE (slower than your 6600GT) and have no issues (I have UT2004, too). I'm using the nVidia drivers from multiverse (or universe?).

[TehTux]

What do you get max/min when you run tdem demo1?

Is it still quite laggy?

Something is eating CPU cycles, though not until the game loads!

Currently, my CPU is doing the following:

top - 20:41:19 up 9:53, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.24, 0.35
Tasks: 96 total, 1 running, 94 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 4.3% us, 1.7% sy, 0.0% ni, 93.4% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.7% si


So nothing chronic, 6.6% is made up or xorg, firefox etc, though I do close all other apps when I run Nexiuz...hmmmmm

Maybe I'll install Kubuntu 6.06 rather than Ubuntu Server, as maybe weiredness comes from apt-getting kubuntu-desktop...though it's a long long shot...

I did read quite a lot of posts where people are complaining of substandard fps, could it be something common?

[SavageX]

I can try to timedemo UT2004 if you wish. I just need the timedemo you use (I don't have any).

[tZork]

i got the same, or similar problems.

a preddy standard kubuntu x86_64 install on a a64 2800/1g/gf6600gt with nvidia drivers.

i get 30 ish fps in linux, same spot i get at least 300 fps in windows, same config.

i just assumed that my drivers was broken or i forgot to set something up correctly, cuz i dont use my linux desktop install mutch yet so theres still alot of things to get right with it. but then i saw this post and tought it may be something else..

and while im at it, the -sdl binary lags in sound under linux (sounds lags in os too) but the in the glx the sound works fine, what does the glx do diffrent sound wise?

[divVerent]

and while im at it, the -sdl binary lags in sound under linux (sounds lags in os too) but the in the glx the sound works fine, what does the glx do diffrent sound wise?

Everything.

But you can tune the SDL settings...

Especially these three are worth trying:

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dsp ./nexuiz-linux-sdl-x86_64
SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dma ./nexuiz-linux-sdl-x86_64
SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa AUDIODEV=hw:0,0 ./nexuiz-linux-sdl-x86_64

[TehTux]

I can try to timedemo UT2004 if you wish. I just need the timedemo you use (I don't have any).

No, don't worry about timedemo's in UT2004, as this game runs well under linux. The same with Doom 3 and Quake 4, they install and play very well out of th box!

If you can run a timedemo in Nexuiz 2.0 (if you're using linux) it would help or at least see if it's affecting more people. Run 'tdem demo1' from the games console.

I've made a poll regarding this issue, just to see who it's affecting...

Oh, btw, I'm using the latest Nvidia drivers: 1.0-8762.