NEWS: X³: Terran Conflict Rolling Demo available for download

[pjknibbs]

Geek is correct. If it reports 2.2GHz and 2 cores, then that's 2 cores each running at 2.2GHz. It's usually dodgy PC adverts that claim that 4 cores at 2.4GHz apiece equals a PC running at 9.6GHz!

[Flozem]

heh - just checked with one of my favourite websites... lol I always thought I had my singlethreaded programs running at 1.5 Ghz instead of the 3.0 Ghz the C2D advertises...

Never too old to learn.

But nevertheless, dedicating one core to X3TC should still make sense.

[Ashitaka-san]

TC is very ressource hungry and you can not expect high scores with such hardware. I also use a laptop, results here

I know it is hard (if not impossible) to modify a laptop components. But you should update your drivers. Adding 1 GB of RAM would be nice ; while TC can not use more than 2 GB, the OS (especially Vista) need memory too.

May I ask how hot your laptop gets while running X3 and other games? I am actually going to remove the bottom panel to allow more air flow into the laptop - might help things a bit.

I did upgrade my graphic drivers to the most recent 195.39 Vista 32bit drivers but no change.

I have also been thinking of upgrading to 4 GB of memory. So, maybe now is a good time to do it

I'll also check into dedicating one core to X3TC.

[Flozem]

How fast is your harddisk by the way? If it is a 5400, you could consider installing a faster disk. If there's room for a second hdd in your laptop, that would be preferable as you can then install the game on a different physical disk than the OS for improved performance.

X3 uses two or three library files that are huge and accessed frequently. I noticed huge performance gain when I installed by OS on disk 1, X3tc on disk 2 and the virtual memory on disk 3.

[Geek]

My laptop keeps cool at all times (GPU temp under 3d games never go past 60° C, laptop case 35° C), but at the cost of significant fan noise.

[OniGanon]

Code: Select all

Operating System:	Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)
DirectX Version:	DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info:	ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series [2809 MB]    Driver: 8.14.0010.0685
CPU Info:		Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q9400  @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Usable System Memory:	4094 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
	Screen Resolution:	1680 x 1050 * [32], fullscreen
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0
	Antialias Mode:		8x
	Anisotropic Mode:	16x

Graphics & Shader Settings:
	Texture Quality:	high
	Shader Quality:		high
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled
	Environment Mapping:	enabled
	Glow Filter:		enabled
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled
	Used Vertexsize:	28 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scene "Trade"	 36.9 average fps	 13.0 minimum fps	 81.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Fight"	 77.7 average fps	 28.0 minimum fps	 174.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Build"	 102.8 average fps	 61.0 minimum fps	 170.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Think"	 46.8 average fps	 26.0 minimum fps	 92.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 66.1 fps

Out of curiosity, I ran the test again with AA and AF disabled, and gained a whopping 2fps avg, lol.

[Flozem]

disabling environmental audio (EAX) could help as well...

[Ashitaka-san]

But nevertheless, dedicating one core to X3TC should still make sense.

I tried searching for information on this but could not find anything. How do I dedicate one core to X3TC?

Thanks.

[Flozem]

Once you are in game, Alt-Tab to your desktop. Ctrl-Alt-Del to Windows taskmanager.

First you should check which core is pretty much idle, so for that check the prestations tab.

From there go to the processes tab and right-click on the process for X3TC. The right-mouse menu should show an option that says set affinity... That will allow you to choose the core to use for the game.

In Vista you might first have to go into admin mode and go into "processes for all-users" mode. Can''t check the right name now since I wrote this from XP. But google is your friend...

[Ashitaka-san]

Once you are in game, Alt-Tab to your desktop. Ctrl-Alt-Del to Windows taskmanager.

First you should check which core is pretty much idle, so for that check the prestations tab.

From there go to the processes tab and right-click on the process for X3TC. The right-mouse menu should show an option that says set affinity... That will allow you to choose the core to use for the game.

In Vista you might first have to go into admin mode and go into "processes for all-users" mode. Can''t check the right name now since I wrote this from XP. But google is your friend...

Alright, thanks for that, I checked it out.

However, what you are speaking of seems to only set which CPU core X3TC can be processed on.

Wouldn't this still permit other programs to run on both cores? How would it increase the performance of X3?

[Flozem]

I believe most Windows services still run on only one core. At least I see most of the times that one core is idle. You don't want to be running X3TC on the same busy core when you have one idle.

If you are really desperate, you could set all other services fixed to the other core. Do not expect great miracles though. It helps, but not much. I had better speed increase by using three physical discs and have each dedicate to one part of my system: OS, Virtual memory and games / applications.

[BSG fan]

Hi all.

Having just received a copy of Windows 7 and remembering the gaming transition from XP to Vista. I decided to benchmark the two on my system and post up the results for anyone who might be interested.

This may have been covered already to some degree but I had the results to hand and wasn't going to trawl through a load of post to see.

I used the rolling demo for X3TC and repeated the benchmarks for both high and medium texture detail. The results are below and following them are some observations I noticed during the tests. The system configurations were exactly the same save for two separate disks for the OS's. Hybrid Sli is set for the on-board video card (which on the 780a is basically a 8400GS mGPU)


System Spec:

MB Asus Crosshair II Formula (780a sli)
CPU Athlon X2 x64 5000 BE @ ~3.22 GHz (286 fsb / 12 multi)
Ram 2 x 2 Gig Geil Black Dragon 1066 @ 1072 (5/5/5/15 2T)
Video Geforce 9800 GTX @ 750 / 1100(ddr) / 1688
HDD Both were Seagate Barracudas SATA


http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l26/t ... n/CPUZ.jpg

~Sorry for the low grade pics~



Results


Vista Scores:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l26/t ... /vista.jpg




Windows 7 Scores:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l26/t ... n/Win7.jpg



Ok, first off, we can see the general average fps from Vista are 0.4 and 1.5 higher for medium and hight textures respectively. Close enough to call identical considering I only did one pass of the test. Also we see pretty similar numbers across the board for medium textures, for both Vista and Windows 7. Maybe a one or two fps drop in Windows 7 for average and maximum fps but steady numbers for minimum.

In the high texture tests, Windows 7 is showing a quite consistent 2 fps drop across the board. This is reflected in the 1.5 fps drop in total average for high textures I mentioned above.


And what kind of conclusions can we draw? Well I call it close enough to not matter, which is what I was hoping for seeing that I am upgrading to Windows 7 anyway. Interesting tho... maybe lol. You might notice that the usable system memory appears reduced in the Vista tests. This is just the new way that Windows sees shared video ram as all tests where using hybrid sli with the onboard GPU. Onboard GPU uses 512 meg of system memory.

I must say that what ever the numbers show, I saw a lot less of the occasional stutter at low fps with the Windows 7 test, than with the Vista test. Not sure if it was a fluke but Windows 7 didn't really stutter at all. Strange but true.


Opinions?

~


{overzied images replaced by links, merged - Carlo}

[Carlo the Curious]

New toys, new benchmark:

Code: Select all

--------------------------
   X3 - Terran Conflict
--------------------------
Game Version: 1.2.0.0

Operating System:	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621)
DirectX Version:	DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info:	ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  [753 MB]    Driver: 8.17.0010.1052
CPU Info:		Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         950  @ 3.07GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Usable System Memory:	6144 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
	Screen Resolution:	1920 x 1200 * [32], fullscreen
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0
	Antialias Mode:		8x
	Anisotropic Mode:	16x

Graphics & Shader Settings:
	Texture Quality:	high
	Shader Quality:		high
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled
	Environment Mapping:	enabled
	Glow Filter:		enabled
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled
	Used Vertexsize:	28 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scene "Trade"	 49.0 average fps	 18.0 minimum fps	 111.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Fight"	 105.9 average fps	 39.0 minimum fps	 237.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Build"	 131.4 average fps	 80.0 minimum fps	 173.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Think"	 55.6 average fps	 33.0 minimum fps	 95.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 85.4 fps


(c)2008 EGOSOFT
For more information visit http://www.egosoft.com

Big improvement over my last rig, although still with a big dip on the cap explosion.

[Rive]

After some months on TC-addiction I've decided to give a try to the demo ( ) but tell me this first: can I update the demo to an actual game patch level, or it's fixed to an old game version?

[Carlo the Curious]

There are no updates for the demo, as far as I know.

[Dis Astranagant]

New toys for me as well and a HUGE improvement over the last rig I had

The default settings

Code: Select all

DirectX Version:	DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 [2530 MB]    Driver: 8.17.0012.6099
CPU Info:		AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 445 Processor (3 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Usable System Memory:	4096 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
	Screen Resolution:	1024 x 768 * [32], fullscreen
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0
	Antialias Mode:		4x
	Anisotropic Mode:	NONE

Graphics & Shader Settings:
	Texture Quality:	high
	Shader Quality:		high
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled
	Environment Mapping:	enabled
	Glow Filter:		enabled
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled
	Used Vertexsize:	40 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scene "Trade"	 36.5 average fps	 14.0 minimum fps	 69.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Fight"	 69.8 average fps	 26.0 minimum fps	 154.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Build"	 102.5 average fps	 62.0 minimum fps	 189.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Think"	 49.6 average fps	 27.0 minimum fps	 84.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 64.6 fps


(c)2008 EGOSOFT
For more information visit http://www.egosoft.com 

Now the maximum settings

Code: Select all

DirectX Version:	DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 [2530 MB]    Driver: 8.17.0012.6099
CPU Info:		AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 445 Processor (3 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Usable System Memory:	4096 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
	Screen Resolution:	1024 x 768 * [32], fullscreen
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0
	Antialias Mode:		8x
	Anisotropic Mode:	16x

Graphics & Shader Settings:
	Texture Quality:	high
	Shader Quality:		high
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled
	Environment Mapping:	enabled
	Glow Filter:		enabled
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled
	Used Vertexsize:	40 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scene "Trade"	 36.5 average fps	 13.0 minimum fps	 69.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Fight"	 70.0 average fps	 26.0 minimum fps	 152.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Build"	 102.3 average fps	 62.0 minimum fps	 191.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Think"	 49.3 average fps	 27.0 minimum fps	 84.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 64.5 fps


(c)2008 EGOSOFT
For more information visit http://www.egosoft.com 

Well, I for one, thought that there would be a bigger difference between the tests but oh well I sure ain't gonna complain if i can put the max details and have almost the same smooth gameplay

[exogenesis]

Two & a half years later...wanted to get feel of my old PC speed with my new one.

Thought X3TC Rolling Demo might be a useful benchtest for this, so tried it just to see,
got about 3 times frame rates (at 1.7x total pixels), which is OK with me



OLD PC Nov 2008, on first page of this thread:

Code: Select all

-------------------------- 
   X3 - Terran Conflict 
-------------------------- 
Game Version: 1.2.0.0 

Operating System:	Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236) 
DirectX Version:	DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) 
Graphics Card Info:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 [896 MB]    Driver: 6.14.0011.8043 
CPU Info:		AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz 
Usable System Memory:	3328 MB 


Video Settings During Benchmark: 
	Screen Resolution:	1280 x 1024 * [32], fullscreen 
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0 
	Antialias Mode:		8x 
	Anisotropic Mode:	16x 

Graphics & Shader Settings: 
	Texture Quality:	high 
	Shader Quality:		high 
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled 
	Environment Mapping:	enabled 
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled 
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled 
	Used Vertexsize:	40 bytes 

Framerates 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  Scene	"Trade"  22.8 average fps    6.0 minimum fps    45.0 maximum fps 
  Scene	"Fight"  46.7 average fps    16.0 minimum fps    108.0 maximum fps 
  Scene	"Build"  65.7 average fps    36.0 minimum fps    135.0 maximum fps 
  Scene	"Think"  31.8 average fps    16.0 minimum fps    57.0 maximum fps 

Overall average framerate: 41.7 fps 

(c)2008 EGOSOFT 
For more information visit http://www.egosoft.com 

NEW PC

Code: Select all

--------------------------
   X3 - Terran Conflict
--------------------------
Game Version: 1.2.0.0

Operating System:	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110408-1631)
DirectX Version:	DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 [4064 MB]    Driver: 8.17.0012.6724
CPU Info:		Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Usable System Memory:	16384 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
	Screen Resolution:	1920 x 1200 * [32], fullscreen
	Using Shader Profile:	3.0
	Antialias Mode:		8x
	Anisotropic Mode:	16x

Graphics & Shader Settings:
	Texture Quality:	high
	Shader Quality:		high
	High Quality Bumpmaps:	enabled
	Environment Mapping:	enabled
	Glow Filter:		enabled
	Ship Color Variations:	enabled
	More Dynamic Lights:	enabled
	Used Vertexsize:	40 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scene "Trade"	 64.6 average fps	 25.0 minimum fps	 146.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Fight"	 135.8 average fps	 51.0 minimum fps	 298.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Build"	 174.7 average fps	 106.0 minimum fps	 260.0 maximum fps
  Scene "Think"	 80.8 average fps	 45.0 minimum fps	 161.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 114.0 fps


(c)2008 EGOSOFT
For more information visit http://www.egosoft.com