FPS issues?

[StevesX2]

Hi,

I've been playing X3TC for a few days now and my FPS are not that great, of course I don't expect awesome fps as my gpu is not a top level one but I downloaded the Demo and ran the benchmark.

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X3 - Terran Conflict
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Game Version: 1.2.0.0

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.120503-2030)
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series [2808 MB] Driver: 8.17.0010.1124
CPU Info: AMD Athlon(tm) X4 620 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Usable System Memory: 4096 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
Screen Resolution: 1680 x 1050 * [32], fullscreen
Using Shader Profile: 3.0
Antialias Mode: 2x
Anisotropic Mode: 2x

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" 28.1 average fps 10.0 minimum fps 58.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 34.0 average fps 22.0 minimum fps 43.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 41.7 average fps 30.0 minimum fps 56.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 26.9 average fps 18.0 minimum fps 40.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 32.7 fps

Now.. I have been trawling through these forums and I found someone with the same graphics card as me. Here is his benchmark


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

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp.080413-2111)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Graphics Card Info: ATI Radeon HD 4670 [512 MB] Driver: 6.14.0010.6912
CPU Info: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz (2 CPUs)
Usable System Memory: 2048 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
Screen Resolution: 1680 x 1050 * [32], fullscreen
Using Shader Profile: 3.0
Antialias Mode: 2x
Anisotropic Mode: 2x

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" 28.6 average fps 7.0 minimum fps 62.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 47.4 average fps 23.0 minimum fps 61.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 40.8 average fps 29.0 minimum fps 60.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 24.0 average fps 16.0 minimum fps 32.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 35.2 fps

So. he's averaging just a few fps better than me which is fine until I look at his ram and cpu, I have 4gb ram not 2gb. I also have 4 cores not 2.

Wouldn't you expect my fps to be quite higher as X3TC is supposed to be cpu reliant?

I'm no pc expert at all and would love one of you guys to explain this to me.

Thanks!

[SurvivorSue]

Hi StevesX2, I am no expert either but I thought I would give a simple answer before the experts bombard you with numbers.
Basically the CPU has far more influence on X3 games FPS than the GPU. As the X3 engine was designed for single core processors your three other cores will only be used for multi-tasking. The GP card will of course help take advantage of modern graphics but only has marginal effect on FPS. Also X3 can only use upto 3Gb of memory.
If you are interested in Rebirth, it has a new engine able to use multi-core processors and modern GPUs!

[StevesX2]

Thank you very much, a great answer and one I understood.