I have the following hardware:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+
Geforce 9600 GT (260.99)
3GB DDR 2 RAM
Windows 7 32-bit
I play on the highest settings and 1920 x 1080 at acceptable framerates (usually not below 30). My sound card is a SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. When I use the fix to enable EAX and surround the framerate drops to an almost unplayable 18 fps. I assume this is because my sound card uses software emulated EAX but still, the framerate seems like a pretty big drop. Can anyone confirm whether this is a normal decrease in framerate?
EAX causing framedrops
Débuté par
Fredvdp
, janv. 05 2011 04:40
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#2
Posté 05 janvier 2011 - 10:29
Bogsnot1
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DirectX version installed? ME1 & 2 specifically require 9.0c. If relying on the version (10 or 11) that comes with Win7, that could be causing the problem.
#3
Posté 06 janvier 2011 - 11:03
Fredvdp
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Yes, I installed the DirectX version from the ME2 disc the day it came out (or the day I upgraded to Windows 7, not sure which came later). I now installed the DirectX version from the ME1 disc just to be sure and I'll try it out later.
Now I don't think there is a huge problem as long as I have a good framerate. Good sound is a fun extra but it doesn't affect gameplay so I can just play with EAX turned off. I read somewhere that this sound card uses some of the CPU's resources to emulate environmental audio effects, but this was back in the days when Intel Pentiums were made by cavemen so I imagined it wouldn't be a huge problem on an AMD dual core.
I'm not really posting here to find a solution (even though a solution would be appreciated), it's purely out of interest. I'll do some benchmarks on other EAX games to see if the drop in performance is as dramatic as in Mass Effect.
Update: After reinstalling DirectX from the disc and updating my audio drivers I don't really see an improvement. In port Hanshan on Noveria with hardware audio (and EAX) enabled I get framerates between 22 and 32 frames per second. With hardware audio disabled I get between 28 and 46 frames per second in the same area.
Now I don't think there is a huge problem as long as I have a good framerate. Good sound is a fun extra but it doesn't affect gameplay so I can just play with EAX turned off. I read somewhere that this sound card uses some of the CPU's resources to emulate environmental audio effects, but this was back in the days when Intel Pentiums were made by cavemen so I imagined it wouldn't be a huge problem on an AMD dual core.
I'm not really posting here to find a solution (even though a solution would be appreciated), it's purely out of interest. I'll do some benchmarks on other EAX games to see if the drop in performance is as dramatic as in Mass Effect.
Update: After reinstalling DirectX from the disc and updating my audio drivers I don't really see an improvement. In port Hanshan on Noveria with hardware audio (and EAX) enabled I get framerates between 22 and 32 frames per second. With hardware audio disabled I get between 28 and 46 frames per second in the same area.
Modifié par Fredvdp, 06 janvier 2011 - 02:29 .
