Higher Performance System Tweaks for XP. Advance Users only.

(pgh) #1

Over on PlanetCoD I came across a forum post about Tweaking Windows XP for Gamers (by 2d Cajual+). Now, ive read loads and loads of different websites and guides to doing tweaks for games and not once have I ever noticed any major difference. This however, seems to be completely different from anything i’ve tweaked before. Players on this webby reports that some had as much as up to 40fps increase on all of CoD maps. Fair enough this is ET, but still, if your running XP and Q3 Engine game then I cant see a problem. I havent had a chance to try any of these (work PC has most things blocked, plus its 2K) but I will do when I get home… until then, ive decided to cut it down slightly for you lot.

System Memory Cache
At least 512mb of Mem is required for these 2 tweaks below. And reboot after each tweak.

[ul]
[li] Open ‘Start > Run > Type regedit and then Enter’
[/li][li] Find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management’
[/li][li] Tweak 1: Change the value of DisablePagingExecutive to 1. [This allows XP to store data in the mem rather than sending partions of the data to the HD. Apparently, it yields faster performance.]
[/li][li] Tweak 2: Change the value of LargeSystemCache to 1. [Allows XP kernal to run in memory, which, apparently, makes your system ‘fly’] (This may cause problems with some nVidia cards/drivers.)
[/li][li] Please. Keep a copy of ALL values before you have changed them incase you want/need to go back and repair.
[/li][/ul]
System Swapfile
For users with 256mb of Mem or more, this will boost Windows + Game performance. What it does is: tells XP not to use any Swap File until there is no mem left at all. Basically, puts Swap Files down to a last (laster) resort. How?

[ul]
[li] Open Start > Run > msconfig.exe then Enter.
[/li][li] In system.ini tab. Add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 under the 386enh subfolder.
[/li][li] Restart PC.
[/li][/ul]
Increase Speed/Power to Running Tasks
This, as the title suggests, shoves whatever is left of the Processor (apparently.) into the currently running tasks. What to do?

[ul]
[li] Open Run > type: rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks then press Enter
[/li][/ul]
Disclaimer. Use all tweaks at your own risks. Myself, Cajual, Splashdamage + PlanetCoD cannot be held responsible for the effects of these tweaks. You have been warned.

(Kendle) #2

I’ve tried the system memory cache tweaks (both of them) and found no difference at all. But then they’ve not caused any problems either (and I have an nVidia GF3 card).

The others sound interesting. I’ll give them a go when I get time.

(Sauron|EFG) #3

If your HDD LED flashes regularly when playing ET the OS is using the swap file. If it doesn’t flash then I don’t see how the memory cache and swap file tweaks would help at all.

Regarding the last one it appears that it performs a file placement optimization by forcing idle tasks to be executed immediately.

http://www.tek-tips.com/gfaqs.cfm/pid/779/fid/4518

“It can take 10 to 15 minutes for idle tasks to complete. Task Manager will report processes running, and the disk will likely be active during this time.” - that means that you should not do it when you plan to play ET. AFAIK disk placement only affects load time, so if you have enough RAM (i.e. no disk swapping while playing) this won’t improve performance either.

(p0ny*) #4

“LargeSystemCache to 1”
f*cked my system up: winxp 1024 mb ram, ~1600 mb pagefile. I don’t won’t to complain, my risk if I do it (and it was recoverable via Last Known Good Configuration), just for info… :>

(Salteh) #5

Yeh I think one of those thingies killed my winXP about 6 months ago too ;(

(CYNIC) #6

Just reboot into safe mode, and change it back…But if you dont know how to, you shouldn’t play in your reg in the first place.

Mine did the same btw…Kept saying “couldn’t save file to C:$ms” something.

(Ramsgaard [DK]) #7

You can get ET to load maps faster by giving ET more memory.

I have 1 GB RAM in my computer and I have set the following.

in your etconfig.cfg file find the following lines:

seta com_hunkMegs "128 "
seta com_soundMegs "64 "
seta com_zoneMegs "704 "

Then change the amount of memory. Don’t create more than you have in your computer. The numbers above is what I use in my file.

The first time I load a map I don’t feel so much difference, byt the second time i load it, it loads pretty fast, so I am normally the first one ready in the game.

Just a tip (Have properly been written in another thread)

(pgh) #8

Ive a 2 second wait after clicking the IP from iRC. :slight_smile:

You should set your HunkMegs to abount 256. I think that may be the highest to an effect for it, but its suggested to have it set 2/3rds your Ram. Anyone any ideas how to draw the freemem counted in game? Q3 had it in early PR’s but not saw it in any Q3 engined games.

It used to be: cg_drawmem 1

(Kendle) #9

I use:-

seta com_hunkMegs "192 "
seta com_soundMegs "32 "
seta com_zoneMegs “32”

and that’s with 768Mb RAM. I’ve tried greater values for all of them and found no difference, and in fact I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that hunkmegs > 192 is pointless anyway.

With a little XP1800 CPU and slow 5400rpm HD I’m still one of the first to load a map.

(pgh) #10

Gg. Btw, all the Tweaks above are on www.tweakxp.com. Also another whole range of different Network and Performance tweaks on there…

(Kendle) #11

And, totally off-topic, where were you last night Piggy when we played LSR? I was looking forward to getting Panzered. :banana:

(pgh) #12

Yeh I was looking foward to playing fs. Ended up goin to gf’s… weekend now innit, and if i go out Friday im usually not alive till Sunday hence I wont see her till then. Thatll be like a week went i’ve not soooo more or less had too. Got any demos? Not heard much from our peeps about the game… :confused: Care to run down it? :wink:

(Kendle) #13

Total thread hyjack but heh! :bump:

Only played 1 round (SW) on Goldrush cos LSR had a game after. We set a time of 11 minutes and defended it. Got the Tank to the Bank easy enough but LSR made it hard work getting the Gold. On defense we held the Tank at the corner mid-way between barrier #1 and #2 and didn’t let it get any further. I played Field-Op so sucked more than usual plus didn’t take a demo of my own, but we had a spec who did and I’ll hopefully grab it off him over the weekend.

(pgh) #14

Yeh would be nice to see the demo. Shame that too… we can usually hold Goldrush down pretty well after Phase 1… :slight_smile: Gonna need to find out who played \o/

Next time tho… Ill be there :>

Hardly a HiJack too… I started it after all… :]

(p0ny*) #15

Just reboot into safe mode, and change it back…But if you dont know how to, you shouldn’t play in your reg in the first place.

Mine did the same btw…Kept saying “couldn’t save file to C:$ms” something.[/quote]

I normally wouldn’t bother pointing you to the fact that you didn’t read my post properly, but it’s boring @ work so I’m going for a little bit of trolling:

  • I do know how to safeboot, which did not help
  • I even know how to boot with “Last Known Good Configuration” (as I wrote in my first post), which turned my rig back to normal in seconds.
    Thank you and best regards. :>

harhar, one more: it’s C:$MFT aka master file table, m8 :>

(pgh) #16

But if you dont know how to, you shouldn’t play in your reg in the first place.

Chuckle from this to the post above. :smiley:

(squadjot) #17

i can reccomend win2000pro

(DG) #18

happened to see a page via the dailyrotation which has some good stuff in it – for winxp users.

http://www.techbuilder.org/article.htm?ArticleID=47626

Note I probably wouldnt bother with any of it unless either you have problems or need more performance, and really dont bother unless your at least semi-teck literate ;). Notice who it is written for. Also some notes on some of them -

The defrag thing is still more than contraversial though, a lot of people do find general usage more responsive after defragging a badly fragged drive.

4.) Disable file indexing – particularlily good one for gamers, often crappy performance can be because XP decides to start indexing in the middle of a gaming session

5.) Update the PC’s video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS - be aware that updating chipset drivers and screwing up can end up needing either a lot of pissing about to fix or even a OS reinstall. Screwing up a BIOS flash can result in either needing the manufacturer to send you a new BIOS chip or possibly you will need to replace the board. Dont bother with either unless the release notes give you a specific reason why it would be worthwhile - or you like fiddling and dont mind the risk :slight_smile: If you DO screw it up, check the manual (er actually check manual for exact procedure BEFORE you start) and there may be a recovery feature - I’ve saved this mobo before after trying to flash with a corrupt BIOS update because it’s a gigabyte with a second BIOS. Also even if that fails there may be a safety function even undocumented - I saved a mobo I had years ago after a guy in some forum told me a method for AMIbios that nobody else knew in either that forum or 5 others, nor even the tech at the manufacturer.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, – good tip here, but note sometimes the controller might refuse DMA or keep setting itself back. This applies espeically to CDROMs, as XP will set a drive to PIO if it detects too many errors. If so, you can select “scondard IDE controller” and hit delete - it will reinstall on reboot. Er I’d suggest reading about to check first if there’s a hard disk, espcially the primary controller or whatever your Os is installed on, I’ve only ever done this to controllers with only CDROM installed on. If you check back after awhile and its gone to PIO again, either the CDROM drive or a CD you use frequently is duff.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. – bit nieve here imo, partitioning has other uses, see http://partition.radified.com/

21.) Disable unnecessary services. – well worth doing, but take your time.BlackViper link given there is an excellent one.

(petameta) #19

If you really want more frames, use an OS with a good memory manager. Win XP is awful !

Even Win 2k is better than XP, however Linux is the best thing to use ! It isn’t hard to install any longer, it’s quite user friendly now. ID games natively support linux, so it’s no problem running ET in Linux.

(Hydra) #20

And why is XP awful? Do you have proof, or did you just hear that from one of those MS-bashing linux fanboys?