Got Multi-CPU or Realtek LAN? READ THIS

[iller]

Anyone who's watched chat text in-game knows I'm usually complaining about running at 5-10 fps. (10-15 on a "clean" map with less than 8v8 crowds. -- And 2-5 fps on a FULL server /w it slowing down to 1/2 a frame when some Pyro gives me a hot particle facial). Well for the better part of a year I thought it was *only* because I'm running on a very old(9-years old) Motherboard with just a 266 mhz Front-side-Bus (IoW: the CHOKEPOINT that connects the CPU to the Memory). ...Nevermind that I've got 2_x_2.4Ghz CPU's (Athlons /w Dualthread built in) and a 512 Vid GeForce Card that are *supposed* to meet the game's min specs...

Well, yesterday I stumbled on this: http://www.kwokinator.com/blog/20091221 ... es-and-you
Turns out it worked! And I encourage everyone else with Dual-CPUs, "Dual-core" or any other Multi-Core to try it.
...And no, just turning on "Multi-Core" rendering in-game is not enough. It may seem like it's making a difference, and it is, but you're still only getting like 1/2 of what you should be getting if you're having the same problem I was, REGARDLESS of your Windows Version (I'm still running XP-Pro ServPack-1!)

Here's how you Test it:
1) Before/While TF2 is running and in Windowed Mode: get Task Manager opened (Crtl-Alt-Del)
2) Open the "Performance" tab, and AltTab back to the Game....
3) Check If "Core 0" (or the first/left graph) is more active than the other 1-3 "CPU Usage" graphs...
4) IMPORTANT: If ANY of the other CPUs are lower than the first one, your TF2 AFFINITY is BUGGED

Next: Test this Fix:
1) Open the "Processes" Tab, and locate "hl2.exe" (sorting by Mem Usage helps)
2) Right click on it, and choose "set Afiinity"
3) Check/uncheck "CPU 0" and click "OK"
4) check performance to make sure the other Core(s) changed activity levels
5) repeat steps 2-4 to set it back to using ALL cores EQUALLY.

Depending on Server capacity, this should result in a major FPS boost ("cl_showfps 1" in console)
*Note: this whole process has to be repeated everytime TF2 is started b/c windows does NOT save the Affinity settings!




=== RealTek LAN Cards ===
I can't test this next fix personally b/c my RealTek card is Soooo old and generic that the manufacturer D/L'able Drivers won't apply to mine... but most everyone else should be able to try it. And it DOES apply to a LOT of people. The steam thread that originally discovered this bug got atleast a hundred replies from people saying it made a good difference for them:
1) Locate your Network connection or your Card Driver (or under local-area-network / configure)
2) If the driver says anything about Microsoft instead of the Manufacturer's...
3) ...then you may want to download the real thing... usually at: Realtek's LAN software-support

The reasoning for this possibly affecting so many users may likely due to lack of quality control in ALL mapmaking for TF2 explicitly including some of VALVe's own maps (like CTF_well, Sawmill, & KOTH_Nucleus).

Hopefully this information will become obsolete in the near future by VALVe fixing their own Bugs causing this stuff, but just in case they don't, I'll keep this thread in my sig b/c if it helps even 1 person then it was totally worth posting b/c even just 1 of these fixes meant the difference (a gain of 20 FPS) between TF2 being "playable" or being pure frustration for me personally...

[skunkfox]

quick add-on to make your steam game more stable on start up or run cleaner for 64bit processor users.

goto your steam games libary, right click on tf2 and select properties, then select Luanch Options a little dialouge box will pop up these are for advanced user options so use at your own risk!!

-novid (this disables the valve opening video from playing on startup and keep it from it's usual locking the game up on start up)
-32bit (this is for 64bit cpu users only it forces the game to run in 32bit mode which cleans up alot of the crashiness of the game as valve games do not like 64bit processors) Iller might want to try this out since he seems to have cpu affinity issues...
-noborder (this is for those who use widowed mode, it removes the border around the window.. don't know why you'd need it but eh)

There are others you can use but some of them make it very buggy such as setting the games memory usage amount or it's heapstack (good if you have 12gigs ram or more to pretty much devote a crap ton of memory to your game to reduce latency issues)

Also one note for Killer NIC users: Game mode on the Xeno cards or older Killer cards actually increases your ping/latency it's noticable on entering the server if you have game mode on, if app mode is enabled the ping/latency is much much lower. This can be the difference from a ping of 60 (game mode) to 40 (app mode). This is because Killer auto sets Steam as an application instead of a game, even when you config it to set as a game it's still viewed as an app and treated as an app in game mode. In other words given lower prioity. (Killer is in the process of making an update to correct this known issue with Steam users)

[STrRedWolf]