Game issues - low FPS / glitching

[Doball{MEOW}]

I need help!!! I've had this laptop since Feb and haven't ever had an online game run smoothly yet. I think it's in my wireless setup because single player games run fine. I notice it most in BF2 and CoD2, and a little in AA. I have small "glitches" that make movement jerky. I typically get 40-55 FPS from Fraps when playing dipping to 25-35 with a lot of action going on. I've tried the lowest video and audio settings with no difference. I've also noticed that I have the highest ping on most game servers, but an avg trace to MEOW's BF2 server of 40ms. I have set the Nvida controller to allow the application to control AA, AS, and Vertical Sync controls. I'm using a 60hz refresh rate.

I have an Mtech D900T (same as a Clevo and Eurocom D900T and Alienware Area-51 m7700) 600 series P IV 3.0 Gig, 2 Gig DDR2 ram, Nvida Gforce Go 7800 GTX 256meg DDR2, a 1x (B) Realtek RTL8169/8110 Famil Gigabit Ethernet NIC, and an 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless Network Adapter. I'm connected through a Motorola WR850GP to a Motorola cable modem.

I had a heck of a time even getting the wireless connection to work well for surfing the internet, let alone for gaming which is why I'm leaning toward my wireless setup. The other 2 PC's in the house are .11g wireless, but their performance goes out the window when I'm playing online. I'm running the latest drivers for all equipment and have updated the router's firmware. I have disabled the windows ability to control my wireless connection and am using the Railink wireless utility to connect. I always see an excelent signal strength (I usually play about 7 unobstructed feet from the router), but always have game issues. Any help will be welcomed.

Here's my router setup. I have adjusted most of these, with no difference. I've tried with the router's firewall and WEP enabled and disabled with no difference.

Yellow items are current selection.
Channel:       1234567891011     Current: 11 
Wireless Mode:        Compatibility Performance LRS 802.11b Only 
802.11g Protection Mode:        Off Auto 
       
Rate:        Auto1 Mbps2 Mbps5.5 Mbps6 Mbps9 Mbps11 Mbps12 Mbps18 Mbps24 Mbps36 Mbps48 Mbps54 Mbps             
Basic Rate Set:       Default All     
Multicast Rate:       Auto1 Mbps2 Mbps5.5 Mbps6 Mbps9 Mbps11 Mbps12 Mbps18 Mbps24 Mbps36 Mbps48 Mbps54 Mbps               


Fragmentation Threshold:        3246
RTS Threshold:                         3247
DTIM Interval:                           3
Beacon Interval:                      10                                   
Preamble Type:       Long Short    (tried both)
Maximum Associations:            3


Frame Bursting:        Off On                                                  (works better on)
Performance Enhancement (GP models only):        Off On 


WMM Support:        Off On 
No-Acknowledgement:        Off On 


Firmware Version:       6.1.4

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

OK Doball, totally disable V-sync in the nVidia control panel.  Don't even set it to app controlled.  V-sync attempt to match the frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate.  So with that enabled, the max FPS you will ever get will be 60, at theat refresh rate of 60Hz.  Are you using any AA in BF2?  I don't use any, have everything on high except shadows on low, 100% view distance.  I also use a 7800GT, same amount of ram, and an AMD 4000, albiet in a desktop.  FPS maxes out around 95 for me, averages around 70, drops no lower than 45.  So you should be getting better performance than that.  What do you have for sound?  Integrated?  Make sure it's set on hardware, and on the medium setting.  This goes for everybody as well.  There is a bug in BF2 where occasionally those with their sound on high will get a repeating firing sound that only others can hear.  Gives away your position.  Also, what resolution?

[Doball{MEOW}]

Ok, changed video settings to what you recommended. Turned Vsync and AA in game off. My FPS now hovers around 60 (even on a menu screen)dropping to mid 30's with action on the screen. My glitching seems to be worse though. When I run the weapon jerks back and forth. Turning a turret is jerky and flying a chopper is difficult. Game res was 1152 x 864 for that run. I'm running 1280 x 768 for a normal display, everything fits well on my screen with that size.

Just found a whole new set of options in the advanced settings of the nivda panel. What do you recommend for those?

Force mipmaps   -    None Bilinear or Trilinear

Conformant Texture clamp   - on or off

Extension limit   -   on or off

Trilinear optimization     -    on or off

AS mip filter optimization     -    on or off

AS sample optimization     -    on or off

Gamma correct AA       -    on or off

Transparency AA        -     off   multisampling or supersampling

Triple buffering     -      on or off

Negative LOD biasing      -     clamp or allow

[INSTINCT]

sry i couldnt get in here earlier doball, i have a minor meltdown of my own.but never mind that..

as far as your issue goes.yes your connx will impact your frame rate in any game but considerably so in gfx instensive games like bf2..

when you game on a widescreen monitor as in 1280x768 ..if im not mistaken is a 17 or 18 inch wide display 16:10 .

1.NEVER EVER  game at native resolutions on any monitor PERIOD.....
2. THE ACEPTABLE RES FOR 1280X768 IS TO LOWER IN GAME RES TO .......1024X768...<-- 90 percent of all games are optimized for this ratio anyway..
3.1 or 2 steps down from the native res is reccomended > for larger displays i.e..my display is a 21 inch wide @ 1680x1050..however i never game at that rather 1280x1024
4. some games will allow compensation for your wider veiwing area ,i.e....joint operations, ravenshield,BHD,half life 2 ,far cry,halo,doom3 and many many more< BF2 requires modifing the POV in the config.
5. many help topics are available for modding a said game config to your (point of view) 1280x768  try browsing a forum called "widescreengaming"

i gamed at exactly your specs for 2 years and i recommend you try these settings.
FROM THE NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL

AA set to 2x
Textures set to Bilinear or Anisotropic 2x
Force mipimap support to Bilinear "all games"< except bf2>
disable vertical synch completely
turn on any AA or AF sample rate options
IF NVIDIA CARD set it to QUALITY >>> not high performance
be sure your nvidia driver can see or recognize your monitor;s driver and associate
enable "nvidia color correction to medium
negative lod bias set to clamp
triple buffering set to off
trilinear set to bilinear
AS sample and mip set to on
transparency AA set to on

NOW IN GAME MENUS MIMIC THESE SETTINGS BEST YOU CAN

SET GAME RES TO 1024X768
AA=2X
ANISO=2X
TEXTURES=HIGH
LIGHTING=MEDIUM
SHADOWS=MEDIUM
EFFECTS =MEDIUM
TERRAIN=HIGH

AUDIO=HIGH IF XFI THEN ULTRA HIGH
DRAW DISTANCE {BF2}95 PERCENT


BIOS

MEMORY ACCELERATION TO= AUTO
GRAPHICS ARPETURE OR  LOAD TO 256 MB< IF AVAILABLE
LATENCY TO=64
PLUG AND PLAY O/S=YES
CMOS VID TIMER =64

REGISTRY

IRQ FOR VGA ENABLED =SAME IN BIOS

REG IRQ DWORD VALUE FOR VGA 3 OR 4

REMEMBER NEVER EVER GAME AT NATIVE RES , now these settings will be premium for you , but heavily dependant on your connx, and that it is set up right, a spotty connx will fluctuate fps, one quick fix is to alter your mtu and receiving window to the following values

mtu packett size=1500
rwin_receiving window=371260  <---------- this little move almost erradicated game stutter for me!!!

this can be acomplished in your connection settings control panel...

wireless gaming will always suffer and lag behind a hard line. try purchasing an air station or link point to add to the wirless Ap   http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=396

my buddy uses this for his xbox live hookup and he saw better connx and stability by puttin this AP in the living room and hard wiring that to his router.

best of luck.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/

http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_3.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/profiles.html

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/hwGuides/article.php/10709_1463741__5

[Doball{MEOW}]

Great job you two! Now I'm 95% stutter free. Made some more changes tonight and tried them out in several different servers. Never had a problem except when I was in a tank playing in a French server, then it got real jumpy (might have been the 150 ping I had lol). I'm satisfied with the performance. I can live with a 55-70 FPS as long as I have smooth gameplay.

Instinct you were doing good until:

BIOS

MEMORY ACCELERATION TO= AUTO
GRAPHICS ARPETURE OR  LOAD TO 256 MB< IF AVAILABLE
LATENCY TO=64
PLUG AND PLAY O/S=YES
CMOS VID TIMER =64

REGISTRY

IRQ FOR VGA ENABLED =SAME IN BIOS

REG IRQ DWORD VALUE FOR VGA 3 OR 4

and

mtu packett size=1500
rwin_receiving window=371260  <---------- this little move almost erradicated game stutter for me!!!


this can be acomplished in your connection settings control panel...

Couldn't find this one at all.

As far as the BIOS settings, I've never seen anything like that before, just the standard boot seq, date time and the like. I have NEVER messed with my registry, heard too many bad stories about people like me, who don't know what they're doing,  screwing things up bad there. I don't have anything to lose but time, a simple restore point or a reformat fixes almost anything that gets out of control. It's just a pain doing it all over again, and I'm impatient about spending an hour transfering everything back from my ext HD. I do back everything up, so I don't have to spend hours finding and downloading drivers I just hate being down. So I'll either need to get some step by step procedures or just stay out of the registry. But thanks again, to both of you. What I did understand and do has helped out tremendously.

[Doball{MEOW}]

Last night I had terrible performance. Typically saw FPS 11-20 whith 60 when standing still. Tonight I'm going to disable wireless and try a hard line. I'm still not convinced that it's not my wireless config. When playing AA I am ALWAYS the highest ping at around 70 +/- 10, everyone else averages 15-30. I know that's not an accurate representation of the true ping, but still I'm almost 2X slower than everyone else. I don't think it affects my gameplay in AA, but BF2 almost becomes unplayable at times.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Doball, that 70 ping you are seeing is not accurate.  You view everyone else's ping as it really is, but you can't view your own proberly.  Take the number you see for your ping and divide it by 4 to get the actual ping.  So when your ping was displaying 70, it is actualy 17.5.

[Doball{MEOW}]

Ok, connected with a cat 5 cable to the router. No glitching and avg FPS 50-70. I did get bogged down to about 15 when near a smoke 'nade. Wireless settings are same as I previously posted. I'll resaearch optimum settings for my hardware, but I'm kind of clueless about that kind of thing.