up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I play Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance fairly often at just about the edge of what it can do on my system, and I want to know what I can do to my computer to increase it's performance for playing (aside from upgrading or turning down the graphics settings). System Specs:

Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.8GhZ

2 GB DDR2 Crucial RAM

EVGA NVidia 8800 GTS Superclocked

link|improve this question
81% accept rate
feedback

closed as off topic by Jeff Atwood♦ Aug 19 '09 at 2:33

Questions on Super User are expected to generally relate to computer software or computer hardware, within the scope defined in the faq.

3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Turn off unused system services.

No, really. Even though they are not "using CPU time", they still occupy a chunk of vital resources - RAM. Disabling the service typically results in the program being unloaded from memory, and that little bit of memory being freed up. Go to your control panel and open up the Services icon in there - see all those entries? Each one that says "Enabled" means something somewhere is gobbling up some precious RAM to accomplish what you're after.

This may sound like a futile exercise, but I have used it successfully to play games that "required 1Gb of RAM", on a 512Mb system. The real requirement wasn't 1Gb, it was the fact that you needed that to comfortably run the game. Turning off system services freed up a whopping 120Mb of RAM. The game loaded and ran just fine.

You'll want to leave those services that you absolutely need - DHCP Client, DNS Client, etc., as they will be required to keep your internet connection stable. But things like file and print sharing, well, what are you going to do while you're blowing crap up in the game? Print a spreadsheet? Turn off Workstation and Server services to start, and go from there.

Look at flashing to the latest BIOS.

Video drivers do have an impact, and updating the Video BIOS will help, but your Motherboard BIOS has just as big an impact. Many users don't even bother to upgrade to the latest versions, which sometimes include enhancements to how your I/O works, options that you can enable that weren't there before, and bugfixes for those options that didn't work well. Consider the pros and cons of this - while it will allow you to run a newer BIOS, there is always a little tiny risk of a bad flash. If BIOS updates are available, read the update READMEs and decide if there is anything in there that would improve your system performance.'

Compromise on graphics performance

I know you said you don't want to turn down your graphics options, but have you considered optimizing them? Sometimes, leaving all of your current graphics options enabled but switching from 32bpp to just 16bpp is all it takes to increase your performance. You get to keep your current screen resolution and have all of the eye candy you want, just with 65535 colors instead of 16 million+. Sometimes it's not the big tweaks that gets you the gain, it's the little ones.

link|improve this answer
2  
You are missing the key "update to the latest videocard drivers" tip. Otherwise, great answer. – Vinko Vrsalovic Jul 16 '09 at 7:55
1  
I looked and SupCom doesn't let you turn down the bpp but those are good tips! – RCIX Jul 16 '09 at 7:55
On a second read, you mention it, but in passing. I'd stress that point. – Vinko Vrsalovic Jul 16 '09 at 7:56
This is a not a good answer. Do not go around attempting to remove unnecessary services unless you know precisely what you're doing. Your game are not running slowly because you have DHCP in the background. Likewise flashing your BIOS is less then likely to increase game performance. The last point is very good, though. – Johnny W Aug 8 '11 at 2:08
I didn't advocate to "remove" services, just to turn them "off". :) Turning off services (temporarily) that you don't need has nothing to do with processing power, and everything to do with freeing up precious RAM on RAM-constrained systems. This post was made over two years ago, and while RAM sizing is in the 4Gb range for most game systems, it's not uncommon to still find old machines that are scraping by with 1Gb. – Avery Payne Aug 17 '11 at 17:37
feedback
up vote 1 down vote
  • Shut down anything running in the background
  • Turn off Aero (if Windows isn't automatically doing this for you)
  • Update your video card drivers
link|improve this answer
1  
The DWM doesn't run as long as full-screen games are active. – Joey Jul 16 '09 at 6:02
You should benchmark with latest video drivers, some may perform better than others. – Mercer Traieste Jul 16 '09 at 7:23
This is your best bet. Shutdown any programs that you have running in the background (not services). The biggest slowdown on most computers is applications that have been installed and have cheekily decided they need to load every time the computer starts. Quit/exit/uninstall as many of these as you can from your START UP programs. – Johnny W Aug 8 '11 at 2:10
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Well you leave us with little options. Without hardware upgrades or changing graphic settings the only major suggestion I have is update your video card drivers and close unnecessary programs while you're gaming. Windows visual effects also have an option for best performance rather than best appearance.

link|improve this answer
I'm rather budget bound and turning down the graphics much more on my game will make it look terrible... – RCIX Jul 16 '09 at 7:57
feedback

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.