Red Faction Guerrilla - I Can make it not lag, but it wont stay not laggy.

13thvulture

I am having a very hard time getting red faction guerrilla working.

here's my problem, it lags.

ive tried all the common lag fixes for this game: windowed mode, changing its priority in task manager, patching it, forcing directx9, shutting off vsync, and of course smaller resolution/low detail. none of it did a thing.

but i noticed something interesting, the first time i ran it after a fresh install it would run fine, and in the settings it would have the refresh rate at 60hz and run perfectly on the first run, and any time after the first run after a fresh install, it would change to 59hz and lag like crazy. either way, it wont let me change the refresh rate setting, it sticks on whatever its on.

for a while, i could get it to go back to 60hz by deleting the options folder (c:/documents/my games/red faction guerrilla/options) but after a few times, that stopped working and a reinstall is all that would get it back, and now even reinstalling wont do it, it stays 59hz no matter what i do.

what could have caused this? and any advice on keeping it 60hz? im thinking its something to do with the game itself rather than my computer, but im not 100% sure. and why did uninstalling and reinstalling stop working? every time i had it delete all savegames and preferences, did it keep something?

shimyns · 12-11-2010, 08:05 | posts: 1,600 | Location: Boston

I had lots of lag and input delay problems with that game (when I played it a long time ago). I'm sorry, I don't have any concrete advice to offer, especially about your Hz question. I do remember that setting Ambient Occlusion off helped somewhat, and also Alt-Tabing out and back in sometimes helped, as well.

Paulo Narciso · 12-11-2010, 14:51 | posts: 918 | Location: Lisbon

This game needs a fast cpu. And ATI cards won't get along very well with this game.

TheHunter · 12-11-2010, 15:08 | posts: 13,439 | Location: √╥²

when it first came out it was ok, even with 1.1 patch it ran smooth, but after the latest patch they did something- also removed some adv settings and now it runs much worse.. if you can then downgrade to 1.1 patch, well i could mine was retail not steam.

13thvulture · 12-11-2010, 18:29 | posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulo Narciso

This game needs a fast cpu. And ATI cards won't get along very well with this game.

the times when i somehow manage to get it running at 60hz it plays completely smooth, i didn't check the fps but id guess it was in the 35-40 range, even when blowing stuff up. no input lag at all. and i played for hours like that, so i know my card can do it. i just dont know how to keep it that way, because it resets to 59hz upon restarting it, and deleting the options and reinstalling no longer works for who knows why.

Damien_Azreal · 12-11-2010, 19:10 | posts: 3,450 | Location: Kansas, USA

I'd say your CPU is a big problem with this game. As Paulo said, the game needs a really strong CPU... and yours just doesn't have enough.. umph.

IcE · 12-11-2010, 19:24 | posts: 6,982 | Location: Toledo, Ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulo Narciso

This game needs a fast cpu. And ATI cards won't get along very well with this game.

Yeah, it really doesn't like ATI cards. Ran very poorly with a strange skipping issue on my old 4850. With my 470 it's butter smooth.

The game is actually much more GPU dependant surprisingly. I had it running just fine framerate wise on an ancient Athlon 64 X2 at one point.

Damien_Azreal · 12-11-2010, 19:29 | posts: 3,450 | Location: Kansas, USA

Yeah, I ran it well on an AMD x2 4600 as well.

13thvulture · 12-11-2010, 21:23 | posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

I'd say your CPU is a big problem with this game. As Paulo said, the game needs a really strong CPU... and yours just doesn't have enough.. umph.

the thing is, when it is at 60hz the game plays perfectly... thats what doesnt make sense. nice avatar btw, blood is one of the best games ive ever played

13thvulture · 12-12-2010, 00:41 | posts: 11

here's what i really want to know (because i can live with reinstalling if i must) what could possibly make it stop working after a fresh install? i set it to delete the save games and preferences, and i thought i cleared out any files left... what else can i try? whats it keeping?

sprower · **Memory**: 4Gb OCZ BE 1600 8-8-8-21

Not sure about your issue 13th. All I can say is this game is pretty damn picky. More recent drivers were giving me crap with it left and right (though that was more of a crossfire issue).

Try different drivers or maybe RadeonPro to force the frame rate to 60?

Another thought is if the game crashes on you the settings.ini may return to defaults after restarting the game. That may be causing some conflict or IQ settings to be set higher than your mobility likes.

13thvulture · 12-14-2010, 17:58 | posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprower

Not sure about your issue 13th. All I can say is this game is pretty damn picky. More recent drivers were giving me crap with it left and right (though that was more of a crossfire issue).

Try different drivers or maybe RadeonPro to force the frame rate to 60?

Another thought is if the game crashes on you the settings.ini may return to defaults after restarting the game. That may be causing some conflict or IQ settings to be set higher than your mobility likes.

radeonpro didn't help it

TheHunter · 12-14-2010, 18:08 | posts: 13,439 | Location: √╥²

so did you try and downgrade to 1.1 patch?

shimyns · 12-15-2010, 08:56 | posts: 1,600 | Location: Boston

If the game wants to run at 59 Hz, why don't you just change your monitors refresh rate to 59 Hz (in CCC)? Make sure that you are playing the game at the same resolution as the main resolution you have set in CCC. Just a thought.

Here is a general article of 59/60 Hz in win 7, although it doesn't provide any solutions for your particular case, it does kinda seem that it has to do with your monitor and win 7either rounding the integer up or down http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2006076

Anyway, I would try gaming at the same res as your desktop while making sure that the Hz setting in CCC is identical to the ingame Hz.

Agonist · 12-15-2010, 09:06 | posts: 605 | Location: Tennessee

Quote:

Originally Posted by ice445

Yeah, it really doesn't like ATI cards. Ran very poorly with a strange skipping issue on my old 4850. With my 470 it's butter smooth.

The game is actually much more GPU dependant surprisingly. I had it running just fine framerate wise on an ancient Athlon 64 X2 at one point.

It runs great on my 5770 my hd 4870 and hd 3850 lol. 3850 isnt too far off the performance of my 9800gtx+ either. its only a hd 3850 256mb.

13thvulture · 12-15-2010, 19:13 | posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by shimyns

If the game wants to run at 59 Hz, why don't you just change your monitors refresh rate to 59 Hz (in CCC)? Make sure that you are playing the game at the same resolution as the main resolution you have set in CCC. Just a thought.

Here is a general article of 59/60 Hz in win 7, although it doesn't provide any solutions for your particular case, it does kinda seem that it has to do with your monitor and win 7either rounding the integer up or down http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2006076

Anyway, I would try gaming at the same res as your desktop while making sure that the Hz setting in CCC is identical to the ingame Hz.

well, im not actually able to set my screen's refresh rate, because in the monitor settings, graphics card settings, and CCC all of them only have 60hz as an option.

shimyns · *Last edited by shimyns; 12-15-2010 at 21:26.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by 13thvulture

well, im not actually able to set my screen's refresh rate, because in the monitor settings, graphics card settings, and CCC all of them only have 60hz as an option.

In CCC, I personally have the option of setting 56, 59 or 60 Hz. Must be that options are limited to the particular screen.

13thvulture · 12-16-2010, 04:11 | posts: 11

yep. same box for me only has 60 as an option :/

ScoobyDooby · 12-16-2010, 23:27 | posts: 5,260 | Location: BC, Canada

I was never able to get this game playing smoothly really at all. Wasn't too bad when on foot, was tolerable, but once you started to do quests driving around and whatnot it was a serious PITA.

I remember hearing the same advice, you need a better CPU but I honestly think that's incorrect. The game may need a stronger CPU, but when every other game I play doesn't stutter like that you know its either that it just doesnt prefer ATI cards or that its poorly coded.
I am going with the latter, because many people had stutter and jitter issues with the game at all settings. I could have played it at 1024x768 with all settings low and it would still stutter.. even crysis didn't play anywhere near that poorly for me with a dual core, so I don't buy that argument at all.

I recall some people saying to use particular drivers and to not update it past 1.1, but for the drivers I can't recall which set. Probably far too old by now anyway to matter.

IcE · 12-17-2010, 01:03 | posts: 6,982 | Location: Toledo, Ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoobyDooby

I was never able to get this game playing smoothly really at all. Wasn't too bad when on foot, was tolerable, but once you started to do quests driving around and whatnot it was a serious PITA.

I remember hearing the same advice, you need a better CPU but I honestly think that's incorrect. The game may need a stronger CPU, but when every other game I play doesn't stutter like that you know its either that it just doesnt prefer ATI cards or that its poorly coded.
I am going with the latter, because many people had stutter and jitter issues with the game at all settings. I could have played it at 1024x768 with all settings low and it would still stutter.. even crysis didn't play anywhere near that poorly for me with a dual core, so I don't buy that argument at all.

I recall some people saying to use particular drivers and to not update it past 1.1, but for the drivers I can't recall which set. Probably far too old by now anyway to matter.

As I said, the game seems to hate ATI cards. I would get a weird skipping issue on my old 4850 no matter what the settings. On my 470 it's literally butter smooth and very enjoyable.

That was just my experience but I know I'm not alone.

ScoobyDooby · 12-17-2010, 05:57 | posts: 5,260 | Location: BC, Canada

^ indeed, I know there are plenty of people with ATI cards that had the stutter issues and I would be inclined to beleive that fewer people had issues that used Nvidia gpus, but that said I was active on the Red Faction forum at the time trying to find fixes and I distinctly recall that there were people with Nvidia gpus that were having issues, not just with stuttering but with crashing and also with weird textures flashing, and the big one was the game would pause after large events, like taking down a big building.. this particular issue they were saying was not necessarily graphics related, that it was more due to cpu, but others believed it was on account of how they implemented the physics engine if I recall correctly.

Anyway, lucky you that it worked for you! I quite liked the game and would have loved to play it further if it weren't for the subpar performance :/

IcE · 12-17-2010, 14:03 | posts: 6,982 | Location: Toledo, Ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoobyDooby

^ indeed, I know there are plenty of people with ATI cards that had the stutter issues and I would be inclined to beleive that fewer people had issues that used Nvidia gpus, but that said I was active on the Red Faction forum at the time trying to find fixes and I distinctly recall that there were people with Nvidia gpus that were having issues, not just with stuttering but with crashing and also with weird textures flashing, and the big one was the game would pause after large events, like taking down a big building.. this particular issue they were saying was not necessarily graphics related, that it was more due to cpu, but others believed it was on account of how they implemented the physics engine if I recall correctly.

Anyway, lucky you that it worked for you! I quite liked the game and would have loved to play it further if it weren't for the subpar performance :/

Yeah, I basically got lucky. The game isn't coded too well which is a shame considering how good it is.

Garone · 12-17-2010, 14:46 | posts: 369

I've got the exact same problem as OP. It works properly the first time I run it but if I close it down and bring it back up the refresh rate will be locked at 59 and it will frameskip like hell.

Also got an ATI card and C2D.

13thvulture · 12-20-2010, 06:29 | posts: 11

maybe theres some sort of mod around that would fix it? ill google around

ct03 · 12-20-2010, 14:17 | posts: 86

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulo Narciso

This game needs a fast cpu. And ATI cards won't get along very well with this game.

My X2 4200 @ 2.5 Ghz begs to differ. I ran the game perfectly fine at around 40fps average (2 GB RAM and GTX260 216).

However, I had to turn off the Aero in Windows 7 to stop the game from lagging. Not sure what's up with that.