COD4 - Am I missing the optimized experience?

Ok, computer tech is really beginning to get on my nerves. Could someone clarify to me the "amazing" performance in COD4 that everyone seems to go ga-ga over? Now I am not trying to be rude here, I understand that it doesn't mean everyone in the world said it, but frankly, I have seen ALOT of it.

I have an 8800 Ultra and because of some issues I am running only one of them.

I have all the settings cranked at 1680x1050, with 4xaa and extra textures with full AF.

Now....the first mission with the ship and the rain and water. Didn't exactly run at 60fps which I have seen so many people claim (about the game in general). Now, I have had many issues in the past with my systems, and I refuse to believe my rig here is to blame. Could someone separate the hype from the truth please?

Because throughout that mission, in any instance where there were firefights it dipped below 60. When the helicopter first panned around the ship, it dropped and especially when the helicopter blew the windows and enemies out a couple minutes in. Yes sure it runs at 60fps or above a lot, but it seems to me that its never where it counts.

I figure I would have the hardware for this, no?

This isn't intended really as a rant, more a request for clarification, because when I hear so many things in the vein of what has been said of COD4, it always makes me wary of my system. I have spent the last day tweaking multiplayer and it ran quite fine, but now I am exhausted because single player was an immediate buzzkill. I did play with vsync both on and off, just as a side note. Its just, I keep seeing people around the net boasting great performance and 60fps at really high or max settings. Am I missing the supercomputer sale somewhere?

 

I understand your frustration. It is in fact common to see people claiming performance that they don't have. But i believe that in COD4 is not the case.
In my case everything maxed out 2xAA and 16AF stays in average at 35-40 fps even during heavy firefigts. But there are some points where the frames do down, which i believe is due to the engine of the game since there are points were everyone was these drops.

Anyway COD4 is a very optimised game, runs very good on a variety of systems, so try the usual stuff,patches , drivers etc.

 

CoD's great performance that everyone is on about is the fact that on lesser cards it performs extremely well. I dont know about you, but most shader intensive games( Dirt, Crysis etc ) released this year are usually performance hogs and cant be maxed, but CoD looks absolutely stunning, you can max it out completely with lots of AA and AF and it still hangs around 60 dipping maybe to 45( for me anyway ) in sections. I havnt seen any other game that looks soo good and performs so well this year( maybe Bioshock, but the gfx style is completely different ).

I ran CoD4 on my 7800gtx, pretty much maxed @ 1680x1050, but no AA or AF and it was running @ 35-40FPS, performance was even better than bioshock

 

It works like this , you spend lots of cash on this high end pc , and it makes you unhappy cause it does not run as good as the hype . To add to that fact is that is not much faster than some out dated hardware which has less problems cause all the bugs have fixed . Thats why I read the forums before I spend my cash !

 

This is the 'performance' people are talking about LOL

which is why I run it at 1024 4xAA

Anything more I do not get the 90+ FPS I REQUIRE

 

I only play SP as i have no net connection, but yeah, if i was gaming online id require a minimum of 60FPS

 

Lol, required +90 FPS?!
MP or SP? And the requirement for 90 fps e just for COD or for all games?

 

daft Q but have you used patch 1.4 ??

 

With rig in my system at 1920x1200 4aa/16af ss I get above 60fps. So I think you have some issues with your computer.

 

COD4 perfroms well because it has a dated graphics engine, other then lighting and smoke effects, everything else is sub par. The small environments lack detail, draw distance, and there is no interactivity or physics to speak of.

Quite frankly, COD4 is one of the most overrated games I have ever played. Gameplay from the 6 years ago, hasn't changed, endless spawning enemiies, all scripted in very linear small areas, bad AI, etc...

 

Charlie oscar delta

Try posting at charlieoscardelta.com. I know I saw problems similar to yours and it was either due to xfire or a creative x-fi driver issue. I can't remember which.

 

I play at 1920x1200 with all in game settings to max and 4xAA override in the CP. I get an average of 50-60 fps, and often get over 90 fps.

What drivers are you using lifeforce?

 

Yeah I can kill CoD4 with my rig.. I just turn aa off since I don't really need it when Im owning people in MP.. just a waste of processing really.. which is why I don't understand why people need to use it outside of SP.. do u notice jaggies when you're running and gunning in MP? I sure don't.

anyway, with everything other than AA maxed at 1900x1200 I get anywhere between 40-100. Usually stays up there though.

I find that the 1.4 patch is really crap though. I had smoother and better performance all around with 1.3 tbh.

 

I havnt updated mine with any patches yet, lol, its fine as is for SP

 

^ if you play SP than yeah, patch is not required. If you play online though, which is what the game was made for, than you will definitely need to update.

 

It seems that the consensus is that theres an issue.

Having fixed my SLI issue I am able to maintain 60 most of the time, but in spots it still FEELS slow. Its really odd.

Btw, which is more accurate COD4's frame counter or the one in fraps? Because I seem to be getting different sets of numbers quite frequently.

Anyway, in the first mission in single player with the cod counter I am dropping into the 50s when the copter is panning around the ship and in intense shooting sequences. With sli on, these areas drop a teensy bit below 60 or keep to it.

I am just concerned now because I think one Ultra should do better, no?

 

lol

Everybody has VERY different standards of what is acceptable FPS, its an argument I get into time and time again on this board.

 

Would be lovely, but I am afraid thats normal.

 

cheers, yeah, SP only for me at the moment( not from choice, been waiting 5 months now for a phone line connection and have to wait another 2 lol ), ill be patching when i get online though

 

Tip...quit looking at the fps...& just play the game. Then ask your self a question...."Am I enjoying myself? Is this playable? Am I feeling ripped off or satisfied?" Honestly ...What do you care more about...frames per second or playing the game. Lots of games run very smooth at 30 fps(gears of war, sega rally, quake wars), I get around 35/40 fps on Cod4(just checked for sake of argument). Just play the game...
...or switch to a console, where it is the same no matter what...