Games slows PC down?

When you say my PC is good, that gives us nothing.

Vista:

Press start, type in "dxdiag", press enter, wait a bit, save the text file, paste the results here (you can ignore information after sound specs)

XP:

Start, run, dxdiag, same stuff.

Then we can talk and give suggestions.

Yes, this is normal.

At the start, you have only few units on the battlefield. While the battle is ongoing the army size of reinforcements will increase.

In the end battles I have only ~25fps myself (3ghz dualcore, ATI4850, 4gb ram), because there are really mass creeps etc.

Is this what SIM is?   Sometimes in games I get -1 or -2 Sim and the game really slows down.  I've tried all the lowest and highest settings, but still happens near the end of the game.  Or in 5v5.

Hmm, strange. Doesn't happen to me? My FPS stays pretty constant throughout the entire match.

Here you go... I know my pc isn't state of the art... but man... It really does bog down...

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System Information
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Time of this report: 4/19/2009, 19:00:21
       Machine name: YOUR-3DD1BB67B3
   Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: GATEWA
       System Model: 04DT037_
               BIOS: Default System BIOS
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
             Memory: 2286MB RAM
          Page File: 908MB used, 3268MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
  DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
          Music Tab: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
        Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 9500 GT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0640&SUBSYS_604619DA&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Hansol 910A
  Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0011.7519 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 5/16/2008 14:31:00, 6108928 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 5/16/2008 14:31:00, 6557408 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4500-11CF-3567-4D4000C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x10DE
        Device ID: 0x0640
        SubSys ID: 0x604619DA
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
 Deinterlace Caps: {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
                   {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
 D3D7 Test Result: Not run
 D3D8 Test Result: Not run
 D3D9 Test Result: Not run

The only reason I see you may be experiencing this is due to your CPU being P4. So while the game runs fine for you at beginning, CPU will eventually bottleneck your computer's perfomance as you have quite a decent video card and 2.2GB of RAM on XP is definitely a solid amount. And even though it is weird to me that Demigod req's say it is recommended to have a 3.0GHz CPU, you meet all the requirements, which makes me think you may have some background programs running, taking up the CPU usage.

With single core, you really do not want anything, whatsoever running in your background. So try closing everything to the point of you having just esssential processes, that should give you a little boost.

Also, I am not sure how well you maintain your PC, but you could update the BIOS for your motherboard to make it running at up-to-date stats.

edit: Also, throw in an update on your video card drivers, as you have the retail version (5/16/2008). Go to: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

and selection second option for an automatic update (it may cause your browser blocking the script, which you should allow)

Exactly. It´s you "simulation speed". If you have for instance +2 it means, that your CPU could calculate the game 2x as fast as the normal game speed. Vice versa, if you have -2 it means the game runs slower, because your CPU can´t handle all those calculations fast enough.

Updated the video card... Any info about how to update the bios...

http://www.emachines.com/support/product_support.html?cat=Desktops&subcat=H%20Series&model=H5026

That is the link to my computors support page... But not sure if what I need is there...

Also... Saw someone mention SIM... Where does one see this ingame?

Press TAB to show the scores, it will be in one of the columns.

Even if you have a really good video card, the sim speed could slow your game down to a crawl.  The only way to fix this is to beef up your cpu.

It is like supreme commander, the more units in the game (even if they aren't on your screen), the slower the game will run.  If you change the game options and make the spawn rate 'Fast' it will spawn much more units and have a significant effect.  One of our guys with a new quad Q9550 was brought down to a Sim speed of 1 with this.

I am a little suprised that it slows down as much as it does, unlike supreme commander there simply shouldn't be as much going on in the units AI - this leads me to beleive there is heaps of room for improvement.

Another thing I have noticed is that it really depends on the map - the smallish map with the snake and 2 paths runs the best I think, we generally get 3 sim speed higher on this map than other maps - could be to do with pathing optimization.

Sim speed is a big problem with benchmarks of this game IMO - I would rather see sim speed at time intervals than FPS performance... anyway hopefully stardock can put some effort into optimizing the units, it sounds like they are way too overcomplicated for what they are doing.

@OP:

Before touching BIOS, I would check to make sure nothing is running in background when you are playing DG. There definitely will be a limit to how much your CPU can handle, but these little tweaks can increase you, not by a lot, by at least a bit.

My guess is the same as ILiekCaek, the slowdown mostly due to CPU speed since your card is decent enough and it seem to be at stable speed(not going, stoppoing, then going again but slowly getting less framerate). Strange though i have a feeling that P4 should run it fine enough. How's your game setting though? have you try changing the graphic settings?

Higher latency is what slows framerate down.

I keep my computer very clearn of background running programs.

The only things that I have in my startup, and that I have running in the background is AVG.

I even tried turning it off for kicks to see if it made a difference, it doesn't.

Yeah, I disabled all the graphics (that I could) in game, and set the others too low... It really doesn't feel like a graphics issue, but then again what do I know.

EDIT: I mean if my computer can't play it properly, not too sure what audiance Stardock is strying to get for this game. SUPERCOMPUTER players only?

In most games, I have a latency under 90ms, and most users around 100-110, so it is NOT latency.  I know lag.  This is just slooooooooooow motion.  My sim turns to -2.  Now I got me a nice Dell XPS with a 2.2ghs Pentium dual core 2 and 3 gig of free ram and a Gforce 8600M.   Game just slows way down near the end when there's LOTS of units.  

I have to agree with Sheezwack, I think there is lots of room for improvement that the devs can do to boost user speed.  At least that is what I am hoping.  They did it in Sins of a Solar Empire, fixing the memory usage and what not, hopefully they can do something here.

Not an expert but I'd have to agree on the P4...

Also some people have gotten better performance with turning down the sound options, /nosound, etc... From what I've read.

for real...? Didn't know sound could bog the computer down...

Yeah you will get probably an extra 1 sim speed without sound... but its not something you really want to play without.  Some people have driver issues and will get more benefit from disabling sound.

It has nothing to do with network latency, because it happens in single player games as well.

If your computer is struggling, put the Unit Spawn rate to slow, and play the blue snake map, I think that one runs the best.  Also all assasins might run better too since there are less general units - basically the more units on the map the worse it will run.

Considering they had this same issue in Supreme Commander, I don't know how much effort they will put in to making it perform better.  So realistically if your computer doesn't meet the Recommended Specs (not the minimum specs), then you will have Sim Speed issues. 

I'm pretty sure their engine has some issues anyway, in Supreme Commander the performance would degrade, and even where there were less units on the map the performance wouldn't always bounce back - I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here too.

Recommended System Requirements:

• 3 GHz Processor (Multicore Supported)

I meet and exceed the recommended, just trying to figure out how to get rid of my -1 or -2 sim score late game.  Dual core processor should be fine but.... maybe I should turn off antivirus in background next time.  I'll see if it helps and post back.  Other than that, I've lowered everything I could (except sound), so I'm at a loss.

Unless I can turn off Impulse, but doesn't that enable the chat feature?

Well SupCom is Unplayable with AI (barely playbe MP on small maps) on single core and since DG uses supcoms engine its the same thing - since there are far fewer units in DG (well maybe yhey are smarter ) its playable with singlecore. But I wouldnt expect great performance from it.

Anyone know if Demigod has quad core support? I know that I never go below 50 fps with my quad core and nividia gtx 260.  I need to start frapsing this shiz!

FPS isn't an issue for most people, keep an eye on your sim speed.

Wiat... so you're telling me, that the lags i have are not caused by the old card i've been using, but by the CPU?! I've just bought a new video card to be able to play the game, and you're trying to tell me that it won't help my game experience? If this is true, i am astonished... it is unacceptable. Those units doesn't do anything that should be causing so much CPU consumtion. They just walk from one spot to another... and then fight. I can understand that rendering so many of them would cause fps drop because of vieo card not managing so many calculations... but CPU lags? If this is all true i think i'm goin to cry...

I'm a little surprised that this info seems to be coming out now...

Everyone thought that the end-game slowdown was due to fps?

On a sidenote, yeah the adds walking around shouldn't under any circumstance mess up the CPU that badly.

Its crappy programming... probably won't get fixed either... At least not within a reasonable time frame.

A friend has the same problem with his system constantly slowing down as the game progresses. This is happening in single player games (since we cannot find each other in multiplayer games in germany because of another bug). Even after he closed the game the system is still slowed down.

He is using a Q6600 with 4GB of RAM together wit a Radeon 4850 on an WinXP System, i therefore think there has to be another reason than CPU usage.

I will ask him if he can post his dxdiag to give some more informations about this phenomenon.

i'm not surprised at all; it was well known in SupCom. and it wouldn't have been too hard to piece together if you done some research and looked at the history of the game/engine.

i mean, i was well prepared for what DoWII was capable of by looking at it's ancestory; Company of Heros.

by all means; do a better job yourself. i'm sure a university degree in software engineering, and several years work experience count for absolutely nothing.

of course; pathfinding is absolute childsplay. it's so easy that they teach it in high-school programming classes.