COD:WaW, Slow map loading time??

[EastCoasthandle]

I am the other guy on the ATI thread. After the thread was closed I started a new and a little less polite thread which was closed and removed. I have installed the new Catalyst driver to no avail. I called in a support case and the guy treated me like an idiot, which is bothersome since I have been in the computer field for over 14 years. They collected a ton of info from me and did absolutely nothing. They even told me that if others are having the same problem it is irrelevant. Nice huh? I have updated every driver and my bios, heck I even changed monitors. Nothing helps. I have 2 sets of RAID0 drives and the game loads from my solid state drives so you cant get much faster. Here are my specs:
AMD Phenom X4940
2X HD3870 Crossfire
8G RAM
Vista 64
2X 80G sata RAID0 (OS)
2X 32G SSD RAID0 (games)
By default the game loads all the maps from the users folder (on the OS drive) In an attempt to speed things up I symlinked the AppData directory to my SSD drives.
Observations:
During loading my CPU never goes above 35%
My RAM never goes below 5G free
My 1st GPU goes to about 10% until map is fully loaded the stick at 99%
My second GPU is never touched
Network utlilization is very minimal
I have run this from behind 4 different gateways - Linksys, Belkin (2 of them), and even a very high end Citrix NetScaler. All with same result
I have run it from behind 2 different modems (I have 2 internet connections for my job)
Hard drives are defragged including page file
I have played with just about any setting possible in game and in Catalyst

My friends with MUCH MUCH slower machines load in 1/4 of the time it takes me

Anyone have any ideas???
Let me know if you want more info

Vasha

Post up a pic of your processes. Lets start there because everyone isn't experiencing the long load times you are.

In the meantime try deleting and then recreating your page file. Just change it from it's default to something else then reboot. Then change it back to it's default and reboot again.

 

[Jack4L]

Not processes problem, i try to plug my brother's 8800GTS and load a map on 7 sec or less... same rig, same processes, same ram....all, unplug 4870 and plug 8800GTS and ridiculous load times....clearly ATI problem.

We only can wait a ATI solution or treyarch solution.

On Xfire i answer so many people, in spanish forum i answer yet ALL have the same problem, only 1 user that have 4870X2 no have the problem only 1.....

Sorry, bye

 

[Vasha]

Jack4l

If you know someone that is not having the problem can you get some info from them?
OS
Service pack
Catalyst version
Catalyst settings
Anti-virus name
Anti-spyware name
COD:WAW settings
Anything else you can think of

Thanks

 

[Vasha]

I had an idea, tell me if this sounds feasible

I know the example I am using is completely different, I am thinking of process behind it.

Remember Battlefield 2. Every time you changed any video setting it would "optimize" the maps

Here is my theory:
Somehow if you are running an Nvidia card it caches the textures etc. on a map by map basis.
The ATI cards are not which causes you to re-do this process every time which in turn slows down a map load.

How to test:
If someone running an Nvidia card could run filemon and regmon (from sysinternals now microsoft) while joining a round I could compare that with the files and regkeys I touch when joining

Yes this is a conspiracy theory so don't flame me. It is still a valid theory.

 

[Vasha]

To answer Eastcoasts question

I have done this on a completely stripped config (all but core processes killed and black vipers service config) and a full config (tons of crap running) all produce same results.
Pagefile has been recreated.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Jack4L, post up a video showing your in game graphics and textures in game. Along with your server selection showing your map load up time using both video cards. We want to see this. Vasha you do the same. Let us see what you see (graphics, textures, load times). Both of you can use fraps or Xfire to record the information and post it on youtube or some other service.

 

[Jack4L]

Jack4L, post up a video showing your in game graphics and textures in game. Along with your server selection showing your map load up time using both video cards. We want to see this. Vasha you do the same. Let us see what you see (graphics, textures, load times). Both of you can use fraps or Xfire to record the information and post it on youtube or some other service.

the Config is similar:

Windows Vista 64 Ultimate
Avast! Antivirus

COD5:
1680x1050 @ 60Hz
Aspect ratio 16:10
Antialising 4X
all the rest at maximun settings
Textures:
Filter: automatica
Anisotropic max
extra
extra
and extra

Right, when i had some time i upload them, my brother use the 8800GTS a lot xDDD L4D vicious. I try to grab them tomorrow, but my brother play L4D above 4:30-5:00AM

Bye

 

[Jack4L]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iNOVVp7MkI

This is my brother's 8800GTS 512MB on mi rig I'dont remebered how fasta load a map.... I tired to wait a solution

Bye!

 

[Vasha]

I have been out of town. I will post that soon. Does anyone have any suggestions until then?

 

[Vasha]

I guess we are S.O.L.
ATI says its not their problem (and don't care) They even shutdown threads on the forum if they don't like the content.

Activision says its not their problem

Nobody else seems to know anything

Its kinda sad. I have been using AMD since the K5 days and ATI since the Mach series.
I think it might be time to go over to the other side. Most games seem to be choosing Nvidia and Intel and in the gaming world ATI/AMD is being outperformed at most price points. I have always rooted for the little guy buy they are not little and they have become completely corporate so why do I stay?

ATI support forums are not worth anything anymore and the moderators are rude and arrogant.
ATI support is even worse. I had to work with some a-hole who couldn't troubleshoot his way out of a round room with one door and is also arrogant to boot.

I will let you know that I work with the high end gear on the internet and have for a very long time. I have been a customer and I have been consultant. If I were ever to treat a client the way they do I would be fired and the client would walk away. So I guess that implies that the equipment we get from ATI is not high end and is apparently bargain basement and is supported as such.

Chime in with your thoughts
Articulate them and do not just be a fanboy and flame

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I guess we are S.O.L.
ATI says its not their problem (and don't care) They even shutdown threads on the forum if they don't like the content.

Activision says its not their problem

Nobody else seems to know anything

Its kinda sad. I have been using AMD since the K5 days and ATI since the Mach series.
I think it might be time to go over to the other side. Most games seem to be choosing Nvidia and Intel and in the gaming world ATI/AMD is being outperformed at most price points. I have always rooted for the little guy buy they are not little and they have become completely corporate so why do I stay?

ATI support forums are not worth anything anymore and the moderators are rude and arrogant.
ATI support is even worse. I had to work with some a-hole who couldn't troubleshoot his way out of a round room with one door and is also arrogant to boot.

I will let you know that I work with the high end gear on the internet and have for a very long time. I have been a customer and I have been consultant. If I were ever to treat a client the way they do I would be fired and the client would walk away. So I guess that implies that the equipment we get from ATI is not high end and is apparently bargain basement and is supported as such.

Chime in with your thoughts
Articulate them and do not just be a fanboy and flame

In earnest, I believe your claims of a problem are a tad specious. And, for the most part making a mountain out of mole hill. Having said that, if you feel that nvidia is better suited for you then by all means get that video card. Just don't call everyone a fan boy because of it. As it stands I have no problem with the COD:WAW load times and fine it acceptable.

 

[Vasha]

First, I didnt call anybody a fanboy, I asked for intelligent rebuttal as opposed to a flame.
Second, I am not making a mountain out of a mole hill. If someone is having an issue, resolve it. That simple. That does not mean wave a magic wand and make it all better. It means clearly define the problem and come up with a solution, even if that means admitting there is nothing that they can do at the time. None of this has been done.
Last, without being too argumentative the worst thing that can be done is to say in essence "if you dont like it, leave" that starts a trend that is very difficult to reverse and the sales numbers will be indicative of it. How do you think AMD got started in the first place? Intel had that attitude and you can see how hard they have tried to change that image over the last 10 years or so. They are the ones who opened the door for AMD and in hindsight I would bet they wished they would not have done so.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I honestly cannot agree with your opinion on the situation at hand and, find it a bit off topic. By the looks of it the majority really don't care. I can say that if it is taking you more then 20 seconds to get onto a server then it maybe something on your end that is not driver/video card related. That's the best advice I can give you at this time.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Oh BTW, I was able to knock of about 9-10 seconds off my load time by installing DirectX from the CODWAW DVD (not from MS website). Now I can load a map at around 12-13 seconds

video

 

[trusselo]

i found if you load cod in widowed mode and load the levels in the background load times are around 5 seconds as "infocus" or main window it is around 40 seconds with my RAID 0 settup on my pc

specs:
phenom 9600 black
msi k9a2platinum with amd 790fx chip
raid 0 on amd sb650 2 WD500
2 x hd3870 cards crossfireX enabled

the problem with running ANY GAME in windowed mode is crossfire doesnt enable only 1 gpu works.

 

[Kursah]

I actually found better load performance running my single 6400aaks in comparison to 2x6400aaks drives in raid 0, not just on WaW, but in pretty much every other game I play. Got rid of Raid for that reason, I game too much to lose out for higher benchmarks and file copy (which I don't do large enough or often enough to justify raid). Between that and onboard raid, meh. I think I'm at about 10-15 seconds at most in WaW...haven't played in a while though...but it never takes very long to load a map in FS mode using a non-raid setup.

 

[trusselo]

I found no difference when i moved up to raid. did not see it slow down so i dont think going back from raid will solve this.

 

[FiND618]

Решение очень легко !
1. Откройте свойства лаунчера (t4sp или t4mp)
2. Переходите на Совместимость
3. Поставьте галочку на опции * Отключить оптимизацию во весь экран*

Решение очень легко !
1. Откройте свойства лаунчера (t4sp или t4mp)
2. Переходите на Совместимость
3. Поставьте галочку на опции * Отключить оптимизацию во весь экран*

 

[Jack4L]

Решение очень легко !
1. Откройте свойства лаунчера (t4sp или t4mp)
2. Переходите на Совместимость
3. Поставьте галочку на опции * Отключить оптимизацию во весь экран*

Решение очень легко !
1. Откройте свойства лаунчера (t4sp или t4mp)
2. Переходите на Совместимость
3. Поставьте галочку на опции * Отключить оптимизацию во весь экран*

15 years later…