Tweaking XP for games
Discussion
Followin on from the Rfactor thread I thouhgt I better makde a new thread for this.
I have disabled quite a few services in XP using the below guide
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
Its also worth running a complete defrag regularly.
If can its worth making two partitions on your disk, one of 2gb at the end for the page file, and use the remaining space for windows.
This way the page file wont get fragmented as much and will be faster.
Try and close all programs you dont need when playing games. I find that my antivirus can make games a bit jerky and its safe to play a game with it off.. just dont forget to turn it back on when you have finished racing.
You can save some memory be keeping your desktop clear, if you want to be anal you can remove your desktop image as well.
Some games benefit from running as high priority in Task manager, setting them to realtime might cause problems, but you can test it out.
To stop windows from trying to update itself mid game disable windows update (set it to notify you of updates, but to prompt you before downloading)
To finish any idle processes that are running open start/run and paste this line in there
Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
That will force any process that are running to complete.. I run this before the race practice (just ALT-TAB out of the game and run it)
Download microsoft bootvis to make your PC boot quicker.
Download FRAPS to see your realtime FPS in game (this will use some memory so dont use it in a race, just for testing)
Its also worth updating all your drivers, especially graphics drivers.
Does anybody know if there is a benchmark program for Rfactor?
There are other things to do as well, but this is a start
I have disabled quite a few services in XP using the below guide
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
Its also worth running a complete defrag regularly.
If can its worth making two partitions on your disk, one of 2gb at the end for the page file, and use the remaining space for windows.
This way the page file wont get fragmented as much and will be faster.
Try and close all programs you dont need when playing games. I find that my antivirus can make games a bit jerky and its safe to play a game with it off.. just dont forget to turn it back on when you have finished racing.
You can save some memory be keeping your desktop clear, if you want to be anal you can remove your desktop image as well.
Some games benefit from running as high priority in Task manager, setting them to realtime might cause problems, but you can test it out.
To stop windows from trying to update itself mid game disable windows update (set it to notify you of updates, but to prompt you before downloading)
To finish any idle processes that are running open start/run and paste this line in there
Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
That will force any process that are running to complete.. I run this before the race practice (just ALT-TAB out of the game and run it)
Download microsoft bootvis to make your PC boot quicker.
Download FRAPS to see your realtime FPS in game (this will use some memory so dont use it in a race, just for testing)
Its also worth updating all your drivers, especially graphics drivers.
Does anybody know if there is a benchmark program for Rfactor?
There are other things to do as well, but this is a start
Edited by Holst on Sunday 25th May 23:06
Definitely start by disabling unnecessary applications and services before you start tinkering with task priorities.
Consider that any given game application depends on other tasks getting processor time (audio and video drivers are the main culprits). Depending on the game, you'll sometimes notice slowdown or periodic stalls when increasing it's task priority.
Consider that any given game application depends on other tasks getting processor time (audio and video drivers are the main culprits). Depending on the game, you'll sometimes notice slowdown or periodic stalls when increasing it's task priority.
Gassing Station | Video Games | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff