BleepingComputer.com: Bf2 Lag Issues On Good Specs

Recently I upgraded my Comp from a 1.4 ghz proccessor AMD Athlon 2000 xp to a pentium 4 2.4 ghz. I also added a larger hard-drive and changed my old to a slave disk. The motherboard Im using now (Gigabyte) wich had a built in Realtek sound card, seems to be working alright.
Total Specs:
Radeon 256 mb 9550 gfx
Pentium 4 2.4 ghz
Gigabyte motherboard
Realtek sound card
1gb ram
All drivers are propperlly installed and useable (As they play well w/other games such as AOE3, Star Wars Galaxies, and WoW)

When I try to play bf2 Special forces, or Bf, on Multiplayer, I have major issues. (Mind you, single player runs quite fluently, with no lag or anything) At the begining of the problem I thought it was a Network issue, seeing as how our ISP was bleeping a lot of stuff up, but after that got fixed, multiplayer still didnt run well. Specifically, its animation lag, along with mouse lag (Seems like the mouse is dragging along, especially in the spawn menus). The animation lag I refer to is my gun going from the point of looking as if im sprinting (when im not) and then normall. Sound lag is an issue also. Ive tried every graphics setting combination, to the point of all Medium settings, and tried switching my sound hardware settings around, with no luck.

Appearantly, after searching other boards and support pages, many people seem to be having this problem, the common sollution was to repatch, and turn Vertical Synch on. Both had no effect.

Tyvm for any help ^_^

I've run into the same thing with the same game, and (oddly enough!) had almost the same old computer as you did, and BF2 lagged. I built my own comp and the first game I played lagged horribly. After a few hours of tweeking this and tunning that much as you've done, I realized that the servers I was trying to play on were in the UK.......and I'm in the US. Even though the ping for the server had a good ping (according to the BF2 lobby where it lists the servers and server info), I lagged horribly. So, I found a server that was in NYC (New York City), which is about 6-8 hours from me, and jumped in it. It was a 64 player map, and I was player #63. No lag issues at all whatsoever.

Point being, try using servers that aren't overseas, or on the other side of the country. Find some that are close to your location and see if it lags.

Just a suggestion, as it worked for me.

Hope it helps.

If indeed that is your problem, you should always put in filter the servers by ping. The easiest thing you can do is filter the servers to bring up any server under 100 ping then, have the servers sorted by map and there you go.

Its really important to do this especially for me when I want to snipe because I can only snipe well when I have a ping of 50 or less.

Thx, but thats not the prob. (And "Same old computer" as me lol? w.e) Its just weird that my old bleepty pc played it better than my pretty much 10 times better custom built one in the same case now.

Any other suggestions?

This post has been edited by Jimdigriz: 08 February 2006 - 06:04 PM

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was just referring to your old machine that you upgraded, as it had the same processor as my old one did that I just replaced, and that it seemed funny (hence "oddly enough!" not "LOL?") that we had similar "old" computers...........

Next I'd check to see what is starting up when your comp is starting. I've seen in the past where people have so many programs starting up when their machine does that there are sometimes 3, 4, 5 or more programs checking for updates, downloading updates, newer versions etc. that it lags the internet connection. Things like Java, MSN messanger, AIM, webshots, windows update, yahoo IM, and whatever other programs that feel the need to check for and automatically download and update on computers. Also check for spyware and all the other good stuff like that, as those update and send info to a parent site. I believe that most of the programs mentioned above will start when windows starts and check for updates immediately. Others will wait for a connection to the internet (usually when IE starts up). All or any one of these running in the background will suck up bandwith, and also tie up your processor somewhat.

Hope it helps.

no, i thought you were talkin bout my upgraded machine

And yeah, im past all that stuff, since I was ...12 lol.

The only weird thing is that the exact same things were going on on my comp when it wasnt as good, and I played bf2 w/no probs.

Thx for your continuing support though.

I'd give it a check anyways.....just to make sure. When you installed your OS on your new comp, I believe that windows starts MS messnanger automatically. If you've installed like AIM or yahoo messanger, I believe that they both start when windows starts. Even if you disable them in their internal options (uncheck box "start when windows starts") they still might check for updates. Also, I think that the only way to disable Java and apple quicktime (both starts automatically) is via "msconfig".


Then there's the usual "internet problem causing" suspects....adware, spyware etc. and firewalls, router issues etc. Always hours of fun trying to straighten those out

yeah yeah lol, I meant that those things were the first things I did ^_^

And yeah, all the updating progs and such are a complete bleep.

Well after a few mins of skiming my comp manually for viruses, since norton wasnt being sufficient enough for me, I realized that Windows Firewall was only enabled for bf2.....rofl....big effing surprise...turned that off.

Bf2 played great---then i realized the graphics had magically switched to all low, I turned most to medium and 2 to high. Still not running perfectly, but a little bit better. I think Im gona buy a couple gigs of ram here in the near future.

Just as an update (not sure if this will help you with your issues or not) there's a new patch out for BF2. You can try downloading it and installing it (if you already haven't) and hope that helps you! The patch can be downloaded at EA.com or you can let xfire download it (if you use xfire).

I'm currently having mixed thoughts about the patch. Its good that there were changes but it feels like a major drawback in gameplay if you've been using some of the things changed legitimately. Maybe I need to do something but lots of the server filtering options don't work still and I hate the not being able to blow up mintes and stuff. Claymores suddenly become an unbeatable path blocker that randomly explode when you're not very close by. I think that its unbalanced probably because they took out the ability to pick up explosives with 'g'. Havne't tried out the airforce changes yet though.

anyway. hope that the new patch helps.

TBH I haven't even downloaded it yet. I was posting as to try to help out Jimdigriz with his lag issues (still not sure if this latest patch will help or not!).

Very good points though Wizdabest...takes away some reality not being able to blow up mines/claymores and whatnot. Makes an unfair advantage for snipers too.

Hehe, sorry to tell ya that dude, but your specs aren't "good", i'd call them less than average, and many would say that low end/budget system, especially for playing BF2.
All you can do is probably run BF2 on low settings or upgrade to a better system.
That 2.4Ghz P4 you got is pretty weak, and video card seems to be one of those bargain ones (not the mainstream series like 9800PRO).
Check out this multi-page guide on how to optimize BF2 performace, so you can squieze out as much as possible from your system. http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_1.html
good luck

Actually, now that I reread your first post I have to agree with Kaptain.

Especially with the video card, your specs aren't really that great. My pc will get burps every now and then and my specs are an athlon 4000+, 2 gigs ram, and a 7800 gt. Before I bought this computer, the computer I played on was somewhat similar to yours, a 2.4 ghz P4, 1 gig ram, but a 6800 gt and I had to turn some settings down. Now that I think about it more, when I had my graphics up, the game would lag real bad for more than 20-30 minutes. Your problem I realize would be your video card, at the very least you should get the cheapest possible dx9 video card to play the game, like an x300 (thats what I had for $50 before in my computer before I bought the 7800 gt).

I can't belive I didn't realize it before, I had to turn textures down and all the shadows off just to not have any major lag when I first entered a server. sorry.

So yea, it looks like you need a new video card.

This post has been edited by Wizdabest: 20 February 2006 - 09:07 PM

I have heard of alot of people talking about BF2 lag alot i knew have got new ram which has helped and made gameplay way better here is a link to the ram... http://www.directron.com/geil.html or http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....anufactory=1687

it's a bit pricey but you wont regret it...

Also, there appears to be a lot of new bug and lag trouble from the patch too. Though I know your post was pre 1.12, since 1.2 was released, there have been massive lag problems for low end ATI users. It looks like that might be solved in a soon to be released 1.21 patch though.