Opethian 说:
Here is a ss from my task manager while running warband: http://i42.tinypic.com/snguaf.jpg
My system specs: Athlon 64 x2 5000+ 2.8ghz, 2gig of ram and radeon x1950pro, xp sp3.
My system is pretty enough for this game i can max out graphics but even i set the all graphics settings to low and run with lowest resolution im getting very poor performance in large battles. As the number of soldier increased performance decreased a lot. This game is very cpu dependent than gpu. Siege battles and large field battles very laggy and almost unplayable because of low performance (I am getting 12-15 framerate average). We are in 2010 and even the cheapest entry level cpus are dual core. And lots of people have quad core systems. Why this game dont support more than one core? I think at least 2 core is should be supported. Does the developers have plan in future for this issue?
Did you update your directx to the latest update, game use some element that were added with it, also update video card driver if you didn't do so. For I don't think the trouble is CPU related for game is build to multi tread, which is the standard option, for there is actually an option in the configure menu to force single treading to help single core CPU. I can run the game 150 people battle on high quality with an AMD 64 3500+ and a ATI 3850HD 512MB. (But I admit I play a bit lower to be sure there is no slow down to noticeable level).
If everything is updated then go in msconfig and in teh service tab deactivate "ati hotkey poller" which most chance is a feature you don't use and just drain ressource (or don't if you actually use setting switch on hotkey). Also try switching your ATI catalyst AI and mipmap detail level, got noticeable increase in performance by switching the AI to advanced (which normaly cause more trouble with most game) and the mipmap detail level down to quality from high quality. It those switch in setting that let me play on high quality before that I had to play with 50% texture (cause I was getting major lag due to some texture at higher quality) while now I can play with 100% texture.
Also other setting to try to switch and see how it go in the configure menu would be load texture on demand, having it on normaly help with loading speed but create some problem with certain hardware from what I know.
EDIT: Also when you get a slow down try something. Alt+tab out then back in the game, I get performance back to normal like 95% of the time when I do so. But that just a temporary solution for after a while it will no longer counter problem until you restarted the game for there is currently a memory leck. But it does help maintain the game with good performance the first few time it happen until I am in a better position to quit the game and start it again, with the trouble I am getting on my side.