Thread: Increasing FPS?

Specs:
3.0GHz Pentium 4 CPU
ATI Radeon 4350
2.25GB RAM
~20GB free HDD space

Settings:
1440x900 resolution
Trilinear filtering
No AA
Vsync off
Multicore optimization off
Effects on medium
Shader on high
Model/texture detail on medium


I only get about 30FPS ingame, which drops to 15 in high-intensity moments (and the dead air finale for some reason)

Is there anything I can do to increase my framerate without changing the settings too much?

I managed to get it to 40fps while on the NM rooftop, but in the rest of the map it goes down to around 25. Is it better to have shader on medium and effects on medium, or shader on high and effects on low? I think those get me around the same result.

I don't want to change the resolution, as anything but max makes the lack of AA look terrible.

I was also thinking of using Gamebooster; does that do much?

Shaders should be set to low, Textures Med, Effects Med, AA OFF, Buffering OFF.

You have a basic card not mean't for major gaming.

Originally Posted by Platinum Ninja

Shaders should be set to low, Textures Med, Effects Med, AA OFF, Buffering OFF.

You have a basic card not mean't for major gaming.

Well I don't DO major gaming; basically just l4d and gmod

And I have shaders set to medium which seems to work just fine

I don't know; I just bought the vidcard a few weeks ago. I won't be buying a new one until I get a whole new computer, which won't be for a few years.

Originally Posted by Iggy

Let me ask you this:

If you didn't have your FPS turned on, would you really have noticed a huge difference? Meaning, was it really laggy and noticeable, or did you just notice how low the FPS were because you had the display turned on?

L4D seems to be a major resource hog, and we have countless posts here from people who are unhappy with the way the game performs, and they cite all the other games that play fine.

In my opinion, and I am sure I will get some flack over this, their minimum specs are woefully inadequate. People seem to think that they can use a machine with minimum specs, and then crank all their settings up. Then they wonder why the game lags like crazy.

And I am NOT pointing a finger at you, Spritanium, so no offense.

What it boils down to is that you have to turn the settings down to where the game is playable and call it good. If you are getting lag during the finales, and your settings are as low as you wish, you will just have to live with it until you can upgrade.

If it says you are getting 15 FPS and you can live with a little lag, then go with it.

Eh, I can get 15FPS with max settings but it's too low for my tastes

Anything above 30 is fine with me

I'm going to state this once more.

Your graphics card is designed to power Windows Vista Aero and High Resolution Videos. Left 4 Dead uses an old engine but the added lighting, and particle effects tax a system. If you want to play games on your card your going to have to make sacrifices. Here are all the settings you should play at-

Aspect Ratio - 4:3
Resolution - 800x600
Film Grain - Zero
AA - Off
Filtering - Off
Shader Detail - Low
Effect - Low
Model - Med

This will get you reasonable performance. Keep Shaders and Effects low or else your going to run into problems.