Is my PC just not good enough?

[Fluxuation]

At the risk of getting trolled by people who will more than likely tell me that my PC is bad and I should feel bad.. here are my specs..

Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 2.7G VRAM
AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2Ghz triple core CPU
4G RAM

Saints Row IV runs worse than any modern game I've played so far. Just get a constant sort of stuttering frame rate in open world and it persists whether I'm in Ultra settings or have everything turned off that the game will allow. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's unplayable but it's not really enjoyable either.

And yes.. I've taken the usual steps of running without AV in the background and my video drivers are up to date. Well, at least to the latest official release. I haven't tried the new beta drivers yet. Also have Direct X up and running.

I believe I have the recommended video card and the minimum CPU so you would think I could at least run it decently on lowest settings but it runs badly no matter what. Except for instanced missions. Those run at 60 FPS.

Basically just wondering if I should bother to keep trying to get it to run decently or if those specs just aren't going to do it. I really never have any idea what the "best" gpu or cpu is at the moment. If it's not good enough.. life goes on. Just bought Skyrim the other day after all. =P

If any of you guys have an idea what's going on with my bad performance I'd appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance.

[V]

I think it's just how the game is. =s Ignore people who says that your PC is "rubbish" and that they have this amazing rig that runs the game at 100 FPS and you need to get one of those machines - they're just showing-off and trying to make you feel bad... I've seen many people mentioned that they play newly released...graphics-demanding games fine on their computers but this one seems to spaz out.

Common sense is...if other games run fine (or extremely well) and this one somehow doesn't then it isn't the specs, it's the game. I mean...this is Saints Row IV not GTA V, the graphics aren't exactly spectacular.

[Uueerdo]

Originally posted by Fluxuation:

At the risk of getting trolled by people who will more than likely tell me that my PC is bad and I should feel bad.. here are my specs..

Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 2.7G VRAM
AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2Ghz triple core CPU
4G RAM

Saints Row IV runs worse than any modern game I've played so far. Just get a constant sort of stuttering frame rate in open world and it persists whether I'm in Ultra settings or have everything turned off that the game will allow.
...
I believe I have the recommended video card and the minimum CPU so you would think I could at least run it decently on lowest settings but it runs badly no matter what. Except for instanced missions. Those run at 60 FPS.

Given you've said it runs the same on Ultra or Low, and that it runs great in instances. I'd guess it is your CPU. As you pointed out, you have the minimum reqs CPU. Since instanced missions have a lot less going on (CPU-wise), that would explain those running fine. I am not going to be one of those people that tell you your PC sucks; but generally speaking, even decent performance can't be expected anymore at minimum req. specs.

[Uueerdo]

Originally posted by NeO_Voltron:

I've seen many people mentioned that they play newly released...graphics-demanding games fine on their computers but this one seems to spaz out.

Common sense is...if other games run fine (or extremely well) and this one somehow doesn't then it isn't the specs, it's the game. I mean...this is Saints Row IV not GTA V, the graphics aren't exactly spectacular.

Except his difficulties are probably not graphics related.

Originally posted by NeO_Voltron:

I think it's just how the game is.

Probably much more CPU intensive, what with all the NPCs (including cars) being piloted by the CPU; not to mention possibly more demanding on memory bandwidth now that they have given us super powers to cross the city in a few leaps.

[komugida]

I've played Saints' Row IV on a machine with lower specs than yours and it works fine, so I imagine it's a software/driver issue. Do you have loads of stuff running in the background?

Here are some ideas:

Update your graphics card driver to the latest version.

Kill all non-essential background processes (including explorer.exe) before launching the game, and see what happens.

Try downloading NVidia Inspector and putting your graphics card fan on max, and underclock the memory and shader by about 100MHz each.

Download Vista Services Optimizer (works on all versions of Windows, not just Vista) and set it to 'Gaming Mode', before running Saints' Row IV.

[V]

Ohw that's true...I actually didn't think about that. I guess you could try to keep superpowers minimal and drive to get around instead? But then...superpowers is kinda the main aspect of this game.

[Uueerdo]

Originally posted by NeO_Voltron:

Ohw that's true...I actually didn't think about that. I guess you could try to keep superpowers minimal and drive to get around instead? But then...superpowers is kinda the main aspect of this game.

Yep, many aspects of the game are downright impossible without their use... and image trying to chase down a master controller without sprint

Still, I would've thought any 3.2Ghz multi-core SHOULD be able to handle it. I don't think it uses PhysX, and even if it does it should be using his GPU... unless it is because their engine doesn't use PhysX.

[Xaero]

Try turning on adaptive VSync in the Nvidia Control Panel. Turn off Vsync in-game.

[Fluxuation]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yeah, I kinda figured it was a CPU issue more than likely due to video settings making no difference.

I could try the nvidia beta drivers but they're not optimized for SRIV or anything.. just Splinter Cell mostly I believe.

Far as background programs go I've shut down all the obvious ones.. windows could still be running unimportant things but I'm not really sure what's important and what's not out of what I still have running.

V-sync has always defaulted to off even on ultra settings.

I may check out that vista services optimizer komugida mentioned. Never heard of it but it sounds like it may automatically turn off all services you don't need running during gameplay? If so that sounds really convenient. I wouldn't have to guess anymore lol

Well like I said I'm going to try not to obsess about it too much. Sometimes stuff just doesn't work. Never did get Dragon Age 1 to stop randomly crashing on me for instance. Thanks for taking the time to help. =)

[MicMac]

Set the game to run in "bordeless" (or windowed) mode instead of fullscreen in the game display options. It might get rid of that stutter when panning around.

[Lohner]

I have the same stuttering issue I had with SR3 until it was updated. I could run the game Ultra or Low and get FPS stuttering only when using vsync. FPS in the 120+ range without vsync, and fps fluctuating in the 57-60 range with vsync and constant stuttering. I tinkered with vsync, triple buffering, pre rendered frames, etc at driver level and nothing helped.

As indicated above, I have no doubt that it's a CPU bottleneck, but seeing as how this is the same issue I had with SR3 (which was completely resolved by an update) I'd have to presume it's the software and not the hardware.

Or, hopefully, Nvidia's newest 326 WHQL driver release will fix something that SR4 doesn't like about the 320 or 326 beta drivers.

[Wolfchild]

One of the first things I learned when I got into repair is that minimum system requirements posted on many games, they don't take background apps and other things into consideration. The other tip I got from my boss at the time is to always more ram than they recommend on the box. Of course this was back when pc's were being shipped with 4-8 megs of ram, and pentium processors were just starting to become the norm.

[Rorschakiin]

Your CPU is the problem.