Great Performance Increase for Nvidia Users! This fix is indispensable!

[Elhoim]

I used this tweak to increase the performance of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but it also works great with Civ IV. I´ll asure you that you will see a GREAT difference. On to the tweak:

1- Install the Nvidia 84.25 Beta Drivers. I had some problems with 84.21 and Civ. Perhaps it would work with 81.98 also. Here is the link to the 84.25 drivers.

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

2- Now to the most important step. Download Coolbits from here, if you want to have more info:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

Or directly download it from here:

View attachment coolbits_forceware.zip

This little registry entry adds a tab in the nvidia control panel called Additional Direct3D Settings. Go there and change Max frames to render ahead to "0" ... Before it was set to "3".

And that´s it! Great, and I really mean GREAT performance increase. I was playing a choppy 18 civs huge map medieval age and with this is reeaally smoth...

Hope it helps!

 

[cthom]

mmm. thanks for this, i''ll download them when i get home

 

[robbyextreme]

Big diffrence, thanks.

 

[V. Soma]

Is this Coolbits any good for Radeon, too?

 

[Elhoim]

It seems it´s only for Nvidia chipsets...

 

[The Great Apple]

This fix gives me smooth videos (maybe it's the driver though). I might swithc it to render one frame ahead though - been getting occasional skips with 0 frames.

I'll get back to you on performance increases - don't have any handy saves.

 

[kernok]

supa thanx man
i'll test this in a few hours

 

[Nials]

Thanks for sharing your fix!

I am going to test it later and report back

 

[vbraun]

I don't think you need to download the beta drivers, unless the current one is giving you problems. This driver seems to be geared to specific performance enhances for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

 

[jayeffaar]

Besides making things generally faster, any idea what this bit actually does? There must be some compromise in quality somewhere...

 

[Perfect_Blue]

Quick (stupid) question. Does one need to leave that manager (or whatever its technically called) running in the tray after applying the changes?

 

[jwildstr]

Well, unfortunately, this is another thread that gets my hopes up, and then leaves me disappointed. Radeon 6200 with TurboCache, Athlon 64x2. Tried all the steps, and nothing changed with the intro movies (didn't bother playing right now, although I will later tonight).

Guess it's back to waiting on the patch....

 

[Arcades057]

Does this do anything with late-game crashes? I'm getting them on the Standard map too now.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Besides making things generally faster, any idea what this bit actually does? There must be some compromise in quality somewhere...

I haven't tried it yet it, but it probably stops the card from buffering video ahead of time. As another poster said there's some skipping that occurs if it doesn't buffer anything (setting to 0). Things may run at a higher framerate, but if a plip happens, you'll see it.

 

[The Great Apple]

Well, unfortunately, this is another thread that gets my hopes up, and then leaves me disappointed. Radeon 6200 with TurboCache, Athlon 64x2. Tried all the steps, and nothing changed with the intro movies (didn't bother playing right now, although I will later tonight).

Guess it's back to waiting on the patch....

Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty certain a Radeon 6200 is not a Nvidia card. This may be where you are going wrong. I wouldn't expect good things to happen from installing a Nvidia driver onto an ATI card. In fact, I wouldn't expect it to work at all!

As for performance increases - for me it was minimal. I think my ram is the thing that's holding me back

 

[Bongo-Bongo]

Excellent! Downloading now and I'll try it later.

 

[Depravo]

How do you get into the NVIDIA control panel?

 

[jwildstr]

Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty certain a Radeon 6200 is not a Nvidia card. This may be where you are going wrong. I wouldn't expect good things to happen from installing a Nvidia driver onto an ATI card. In fact, I wouldn't expect it to work at all!

As for performance increases - for me it was minimal. I think my ram is the thing that's holding me back

See, y'all talking about Radeon's confused me!

It's a GeForce 6200, sorry. It _IS_ an nVidia card, though.

 

[cthom]

How do you get into the NVIDIA control panel?

from my last forceware download i got a nvidia toolbar on my windows and a tray icon. if this download does the same, those are the ways to go.
(unless you go via control panel?)

 

[Depravo]

from my last forceware download i got a nvidia toolbar on my windows and a tray icon. if this download does the same, those are the ways to go.
(unless you go via control panel?)

Well tryst my fist, you're right Amazing what I miss.