Delay After Alt-Tabbing

[Pyro]

Adjusting your tex cache to a lower value could help if that was the problem. Any idea how much video ram your card has? Should say something with MB or GB with your graphics card info.

For now find a film that you can use as a test. A film that has the battle it requires to slow you down to low FPS. Then play around with your settings given the info I gave and compare it to that film. You may need to turn off VSync and use Max FPS at 90 for better results.

[punkUser]

As Pyro suggested, use Delete to see your fps. If you're consistently above 60 with vsync and max FPS both off, you should just be able to use vsync on. If you get frame drops below 60 commonly you may want to disable vsync or adjust other settings.

Also, when was the last time you rebooted your machine? Some people (like me) keep them running for ages between reboots (just sleep, etc) and that actually tends to introduce little jitters into graphics applications after a sufficiently long period of time. Reboot will usually clear it up.

[Platinum]

Yeah it remains at 60 until there is a lot of graphics like on a mazz or gladiators game, but that might be related to the tex cache so we'll see.

I reboot 1-2 times a week... not always by choice because my computer has been freezing. It comes and goes, when its freezing, it does it in waves of like half a dozen times a day, then goes weeks fine, then starts over again freezing and stuff. I opened up the cover and vacuumed and blew out all the dust.. there was dust matted to the inner fan. Upon the first reboot, it froze up instantly on startup, but its been fine this week.

[Pyro]

Whatever is causing your freezing problem is likely to blame for your FPS lag then. It makes sense now as your computer should not be having the issue you stated unless something was wrong. Could be its overheating, some piece of hardware is dying, a virus, or some software issue which an OS update could fix.

If you don't want to fix your comp yourself, get it to a shop for someone to repair. If you want to try some basic things do the following. Install the latest OS updates. Run a virus and malware scan after you update your anti-virus and malware programs. Defragmenting your hard drive could help if its really fragmented, but I doubt this will be your issue.

Some time back I had a similar issue with my comp but instead of a freeze it would give me a blue screen error. It was pretty random and I didn't even have to do anything before it would appear. Turned out one of my ram sticks was faulty which caused the problem. To check if its a RAM issue, I suggest downloading Memtest86+. If you have a USB flash drive, you could try that version of the program or grab an ISO to burn to a CD/DVD. The more RAM you have the longer it will take to test.

Another possibility is that your PSU (power supply unit) is no longer pumping enough watts for your computer. One way to see if this is a low power issue is to disconnect all the parts you don't need to run a basic version of your computer which is one hard drive and no other drivers. Disconnect the graphics card if possible and switch to integrated graphics if available. If no issues show up it could mean it was the PSU or one of the parts you disconnected that were at fault.

You could try other things but I think if the above doesn't help, the other possibilities are more complex to troubleshoot without the right tools or spare parts.

[Platinum]

Whatever is causing your freezing problem is likely to blame for your FPS lag then. It makes sense now as your computer should not be having the issue you stated unless something was wrong. Could be its overheating, some piece of hardware is dying, a virus, or some software issue which an OS update could fix.

If you don't want to fix your comp yourself, get it to a shop for someone to repair. If you want to try some basic things do the following. Install the latest OS updates. Run a virus and malware scan after you update your anti-virus and malware programs. Defragmenting your hard drive could help if its really fragmented, but I doubt this will be your issue.

Some time back I had a similar issue with my comp but instead of a freeze it would give me a blue screen error. It was pretty random and I didn't even have to do anything before it would appear. Turned out one of my ram sticks was faulty which caused the problem. To check if its a RAM issue, I suggest downloading Memtest86+. If you have a USB flash drive, you could try that version of the program or grab an ISO to burn to a CD/DVD. The more RAM you have the longer it will take to test.

Another possibility is that your PSU (power supply unit) is no longer pumping enough watts for your computer. One way to see if this is a low power issue is to disconnect all the parts you don't need to run a basic version of your computer which is one hard drive and no other drivers. Disconnect the graphics card if possible and switch to integrated graphics if available. If no issues show up it could mean it was the PSU or one of the parts you disconnected that were at fault.

You could try other things but I think if the above doesn't help, the other possibilities are more complex to troubleshoot without the right tools or spare parts.

Taken it to a shop, they thought it was adobe/google chrome issues. But it freezes when nothing is even loaded, just the main screen. If it is overheating, then something is defective, but even on startup at times it freezes before its even warmed up. I've gotten all the hardware diagnosed numerous times and scanned for viruses and there are none. I have defragmented. As far as your other tips on the equipment, I think the shop checked out all of that... so I'm really left wondering what else to do at this point.

[Pyro]

If the problem is still there even after taking it to a shop, then I have to wonder if they even knew what they were doing to begin with. You could try asking them and see what they checked. They might not have tried that many options and just went with whatever seems to solve similar issues the best for them. If they thought it was a software issue, they probably did not bother to check your hardware even if it would be so easy for them to do.

If you prefer, then just find a different shop, but at the very least it would be good to know what the first one did to begin with. Testing out the RAM for example is so easy, you don't run any risks of messing it up.

[Platinum]

I took it to a reputable shop, and they gave me a laundry list of things they tested and everything checked out fine. I'm still having the alt-tab issue by the way even when in windowed mode. Like if I have skype running in the background, and I alt tab a few times between it and Myth, the delay can get up to about 5 seconds in the game.

[Platinum]

Okay so I'm checking out this AMD driver detector for my video card. One thing I don't understand... when I use any resolution other than my maximum resolution, it plays in windowed mode. I want it to be windowed when in the lobby, then full screen when the game starts. How can I achieve that? Even when "Maximized" it is still not 'fullscreen.'

[Platinum]

Might have found a winning combination. Maximum resolution with OPENGL, Vsync is OFF. My FPS is 500-1500 but absolutely no framerate lag at all.

[Pyro]

Your comp might not have been working well with VSync if that is the case, then again seeing as you are barely trying the driver detector you might have had outdated or faulty drivers. You can use MaxFPS set to 90 to ensure you don't have any lag spikes when your comp tries to get too high of a FPS.

[Platinum]

I updated the drivers... about 235MB download. But turning Vsync off and using OpenGL works great. With DirectX and Vsync off, it was not smooth at all.