Chopiness: Proof of high end systems getting the shaft

[donjn]

I took a cheap Geforce 4MX video card and put it in the faster machine (which had a Geforce 6800 in it). The chopiness improved!! Then I took the faster video card, put it in the crappy system and the chopiness got worse! This of course means the reverse as well and effects the speed of the processor, not just the video card.

I also ran FRAPS and noticed something interesting. WHen the batter is up at the plate not doing anything, waiting for a pitch, the framerate is at a locked 30FPS. Once the ball is pitched the framerate shoots upward towards the 60FPS mark. Why wouldn't the framerate be at the 60 range the whole time? It should be even easier to maintain a high FPS rate when nothing is happening on the screen. Weird.

I have done research on this problem for over a year now as this happened in MVP 04 as well. I have run diagnostics with exact setups on machines with lower specs. I have read post after post after post of people with subpar machines running the game smooth as butter. I know how to do EVERYTHING to a machine to run a game. Background tasks, drivers, DirectX9 setups, memory adjustments, PCI latency, sound acceleration levels, AA and AF settings, Vsyncs, refresh rates, put in different hard drives, reinstalled windows, played without sound enable, played without joystick installed, etc,etc. I have done it all.

And I could never get that faster computer to run the game is smoothly as the slower one.

My thoery is holding up completey. This must be patched immediately. My conclusion is that this game was made for consoles first. As you know, the fastest console is the Xbox at 733Mhz I believe. Not suprisingly, processors right around that range or better (1.0-1.7) run the game smoothly. I think the PC port was done at the last second. EA can always patch it later (like MVP04 last year), and they make the least amount of money off of MVP in the PC department.

We have to ask ourseleves would it be in EA's best intrest to WANT us to buy a console? Or want us to get the console version first. I have no knowledge or evidence to back that up, it's just a question. Do they make more money if you buy the console version? Whether it be paying for online play (Xbox), or spending the time, and money it takes to make MVP run perfect on higher end machines.

In my case I ended up getting the Gamecube version and I am currently playing the patched MVP 2004.