How to make FM09 run faster

I have decided that I am going to completely reformat my computer in an effort to wipe out 2 years of crap before I install FM09 so that hopefully it will run nice and fast.

Then I thought others might have some tips to the computer semi-literate like me to make things run as fast as possible.

So what can we do? Anyone able to help?

Cheers

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 & ASUS Striker II Extreme

Corsair TW3X4G1600C9DHX 1600MHz DDR3 4GB Kit

Dual Palit GTX280

2 x Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB RAID 0

you could wait for it to come out first, and see how it runs unless fm08 runs slow already

then just..... do what YesYesOhYay said

do a disk clean up, compress files. delte stuff you npo longer need or is poiuntless. unistal games you never/ rarely play blah blah blah

Seem to remember a little program a couple of years back called FM Speeder that sped up an older version of FM, can't remember which one but I know it worked on a couple of different versions of the game, haven't got it now, but I do seem to remember that there was some sort of issue with regards overclocking with this software and damaging peoples computers, it may have been with FM Speeder but I'm not certain.

you gotta chase it! With a fork!

you gotta chase it! With a fork!

I laughed so hard at that a little bit of wee came out!

Well I wouldn't go that far...but it was pretty witty!

Disk defrag, disk clean-up, I got a little program called UniBlue SpeedUpMyPC which works wonders, wasn't to expensive if I remember correctly and a neat little trick a friend taught me was to get the Task manager up by pressing Ctrl - Alt - Del at the same time, go into your Processes and look for fm.exe (this MUST be done when playing the game) right click on it and hover on "Set Priority" then click on High, this will need to be done every time you open the game again but I will warn you that it will slow other applications down. You can do it on multiple app's BUT you can do 3 at most or it'll start causing your computer to do far to much and potentially cause a few problems.

Hope this helps mate

If you don't want or can't afford new hardware, try some basic overclocking.

But the fork tip would probably work too!

if you don't want to format one very quick and simple way to make things go a little bit quicker is to go Run/MSCONFIG/Startup and deselect anything that doesn't need to be there (of course you can do that once your computers started with ctrl/alt/delete but this ways just a lil quicker and easier )

you could always go into task manager, find the FM process right click it and set the priority to high or real time from normal. If you are doing nothing else with your pc then it will run faster. If you are doing other things at the same time it will impact on those being a bit slower. I do that when all I am doing in FM and nothing else

I reccomend reinstalling windows, if you have paritioned its easy, if not back up all your data and go ahead with the format/install. Just make sure your windows disk is in good nick and you have all the LATEST!! drivers on a cd/dvd ready, including ethernet controllers, graphics drivers, mouse, monitor and any other basics. How many times have I reinstalled and forgotten a driver to have to install an old version that manages to leave a relic or two messing up a newer driver. Even with a proper driver install you can still get issues!

RAM would be a good investment, 1066 is the current top speed so get in some sticks of that but remember 32 bit XP doesnt like much above 3 gig as do some versions of vista.

Im like Reddevil, im buying a new gaming PC but im getting 2 X4870X2 an goin AMD

Best way to speed up FM is to turn your virus checker auto-protect off when playing or set it to ignore all folders that FM uses. It can speed it up massively and avoids some of the more annoying savegame corruptions.

Reformatting periodically is a good thing to do in my opinion, gets rid of the crap that builds up and any hidden malware as well. If you were planning on doing that anyway, I suggest it would be a very good thing.

If you have spare money (and depending on what kind of computer you have) you could always consider getting a turbo hard drive, makes a huge difference for me. Also if you have 1GB or less of memory, you could consider getting 1 or 2 more, this is quite cheap. If you have XP don't go over 3 GB and make sure you find out exactly which memory is compatible with your computer.

If you do a google search for 'speed up windows', the first 3 results are very useful. This is a useful summary of them: http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/02/06/the-complete-guide-to-optimising-windows-xp/

Careful you pay attention to detail though, or you could end up disabling the wrong thing. I don't know if you have XP or vista, but if you have vista then getting rid of the fancy gadgets and their sidebar does a lot.

This is a handy utility for cleaning and tuning.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

This is a handy utility for cleaning and tuning.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

It might well work and reviews seem to suggest it is half decent but the sales pitch on that page is pure BS. Meaningless jargon all the way.

I went into My Computer's properties and increased the virtual memory and that sped up FM by a mile.

This is a handy utility for cleaning and tuning.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

I use this. I recommend it to everyone.

I went into My Computer's properties and increased the virtual memory and that sped up FM by a mile.

How much did you increase? I might give this a go, 1438MB is recommended according to the computer, why is this recommended? Is it dangerous to go to high? it's currently set at 1439MB, I dont want to click the custom settings and change it without checking first.

It sounds like quite enough to me. I take it you have 1GB of RAM?

You could always defragment your drive as well.

How much did you increase? I might give this a go, 1438MB is recommended according to the computer, why is this recommended? Is it dangerous to go to high? it's currently set at 1439MB, I dont want to click the custom settings and change it without checking first.

I pretty much only use my laptop for FM so I didn't mind how dangerous it is. My old VM was 800 and I think I changed it to something like 1200. That's about 200 less than maximum. It used to take a couple of minutes to start a game with just English nations but now I can run 10-12 leagues in the same time.

Ok thanks for the info, would just like a bigger database mainly.

Pelican, not sure if you are asking me, but I have 1GB Ram yes. (Well it was advertised as 1GB but its 960MB) Those dirty @#!$%

In that case you have about the right amount of VM set, I reckon. A rule of thumb is 1.5 x RAM...

Not knowing anything about running games etc, my laptop has 2038MB of RAM, and it's processor is Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1.83 GHz...

Anyone know if this should be enough for FM09 to be run smoothly or if i need to get some upgrades??

Not knowing anything about running games etc, my laptop has 2038MB of RAM, and it's processor is Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1.83 GHz...

Anyone know if this should be enough for FM09 to be run smoothly or if i need to get some upgrades??

You will be fine, they say if you can run FM08 you can run FM 09. I can run FM08 and have lower specs than you.

You will be fine, they say if you can run FM08 you can run FM 09. I can run FM08 and have lower specs than you.

awesome, cheers mate. That's what I was most worried about, ah roll on this sunday & then November the 14th!!!! Anniversary with the girlfriend or FM09...hmm sorry love, pack ur bags :D;)

Not knowing anything about running games etc, my laptop has 2038MB of RAM, and it's processor is Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1.83 GHz...

Anyone know if this should be enough for FM09 to be run smoothly or if i need to get some upgrades??

that will do, people think 3d will be a RAM eating machine but it wont !!!!!

The specs won't be much (if at all) higher than FM2009, the 3D isn't going to need a graphics card as the ones on Rise Of Nations are more detailed it seems, there is no problem with that by the way.

I laughed so hard at that a little bit of wee came out!

not sure it was that funny, but ya know! . . .

not sure it was that funny, but ya know! . . .

I just love randomness I guess!

Football Manager 2009 will eat memory.

Therefore, I recommend picking up a stick, tying a memory stick to it so it dangles, and holding the memory stick in front of the disk.

That will get it running fast!

Run less leagues.

I reccomend reinstalling windows, if you have paritioned its easy, if not back up all your data and go ahead with the format/install. Just make sure your windows disk is in good nick and you have all the LATEST!! drivers on a cd/dvd ready, including ethernet controllers, graphics drivers, mouse, monitor and any other basics. How many times have I reinstalled and forgotten a driver to have to install an old version that manages to leave a relic or two messing up a newer driver. Even with a proper driver install you can still get issues!

RAM would be a good investment, 1066 is the current top speed so get in some sticks of that but remember 32 bit XP doesnt like much above 3 gig as do some versions of vista.

Im like Reddevil, im buying a new gaming PC but im getting 2 X4870X2 an goin AMD

you are like me? in what way.

I wouldn't even know where to start with all that reformatting stuff. I just do a few tests when I get the game and work out how many leagues I can run at a speed i'm happy with, then take it from there. Is that not the easiest approach?

Clean your PC of unneccessary files with CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/ and defragment your hard drive with defraggler: www.defraggler.com

Both free programs from the same company.

remove the page file from the partition/hard drive with the operating system on it. Then set one on a spare drive/partition and set it to custom and I would probably go for 2048 in the initial size and maximum size. That should help!

If you are re-formatting everything theres no point doing a defrag or disk clean up as you would have wiped everything! Just try defrag atleast once a month and that will help keep it smooth!

remove the page file from the partition/hard drive with the operating system on it. Then set one on a spare drive/partition and set it to custom and I would probably go for 2048 in the initial size and maximum size. That should help!

If you are re-formatting everything theres no point doing a defrag or disk clean up as you would have wiped everything! Just try defrag atleast once a month and that will help keep it smooth!

this is good advice if a little complicated. Prevents fragmentation of the pagefile, which causes a lot of disk grinding.

you gotta chase it! With a fork!

I don't understand?

I have a 512mb RAM and 2.28GHz processor...current Virtual memory limit is from 700 to 1400...how much should i make the lower limit??

sounds fine to me as it is.

I have decided that I am going to completely reformat my computer in an effort to wipe out 2 years of crap before I install FM09 so that hopefully it will run nice and fast.

Then I thought others might have some tips to the computer semi-literate like me to make things run as fast as possible.

So what can we do? Anyone able to help?

Cheers

download and install something called crap cleaner. You'll be amazed at the well...crap you have on your computer. You can get crap cleaner from http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

If you want to make sure your computer can run FM2009 ok then run the can you run it test. You'll get that from http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

As for the performance of FM2009 when you have it you can try disabling as much stuff running in the background as possible. You can do this by looking at the bottom right on your desktop and right clicking each Icon and selecting the option to disable or close it.