FM09 is SO SLOW on my PC. Please can someone help?!!

Hope someone from SI or another person on the forum can help with this. Been playing FM for years now, but this version just seems to be so heavy on my laptop's resources. Even when there isn't a 3D game running, it hammers the CPU and takes up loads of memory. It runs really slowly with a stuttering cursor and is really unreactive. It can take 10-20 seconds to realise that I have clicked on something.

I have done all the usual thigs - made sure my anti-virus isn't scanning FM folders, set the game to high priority (didn't make a lot of difference), I've followed the recommended settings for my PC in terms of how many leagues and database size etc.

My PC isn't top spec, but it's not bad! It's a Sony VAIO NR10 - 2gb RAM, Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.46GHz. It is always kept clean, defragmented etc. etc. There is loads of memory left, and I've tried stuff like defragmenting the RAM now and again to free up memory. Nothing works - it's driving me mad, and making the only game I ever play on my PC completely unplayable.

Any help would be really appreciated. (By the way..."get a new laptop" is not an option right now!)

Cheers!

At least yours plays! I lost 4 seasons of a save game because of a crash!

At least yours plays! I lost 4 seasons of a save game because of a crash!

I feel your pain mate! That has happened to me in the past as well, though not for a while. Not a good feeling. I am having to abandon my very promising second season because the game is now just too slow and frustrating to play...

At least yours plays! I lost 4 seasons of a save game because of a crash!

Next time use autosave and rolling saves, that way you should never lose more than a couple of weeks.

Might be wrong but I think I read that changing the priority of FM to 'high' can actually make it run slower because other applications need to run in the background to enable FM to run as quickly as possible. Does that make any sense? Basically, you could try not having FM as high priority in task manager.

Your processor is the reason I guess. Run it as normal priority for a start, and just try to have as little stuff as possible in the background, and don't play it when its running on battery power if you can help it.

I have been encountering some progressive and often severe user interface/navigation lag when the db is rolling and results are being processed in the background e.g. on match days or before and after matches are scheduled.

This I believe is down to a mismatch in the threading on multicore or multi processor systems with the 'threading' option enabled: many worker threads are spawned to scale up and utilise all the available CPU cycles, but unfortunately they take precendence over the user interface and the real time user input clock is not getting priority over the background threads.

This has always been a noticeable issue in Football Manager, going back many versions. But recently it has graduated from minor irritation to show stopper.

I raised it in the bug forum and filed it under user interfaces but have as of yet received no formal acknowledgment from S.I. and don't really expect to - it has been unfixed and unaddressed for literally years.

Unfortunately a lot of technically ignorant advise is forthcoming on this issue and the 'slowness' is nothing to do with the level of detail or the number of leagues; these are merely mitigating factors. The lag you experience during the aforementioned resource allocation and scheduling conflict will simply be shorter in duration, but no less pronounced.

I have suggested in the past, years ago now, that this could be a processor architecutre issue relating to AMD's and some conflict or issue pertaining to the AMD processor driver on windows XP machines. As many people who reply to my threads querying the duration and severity of the ui lag spikes they encounter almost always claim to be using quad core Intels and having no such problems. Who knows. If more people provided more compelling evidence for severe and protracted bouts of ui lag or unresponsiveness during processing and on match days we might get S.I's attention: unfortunately as stated people confuse a scheduling issue with mundane aspects such as the level of detail or the number of fixtures/data to be computed.

Anyway: it is most definately an issue and one I would very much like S.I. to first acknowledge and then address.

Is it not meant to be more than 1.46GHz?

Should it not be 2GHz.

Is it not meant to be more than 1.46GHz?

Should it not be 2GHz.

If his processor wasn't compatible it wouldn't run.

I believe its 1.4 for XP and 1.8 for Vista.

Is it not meant to be more than 1.46GHz?

Should it not be 2GHz.

I think the min spec is for uniprocessor systems. His is a dual core so it should more than handle FM.

-edit- the rest was utter nonsense so removed

Hope someone from SI or another person on the forum can help with this. Been playing FM for years now, but this version just seems to be so heavy on my laptop's resources. Even when there isn't a 3D game running, it hammers the CPU and takes up loads of memory. It runs really slowly with a stuttering cursor and is really unreactive. It can take 10-20 seconds to realise that I have clicked on something.

I have done all the usual thigs - made sure my anti-virus isn't scanning FM folders, set the game to high priority (didn't make a lot of difference), I've followed the recommended settings for my PC in terms of how many leagues and database size etc.

My PC isn't top spec, but it's not bad! It's a Sony VAIO NR10 - 2gb RAM, Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.46GHz. It is always kept clean, defragmented etc. etc. There is loads of memory left, and I've tried stuff like defragmenting the RAM now and again to free up memory. Nothing works - it's driving me mad, and making the only game I ever play on my PC completely unplayable.

Any help would be really appreciated. (By the way..."get a new laptop" is not an option right now!)

Cheers!

Try using a prog called alacrity - it shuts down unnecessary services before starting the game and restarts them afterwards - http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=95228 Check this for links/details.

What I do is use a pen drive and use the readyboost function to speed up my computer. It has a noticeable effect but not a huge one. But something is better than nothing.

What I do is use a pen drive and use the readyboost function to speed up my computer. It has a noticeable effect but not a huge one. But something is better than nothing.

That is just a substitute for more RAM and won't have any effect on the interface lag.

Totally agree with your post about poor optimisation Les Girondins It's been needed for a long time now, it should have been done before FM07 was released.

I am having the same problem with FM09 running so slow on my laptop, does anyone know how to speed it up? also when playing it online i am always getting disconnected as on FM08 i never had a problem. Thanks

Totally agree with your post about poor optimisation Les Girondins It's been needed for a long time now, it should have been done before FM07 was released.

Ho hum. Its a disk bound application sadly, its only ever going to go as fast as your HDD can read and write the database tables. I wondered aloud some time ago why S.I. don't move to a commercial or open datase implementation, one that can be heavily optimised.. but then I saw the teaser video for FM 09 where Miles mentioned the database being a commodity and figured that was why they stuck with the beast.

Whatever, I don't know jack about how S.I. makes FM. So I'm just speculating. If it was my project I would be more progressive with my options: since there are only now x86 and x86 single or multi core processors on the market (PPC is legacy hardware nowdays lads, sorry) it doesn't make a lot of sense not to optimise the crap out of the number crunching and make top use of registers etc and onboard memory controllers to move it more into a memory/array based application. Since we all have at least 1gb of ram, with the vast majority having 2 or more now it makes sense. Maybe it already does, maybe it tries to be memory bound but inevitably you need to flush, so they go for a rolling flush to avoid obvious slowdowns and maintain data integrity/decrease risk of corruption etc etc etc.

I'd love to find out more about how the game is structured - is it just a client/database application? How many re-writes has there been? What is the state of the codebase? How modular is the development process? Is it plugins or third party junk that slows it down or the lack of optimised read/write operations? The actual floating point stuff seems pretty quick; but with new releases come more detail to factor in, more crunching required as there's more variables etc etc etc etc.

I'll bet its a bloody nightmare.

Let's focus on some specific things that may help the OP - "Wait for SI to optimize" isn't exactly a solution :

1. FM: Tick "Enable Threading" in Options

2. Windows: Shut down all other applications, especially notorious memory hogs like Excel, Photoshop, etc. This includes going through your "System Tray" (near clock) and exiting all of those mini-apps.

3. Vista: If you're on Vista, find the display options, and turn off all of the graphical effects (transparent windows, animating menus, etc)

4. FM: Run a smaller DB with fewer leagues running.

5. FM: Turn off "Full Detail" for any match outside of your league and Cups.

6. Anti-Virus: Set FM as a "trusted program" so that your anti-virus doesn't insist on scanning its active memory usage.

7. FM: Set it to remember the fewest number of matches in detail (5,000, I think?)

Let's focus on some specific things that may help the OP - "Wait for SI to optimize" isn't exactly a solution :

1. FM: Tick "Threading" in Options

2. Windows: Shut down all other applications, especially notorious memory hogs like Excel, Photoshop, etc. This includes going through your "System Tray" (near clock) and exiting all of those mini-apps.

3. Vista: If you're on Vista, find the display options, and turn off all of the graphical effects (transparent windows, animating menus, etc)

4. FM: Run a smaller DB with fewer leagues running.

5. FM: Turn off "Full Detail" for any match outside of your league and Cups.

6. Anti-Virus: Set FM as a "trusted program" so that your anti-virus doesn't insist on scanning its active memory usage.

7. FM: Set it to remember the fewest number of matches in detail (5,000, I think?)

Good advise. But it wont make any difference to the ui lag on match days.

I've noticed it with as few as 5 leagues with only the one I am managing in on full detail.

any advice on how to keep connected playing FM09 online

My Enable Threading is greyed out, any reason? I have a wicked laptop

Cheers, Neil

My Enable Threading is greyed out, any reason? I have a wicked laptop

Cheers, Neil

You don't have a multi core system, or one of the cores is defective or disabled.

My Enable Threading is greyed out, any reason? I have a wicked laptop

Cheers, Neil

You don't have a multi core system, or one of the cores is defective or disabled.

So it can't be that wicked

It would be wickedly bad

What are you specs for this *wicked* laptop?

You should have threading ticked if not already mentioned.

My system is very slow and its a Quad 6700 which in "theory" should be lightning fast!

I've posted this in the tech support forum but I thought i should post it here too.

First here is the spec of my PC:

Intel C2D 2.4GHz

Vista 64

8Gb RAM

500Gb RAID hard drive

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

All drivers updated to the latest, hard drive defrag, got about 150Gb free space. I optimise the start up programs so it only load the essential

The game i am running has 18 countries and about 40 leagues. The detail level is set at National. I am playing the game in Window mode. Threading turned on. no stadium and shadow in 3D.

The problem:

From season 3 onward, i notice a incredible slow processing, during December to March. The processing bar would often just stop half way. Nothing happening for 5 minutes, and then carry on. There is no other slow down. All pages load up quickly, the 3D ME work fine. All the buttons response well. it's just the processing often "stuck" for like a few minutes.

I don't have that problem with FM 08. I could easily run 25 countires and over 50 leagues without any slowdown, maybe until season 25 or so.

I tried to set the detail level on None before. Make no difference to the processing slowing problem.

I turned off my anti virus and other programs. Again it make no difference to the problem.

The database is large. But I always run the database large and it never have problem in previous version. also i still don't understand why the game run a lot quicker in certain months (e.g. September is much quicker than Feb)?

All I can say is here's hoping next week will fix this. the alternative is never to buy this product again...I will aim to stay positive!

AMD 64 processor 3400+ 2.2ghz

Windows Xp

2gb RAM

Nvidia Geoforce 7800GT

My machine is getting to be a bit dated now but I can run most modern games moderately. I've played FM08 well into 2030 with a Large database and multiple countries with hardly any slow up.

At the start of my FM09 game everything was generally running fine but I'm now im in 2012 and everything responds so slowly. Processing international matches can take forever and the general responsiveness of the game is miserably sluggish all to the point where I can't even be arsed to play it any more all because it takes so long to get anywhere.

Since the problems started ive done Virus scans, spybot scans & defragged my machine all to no avail. ( all which I do regularly anyway )

AMD 64 X2 5400+ 2.8 GHz (X2 = two cores)

2 GB RAM

Point of View GeForce 8600GT

Windows XP

FM08 runs PERFECTLY FINE, really really fast even in a long-term game that's currently at 2023.

However, FM09 is SO DAMN slow. The 3D match engine runs fine, obviously (I'd shoot myself if a 8600GT can't handle it), but the processing between turns/processing results, etc. are just a PAIN IN THE ASS. Up to the point that I'm starting to find it almost tiring to play the game...

May be some good news around the corner: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=77978

Blimey! Thanks for all the advice everyone. I've done all the FM/PC stuff (Thanks Amaroq), I'm going to give that Alacrity programme a try (thanks Doonhamer) and will see if it all makes a bit of difference. Cheers again for all the help!

I’ve gotta agree about the code optimization issue. It defo has been an issue especially on AMD machines. I would say it’s quite obvious to anybody with some coding experience and the reason its crept by SI in the last few versions is maybe because they are using generic machines for testing/coding like any company, so not a lot of variety processor wise there.

What’s exasperated the problem though is that when somebody posts a problem clearly detailing this issue it usually gets drowned out by guys thinking they know lots about computers posting nonsense like 'its spy ware' or 'close down everything in task manager' without really reading or understanding the post and therefore is usually just ignored.

I remember either fm2007 or fm2008 had a terrible UI code bug in it for certain machines which was eventually fixed in the patch. I’m sure once this is bought to SI's attention they will sort it.

Got some update of my slow processing problem.

I've monitoring the processing time in the last two seasons in the game. The slow down definitely occur from December. Basically up to the first week of Dec the game is running fine. I breeze past the days in between matches in matter of seconds. once it get to Dec, it will take anything from 5 to 10 minutes to process the days in between the matches. This slow down in processing will last until March time. Then everything will become fast again.

very weird

I’m sure once this is bought to SI's attention they will sort it.

Let's bring it to their attention then...

The game runs AWFULLY SLOW in pretty fast machines. We're not talking about the match engine, or graphics, or anything. We're talking about processing times between turns.

I could say that it's easily 3-5 times slower (being generous) than FM08 on my computer, which is where I play both of them, loading the same amount of leagues and the same countries for loading additional players, as well as the same size of DB. I have both 08 and 09 installed, and it's from black to white when I switch between them.

Post my specs again:

Athlon 64 X2 5400+ (2.8 GHz)

2 GB RAM (800 MHz)

Windows XP SP 3

Plenty of free space in my Windows HD, which is the same where both FM's are installed.

same here VMX. there is no reason why my game should be so slow with my machine either. and as you pointed out, it's not the match engine or the 3D graphics that is slow, but it's the processing time between turns.

Might be wrong but I think I read that changing the priority of FM to 'high' can actually make it run slower because other applications need to run in the background to enable FM to run as quickly as possible. Does that make any sense? Basically, you could try not having FM as high priority in task manager.

Funny you should say that. It takes up most of my PC's resources. I find running the game at 'below normal' helps. I have no idea why.

1. FM: Tick "Threading" in Options

2. Windows: Shut down all other applications, especially notorious memory hogs like Excel, Photoshop, etc. This includes going through your "System Tray" (near clock) and exiting all of those mini-apps.

3. Vista: If you're on Vista, find the display options, and turn off all of the graphical effects (transparent windows, animating menus, etc)

4. FM: Run a smaller DB with fewer leagues running.

5. FM: Turn off "Full Detail" for any match outside of your league and Cups.

6. Anti-Virus: Set FM as a "trusted program" so that your anti-virus doesn't insist on scanning its active memory usage.

7. FM: Set it to remember the fewest number of matches in detail (5,000, I think?)

Thanks for the above advise. With regards for points 5 & 7 are these factors that can be changed during a game or can you only change them when setting up. Was trying to find them in the options of my save and couldnt see them anywhere ?

How do you do number 7?

The problem isn't shutting down applications (who the hell uses photoshop at the same time as FM?), it's not graphics, it's not detail, leagues or "trusted programs", it's the fact that FM09 will randomly use 100% of every CPU in a dual/multi-core CPU.

When it does so, it freezes up the entire OS.

This is not good enough for a professional software company. It needs to be sorted out.

Lagging and freezing happens most of the time when i play this game on a Q6700. But the funny part, when i was monitoring the cpu usage, was that it never really exceeded 62%. The RAM usage was never more than 60%. Still it was lagging and freezing all the time. Every matchday and then random times in between. I would've understood it if it was using 100% but it wasn't.

That's really why i can't understand why it happens. I haven't really been given an explanation/solution either, that sounds right.

I might be wrong, but it seems like there's something in the game itself. Maybe not optimized coding or something. But i don't know too much about that stuff to be able to say anything about it.

All i can say is that i know for a fact, on my system, that it never uses all the resources but it still lags and freezes.

It seems to happen a hell of a lot on the Fixtures screen before a match. I have no idea what it could be doing, but it happens 80% of the time on that screen, right before a match.

Do we really need another thread on this?

Its been covered to death.

Why do people insist on debating (in total abject blind raging ignorance) the same things over and over and over?

Do a search: http://community.sigames.com/search.php?searchid=592257

It's been covered to death, yeah i agree with you Les Girondins. The thing is that the solutions that have been given doesn't work for many. Or they might not understand the answer. Can also be an incomplete answer. This is an old thread (well 9 days old), so it's nothing new.

For myself, all i want to know is, why is it this way. What's causing it. Is it something that the user can fix, or is it something that is within the game.

Why does the resolution control my overall performance? Why does windowed and full screen give so different performances (for some)?

So many questions are being answered vaguely.

On that link from the search you're doing; i've checked almost all of them but they really don't give me any answer. Most of them are for the demo.

I understand your frustration, but it also frustrates me and some others that none of the answers explains the real problem.

The questions keep coming back because the solutions given doesn't help for those still asking.

Old coding that's not been cleaned out. It's the game. The UI lags like mad when its not even using 30% of the processor. That's not system related, that's the game.

I could care less that's it's been "covered to death".

SI have a major issue in their game, and it's going to be discussed until it's fixed.

FM09 is the only game that does this. I played Crysis, Stalker Clear Sky, Battlefield, even FML and never had problems like FM09 does. It's not a system problem, it's a game problem.

They need to sort out their threading and dual/multi-core implementation, and at least from my view, why it screws up in the "fixtures and results" page before starting a new match. This thread is for people to discuss that issue.

Don't like it? Don't post in it.

I know we end up in the same threads when it comes to this Wakers but is that a cold hard fact. Or is it more like people saying the same thing so everyone do the old try and fail?

Because if it is an "official" fact, then that is it - unfortunatley in that case.

It's to make sure SI don't forget.

The old FM just about ran on my rather ancient PC, but I'm really struggling with this newer version. I've disabled the 3D match engine, the sounds, the players photos and use no additional players, but I still take a good 1/2 hr to get through one match running key highlights. I would switch the game level down but have read that this game produce irregular results and somewhat compromises the realism of the game. Is there any other methods by which I can speed up processing times? I'm not willing to use anything other than a huge database.

On second thoughts, could my machine have a virus that would cause FM to run much, much slower than previous versions? Or is it just simply that SI have made this version much more noticeably processor heavy?

Pentium 4 1.8

NVDIA Geforce4 MMX440

256 MB RAM

80 Gb Hard Disk

I know the spec is my computer is not very good and I'm in serious need of some more RAM.

No, that computer IS too old.

This thread is about people with good/new computers, specifically dual/multi-core who experience lag due ot the game taking 100% of every CPU.

just a question to david and roykela. Do you experience slow down all year round, or just during certain month? Cos my slowing down only seem to happen in winter for some reason (Dec to March)