FM 09 takes up to 2 hours to create a game

Every time I create a new game in FM 09, its taking up to 2 hours to create a new game, I’m running 47 leagues from 17 nations on a large database, retaining missing European, South and North American leagues and nations that aren’t in the game (i.e. Albania, Canada, Paraguay El Salvador etc) , European leagues and nations that haven’t been selected (i.e. Austria, Bulgaria, Wales, Chile etc) and the top 10 Asian and African nations only, no clubs.

Yet if create the same game in FM 08 as I am with FM 09, FM 08 is only taking 30 minutes to create a new game and the same goes if I create a new game in FM 08 with all the leagues (even set as playable) and retaining all the leagues and nations that aren’t in the game (i.e. New Zealand, Japan, Iran etc)

I’ve ran Genie Scout for both FM 08 and FM 09, and have noticed that in FM 09 that the game has 208824 players, 61468 non players and 15617 clubs are in the database, compared to 207796 players, 58048 non player and 14230 clubs and 20184 players, 52864 non player and 17344 clubs (the game with all leagues and all other clubs and nations retained) in FM 08, but surely the extra players, non players and clubs can’t be slowing FM09 down that much or could it be database related as Its my own custom database that I am using with pre-arranged transfers happening in January.

PC specs

AMD Phenom 9650 Quad Core – 2.3GHz

8 Gig DDR2 667

Windows Ultimate 64 (freshly installed last week)

Threading ticked in FM 09

Tried using XP SP2 compatibility mode

And also have excluded all Sports Interactive folders that appear on the PC in Avast

Your custom database could be part of the problem, I started a new game with similar numbers to you (52 leagues over 16 nations I think) but with no retained players and it took around 30 minutes.

That was with an i7 and 6GB triple channel RAM.

Combination of the custom database and the large amount of leagues and nations. I find that most of the time is "manager shortlists", so if you're loading players from various leagues, the game will need to take into account foriegner restrictions in more countries when generating shortlists.

Only 2 hours!! I set on eup recently, major euro leagues + brazil and argentina, took an entire day to set up... then crashed before i could save it.

Once youve set-up a game, save it as "set-up" or something. When youve chosen your team, save it as something different.

You can then keep on using "set-up", instead of starting new games.

Saves a lot of time!

Well I've tried the 9.3.0 database with the retains and it took 1 hour 22 minutes to load found out that “finding manager targets" is the main culprit of taking so long to load as the rest before it took less than 15 minutes to load.

Have tried the 9.3.0 database and my own database running 47 leagues from 17 nations on a large database and no retains and that took 30 minutes, even when I had a AMD Dual Core and 2 gig of ram, FM 08, it would take an average of 45 minutes to create a new game and and even then I had something like 80-90 leagues running altogether before the DDT file came in to play (I retained every country that hadn't been selected as playable or that wasn’t in FM)

Would appreciate it if someone from SI could shed some light on why FM 09 is takes its time.

Just save it as a quick-start file then when its finished loading.. while you wait, go for a walk

Well I've tried the 9.3.0 database with the retains and it took 1 hour 22 minutes to load found out that “finding manager targets" is the main culprit of taking so long to load as the rest before it took less than 15 minutes to load.

Have tried the 9.3.0 database and my own database running 47 leagues from 17 nations on a large database and no retains and that took 30 minutes, even when I had a AMD Dual Core and 2 gig of ram, FM 08, it would take an average of 45 minutes to create a new game and and even then I had something like 80-90 leagues running altogether before the DDT file came in to play (I retained every country that hadn't been selected as playable or that wasn’t in FM)

Would appreciate it if someone from SI could shed some light on why FM 09 is takes its time.

I'm sure this is to do with the new transfer module in FM09. It obviously spends more time finding manager targets in FM09 during the setup so that the more players you load, the longer it will take to load up a new game.

It also impacts on general processing times a lot more than it did in FM08 in my experience as well.

C.

Ahh this used to happen to me on 07... Checked you graphics card etc?

To be fair if the game took ages to be created then I would imagine that processing speeds would be unbearable.

Ahh this used to happen to me on 07... Checked you graphics card etc?

Graphic drivers up to date (nvidia 8400GS), C: drive defraged as well as D: drive where the games installed, virus scan on C:came up with nothing, even got the disc in the cd\dvd drive just to see if that'll make a difference

Wonder if Hard Drive speed matters?

Well I've given up on thinking that FM 09 might create a game quicker in Windows 7, with 47 leagues from 17 nations on a large database with only Europe, North and South America retained, an hour and 10 minutes in and still no game, kind of temped to give up on FM 09 and go back to FM 08

There are more complex feature and AI improvements in FM09 leading to longer set up times.

Don't really know why anyone would complain about this. Sure, when I first set up my current game it took a while, but I'm now 32 game-days into my campaign; I don't begrudge a couple of hours to initially set it up.

Ahh this used to happen to me on 07... Checked you graphics card etc?

tbf its more likly to be ram and processors at this point rather than graphics

AMD Phenom 9650 Quad Core – 2.3GHz

8 Gig DDR2 667

Hmmm good luck, try speaking to one of the SI techies on here like Boah perhaps?

Graphic card was the problem for me

Once youve set-up a game, save it as "set-up" or something. When youve chosen your team, save it as something different.

You can then keep on using "set-up", instead of starting new games.

Saves a lot of time!

A truely great idea.

Tbh its all well and good suggesting to save the game under a file name once its loaded then save it as another file name but what if I start playing (I'm using my own database) and spot a mistake? That’s an hour and a half wasted and means starting all over again from scratch and taking another hour and a half.

Doesn’t matter how much I trim the DDT files (only now retaining 10 nations from Asia, 10 from North America, all of South America, and 10 from Africa, retaining nations from European countries that aren’t in the game and retaining leagues and nations from European countries that aren’t selected,) total file size is now 58.8kb from over 200kb and the game still takes an hour and a half to create under the official or my own database, even with just 58 leagues running from 21 nations (Europe only) and no DDT files, its still taking 55 minutes.

Then make sure you don't do a mistake then when starting to load up a newly created game.

Unfortunately you purchased a large number of really low quality, low speed components for your PC. 4 low quality, low speed processors joined to 8 GB of the slowest RAM still available for a quadcore motherboard means that your data transfer rate will be feeble despite having an abundance of available resources. If the trend continues with your motherboard then it is quite likely you have built or bought one of the most expensive and slowest PC's possible for dealing with individual tasks. An unfortunate and expensive mistake.

What you should have done if your intention was for speed rather than abundant resources was invest in a high quality, high speed dualcore and 2 to 4 GB of high velocity market leading DDR3 RAM spread across as many sticks as possible for maximum data transfer rates. It is quite likely you are trying to funnel 2 GB of data through a single pipeline of a transfer rate of 5333 MB/S rather than 2 GB through four pipelines of 12800 MB/S each. A similar issue will be occuring at your FSB with your 4 cores each taking a portion of your data transfer rate, and if your motherboard is low quality it is quite likely to be strangling the maximum data rate your components can achieve anyway.

By comparison my aging Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM system takes about 20 minutes to create a game with over 50 active leagues in 17 nations with a large database, primarilly because I have 4 sticks of 500MB Corsair and a high speed dualcore sitting ontop of a quality ASUS motherboard. It has nowhere near the gross processing or data handling capability of your machine but depending on your motherboard it could be anywhere between 3 and 10 times faster.

I have 3gb (4 gb in sticks but windows xp 32bit only reads maximum 3gb) and a 3gh h processor. and I always only run 8 or so leagues over the main nations in the world on large database and it only takes me 5-10 minutes to set it up

Unfortunately you purchased a large number of really low quality, low speed components for your PC. 4 low quality, low speed processors joined to 8 GB of the slowest RAM still available for a quadcore motherboard means that your data transfer rate will be feeble despite having an abundance of available resources. If the trend continues with your motherboard then it is quite likely you have built or bought one of the most expensive and slowest PC's possible for dealing with individual tasks. An unfortunate and expensive mistake.

What you should have done if your intention was for speed rather than abundant resources was invest in a high quality, high speed dualcore and 2 to 4 GB of high velocity market leading DDR3 RAM spread across as many sticks as possible for maximum data transfer rates. It is quite likely you are trying to funnel 2 GB of data through a single pipeline of a transfer rate of 5333 MB/S rather than 2 GB through four pipelines of 12800 MB/S each. A similar issue will be occuring at your FSB with your 4 cores each taking a portion of your data transfer rate, and if your motherboard is low quality it is quite likely to be strangling the maximum data rate your components can achieve anyway.

By comparison my aging Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM system takes about 20 minutes to create a game with over 50 active leagues in 17 nations with a large database, primarilly because I have 4 sticks of 500MB Corsair and a high speed dualcore sitting ontop of a quality ASUS motherboard. It has nowhere near the gross processing or data handling capability of your machine but depending on your motherboard it could be anywhere between 3 and 10 times faster.

How is it an unfortunate and expensive mistake? I’ve had 6 of the 8 gig DDR2 ram for a few years now and only bought a 2 gig stick in November for something like £10, the Asus H3N-H/HDMI was bought last September as the previous one blew and needed something for my then Athlon 64 X2 and then a few months later I bought a AMD Phenom X4, it all cost something like £15 more than a DDR3 supported Motherboard on its own, if I was to have got a processor and ram for that motherboard, it would have cost me an extra £300 which I didn’t have and still don’t have now.

Also the only AMD processors to support DDR3 is the new AMD Phenom II X4, I have an AMD Phenom X4, there are no AM2+ motherboards available to support DDR3.

hey guys. pardon my lack of knowledge but how do you get to load so many leagues and nations? isn't it only 3 per time?

hey guys. pardon my lack of knowledge but how do you get to load so many leagues and nations? isn't it only 3 per time?

If you close the wizard then you can choose as many as you like.

hey guys. pardon my lack of knowledge but how do you get to load so many leagues and nations? isn't it only 3 per time?

Quality:D If you've been playing with only 3 leagues, well...

Peter's right

53 divisions from 12 countries (loaded all leagues), 5 extra players from all nations loaded, gills retain players ddt, large database, 9.3 official. It took me about half an hour to create, about half of that manager shortlists.

My computer specs are Intel core duo 2 quad Q6600 2.4gh, 3gig ddr 2 ram, nvidia geforce 7050 video card. So my guess would be the edited database. I remember loading up all nations and leagues on vanilla database took about an hour to hour and a half.

Surely you wouldn't attempt to play such a game so what's the point? I very rarely select more than 5 leagues and usually only 1 country (sometimes 2) and FM flies. Is the depth really a bearable tradeoff for speed?

Surely you wouldn't attempt to play such a game so what's the point? I very rarely select more than 5 leagues and usually only 1 country (sometimes 2) and FM flies. Is the depth really aa bearable tradeoff for speed?

yes , some people prefer depth like i do , i have all leagues and countries and huge database selected. my pc can handle it , i can do a season in 3 days

i guess your those who like to do a season in a matter of hours

depth its whats this game is all about

If you close the wizard then you can choose as many as you like.

Cool. thanks! I've never tried closing the wizard before. Helps a lot!!

Cool. thanks! I've never tried closing the wizard before. Helps a lot!!

No worries mate.

yes , some people prefer depth like i do , i have all leagues and countries and huge database selected. my pc can handle it , i can do a season in 3 days

i guess your those who like to do a season in a matter of hours

depth its whats this game is all about

What pc do you have, i want to build a rig just like that. Loving the idea to load all nations all leagues and roam freely