Forums Bug Reports mIRC + Large channels + Counter-Strike = FPS DROP

Hi,
I recently thought this was a graphics card issue or a hardware related issue but when I closed mIRC, the fps-stuttering like gameplay stopped in Counter-Strike.

It's most noticeable when in large channels with 1000+ users (#pcw,#5on5 etc) yet it can be noticeable when in quite small channels but not quite as bad.

I unloaded all of my scripts yet the problem still persisted.

My computer specs are as follows:

1.5Ghz amd athlon xp tbird
512mb pc3200 ram
radeon 9800 pro 128mb
msi 745 ultra mobo

Is anyone else experiencing these problems?

Thanks
Gary

Hello,
that makes sense because big chans have lots of users.
If a single user sends a average of 500 chars (bytes) by minute (quite normal) then you will receive > 1000 * 500B = >500000B/m

now if you have at least one more channel like that open you will have
2 * 500000B/m = 1000000B/m / 60 = 16,6kB/s

if you have a slow connection and a very demanding game, your situation is perfectly natural

p.s this are only average calculations (if you have guys sending publicity this gets a lot bigger)

Running any programs in the background while playing a graphically and/or cpu intense application ala counter-strike will obviously have an effect on your game play. This is not a mIRC issue since it needs cpu time just like every other application you run and since counter-strike would most likely be almost maxing out your proc during gameplay any other application that requests cpu time would steal some from your game. Being on larger channels while people are joining/parting/quitting and spamming etc requires much more processing time for mIRC.

My only suggestion to you would be to try typing //mode $me +d, (may be ircd dependant i dunno) before running counter-strike - that should help a bit especially on those larger spamtastic channels. What it does is sets you in "deaf" mode where you will not see channel messages only joins/parts and quits. Your IRC server will not send you public messages and would therefore save you a bit of bandwidth too. You will still be able to receive private messages /msg yournick or /notice yournick. After playing counter-strike to unset that use //mode $me -d. You could also try minimizing mirc to tray (its one of the options in options) that might help a tiny bit.

i believe there is another reason since i've experienced it
mirc will use a rather large amount of cpu on any message, and this gets big if user lists are big(particularily join/parts)
being on more than 140 chans on 12 networks, i noticed mirc uses an average constant of 6% cpu constantly, just because of the joins/parts and without any script, on a PIV 2.4ghz. But the thing is that joins&parts are very unregular, and sometimes there will be spikes at 12% cpu usage, and other down at 0%, which creates the stutter in games. Putting mirc to a lower cpu priority indeed solved my stutering prob, but created massive timeout probs, since mirc didnt get enough cpu time.

Good lord, 140 channels on 12 networks and you're trying to play CS on the same machine? You _really_ should look into getting a secondary box to do just your mIRC/other messaging programs. Not to mention when you are on that many channels all at the same time you would have to consider bandwidth constraints especially if you are on a residential cable or lower end dsl/isdn lines.

140 chans? you like warez.. thats the only explanation for that.

must be hard on his 56k modem eh!