Heres the specs: ViciousPC clear ATX case Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM SATA 74GB HD Windows XP Home Edition SP1 Enermax CoolerGiant 480W PSU BFG nVidia FX 6800 GT 256mb Athlon 64 3500+ socket 939 CoolerMaster Hyper6 CPU heatsink MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Edition mobo 2X512Mb Corsair DDR 400Mhz Dual Channel TWINX1024 3200C2PT Microsoft Intellipoint Explorer 4.0 mouse Heres the big problem. I built this machine going on the fact that my last machine seemed to have the same problem as I do now and so Im starting to worry that the source has more to do with something about the way I have it setup but I cannot figure out what at all. I play Unreal Tournament 2004 a lot and for a machine like mine I experience what you could think of as (physical)lag or a sluggishness in responsiveness to my actions(not like network lag), and over time it gets to the point that its nearly impossible to hit anything because its so delayed or i cant track where people are going or i die before i even know what hit me(but I dont jump around as if Im experiencing network lag). I have also tested my connection on dslreports.com for packetloss and tests show I have none. I have swapped out the PSU with an Antec TruePower 480watt and the problem is still existant. Its wierd because as I play the game over time it seems to slow down more and more and my mouse sensitivity seems to go down more and more. Funny thing is that my frames per second remain at a stable 84 fps and my gpu temperature hovers right on 60°Celcius and my CPU is generally between 40°-48°Celcius. I have even bothered to install my own Linksys Etherfast NIC card to see if there was a driver problem with the motherboards ethernet drivers but that didnt really change anything. Ive used the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool to test my memory for faults and it passed all tests. Ive ran Prime95 for 3 hours without a single fault as well. Ive also formatted and reinstalled WindowsXP to nothing but the newest system and display drivers(in the correct order btw) and ut2004 and still has the same problem. Ive also reformatted and installed the ATI 9800 Pro 256bit and still have the same problem(I even installed it before reformatting just to see if it would make a difference. Ive also tried installing it on a WD80gig 7400rpm hd on the same system and still have the same problem. I cannot seem to pinpoint this wierd lagginess that I get over time but it is really annoying. Ive also tried tweaking windows to run faster as well as the game and its not made a difference. Ive also tried swapping out the Explorer mouse with the MX510 and noted no difference in gameplay. Im coming to the conclusion the motherboard archtecture is flawed but was wanting more input from the community before I go out and buy a different motherboard or perhaps a different CPU and motherboard altogether. At one point my computer was restarting itself when I tried exiting the game after installing SP2 and the games newest patch and I happen to share this problem with many other gamers with the same motherboard and an AMD A64 CPU. (see forum thread here http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=426274). Ive also moved from 3mbit cable to 1.5 mbit dsl in two different locations and have the same problem. Ive also switched from using onboard sound to Creatives SB Audigy 2ZS card to no avail. As of recently Ive started to notice the traits of my lag and would like to share them. ie)people appear and shoot before I can even see them or react when I do see them. Almost all the time I will shoot and miss even with the easiest of weapons such as flak (even within a couple of feet, as long as they are not still). I can hear sounds before they occur, such as the 100 armor spawning then a second later it appears, or me hearing myself get shot at then actually being hit. Ive also noticed that sometimes when I start a fresh game the lag is not as noticable then after a few games it gets worse and worse and I get a clicking sound like a web page is reloading but I know for a fact that there are no web pages open, and the hard drive does a little activity as well. My system is immunized by Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware by Lavasoft so I find it hard to believe my system is infected, especially since Ive been having this problem even on a clean install. If anyone has any idea as to the cause of this your help would be greatly appreciated.

Since you never said anything about other games doing the same, I would suggest a few things that may help the process of elimination. 0. Have you tried other driver versions for the card? maybe an older version. 1. Are you running the game with any patches installed? if you are, try it without any. 2. Though you have Spybot and Adaware installed, run HJT to be sure there is nothing running, (I don't think there should, since you've reloaded the system). 3. Any BIOS update available for your board? 4. I'll throw this in too, make sure your Aperture size is not more than half your video ram. Lastly this might come in handy. -- Have a Happy New Year --

Hi ive played a huge amount of time with ut2003 and recently changed to ut2004 ut2004 3200 64 1 gig ddr400 6600gt purely tweaked for games pc. (&no problem with bandwidth :) ut2004 is slow compared to ut2003 (ok diff game etc) i physically 'feel' (if thats the rightword) ut04 is dragging its feet & online i noticed on several occaisions atari servers are slower than the jolt servers. i dont beleive the game can possibly be fairly load balanced ie give every one fair bandwidth alloc. ive seen plenty of other players who shoot change weapons and shoot again before ive changed 1 weapon, or loaded a 1 click combo. imo no longer believe the game architecture ut04 is secure (re ini hacks)or fair, wether the physics are dodgy or theres inherant lag on the servers for one team i dont know but i watched one team demolish torlan in under a few minutes, they were good no question obvioulsy cordinated & use mic's, but they were physically moving quicker than every one else. it was that obvious ,we sat n spect'd asked a few questions. one guy said his fph was >12000 ,suddenly every1 s looking at fp's and comparing. We play farcry and other online games and have never felt this was the case. so for your intuition i would say its NOT your system. use a fast avatar with dark colours eg agent smith skin, its not a game for slow brightly lit mechs. nuff said. im back on ut03, , o4 if i want a slapstick laugh. its about time atari did somthing as theres alot of unhappy players who have noted the same and feel ripped off online when the game is as unbalanced. 'esrb' notice should say your pc is fine its just a game. for a laugh track down some 'top' score players and spectate you will see straight away how they pull off tricks. some good 1s out there but the spirit of the game is diminished.

Nick, I got exactly the same problem. I can run UT2004 fine offline, but online I've got this intermittent lag of about 5 seconds. You press a button, nothing for 5 seconds. Sometimes though, UT2004 works fine without the lag. Ping rates drop right down to as low as the 20's. I also have a neo 8 with an AMD64, a gig of ram, cable at 750kb/s. I played the demo no problem, never any lag. I've played other games (far cry, doom 3) no problems whatsoever. I used to play UT2004 fine as well, but not now. It's beyound a joke. As far as I can tell, it's related to the last 3339 patch. All in all very annoying as onslaught is a damm fine online consumer of time. Let me know if you come across any solutions please! Chuck

Thanks for the feedback guys. Tried out HJT and didnt really find anything harmful. Maybe everyones right after all, that the cause of all this lag is the game itself and not my setup. I just find it interesting that I can play on a server with people that rape me and I stand no chance because Im pretty much handicapped with the lag/weapon responsiveness and I cant do nothing. And I agree back in the demo days of ut2k4 I had no problems whatsoever and thats actually when I became really good, but now all I do is struggle to have successful aim. Its wierd though how sometimes the lag goes away and I start making amazing lightning shots and actually hit most of my shock combos which would never be possible most of the time. Again thanks for everyones help...and Ill keep you posted if I find anything new.