UT2004 Tweak Guide

[Page 2] Essential Optimization

There is absolutely no point in going into any UT2004-specific settings and tweaks until we've first covered general system optimization. You can change any and every setting in UT2004 and it won't make a lick of difference to your problems or help improve your framerates if there is something sub-optimal about your general system settings. With that in mind I strongly urge you to take some time and follow the advice below if you truly want UT2004, and indeed every other game you own, to run at its fastest and most trouble-free.

The place to start is my System Optimization Guide for Gamers. This guide provides detailed information on where to find the latest BIOS and drivers for your system, how to install them "cleanly", understanding more about the hardware components that you're running, what overclocking is, how to correctly test an overclocked system for stability and so forth. Everything is explained from scratch, and technical jargon is kept to a minimum.

The next step is to examine my walkthrough guide to optimizing Windows: WinXP Tweaking: From Reformat to Relax. It has every known WindowsXP performance tweak and they're all tested to work. It is absolutely vital to smooth, fast, stable gaming performance.

If you have time, make sure you check my second XP Guide, WinXP Tweaking: From Relax to Righteous, because it contains a wealth of information to complement the first one. Everything from troubleshooting common Windows error codes to cosmetic and convenience tweaks.

Finally, if you run an ATi graphics card, I have written an ATi Catalyst installation Guide which covers the best method for ATi graphics driver installation and the most optimal configuration in the graphics control panel.

The above information really will serve you well in the long run, not just in UT2004. If you don't optimize your system and keep everything updated and maintained correctly you will keep running into "mysterious" problems time and time again. Do yourself a favor and spend an afternoon or two optimizing your machine the right way with the guides above.

The next section goes into more detail about specific troubleshooting tips which address common UT2004 performance issues.