VENT or TEAMSPEAK ping spikes in i17 - Another Solution

I have read at least 6 complaints by people in the forums of speech stuttering and general audio lag when in ventrilo or team speak, but only on test server i17. I figured out the problem which might cause you to sigh as it relates directly to Ultra-Mode and CPU usage, which taxes your system overall. Hopefully, this will aid you with a humble solution. *sigh*

To start with, my system is an AMD Athlon II X2-240, 4Gb system memory, 500Gb Raid stripe 0 array,XP pro (sp3), EVGA Nvidia GTX-260 (core 216), not the fastest computer in the world, but pretty darn good and average for what people have at home, more or less these days. My simple test was not so scientific. I could dig into windows and every little thing to find out exactly why, where and how ventrilo was stuttering and lagging, but I kept it simple to my specific needs and to help me find out what was going on. I leave further tests to those who are more curious than I and with a better knowledge of 'puters. :P

Here's what happened and my test results: (*cough >.>*)

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1. I was experiencing audio speech stuttering on test server last night and other nights while on ventrilo with a friend. I checked my ISP server, ventrilo server and CoH server ping rates and through-put. All were fine, running smoothly.

2. I have my in-game graphics set on the highest settings (as I usually do on live server.) with no issues of lag and such (53-78fps), plus I set ultra mode on the highest settings, everything ON, i.e. shadows, reflections, occlusions,water..etc.. The works.

3. I moved my toon to a spot on the Sharkhead Island map where no other player activity was and parked it, still as a leaf, turning off all toggles and animations.

4. I prompted windows task manager, checked my CPU and Memory usage.
CPU usage:87%-94% -- PF usage 1.38Gb

5. I turned off shadows altogether and re-checked CPU / PF usage, (again not moving the toon with no other players around).
CPU usage:97%-100% -- PF usage 1.37Gb
----> As you can see, the CPU jumped up when I shut shadows off, which sounds a bit odd. You would think usage would go down a tad.

6. I shut off ultra mode entirely with the and here's the CPU / PF usage.
CPU usage:42%-88% -- PF usage 1.37Gb
----> This stoped all ventrilo stuttering and vent ping spikes completely. The problem was a pegged CPU with no where to go, not ventrilo. I turned occlusion back on low, turned reflections and water effects to medium and the CPU usage was about the same with no vent problems.
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So, with my system running in ultra mode at the highest settings, CPU usage will go through the roof, (which is bad ). Lowering your ultra mode settings and finding a comfortable lower CPU usage sweet spot will help get rid of vent / team speak, lag, ping spikes and stuttering. When the CPU spikes to it's maximum, it will affect your audio card and everything else running in windows. On-board audio will be affected more than higher end audio cards that have their own buffers and processors. I'm not the expert, but as a simple rule, if it's taxing your system, bad things will happen. (Caveman summery GO..!)

I realize that ultra mode is going to tax everyone's system more or less, especially those with older AMD Intell 2300+ systems and AGP video cards, unless you're running god-like video cards with current quad-4 CPUs and enough RAM to choke a clown, but I think people should be aware of this so they know what ultra mode is capable of.
It's an awesome add-on to this already wonderful game, but it was built with future expansion in mind, not just what we can do with it now. At this moment, ultra mode will cause your less than current system's CPU to go into hyper drive with a 94-100% usage, leaving no room for anything else, if you set ultra mode to the maximum. But in the future, this will be greatly enjoyed by those who buy the latest, future video card and gaming systems, I myself included.

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I can't feel my legs..!