So I downloaded the game yesterday and was surprised when the cinematic movie for the starting zone was INCREDIBLY choppy.  Then when gameplay started, same way.  A lot of stuttering and choppiness as textures were loading as I ran around.  I have a good rig so I'm not sure what's going on here.  I can run RIFT complete max settings and hover around 40 fps in the most fps heavy areas, so not sure why this is happening.  My specs:

i7 920 oc'd to 3.5 ghz

Nvidia GTX 580

1,000 watt power supply

8gb ram

7200 rpm hard drive

Again, I have DC Universe and RIFT installed and have zero fps issues on those, but with Champions it's a real mess.  Definitely want to try this game out but the way it's performing it's very frustrating.  Any suggestions? 

did you buy the good performance pack from the Atari Store?

Wait, what, BUY a performance pack so the game doesn't look like crap?

I have trouble believing that such a thing even exists, it's almost unspeakable.

But yeah, I had the exact same problem when I played, the game is just really low quality all throughout.

I wish I knew what to suggest.

When I played last a few months after launch my performance was absolutely horrendous, the game chugged along badly and trying to play was a nightmare. My system is nowhere near as nice as your specs are either. Yet, strangely enough, I'm now playing again on the exact same setup as I was back then, and my performance is amazing with all settings maxed.

I have no idea what changed for me, or why performance is bad for you, this game seems to have a mind of its own.

I also have the same problem. I have to put it to low for smooth gameplay.

I did a quick google search and found out that not only does the "performance pack" not exist but the reason for all the lag is due to the UI sapping too many resources. It's probably dependent on your video card or something.

Like I said before, this game is badly made and low quality.

Heck, it wasn't even made to be a game itself, but more like the product of an internal schism at Cryptic made to try to destroy Paragon Studios. It goes without saying, they failed. I thank Marvel for recognizing what it all was and pulling their brand-name before they got dragged into this vendetta.

Originally posted by TribeofOne

did you buy the good performance pack from the Atari Store?

this was of course a joke. Although, those who pay for the gold membership get priority login and service. it wouldnt suprise me if good performance was a perk of paying too.

the games performance for me is worse now than it was at launch when i last played.

I have weird flashing around the edges of things and it chugs.

I just logged in to check it out as my son is enjoying the game.  It runs fine on my limited settings I set everything to max then went in and turned off bloom because I don't like it and the pencil outlining thing they do because it's just ugly.  game ran fine, not great, not terrible, but fine.  I have a fairly limited system AMD 250 3.0GHz, 8800 GT 512MB, 3GB cheap ram, and it ran at around 30fps which is all I could really hope for with my system and setting it at max.  Though I will also say that I think the game is crap, and not worth the install, but my son likes it so its there.

Well not sure why your system would run so bad for this game. It really does not have high system req's. Maybe a driver issue my system is a AMD x2 black at 3.0 and nvidia 240 GT and only 3 gigs of ram and run it at max with no problems at all.

Bad performance? I've had no issues. Its possible that its because you have done a fresh install?

I believe Xpiher may be correct.I just downloaded the game about a week ago and had the same issues.However after a few days of playing I found it didn't happen any more.1st couple toons I did the tutorial was a bit laggy and the same as the OP the cinematic was very choppy,After a couple days of playing it was all running smoothe.Thats when I decided to Sub :).Now I am hooked on making new characters lol.

Its definitely not your comp though, Cuz I don't have any issues with my comp and its not nearly as good as what you posted.

I know this isn't what happened but the increase in performance a few days later sounds almost like how a defrag could speed up apps.  Either way like he said you shouldn't have any issues with your rig.  I have a similar rig (less specs) and it runs the game fine.  I am always roughly between 30-55 fps rarely dipping into the 20's for a split second here or there if a lot is going on.  Maybe since you have a newer card in the 580 the drivers aren't up to snuff yet?  Also, I forget which setting but there is one particular setting that if you have it enabled it kills the FPS on some machines (never did on mine), so I've read.  So play around with the graphics settings.  I have also heard unchecking the "comic style outline" option improves performance.  Once again for me, I've never really noticed either way and am enjoying the game at 30+ FPS and have since launch (Lifetime Subscriber).

My rig:

NVIDIA GTX 285

eVGA X58 Classified 3-Way SLi Mainboard

Intel i7 920 OC'd @ 3.8 Ghz w/Cooler Master V8

6 GB OCZ Ram @ 1600 Mhz

500 GB 7,200 Hard Drive

Sound Baster Titanium X-Fi Sound

1100W Cooler Master Ultimate PSU

a lot more to list on the system but the rest is irrevelevant to this post.......

I've only just started with this game and while I'm so-so on the gameplay thus far, I'd rate performance and looks very good.  The comic book feel is great and no fps issues noted so far

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AMD Phenom II 550 3.1GHz
4GB DDR2 @800
Sapphire 1GB HD 5770 GDDR5 X2 (Crossfire)
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Originally posted by niceguy3978

I just logged in to check it out as my son is enjoying the game.  It runs fine on my limited settings I set everything to max then went in and turned off bloom because I don't like it and the pencil outlining thing they do because it's just ugly. 

yes, the bloom setting helps a lot. I did have performance setting, fps was below 20, unplayable, after lower down the bloom setting, it was better.

and yes, the pencil drawing is pretty ugly.

i logged in this morning after the server shut down  to give the game a try  i found  it very jerky  stayed on for all 5 mins  then logged out