wwdkj: Games running far too fast usually means a timing issue across multiple cores. This frequently occurs if you have power saving on. The CPU timers are not guaranteed to be in sync (coders need to use the OS API and not directly interrogate the CPU) and thus speed variations in the CPU become massive timing problems in games. I've seen this first hand with Deus Ex. Usual culprits:
a) Control panel -> Power options. Make it desktop or maximum performance.
b) Start the game, then alt-tab out and start Task Manager. Right click on the application and press Go To Process. Right click on the process and choose Set Affinity. Make sure only one CPU is selected.
On the rare occasion I have seen problems with games and graphics drivers, so you may want to
c) Ensure the vertical refresh rate is locked to enable (use NVIDIA/ATi control panel) I'm pretty sure every game since about 1993 has used a lock to a timer rather than just running a loop as fast as possible, back when computers were a few MHz.
fidimus: Thank you very much, this solved the Problem for me!
Interesting thread. I'm running Win8Pro x64 and a 6-core AMD 6300 Vishera overclocked on air to 4.5GHz, and a 1-gig HD 5770, on an MSI G46 w/8 gigs of dual-channel DDR3 running at ~1800Mhz--and I've never had the problem with the original version of the game patched to 1.21 (or Libertatis 1.03.) I didn't even know the game presented such problems for some people, so I shall watch vigilantly for it. I play mostly with the Libertatis version of the game, however, as I think it is better, but sometimes fire up the original to look around. (Libertatis is blessedly free of the rendering problems like black-texture popups here and there, present even in the original, patched code.)
I did notice that a decent percentage of people reporting this problem were running laptops (I'm strictly desktop.) Laptop graphical rigs are often slightly different in ways that aren't supposed to matter but maybe do when running certain software under certain conditions--like certain older software, for instance. If you are having this problem I strongly suggest playing the Libertatis 1.03 version as it is better anyway. (If you *also* have trouble with the Libertatis, then you need to take a hard look at the state of your system and do some spring cleaning, because you should not be having a problem with it.)
Edit: OK, I did in fact notice a difference in movement speed that correlated directly to the Vsync condition. However, with vsync off the speed-up was minimal over vsync on, and did not seem "too fast" to me at all--which is why I at first believed I wasn't experiencing this. Really, I'm pretty sure I prefer the slightly faster movement speed, but I am still evaluating. Combat seems much more fluid (if you can call it that...;)) with vsync off.