I'd like some tips for performance.

[AmbienceDesign]

Greetings, I've already resigned myself to the fact that this game simply won't run as intended (ie. max settings) given my hardware, but I do have a nagging feeling that something somewhere is not allowing my system to run the game in the way that it should be.  I've looked around the Internet and this forum, but haven't really come across any solid advice that I'm comfortable with following, so I'd like to ask for advice here instead of there.  Thanks in advance. Specs: Windws Vista Ultimate (Retail - Latest Updates) AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz/core - OCed to 3.1GHz/core) BFG Tech nVidia nForce 590SLI Mobo 2GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 RAM in Dual Channel Mode 200GB Western Digital Caviar Hard Drive eVGA nVidia GeForce 7950GT-KO (560/1450 - OCed to 610/1500) Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Pro Thermaltake ToughPower SLI Certified 650W Power Supply Custom Cooling and Ventilation System (Handmade) Drivers: nVidia - 158.24 WHQL Creative - 6.0.1.1302 BETA

[willnotuse]

You have the CPU power to handle it fine and enough RAM. So that leaves me with two questions. How much RAM on the video card and what is the exact model of the HDD. 

[StoneySilen]

What is happening to you when you are running it at max settings?  Your system should be able to run it pretty close to max with shadows turned off at least.  Please explain your problems.

[Lhyn]

double your frames by disabling shadows or at least environment shadows.either they are slow down your system or they simply disapear after a while (and still slow down your system)without shadows it should run pretty fine on your system. I'm hoping for a new shadowsystem

[Derrmerth2]

<p>I agree, pretty solid system. You might be able to do a few small things. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Grab a Athlon 64 X2 6000</a> and clock that guy up maybe if you feel like you have $170 bucks too much on your person. The hard drive is used most when changing zones, so even if you slapped in a WD Raptor, you probably wouldn't see too much change in game. Unless you are using up your ram with Vista and EQ2. Check you RAM usage in game and see what percent is being used. If it is high, (over 80%), could be an issue. But in either case, if it is more then 2 years old, couldn't hurt to upgarde as dirt cheap as drives are these days. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Example</a></p>

[willnotuse]

A faster CPU like you suggested would be fine as long as he doesn't have a 7950 with only 256 onboard.  If he's got 512 he's fine for maximum textures.  Otherwise he'd be throwing away his money on the CPU when the video card is the bottleneck.

[Bramwe]

I would lower your particle effects some, lower your complex shader distance to -1 and turn shadows off. p.s. If you have the option switch to Windows XP, but that is for another topic <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Derrmerth2]

I second Bramwells suggestion. Probably the biggest things I can think of. I've wrong before in life but I don't recall eVGA ever making a 7950 gt KO edition of that card with 256Mb of ram. They generaly make the KOs thier [Removed for Content] flagship card. But if you could check that Amb, that would be a pretty big one. 256Mb of vid mem would cut you a little short.

[Bloodfa]

<p>As far as I know, eVGA only made the 256 version with the 7950 GT CO.  I've got 2 in SLI, and while they're factory overclocked and do a nice job with rendering, they get hot, even with the beefy cooling eVGA ships with.  Eventually forced me to go with a liquid cooling system for the cards kind of hot.</p><p>Okay, maybe not forced, but it's a component I'll need for my next set of cards. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>My suggestion would be to tack another of his same series in SLI if he could find one, but I believe even eVGA is out of stock on those.</p>

[Zin`Car]

<p>I have an athlon 64x2 4800+ (2.4) oc'd to 2.64, 2gb of PC3200 corsair xms ram and an <a href="http://www.evga.com/articles/310.asp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0099ff">Nvidia EVGA 7950GX2 </span></a>(the 1gb monster but the card is NOT oc'd) and i run max settings on everything except shadows @ 1680x1050 (22" wide screen) res with 4x anti-aliasing and have ZERO issues... even on full raids. </p><p>The only zones that give me issues (even on more powerful machines, same issues... same places...) are the new Neriak and Dark Light Woods...  But those zones have been buggered since beta.  I've reported it repeatedly but as is painfully obvious, those zones are still dorked.</p><p>A faster CPU is an absolute waste of money.  dont even take a moment to consider that advice... unless you prefer to entertain bad advice.  Gettin another card to run SLi... bad idea.  EQ2 takes advantage of <b>neither</b> dual core cpus <u><b>NOR</b></u> SLi technology... <i>more</i> bad advice...</p><p>What <i>do</i> i recommend (besides not listening to the aforementioned bad advice)...  it's hard to say...  dont take their advice of more, bigger, badder hardeware...  you are beyond fine.  i am guessing you probably just have a lot of crap running in the background.  Vista for one...  not sure what else since i dont have your comp in front of me but i am guessing there is something running that is chewing up your processing power.  But considering what i have on my machine compared to yours... you shouldn't have any problems...  even with shadows on.  The biggest issue with shadows is that they are governed by DX9 coding... which is crap.  It's insanely processor intensive.  Again, you should be fine though.</p><p>If you are comfortable digging around in msconfig, i would check there first and see what's going on.  Good luck!</p>