Game Jumpy and Crashes on Higher-end system

[Bea]

<p>I recently (about a month ago) put together a system with a Core2Duo e6320, eVGA 8800GTS OC2 320MB, and 2GB DDR2 RAM @800MHz (and Windows XP). I <i>should</i> be able to play on extreme quality (judging from what I've seen other people say), yet it is extremely jumpy at that level, and even fairly jumpy at less than medium quality. I get around 20fps outside with no one around on extreme and about less than 5 in higher populated areas. Even with everything turned about halfway down I get 10 frames in populated areas (i.e. around brokers in FP or Qeynos). Just recently (after I installed BioShock, which runs at 30+fps with everything turned up and at 1680x1050, and the DirectX 9 Aug2007 redist) I started getting out of memory errors from DirectX. I started running FreeRAM XP Pro to monitor my ram in windowed mode and noticed that if I use the "Auto-Free RAM" function in FreeRAM, I don't crash at all, but if I let the RAM fill up, it crashes (The crashing issue seems to have stopped for some reason though). I also noticed that my CPU usage only goes up to 50% max, and looking at the usage of each core, it's only using one of the two cores, but using it at 100% (I don't know if that's normal, but I would assume it is because EQ2 probably doesn't take advantage of dual core CPUs). I've defragged as well, almost every weekend and after patches.</p><p>Anyone have any ideas why it's running so slow/crashing?</p>

[Prodigus]

What is your virtual memory set at?  Eventhough you may have more then enough RAM, Windows still likes to use swap files.Open the Task Manager (ctrl-shift-esc) and look at the lower left box (Commit Charge).  That is your virtual memory.  Limit is what its set at (mine is like 2.5gigs).  Whatever yours is set at, check the Peak (which should go way up when running EQ2) and see if is close/near to your current limit.I'd also check video drivers, seeing if they are up-to-date and compare the versions to what others say about them; maybe a certain version is better then another.For SOE support you'll probably want to follow the sticky and post up all your system info before they will help you.  If you get it fixed tell us how!

[Openedge]

I had to do some major tweaking with my 8800GTS 640...and it has helped...somewhat...I have the newest 163.69 beta's which enhance the video memory flushing...which these cards have an issue with...Also, I have forced my AA and AF (for you, maybe try 2x AA and 4x or 8x AF)...In game, look at the water setting, there is one section where they show a setting for Environment Cube Map Updates or something along that line...change this to Fast (once)...I gained about 10FPS for that...Also, try these tricks..<a href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=columns.Detail&category_select_id=9&id=208" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?vi...id=9&id=208</a>It will take some work...and I am happy with it (except for Greater Faydark and Neriak...seems to be an annoying issue with slowdown in certains area's). Yet, my old 7950GT does not exhibit these issues..in the same area's...We really just got shafted on these 8800's, and hopefully Nvidia gets it together soon!