Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT vs 8800 GT

[ValashokCatcaller]

I have been giving some thought to upgrading my video card, and am seeing impressive numbers for both of these cards.  Anybody have any real world EQ2 numbers for these cards?  I would like to be able to turn flora on in Gfay...

[Jesdyr]

Have heard of people having issues with the 8800 GTs while running EQ2 under Vista. Others have no problem at all. EQ2 I dont think you will see a huge difference between these cards.If the extra money isn't an issue the 8800 GT is the better card.

[Signal9]

<cite>Camile@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have been giving some thought to upgrading my video card, and am seeing impressive numbers for both of these cards.  Anybody have any real world EQ2 numbers for these cards?  I would like to be able to turn flora on in Gfay...</blockquote><p>I got a 8800 GTX just before RoK.  This game ran beautifully.  Maxxed settings, and still 40+ fps.  I run XP64.</p><p>Now that RoK is out, I can only run balanced, or I crash with memory errors. (Mainly due to Teren's, Neriak..., but pointless to run on full, then crash out because you forgot to lower your settings before coming into sight of Teren's).</p><p>I have no experience with the new cards to give a comparison.</p><p>Until Sony fixes their programming, however, you will run risks upping your settings too far.</p>

[ValashokCatcaller]

I am more looking for people that may have these cards and what kind of frames per second they are getting on what kind of settings.

[LoneGreyWolf20]

If you play other games other than EQ2 and have the money to spend, get the 8800GT. It's much better than the 9600 and is faster all around.

[ValashokCatcaller]

<cite>LoneGreyWolf20 wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you play other games other than EQ2 and have the money to spend, get the 8800GT. It's much better than the 9600 and is faster all around.</blockquote>Actually, from what I am seeing on the more trustworthy hardware review sites, it raeally depends on the game.  While yes, 8800 GT does better acrtoss the board for DX10 games, I am only regularly playing DX 9 games.  Best I can tell, the 9600 actually does better for some games under DX 9.  I expect the way EQ2 runs, the 8800 GT would be the better card, but I would like to see some hard numbers before I go out and spend my money.

[Zenith]

My 8800 GTX made a noticable improvement in every single game I play, except EQ2. EQ2 has issues with the 8x00 series, yeah some don't have em but everyday in the top ten posts in the tech forums two are usually about it. Something in RoK borked all sorts of things. Many many people have been saying since RoK launched their eq2 performance has gone down. As usual it doesn't seem SoE care one bit about the 8x00 series issues, RoK's poor performance, or any of the other major issues people have been having. (EX dual cores)

[Yimway]

<cite>Signal9 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Camile@Nagafen wrote:</cite><p>I got a 8800 GTX just before RoK.  This game ran beautifully.  Maxxed settings, and still 40+ fps.  I run XP64.</p><p>Now that RoK is out, I can only run balanced, or I crash with memory errors. (Mainly due to Teren's, Neriak..., but pointless to run on full, then crash out because you forgot to lower your settings before coming into sight of Teren's).</p><p>I have no experience with the new cards to give a comparison.</p><p>Until Sony fixes their programming, however, you will run risks upping your settings too far.</p></blockquote>This is due to some sloppy programming at SoE.  Basically when the process heaps over 2gb of ram it dumps out.  Its mostly noticed with graphics turned up over ballanced, and recreated at very specific area that cause it to heap up textures.Here is the fix: 1) Basically you get this and install it: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://ntcore.com/Files/ExplorerSuite.exe" target="_blank" >ntcore.com/Files/ExplorerSuite.exe</a> 2) Find your EverQuest2.exe file and right click on it. 3) Click on the "open with CFF Explorer" option in the context menu. 4) Select "File Header" under "NT Header" 5) Click "click here" across from "characteristics" 6) Check "App can handle >2gb addressest" 7) Save. Overwrite. Exit.Once done, you have to skip the patcher and run everquest2.exe manually.  This isn't a big deal as I find they only force you to update your client about 1/month.Cheers!

[ValashokCatcaller]

Okay, enough threadjacking.  Yes, I have noticed a performance decrease since Kunark, and I really don't care about opinions  on who is to blame or which dev's fault it is.I am looking for people that use the two cards I asked about.  I see there are problems with the 8800 GT, so I am wondering if there are similar problems with the 9600 GT.  I would also like some settings and framerate info for both cards.  I do not want opinions on how much SOE sucks because of bugs in the game.

[Yimway]

There is relatively no distinguishable difference performance wise in eq2 between these 2 cards.The point made previously, is running either card at a high enough setting causes crashes unrelated to the performance of either card.

[Innotes]

I have an 8800gt (and a C2D <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> with 3 gigs of ddr2800 ram) and I play on the high quality preset with 4xFSAA and 16xAnisotropic Filtering. Screen resolution is 1680x1050. In most old world zones I get around 50fps, in most RoK zones I get around 30. The game run very well.Here are a few screen shots I took yesterday. I chose that location because I was making comparison shots for another thread.<a href="http://the-jerks.com/images/EQ2_000011.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">High Quality</a><a href="http://the-jerks.com/images/EQ2_000012.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Very High Quality</a><a href="http://the-jerks.com/images/EQ2_000013.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Extreme Quality</a>The game rarely dips below 30fps on high quality even in populated zones. Higher quality presets do do well below 30fps in crowded zones though which is why I don't play with one of them.Hope that helps.