Very Low FPS - around 7-10FPS

[christineeq]

<p>I have a high-powered computer running Win XP that has been running EQ2 perfectly for years now.  I don't have the specs on the computer but the video card is nVidia 7300 GT. The computer itself is very powerful - I just don't remember the specs.  This computer "used" to be the best one to play EQ2 on, now it's the "worst"</p><p>After logging in with the last update that removed Erollisi day stuff, my FPS dropped from 60-70 to 7-12.  When I first log into the game, the FPS is fine - anywhere from 30-70 average.  Then after about 5 minutes of being logged in (regardless of what I'm doing) the FPS drops to 7-10.  I tried playing with settings in game - the problem happens regardless if I'm on balanced (which is my normal setting and gave me no problems) to high performance.</p><p>Right now, I'm logged into EQ2 and FPS is holding steady at 12-13.  I'm sitting in North Qeynos where normally I have very little lag or low FPS (prior to the problems).  </p><p> Also, in case you're wondering, I'm making this post on my backup computer which is also one I play EQ2 on which has no problems which, ironically is older and slower then the one I'm having problems with.</p><p> In an attempt to troubleshoot, here are steps I have taken with no success:</p><p> Deleted ALL .ini files in EQ2 directory</p><p>Updated video card drivers</p><p>Turned off ALL shading</p><p>Tried a system restore to pre-LU43 patch - got a message that the system can't be restored</p><p>Other then the FPS problem in EQ2, the computer is fine.  No problems with the internet connection (had 3 copies of EQ2 running last night between my husband and I).  </p><p>Tried most other suggestions I could find from searching the knowledge base and forums here.</p><p> As I said, EQ2 was running just fine one day, the next day, it gave me this problem.  </p><p>I'm hoping someone here has some suggestions or ideas on what to do next to try to solve the problem - other then replacing the video card.</p><p> Thanks for the help!</p>

[SIlly Muffin]

<p>I'd strongly suggest looking at your processes and CPU usage - find out if something is running in the background and perhaps do an AV scan. That kind of sudden drop sounds fishy. I woudl also look at how much free HD space you have - and maybe defrag both the system and Eq2 HD (if seperate). As you likely know EQ2 is heavily CPU dependent and most major hits come from CPU load. The fact that you are saying low FPS is constant everywhere may strongly indicate that its something ongoing taking up CPU. Most of the folks using Nvidia cards who report issues but they are irregular and sporadic like stuttering and wild fps swings. </p><p>Muffin</p>

[christineeq]

<p>Thank you for the fast reply!</p><p> I forgot to mention in my original post, but running a defrag and checking for programs running in the background were also 2 of the first things I did.  There's nothing running in the background, except for antivirus/firewall, and that's always been running when I played EQ and never had problems with it before.  I tried a clean reboot which didn't help.  The problem occurs whether the computer has been on all day or off all night.</p><p>The hard drive has something like 90% of it's space free - it's a computer primarily used for playing EQ and backing up files, not really a workhorse computer with tons of programs and such installed on it. </p><p>I'm completely out of ideas on what it could be and have checked and double checked and ran all kinds of diagnostics that I can think of so far on the computer.</p>

[Turemvor]

I'm having a heck of a time, too. Exactly same problem from what I can tell.I had no problems at all maintaining an average of ~20-25 frames per second which I found very playable. This was on balanced settings for the most part, lowering to High Performance during raids. Since the last LU though, I've had a hard time maintaining more than 10 frames per second if I've been playing for about  15-20 minutes. After about an hour though, it literally becomes a slide show. A fresh restart does tend to get things going again, but within an hour I'm back where I was to start with. I've tried defraging, checking for malware, spyware, adware, viruses and I've looked at my computer's CPU usage during the game and found nothing out of the ordinary. I'm able to run other games that are really intensive on my computer like World in Conflict and haven't had any similar issues. I thought that maybe it was the server that I played on since Antonia Bayle is one of the most heavily populated servers, but logging to a character on Befallen server didn't help any either. I cleaned out the components of dust, believing that it might be an overheating issue. After that I updated drivers, but that didn't help eitherIn any event, running the game at around 10 frames per second is abysmal and, needless to say, extremely frustrating since it was running like a champ only a few weeks ago when it really only affects EQ2 and the only thing that has changed is the fact that the game has been updated.

[Apostle67]

similar problem here all started wed thur last week...log in 20 to 40 fps  after about 10 mins i got 2 to 4 fps for about 20 mins then back up for 10....etc...  tried all the fixes you listed, still having issues, did bug report and posted here, crossing fingers....... your not alone

[TuinalOfTheNexus]

<p>Could be the CPU overheating.</p><p>When they get past a temperature threshold, they throttle back (run slower) to prevent them melting. This manifests in-game as stuttering and poor framerates.</p><p>I would firstly check the CPU fan and heatsink to make sure they haven't got a load of dust fused on them preventing them working to full capacity. This might explain why it happened over time as dust built up, and why rebooting fixes it temporarily (the CPU has time to cool off when not rendering EQ2) You tend to only notice it with EQ2 since it thrashes the CPU like nothing else, even Crysis uses less CPU power.</p><p>The other possible issue, that you're skirting round, is that there's a new hardware-dependent memleak in the game as of the last LU, in which case there's little you can do about it except use a different PC and hope it doesn't have the same problem.</p>

[Thmy]

<p>twice a year suck out the cat/dog  hair on the air filters . </p><p>A shot of the caned air on the cpu fan and the video card fan will help too</p>

[Turemvor]

**UPDATE**The problem of getting crappy frame-rates was traced back to the fact that my CPU was overheating like crazy. After downloading a program called "SpeedFan", I monitored the CPU's temperature and was astonished when I saw that I was running my computer at around 68 degrees Celcius when idle and around 77 degrees Celcius while running EQ2 on 'Balanced' settings. Funny enough, as the temperate climbed, the frame rates suffered. Doing some reading, I found the Intel (I run EQ2 on an old-school P4 3.2Gz Processor) product white paper on temperature management and not only was I horribly overheated (max temp from Intel was ~65 degrees) but read that as a safeguard against damaging the CPU, the processor throttles back in an attempt to cool itself. It is possible to turn this off this feature and lo' and behold, temperatures shot to 90 degrees within seconds before my computer shut itself down completely. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you're okay with having to replace your CPU immediately afterward.Luckily, I didn't damage anything, but I'd found what I thought was the main culprit in my having horrible frame rates in-game. First thing was the heatsink fan. I manually adjusted it's speed to it's maximum setting, but that only dropped temperatures to ~60 degrees on idle and ~70 during EQ2. I was able to keep frames at between 8 - 14, but this wasn't nearly good enough. I finally had to get my fingers dirty and pull the heatsink off the CPU. It was then that I found my main suspect. There was little to nothing left of the waxy 'heatpad' that came attached to the stock heatsink assembly and what was left was dry and crusty. It kind of looked like that fancy 'stipling' that people paint on their walls. Nowhere near the thin layer that completely covers my CPU's heatspreader.I ran to my local computer shop and bought a product called Arctic Silver 5. I cleaned the contact surfaces of my heatsink and CPU heatspreader with rubbing alcohol (high purity Isopropyl Alcohol, specifically). Following the directions on the company's website, I shot a small dollop of the Arctic Silver 5 on the CPU heatspreader (about the size of a grain of rice). Put the heatsink back on (a pain in the [Removed for Content], really) and fired it up. It started 'high' at 64 degrees Celcius, but it rapidly fell about 1 degree every 2 or 3 seconds. I am now the proud owner of a revitalized CPU and EQ2 runs much better now. Temperatures now idle ~30 degrees Celcius and only reach ~48 degrees on High Quality in EQ2 with all the particle effects blasting away and I'm able do it while maintaining between 35 and 50 FPS in overland zones. I was on a raid with my guild last night and while I had to turn things down graphics-wise (High Performance) I was able to stay above 20 FPS the whole time. Needless to say, I'm please with how a simple $20 investment in some goop (Arctic Silver 5) made all the difference in the world with respect to heat management. So if you're having issues with frame-rates, try downloading SpeedFan and watch the temperatures. If your CPU is well above 60 degrees in-game, like mine was, you might want to try (or pay to have someone else do it if you're a little skittish around computers) something like replacing the thermal paste between your CPU's heatspreader and your heatsink.Good luck and happy gaming all <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[christineeq]

<p>Thank you for all the responses.  A special thanks to Turemvor who got me a few steps closer and actually managed to help me solve my problem!</p><p> The problem is my video card for sure! I have an NVidia GeForce 7600.  I downloaded and installed speedfan and ran it.  I was getting reports of 118-120c with EQ running at extreme performance.  So that narrowed it down to something overheating.  I pulled the side off while EQ was still running and started cleaning everything out again.  All was very clean EXCEPT for the fan on the video card which I must have somehow missed the first time.</p><p> After flipping the tower on it's side to see under the card to the fan, I found the problem.  The fan wasn't working!  That would explain the high temp in the unit and the low FPS.  So after some experimentation like spraying canned air on the heat sink I was able to reduce the temp and get the FPS up a few notches.  That confirmed the problem is definitely the fan/card.</p><p>I head over to Tigerdirect.com and instead of buying the 8800 series like I was thinking I check to see about replacing the burned out card with a 7600 (the one I had).  The card worked great except for the dead fan.  I read reviews on the 7600 and what do I see? Dozens of customer comments about the fan burning out on that particular model card!</p><p> So now what do I do? LOL get another 7600 for $40 and replace it every few months/year or so when the fan dies or drop $200+ on an 8800 series and hope I can get it to work and don't have the same problems that everyone else is having currently...</p><p>I'm going to have to sleep on this.</p><p>Either way, thank you for all the help! At least I know definitely what the problem is and it's easily fixable.</p>

[DisturbedMagg]

<p>Well i know of loads of people (and when i say loads i do mean loads, not just people i know personally but people in channels mention it etc) who are having the FPS issue, and i can assure you that it isn't are CPU's overheating. I've never gone as low as 7-10 but i used to run in high quality outside of raids fine now i have to lower it down as low as high proformance to get 20FPS.</p><p> It went down hill over the last few weeks, but it may also be linked to my 8800 that they are supposedly trying to fix. </p><p>Im also running XP.</p>

[Thmy]

<p>Get RIVA TUNER and ONLY do the monitoring selection ( try nothing else )</p><p>you will get a running graph of temp readings on cpu and video GPU.</p><p>-----------------------</p><p>read the instruction if you want to set the fan on you 8800  to 100%  on.</p><p>-----------------------</p><p>This is a power user tool for overclocking - so DO not mess with any other setting until you read  the instructions.</p><p>but it is a great share ware program for monitoring and generally keep current with the latest drivers.</p><p>--------------------------------</p><p>When changing the fan rate you can hear it - so this is ONE way to tell ifyour video card fan is really spinning and no need to open the case and look with a flash light- or removing your finger - using the finger test.</p><p>----------------------------------</p>