Thinking of upgrading my pc

[ChaosMaster6]

Well I have been a long fan of this game since early 2005 always loved the feel of norath, but always felt I never rly got to experience the game to its fullest potential or close to anyways so that being said.I wanted some input on eq2 users who can run this game at good frames per second 25+ average on high quality settings or better shadows off ofcourse <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> . I was looking around allot and it seems the older cards work allot better with this game than the newer ones so I was thinking an ati hd2900 graphics card would be a good choice paired with the asus rampage board  and intel e8500.  I'm open to suggestions and some input what are you guys using to play this game at good fps? Thanks in advance

[shadowlord12763]

<p>i bought a nvidia gforce 8600 GT graphics card and my FPS is 120 in freeport, lol. I bought it to play AoC and when i play AoC my FPS is only 30 average, lol. What a big difference between games.</p>

[Meinen]

<p>think best buy or someplace like that was having a sale on the hd3600/50, think that was the one...for $179 usd. 850 core and 1gb ram...didn't seem to bad and affordable. it beats my x850xt (which still does well suprisingly enough).</p><p>I have always been a bigger fan of ATi cards, but nvidia has really stepped up their game. </p>

[Miladi]

<cite>ChaosMaster666 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well I have been a long fan of this game since early 2005 always loved the feel of norath, but always felt I never rly got to experience the game to its fullest potential or close to anyways so that being said.I wanted some input on eq2 users who can run this game at good frames per second 25+ average on high quality settings or better shadows off ofcourse <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" />" /> . I was looking around allot and it seems the older cards work allot better with this game than the newer ones so I was thinking an ati hd2900 graphics card would be a good choice paired with the asus rampage board  and intel e8500.  I'm open to suggestions and some input what are you guys using to play this game at good fps? Thanks in advance</blockquote>The specs for my computer set up is in my signature, with that set up I get on average 40-60 FPS outside of cities. I'm not so sure I'd go with the E8500, comparing it to the E8400, for the price difference you don't get much of a boost. Any increase in speed can be done with the E8400 overclocked, and for about $70 less at NewEgg.

[DragonMaster2385]

I'm sure that you know by now that this game is very CPU intensive, meaning that it would be better to upgrade your CPU than GPU.  Outside of cities, I get very good FPS on the rig I just build.  Don't get a quad core, as this game will not take advantage of it and the lower operating frequency will leave you very disappointed.4 gigs DDR2 ramRadeon HD 3870 X2 1GB (512MB x 2) - a single card with 2 GPUs in it.Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz - OCed to 3.8ghzVista x64Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10000 RPM Hard Drive - makes zoning as fast as blinking

[Eadieni]

If you want to play EQ2 at max settings don't get the best computer you can get.The more powerful your PC is, the worse EQ2 plays.  Don't believe me, use Search.  Search for 8800 or Core 2 Duo or anything like that.I've played this game on over a dozen PCs and the best setup i've found for absolute best performance in EVERQUEST 2 ONLY.  NOT ALL GAMES JUST THIS ONE. AMD Single Core 64-bit high-end processor.IE, AMD FX-57 or FX-60 or even FX-62.They aren't the highest end, but they make [Removed for Content] good use of EQ2.Next i'd recommend a 7900GTX.  It's cheap, and it plays EQ2 on Extreme without lag.So i'd recommend, for the best EQ2 experience,AMD FX-57 (2.8 ghz)2gig+ ramNvidia XFX 7900GTX10,000 RPM hard drive =PNvidia 590i or higher motherboardThe problem with this game is, the more powerful your computer is, the more it seems to bottleneck.My desktop now runs with:8800GTX  (x2)Intel Core 2 Duo e6700 2.667ghz Dual Core4gb ram10,000 RPM HDD590i motherboard.I get about 15 FPS in Freeport on balanced.  This is terrible IMO.  In Age of Conan I easily get up to 150.Something is WRONG WITH EQ2 when it comes ot high end computers.Heres why:EQ2 is overly processor based. This means that if you get a nice big beefy graphics card, the GPU will use up too much CPU to calculate the "super advanced" shaders.  Unfortunately, in EQ2 all the work is calculated on the processor causing lots of lag.  In other games, it passes that work off to the Graphics Card so it balances out, thats why you can get 120 FPS in Age of Conan and get 20 FPS in Everquest 2.It's a bad engine.

[Miladi]

<cite>Eadieni wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you want to play EQ2 at max settings don't get the best computer you can get.The more powerful your PC is, the worse EQ2 plays.  Don't believe me, use Search.  Search for 8800 or Core 2 Duo or anything like that.I've played this game on over a dozen PCs and the best setup i've found for absolute best performance in EVERQUEST 2 ONLY.  NOT ALL GAMES JUST THIS ONE. AMD Single Core 64-bit high-end processor.IE, AMD FX-57 or FX-60 or even FX-62.They aren't the highest end, but they make [I cannot control my vocabulary] good use of EQ2.Next i'd recommend a 7900GTX.  It's cheap, and it plays EQ2 on Extreme without lag.So i'd recommend, for the best EQ2 experience,AMD FX-57 (2.8 ghz)2gig+ ramNvidia XFX 7900GTX10,000 RPM hard drive =PNvidia 590i or higher motherboardThe problem with this game is, the more powerful your computer is, the more it seems to bottleneck.My desktop now runs with:8800GTX  (x2)Intel Core 2 Duo e6700 2.667ghz Dual Core4gb ram10,000 RPM HDD590i motherboard.I get about 15 FPS in Freeport on balanced.  This is terrible IMO.  In Age of Conan I easily get up to 150.Something is WRONG WITH EQ2 when it comes ot high end computers.Heres why:EQ2 is overly processor based. This means that if you get a nice big beefy graphics card, the GPU will use up too much CPU to calculate the "super advanced" shaders.  Unfortunately, in EQ2 all the work is calculated on the processor causing lots of lag.  In other games, it passes that work off to the Graphics Card so it balances out, thats why you can get 120 FPS in Age of Conan and get 20 FPS in Everquest 2.It's a bad engine.</blockquote><p>I hope this doesn't come across too harshly, but there's so much FUD in this one post its amazing.</p><p>My computer set up gets a lot better FPS than 15 in a city, it might drop down that low for a second or 2 as it grabs information from the server, but its not constant, neither is it happening often. Considering my CPU, although a dreaded Dual Core, it runs at 3.0GHz per core, so right there it outperforms the AMD chip you're suggesting, just in processor speed alone. That doesn't even take into account the fact that its a Wolfdale chip so it runs about 50C cooler than the comparable AMD at max. I can run EQ2 with my computer on extreme quality, but without shadows or flora, so I guess its technically not extreme quality just custom. </p><p>I don't get anywhere near the AoC frame rate you claim you get, but then I don't play AoC, so I don't care what you get there. I get 60+ FPS out of cities, and that's more than adequate for me. I mean if I wanted to throw frame rate numbers around, I get about 230 FPS in Portal, but so what, they aren't relevant here. Different engines, different games, different experiences. If you think you NEED more than 60FPS, then you're right, EQ2 is poorly designed for a system with my specs, if you don't then it just needs to be improved a bit so I can get my shadows back without losing 40-50 FPS when they're on.</p>

[EnderBeta]

<cite>Eadieni wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you want to play EQ2 at max settings don't get the best computer you can get.The more powerful your PC is, the worse EQ2 plays.  Don't believe me, use Search.  Search for 8800 or Core 2 Duo or anything like that.I've played this game on over a dozen PCs and the best setup i've found for absolute best performance in EVERQUEST 2 ONLY.  NOT ALL GAMES JUST THIS ONE. AMD Single Core 64-bit high-end processor.IE, AMD FX-57 or FX-60 or even FX-62.They aren't the highest end, but they make [I cannot control my vocabulary] good use of EQ2.Next i'd recommend a 7900GTX.  It's cheap, and it plays EQ2 on Extreme without lag.So i'd recommend, for the best EQ2 experience,AMD FX-57 (2.8 ghz)2gig+ ramNvidia XFX 7900GTX10,000 RPM hard drive =PNvidia 590i or higher motherboardThe problem with this game is, the more powerful your computer is, the more it seems to bottleneck.My desktop now runs with:8800GTX  (x2)Intel Core 2 Duo e6700 2.667ghz Dual Core4gb ram10,000 RPM HDD590i motherboard.I get about 15 FPS in Freeport on balanced.  This is terrible IMO.  In Age of Conan I easily get up to 150.Something is WRONG WITH EQ2 when it comes ot high end computers.Heres why:EQ2 is overly processor based. This means that if you get a nice big beefy graphics card, the GPU will use up too much CPU to calculate the "super advanced" shaders.  Unfortunately, in EQ2 all the work is calculated on the processor causing lots of lag.  In other games, it passes that work off to the Graphics Card so it balances out, thats why you can get 120 FPS in Age of Conan and get 20 FPS in Everquest 2.It's a bad engine.</blockquote>Actually after I built a new machine to play Age of Conan I found that my E8400 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and 2x EVGA GF 8800GS 384MB Superclocked cards are able to run EQ2 with slightly above high settings. It only dips into the 20fps range in towns while there are 12 or more characters in close range on the screen at one time. This includes NPC, monsters, and other human players.

[Kell67890]

<p>My Specs:</p><p>Windows XP Professional x64 Edition</p><p>Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0 Ghz</p><p>Nvidia GeForce 6800 256mb (old, but still works great)</p><p>4GB RAM</p><p>160GB Hard Drive</p><p>I've had these specs ever since I bought a new computer in 2004 to play this game and ever since I have ran the game GREAT. However, I recently upgraded to 4GB RAM and my performance increased greatly and now I can run at an even higher quality. I currently run at a custom setting between "very high quality" and "maximum" smoothly (30+ fps) all over Norrath.</p><p>Edit: I also run EQ2 in windowed mode with iTunes and a few internet explorer windows running in the background. </p><p>Hope this helped <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[ChaosMaster6]

Thanks for the input guys it seems that allot of the older Amd processors work best with the game aswell as the pent 4's with good constant fps .....And for graphics ive been told a bunch of stuff >< anything from some people running it on an 8800gt to some people running it on a geforce 5500 and to be honest I think the game ran smoother for me when I did use that card .... My current setup Intel pentium D 2.8ghz4gigs of pc 5400 ram8600gt 256mbWindows xp homeAnd the game stutters sooooo much I cant even run groups even lowering EVERYTHING idk whats up... I was actualy running the game on balanced to high settings before with shadows on on my old single core 1.8ghz amd  processor  with 1gig of ram and the 5500 granted this was in 05 but w/e.     Im thinking a good dual core AMD paired with either a 7900gtx/2900xt/X1950XTX.

[EnderBeta]

<cite>Kell67890 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>My Specs:</p><p>Windows XP Professional x64 Edition</p><p>Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0 Ghz</p><p>Nvidia GeForce 6800 256mb (old, but still works great)</p><p>4GB RAM</p><p>160GB Hard Drive</p><p>I've had these specs ever since I bought a new computer in 2004 to play this game and ever since I have ran the game GREAT. However, I recently upgraded to 4GB RAM and my performance increased greatly and now I can run at an even higher quality. I currently run at a custom setting between "very high quality" and "maximum" smoothly (30+ fps) all over Norrath.</p><p>Edit: I also run EQ2 in windowed mode with iTunes and a few internet explorer windows running in the background. </p><p>Hope this helped <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" width="15" height="15" />" width="15" height="15"></p></blockquote><p>Windowed mode alone kills at east 10 fps because of the way windows then handles the window. Thats a good framerate for windowed mode.</p><p> <cite>ChaosMaster666 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Thanks for the input guys it seems that allot of the older Amd processors work best with the game aswell as the pent 4's with good constant fps .....And for graphics ive been told a bunch of stuff >< anything from some people running it on an 8800gt to some people running it on a geforce 5500 and to be honest I think the game ran smoother for me when I did use that card .... My current setup Intel pentium D 2.8ghz4gigs of pc 5400 ram8600gt 256mbWindows xp homeAnd the game stutters sooooo much I cant even run groups even lowering EVERYTHING idk whats up... I was actualy running the game on balanced to high settings before with shadows on on my old single core 1.8ghz amd  processor  with 1gig of ram and the 5500 granted this was in 05 but w/e.     Im thinking a good dual core AMD paired with either a 7900gtx/2900xt/X1950XTX. </blockquote><p>The pentium D is a terrible processor, and compared to core 2 duo processors the x2 is just not any good. Thats not to say they are not good but they are power hungry processors that lag behind the slowest current core 2 duo processors. The stuttering is your processor buckling under the load, be it because it can't handle EQ2 smoothly at the current settings or you have something running in the background draining resources from the game. </p>

[ChaosMaster6]

Ok once again thanks guys for the input I think ive made my decision on what would be a good setup to play eq2 on vh or even extreme settings w/o shadows..Processor: Anthlon 64 x2 6400 Graphics card: 7900GTX Mobo: Asus 590SLI on windows XP professional 64bitI picked the Amd over the newer core 2's just based on what ive heard from people and the performance they got compared to the core 2's so ya I know the core 2's are better for most games and apps I guess this game just benefits from the bigger bandwidth of the amd chips Hopefully that can finally give me the EQ2 experience ive always wanted ...

[TSR-DanielH]

<cite>ChaosMaster666 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Ok once again thanks guys for the input I think ive made my decision on what would be a good setup to play eq2 on vh or even extreme settings w/o shadows..Processor: Anthlon 64 x2 6400 Graphics card: 7900GTX Mobo: Asus 590SLI on windows XP professional 64bitI picked the Amd over the newer core 2's just based on what ive heard from people and the performance they got compared to the core 2's so ya I know the core 2's are better for most games and apps I guess this game just benefits from the bigger bandwidth of the amd chips Hopefully that can finally give me the EQ2 experience ive always wanted ...</blockquote><p>I don't see you mention how much/what kind of RAM you are getting.  That will have a significant impact on your performance.   Everything I see looks good though.</p><p><img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[ChaosMaster6]

lol k ya I was thinking 4 1gb sticks of crucial ballistix tracers pc6400 you know the ones with the cool LED's on the back <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[TSR-DanielH]

<cite>ChaosMaster666 wrote:</cite><blockquote>lol k ya I was thinking 4 1gb sticks of crucial ballistix tracers pc6400 you know the ones with the cool LED's on the back <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /> </blockquote><p>Ooooooohhhhh.  Elegant AND functional!</p><p>Must... contain... jealousy...</p>