xfx 9800gx2

[Krimple]

i have a 9800gx2 at home on xp with 4gig of memory and a quat core go cpu. eq2 runs like crap when i enable any form of shadows.at work i have an older system with 2 gig and an xfx 7800gt and an athlon 64x2. the game runs really well in most settings. any thoughts or things i should try? i have run through the vid setup options and can't seem to make the game run as it should.help me pls.

[Cassea]

Shadows and some other "graphics" functions are currently run on your CPU and not your video card. (Ask Sony why they did this... none of us can figure it out)As such you can upgrade your video card till the cows come home and it will not help very much graphically unless your old card was a total POS.This means that your CPU does all the rendering for shadows. Since EQ2 also only uses one CPU core so the game basically only runs as fast as a single core MHZ-wise.... IE 3000mhz or 2500mhz and if you go from a faster single core CPU to a slightly slower multi-core CPU you actually are slowing down the game.-JB

[Krimple]

<p >I guessed that the answer would be something like this. Many thanks for your reply</p>

[Whaley]

<p>I got same issue but I think there is a memory leak with the 9800gx2.  I cannot help you, but I wanted to let you know what I have tried and that you are not alone.</p><p> Got new system like you and have quad processor 3.2mhz, 4 gb ram, xp sp3, and 9800gx2 card.  AOC plays great no issues, as do other games.</p><p>I tried latest driver 6/23/2008 and June Directx9.  Didn't help.  Tried motherboard latest drivers and still have issues.  I have set mine to high quality and got rid of shadows, lowered texture, tried /3b in boot.ini(Only did this), tried RAM cleaner that tries to free up ram every minute but couldn't take hitch in graphics every minute.  Run on high performance or balanced or high quality with no problems for a while then go back to town and get stutter that is unplayable.  Reboot, come back in and boom I play just fine on high quality or higher. </p><p>I have a G-15 logitech keyboard so I can watch the CPU and RAM while playing.  With nothing else running, even uninstalled virus software and use windows firewall instead, I watch the RAM usage start at 43% creep up and up until I get in trouble at about 53%.  Last night in Scaleborn dungeon I turned off vertical sync and had FPS in 80's-90's and watched that fall all night until it was 20-40.  Vertical sync -  I usually have this on to stop the tearing with my 30" monitor but I wanted to see if I could play longer.  Went back to town and RAM was at 58%.  I have tried to lower lighting, texture etc... to try and find this leak or what is causing it but nothing seems to work.  Zoning I noticed also has an impact on watching my RAM usage go up and up.  </p><p>Have other system with 7950 card that runs smooth for 5-6 hour no problem.  Has older version of Dirext X and has a supported card and driver.  I realize the 9800gx2 is not certified(Supported, according to the knowledge base) to run EQ2 but would love an update if they ever plan to fix this issue of new hardware having issues.  If somebody could respond and say, SOE's plan is that we will be updating the cards supported over the next 6 months to this this and this.....  (lol from reading almost every forum in here I am sure I am dreaming) or we plan on only fixing for Vista since Microsoft doesn't sell XP anymore etc.... or do you plan to focus mainly on the card game.  All I get on these 75 page support forums is to run the driver cleaner over and over etc...  Not sure the best business model is to have your customers have to be running DXDiag and other tools to try and get your product to work.....  but right now I would just like to see what SOE long term plan is, so I know that I should keep putting time in to get this survivable until they get it fixed.</p><p> Right now I am not sure where I am going to go next.  I could put in a older card and hope that I can at least play balanced reliably.  OR try Vista 32 and see if that would stop the leak or at least slow it down.   I have a friend with a 8800 ultra and he is running fine.  Tried to go buy that card but they don't sell it no more because 9800gx2 and 260/280 cards are the new wave for them.</p><p>FPS is not an issue for me, it's in the 100's when I first login.  RAM usage goes high and like clock work I get more and more stuttering until it's to choppy to play.</p><p> I guess it could be worse, I could be crashing like some other people.   I just get this horrible stutter that is unplayable after a while of gaming.</p>

[Krimple]

i can ditto almost all of the above post. my solution is to play on my 2nd pc at home (link up pc) 7900gtx, athlon dual core 3800. no problems at all. still anoying though

[Kitsune286]

<cite>Cassea wrote:</cite><blockquote>Shadows and some other "graphics" functions are currently run on your CPU and not your video card. (Ask Sony why they did this... none of us can figure it out)-JB</blockquote>It was stated somewhere by a dev that this was done because EQ2 was designed around a Geforce3 GPU, which could not handle shadows/particles.Little did they know that in four years, cpu's would go multi-core. Heh.