Low frame rates?

[Muffinp]

<p>I used to play EQ2 for a couple years on a mediocre PC and got used to having low FPS.  I took a break for a while, got a new PC and thought "This will work Pretty nice for EQ2."  Not so.  When I play the game on Extreme Quality, I only get 30 FPS tops, when I use balanced settings it drops down to 18-20.  Both of these are with all shadows off.  The FPS drops even more when I am in a busy area or fighting.</p><p>My PC specs are: TA790GX MOBO, Phenom II 940 Quad core 3ghz, 8gig ram, with integrated HD3300 graphics card.  I also run the RC7100 build of WIN 7.  All of my drivers are up to date.</p><p>I realize that my integrated graphics card is a little bit of a hinderance, but EQ2 has never been a GPU intensive game, and I am not using any shadows(CPU or GPU).</p><p>Maybe my frame rate is typical for this type of setup, but I was hoping for a little more.  If anyone has some advice I would appreciate it.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Aryll@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I used to play EQ2 for a couple years on a mediocre PC and got used to having low FPS.  I took a break for a while, got a new PC and thought "This will work Pretty nice for EQ2."  Not so.  When I play the game on Extreme Quality, I only get 30 FPS tops, when I use balanced settings it drops down to 18-20.  Both of these are with all shadows off.  The FPS drops even more when I am in a busy area or fighting.</p><p>My PC specs are: TA790GX MOBO, Phenom II 940 Quad core 3ghz, 8gig ram, with integrated HD3300 graphics card.  I also run the RC7100 build of WIN 7.  All of my drivers are up to date.</p><p>I realize that my integrated graphics card is a little bit of a hinderance, but EQ2 has never been a GPU intensive game, and I am not using any shadows(CPU or GPU).</p><p>Maybe my frame rate is typical for this type of setup, but I was hoping for a little more.  If anyone has some advice I would appreciate it.</p></blockquote><p>Considering the fact that you are using an integrated card and running Windows 7, the numbers you're posting seem about right.  Windows 7 is shaping up to be a nice OS, but the driver support isn't up to the point where it can outperform Vista/XP.  You are probably losing about 5-10fps vs running Vista because of this.  I'm sure Win7 will be the superior option in the near future, but it isn't quite there yet. </p><p>The integrated card is an issue as well.  A decent card would probably bump your framerate by at least 10fps.  Keep in mind that without shadows your graphics card is spending most of it's power on particle effects.  If you disable/lower particle effects then you might be able to raise the other graphics options.</p>

[Muffinp]

<p>I would like to decrease the particle effects levels, but it seems that it can make some things too hard to find sometimes.  I don't mind not seeing things glowing and flickering all the time, but it is a nuisance when things just wont appear until I am right on top of them, like quest clickies and such. </p><p>Could you recommend a particle effect setting that would reduce their "flashyness" but still render them at longer distances?</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>I would make sure that the 'Particle level of detail' sliders are minimized.  I would then set 'max spell results per character' to '1' and 'Maximum particle size' to about 1/4 of the way from the left.</p><p>Those suggestions are without actually seeing how they effect your computer so you'll probably want to fine tune that setup to your liking.  I imagine that the optimal settings will be somewhere around there, though.</p>

[Muffinp]

<p>Update: OK I bought a new graphics card and must say that I am very impressed with what EQ2 can do.  I am now able to turn up everything and the game now runs at about 55FPS even in busy places with lots of flashy effects and GPU shadows.  The card I am running is a Radeon HD4850.</p><p>This game looks great, and thanks for your help DanielH.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Aryll@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Update: OK I bought a new graphics card and must say that I am very impressed with what EQ2 can do.  I am now able to turn up everything and the game now runs at about 55FPS even in busy places with lots of flashy effects and GPU shadows.  The card I am running is a Radeon HD4850.</p><p>This game looks great, and thanks for your help DanielH.</p></blockquote><p>Great, I'm glad to hear that the new graphics card improved your performance so much.  Everquest 2 really comes alive at the higher graphics settings.</p>