Performance Increase tips needed

[Keikoku]

I'm currently running the Intel Core2Duo E6600 2.4GHz processor, EVGA Nvidia GTS 250 1GB vid card, and 8GB of DDR2 PC6400 RAM. On Balanced settings, turning off shadows and particles, I still only get ~26 FPS in Moors. Basically, I'm looking for tips and ideas on how to increase the performance. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks. =)

[BDoodle]

<p>I'm going to assume that you are using Windows Vista 64, if this is not correct you may still be able to use this idea anyway.</p><p>For a start, you've got 8GB of RAM. In order to address more than 4GB you <em>must</em> use a 64bit OS. But, EQ2 was created for a 32bit system and therefore will only recognize 4GB, which leaves half your RAM for the system to use for other things. If you're not running any other memory intensive applications, then most of this other half is doing nothing.</p><p>This is where a RAMdrive, (<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>not SSD</em></span>,) running ReadyBoost, (or with the Windows pagefile directed to it,) can be very helpful.</p><p>First of all you'll need some RAMdrive software. They're not hard to find on the i'net, though I can't recommend any cause I haven't used one, (I only have 1GB, so it wouldn't be any use to me.)</p><p>Once you have installed and run the RAMdrive software, run ReadyBoost and point it to the new RAMdrive. It is my understanding that you can configure Readyboost to host the Windows pagefile so that access to the pagefile will no longer mean access to the (slower than memory) hard disk.</p><p>This should give the game a good kick in the pants!</p><p>BD</p>

[Keikoku]

<p>Yeah, forgot to mention I'm using 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>The concept is the same, only the method is slightly different.</p>

[Keikoku]

<p>I'm not sure I follow the RAMdrive suggestion.  Is there anything else that I could do that would help the performance?  Does disabling the multi-core really help that much?</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>Disabling multicore will <em><strong>not</strong></em> make your system perform better!</p><p>First thing to know: Google is your friend.</p><p>Next, it wont hurt to spend half the time you would playing games to do a couple of searches and see what other people are doing and what they recommend. Get a feel for the technology that you are using by researching it's theoretical capabilities and comparing those with reviews and real life experience. Then learn some new tricks and play with your system settings, (if you're not sure about changing something, do some research on it first.)</p><p>Or, you can sit back and do nothing.</p><p>out,</p><p>BD</p>

[Clownshoes]

<p>What I found helped alot with my fps is to download Rivatuner app from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guru3d.com" target="_blank">www.guru3d.com</a> and run an application called d3d overrider that is included in that bundle to force v-sync and triple buffering on directx applications on driver level before running eq2. I found this to have much better results than enabling those settings from ingame options.</p><p>Also you could crack up your clock speeds a bit and that would make a big difference. I clocked my duo on 3.4ghz and the difference was night and day, but you will need to look for a guide for your processor for this as the voltage requirements on each intel processor for overclocking vary.</p><p>Apparently there is a shader gfx revamp coming our way sometime before/during the new expansion which will improve performance moreso according to the devs.</p><p>Finally, take everything that is not written by SoE support staff with a grain of salt, most users on these boards spread misinformation because they have crap hardware and not a clue of what they are talking about; you can spot them easily because they are the ones who are usually the rudest.</p>