Performance utterly terrible

[Kotoko]

<p><div><p>Core i7-950 (~3ghz)</p><p>6gb ddr3 triple channel</p><p>Radeon 5830 1gb (I know, skimped here)</p><p>Win7 Ultimate 64, desktop composition and visual themes disabled</p><p>Game is practically unplayable.  Looks gorgeous, and standing still, even at extreme quality setting I can get in the 60fps range, but in ANY settings, no matter what, even extreme performance, the moment the camera has to move, it drops as low as 1fps (F11 performance meter enabled).</p><p>Ram usage is fine, in fact it has plenty of room to grow, but cpu usage is obscene on the core it chooses to run on, typically core 0.  Multicore support doesn't really help, as the animation processes aren't what's hurting the performance, it seems to be either a texture or geometry rendering issue.  SM3.0 enabled/disabled also doesn't seem to have a significant impact.</p><p>This system runs Crysis at "Gamer" preset (2nd highest)...it chews up and spits out any other game I throw at it.  EQ2 is the only one with issues, so it leads me to believe it can't possibly be my system config, and I know for a fact it isn't hardware.  Even a single core is plenty adequate for it at 3ghz.</p><p>All drivers are up-to-date and validated, so I'll head off those suggestions here as well.</p></div></p>

[TSR-DennisG]

<p>If you haven't done so already, be sure that you have installed <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04ac064b-00d1-474e-b7b1-442d8712d553&displaylang=en" target="_blank">Direct X 9.0c</a>.  Judging from your current system specs you should be able to play EverQuest II.  However I personally have not tested or read any comments in regards to running EQ2 with that particular graphics card.  Hopefully someone with a 5830 card can share their experience with us.</p><p>In the mean time, please post the contents of your eq2_recent.ini file so we can take a look at your current settings.  PLEASE leave out the cl_username line when posting your info.   </p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Already installed dx9.0c, software-wise every possible option is up to date.</p><p>Posting contents of eq2_recent.ini below..though just be aware that as I said before, the settings don't really seem to impact me much.  When standing still, my framerate (even with other players running by, animations playing, etc) are always high, and the moment I need to move, it drops through the floor.  The only way I can really move is to move a short distance, pause, and let it catch up, then move again, almost as if it's buffering geometry and textures.</p><p>With these settings, I'm seeing about 80fps standing still, and peaked as high as 155fps while in icy keep (with group, and while moving at a full run, no less):</p><p>cl_version_recent 18</p><p><p>cl_username</p><p>cl_autoplay_world </p><p>cl_autoplay_world_second </p><p>epilepsy_warning_seen true</p><p>cl_ui_skinname default</p><p>cl_show_voice_tutorial true</p><p>eu_merge_seen true</p><p>cl_picked_configuration true</p><p>chat_autoswitch_chat_type true</p><p>cl_maximized false</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed 1373</p><p>cl_screenheight_windowed 989</p><p>cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down 194</p><p>cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down 47</p><p>r_performance 7</p><p>last_selected_char_id 287818</p><p>cl_movie_enabled false</p><p>ts_hotkey_order 0 1 2 3 4 5</p><p>r_performance 7</p><p>cl_screenwidth 1680</p><p>cl_screenheight 1050</p><p>cl_screenrefresh 60</p><p>cl_multicore false</p><p>r_usethreepointoshaders false</p><p>r_light_buffer_scale 0.870000</p><p>o_max_farplane 480.799988</p><p>r_fast_layer_min_distance 100.000000</p><p>letterbox_frame_visible false</p><p>r_texture_lodding_shrink 0</p><p>r_heatshimmer true</p><p>r_underwaterdistortion true</p><p>r_splashes 1</p><p>splash_particles_enabled true</p><p>r_drawocean_quality 1</p><p>r_particle_priority 1</p><p>num_active_spell_results 1</p><p>r_particle_lod_scale 1.318000</p><p>r_point_particle_near_plane -1.470000</p><p>r_point_particle_max_size 0.292500</p><p>r_torch_secondary_light true</p><p>r_max_lights 8</p><p>r_rain_spec true</p><p>r_max_spec_lights 4</p><p>r_light_bump_max_distance 25.000000</p><p>r_min_dir_ambient_intensity 0.150000</p><p>r_shadow_type 2</p><p>r_shadow_quality 2</p><p>r_shadows_keep false</p><p>r_ec_max_lod0 3</p><p>r_ec_max_lod1 37</p><p>r_min_anim_update_rate 0.050000</p><p>r_anim_update_start 0.010000</p><p>r_initial_point_weight 0.950000</p><p>r_particle_cloth false</p><p>r_flora_density_scale 0.010000</p><p>stereo_display_enable false</p><p>sound_provider Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio</p><p>speakers System Default</p><p>max_active_sounds 24</p><p>r_target_mouse_over_glow 0.000000</p><p>cl_use_soga_halfelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_soga_highelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_soga_woodelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_default_log_file true</p><p>r_initialized_shader3_ambient true</p><div></div><div></div><div>Further, to give you stats on the 5830, since you don't have one to test, here's a bit, all from GPU-Z:</div><div>ROPs: 16</div><div>Shaders: 1120 Unified</div><div>Texture Fillrate: 44.8 GTexel/s</div><div>Bus Width: 256bit</div><div>Memory Size: 1024MB</div><div>Bandwidth: 128.6GB/s</div><div>GPU Clock: 800MHz</div><div>Memory: 1005MHz</div></p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Kotoko wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Already installed dx9.0c, software-wise every possible option is up to date.</p><p>Posting contents of eq2_recent.ini below..though just be aware that as I said before, the settings don't really seem to impact me much.  When standing still, my framerate (even with other players running by, animations playing, etc) are always high, and the moment I need to move, it drops through the floor.  The only way I can really move is to move a short distance, pause, and let it catch up, then move again, almost as if it's buffering geometry and textures.</p><p>With these settings, I'm seeing about 80fps standing still, and peaked as high as 155fps while in icy keep (with group, and while moving at a full run, no less):</p><p>cl_version_recent 18</p><p>cl_username</p><p>cl_autoplay_world </p><p>cl_autoplay_world_second </p><p>epilepsy_warning_seen true</p><p>cl_ui_skinname default</p><p>cl_show_voice_tutorial true</p><p>eu_merge_seen true</p><p>cl_picked_configuration true</p><p>chat_autoswitch_chat_type true</p><p>cl_maximized false</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed 1373</p><p>cl_screenheight_windowed 989</p><p>cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down 194</p><p>cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down 47</p><p>r_performance 7</p><p>last_selected_char_id 287818</p><p>cl_movie_enabled false</p><p>ts_hotkey_order 0 1 2 3 4 5</p><p>r_performance 7</p><p>cl_screenwidth 1680</p><p>cl_screenheight 1050</p><p>cl_screenrefresh 60</p><p>cl_multicore false</p><p>r_usethreepointoshaders false</p><p>r_light_buffer_scale 0.870000</p><p>o_max_farplane 480.799988</p><p>r_fast_layer_min_distance 100.000000</p><p>letterbox_frame_visible false</p><p>r_texture_lodding_shrink 0</p><p>r_heatshimmer true</p><p>r_underwaterdistortion true</p><p>r_splashes 1</p><p>splash_particles_enabled true</p><p>r_drawocean_quality 1</p><p>r_particle_priority 1</p><p>num_active_spell_results 1</p><p>r_particle_lod_scale 1.318000</p><p>r_point_particle_near_plane -1.470000</p><p>r_point_particle_max_size 0.292500</p><p>r_torch_secondary_light true</p><p>r_max_lights 8</p><p>r_rain_spec true</p><p>r_max_spec_lights 4</p><p>r_light_bump_max_distance 25.000000</p><p>r_min_dir_ambient_intensity 0.150000</p><p>r_shadow_type 2</p><p>r_shadow_quality 2</p><p>r_shadows_keep false</p><p>r_ec_max_lod0 3</p><p>r_ec_max_lod1 37</p><p>r_min_anim_update_rate 0.050000</p><p>r_anim_update_start 0.010000</p><p>r_initial_point_weight 0.950000</p><p>r_particle_cloth false</p><p>r_flora_density_scale 0.010000</p><p>stereo_display_enable false</p><p>sound_provider Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio</p><p>speakers System Default</p><p>max_active_sounds 24</p><p>r_target_mouse_over_glow 0.000000</p><p>cl_use_soga_halfelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_soga_highelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_soga_woodelf_female true</p><p>cl_use_default_log_file true</p><p>r_initialized_shader3_ambient true</p><div></div><div></div><div>Further, to give you stats on the 5830, since you don't have one to test, here's a bit, all from GPU-Z:</div><div>ROPs: 16</div><div>Shaders: 1120 Unified</div><div>Texture Fillrate: 44.8 GTexel/s</div><div>Bus Width: 256bit</div><div>Memory Size: 1024MB</div><div>Bandwidth: 128.6GB/s</div><div>GPU Clock: 800MHz</div><div>Memory: 1005MHz</div></blockquote><p>I noticed you have multicore disabled.  Have you tried with this turned on?  We thread the animation work off to other threads which should help a bit.  It might not be a huge increase, but on your system it should definitely help.</p><p>Also, cl_screenrefresh is set to 60.  I believe that corresponds to the Vertical Sync option, but I'm not at work right now to double check.  If not, ignore this, otherwise, disable Vertical Sync.</p><p>Also, have you tried disabling flora to see if your system performs better when you start to move?</p><p>The key to solving your problem will be to disable options one at a time until you find out what is killing your framerate when you start to move.  Then we can come up with some ideas to make it better, or perhaps get a repro on our end and figure out what's causing the problem.</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Tried multicore support both on and off, no significant impact.  The animation threads don't really seem to be intensive enough to make any difference.  Shader Model 3.0 also had no significant impact either.</p><p>VSync was not enabled, though by coincidence it does match screen refresh (LCD 60hz native).  Flora was already disabled.</p><p>Water, shadows, particles, and lighting have all been independently tested and shown to have no impact whatsoever on this particular issue, so I just put them back to what looks nice.  Particles do tend to slow me down when in a raid, so I do turn them down when I'm not alone, but otherwise they're fine.</p><p>Just exited and enabled multicore again, just because it didn't hurt, also enabled triple buffers to see if it helps.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Kotoko wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Tried multicore support both on and off, no significant impact.  The animation threads don't really seem to be intensive enough to make any difference.  Shader Model 3.0 also had no significant impact either.</p><p>VSync was not enabled, though by coincidence it does match screen refresh (LCD 60hz native).  Flora was already disabled.</p><p>Water, shadows, particles, and lighting have all been independently tested and shown to have no impact whatsoever on this particular issue, so I just put them back to what looks nice.  Particles do tend to slow me down when in a raid, so I do turn them down when I'm not alone, but otherwise they're fine.</p><p>Just exited and enabled multicore again, just because it didn't hurt, also enabled triple buffers to see if it helps.</p></blockquote><p>So you still have the issue where your framerate drops significantly when you start to move? Does this happen with your UI turned off by pressing F10 twice?</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Still having the issue, though I admit with UI off, I'm not sure if it was simply because I've stood around so long (was crafting) that it buffered quite a bit of area, or actually made a difference, but I was able to spin around and run a bit before it dropped down to halting rates again.</p><p>It really feels as though it's like a really slow-filling buffer.  The longer I stand still, the more I can move before it has to rebuffer, to an extent...obviously it only draws the areas around me, and moving forward enough to reveal new geometry and textures generally forces my framerates back down into the gutter again...</p><p>Update:  It seems, when I just did that...since I was in frostfell villiage, at one of the crafting stations (since they're near the edge of the zone), MOST of what I was looking at was relatively empty of models.  When I looked towards the tree at the center, that's when it dropped off.  Reconfirms my above thoughts on models/textures.</p>

[M]

<p>Do you have cool N quiete, or intels version enabled? Id disable the down clocking of cpu or gpu to save energy. For some reason my amd chip would sit at 800mhz, then I disabled that and stays at 3ghz. Also may want to make sure that your GPU is clocking up for the game instead of sitting at 2d speeds. ATI tools, or RTtuner.</p><p>Good luck!</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>800mhz is normal for the GPU</p><p><a href="http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5830/Pages/hd-5830-overview.aspx#2">http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...overview.aspx#2</a></p><p>There are no performance-throttling utilities in play, everything is running at native speed (3ghz CPU cores, 800mhz GPU core).  Also I downloaded the regular client, rather than using what was apparently the streaming client, and saw some performance gains, but I haven't copied my INI file over yet, so that could be a result of settings still.</p>

[TSR-DennisG]

<p>I seriously doubt this is an overheating issue.  However, I am curious to know what kind of temps you are seeing on your CPU and GPU during times when your performance gets hit.</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Honestly, even having TRIED to stress the card, its sitting at 50C right now, and I can't EVER get it much higher.  It's pretty stable.  Then again it's also the dead of winter and it's about 0C outside right now, and my computer doubles as a heater ^_^</p>

[TSR-DennisG]

<p>Can I have you <a href="http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php" target="_blank">open a support ticket</a> and reference this forum thread?  We will need to collect all your system information to further investigate this problem.  Feel free to continue posting in this thread for additional suggestions from the community.</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Support ticket opened.  I also went ahead and attached dxdiag.txt and eq2_recent.ini (with removed username, not that it matters, just the same copy I posted here).</p><p>I'm browsing some system monitoring tools that I've got access to, in order to possibly find more helpful information to add to it.</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>reinstalled directx latest, reinstalled entire game itself, did NOT reapply old settings (moved all files left behind by uninstaller to a temporary folder to hang on to, then cleaned them out).  Game is crashing on logging into a character, when it gets to loading the UI (last step before loading screen goes away).  Error is one to do with directx9 and error is "invalid call".</p><p>I'm getting to the point where other mmos are looking good again due to performance alone.</p><p>Update:  on char select, made *SURE* to specifically select "extreme performance".  can get back into game now, but fps issues have not been solved.  100fps or higher when standing still, drops significantly (down to 1-2fps) when moving more than 30 yards, until I stop and let it "catch up", where it goes back up to 100+ again.  CPU usage is still astronomical.  Settings seem to have zero impact on it.</p>

[Kotoko]

<p>Sorry for the self-necro, just wanted to update the community on this one.  SOLVED the issue, and wanted to post the final bits of info just in case it helps any of the rest of you having framerate issues on a system that SHOULD run the game smooth as butter.</p><p>My mobo (ASUS Rampage III Formula) comes with a pretty impressive-looking software package in addition to its drivers.  Among the bits is AI Suite II, which is their tweaking utility, to over/under clock your components, including cpu and ram.  Having disabled all startup programs (including AI Suite), and STILL having the issue, I took to delving further into the guts.  I ran EQ2 and ran a trace on it via windows 7's VERY nicely-updated performance monitor, to watch its handles and modules (checked the image to filter only results attached to EQ2).  What I noticed was rather interesting.  One of AI Suite's DLL's was being hooked by EQ2 despite all its startup items being completely disabled.  After a complete uninstall of the tweaking program to rid myself of the DLL entirely, a reboot later, EQ2's running at extreme QUALITY profile at 30+ fps, whereas before I was struggling to see that performance under extreme PERFORMANCE profile.</p><p>TL;DR: If you have any performance-tweaking utility such as a mobo-specific package, even if its disabled, it might STILL be interfering with the game.</p>

[TSR-JoshuaM]

<p>Thank you for that explanation.  I am going to take that information and see if we can create a KB article regarding The ATI AI feature and that it may still persist through removing the startup application.</p>