High-End Systems - Performace Tweaks

[Lalen]

<p>Hopefully someone will get smart and stickey this <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Just wanting to let anyone know that has bought a gaming rig or a nicer higher end system that there are some things you need to do in order to get the frame rates at a tolerable setting.</p><p>If you're like me, you went out and bought a $3,000+ system just to have it run at a lower FPS as your old dual core Nvidia 5800GTX system.  I found that this is because EQ2 doesn't take advangate of newer technologies and doesn't interface properly with Windows 7 and Windows Vista in power management.  So to help you squeeze a few more FPS out of your system (and less stutter) here are a few simple steps you can take to help you get a picture-perfect game at higher FPS.</p><p><strong>POWER SETTINGS WINDOWS VISTA AND 7 ONLY</strong></p><ul><li>Under your control panel (in windows) type in the search feature "Power Management" and click Power Management. </li><li>Go through to the advanced options until you see a list of configurable items.</li><li>Find "CPU Power Consumption".  You should see a Maximum (Should be already at 100%) and a minimum, which Windows 7 automatically places at 5%; raise this to 100%.</li><li>Your pc will now consume a LOT more juice but EQ will run a bit smoother.</li></ul><p><strong>NVIDIA ONLY</strong></p><ul><li>In your NVIDIA Control Panel under your 3D settings find Power Management and change that to "For Performance".</li></ul><p><strong>AMD SYSTEMS ONLY</strong></p><ul><li>Search google for the AMD Dual Core Optimizer, download that and install it -- Even though most games do not require this any more as Windows Vista+ has included a feature for games, EQ2 still does NOT use this.  This optimizer forces EQ2 to use the cores in a manner in which doesn't clog any particular CPU core.</li></ul><p><strong>IN GAME</strong></p><ul><li>Under your advanced options DISABLE MULTI CORE SUPPORT.  I was having herendous crashing problems with this enabled -- every time I changed a room or zoned -- CRASH; besides the game seems to load up a LOT quicker with this disabled now.</li></ul><p>Hope that helps.  Some back story to this is I reciently ordered a very high-end gaming PC, my old store-bought HP was upgraded by a whopping AMD Phenom II x6 1100T Black Edtion, 2x SLI Nvidia 570 GTX (by EVGA), and 16GB 1600mhz RAM.  I was EXTREMELY disappointed to install EQ2 and watch it stutter around at approx 10-20 fps so I started tweaking.  Aftera  few days and a few hammer strikes later, the above is what resulted into a nicely running 30(outdoors)-90(indoors) FPS experience.</p>

[Gaige]

<p>Why buy a 6 core processor and turn off multi-core support?</p>

[Lalen]

<p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why buy a 6 core processor and turn off multi-core support?</p></blockquote><p>Because the muti-core support doesn't work.  It causes crashes and performance drops (loading times and FPS takes big hits when this is enabled)</p>

[Mezza]

<p>I have found the multi core to work but on my 4 core I actually get increased performance if I manually assign the game to run off just 2 cores. Sounds crazy but it definitely worked better when I did it. To help it along I assign ACT etc to run off the other 2. Under 7 this is a bit more of a nuisance as windows doesn't naturally allow you to do it.</p><p>I use Core affinity resident.</p>

[Lalen]

<p><cite>Monkeymezza@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I have found the multi core to work but on my 4 core I actually get increased performance if I manually assign the game to run off just 2 cores. Sounds crazy but it definitely worked better when I did it. To help it along I assign ACT etc to run off the other 2. Under 7 this is a bit more of a nuisance as windows doesn't naturally allow you to do it.</p><p>I use Core affinity resident.</p></blockquote><p>Only problem is the client constantly changes that. If you go back and look a few mins later the client has reset itself to run across all cores.</p>

[Mezza]

<p>Not here it doesn't. Since installing 7 I have used this with no issues with CAR.</p>

[Liavy]

<p>Core Affinity Resident actually effectively locks the game to the selected cores. When I do this I have some really bad rendering issues though, but it does work.</p>

[Diamyr]

<p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why buy a 6 core processor and turn off multi-core support?</p></blockquote><p>Because the muti-core support doesn't work.  It causes crashes and performance drops (loading times and FPS takes big hits when this is enabled)</p></blockquote><p>What you meant to say was it causes crashes and performance drops <strong>for you</strong>. I don't crash period and performance dropped when turning off multi-core support at the advice of someone else. </p><p>Don't make sweeping generalizations based on your own experiences.</p><p>The rest of your advice is good though, regardless of how high end the users PC is.</p>

[Lalen]

<p><cite>Factionz wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Don't make sweeping generalizations based on your own experiences.</p></blockquote><p>It is not a sweeping generalization -- as I didn't land a job with LM for staying inside the box.</p><p>The issue is also seen on both my wife's PC, my laptop, my son's PC, and my daughter's PC.  All in which use AMD|Nvidia|Windows7 setups.  When this type of thing happens across 5 diffrent PCs all mid to high-end this becomes a "pattern"; not a generalization.</p><p>Besides, I let people know ahead of time what exactly my rig was -- so it was fairly clear that the problem was experienced by me on that type of setup.</p><p><strong>(UPDATE: After installing the AMD Dual Core Optimizer, the system becomes more stable after enabling multi-core support, however the client still takes generally 35% longer to load on my system, my wife's system (actually about 20% on hers), my laptop, my daughter's system, and my son's system.  Also when switching from full screen to windowed and visa-versa, the same responsiveness inceases can be witnessed on these PC's.)</strong></p><p><cite>Liavy@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Core Affinity Resident actually effectively locks the game to the selected cores. When I do this I have some really bad rendering issues though, but it does work.</p></blockquote><p>Is this in Windows Vista?  If I bind EQ right now to cores 1 & 2, it appears to work at first, even the 2 cores equalize at about 40% usage each, soon as I full screen and alt-tab (and check again) its back to its same old lame "load-balancing" routine putting about 80% on the first core.</p><p>Is there some program you're using? WinEQ?</p>

[Gaige]

<p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Because the muti-core support doesn't work.  It causes crashes and performance drops (loading times and FPS takes big hits when this is enabled)</blockquote><p>Works just fine on my i7.</p>

[Lalen]

<p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Because the muti-core support doesn't work.  It causes crashes and performance drops (loading times and FPS takes big hits when this is enabled)</blockquote><p>Works just fine on my i7.</p></blockquote><p>Not sure why unless its an AMD compatibility issue then.  I don't know why SOE wouldn't check compatibility with the AMD cores being they're usually a gamer's 1st choice being they run cooler and generally don't have to be over-clocked to stack up to the performance of a Intel.</p>

[Diamyr]

<p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Because the muti-core support doesn't work.  It causes crashes and performance drops (loading times and FPS takes big hits when this is enabled)</blockquote><p>Works just fine on my i7.</p></blockquote><p>Not sure why unless its an AMD compatibility issue then.  I don't know why SOE wouldn't check compatibility with the AMD cores being they're usually a gamer's 1st choice being they run cooler and generally don't have to be over-clocked to stack up to the performance of a Intel.</p></blockquote><p>Works just fine on my Phenom.</p>

[Gaige]

<p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I don't know why SOE wouldn't check compatibility with the AMD cores being they're usually a gamer's 1st choice being they run cooler and generally don't have to be over-clocked to stack up to the performance of a Intel.</blockquote><p>AMD hasn't been first choice for performance for over three years now.  Core 2 Duo saw to that and Core i7 reinforced it.  That six core AMD is slower than almost every Intel i7 made, let alone Intel's own six core processors.</p><p>The only thing AMD is good for now is being cheap.</p>

[Diamyr]

<p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I don't know why SOE wouldn't check compatibility with the AMD cores being they're usually a gamer's 1st choice being they run cooler and generally don't have to be over-clocked to stack up to the performance of a Intel.</blockquote><p>AMD hasn't been first choice for performance for over three years now.  Core 2 Duo saw to that and Core i7 reinforced it.  That six core AMD is slower than almost every Intel i7 made, let alone Intel's own six core processors.</p><p>The only thing AMD is good for now is being cheap.</p></blockquote><p>To be fair AMD doesn't have a six core faster than Intel for a reason. It's not because they can't make one it's a concious decision to beat Intel in the mid market (which they are doing) instead of catering to the minority of guys who drop $1000 on a processor.</p>

[Gaige]

<p>You can get six core Intels for $600 now.</p>

[Diamyr]

<p>You can get an AMD one for $180. AMD has no chip to compete with any of intel's hex cores, conversely Intel has no entry to compete in that price range.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Lalen@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I don't know why SOE wouldn't check compatibility with the AMD cores being they're usually a gamer's 1st choice being they run cooler and generally don't have to be over-clocked to stack up to the performance of a Intel.</blockquote><p>AMD hasn't been first choice for performance for over three years now.  Core 2 Duo saw to that and Core i7 reinforced it.  That six core AMD is slower than almost every Intel i7 made, let alone Intel's own six core processors.</p><p>The only thing AMD is good for now is being cheap.</p></blockquote><p>Sadly I have to agree, the one benefit though I think of an AMD is at the same price as a Intel you generally get as good a processor or maybe a bit better.  My AMD PhenonII 955 3.2Ghz beats anything Intel sell at that price, but in comparison to the fastest Sandybridge its pretty cheap now!</p><p>So the fastest I7 has no match with AMD, I've heard a little about their new "Bulldozer" cores, but when one of their exec's talks about how traditional X86 performance "does not matter" I fear they are not serious about competing with Intel at the highest levels, we'll have to see though when they release later this year, as someone with a bit of a dislike for Intel I'd like to have a choice (just cheesed off with their cheesy adds and high marketting budget!).</p>