For the love of god, new computer but next to no performance increase

wcheet · 05-10-2007, 12:16 PM

lo all

im raging here!

i have just bought a new computer specs as follows

wincows vista 32 bit

AMD athlon 64 x2 dual core processor 5600+

4 gig of ram

2x Nvidia GeForce 8800 gts 320 mb (up to date drivers)

It has a 5.3 rating (whatever that means) btw

my previous computer was windows xp, radeon x800 256mb, 1.5 gig of ram and a 3200 processor

my problem is, with my new computer it should be crapping all over my old one performance wise but it isnt, i can just about (just about) run it smooth on balanced, i was hoping for the next one up, i forget the name, all this has left me rather down after spending out a large wedge of doh, any ideas for me to up my game perofrmance?

many thx in advance.

Je · 05-10-2007, 01:15 PM

If you are able to return some of your hardware, try the following: Return one of the 8800gts cards if possible, EQ2 runs crappy in SLI if at all. Return the AMD and get a e6700 or better (and overclock the hell out of it - EQ2s dependancy on a fast CPU is widely known). AMD just can't compare to Intel perfomance-wise (at least in EQ2), your 5200+ will slow down your 8800s. I run a single 8800gts and said CPU oc'ed to 3,2GHZ, and opnly using 2GB RAM. Before that I had an AMD 4600+ and the increase in performance is huge (I#d guess the performance improvement between 4600+ and 5200+ isn't that noticeable). I use custom settings, all textures on max, char shadows and environment shadows on, spell particles on and pretty mich every setting on max except for high resolution chars on 6 instead of 10 and only 2 spells shown per character. My framerate drops down to ~20-22 in Freeport and crowded areas. Anywhere else it's in the 40+ range. That's with 4x AA and 16x AF, but I run XP and no Vista. The preset performance settings are crap anyway, tweak your custom ones and be happy. For the price of a second 8800 you should try to get a better CPU. Upgrading CPU is sure the best way to increase your gaming performance. A 5200+ isn't really high end and an e6700 is a lot cheaper than a 2nd 8800. There's a nice benchmark result here for most current CPUs: http://firingsquad.com/hardware/amd..._6000/page4.asp

antwar · 05-10-2007, 01:34 PM

he is correct, intel blows the doors off AMD right now, and a faster CPU DOES make a huge difference in performance. the nvidia 8xxx series of cards are dogs in general, due to crappy drivers, but they ARE working on the drivers... it is just taking longer than they anticipated.

All that aside, vista is itself a huge performance bottleneck in terms of gaming. i would have stuck with xp for at least another year, to let the vista stuff mature a bit. vista really needs a minimum of 1 gig of ram for just the OS if you want it to run decently. and you want to add another 2 gigs for any game you play, preferably 3 gigs for the games. currently, according to all my research, all the advanced engine games out there really perform best with 4 gigs of ram on vista, 2 gigs on xp

vista requiring 2x as much resources to run the apps you use is really on par with the way windows in general has been. windows 98 se you wanted 512 mb of ram, windows 2k you really wanted a gig of ram to run it efficiently, windows xp you wanted 2 gigs, so 4 gigs in vista really inst a stretch when you look at the trend.

TSR-GarethC · 05-10-2007, 06:06 PM

Run a cleanboot and get rid of some of those background programs too. Vista drains so much virtual memory. 1.Select the START button. 2.Select RUN. 3.Type in "msconfig" (without the &quot SMILEY

4.Press OK 5.Select the STARTUP tab. 6.In the list, uncheck all boxes. 7.Hit apply and then OK. Restart the computer and try the game again.

Jasmer · 05-12-2007, 11:37 PM

You have 4 gigs of ram, so this probably won't help you much, but disable Windows Aero as well.

Right click desktop, Personalize, Window Color and Appearance, Windows Vista Basic.

Seems to help some people out, but normally that's if you have 1gig or less of RAM since Vista Aero is kind of memory intensive I guess.

But yeah...

Operating System: Windows VistaTM Home Premium

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 10

Card name: ATI Radeon x1300 Pro (also ran it with nVidia GeForce 7300GS)

I can run the game at High Quality although I take a noticeable FPS hit if I set it above balanced. What sort of power supply do you use? My computer is a Dell Dimension E521 or something of the sort, more of a home office video editing computer rather than a gaming machine, so I don't expect the power supply to be suitable to high quality 3D gaming, though it works fantastically if I keep the settings around mediumish to medium high depending on the game. I could run Lotro on max settings with a slight FPS hit but WoW and EQ2? Forget it. I can run WoW at max if I like playing with an FPS of 16...which I don't.

So yeah, check your power supply and ask around at Stables and anywhere else they sell computers and computer parts and actually know what they're talking about. See what they have to say, maybe they can tell you what to look for. Do you by chance use a Dell? I hear Dell uses specially customized Power Supplies so you'd have to order a jerry-rigged one, an adapter of some sort, or straight from Dell if you do. Might apply to Alienware as well since they're like the same company now or something.

[Edit] FYI, Start -> Run does not exist on Windows Vista (at least not on mine). Right click your task bar and select Task Manager. Click the "New Task..." button and type in msconfig.exe then tab over to startup or boot or whatever it says and disable what you know your computer or you personally don't need at startup.

05-10-2007, 12:16 PM	#1
wcheet Loremaster Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 40	lo all im raging here! i have just bought a new computer specs as follows wincows vista 32 bit AMD athlon 64 x2 dual core processor 5600+ 4 gig of ram 2x Nvidia GeForce 8800 gts 320 mb (up to date drivers) It has a 5.3 rating (whatever that means) btw my previous computer was windows xp, radeon x800 256mb, 1.5 gig of ram and a 3200 processor my problem is, with my new computer it should be crapping all over my old one performance wise but it isnt, i can just about (just about) run it smooth on balanced, i was hoping for the next one up, i forget the name, all this has left me rather down after spending out a large wedge of doh, any ideas for me to up my game perofrmance? many thx in advance. __________________

05-10-2007, 06:06 PM	#4
TSR-GarethC Master Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 255	Run a cleanboot and get rid of some of those background programs too. Vista drains so much virtual memory. 1.Select the START button. 2.Select RUN. 3.Type in "msconfig" (without the &quot 4.Press OK 5.Select the STARTUP tab. 6.In the list, uncheck all boxes. 7.Hit apply and then OK. Restart the computer and try the game again.

05-10-2007, 01:15 PM	#2
Je Server: Talendor Guild: Ratpack Rank: Rattenboss General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 20	If you are able to return some of your hardware, try the following: Return one of the 8800gts cards if possible, EQ2 runs crappy in SLI if at all. Return the AMD and get a e6700 or better (and overclock the hell out of it - EQ2s dependancy on a fast CPU is widely known). AMD just can't compare to Intel perfomance-wise (at least in EQ2), your 5200+ will slow down your 8800s. I run a single 8800gts and said CPU oc'ed to 3,2GHZ, and opnly using 2GB RAM. Before that I had an AMD 4600+ and the increase in performance is huge (I#d guess the performance improvement between 4600+ and 5200+ isn't that noticeable). I use custom settings, all textures on max, char shadows and environment shadows on, spell particles on and pretty mich every setting on max except for high resolution chars on 6 instead of 10 and only 2 spells shown per character. My framerate drops down to ~20-22 in Freeport and crowded areas. Anywhere else it's in the 40+ range. That's with 4x AA and 16x AF, but I run XP and no Vista. The preset performance settings are crap anyway, tweak your custom ones and be happy. For the price of a second 8800 you should try to get a better CPU. Upgrading CPU is sure the best way to increase your gaming performance. A 5200+ isn't really high end and an e6700 is a lot cheaper than a 2nd 8800. There's a nice benchmark result here for most current CPUs: http://firingsquad.com/hardware/amd..._6000/page4.asp

05-10-2007, 01:34 PM	#3
antwar General Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 169	he is correct, intel blows the doors off AMD right now, and a faster CPU DOES make a huge difference in performance. the nvidia 8xxx series of cards are dogs in general, due to crappy drivers, but they ARE working on the drivers... it is just taking longer than they anticipated. All that aside, vista is itself a huge performance bottleneck in terms of gaming. i would have stuck with xp for at least another year, to let the vista stuff mature a bit. vista really needs a minimum of 1 gig of ram for just the OS if you want it to run decently. and you want to add another 2 gigs for any game you play, preferably 3 gigs for the games. currently, according to all my research, all the advanced engine games out there really perform best with 4 gigs of ram on vista, 2 gigs on xp vista requiring 2x as much resources to run the apps you use is really on par with the way windows in general has been. windows 98 se you wanted 512 mb of ram, windows 2k you really wanted a gig of ram to run it efficiently, windows xp you wanted 2 gigs, so 4 gigs in vista really inst a stretch when you look at the trend.

05-12-2007, 11:37 PM	#5
Jasmer Newbie Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 7	You have 4 gigs of ram, so this probably won't help you much, but disable Windows Aero as well. Right click desktop, Personalize, Window Color and Appearance, Windows Vista Basic. Seems to help some people out, but normally that's if you have 1gig or less of RAM since Vista Aero is kind of memory intensive I guess. But yeah... Operating System: Windows VistaTM Home Premium Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz Memory: 2046MB RAM DirectX Version: DirectX 10 Card name: ATI Radeon x1300 Pro (also ran it with nVidia GeForce 7300GS) I can run the game at High Quality although I take a noticeable FPS hit if I set it above balanced. What sort of power supply do you use? My computer is a Dell Dimension E521 or something of the sort, more of a home office video editing computer rather than a gaming machine, so I don't expect the power supply to be suitable to high quality 3D gaming, though it works fantastically if I keep the settings around mediumish to medium high depending on the game. I could run Lotro on max settings with a slight FPS hit but WoW and EQ2? Forget it. I can run WoW at max if I like playing with an FPS of 16...which I don't. So yeah, check your power supply and ask around at Stables and anywhere else they sell computers and computer parts and actually know what they're talking about. See what they have to say, maybe they can tell you what to look for. Do you by chance use a Dell? I hear Dell uses specially customized Power Supplies so you'd have to order a jerry-rigged one, an adapter of some sort, or straight from Dell if you do. Might apply to Alienware as well since they're like the same company now or something. [Edit] FYI, Start -> Run does not exist on Windows Vista (at least not on mine). Right click your task bar and select Task Manager. Click the "New Task..." button and type in msconfig.exe then tab over to startup or boot or whatever it says and disable what you know your computer or you personally don't need at startup.