I’ve never owned top of the line computer bits, though I’ve also never really had any reason to complain. I’ve used my 7600 GeForce for a few years now without issues. I ran EQ2 on balanced (minus flora and fauna because I just disliked the way I could never see anything laying on the ground) and was quite happy with the graphic performance.
With a little extra money kicking around I decided it was time to start getting some upgrades. Even though I could use a new processor and motherboard, I think those can wait until February – today it was time for a new video card.
I didn’t go all out like a lot of people would have. I wanted an upgrade but not something that was super expensive. So, when all was said and done I went from my trusty 7600 to the 8800.
Instillation went smooth, and I loaded up EQ2 right away switching my settings to the highest possible ones. Of course I still had some lag, the change for dual core isn’t in quite yet – and the highest possible settings really are that. I know people who have the best of the best and still can’t play on those settings. So I tweaked things some, and set them to the 2nd highest settings. Turned down the fauna so I could actually see the ground, made it so I don’t see 10 spells per person and will only see two, and turned down shadows slightly.
It still made a HUGE difference. I can see all the nice little texture details now that I had missed before unless I played on the highest settings. I typically leave my lights off due to lag – and have no issues at all with them now. It’s great. I logged over to Vanguard and noticed a great improvement in frame rate, but didn’t turn my settings up any higher because the game is pretty enough on balanced. The screenshot above is on my new settings, and I can tell the difference from my previous screenshots easily.
So that’s how my weekend has gone thus far. Gotta love getting new toys to play with!
That Multicore fix will help some. The forums have been kind of leery of how it has been working so far (it is not 100%, but Autenil, one of the Devs said it was a gradual move)
The fact they are willing to do this for a game that is 4 years old is really nice.
I hope it helps, as my card is the top of the line, and it really hurts when this game cannot run smoother than Conan..
And if you look at those images I post of AoC…those are not “specials” for just show.
Here is hoping…
Love the 8800 GT, mine runs smooth as silk. I splurged and got two for SLI when I bought my computer… maybe I should try bumping my eq2 settings up a bit! :)
That is SO COOL!!!!!
I went from an 8800, to a 260, and in Everquest 2 there was a huge diference. I can run all the setting to the max and still get about 30 frames a second. The card it self is longer than my motherboard…..