the game has a HORRIBLE FPS drop issue. playing it on default med and even going so far as to drop it to low and turn off every special effect i was still lagging horribly on the NW sever so much i couldnt even shoot people half the time.
i know its not my system cause its a petty decent system this game just plays really freaken horrible on a x64 system with 4gb ram its almost like you need SLI/crossfire and 6gb for a decent frame rate
cause driving my car, every time i hit the A-D keys to turn it took 10-30seconds for the game to detect that i want to turn.... by then iv run over 9 people and taken out more then enough cars and street lamps to warrent having my licence taken away...
as for actual pvp... im not overly impressed with the match makeup sticking you in 1 vs 2 battles which random frame drop is a freaken pain in the *** area looks clear... then bam you are dead and people are magically there...
that is on lowest settings with all adv graphics turned off.... soo there shouldnt be any excuse for the huge drop in FPS my ram refreshes every few minutes as well while playing as it sucks up all 3gb free system resources in just loading the game's menu screen
running a x64 4gig ram and a 8800gtx+ , no lag issues, framerate is a solid 60 fps allways, never had issue one,
even after playing all day yesterday
ps: also running graphics settings maxed
which server are you playing on?? i took the westcoast NA server as thats my typical regional area.. my fps studders after awhile. on default... are you OCing your rig or is it "factory" default?
not sure how you arent getting lag or dropped frames. do you suffer any latacy with driving?? (aka hitting A or D and the car not turning that direction until after you hit a wall)
Well i met the required system requirements and its perfectly fine in the social areas. I still think it's like a memory leak or something.
Im not sure you even know what a memory leak is.
Given that you can see in real time the games memory usage witht he /fps command. Using it, you can clearly see there is no memory leak in the game, however if your a 32bit OS user, your going to run out of memory at some point, the game is to graphically intense, too many unique and highly detalied teztures to load, and on top of that, im sure were importing music.
There is no memory leak....confirmed to death on the APB forums, and clearly visable in game.
Some people even 64 bit users are reporting sudden spikes in memory usage and then crashes. My Brother in law runs a beast of a machine with 8gb and he has this problem which for all intents and purposes seems like a memory leak. Try as I might I havent been able to crash his machine with any of the usual stability testing tools I use on a regular basis.
As for 32 Bit windows, all is not lost if you have 4gb physically installed. Most people find the /3gb switch works for them. You should only run out of memor if you only have 3gb or less of physical memory. My Desktop is running shitty Vista 32 with 4gb of physical RAM but i have had the /3gb switch on for ages and mine is fine even past 4+ hour gaming sessions during Closed Beta it never crashed.
You can clearly see there is no memory leak while playing (granted you have over 3 gigs of FREE ram, remember your OS ect uses memory)
Its been explained on the forums, no memory leak.
Thats not saying that the game ISNT a memory hog. It is. I can understand why, however most do not. Simply loading 75 diffrent unqiue, complex, and highly detailed custom textures, while playing your custom song playlist with 100+ of your own mp3's is enough to take the game well over the 2 gig threshold.
This isnt saying that the game doesnt crash either, for me, ive mabey gotten 3 crashes since open beta launched, most were from using the ingame browser, every time ive crashed the ram usage was under 2.5gigs
Also, you just mentioned having a 32 bit OS with 4gigs of ram installed....not going to even go there...
With how easy it is these days to get your hands on a 64-bit version of windows 7 you guys have no excuse to complain. Why 32-bit windows is even used still is beyond me. Get with the times.
running a x64 4gig ram and a 8800gtx+ , no lag issues, framerate is a solid 60 fps allways, never had issue one,
even after playing all day yesterday
ps: also running graphics settings maxed
which server are you playing on?? i took the westcoast NA server as thats my typical regional area.. my fps studders after awhile. on default... are you OCing your rig or is it "factory" default?
not sure how you arent getting lag or dropped frames. do you suffer any latacy with driving?? (aka hitting A or D and the car not turning that direction until after you hit a wall)
westcoast, NA . have zero issues with latency while driving, can drive smoothly through the streets without hitting anything
running a x64 4gig ram and a 8800gtx+ , no lag issues, framerate is a solid 60 fps allways, never had issue one,
even after playing all day yesterday
ps: also running graphics settings maxed
which server are you playing on?? i took the westcoast NA server as thats my typical regional area.. my fps studders after awhile. on default... are you OCing your rig or is it "factory" default?
not sure how you arent getting lag or dropped frames. do you suffer any latacy with driving?? (aka hitting A or D and the car not turning that direction until after you hit a wall)
westcoast, NA . have zero issues with latency while driving, can drive smoothly through the streets without hitting anything
Eastcoast server here, can do the same...able to preform all sorts of tight manuvers while driving, no latency (however there are hiccups when i speed past a war zone sometimes) If things start to get a tad laggy, i switch instances to one that isnt full.
Sounds to me like you have pando media booster running in the backround (this game automatically install it, and pando will file share any games that you may have that use its network).
Even saw a post where someone with a high speed network was notified by his ISP over unusual high level of activity, something like the had uploaded over 80 gigs of data over the week, turns out pando was to blame, those on a lesser speed ISP will notice pando adding about 100 ms to in game ping if running.
One of the things i like about this game is the diverse diving mechanics. Each car has a diffrent feel, style, and stats. Things like knowing if the car is front,rear, or all wheel drive is important, as those statistics will greatly change how you need to drive the car in order to control it. Its complex enough where they can be uncontrollable if you dont have a decent ping. However some cars (like the starter car) do preform better in laggy enviroments then say, very fast accelerating rear wheel drive cars, which take a while to master and are very touchy to drive.
So what should people do who are having issues with smooth gameplay?
#1 pick an appropriate server. Hearing russians on the NA east server bitching about lag is retarded. Choose the server closest to you, you will not enjoy this game with 200ms of lag, dont even bother.
#2. Find, turn off, or unistall Pando Media Booster, theres no point in participating in a shared torrent seeding program if doing so makes the game unplayable.
#3. Get a 64 bit OS and at least 4gigs of ram, i know it a big investment for some, but if you plan on playing future games, better to get this out of the way. You wont enjoy APB very long on a 32 bit OS, even with the shady 3gig trick.
#4. Start of on min settings, work your way up after playing for a bit. use /fps to monitor. Dont import music if you are strapped for memory. Once you find a well populated area, with lots of gunfights, explosions and people driving like assholes, slowly increase the setting, you want to be able to play in these scenarios with as little FPS lag as possbile, so dont bother logging in, maxing everything then assuming your good to go. Wait untill your in a warzone to raise the settings.
I dont think i need to suggest the super obvious, that is updating your graphic card AND audio card drivers either..this game has VERY taxing audio, theres been times where my sound turns to inaudible noice from too many sounds playing at once.
This game is more graphically intense than a lot of mmorpgs out there, while it might not have the fancy high end effects and shineys some other game have, in terms of raw textures, moving items, and overall power needed, this game might be the most resource heavy game out there. Both visually and audio. I think a big part of the issue is treating this game as if its just another unreal mod...its not
Comments
the game has a HORRIBLE FPS drop issue. playing it on default med and even going so far as to drop it to low and turn off every special effect i was still lagging horribly on the NW sever so much i couldnt even shoot people half the time.
i know its not my system cause its a petty decent system this game just plays really freaken horrible on a x64 system with 4gb ram
its almost like you need SLI/crossfire and 6gb for a decent frame rate 
cause driving my car, every time i hit the A-D keys to turn it took 10-30seconds for the game to detect that i want to turn.... by then iv run over 9 people and taken out more then enough cars and street lamps to warrent having my licence taken away...
as for actual pvp... im not overly impressed with the match makeup sticking you in 1 vs 2 battles which random frame drop is a freaken pain in the *** area looks clear... then bam you are dead and people are magically there...
that is on lowest settings with all adv graphics turned off.... soo there shouldnt be any excuse for the huge drop in FPS
my ram refreshes every few minutes as well while playing as it sucks up all 3gb free system resources in just loading the game's menu screen 
running a x64 4gig ram and a 8800gtx+ , no lag issues, framerate is a solid 60 fps allways, never had issue one,
even after playing all day yesterday
ps: also running graphics settings maxed
which server are you playing on?? i took the westcoast NA server as thats my typical regional area.. my fps studders after awhile. on default... are you OCing your rig or is it "factory" default?
not sure how you arent getting lag or dropped frames. do you suffer any latacy with driving?? (aka hitting A or D and the car not turning that direction until after you hit a wall)
You can clearly see there is no memory leak while playing (granted you have over 3 gigs of FREE ram, remember your OS ect uses memory)
Its been explained on the forums, no memory leak.
Thats not saying that the game ISNT a memory hog. It is. I can understand why, however most do not. Simply loading 75 diffrent unqiue, complex, and highly detailed custom textures, while playing your custom song playlist with 100+ of your own mp3's is enough to take the game well over the 2 gig threshold.
This isnt saying that the game doesnt crash either, for me, ive mabey gotten 3 crashes since open beta launched, most were from using the ingame browser, every time ive crashed the ram usage was under 2.5gigs
Also, you just mentioned having a 32 bit OS with 4gigs of ram installed....not going to even go there...
With how easy it is these days to get your hands on a 64-bit version of windows 7 you guys have no excuse to complain. Why 32-bit windows is even used still is beyond me. Get with the times.
Full Sail University - Game Design
westcoast, NA . have zero issues with latency while driving, can drive smoothly through the streets without hitting anything
Eastcoast server here, can do the same...able to preform all sorts of tight manuvers while driving, no latency (however there are hiccups when i speed past a war zone sometimes) If things start to get a tad laggy, i switch instances to one that isnt full.
Sounds to me like you have pando media booster running in the backround (this game automatically install it, and pando will file share any games that you may have that use its network).
Even saw a post where someone with a high speed network was notified by his ISP over unusual high level of activity, something like the had uploaded over 80 gigs of data over the week, turns out pando was to blame, those on a lesser speed ISP will notice pando adding about 100 ms to in game ping if running.
One of the things i like about this game is the diverse diving mechanics. Each car has a diffrent feel, style, and stats. Things like knowing if the car is front,rear, or all wheel drive is important, as those statistics will greatly change how you need to drive the car in order to control it. Its complex enough where they can be uncontrollable if you dont have a decent ping. However some cars (like the starter car) do preform better in laggy enviroments then say, very fast accelerating rear wheel drive cars, which take a while to master and are very touchy to drive.
So what should people do who are having issues with smooth gameplay?
#1 pick an appropriate server. Hearing russians on the NA east server bitching about lag is retarded. Choose the server closest to you, you will not enjoy this game with 200ms of lag, dont even bother.
#2. Find, turn off, or unistall Pando Media Booster, theres no point in participating in a shared torrent seeding program if doing so makes the game unplayable.
#3. Get a 64 bit OS and at least 4gigs of ram, i know it a big investment for some, but if you plan on playing future games, better to get this out of the way. You wont enjoy APB very long on a 32 bit OS, even with the shady 3gig trick.
#4. Start of on min settings, work your way up after playing for a bit. use /fps to monitor. Dont import music if you are strapped for memory. Once you find a well populated area, with lots of gunfights, explosions and people driving like assholes, slowly increase the setting, you want to be able to play in these scenarios with as little FPS lag as possbile, so dont bother logging in, maxing everything then assuming your good to go. Wait untill your in a warzone to raise the settings.
I dont think i need to suggest the super obvious, that is updating your graphic card AND audio card drivers either..this game has VERY taxing audio, theres been times where my sound turns to inaudible noice from too many sounds playing at once.
This game is more graphically intense than a lot of mmorpgs out there, while it might not have the fancy high end effects and shineys some other game have, in terms of raw textures, moving items, and overall power needed, this game might be the most resource heavy game out there. Both visually and audio. I think a big part of the issue is treating this game as if its just another unreal mod...its not
Have you tried editing your apbconfig file?