Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Before I buy EQ2, will it run on my system on FULL settings with little to no lag?
Slash8915
Member Posts: 6
Ok, as much as i HATE it, I'm a graphics whore. I HAVE to have the graphics all the way up on EVERY game I play. Idk if it's OCD or what, but I have to.. So I was wondering if some of you that PLAY the game could tell me how well it would run on my system. Here are the specs...
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 overclocked to 2.8Ghz per core 4MB shared L2 Cache LGA 775
CPU Heatsink/fan: Silverstone Nitrogon NT06
Motherboard: MSI 975X Platinum V.2 LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard, 8-channel audio, SATA RAID , 2 X PCI-Express X16 video slot for DUAL VIDEO CARDS, 2 PCI-Express X1 , 2 PCI, QUAD CORE support, , supports DDR2-800 memory.
HDD: 500GB 7200RPM SATAII Serial-ATA Maxtor Hard Drive
RAM: 4GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 latency ram, PC6400 800MHz DDR2 RAM by OCZ
Video Card: ATI Radeon MSI RX2600XT Diamond Plus OC Edition 512MB DDR4
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
Internet connection: Comcast Cable Internet
Any replies would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.
Comments
I recommend the trial on Full settings -- if full settings is a must for you
EQ2 fan sites
That 2600XT will NOT run this game on full settings. I would get a 3850/3870 or 8800 GT to run this game on high settings.
I dont think it's possible for anyone to play on full graphics and have no lag at all, am I right?
$OE lies list
http://www.rlmmo.com/viewtopic.php?t=424&start=0
"
And I don't want to hear anything about "I don't believe in vampires" because *I* don't believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what *I* saw is ******* vampires! "
lol, no matter what your system specs, you're going to experience lag in extremely graphics intensive places like the cities. No way around it. There's too many people, and too many animations in the same area to get around that.
The other problem you have is that its Vista. Vista seems to have alot of issues with alot of games. Heck, it doesn't just have issues with games, it has issues with pretty much everything. My stepdads brand new laptop, with Vista installed, kept saying that the DVD drive was installed and functioning properly but wouldn't even turn on much less open. He had to take it back to the tech because stupid Vista wouldn't download then driver because it thought it was already installed. The tech had to use HIS driver disks to get the stupid thing to work. Vista has ISSUES.
Other than that, you should b e just fine anywhere else but the cities and provided Vista doesn't decide to have a childish fit.
Example,i have two laptops both running home premium and both run the game fairly well,but one crashes much more than the other which is odd given as they're both the same spec as i bought them the same day
Vistas well weird.
And to the OP,make sure you go to the official forums and look for tech support..EQ2 and ATI cards dont (in my expierence) get along to well unless you follow the good advice given on those boards.
Short answer.....Nope.
I played EQ2 for a quite a long time and just quit recently. I have a pretty damn good rig myself (heck, I can play crysis on highest settings) but I could not play EQ2 at maximum settings. Strange for a 3+ year old game eh?
Part of the reason, I believe, is simply because EQ2 doesn't support multicore processors and seems to be pretty processor intensive.
you know 2600XT is just a LowEnd this time... its not for High graphics in LOT of games. And EQ2 engine... nevah! 4GB RAM can help (if youre at 64bit OS)
It does not support MultiCore, SLI and CF, shadows are counted via CPU, and this engine is... yes, strange. Looks superb, but its usually crappy slow.
Wanna enjoy game at higher settings? Go, and buy real graphics card, especially, if youre "graphics whore". Im talking about cards at range of Radeon 2900Pro/3870, and GeForce 8800GT/GTS/GTX - not less...
I don't know that any system will play it on max settings. I think the engine is just bad...
I have a quad core, 4g ram and an 8800gtx and I can't play it on max. I can run it on max and it is ok but the fps will drop below 10 at times and the worst part is that it starts crashing every 30-60 minutes. I play on high settings with a few tweeked settings up. I still find places like enchanted lands will drop down to 15-20fps..
So generally graphics performance in EQ2 is just never going to be great. I still find it ironic that I can play VG which is notorious for sucky performance and I can get 30-40fps with everything maxed and no crashes where I can't even come close to that in eq2 and vg looks a lot better....
But besides the graphics eq2 is really a great game. Good quests, nice variety, good community. Well worth playing and on high settings or lower the graphics work well and I never crash. 4gb is really required for high settings as well.
---
Ethion
EQ2's graphics engine was designed to scale as video technology improved. I'm not sure technology has yet advanced to the point that any but possibly the highest end graphics cards can run it at max settings. If you leave shadows off, you can probably set everything else to max with a really good video card. Even then, you'd probably have to tune it back down some in high traffic areas like cities and raids. An ATI 2600XT isn't even in the ballpark for doing this. If you have an nVidia 8800 GTX, you can get pretty close to maxed-out.
If EQII had a setting so high that NO miracle of video graphics could currently play it, does that mean it's not worth trying?
It's good for what it is -- a bit more of a realistic WoW.
First off, how can WoW be realistic? It's a fictional universe.
Secondly, EQ2 came out BEFORE WoW, thus you should be saying that WoW is a less realistic EQ2 game Which
Thirdly just isn't true.Sure they may have SOME similarities suchas achievement points, however if you've played EQ2 you will know that it is a lot more advance and definantly a step up if your previous game was WoW. If you need proof, go do a google search about the EQ2 crafting.
To OP : Who are you kidding anyway? Just try the FREE trial.
i think your right.. you cant run it full yet... not even w/ the best computers
Remember Old School Ultima Online
the really short answer; no
The quasi-explained answer; No, because my system is better than yours and I can't
But
No
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I had my setting on max and I have a high end bvideo and sound card. When I solo, I don't have any lag problems.HOWEVER, when I get around a lot of other players ,such as with raids, I have to turn down my graphic setting due to severe lag.
Would not mater if you where runign quad gfx cards...
EQ2 is CPU Based with lighting and shadow all being processed on the cpu not the gpu
the big problem is that thats the truth and with eq2 not using multicores the best chance at running it at max quality is highly overclocking your cpu. the gameengine was built at a time when everyone was expecting cpus to reach 6 ghz or more by now. also back then the gfx cards could not do much of the things you can do now with them so sli and crossfire helps a little bit in eq2 but with the new gfx cards the game usually allready gets cpu limited with one card so adding a 2nd does not help much.
Overall EQ2 needs a engine rewrite soon to support multicore and newer gfx card features to improve performance with new computers. and when you look in the what bugs you most feedback threads that a dev opened in the last weeks on official forum then you can see that thats a highly demanded feature so i hope SOE will assign the programmers on that and do a engine rewrite for next expansion (but on the other side its SOE and the might also do something completely different that noone wanted).
what I do, and many of my guild mates, we use an interface add-on such as ProfitUI, which has preset buttons for the quality, e.g. screenshot quality = max, raid quality fairly low (e.g. litlle/no shadows, particles, etc) to reduce lag, and normal, which you can adapt to your machine specs to your taste and patience.
all you need is to press a button to quickly switch between these settings. makes it really worthwhile, even on a strong rig. as mentioned above, as long as there is no multi processor support, eq2 will need a serious makeover.....
I run EQ2 on Extreme preset default setting, I get 25-40 FPS depending, however, since I'm only Lv7 and haven't grouped or anything yet, since I'm new, I think I'll have to drop it down to high (once I start grouping and what not), since in towns I get down to 15~.
That's with a AMD X2 4400+ @ 2.42GHz, 2GB DDR400 Corsair RAM @ 440MHz and Radeon HD3850 512MB @ 730/1900.
So, I'm assuming if you got a new video card, such as the 3870,3870X2 or 8800GT/GTS/GTX, you'd get MUCH MUCH smoother frame rates than I would, considering you have a better CPU, RAM, more RAM, and a motherboard that can support Crossfire (not sure if EQ2 supports Crossfire though), it'd probably be best to get an ATi card then add another later, or add two right away, since you have a Crossfire motherboard.
Ati radeon 3870 HD
Phenom 9500
4 gigs of ram ( 800)
Can run on very high in groups with no problem at all. Extreme quality however, I have some issues in groups ( but not much solo). I wouldnt recommend running in extreme for any system, it isnt really needed since very high is still incredibly gorgeous.
Examples of screens running Very High...works wonderfully
And more here
picasaweb.google.com/openedge1/EQ2
If you feel better about having “settings at maximum” even if that means maximum is capped at a lower value then EQ2 isn’t for you. It does a full implenetion of DX9 shadows and gives you access to them dispite the load it puts on the CPU.
Note, the problem with DX9 is CPU load, any current generation video card with 512MB+ video ram is fully capable of doing anything the EQ2 engine asks.