Why do I lag so much?

[Umek1]

I just went out and bought a brand new computer and everything and I have broadband internet speed but i still lag so much it has to catch up with the game even on extreme performance?

[vincentdesrd]

Can you be less specific please?

How about you start by describing what kind of lag you're getting. And maybe post your PC specs...

[Drumstix42]

Unfortunately EQ2 is a very big CPU hog, and doesn't do a lot of processing on the graphics card as most would like. EQ2 also doesn't take advantage of multiple cores (as most games don't still).

Best you can do is get a higher end CPU, a good amount of decent RAM (note the word decent), and a video card preferable PCI-express with a good 256mb of ram at the least.

[Umek1]

my PC specs are:

9500 Quad-Core Processor

3072MB Memory

640GB Hard Drive

NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT Graphics Card

15-in-1 memory card reader

56K Modem

I do have Vista could this also be a problem?

[dx2]

-> -> -> -> 56k modem <- <- <- <-

[gm9]

Originally Posted by Umek1

I have broadband internet speed

Originally Posted by Umek1

my PC specs are:

56K Modem

Good one.

[Narzoo]

Just because he has a 56k Modem, doesn't mean he is connecting through it.

Looks like he copy and pasted the description from a website

Originally Posted by Umek1

lag so much it has to catch up with the game

Sounds like it is connection lag. You can press F11 and check the connectionstats window ingame and see what your ping is and if you have any packet loss.

Then come back here and tell us what kind of internet you have DSL, Cable, Wireless Broadband, Satalite?

And can tell us what you average ping was and if you had packet loss

[Umek1]

my ping is up to 335. It jumps around a lot. normally about 290, is this good? I'm not really good with these terms I don't know what this means. My internet speed is broadband but it goes through Verizon. and no I didn't get my specs from the internet I read them off the box my computer came from!

[Narzoo]

335 is ok and certainly playable, but if it is going higher than that on broadband, then that would be the cause of your lag. That is the time in milliseconds for information to go from your computer to sony and then back to your computer. Basically, it is taking just over 3 seconds.

I'm guessing you get Verizon through your home phoneline and not your cellphone.

With DSL (that is what you have if it is through your home phoneline) the speed you get can be affected by a few things. How far away your house is from Verizon and also old or damaged phone wires inside/outside your house can sometimes have bad effects like this.

There are a couple of things you can check. Make sure the DSL modem (The verizon box) is connected to the first phone line that comes in to your house and not on the end of a phone extension cord.

And is there a wire from the Verizon box to your computer, or are you connected by wireless to it?

I use wireless, and sometimes it lets me down. Verizon have made a page with some checks on it that you can look at http://www22.verizon.com/Residential...sOne/88005.htm

If all that is fine, you may want to give Verizon a call 1-800-567-6789
And that number can be found on their page http://www22.verizon.com/Residential.../contactus.htm

I hope this helps you.

[lordebon]

A latency of 335 is miliseconds, which means it's ~0.335 seconds not ~3.35.

And from the sounds of it that may be your issue. It's usually pretty easy to tell graphics lag and network lag apart. If you can move around the world smoothly (or smoothly-ish) but nothing you do seems to make a difference (and people and such don't seem to move, or seem to move too far and then warp back) then it's network lag. If on the other hand the display of the world itself stutters then it's graphical lag (or sometimes a combination of both).

[Narzoo]

Originally Posted by lordebon

A latency of 335 is miliseconds, which means it's ~0.335 seconds not ~3.35.

Ooops
*hides in her hole again*

[Beldin]

Originally Posted by Narzoo

335 is ok and certainly playable

I would say 335 is very bad. I remember years ago when i played Diablo and had a 56k modem or ISDN
that i normally had around 120 .. and when it went to 150-180 it began to feel laggy.

With DSL today i have normally a ping around 30.

[vc50er]

Your problem may be with the Phone Company lines. Dial 912 and ask them to check your lines.

Listen carefully on the phone when no one is speaking. If you hear noise or a local radio station, then definitely call 912.

[EoinCuinn]

I am in Australia, running on the EU servers at about 335ms, but with a constant frame rate of between 40- 55 fps, on both my laptop and my desktop. My desktop is pretty specced, but I still run the game at Very High quality, with the shadowing turned down slightly. As it says in the game, if you run at extreme settings you better have the hardware to match it.

768mg 8800gtx
3g core2 duo (6850 from memory)
4g ram running at 1066
Vista Ultimate
32mg caches SataII drives

[Kaldran]

I doubt the ping has anything to do with the framerate. Movement and rendering is pretty much asynchronous to the data sent and received.

Most people who tell me their game is lagging are experiencing graphical lag like very low frame rates. This is caused by a lack of computing power on their machines. You can counter this by getting a bigger CPU, since changing graphic cards may not have much impact (My HD3650 is telling me GPU activity is around 13% while running EQ2).

Server or connection lags usually show in stalling casting bars or npcs not fighting anymore or jumping around. The framerate is unaffected by this. Connection lag does not mean high pings necessarily, for eq2 even several hundreds of ms are fine I guess. Its more the pings' jitter (the variation in ping times) that causes felt lags.

[Umek1]

I went on eq2 today and while it was lagging terribly i checked my ping. it was in the thousands! I also had a bunch of packet loss as well. from what Narzoo explained about the different kinds of lag i can deffinetly say it's network lag. I can move around fine but i can't interact with anything and when it catches up everything moves like super speed then it's back to normal until the ping goes back up and it happens all over again. Any suggestions?

[Kaldran]

Narzoo posted a list of things to do actually :P