One machine, two EQ2's

Eloora · #1 12-13-2006, 12:07 PM

OK so after finally getting my Assassin to 70 and being on the same page for quests and things as my Mystic, I've taken to running both characters (2 accts.) at once on my PC for convenience sake, putting one on follow etc. As most of you probably know, EQ2 doesn't really dig running more than one instance of the game on a PC, and even with my above averate system specs, I run into bothersom lag off and on, freezes when I right-click things, and the like.

So I was wondering if any of you PC gurus might have some advice on how I can make my boxing experience less aggrevating, be it thru changing my PC settings, in game settings or what have you. Here's my system specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 @ stock speed 2.67 GHz
Asus P5N32 SLI SE Deluxe
Nvidia Geforce 7950 GX2
Dual Raptors Raid 0
Onboard sound for now cuz my X-Fi has IRQ issues with my vid card, or something
Samsung SyncMaster 21" LCD Monitor

What I'd like to avoid is setting both games' performance options to Atari plastic face mode if I can - spent too much time waiting for a decent system to go back to an ugly game now.

And I have one specific question in closing, and it's regarding dual core processors. What I have heard is that a couple game updates ago, players with dual core processors took a hit in performance due to some change they made to the game. This was before I got this rig so I don't know what performance was like before, nor if there's any credence to this claim, or if there is and I'm just not suffering in performance. I mean, it can always be better right?

So my question is, since the game utilizes both CPU's for all processes on my machine, would setting the affinity of each of my instances of EQ2 to a different CPU help performance? Would it hinder it? I don't know exactly what impact affinity settings have. Any knowledge you guys can share would be appreciated.

Thanks!

**gm9** · #2 12-13-2006, 12:45 PM

The game only uses one core, that's all it ever did, so there was no performance hit because of that. However, as far as I know the recent patch locked it to the first core.

If it didn't, I'd recommend using one core per game. Also configure your game which is on auto-follow to minimum settings, disable sound (not just move the slider to the left, turn it off completely), and minimize the game window. Depending on how much load is on the system minimizing the window may lead to lost connections - in that case go to your windows control panel and set the system timing to be optimized for background processes.

And in closing: Nice system you got, would love to have something like that.

roundpeg · #3 12-13-2006, 01:21 PM

jut a thought but you might find some sort of vmware solution

**gm9** · #4 12-13-2006, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roundpeg

jut a thought but you might find some sort of vmware solution

What is the advantage of that instead of costing a lot of performance for the vmware itself?

Askelon · #5 12-13-2006, 04:29 PM

I noticed you did not include system ram or what Operating system yer using...I am going to assume its XP home SP2 installed...I recommend upgrading to XP Pro 64 Bit version then adding ram to get to 4 gigs...XP home and Pro 32 Bit will only handle 2 Gigs of ram 64 Bit will handle 4 gigs...or wait till after January and get Vista Home Preimum, Upgrade to an Nvidia 8800GTX (DX10 Card) And STILL add the 4 gigs of ram...then yer talking one screaming Machine.......

Myself I am waiting till AMD ships thier Monolithic Quad Core in Q3 2007 then upgrading to Vista, 4 Gigs and 2 8800GTX's in SLI mode :-)

anyrate Windows XP wants and WILL eat 512Megs of yer system Ram...EQ2 WANTS 1 Gig to run well but will run at Much lower ram (Figuring you've got 2 gigs thats 512 for Windows and about 750Megs per EQ2...up that number and it should run much better.

Askelon Darkstarr
62 Ranger/50 Provisioner
Legacy Of The Unsung
Antonia Bayle Server

Eloora · #6 12-13-2006, 04:48 PM

I have 2 gigs of Corsair, I run on Windows XP and have no intention of "upgrading" either for a while.

Going to try setting each game to its own CPU for a while and see how that works out.

**gm9** · #7 12-13-2006, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Askelon

XP home and Pro 32 Bit will only handle 2 Gigs of ram 64 Bit will handle 4 gigs...

That is not true, XP - just as any 32-bit operating system - handles up to 4GB of RAM and since EQ2 is a 32-bit app there is no reason to run it on a 64-bit OS.