Tips on making the game faster

[Turalon]

I have better than everything the game "recommends" to play, but my game still runs incredibly slow. Even at the login screen, I have to type in my account/pass really slow or it will jumble all the letters due to lag. I get low FPS, and when I go into big traffic towns (ie Giran) I have to click the "low detail" check or it'll take me way long to navigate through because my FPS drops significantly. I just don't understand how I can have better than everytyhing the game recommends, yet my game runs like this. Also, my brother who plays runs it on a system that is slightly better than mine (+.4ghz processor than mine) and his runs much better. Anything I should try to make it better? Please don't respond with "get a new PC."

[Maxxx]

first of all.... What are the specs of your computer?

[Xan]

System specs +++
Size of swap file +++
When was last time you formated drive/drives and reinstaled xp/rest of your stuff.
Instaled software , you can have some stuff that is unnecesary and just drains yours OS resources.
Any spyware/firewall/anti-vir instaled , your performance can be low due to having some trojans and ect.

[snoweternal]

um....totally agree with Xan.
well, basically he said everything. lol

[Turalon]

first of all.... What are the specs of your computer?

See that's just it. I fail to see why my computer specs matter at all if I surpass everything they recommend for the game. Recommended = if you have these or better, the game should be able to be run at full graphics smoothly. If it can't do that, then the recommended specs should be raised by a significant amount.

[Turalon]

Size of swap file +++


Oh yeah, what is this?^^^

Heh, sorry if i'm being stupid or ignorant :P

[jacksoN]

the game has a terrible memory leak. i surpassed the requirements when i first installed it and have upgraded to a much better system and i still lag a lot.

you need either more RAM, and faster CPU

[Turalon]

the game has a terrible memory leak. i surpassed the requirements when i first installed it and have upgraded to a much better system and i still lag a lot.

you need either more RAM, and faster CPU

I was afraid of that...I have been putting off buying a new PC now...the upgrade I want is so costly, bu it looks like if I want to run smoothly I'm going to have to...

[Xan]

Oh yeah, what is this?^^^

Heh, sorry if i'm being stupid or ignorant :P
Swap file = part of disk used by windows to temporary dump files that dont fit into memory.In englsh xp it should be called ethier swap file or paging file , just find it in my pc/system/advanced/
The thing performance goes down when swap file is full OS has to delete parts of and then come the all known "hardware lag"
Optimal swap file is 1-2 gigs.That also depends how many physical HDD`s you have , like i have xp and swap file on one hdd and l2 on other .
Next thing , you may have 1 gig of ram but XP is ram whore , seen pc`s where that bitch was eating 400 mb of ram in idile , most of the times @ idile my XP (miranda/winamp/antivir/firewall/stylexp/mouse) eats less than 200 mb of ram.If you fight with xp you can get it down under 100 mb of ram @ idile.
L2 is big ram whore , i remeber when i upgraded from single 512mb to 2x512 mb ram with dual chanell , jump in performance was quite big.
The CPU dont realy matter when playing L2 , GFX , well my old 5900 XT (ya fucking pos but was good few years ago) runs l2 at high detail no problem.
Athlon 3200+ , 1 gig @ dual chanell , 5900 xt and i can run l2 @ max details and dont lag too much in giran.When i`m frapsing i run L2 @ mid details and fraps easy.But thats due to having 2 physical hdd`s.
2-4 gigs of ram would improve my performance drasticly.
Next thing that can boost your performance is having 2 SATA hdd`s in RAID 0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_0.
If you plan to build new pc for l2 , get good mobo ASUS/LanParty , best one suporting SLI or crossfire
2 or 4 gigs of ram , preferably corsair in dual chanell (so 2x 1 gig or 2x2gigs) , they come in pre tested dual packs .That way you get best dual chanell performance.
Grab ONE high end video card , nvidia or ati , its your preference.
Both are solid , i have nvidia @ my desktop and mobile radeon @ my laptop.Happy with both.
IF you want to go with nvidia http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130279
this is good buy , also with newest GFX cards you need at least 400 + W PSU , i would recomend geting 500 or better 600 W one , seasonic makes ones with nice quality/price .Remeber with more than one HDD in pc you will want more power.600 W psu will alllow you to put some HDD`s/more fans.
ATM there isnt such big need for SLI/C-F in most games so for now it should last , and later on you can just upgrade to SLI/Crossfire.So just get mobo suporting it
If you chose ATI , be sure to get Mother (or what its called) cross fire card.
HDD`s good idea is to get two SATA HDD`s , 250 mb or so and put them in raid 0 .
IF you realy want uber performance get raptors , they are fucking fast and looks awesome with open case.Tho they are costy.
CPU , i would say dual core 64AMD , tho new models showed by intel are quite tempting.
Dual core is nice idea coz in c5 engine there will be implemented suport for dual core systems and l2 will utilize its full potetntial.
Atm dual core is good when you run like L2+Fraps.Or dual/tri/quad box .

[Turalon]

Awesome, thanks for all the info Xan, very helpful. Also thanks to others that chipped in :P

[LyndenPayne]

Swap file = part of disk used by windows to temporary dump files that dont fit into memory.In englsh xp it should be called ethier swap file or paging file , just find it in my pc/system/advanced/
The thing performance goes down when swap file is full OS has to delete parts of and then come the all known "hardware lag"
Optimal swap file is 1-2 gigs.That also depends how many physical HDD`s you have , like i have xp and swap file on one hdd and l2 on other .
Next thing , you may have 1 gig of ram but XP is ram whore , seen pc`s where that bitch was eating 400 mb of ram in idile , most of the times @ idile my XP (miranda/winamp/antivir/firewall/stylexp/mouse) eats less than 200 mb of ram.If you fight with xp you can get it down under 100 mb of ram @ idile.
L2 is big ram whore , i remeber when i upgraded from single 512mb to 2x512 mb ram with dual chanell , jump in performance was quite big.
The CPU dont realy matter when playing L2 , GFX , well my old 5900 XT (ya fucking pos but was good few years ago) runs l2 at high detail no problem.
Athlon 3200+ , 1 gig @ dual chanell , 5900 xt and i can run l2 @ max details and dont lag too much in giran.When i`m frapsing i run L2 @ mid details and fraps easy.But thats due to having 2 physical hdd`s.
2-4 gigs of ram would improve my performance drasticly.
Next thing that can boost your performance is having 2 SATA hdd`s in RAID 0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_0.
If you plan to build new pc for l2 , get good mobo ASUS/LanParty , best one suporting SLI or crossfire
2 or 4 gigs of ram , preferably corsair in dual chanell (so 2x 1 gig or 2x2gigs) , they come in pre tested dual packs .That way you get best dual chanell performance.
Grab ONE high end video card , nvidia or ati , its your preference.
Both are solid , i have nvidia @ my desktop and mobile radeon @ my laptop.Happy with both.
IF you want to go with nvidia http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130279
this is good buy , also with newest GFX cards you need at least 400 + W PSU , i would recomend geting 500 or better 600 W one , seasonic makes ones with nice quality/price .Remeber with more than one HDD in pc you will want more power.600 W psu will alllow you to put some HDD`s/more fans.
ATM there isnt such big need for SLI/C-F in most games so for now it should last , and later on you can just upgrade to SLI/Crossfire.So just get mobo suporting it
If you chose ATI , be sure to get Mother (or what its called) cross fire card.
HDD`s good idea is to get two SATA HDD`s , 250 mb or so and put them in raid 0 .
IF you realy want uber performance get raptors , they are fucking fast and looks awesome with open case.Tho they are costy.
CPU , i would say dual core 64AMD , tho new models showed by intel are quite tempting.
Dual core is nice idea coz in c5 engine there will be implemented suport for dual core systems and l2 will utilize its full potetntial.
Atm dual core is good when you run like L2+Fraps.Or dual/tri/quad box .

How can we tell how much RAM is being used and by what? And how can we lower the amount of RAM being used at idle?

[KaiserSosze]

1. ctrl+alt+del >> task manager >> Processes >> Mem Usage

2. delete the porn that is older than a year that will lower the memory usage

[nootzor]

Awesome, thanks for all the info Xan, very helpful. Also thanks to others that chipped in :P
dont listen to him you dont need half as much of those specs to run it without any lag in 1280x1024 res full detail im using a amd 2200+ with 1gig ram with a x800 without any lag cus im leetsauce

[Unregistered]

why oh why would anyone be so mean as to put a decent gcard (x800) with such a crappy old processor >.<

:P

[Xan]

dont listen to him you dont need half as much of those specs to run it without any lag in 1280x1024 res full detail im using a amd 2200+ with 1gig ram with a x800 without any lag cus im leetsauce
go to 300 vs 300 ppl siege with this setup , put max detail and dont lag.. i dare you.

[Rockats]

Lets see im running amd 3400+ 754 socket. On 1GB Ram with a 6800GS With no lag with HDR on typeC shoadows/ground detail.. and ive been to the seiges with no lag, i also have my buffer up so im sure the 7900 is a pointless card to buy. Infact it sucks imo. ATI is alot better. I do wish i could have bought an ATI card. There img quality is 2x of what geforce is.

[Sudeshna]

Lets see im running amd 3400+ 754 socket. On 1GB Ram with a 6800GS With no lag with HDR on typeC shoadows/ground detail.. and ive been to the seiges with no lag, i also have my buffer up so im sure the 7900 is a pointless card to buy. Infact it sucks imo. ATI is alot better. I do wish i could have bought an ATI card. There img quality is 2x of what geforce is.


Yeah, sure, i wanna see the 6800GS with HDR and Shadows having above 5FPS in a siege...
Also, the img quality of nvidia is the same with ATi now. Back in the R9700/FX5800 era the img quality of ATi was a lot better.
Now, both companies have the same results. So dont say crap like ATi is better in img quality. They are both good companies!


Also, what does the buffer have to do with the 7900? When lineage is minimized (when u switch to ur buffer) it isnt using the gfx card.


The card needed to do CrossFire is called Master ;)

[Xan]

Lets see im running amd 3400+ 754 socket. On 1GB Ram with a 6800GS With no lag with HDR on typeC shoadows/ground detail.. and ive been to the seiges with no lag
20 vs 20 pll sieges ? i`m talking about system which allows you to play with full deatails in big badd ass siege and geting 30+ fps.Honestly are you kidding me bro i also have my buffer up so im sure the 7900 is a pointless card to buy.
Why its pointless good strong card that will last you for long , and l2 aint only game out there , i`m planing to up my pc just to play crisis.
There is big difference bewten jet lag (data lag when l2 uses alot of swap file due to big data flow) and typical gfx lag when gpu isnt able to render fast enough and cpu takes some work off him Infact it sucks imo. ATI is alot better. I do wish i could have bought an ATI card. There img quality is 2x of what geforce is.
HELLOOOO FANBOY , Nvidia and ATI atm are head to head.Both are good and solid.
The only problem with EWGA is to get one working , but with newegg it aint hard.

[...]

fact is that epic's unreal engine sucks ass in the way they use it and some programmer was too dumb to use free() and memory allocation properly (lol the game allocates 4 gig memory and more when i am running over the world map) plus the stupid new class system that ncsoft implemented always wants single chunks from the source files, so it's like accessing 20 files+ to load a single mesh that's somewhere

so yeah, l2 rly needs good hardware: lot of ram and fast hd, gpu and cpu isn't that important ... from what i noticed at least

[LyndenPayne]

Meenwhile, back on subject... I haven't tested these myself but you could give them a try.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/PCBoost_d2520.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/SuperRam_d792.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/GameGain_2_d3930.html

[Sudeshna]

I dont think applications will do any good.. They ll just consume resources xD

[Khan]

fact is that epic's unreal engine sucks ass in the way they use it and some programmer was too dumb to use free() and memory allocation properly (lol the game allocates 4 gig memory and more when i am running over the world map) plus the stupid new class system that ncsoft implemented always wants single chunks from the source files, so it's like accessing 20 files+ to load a single mesh that's somewhere

so yeah, l2 rly needs good hardware: lot of ram and fast hd, gpu and cpu isn't that important ... from what i noticed at least

agree.

the problem is the graphics engine itself. it was not designed for the way it is used in l2.

since the engine has a focus on texture quality all you need is RAM and fast HD.

i used a Geforce 2 GTS with an Athlon 64/2000 +1 gig ram dual channel and SATA hd. i have no problems in any way. sure like Xan said when it comes to mass pvp it takes a minute to load everything(everyone :D ) but then it runs very smooth without problems.

[Unregistered]

Has any1 tried the 3 programs LyndenPayne linked, looking for sum feedback on those be4 i try em 0.o

[FreeRider]

as far as i know there's only one way to make the game run a bit more smooth software-wise: increase the size of your virtual memory to 3,5-4 gb. all other improvements need to be done hardware-wise. from my own experience all this " performance boost programs" are bullshit

[Subaru]

All I can say that even with my system specs L2 runs like shit at siege and mass pvp. With 100+ people on the screen I only get around 5 fps and that’s with low detail. Normal gameplay(hunting solo-dungeon) I get like 60-80FPS with full details.


P4 3.8Ghz
2GB DDR II ECC 667 MHz PC2-5300 (4gb Swap)
74GB SATA Raptor 10k rpm
ATI X1900XTX 512mb

I have defragged, checked for spyware/trojans etc, the windows installation is almost fresh so not a lot programs installed.

Any ideas what I missed or is it just impossible to have the game run smooth with 100+ people on the screen?