AoC and Hardware specs

[Strazos]

Anyone running this on a....lower-end PC? I'd really like to give this a shot, but well...my PC, gods bless her, is almost 6 years old now. I've sorta heard of people being able to run it alright if you crank the settings down. Just wondering how people here are faring.

Worst that happens is that I give the 360 version a shot.

[Nerf]

My brother is playing on Pentium D 2.8ghz processor with an 8600GT and runs a solid 30FPS on low.
It still looks pretty great on low.


I'm running an E6750 Core2duo, 8800GT 512mb G92 (overclocked to 702mhz), 4Gb corsair dominator, and 2 256Gb harddrives in a striped raid array.
Runs 50-80FPS with everything maxed and 2x AA.

[stray]

Don't even fucking try. Go away.

[MuffinMan]

I'm running an AMD 64 3200, 2gb ram, 256mb 7800GT PCIe. I think it was about 2.5 years ago since I last upgraded. I hit the low quality settings and get about 20-25fps consistently. Haven't messed with any individual settings yet to see if I can squeeze out some more performance. I've been crashing all day today for some reason though.

[Der Helm]

Just found out that my desktop pc won't even run the intro.

But my laptop runs it just fine. The login screen does not lag at all. 

[Numtini]

Core 2 duo 6750, 8800gts 320mb, 4gig (3.4 available to xp pro), 1333mhz fsb. I went for medium settings and got 35-40, I turned on high textures and AA 2x and still the same 35-40 (and looked insanely better). I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems like you can turn up a lot here without really impacting performance.

[Zetor]

I'm playing on a dual core AMD X2 3800, a 7600GT (256M) and only 1 gig of RAM.

Load times are horrible (that's also because I'm using an archaic 120gig IDE HD.. yeah yeah I should upgrade), but the game itself is fairly playable, 20-30 fps at the absolute minimum settings.

2 gigs of RAM is pretty much required if you want to avoid random stuttering / bursty graphic lag, imo.


-- Z.

[dannyBstyle]

So here's my spin on this business.

Pentium D 820 (2.8 GHz X 2), on Intel mobo
2 gigs pc5400 DDR2
GeForce 8600GTS
Win XP Pro
400 GB Maxtor HD 7200 RPM

I was running the game on 1680X1050 for my 42 levels with my DT. When I made my demo I decided to fiddle some more, and here's what I found out.

First thing I did was move my page file to a seperate HD, to optimize HD file access.

then, I looked over this post in the AOC forums - http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=13390

With a combo of heavy reading and following some tips from the pros, these are the specs I came up with -

http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/specs1.JPG
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/specs2.JPG
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/specs3.JPG

Now, I'm going to link some screenshots, and you'll see the FPS in the top left. They are very low, from 8 fps up to high teens. Given, this is in tortage, so silky smooth isn't absolutely necessary. And the main point is that even though the FPS is slow, it's smooth. There are occasional hitches, and the loading takes longer, but overall it stays very steady. and it looks gorgeous.

Now I could certainly lower the settings if need be, but in dungeons I get a typically sustained 20+ FPS.

http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/screen1.png
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/screen2.png
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/screen3.png
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/screen4.png
http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/screen5.png

AoC seems to have very odd ways of rendering things, in that some detail settings don't seem to impact performance and some even seem to improve performance, such as render distance.

It seems that if you increase draw distance, you get more hitching immediately following the load, and a longer load as well, but moving around seems smoother. The number one thing I'd recommend to people having major performance issues, is reducing resolution. I have had better FPS than when I was at 1680X1050, and virtually bottomed-out settings.

[Engels]

http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/specs2.JPG

Your System memory texture cache size is set to zero (a stupid default setting). Bring it up to max and I'm betting you'll see a decent increase in FPS.

[Ookii]

One of my roomates has this running on my old PC, which is:

-1.5Gb of ram
-P4 3.2 Ghz with HyperThreading
-X850 AGP, not sure if it's 128 or 256
-The fucking shitty shitty HD that comes out of the PS3

And it runs smooth as hell.

[Tarami]

I can't get it to run properly on any setting on a 3.2 Ghz E6800 with 4 GB of RAM and a 7800GTX. It works okayish on occasion (30-40 FPS), but it's nowhere smooth as a general rule.

[Rasix]

Pentium D 3Ghz (dual core)
2 gigs ram
8800GT 625Mhz 512MB

Runs worse than Crysis on settings that are a notch below "fucking ugly".  Character models still look good (IMO), but everything else looks terrible. 

50+ FPS in indoor instances, which is just fine.  20-40 in outdoor (more in Tortage) with noticeable stuttering.  Sometimes I'll get a nice second or two of the game choking on its own vomit while it struggles to load something.  I can live with 20-40FPS but the stuttering and settings I have to invoke to make it so are not tolerable.

A lot of this seems to be luck of the draw.  People with better computers than mine are having much worse problems, while people with worse are having no issues at all. 

[Falconeer]

People with better computers than mine are having much worse problems, while people with worse are having no issues at all. 

Exactly. I upgraded my computer 2 days ago and NOW I am having much worse performance. I am so happy.

[dannyBstyle]

http://www.dbsoundworks.com/aoclol/specs2.JPG

Your System memory texture cache size is set to zero (a stupid default setting). Bring it up to max and I'm betting you'll see a decent increase in FPS.

Did that, reduced performance across the board. That setting is designed for laptops that have ram that is faster than their video card ram, specifically integrated video. You're basically bringing the ram speed to the lowest common denominator on any system with a non-integrated video solution. But given how AoC loves to randomize performance based on configuration, I'd imagine it helps on some configs.

I decided to let 4X AA go, since this game looks great even without AA, I've been getting stable 20-30+ FPS in all areas, indoor, outdoor, anything. It's a happy day.

[stray]

It really pisses me off that I have a more up-to-date machine than some of you -- except for the bum, non-upgradeable vid card. And so I can't run it.

[schild]

It really pisses me off that I have a more up-to-date machine than some of you -- except for the bum, non-upgradeable vid card. And so I can't run it.

No, get it straight, it pisses you off that you were silly enough to buy a fucking mac after knowing for a decade that you can't upgrade dick.

[Engels]

Your System memory texture cache size is set to zero (a stupid default setting). Bring it up to max and I'm betting you'll see a decent increase in FPS.

Did that, reduced performance across the board. That setting is designed for laptops that have ram that is faster than their video card ram, specifically integrated video. You're basically bringing the ram speed to the lowest common denominator on any system with a non-integrated video solution. But given how AoC loves to randomize performance based on configuration, I'd imagine it helps on some configs.

It seems to have helped quite a few people, myself included, and my system isn't that much of a slouch. 8800gt w/512 ram, 4 gig DDR2 and a C2D 6750. I'm not saying you're wrong. In fact, a bit of research shows that your definition is quite accurate as to what system texture cache is commonly used for.

That said, this is funcom, and a visit to their boards will find posts with pages and pages argueing about this very issue, and it seems clear that somewhere somehow hardware isn't responding as expected, and a 'quick fix' is to allocate ram to handle a graphics cache, since for some reason or another, higher end video cards are getting clogged with textures. It seems reasonable, although I'm no expert, that allowing ram to take on some of the load might help out some systems.

[stray]

It really pisses me off that I have a more up-to-date machine than some of you -- except for the bum, non-upgradeable vid card. And so I can't run it.

No, get it straight, it pisses you off that you were silly enough to buy a fucking mac after knowing for a decade that you can't upgrade dick.

I still like it.

I was about to get a new pc though... But the way everyone's talking the past couple of days, I think that I really am better off just waiting for the 360 version. People are having problems with roughly the same hardware I was looking into buying. Fuck this shit. I don't need to be more pissed than I already am.

[Montague]

...waiting for the 360 version.

Dead Man Walking.

[stray]

Is it? Why? I thought Microsoft was giving them a lot of support for that. I haven't read anything else.

Hell, I'd go so far to say that if it wasn't for the planned 360 version, then they probably would have slimmed the requirements if it had been PC only. At least, I can't think of a better reason for why they did something so stupid.

[schild]

What? You mean why they made it multiprocessor friendly and made it look like Hyboria? Yea, I can't see a reason either. It should've looked like WoW. I want 4 polygon arms. Fuck that.

[stray]

Not sure what multiprocessing has done to aid this game to look like Hyboria. I don't see any good ai, physics, or complex animations here. In fact, it's pretty boneheaded on all of those fronts (it's an mmo though, so that's a given). It's just gpu intensive, not cpu intensive -- and not very well optimized with that even. Besides, if the cpu was so important, then some people here who are running smoothly with single core Pentium 4's wouldn't be.

I didn't say anything about wanting 4 polygon arms.

[Mrbloodworth]

I don't see any good ai, physics, or complex animations here.

I do.

[Murgos]

30+ FPS in Tortage.  1680x1050, Max settings, huge draw draw distance, 16xAnisotropic filtering, Bloom enabled, etc...

Just put this together this weekend, less than a grand at newegg, E8400, 4 gigs DDR2 800, 8800 GTS 512 MB, 7200 RPM drive, Vista.

[Montague]

Is it? Why? I thought Microsoft was giving them a lot of support for that. I haven't read anything else.

Hell, I'd go so far to say that if it wasn't for the planned 360 version, then they probably would have slimmed the requirements if it had been PC only. At least, I can't think of a better reason for why they did something so stupid.

I think the reason for the high requirements is more market differentiation than anything else. The 'M' rating, high graphic quality, and Xbox 360 distribution make it obvious that Funcom is trying to use the old baseball strategy of "hit 'em where they ain't" - in other words, do stuff that Blizzard isnt doing.

That being said, I have a hard time believing that the same company that turned out an MMO that is still a good 3-4 months and tens of thousands of man-hours away from being feature complete has the resources to finish the initial version of the game, finish the console version of the game (which hasn't been done before for an AAA MMO), and successfully integrate the two (which also hasn't been done before), by August.

If the Xbox version does release in August my guess is it would have Tortage and that would be it.

[stray]

I don't see any good ai, physics, or complex animations here.

I do.

Can you give me some examples? Are the tits bouncing in your version of the game or something?

[schild]

FFXI was a AAA MMO and it's been on 2 consoles with expansions and the PC.

The 360 version isn't due out in August. Anyone with that date hasn't noticed that it was pushed back until at least November. Though I doubt it'll drop until January or February.

Can you give me some examples? Are the tits bouncing in your version of the game or something?

Funny that you mention that - I noticed they do last night.

[stray]

 

I guess my shitty gpu is preventing me from noticing such luxuries.

[Mrbloodworth]

I don't see any good ai, physics, or complex animations here.

I do.

Can you give me some examples? Are the tits bouncing in your version of the game or something?

Physics isn't just ridged objects. It also applies to particle affects as well. I don't know why people say the animations are sub-par, they are really, REALLY well done, including some of the spell animations. Only reason i can think of is on lower settings they are getting depreciated. The AI is also very well done. Including the AI interacting with the environment, and how they interact in combat, once you get into higher levels this becomes more apparent, as its becomes less about the opponents level and more about how they act/react in combat.

FFXI was a AAA MMO and it's been on 2 consoles with expansions and the PC.

The 360 version isn't due out in August. Anyone with that date hasn't noticed that it was pushed back until at least November. Though I doubt it'll drop until January or February.

Jorgen Tharaldsen on Age of Conan for XBox360(2:14)

[Montague]

FFXI was a AAA MMO and it's been on 2 consoles with expansions and the PC.

The 360 version isn't due out in August. Anyone with that date hasn't noticed that it was pushed back until at least November. Though I doubt it'll drop until January or February.

Can you give me some examples? Are the tits bouncing in your version of the game or something?

Funny that you mention that - I noticed they do last night.

FFXI was a AAA MMO?  Ok I forgot about that one.

And yes the titties on my HoX bounce.

[shiznitz]

30+ FPS in Tortage.  1680x1050, Max settings, huge draw draw distance, 16xAnisotropic filtering, Bloom enabled, etc...

Just put this together this weekend, less than a grand at newegg, E8400, 4 gigs DDR2 800, 8800 GTS 512 MB, 7200 RPM drive, Vista.

I get 30-40fps in Tortage on Medium at 1280x1024 w/ E6850, 2GB 2700 DDR, 8600GT, 7200rpm, XP. I think an 8800 is in my future.

[Rasix]

schild walked me through setting my graphics setting in game to as he put it "find the sweetspot" for the 8800GT. DannyB helped with some additional adjustments.  Result was a better looking game and lower general FPS. but a smoother overall performance.  The gist of the tweaks seemed to be finding how much I could get my 8800GT to load before I encountered it and thus minimize the constant texture loading.

I can live with 18-25 FPS in hoggish zones like Khopesh and long as the stuttering is reduced to a minimum.  Tortage earlier today was a solid 35-40 FPS with only one hitch I saw the entire time.   

The biggest problems still seems to be NPCs that are obstructed by view and then pop in when you round a corner. 

Happy with the performance and look now, but I don't consider the amount of assistance I need to get here to be acceptable for any game.

[Typhon]

I just noticed bouncing breasts when playing earlier today for the first time.  I am 99% sure that would have noticed that before today, had it been happening.

I also noticed getting higher level/more diverse loot dropping in the upper levels of Tortage last night/today, which leads me to believe that they either aren't talking about all the changes they are making with patches, or they don't have to patch to change loot tables (look up/server-side changes only, and they have some dynamic way of flushing cached loot tables - or they just let the ttl expire).  Game seems to be changing pretty steadily (I'm not saying that there isn't a ton that's borked, I'm just saying they do seem to be plugging away).  Course, I could have just been extremely unlucky with loot prior to that point.

[Engels]

Odd. My breasts are pretty much still stiff. Maybe because I didn't shove the slider to maximum boobage?

[shiznitz]

What about the aureole slider?