Class 5 vs Class 4 sim/server

Hi, I have some questions about the differences between a Class 4 sim and Class 5. I have 2 questions:

1) Is there really a difference between Class 4 and Class 5 in performance, and if so what is the difference and to what degree?

2) It is my understanding that Class 4 sims are grandfathered in at a rate of $195 USD/month. But can be upgraded to Class 5 for a one time $295USD charge but stay at the lower monthly rate. Is this true?

I searched the knowledge base but never found a definitive answer. Thanks for your help.

Stacia Zabaleta

I have not measured the difference. Though I can tell you it is more then noticeable. Of all the sims I have had switched, most showed at least a two times performance increase. I noticed script time for individual objects reduced by half, and the number of avatars that could be present in the sim before causing issues doubled.


I am not aware of pricing however. I am just a land manager.

Class 5 is newer hardware, though even that is a nearly few years old now..

If you just want a nice quiet region without a lot going on, you're probably not going to notice a big difference. As the load you put on the region increases - more people, more scripts, etc, etc - the older class 4 hardware will start to struggle before the newer stuff does..

Yes I would like to clarify that upgrading will not improve performance if your sim is not already being pushed beyond what it can handle.

Upgrading will only increase the limit of what the sim can handle before performance starts to fall off.

I just had a conversation with someone who owns a lot of sims about class 4 and 5's... and yes... there is a major difference in performance.... and price.

Given how long class 5 has been around i'm surprised they haven't started introducing class 6.

Ideally they would replace the entire lot with new servers, but i highly doubt that'll ever happen.

They announced it earlier this year. Nahalem processors with a QPI bus.. /me drools.

LL will eventually replace all the older class 4 and class 5 machines with newer hardware, just like they have now retired all the old class 1-3 hardware, but it will be a while. Probably a long, long while.