would u consider quitting second life if performance doesnt improve?

If I had to guess based on what's quoted above, I'd say it *might* be your virtual memory settings. Try setting it manually to 3Gb (around 3000 Mb) minimum size, and 6Gb maximum size. If your framerate tanks after being logged in for hours and hours (when it WAS running just fine), raise the maximum a bit.

Windows can struggle with the page file if it's set to auto and the file gets too large (it has to read all of it in order to read/write to it). Likewise, if it's set manually and the max size is too small, you'll be lagging while writing to the harddrive all the time. Using a fixed-size file (so windows doesnt try to resize it all the time), with a higher minimum size, and a maximum size just larger than you would ever use (in one runtime session) is the optimum setting for performance, while being less work for windows than using auto.

Oh, I thought this was something that had started happening on an existing system. If it's a new computer and you're not running the OS it came with it's pretty common to need to play musical drivers for a while.

Windows can struggle with the page file if it's set to auto and the file gets too large (it has to read all of it in order to read/write to it).

Likewise, if it's set manually and the max size is too small, you'll be lagging while writing to the harddrive all the time.

Using a fixed-size file (so windows doesnt try to resize it all the time), with a higher minimum size, and a maximum size just larger than you would ever use (in one runtime session) is the optimum setting for performance, while being less work for windows than using auto.

What do you mean by this? It's a page file. Nothing gets read from it unless it's written to it.

If your page file size is too small, operations will fail because Windows has no place TO write to the hard drive.

Unless you set minimum and maximum to the same value, Windows is free to resize it within those limits. There's no difference between Windows resizing it when you've manually set a range and Windows resizing it when it's used whatever heuristics it uses in "auto" to decide on a size.

That's a serious question, btw. Does anyone have a clearer sense of how "open" Blue Mars is likely to be to, just to name the most obvious thing, the sort of "adult" content still permitted in SL?

I'm sure you are right, but it's only in Beta right now, correct? I was thinking more about projected content, from National Geographic, the Smithsonian, NASA, etc. . . .

I think that depends a lot on how open their 'registered developer' program is.

If it's strict, BM will die a slow, boring death. If it's pretty open, it may end up doing well.

I just signed up as a city developer for Blue Mars, and the paperwork prohibits "obscene" material. Note that there is a difference between adult and obscene. Under USA law (where both Linden Labs and Avatar Reality are located), adult content is legal, obscene is not.

I can see BM being able to handle with fair ease an art gallery, for instance, featuring "adult" art. But it would be interesting to know what their action plan is for dealing with the first Gorean sim, or strip club for that matter, to go into the new world.