2 Fps?

<Shift><ctrl>1 all at the same time.....

Then press same keys again to remove the display box

Yep, that's basically the boat I'm in now. Getting an average of 1.2 FPS since the update, sometimes 2 or 3 if I'm lucky and in a quiet place. It is a bit frustrating and I have to say I don't enjoy logging on as much as I did 3 days ago, especially because I've had to disable all the shiny new features other people are waxing ecstatic about.

Had SL performed this way when I first joined, I honestly can't say whether or not I'd have stuck with it.

But the fact is, I'm hooked now. For me, the overall experience of SL is still interesting and enjoyable enough that it's ultimately worth it. Honestly, I just feel far too invested at this point to imagine leaving, unless I get to the point where I'm literally frozen in place and unable to type IMs.

Coco, I'd add more memory. Here's a link to the Dell instructions on how to add memory to a Dell Dimension 4400 . A new video card would be good also. Here's a link to a place selling an eVGA nVidia 6600 for 105 dollars including shipping . The 400 only has 4X AGP, this may have bearing on what video card one should buy. The power supply in the 4400 might be a little underpowered for that card, I don't know.

ty Suezanne!

coco

P.S. Gad, that looks scary.

Its like changing a light bulb. One that is hiding inside your computer. BTW, its difficult to mess up installing memory and video cards. They only fit one way.

The instructions for changing the memory are more complicated than the actual process of changing the memory, as is frequently the case with detailed instructions. To boil it down, it's open the case, locate the place to plug the memory in, and plug the memory in, being careful to not break it or zap it with static electricity.

Installing a video card should be no trouble at all, again being careful not break anything by using too much force. I've installed processor upgrades, swapped a power supply, added memory, replaced sound cards, fans, network cards, usb cards, and they all worked ok, and I don't lke messing with the stuff either. I'm afraid I will break something I paid good money for.

Of course one can take it to a shop and get this stuff done, but that will slow the process down and cost a significant amount more.

Theres only one way to go. upgrade! My 6200 runs SL fine now after i reinstalled WinXP, But i also know it could be better! Eventually when i upgrade to a newer card, il look back and think "omg i really suffered o.o".

I hope Coco gets some advice about what card matches her system from better informed people than me before she buys one. I'm worried about whether the power supply in the Dell 4400 is adequate for an nVidia 6600. I think I remember that some of the better video cards take enough extra power that they use an extra power cable, which might not be available on a Dell 4400.

Hopefully, she reads through this thread before getting a new card. I have limited experience with Dells, but the ones I've seen generally don't use heavy duty power supplies. It would not be an issue if her machine had a modern PCI-e card, but most likely its has an AGP slot. If she gets a 6600, she will probably have to get a better power supply. If I'm correct, nothing less than 350w will work with a 6600.

Been thinking about buying some extra RAM myself, now I am convinced! I would also love a top end Nvidia FX card, but I just can't afford to buy one

My system is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP3000+

512MB DDR

Geoforce 4 Ti4800SE 128MB DDR

Is my RAM the thing to change?

Also, I have AOL broadband 2MB connection. (UK)

I'm aware that lots of people dislike AOL, but is the way AOL working effecting my FPS in SL?
If so, why/how? I'm thinking of trying Wannadoo as my ISP, any comments to help me decide? I must say that I regurly speed test my AOL connection, and it's usually pretty good.

The time has come, since the last update to upgrade my PC. I am finding my FPS are higher than they were before the update when I am standing around, but lower than before as soon as I move. Weirdness! I love to fly planes and stuff in SL, but this is a big no no at the moment

Any help will be very much appreciated, TY

Bulldog

Adding RAM will help, but it will only give you a small boost. The real issues here are the vid card, processor and motherboard. You could get an AGP 7800GS, but the cost is right up there with the PCI-e versions of the card, and in some cases, the AGP version may cost even more. If you were to decide to get a PCI-e vid card, you would have to upgrade the processor and motherboard. If you upgraded to a Socket 939 motherboard and an Athlon 64 processor, you could sitll use the DDR memory you have now.

You don't really need a high end Nvidia card for SL. You may want to look into getting a 6600, 7300 or 7600. They aren't top of the line, but they suport Shader Model 3, which lets you see ripple water, something a GeForce 4 can't do.

I just upgraded from a similar spec, so maybe I can advise.

When I started SL, I had a GeForce 2MX, which in Jan '04 (I think) I replaced with a 4Ti4600 128, similar to the card we're talking about. I had overheating problems with that card and replaced it with an FX5200 just before it melted down. The difference between the two was marginal though. The 4Ti could actually use the old ripple water which the FX couldn't... and eventually LL said it didn' work at all, which was nonsense.

Anyway, fast forward to 1.10, and my FX gave me about 2fps, though I had 8-9 in 1.9... When it got to the main grid, I dunno what changed, but I was back to 6-7fps anyway.

I finally gave into temptation, and Thursday afternoon, I ordered from Dabs, a 6600. It arrived Friday morning (the thing I really love about Dabs - I dunno why anyone would pay extra for next day delivery, lol... I pay for standard and have never waited more than 16 hours) ...

Anyway, I'm back up to 20-30fps now, depending on where I am. The card was a "Dabs Value", but turned out to be an Inno 3D, same as my FX5200 was... and I've been very impressed with the quality of both... It cost me £64 + postage...

I would recomend the 6600 over the 7300. THe first number in the naming scheme is the series. The 7 series is the current genreation. The second number is where in the overall line the card sits, according to features. A 6600 will actually have a better feature set than a 7300. If anything, I'm pretty sure the 7300 is the current generation of the 6200. So I usually reccoment starting with a 6600.

However, if you are into 3D gaming at all, I usually reccomend getting the biggest, most powerful card you can afford that is compatible with your machine. The reason being, the bulk of the graphical processing is being done by the video card, so the better the card you get now, the LONGER you'll be able to use it and still have an enjoyable gaming experience.

Oh, I plan to ask Dell first, I think they will tell you what to get if you are putting in a new video card.

I am subscribing to this thread so that all the info will be there for me.

On the plus side, last night I was getting 30's fps and even spikes into the 40's! For part of the night, anyway. I don't know why, because I didn't do anything different.

One thing I have noticed since the update is that fewer of the sims I am in are achieving a constant 45 fps. A couple were REALLY low, and a lot of the others dip a lot of the time time to 44 or 43, behavior I didn't notice happening prior to the update.

coco

I expected people with ultra-fast PCs to get more out of SL as it improves but what I didn't expect is for people who are not bothered about improving how it looks and want to stay the same seem to have taken big blow in their frame rates! These stories are pretty bad and I wonder how many have given up?

<nods> I get about 15-60 FPS on my Acer laptop with 2 gigs ram and x1400 ATI video. I'm almost certain the video card is the lag issue for nearly everyone here, as I've had the chance to upgrade a few video cards and see the effects on SL in before nad after.

Memory is the next big thing, but one gig is the roof you need right now. More memory is nice if you multitask in several programs WITH SL atthe same time, but not manditory.

The CPU? Well, to be honest, SL is a CPU hog no matter how fast the system is, but slower systems do not seem to get faster as SL with a faster CPU. It's all in the video card it seems.

What resolution do you run at?

I recently bought a top of the line Dell XPS laptop just for SL, and was very dissappointed when it ran at 2-3 fps, but this was at the highest odd-size resolution, 1900X1620 I think.

When I switched down to 1600x1200 it flies! 30-80 fps with all of the features on and turned all the way up, and draw distance at 256m.

Someone told me all of the textures in SL are sized at 1600x1200, so try this resolution or lower, so that your video card does not have to dynamically resize the textures.

Dumb question here, folks. Hoping some of the more technically inclined can help me with this.


I've got two cards, one of which is sitting in my system now. I've got a GeForce 5200FX with 256m vram, the only catch is that it's a PCI card. Not PCI express, just regular slow ole' PCI.

I've got another card here, an ATI Radeon 9700 with 128m vram, but it uses an AGP slot.

My question is, would the faster interface of the 2nd card make up for the slower interface of the first card, even though the latter has half the vram?

CPU: Athlon 1800+
RAM: DDR 512
VID: FX 5900 baseline

Average 20 FPS with settings tuned. SL looks fine but the draw distance is low. I don't really care if I can see for miles anway ;0 I'm usually scripting, building or AFK ;0

I have an AMD Athlon XP 3200+, 1GIG RAM, and an ATI Radeon with 128 dedicated video memory. I average 20-25fps when in vacant areas or on my own land, and run down to about 8-15 fps at The Shelter, generally the busiest place I go to. My settings are fairly high, but I did lower draw distance a notch.

I'd been experiencing a terrible, sudden WALL of lag that hits whenever I move from one sim to another lately, onionpencil Musashi brought up memory leaks and I checked my stats, yup, pc usage 100%. I don't want to have to relog constantly to avoid getting to that danger zone, so it might be time to replace my PC. Before this computer I'd never made any attempt at upgrading hardware myself, but with this one I've upgraded the RAM, the video card, the hard drives, the power supply, even the ethernet card. Huge steps for me, but I'm not at all comfortable with replacing a processor or motherboard. I want a shiny new system with an AMD 64 chip and 256mb vidcard!

Great Gorean Auction! Take the ATI! It is MUCH faster than the 5200.

AMD Athlon64X2 (OC'ed around 4800+ speed)
nVidia 7800 AGP (OC'ed around 7800GTX speed)
2GB Dual DDR400 (2-2-5-2 timings)
SL @ 1920x1200 w/ everything on

Honestly, I probably average 13-17 FPS in busy areas (I hang out mainly at the Welcome Areas). I can deal with slowness to about 4-5 FPS, and anything lower than that I just don't find fun.

On a humorous note, I got an IM from a new resident I met a day earlier, who told me that they crashed on Help Island, and then when they returned, they woke up in the Korea 1 sim (a glitch that sometimes happens). I went over to Korea 1 to meet him, and immediately felt strange. For those who haven't been to the Korea island sims, they're pretty much barren, flat, empty sims. Oh.. that's what was wrong- 70 FPS. After playing SL for over a year at a fraction of that speed, smooth SL just feels.. well.. uncomfortable!

My frate rates used to be pretty good, but the last few patches seemed to have demolished them.

For example, 1.10.0.0 gave me really nice framerates -- Well over a 100 in "best-case" scenerios such as looking at the edge of the world or being in a skybox, usually 30-40 in most heavily-primmed areas with lots in view, and finally 15 or so in very busy areas with lots of avatars.

Now? I get half of those rates, sometimes significantly worse. For example, 5-7 FPS in a busy avatar-laden place that used to give me around 15 FPS. Even at my simple, non-prim-spammy house, I'm getting around 15 FPS when I used to get 40+.

What is even wierder is that sometimes my frame rate will shoot back up to the old figures and stay there for about 15 minutes, then return to the new, sucky ones.

What happened? I don't know, but it's been the last few updates SINCE the initial 1.10 that's caused these sudden framerate drops.

Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 4200 X2
2 GB 3200 RAM
Geforce 6800 256MB PCIe