Question - What to upgrade

[Eteocles]

Okay thanks Don ;p

Bottom line on 3rd gig of ram: 3.2 recognized(despite 4 being installed hardware-wise) is more or less equal to simply 3gb; though if you 5box, it might make a noticeable difference. The 2 dual-channel sticks, if placed in the correct slots, will still work as dual-channel, then adding a third will simply make that single, third stick non-dual

I have 2gb ddr2 dualchannel setup as the H's in your diagram so yeah I'm good then ;p I might grab a third stick just for the performance increase soonish, though at this rate I may just sit down one weekend and do a complete overhaul of my case and specs; I've got a perfectly good, probably-faster(than my current IDE HD) SATA drive sittin around brand new unused, my case is getting crowded(and probably a bit dusty) and not to mention is an ugly 7+ year old beige case I've simply upgraded parts "into" over the years, I think it's about time to get a fancy tower case with more room for my drives and without the poor processor being stuck under the power supply lol in addition to the extra RAM and HD

[BobGnarly]

Get more RAM.

I had a pretty similar situation, 5 boxing on one comp (6600 core2 duo, 2G, 8800gtx), getting 60fps(main, 15fps capped on slaves) everywhere, but would slideshow in areas with lots of people. Did two things, moved everything to one folder (helped lots more than I thought), and bought 4G of RAM.

Even though I'm using XP and only getting 3G of it, it fixed the problem. Pretty sure you are gated by the same thing given your description.

[Biz]

Last night I picked up 2g of cheap ddr2 and a 9600gt. 7600gt --> 9600gt is a seriously huge upgrade. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. As for the ram, loading times are significantly shorter and my page file usage is way down. With the two combined I can run 5 characters smoothly. One strange issue is that while running 1+ characters through a city, even though my fps is at or above my refresh rate, it gets choppy. Not screen tear but fraction of a second stutters, which never happened previously. It is just as bad if I enable vsync. Any ideas?

[Eteocles]

Probably just simple load lag, there's ALOT to load in shatt, especially near the pvp battlemasters(the hundreds of lazy welfare-epic assholes who queue and stand there lagging everyone to hell instead of moving away) and those in the center returning from raids via mage portal or taking the major city portals let alone the dozens of useless npcs standing at the fp and other areas doing nothing all day lol

I'm just guessing, though

[Biz]

yeah it's just strange that I stick in more memory and a new video card and the issue gets much worse. I have a feeling that my motherboard auto-decreased memory performance to compensate for adding 2 more sticks. I didn't have time to check it this morning but I will when I get home from work.

[Dezeral]

yeah it's just strange that I stick in more memory and a new video card and the issue gets much worse. I have a feeling that my motherboard auto-decreased memory performance to compensate for adding 2 more sticks. I didn't have time to check it this morning but I will when I get home from work.

That is a very real possibility. Some motheboards will operate using 1t command rate with only two memory slots populated, but drop to a 2t command rate with 4 memory slots populated. Check your mobo manual or the manufacturer's website to see what they have to say about memory configurations.

[Biz]

My motherboard basically set my memory to ultra-slow. Upped the voltage, put the settings back where they should be, and everything is much more smooth. But now 5 windows is making my vid card artifact so looks like today I'll be pulling it apart to re-grease.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Last night I picked up 2g of cheap ddr2 and a 9600gt. 7600gt --> 9600gt is a seriously huge upgrade. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. As for the ram, loading times are significantly shorter and my page file usage is way down. With the two combined I can run 5 characters smoothly. One strange issue is that while running 1+ characters through a city, even though my fps is at or above my refresh rate, it gets choppy. Not screen tear but fraction of a second stutters, which never happened previously. It is just as bad if I enable vsync. Any ideas?

That is 90% read-from-disk stutters. Adjusting your RAM settings seems to have helped you, but you might also be seeing it more often because it was previously masked by poor framerates. :P I had that problem when I upgraded recently to a Q6600+4GB+8800GT. When you get used to 85fps consistently, any hitch is obvious.

[Biz]

Last night I picked up 2g of cheap ddr2 and a 9600gt. 7600gt --> 9600gt is a seriously huge upgrade. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. As for the ram, loading times are significantly shorter and my page file usage is way down. With the two combined I can run 5 characters smoothly. One strange issue is that while running 1+ characters through a city, even though my fps is at or above my refresh rate, it gets choppy. Not screen tear but fraction of a second stutters, which never happened previously. It is just as bad if I enable vsync. Any ideas?

That is 90% read-from-disk stutters. Adjusting your RAM settings seems to have helped you, but you might also be seeing it more often because it was previously masked by poor framerates. :P I had that problem when I upgraded recently to a Q6600+4GB+8800GT. When you get used to 85fps consistently, any hitch is obvious.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks!I'm still getting stutters, just not as frequently and then really only in highly-populated areas. I can't see myself purchasing 4 new HDs any time soon though.