Zoning times
By
Blondeshell,
Posted on: 2011-06-07 12:15 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Thank you, will get around doing that.
@Sparky Jenkins || Freedom Server | Union Server
Main Hero: Inferno Sparky - Fire/Fire Blaster
Main Villain: Kerry Astrid - Fire/Cold Corruptor
Those video cards would give a slight increase in fps but would be massively held back by that slug of a CPU called the Pentium 4. A total waste of time and money. So unless you upgrade the CPU, don't bother.
The best performance gain for the least amount of money would be to upgrade the CPU. 775 based CPUs are quite old and should have been phased out. (will be soon now that cheap SB based CPUs are on the way)
Compatability list for come CPUs that are compatable with your MB. Your board will take Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quads assuming you flash the bios to a version that supports them.
http://processormatch.intel.com/Comp...ardname=dg31pr
Something like this would be a possible choice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116347
The better solution of course would be to get a newer setup.
Drop dead date for windows xp is April 8, 2014. Then all leagacy support from Microsoft will end.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Wanted_NA
Not even upgrading the card would help? And if it would, any recommended cards I might wanna try?
Also, for the programs, I checked the Start Up section of MSConfig and most of those programs I have disabled to start with windows from before (and they don't). About reinstalling windows, it's certainly more than easy to do so, it's just checking if I have all the software I want before I do it. Plus I was planning to get a new HDD eitherways (upgrade to SATA while at it since my motherboard supports it, or so I believe at least. Since it has all the appropriate wires and stuff) so a new windows installation was in order eitherways. However, I'm about 80% set on keeping Win XP because I just do not like Win Vista/7 at all (I have all available I just have to choose, lol). |
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Thank you for all the info. I will certainly look into it. The only problem is that the vast majority of online sites do not deliver to my country. So I actually have to go around shops and check what they have and for what prices and stuff (and from what I"m seeing prices around here are rather higher than what I'm seeing online). That's why I'm trying to get the "research" done before I do that so when I buy something I know I want that.
@Sparky Jenkins || Freedom Server | Union Server
Main Hero: Inferno Sparky - Fire/Fire Blaster
Main Villain: Kerry Astrid - Fire/Cold Corruptor
Quote:
2GB isn't a lot of RAM. The OS by itself can eat that. CoH by itself can eat up to 1.5 before destabilizing. Likely you have resource contention here forcing disk swapping. |
Originally Posted by Wanted_NA
Yeah. I have 2 GBs.
|
Once you're in this territory you're in trouble since swap space is several hundred times slower than main memory (and several thousand times slower than stuff in-flight on the CPU caches).
Things that can be used to reduce client-side zone load times:
1: More memory
2: Faster drives or drive systems. In this case (in order of preference low to high) 5400rpm HD < 7200rpm HD < 10,000 rpm HD < HD RAID 0 < SSD < SSD RAID 0.
Larger caches on your hard drives will help too, as they can spit out data faster than the mechanical portions of the drive can. And the larger the cache, the longer than can spit out data at this faster rate before falling back to the slower mechanical drive.
3: Don't play over wireless. Roughly 1/3 of wireless' bandwidth is eaten overhead (signaling, parity checking, retransmissions, etc). It's also higher latency than a strictly wired connection. As such your system waits longer between retransmissions for failed transactions.
4: Reduce the number of devices between you and your internet connection if possible.
Every device your data has to go through adds latency. Meaning it takes longer and longer for every packet to get where it's going. Now, granted, this is a matter of milliseconds, but several billion packets times X milliseconds is significant after a while.
IDEALLY, you should be hooked directly to your cable/DSL "modem". This would give you the best results. REALISTICALLY, if the "modem" doesn't also do firewalling or you have multiple devices you need to hook up, I'd recommend a router as well.
Also the reason I keep quoting "modem" is because the device used by cable/DSL providers isn't a modem. It neither modulates nor demodulates an analog signal. It's technically a "bridge" device (for connecting two disparate network types).
5: Clean system install. Your system, even with the apps to kill stuff, is quite cluttered, and there's always the possibility that you have underlying damage in the OS.
6: Defrag your hard drive. If you haven't defragged your hard drive in a while DO SO. Also, if you're using something like PerfectDisk, use it to specifically defrag any fragmented files in the CoH directory too. This can speed up load times because the hard drive can access every part of the file sequentially, rather than hunting all over the disk for pieces.
7: Make sure you stay above 15-20% free space. Windows requires a certain amount of free space on FAT and NTFS partitions so that it can properly manage the filesystems. Going below this point and you usually don't have enough contiguous free space left for the OS to do it's job.
8: Clean up your hard drive (but DON'T use compression!). In line with maintaining free space and defragging, if you have stuff on the system that you're not using, delete it or move it off to a backup drive. It's just cluttering up your system disk. But do NOT take the option to compress stuff to save space. Disk compression, while "nominally" seamless, adds massive latency to program operations as it has to unpack the files before it can read them and repack them before saving changes back to the disk. Now, heavily used files don't normally get compressed, but some of your ancillary config files might. Also, with all the packing and unpacking, you run a greater risk of data corruption with compression (instead of 2 operations (read/write) to handle a file, you now have four (unpack/read/repack/write). You've just doubled your chances of introducing a bit-level error at any of those stages.
9: (Not recommended but), also remember that your antivirus is doing scanning of all files on-access. This means it stops the app from reading the file while it makes sure it's "okay", then lets it go again. You could realize some speed gains by disabling your AV while gaming. However, this is HIGHLY not-recommended, plus the fact that some antivirus programs make the process of turning themselves off difficult at best, flat-out-impossible at worst.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
I wanted to add an addendum here that does not disqualify Hyperstrikes post at all.|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
6: Defrag your hard drive. If you haven't defragged your hard drive in a while DO SO. Also, if you're using something like PerfectDisk, use it to specifically defrag any fragmented files in the CoH directory too. This can speed up load times because the hard drive can access every part of the file sequentially, rather than hunting all over the disk for pieces.
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If you haven't done a defrag in a while, and especially if it has been a very long time, it will take a LONG time. Sometimes several hours.
It should still be done. But this is something people need to be aware of. It might be best, if at all possible, to set your power options to not put the computer to sleep/hybernate and start the defrag before you go to bed, or leave for work.
After the defrag is done, set your power options back as you like. And keep up on defragging. :-P
For reference: The old CoX launcher used to increase my fragmentation to 15% of the drive after every patch. The new launcher only seems to add 2%. So, a defrag after every patch might be in order.
GAHHHHH! My damn browser backed out of the page on me! Okay, now I get to type all this crap out again!
First: I do NOT recommend an SSD for you. You're running XP and XP has no support for the TRIM garbage cleanup functions that most SSDs really require. Additionally, your system is too old and slow to warrant an upgrade to Win7.
Second: Get more RAM. It won't necessarily speed up your system a lot, but it'll help smooth out rough patches where you're currently swapping to disk.
Third: Clean out your system. Get a large external hard drive and move most of your crap off. Only copy it back to the system if you're IMMEDIATELY going to use the file.
Fourth: Are your drives IDE or SATA? If they're IDE you're not going to get a drive much larger than 500GB (which is a "why bother" for your situation). If your drives are SATA, I recommend getting 1TB 7200 rpm drives with 64MB caches. The drives will be a little overkill for a SATA1 system, but keeping the SATA1 "pipes" full of data isn't a Bad Thing. You COULD go to 2TB drives too, they're still relatively expensive (doubling disk space from TGB to 2GB MORE THAN doubles the price of the drive).
Fifth: CLEAN SYSTEM REINSTALL
With the assumption that you're going to use a 3rd party defrag product and system imaging (via Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image).
- Clean install from CD. (I recommend destroying and re-creating the old partion(s) as well during this phase.)
- Install AV and update AV.
- Scan system.
- Install system drivers.
- Install Windows Updates (basically everything save MS-offered drivers and language packs).
- Do most of your basic OS preference setups (no app installs!).
- Purge Windows Updates uninstall files *.
- Install Defragger.
- Set up a boot time defrag.
- Reboot and let the boot time defrag work.
- Defrag the drive normally.
- Use system imaging software (boot from the CD) to obtain a clean disk image.
- Click on Tools -> Folder Options
- Go to the View Tab
- Check "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
- UNcheck "Hide protected operating system files"
The reason I recommend disk imaging software is that, even if you never use the restore function, it is still available to you. Running the 12 steps above is pretty much an all day (or multiple day) thing. Restoring from a clean system image is a matter of a couple hours. Also, store the system image on a drive OTHER than the first drive. Preferably, you'd want to store it off-system completely.
Sixth: Install your game and application files to a drive OTHER than the operating system disk. This will cut down on disk I/O contention with the operating system. Also, during the clean reinstall DO NOT give in to the urge to partition off the OS and use the rest of the disk as a separate storage partition. Various apps, even when told to install to other locations, still deposit parts of themselves on the C drive (not to mention the stuff they register in the system registry). While 400GB is a BIT overkill for an OS partition, it insures that you're HIGHLY unlikely to run out of space.
Now, if you're swapping out for 1-2TB SATA drives, this advice is less compelling. In that case, I'd set up an OS partition of no more than 200GB and create the second partition as a temporary file dump. I would NOT use the second partition for app installs.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
Wow Hyperstrike. You somehow managed to travel forward in time from a distant past. Either that or you are cutting and pasting suggestions from some message board that is years old. 500 MB drive? 1GB or 2GB drive?|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Fourth: Are your drives IDE or SATA? If they're IDE you're not going to get a drive much larger than 500MB (which is a "why bother" for your situation). If your drives are SATA, I recommend getting 1GB 7200 rpm drives with 64MB caches. The drives will be a little overkill for a SATA1 system, but keeping the SATA1 "pipes" full of data isn't a Bad Thing. You COULD go to 2GB drives too, they're still relatively expensive (doubling disk space from 1GB to 2GB MORE THAN doubles the price of the drive).
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But as I said before Wanted. The one thing that influences loading times more than anything else is ram. Increasing your ram to 4GB will greatly decrease your loading times. It is true that XP will only be using about 3.25GB of that but that is still half again as much as you have now.
There is also a general rule of thumb that will show you how much of the loading times is due to your computer and how much is network related. When you start to zone watch the blue loading bar. Anything before the bar starts to move is network or server related delay. Once the blue bar starts moving that is all your system.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
Sorry Wanted, I assume most of the CoX players are in the US.
(Unlike my experiences in another MMO where US players are the minority and I found out most of my teammates were Romanian. I didn't even realize it at the time even with teamspeak on. I seriously thought they were all from the US. Apparently, they knew I was one of those Americans who only speak English so all of the team events were in English purely because I was there )
Some tech forums actually require the requester for help state what country they are in. Maybe that would help us Wanted. I'm sure there are fellow countrymen (and women) who can help with this.
Hyperstrike, more memory won't help much. The MB only has 2 Mem slots so more memory would require buying new DDR2 ram and throwing away the old ram. It won't make a P4 any faster 
Now A reinstall of XP would do wonders that I agree with. Based on what I see, since the MB will take a Core 2 processor, I would think that would be the first step. Without knowing more specs on the machine it would be hard to say if the PSU would be up to the task of powering up the current Video cards on the Market. (also, would the video card fit in the case)
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Quote:
Typos on my part. I'd just speedily retyped it before going to work this morning and had a freudian fat-finger.|
Originally Posted by Mandu
Wow Hyperstrike. You somehow managed to travel forward in time from a distant past. Either that or you are cutting and pasting suggestions from some message board that is years old. 500 MB drive? 1GB or 2GB drive?
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I'll correct it to 500GB and 1-2TB now.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
On the contrary. Going from 2 to 3-4GB would probably make a difference in his zone loads. Purely because the system would be doing less disk swapping. My 4GB XP LAPTOP shows 3GB of RAM. Outside the game, it uses 2.2GB of RAM. The game uses another 1.something GB when in (so I shut down the SQL server I have running). I'm sitting right on the threshold of maxed out for a 32-bit OS.|
Originally Posted by newchemicals
Hyperstrike, more memory won't help much. The MB only has 2 Mem slots so more memory would require buying new DDR2 ram and throwing away the old ram. It won't make a P4 any faster
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Quote:
| Now A reinstall of XP would do wonders that I agree with. Based on what I see, since the MB will take a Core 2 processor, I would think that would be the first step. |
Quote:
| Without knowing more specs on the machine it would be hard to say if the PSU would be up to the task of powering up the current Video cards on the Market. (also, would the video card fit in the case) |
Probably not. But decently priced PSUs in that range are readily available. I probably wouldn't get anything much more powerful than a GTX260 though. And hell, Newegg has them for $100 new. The system won't be bleeding edge, but for $400-500 or so, he could give it a brand new lease on life and see NOTICEABLE performance gains.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
4GB of ram won't change the fact the P4 is an awful CPU. The MB is capable of handling a much better CPU which would be a far greater benefit than extra ram.
The ram would require tossing out the existing RAM and buying more DDR2 ram. $180 is a awful lot for an old E8400/E8500 cpu since you can buy a top notch 2500K chip at Microcenter for $180.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Quote:
But I know from personal experience (back when I was dirt poor. Now I'm only gravel poor) that increasing the ram makes a dramatic decrease in loading time while improving the processor makes an insignificant decrease. A better processor can make for improvement in framerate but does next to nothing for loading zones.
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Originally Posted by newchemicals
4GB of ram won't change the fact the P4 is an awful CPU. The MB is capable of handling a much better CPU which would be a far greater benefit than extra ram.
The ram would require tossing out the existing RAM and buying more DDR2 ram. $180 is a awful lot for an old E8400/E8500 cpu since you can buy a top notch 2500K chip at Microcenter for $180. |
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
Yes but virtual memory is 100x plus slower than real memory. Paging requires multiple drive writes and reads and when you start tossing in seek times into the mix it's equivalent to an Indy 500 car driving into a stretch of wet cement at 200 miles per hour. If anything a better/faster CPU would just make it more frequent.
Fortunately the OPs rig can be upgraded but considering it's a DDR2/Socket 775 system I question if it's worth the cost in the short term.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
That might be true if you are on the very low end of ram but not at 2GB.
Sorry, Mandu CPU does matter.
I've unfortuneately have seen more than my fair share of machines with 256MB RAM running XP.
Fine, when I get home I'll test zoning times. I know when I had my Athlon II 630 with 8GB of ram I would be the last one to zone in on lambdas. Now, with a Phenom II 965 same machine except with faster CPU I am in the first 1/3 of people zoning into Lambda.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Well. More RAM and a new HDD where almost sure go for me (The HDD I have right now is too small and I need more storage space). I will have to check the market and see if they have any CPUs available that work for my motherboard. If can get a good deal on a Core 2 Quad processor might as well get that. My budget isn't exactly that tight. I have about $1000 saved aside for "personal luxury" ATM. But I honestly would rather not spend all that on a PC since there are a few more things I'd like to get as well.
Also, Hyperstrike. Yes my machine is directly connected to the modem. I'm not using a wireless connection. And I defrag my system every 2 weeks, plus after every patch for the game. I have an old IDE HDD right now, but the new one will definitely be SATA (probably going for a 500GB one rather than a 1TB. I don't think my MB will like the 1/2 TB HDDs). And since I'm getting a new HDD, I'm going to have to do a clean OS install eitherways. The old HDD will just be connected as slave drive for additional space. Plus there's a lot of stuff on it I want eitherways. There is nothing I can do about my connection right now, since as much as it sucks, sadly it's the highest available in the area I live. Been waiting on my ISP to upgade their stuff for 2 years now.
Thank you very much everyone for all the suggestions and advice. Very much appreciated.
@Sparky Jenkins || Freedom Server | Union Server
Main Hero: Inferno Sparky - Fire/Fire Blaster
Main Villain: Kerry Astrid - Fire/Cold Corruptor
Quote:
2.93Ghz E7500 Core2Duo: $120 (Free Shipping)|
Originally Posted by Wanted_NA
Well. More RAM and a new HDD where almost sure go for me (The HDD I have right now is too small and I need more storage space). I will have to check the market and see if they have any CPUs available that work for my motherboard. If can get a good deal on a Core 2 Quad processor might as well get that. My budget isn't exactly that tight. I have about $1000 saved aside for "personal luxury" ATM. But I honestly would rather not spend all that on a PC since there are a few more things I'd like to get as well.
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4GB (2x2GB) Patriot DDR2 800 (PC6400) Memory: $60 (Free Shipping)
CoolerMaster 600W PSU: $63 shipped
Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm drive with 64MB Cache: $90 (Free Shipping)
Or if you don't mind open Box returns
Western Digital 2TB 7200rpm drive with 64MB Cache: $73 shipped
Also, don't worry if the drives say SATA 6GB. All these SATA drives are backwards compatible.
nVidia GTX 260: $108 Shipped
OR
nVidia GTX 460: $158 Shipped and a $30 Mail In Rebate
So, were you to go whole-hog on all these upgrades, you'd wind up spending $530-580 (and get a little back from the MIR).
Quote:
| And I defrag my system every 2 weeks, plus after every patch for the game. |
Quote:
| I have an old IDE HDD right now, but the new one will definitely be SATA (probably going for a 500GB one rather than a 1TB. I don't think my MB will like the 1/2 TB HDDs). |
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
Yes, but a 2500K would also require buying a new board and memory. I'm not sure he wants to COMPLETELY tear apart the system.
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Originally Posted by newchemicals
The ram would require tossing out the existing RAM and buying more DDR2 ram. $180 is a awful lot for an old E8400/E8500 cpu since you can buy a top notch 2500K chip at Microcenter for $180.
|
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
I'm sorry but you're incorrect.|
Originally Posted by newchemicals
That might be true if you are on the very low end of ram but not at 2GB.
Sorry, Mandu CPU does matter. I've unfortuneately have seen more than my fair share of machines with 256MB RAM running XP. Fine, when I get home I'll test zoning times. I know when I had my Athlon II 630 with 8GB of ram I would be the last one to zone in on lambdas. Now, with a Phenom II 965 same machine except with faster CPU I am in the first 1/3 of people zoning into Lambda. |
In terms of loading, in his case, the memory is far more important. The reason is that currently he's SWAPPING TO DISK during loads. I don't give a damn if you have a 500Ghz CPU, if it's spending 99.9% of it's cycles waiting for data from mechanical storage it's no faster than his P4.
The CPU will help more in terms of FRAMERATE for some of the CPU-intensive portions of the game. But loading a zone map isn't one of them. Please feel free to continue arguing this if you like, but it won't change anything.
Comparing his 2GB system memory to your old configuration with 8 is meaningless because your system bottlenecks are in completely different places.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Also, on the flip side, there's the true whole-hog approach of gutting your machine and installing new insides.
Keep your current optical, and case.
New Power Supply
New Motherboard
New CPU
New Memory (did a combo deal that also netted you Acronis True Image)
New Video Card
New Hard Drive
If you're up to it, you're talking about $780 shipped.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
I'll be testing with my E6600 with 4GB of ram, Then I will rip out 2GB and retest.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Actually Wanted if you were willing to do a complete rebuild, it would be a better use of your money than sinking money into an old platorm.
Hyperstrike: Wanted didn't say what country he's in, so its not clear newegg will deliver there.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
For my fully Purpled out and incarnated out controller. Load times in Talos. Cold Load 36s (Avg), Warm Load 23.8s (Avg)
Cold Load means first time logging into CoH from a Reboot of system.
Note that XP is only seeing 3GB.
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---
DxDiag gathered at June 11, 2011 13:16 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/26/06 20:34:04 Ver: 08.00.12
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 3008MB
.Net Memory Report: 2548MB out of 3007MB available
Page File: 4542MB (350MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3320620AS) 127183MB out of 152617MB (83%) free
D Drive: (ST3320620AS) 106529MB out of 152617MB (69%) free
X Drive: (LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: Dell U2410(Digital)
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1920,1200
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x68BE)
Video Memory: 1024.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7093
Driver Date: 5/27/2010 9:58:50 AM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: SoundMAX HD Audio
Driver File: ADIHdAud.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0001.4530
Driver Date: 5/2/2006 10:12:06 AM
Sound Device Description: ATI HD Audio rear output
Driver File: AtiHdmi.sys
Driver Version: 5.00.40001.0009
Driver Date: 7/20/2007 7:40:10 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P5B
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 10/26/06 20:34:04 Ver: 08.00.12
BIOS Version: A M I - 10000626
BIOS Release: 20061026000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1200
3D Resolution: 1920x1200 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No
Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High
World Texture Level: High
Character Texture Level: High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Shadow maps
Shadow Map Shader: Low quality
Environmental Reflections: Medium quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High performance
Occlusion Strength: Slight
Blur: Fast
Ambient Resolution: High performance
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 228856 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 2010.201105250125.1
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\FX\FullscreenFX has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\CREATION\CharacterSelect has 15 files
.\texture_library\GUI\HUD\Align_Status has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\HUD\Tips has 18 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Archetype has 19 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Inspirations has 51 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Inspirations\Alternate s has 1 file
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Origin has 5 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Pet_Command has 12 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Pet_Command\ALTERNATE-1 has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers has 1277 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers\ALTERNATE-1 has 32 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers\ALTERNATE-2 has 12 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 38 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\City has 1 file
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Ok same test with same character same location. Note that I am now at 2 GB of RAM. Cold Load 33s (Avg), Warm Load 23.8 (Avg)
Heh, Cold Character load times were actually faster with 2GB o.O
This is the closest machine I have to what Wanted has. It has a Core 2 Duo E6600 DDR2 Ram and an Ati 5750 video card. I don't have a MB that can take a P4 and Core 2 so sorry I can't test the difference with same hardware.
Hyperstrike: I'm still a fan of yours for all your help in this forum but you are wrong on this one. I'm just doing my part in helping the CoX community. So please don't take this as a forum war.
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---
DxDiag gathered at June 11, 2011 13:49 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/26/06 20:34:04 Ver: 08.00.12
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB
.Net Memory Report: 1612MB out of 2047MB available
Page File: 3594MB (345MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3320620AS) 128143MB out of 152617MB (83%) free
D Drive: (ST3320620AS) 106529MB out of 152617MB (69%) free
X Drive: (LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: Dell U2410(Digital)
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1920,1200
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x68BE)
Video Memory: 1024.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7093
Driver Date: 5/27/2010 9:58:50 AM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: SoundMAX HD Audio
Driver File: ADIHdAud.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0001.4530
Driver Date: 5/2/2006 10:12:06 AM
Sound Device Description: ATI HD Audio rear output
Driver File: AtiHdmi.sys
Driver Version: 5.00.40001.0009
Driver Date: 7/20/2007 7:40:10 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P5B
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 10/26/06 20:34:04 Ver: 08.00.12
BIOS Version: A M I - 10000626
BIOS Release: 20061026000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1200
3D Resolution: 1920x1200 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No
Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High
World Texture Level: High
Character Texture Level: High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Shadow maps
Shadow Map Shader: Low quality
Environmental Reflections: Medium quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High performance
Occlusion Strength: Slight
Blur: Fast
Ambient Resolution: High performance
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 228856 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 2010.201105250125.1
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\FX\FullscreenFX has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\CREATION\CharacterSelect has 15 files
.\texture_library\GUI\HUD\Align_Status has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\HUD\Tips has 18 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Archetype has 19 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Inspirations has 51 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Inspirations\Alternate s has 1 file
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Origin has 5 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Pet_Command has 12 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Pet_Command\ALTERNATE-1 has 6 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers has 1277 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers\ALTERNATE-1 has 32 files
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers\ALTERNATE-2 has 12 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 38 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\City has 1 file
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
If you are wondering my 2500K system.
Cold Load 12.4s
Warm Load 9s
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Wanted, just to add my 2 cents...I'd suggest you can shut the following down to free up some resources.
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - (no file)
(this is an obsolete file...a leftover from a deleted one.)
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Common
(Unless you are constantly using/reading PDF files, you really don't need this....some will say even if you are it's not needed.)
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
(another Adobe piece of bloatware that you can do without.)
O2 - BHO: AskBar BHO - {201f27d4-3704-41d6-89c1-aa35e39143ed} - C:\Program Files\AskBarDis\bar\bin\askBar.dll
(I personally HATE a lot of task bars, and especially this one. I would uninstall it. It usually gets sneakilly installed with something else.)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C255C8A-E604-49b4-9D64-90988571CECB} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {aac4043a-8832-4abe-9963-35377f30b8e6} - (no file)
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {07B18EA9-A523-4961-B6BB-170DE4475CCA} - (no file)
(more leftovers to delete)
The following load when you start your puter and are always running in the background.
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe" -osboot
(this is for RealPlayer, and isn't necessary)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
(this is for Quicktime, and isn't necessary)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe"
(Java runtime...no need for this, as you can update it yourself)
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Google Update] "C:\Documents and Settings\Sparky\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe" /c
(this is just silly...even if you have GoogleEarth installed you can still update it yourself)
Here is the HijackThis Logfile anaysis site. Just copy your results and paste them in the box...it will show you what they are and you can better see whether to disable or delete some.
Logfile Analysis
The less you have running in the background, the more resources you free up. I have an old putersaurus (still has an agp card..LOL) and I can even run 2 instances of CoH at once.
I hope this helps some. Good luck!