Questions About Making Everquest run better

[darqueman]

I have a pretty decent system (as far as I know) but Everquest runs so slow on it is there anything i can do to upgrade it? I've tried all the tricks like defragging the harddrive, closing programs I don't need setting up virtual RAM and not playing in windows mode. I only play with three character models on, my spells off, zone cacheing on an still there's a ton of slow down and long load times. I know buying more ram will help, but I've heard that I need to do more. I read somewhere that having a virtual cpu (whatever that is) will allow Everquest to run fine will all the models on, high detail, etc... Can some help me out? Here are my Computer specs

Dell Dimension 8250
Intel[R]
Pentium[R] 4 Cpu 2.66GHz
2.65 GHz
256 MB Ram

I have the required Nivdea GE Force Card as well and Direct x 9.0

[eidolon]

First thing spotted:

RAM 256


That's BAAAADDD.

My two systems have 768MB and 1GB. The 768MB system runs marginal (with all the goodies turned on at 1280x1024 res) and the 1GB System rocks.

That's most likely your bottleneck right now.

Think of it like this...

You have a total of 256MB of Ram.
How much does Windows take?
How much do your services take?
How much does EQ request?

That 256 is being stretched beyond belief.

[eidolon]

http://eqlive.station.sony.com/support/tec...equirements.jsp (http://eqlive.station.sony.com/support/tech_support/ts_system_requirements.jsp)

Recommended Specs:

Windows® 98/2000/ME/XP
Pentium® 4 equivalent or greater
512 MB RAM
NVidia GeForce 3/ATI Radeon 8500 equivalent or greater
DirectX Compatible Sound Card
56.6k + Internet Connection
16X Speed CD-ROM
2.5+ GB Hard Drive Space
DirectX 9.0
EverQuest Classic and a valid EverQuest account


This may help some... but with that little RAM, not sure how much:
http://www.rpgexpert.com/87.html

[Fizzleplink]

Yup yup, I'd have to say up the RAM. You've got a good processor, you just need to let it stretch its legs. You'll notice a huge improvement on everything you do if you take the RAM up to 768 or 1Gb.

512 will be noticably faster (run about 2/3 of the models if you do 512 Mb), but with RAM prices, you can often get 2x as much for only 1/3 more money.

You mentioned your video card in passing -- 64Mb as a minimum, really. My 32Mb card in the "old" PC just isn't cutting it any more, despite being compatible.