1. Update video drivers if you havent already
2. delete the shader.cache files in your main Conan directory. That helped a lot for me, but I didnt have the same trouble you are
3. If you can't get at least into gameplay with those changes, try reinstalling if you're desperate. If you're not desperate then on to #4
4. Delete everything Conan related and get yourself a 10 day trial at launch to see if the real client runs any better on your system.

YES!

Also before the character selection screen hit the settings button on the bottom right and make sure you're set to low settings. and after that make sure you're on shader 2.0 in the graphics/advanced tab.

Mostly dittoing what everyone else here said except to add that inside your Closed (?) Beta directory for Conan, you should probably have something called SimpleConfig.EXE. At least, we had that with Open Beta. In there, you can set your graphics resolution and, maybe more importantly, set it to windowed by unchecking the full-screen box. When I was having trouble initially, that allowed me to get inside the game smoother to start tweaking all the settings until I had it working well for my machine. I'd considered running it off full-screen and pushing the resolution way down for now to see if that at least gets your foot in the door. Then you can drop Shader down, go to low or medium settings, and turn off bloom to see if that further's your performance. Once you get it working at some level, you can see what you can push up.

Poly is 100% right about uninstalling/deleting everything, though, in the coming week and seeing who might have Buddy Keys to offer. I wish I had them, myself, to pass about, but I got on the CE bandwagon too late and am stuck with just the normal pre-order.

While it can run at 2.0 i think it requires the card to be 3.0 compatible. I think there's a settings button at the time you log in as well. If not then you're SOL.

Once it is running can you hit control `
if you can see that menu you can tweak the graphics.

They took out the manual shader selection with this last patch out side of that menu.

So I have shader choices of 2.0, 2.x, and 3.0... not using 3.0... but between 2.x and 2.0 should I just see which runs better.?

I had the best results hands down with 2.0, the game ran like butter. This is a GREAT thread to have though once we all log into the live client - all advice is good!

If you can't ever get past the opening sequence to see the settings/login screen, try this:

Find your Conan prefs folder, should be under \Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Funcom\Conan\Prefs.

You should have a prefs file there. In it, you can manually set shader model 2.0. From looking at my own settings, you want:

<Value name="RenderSetting_ShaderModel" value="-1" />

to get SM2. SM3 is value="1".

Wow, remember last year this card was like 500 bucks!

Awesome early launch weekend. The only crash i've had was on exiting the game. Framerate at Medium settings is around 40 fps, i'm running a C2D at 3Ghz, with 2 gigs of RAM and an 8800 GTS with 320Mb. At the Low graphics setting, i'm getting around 100 fps.

AMD 4200+ dual core, 4 gigs RAM, 8800GTX (768VRAM) and I'm running high settings in DX10 and get about 25-40 fps in populated/long view distance areas.

The performance is head and shoulders above the open beta, I can't believe they were able to optimize so well and the game still looks amazing.

Yup, I found it was pretty dark too and didn't pop. I turned up my "Digital Vibrance" from the Nvidia control panel to help that out a bit too, makes a big difference

I picked up an ATI 3850HD for $149 at CompUSA. It's eating the game up. On high I am getting about 30 FPS.

Could be. I have a 7950GTX with the latest Nvidia drivers, maybe i'll play around a bit more until I can get 2.0 working with the effects. It really doesn't make sense and sounds bug like not to be able to see them.