Age of Conan - Performance (FPS) Survey
Alright here is a random question survey. If you have time please answer. Thank you.
Background: I have a friend who was a huge fan and player of WoW since the very beginning. After years now of playing he has finally become bored with it. His computer is very old and so it's now time for an upgrade. As it stands he literally wants me to build him a computer system that will allow him to get at least 60 FPS on Age of Conan. It's an odd request to be asked to build a new rig using a single game as a benchmark but who am I to say to him that his standards are a bit odd. The question I am asking is so I have an idea of the bottom line system I can put together for him. He is on a budget and so giving him something that is good enough but not over the top is important. I'm just doing preliminary research in preparation for his build.
Question: How many of you are getting 60+ FPS (frames per second) on Age of Conan?
If you are please post your general computer specs CPU, Memory, Graphics Card.and OS.
Thanks in advance to those that answer.
Cheers.
Prederick wrote:
"Hulk think you overcompensating for tiny man bits. You know why Hulk always wear pants? Because Hulk HUGE."
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.
I don't think your going to get many responses. Age of Conan just doesn't seem to that optimized at the moment. The PC I just made is getting between 20-70 fps with everythign set on high depending on where I am in the game. That's with a 8800GT a 3Ghz Duo and 4GB of ram.
PSN ID: Stric9
Im getting about the same with about the same rig.
I think its a great rig for conan though. Get yourself a $200ish card, $200-300 for processor and motherboard and $100 on ram and you'll be able to run Conan and most other games for the next year or so on the highest settings.
ThePolypusher
WAR - Dolz
It's also worth pointing out that the question is meaningless unless you specify a desired resolution at which he'll be playing.
I am running everything on maxxed settings. with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.1 4 gb of ram an 8800gt.
I get between 40-70 FPS with slight drops in major cities and hubs.
I run in windowed mode for ease of swapping using my duel monitors that may be hurting my FPS.
lancejt wrote:
WAR -Vozhd Bratovitch
In town: 20-28 FPS
Outside: 25-40 FPS
Dungeons: 30-60 FPS
Core2Duo 2.2 Ghz.
Nvidia Go 7900gs
Resolution 1900x1200
Graphics Medium, Shader 2.0, No Shadows, No reflections
Vista 32-bit.
e8400 3.0
4gb ram
512mb 9600 xt
With everything maxed, and no bloom i range between 30-70fps
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
Exactly. Might help to specify the resolution you guys are running at in your responses!
Q6600, 8GB, Vista64, 8800GTX @ 1920x1200, all settings maxed in game. Bloom turned off because I don't enjoy being blinded. If I take a long view across a huge map frame rate drops to 15-20fps - same goes for places like Poitain when the game tries to draw 10 acres of swaying grass. Most times it's boppin' around 45-70ish.
XBL: MikeMac75
1024 x 768 will be his desired resolutions. As his projector is set for that right now. He runs his computer off his projector which also serves as his TV. 4:3 ratio, about 85 Hz and he does 720p for HD.
The lucky bastard sits on his comfy couch with a wireless keyboard and mouse with his 5.1 surround for ambient noise or his headphones at night.
Prederick wrote:
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.
Mines running at 1280x1024. Just for comparison my old PC was a 3Ghz P4 with 2GB of ram and a 256MB Radeon x1950 pro and was getting about 5-20 fps with all settings lowered.
PSN ID: Stric9
I get about the same performance as the others and I am playing on a wide screen...obviously minus the occasional temporary freezing, and server latency/dropping bugs.
3.0ghz dual core
8800gts 640mb
4 gb DDR3 ram
vista 64 bit
The Gaming Chronicles
PSN ID: Harbinger01
Steam ID: [GWJ] CrashedHardrive
Elysium wrote:
An 8800GT or 8800GTS 512MB will be CPU limited at that resolution (i.e., no need to get anything more expensive, and it's a waste to get anything older at the prices the 8800s sell at). Get a Q6600 OC'd to 3Ghz (3.4-3.6 if you feel frisky) and at 1024x768 you should be able to max everything, no problems.
My "low end" in the house is a 2.4 C2D, 2GB RAM, ASRock Mobo, 8800GT, and it runs 1680x1050 at 30+ FPS at HIGH settings. Conan at 60+FPS is not needed, it doesn't have any sort of stutter until you hit 20FPS anyway. Anything above 30 is gravy (with Conan). Also, with that projector, he won't notice anything higher than 30FPS anyway.
PS - a 4:3 projector doesn't do 720P
q6600, 8GB DDR2, 8800 GTS 512, 16MB/s Cable
Xbox Live: Shoal07
Steam ID: Shoal07
PSN: Shoal07 (<--Friend me up!)
I agree that for Conan, pretty much anything above 30fps is gravy. I'd just add that the game is very CPU-intensive, so don't skimp in that department.
I initially had a Core Duo E6400, a 7900 GS, and 2GB of ram and couldn't manage more than 10 FPS in outdoor areas at 1650 x 1280, even at lower settings. I upgraded to an 8800GT and saw only marginal improvement, apparently due to the CPU bottleneck. Once I upgraded my CPU to a Core Duo E6850, my framerates quadrupled. I'm now getting about 25 FPS in busy outside areas, and often well over 60 indoors, at high settings, no bloom.
Spore | XboxLive: Fly GWJ | PSN: The _Fly | Twitter
I question whether this is true. I've run the game in windowed mode with taskmanager up and about the only time I see the CPU pegged is during zone loading.
There are so many issues with the engine -- it performs better on high settings than on low, usually better with AA on than off, etc that it is really hard to tell what might be bottlenecking any particular system config.
WAR: Coda, Archmage, Vortex <Unguilded>
You're crazy about the AA on performing better. I average 40fps in towns and 60fps out with my rig having AA off. If I turn AA on I can't get above 15fps in town and 25fps out.
Running:
2.4ghz Core 2 Duo
2GB Ram
8800 GT 512RAM (not OCed)
1680X1050 resolution
Settings on High w/no AA
|WAR| Skinkfist (Volkmar server) | Drest (Iron Rock server)
I don't think performance improving with AA enabled is a universal thing, unlike High settings vs. Low. However I consistently get about 10fps better in towns and as much as 2x fps better outside with AA on vs. off, and if you read the official tech forums there are many other people experiencing the same thing. I suspect it's related to the issue of GPU underutilization that happens with many ATI cards (I'm running a 512MB 3850 AGP).
WAR: Coda, Archmage, Vortex <Unguilded>
That makes sense actually.
|WAR| Skinkfist (Volkmar server) | Drest (Iron Rock server)
I've noticed that under the AA options there are also 2 QAA options. When I use these, I notice no visual difference over not having AA turned on (IE, there's lots of jaggies) and my framerate doesnt change at all.
Anyone heard of what that is supposed to be?
ThePolypusher
WAR - Dolz
The game doesn't seem to tax my new CPU in the slightest, but with the Core Duo E6300 the CPU was an obvious bottleneck. It may have just been my setup and the threshhold at which the CPU became the limiting factor, but I was very surprised by the difference the upgrade made. It was remarkable. A significant prior video card upgrade made almost no difference with Conan prior to the CPU upgrade (in contrast to Crysis and Stalker, with which the CPU upgrade's benefits paled in comparison to the installation of a new 8800GT)
Spore | XboxLive: Fly GWJ | PSN: The _Fly | Twitter
Nope happened with my X1950 Pro as well. 2xAA performed better than no AA. Of course both were still very low but it was about a 5fps difference.
I noticed the this as well but on 8XQAA mine looked anti-aliased and performed a bit worse. Apparently they are true multi-sampling anti-aliasing methods and the normal 4x and 8x AA are actually some hybrid thing Nvidia started doing with the 8 series cards.
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&...
I completely agree with this statement. The engine is a mess. Although since i've upgraded to a new machine I don't really have any problems. Not sure if it's the ATI vs. Nvidia thing or the extra 2GB of Ram or the newer CPU or what but many of the optimizations do nothing which is very frustrating if your trying to play the game on a lower end pc.
PSN ID: Stric9
Strekos you haven't posted your rig specs yet.
Prederick wrote:
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.
My Current Setup:
8800GT 512MB
2GB Ram
1600x1200
High default settings, 16X AA
Windows XP SP2
FPS: 20-50 depending on zone of course.
Full groups with lots of casters and pets may rarely dip in the 15-20 range.
Haven't seen alot of help for folks with low framerates honestly. I know its frustrating and I've tried to help a number of people but it really seems like your machine likes it or it doesn't. I have also heard from many that 'high' outperforms 'low'.
It really is complicated to predict performance in the PC/Video Card/DirectX world. It does not necessarily mean the engine is crap or Norweigans are idiots. Only thing you can really do if you are having problems is:
1. Go find an area thats chugging: e.g. Noble's District, inside the zone in Cistern when groups are there, any location within 100' of a necromancer.
2. Put settings on 'high' and totally disable AA and shadows.
3. Slide the view distance down to about 75%.
4. Check your framerate, and if its not fixed, no real magic left. Simply try iteratively disabling options and playing a few minutes to see what helps.
To add to that make sure to restart the client...sometimes it doens't say it but certain changes wont go into full effect (or work without issues) without a client restart.
Also, a lot of the problems are from the client being so poorly optimized. Other people can run graphically similar games at over 50 frames with multiple players on screen doing all sorts of stuff, but in Conan their system is struggling. I'm not saying the game is bad, in fact I like it alot, but realistically they need to tune the client and then I think more people will be able to play it with more fluidity.
The Gaming Chronicles
PSN ID: Harbinger01
Steam ID: [GWJ] CrashedHardrive
Elysium wrote:
I can get rock solid 30fps with most settings on high/very high (no AA) on Crysis, yet getting AoC to run at 30fps or higher (in towns) seems impossible no matter what settings I throw at it, so I agree. It's a bit upsetting and frustrating. So much so that I actually found myself browsing New Egg and I just built this PC in November. That shouldn't be happening, not yet anyways.
That said, I can't stop playing the game no matter my quibbles with the settings and performance. Once I get into the game for more than ten minutes I forget about all those other issues.
Back to a previous comment I made: I did go in since the patch on the 16th and turned AA on at 2X and found that while it doesn't perform better, that it doesn't hinder my performance anymore. So, they're working on it at least, and seemingly fairly quick.
|WAR| Skinkfist (Volkmar server) | Drest (Iron Rock server)
Opteron 180
2GB RAM
512MB Radeon HD 3850 AGP
WinXP
1280x1024
I run at High settings, 16x Aniso and 2xAA with a few tweaks. Usually in the 30-40 range outside and scraping 20 in town (and a mere 15 or so in Old Tarantia). Except when the engine is having one of its moments when it doesn't feel like using the GPU, in which case I'm getting 5fps until I toggle AA off and on, or bloom on and off, or god knows what random setting I flip on and off until it comes correct.
WAR: Coda, Archmage, Vortex <Unguilded>
Ok so I have a question for those out there. Recently in the game I have noticed that occasionally I am getting strips of terrain in the sky and sometimes on npc/mobs certain details are strange looking like the claws of a grol are big triangles or an npc will have strange lines shooting off in different vectors. To me, this sounds like a heat issue with my gpu, but its a brand new card so I am not sure (the temp it is running in the game is not very high at all for the card). Is anyone else getting these issues occasionally or have an opinion on what's causing it? It didn't start happening till a couple of patches ago so it could be an issue with the client, but who knows with this game anymore.
The Gaming Chronicles
PSN ID: Harbinger01
Steam ID: [GWJ] CrashedHardrive
Elysium wrote:
That definitely sounds like an issue on your end. Though you probably have, did you make sure you're running the most recent drivers? I had a similar issue with Valve (source) games when I didn't update my drivers on a new card.
To answer your question: no, nothing like that at all. And I've seen a lot of bugs in the game at this point too, graphical and otherwise.
|WAR| Skinkfist (Volkmar server) | Drest (Iron Rock server)
Well I just solved the FPS problems I've been having this week by... *drumroll*
defragging.
I went from a great 30-60 fps last week, to 10 fps this week, back up to the 30-60 after the defrag. I also installed a sexy new LCD widescreen monitor that runs at a much higher rez, and the framerate is just as high still. Its awesome
ThePolypusher
WAR - Dolz
I've had a handful of similar experiences, usually in the form of screen-filling, multicolored triangular crap erupting from NPC's heads. Relogging or zoning has always taken care of it.
If your issues appear tied to a certain zone or NPC, or if they disappear after zoning or relogging, or if your PC will run other intensive games with no problems, I'm guessing it's probably the game and not your hardware.
Spore | XboxLive: Fly GWJ | PSN: The _Fly | Twitter
FYI: I just ordered 4gb of memory since I'm building a PC for my mother-in-law and I'm going to just pull my old 2gb and put it into hers and see what adding 2gb of memory will do for this game. I'll let you know next week if it makes any difference.
|WAR| Skinkfist (Volkmar server) | Drest (Iron Rock server)
At 1600x1200 with all settings maxed, I average around 90 FPS. This drops to around 60 in cities.
Core2Duo E6700 overclocked to 3.0GHz
2Gigs of PC8500 overclocked to 1.2GHz (was 4 until one of the sticks died)
2 BFG 8800GTXes in SLI, overclocked by BFG.