I am wondering what kind of frame rate and smooth game play to expect while set at higher to max settings. My system will have the following: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6G Graphics Card, 2X Windforce Fans, 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, Gv-N166SOC-6GD Video Card Corsair CMK32GX4M2D3000C16 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3000 (PC4-24000) C16 1.35V Desktop Memory Intel Core i7-9700K Desktop Processor 8 Cores up to 4.9 GHz Turbo unlocked LGA1151 300 Series ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F Gaming Motherboard LGA1151
Depends how you configure your settings. I recently upgraded to a PC that has lower specs than yours except for the graphics card (mine is a 2060 so there's not a great deal of difference there) and I play on extreme quality with every setting a max, with x8 anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. The game caps at 59/60 FPS and normally remains there when exploring and grouping, with city zones generally causing a dip, and the quality and smooth game play is amazing. It's like a brand new game to me after upgrading from a 10 year old laptop. I'm no expert but I think it's the anti-aliasing that caps the FPS so If you don't use that or lower it, you can expect fps of around 150-200.
Try using the advanced settings which allows you to turn off Synchronize Refresh and see what you run, I run a 2070s which is only a step up from the 2060 and I average 150-170fps shadows off 105 with shadows on except in Freeport which bounces from 55ish to 80ish, and one other zone that bugs me down to 1-2 fps I think its Eastern waste, I just don't go there anymore so I don't worry about it. I don't see antistrophic filtering in the game settings which probably means you are setting it in the Nvidia graphics center, I just keep mine set to whatever it was when I installed it and let the game decide Been like that for years so I doubt it will ever get fixed. Another consideration is the monitor being used, I am running a 2k monitor that uses a 144mhz refresh rate natively..that also has an impact and what you can expect. And to the OP, that system should push you along with excellent gameplay and superb graphics, it will be like a brand new game depending on what you are moving up from. Oh and good morning
Do be aware that not all graphics settings are created equal. Some can really slow down a system without giving you much visual improvement.. Remember that the game engine handles a lot of rendering via the CPU because it's ancient (back when they expected CPU capacity to keep increasing geometrically and modern multi-core CPUs and big video cards with their own GPU and cooling hadn't been invented yet), so overclocking (with adequate cooling) can help. It's worthwhile to take a peek at the Optimizing Graphics Performance post to read about what the various settings each actually DO. With a high end rig, you don't actually need to start and middle range settings and adjust yo see what you get, but I'd get the FPS numbers where you can see them, and play with settings in-game to see what actually contributes to your visual experience and what can be turned back and save your processor some work. Anisotropic filtering and Anti-Aliasing should be found in your video card control panel. Depending on the system, these may make a big difference in frame rate. Complex Shader Distance (the distance at which the engine will stop rendering advanced pixel effects) affects basically all the advanced visual effects, so there you want to go big (although in a raid you will probably want to cut this back or even turn it off). Character LOD Texture Resolution affects the textures on characters off in the distance. You probably can't see much difference with this turned down, so you may want to save some CPU cycles by turning it down. Bloom Effect has never worked right. I keep it turned off myself. The various Particle Effect settings are something I recommend playing with. I personally tend to limit the amount of particle effects going off because it can be such a visual mess in a big fight. DO max Maximum Particle Size... among other things, it affects the tumbleweeds and meatheads in Diaku Corral. Lighting Effects, for me, make the game visuals. I turn them up, I use high quality lighting, I use at least three specular lights, etc. Texture settings and model detail settings interact. If you can have these high, the effect is good visually. If you see a performance hit when you're around 20+ people, you may want to dial it down some. It's worthwhile to experiment a little. Use the GPU shadow rendering, don't make your poor CPU render shadows. we got GPU shadows at a point where SOE had hired a guy to try and move the rendering to the graphics card, but it turned out to be a harder problem than they had expected, so all we got from it was the GPU shadow rendering option. I turn flora completely off. Today it may or may not cause a CPU hit or lower your frame rate, but I can't see shinies as well with it on. YMMV.
Thanks Sigrdrifa, some good info here and in the post you linked to. As you point out it's still applicable, because of the age of the game engine, etc. Know what would be cool? If @Ttobey or one of the other artists could chime in with their recommendations for the settings they use to maximize visual impact. I think an argument could be made that the artwork and visuals is the best part of the BoL expansion and a major part of previous ones - what settings do the ARTISTS use to view the game in, performance be damned?! Nawt
