32-bit vs. 64-bit Beta - feedback

Alrighty then, here comes the first round of feedback.



Optiplex 3040 SFF:

• Core i5 6500 65W
• 16GB DDR3 RAM
• Nvidia T600 4GB GDDR6 GPU + Nvidia drivers 510, 40 Watts during maximum load
• 2 x 512GB Samsung SSD
• Original Dell PSU 180W
• openSUSE Tumbleweed, newest snapshot = everything up to date, Gnome 42.0

The above represents my small form factor work station PC and I'll retest everything with my "gaming" rig a bit later. That being said, even my gaming rig is already vastly outdated when compared to todays more powerful gaming systems, but it's enough to keep me happy. Also keep in mind: The system that I am using for this run is not even a gaming computer. The CPU is from 2015, and even though the GPU is fairly new on the market, it isn't meant for gaming - it's actually a very tiny and low powered professional video card optimized for specific virtualisation and enterprise tasks. Thanks to Linux and Vulkan, it can be used for gaming just fine.

Yes, I am running Linux + Steam + Proton 7 + DXVK / Vulkan for these tests, see here for more info. In addition, I am also using Steam's big picture mode for all my testing. FSR is disabled for this test, because I haven't had the time to test it with EQ2 just yet. AMD FSR will most likely considerably increase the framerate in EQ2, just like it does for many other old games running through Proton. Last but not least, I had to hurry during the 64-bit test run, because I am affected by a mysterious memory leak (out of memory), which was causing performance to take a serious hit after a while. The game runs fine before the RAM gets completely filled up though. In order to keep this post somewhat viewable, I am going to restrict myself to only a handful of pictures per test.

Borrowed from geeksundergrace.com - kids from the 90s will understand the image above

Let the games begin: 32-bit versus 64-bit PART 1

32-bit client



System monitor - fresh boot, nothing but Steam running in the background:

• RAM: 1,3 GB from 16,7 GB, 1,3 GB preloaded cache data, page file 0
• CPU: 2 %
• GPU utilization: 1-3%

System monitor - fresh boot, EQ2 and Steam running, 20-30 minutes of balanced gameplay:

• RAM: 6,0 GB from 16 GB, 8,3 GB preloaded cache data, page file 0
• CPU Core 4: maximum load
• CPU Core 1, 2, 3: around 20 %
• GPU utilization: 90-95%
• Extreme graphics suck up another 3 - 4 GB of RAM after a while

Travel route for RAM and fps measurement - Sinking Sands

Framerate in Sinking Sands - balanced graphics preset (which automatically turns on gpu shadows to low), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

112 fps

117 fps

130 fps

108 fps

140 fps

Framerate in Sinking Sands - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows maximum), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

92 fps

97 fps

113 fps

86 fps

73 fps

To be continued...

reserved for further testing

part 2 - VoV screens

Let the games continue: 32-bit versus 64-bit PART 3

64-bit client

System monitor - fresh boot, EQ2 and Steam running, 20-30 minutes of balanced gameplay:

• RAM: tbd, can't be done right now due to the memory leak bug, see first post for details
• CPU Core 4: maximum load
• CPU Core 1, 2, 3: around 20-25 %
• GPU utilization: 95-99%
• Extreme graphics: tbd, can't be done right now due to the memory leak bug, see first post for details

Framerate in Sinking Sands - balanced graphics preset (which automatically turns on gpu shadows to low), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

106 fps

84 fps

101 fps

75 fps

97 fps

Framerate in Sinking Sands - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows maximum), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

placeholder for missing pic

68 fps

71 fps

64 fps

58 fps

As you can see, the framerate actually took a hit after switching to 64-bit. I assume it's because the entire system was working harder due to the memory leak mentioned further above. While CPU load was more or less the same as 32-bit, I did see a lot of random spikes every now and then. Again, I am pretty sure that whatever is causing the game to literally nuke my RAM and pagefile, is going to turn out to be the culprit of the difference in performance seen here. HDD led was going nutts in 64-bit, which doesn't happen when using 32-bit.

To be continued...

Let the games continue: 32-bit versus 64-bit PART 4

64-bit client

System monitor - fresh boot, EQ2 and Steam running, 20-30 minutes of balanced gameplay:

• RAM: tbd, can't be done right now due to the memory leak bug, see first post for details
• CPU Core 4: maximum load
• CPU Core 1, 2, 3: around 20-40 %
• GPU utilization: 95-99%
• Extreme graphics: RAM tbd, can't be done right now due to the memory leak bug, see first post for details

Framerate in in VoV, Svarni Expanse - balanced graphics preset (which automatically turns on gpu shadows to low), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

60 fps

63 fps

41 fps

50 fps

79 fps

66 fps

67 fps

37 fps

49 fps

48 fps

Framerate in VoV, Svarni Expanse - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows maximum), no AA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:

77 fps

33 fps

57 fps

33 fps

42 fps

67 fps

57 fps

31 fps

To be continued...

Update: Found out what was causing the memory leak in game. See here for more information. Still trying to find out - why - it's happening, but fixing it in order to continue testing was easy after all (after spending hours to actually find the issue). For this reason, I will be posting a few more shots of gameplay with the 64b client and all bells and whistles on, minus gpu shadows and ambient occlusion. That being said, from this point on, I won't bother posting screenshots of the "balanced preset" graphics as trying to diagnose the memory leak was too time consuming, to say the least. Extreme graphics is now performing great on 64-bit and balanced settings are even better ofc.

First, a few system monitor pictures.

64-bit, after 1-2 hours of gameplay with extreme graphics (shadows off) in Sinking Sands and VoV, Svarni Expanse

The more I travel and play = the higher RAM usage goes. Maximum seen so far - around 9 to 10 GB of RAM under normal conditions (without the mem leak).

Framerate in Sinking Sands - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows and ambient occlusion off), 8 x MSAA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:















Framerate in VoV, Svarni Expanse - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows and ambient occlusion off), 8 x MSAA, vsync off, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:























To be continued...

Continued from above.

Framerate in VoV, Svarni Expanse - extreme graphics preset (gpu shadows and ambient occlusion off), 8 x MSAA, vsync and triple buffering ON, reflections on, 1080p, fullscreen:















Well, performance seems to be great so far. What's interesting to see is the fact that gpu shadows and ambient occlusion don't seem to be working correctly, even if you turn it on in game and by doing that activating the mem leak. Turning gpu shadows and ambient occlusion off results in much better performance, no mem issues, but graphically nothing changes during my testing. In other words, graphics are the same whether gpu shadows are on or off.

Optiplex 7050 MT (main rig):

• Core i7 7700 95W (4C, 8T)
• 16GB DDR4 RAM
• AMD Mini ITX Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX570 4GB GDDR5 GPU (around 150 Watts max under load)
• 256GB M2 NVME + 3TB SSHD + 256GB SSD
• Upgraded Dell PSU to 380 Watts (platinum rated)
• Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS, Gnome 3.36.x
• Using Proton 7.0-1
• Gamemode enabled

Let the games continue: 32-bit versus 64-bit PART 5

32-bit client goes first


tbc - wip

reserved

reserved for retest after finding out what is causing the memory leak

reserved for retest after finding out what is causing the memory leak -> https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/64-bit-beta-client-memory-leak.604060/

you deserve a reward. this is proper testing and thanks for including your setup.sadly i bet those fps will go considerable when you group up with individuals and are like in a zone. if you could test like Fallen Gate and Stormhold with a group I think fps will go down abit. that memory leak might be also eq2 asmoniom process thingy. dont remember correct spelling but remember it giving issues for some. Cant wait for your 64bit testing

Hi Garras, thanks for your kind words Haven't found the time to continue my testing as of this writing, my family has been keeping me busy, but I will continue by the end of this month, if everything goes according to plan. Sure thing, I can test FG and SH, if you want to see the numbers. Might be a good idea to compare the numbers anyway - feel free to join the fun! And yeah, that out-of-memory issue was really holding back performance big time, gladly it got fixed by one of the EQ2 devs. The issue was being caused by missing Dirext9 dlls and libs. After one of the devs added the necessary files to the EQ2 beta launcher / patcher, everything was back to normal in terms of stability and performance. Time goes by so quickly... I'm even starting to grow grey hair nowadays, lol. Anyway, we're almost in June now, so the official release of the 64b client is just around the corner.