EQ2 on 12900

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Beee, Dec 27, 2021.

  1. Beee Well-Known Member

    Just a pushup for a player with a new computer and lower EQ2 performance than on the old :)
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  2. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

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    Hm, interesting discussion you guys have going on here. Mind if I jump in? How about some more system specs + framerates from let's say Qeynos or Sinking Sands, just for comparisons sake? You'll find my system specs here. On my workstation, a Dell Optiplex 3040, which is the machine I am playing on right now: EQ2 at maximum settings, vsync and triple buffering on, 1080p, 8xMSAA and locked at buttery smooth 60fps in both Qeynos and Sinking Sands. Did nothing but activate Gamemode on my openSUSE installation and ofc Proton is using DXVK for everything related to the game. See the picture above for a cpu load graph.

    And my GPU (Nvidia Lenovo T600 with 4GB GDDR6):
    • 2046 MB (50%) VRAM usage
    • GPU utilisation in Qeynos capitol district: 60-70ish %
    • GPU utilisation in Qeynos capitol district - raining: 80-90ish %
    • Main RAM usage is at around 40% (16GB DDR3 RAM in total)
    • Playtime approx 2-3 hours as of this writing
    • Nvidia proprietary driver series 510
    These numbers are much lower when playing outside of any major city ofc. As you can see in the picture above, cpu utilisation on one core is always pretty high, sitting at around 70% when running around in Qeynos, while the other cores are between 25-50%, depending on how much is visible on my screen. Standing still the other three cores = 25-30% and running around approx 40-50%. I have seen higher multicore utilisation on the other three cores, reaching up to 50-70% on some occasions, but this is also very much dependant on the zone, weather, time, players, npcs and many more factors. Mind you, I am playing in fullscreen windowed mode and even using a heavy 3D desktop environment, Gnome 41. Only EQ2, a tiny editor and Steam are running right now. My gaming machine, a Dell Optiplex 7050, performs a lot better ofc as it's a much more powerful machine. All in all, both machines perform pretty good, and were dirt cheap too. Steam Overlay causes serious performance issues on all five of our Linux machines though - disabling it improved performance by 20-35 fps in all cases.

    There used to be a multicore option in the game settings, which is gone now, and enabling it via command in the game-chat does nothing it seems:

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    I assume the multicore support and optimizations got hardcoded into the game at some point, which made the toggle above obsolete. If I recall correctly, EQ2 does offload some of its workload onto the other cpu cores, but still uses one main core for most of its magic. This is true for most mmos from that day in age (2004), even WoW suffered the same fate back then, but got upgraded several years later. 64-bit is most certainly going to help cpu spikes here and there, fix a ton of out of memory issues and give the engineers much more headroom to improve things, see Tobeys post here. The next big step would be an upgrade from DX9 to DX11 or DX12 at some point, which could (at least in theory) further improve cpu multicore and gpu utilisation on Windows systems. GPU usage with gpu shadows on looks decent, can't complain. Take everything I wrote with a grain of salt, not a game dev, just an enthusiast posting his observations.

    Cheers,
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  3. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

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    Update: I started walking around Sinking Sands and I also tried a few other regions. On my system, core 4 is doing most of the work with 90% load, but core 1, 2 and 3 aren't exactly sleeping on the job. In fact, they're all at 50-70% load during gameplay most of the time. In some rare cases you can even see the other cores go up to 80% load. Same goes for the gpu, which is being utilised to it's maximum capacity at 98% load. I guess these are some of the benefits when gaming on Linux with DXVK, since going from DirectX9 to Vulkan does allow the system to make better use of the cpu and gpu.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  4. That guy. Well-Known Member

    It's called Hyperthreading. Turn it off if you don't want those "efficiency cores", i.e. you want to g i m p a top tier cpu just so you can play a busted old game.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  5. Beee Well-Known Member

    Hyperthreading is a different thing: It's running 2 processes on one core. Efficency cores are a complete differnt coresystem
    Disabling the efficency cores seems the only way as long EQ2 (32 bit client) graphics engine switches to the highest core (even ignoring process lasso after some seconds)

    Hopefully EQ2/64 will solve this :)
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  6. Kotter Legendary Member

    my cat's breath smells like cat food.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  7. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    I'm with Grandpa. ;->

    I'm a wee bit worried about the transition; I do have a dual processor with multi-threading (well, more than one thread on each, but not by much), 8 Gb RAM, and 64-bit if you look at it sideways and kinda squint on my old Win7 desktop. One big question I have (with many parts, perhaps; not sure how efficient they are ;->):

    [from the official announcement]
    "Officially, the sunsetting of the 32-bit client will take effect on the day that the 64-bit clients are released to the live servers. Because of this migration, we will no longer be able to support 32-bit systems. We recommend making backups of any INI files (or other customizations) in your client directory and upgrading to at least the minimum 64-bit specs before the tentative July launch as shown below:"

    and they go into details on minimums and optimums, etc. I've been looking for the mysterious .ini files (didn't have any luck; where do they live?), and presume that "other customizations" include things like saved house layouts, character logs, etc.? What should I be paranoid about backing up? :-/

    (And yes, I'm still seriously thinking about getting a Linux setup rather than Win10 or 11 or Whatever for my desktop in the future. ;->)

    Uwk
    Sturmlocke and Breanna like this.
  8. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

    Oh, that's nice to hear! :) I just posted this small guide here. If you're still in the market for new hardware, feel free to checkout System76's offerings, if you're looking for new hardware preconfigured with Linux. They're trying to make "made in usa" mean something again - and they're doing a great job at it. I still recommend going the secondhand route and installing Linux by yourself though, as it's much, much cheaper, but buying a prebuilt Linux system optimised for gaming can save you a lot of headache afterwards. That being said, I think you'll be fine with 8GB of RAM, but more is better ofc. Does your desktop include an SSD drive? What CPU and GPU are we talking about here?

    Gonna check out that ini thing. I think I already backed up my interface options and placing some time ago, but gonna recheck just to be sure.

    Cheers
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  9. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Nope, my system predates SSD (and probably the Russian Empire, starting with Ivan the Terrible; we're about a step up from "stone knives and bearskins" ;->), and I think the only GPU we've got is on the graphics card. :-/

    Intel I-3 2120 CPU 3.3 GHz 3 Mb
    8 Gb 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
    Asus nVidia GeForce GT 640 2 Gb DDR3 graphics

    Uwk

    P.S. My far more tech-savvy hubby went to the site and wow, things are apparently massively expensive. Is there any way to just get the hardware (which is probably why basic systems cost less than $1000; it's probably the Windows, etc. that does any jacking up of prices) and then add Linux to it? Even gut out an installed Win10/11 and put in Linux instead? :-/ --U.

    P.P.S. I hope your small guide is one I already had saved, file-wise, 'cause it's not letting me go there, for whatever peculiar reason. :-/

    I've been to System76's site myself now, and while I like just about everything about them but the prices, I also don't like that they think Steam is just the bee's knees in the cat's pajamas, and they don't have optical drives (disc readers or bays) in anything. Call me old-fashioned, but I won't by ANY new hardware that doesn't have that. --U.
    Breanna and Sturmlocke like this.
  10. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

    Hail Uwk,

    wow, you really are in need of a system upgrade :D I mean, the CPU could probably still handle EQ2 on lower settings, RAM is a-ok too, but that gpu is in dire need for an upgrade. Not sure if that graphics card is even compatible with DXVK / Vulkan / Proton, but it's worth a try as it may help you increase performance. According to some Youtubers, other ppl are using that gpu via Vulkan in a few games, see here, here and here. According to Nvidia, Linux drivers are not that old and more or less the same as on Windows. Might be worth a try upgrading to Linux on your current system, just to see what happens.

    I recommend that you still upgrade to Linux for that machine, even after you have replaced it with a more powerful system, because it can still live on as a powerful multimedia and working PC. Linux will most likely breath new life into it.

    [IMG]
    System76 computers

    But yeah, prices for most pre-built and highly customized systems are more expensive, especially when certain parts are made in the USA, by using materials from the USA, which is indeed the case with System76's computers. Made and assembled in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, *insert anything outside of the US* is going to be much, much cheaper ofc. For example, Apple computers have been designed in California, USA for the longest time, but they're actually made in China, just like everything else nowadays, because it's a lot cheaper. I honor what System76 is doing here - trying to make "made in USA" mean something again. Take a look at the information shown further below here for a little insight on what they're doing. In addition, gpu prices have been skyrocketing in recent years due to inflation, mining and scalpers (it's getting a bit better as of lately).

    That being said, sure, you can get the hardware by any other means and just install Linux on it, even if it comes with Windows 10 or 11 preinstalled, which is most certainly going to be much cheaper, especially if you go the seconhand route, which I recommend. As you know, the computers in our household are secondhand Dell and Lenovo machines, that I manually upgraded myself by purchasing used parts, saving a ton of cash in the process. Let me see if I can find a better price -> performance deal for you and I'll get back to you via this thread. Ha, no worries when it comes to old-fashioned, I feel you.

    Oh, if you can't reach my guide, take a look here (upgraded version): https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/eq2-on-linux-and-mac-guide.604032/

    I created a new thread / post exclusively for EQ2 players thinking about making the jump to Linux, because we do have a few folks interested. Going to be updating that thread every now and then. That being said, I am benchmarking and comparing performance in EQ2 32-bit versus 64-bit client on Linux as we speak. I will be updating this thread / post in two or three hours, if everything goes according to plan: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/64-bit-beta-client-news.603954/

    Cheers
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  11. Ejiju Member

    I failed to find any patch notes for it, but I believe this behavior was intentionally changed years ago based on a discussion that came up at Fan Faire. At the time, EverQuest2 preferred the lowest core and it conflicted with whatever version of Windows at the time tried to stuff all of its processes on the lowest core as well. The solution was to make EverQuest2 move itself to the highest core instead. With the new hybrid CPUs this obviously presents a problem, effectively halving your frame rate unless you disable your E-cores or use 3rd party multiboxing software to pin cores.

    Sounds like something that deserves a bug thread.

    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...-intel-12th-generation-and-newer-cpus.607096/
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Beee like this.
  12. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Or what they could've done would be like every other game out there and moved things to the GPUs of the peripherals (see? I do listen in sometimes ;->), but those might not have existed at the time, I guess. :-/

    Uwk
  13. Bludd Well-Known Member

    GPUs arent true general processors (though they are getting there) so you need the CPU to do things. Certainly more stuff could be offloaded to the GPU but that is a major job on the engine side, but would be nice.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  14. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Ahh...got it.

    And a lot of that fancier hardware was after even EQ2 getting started...

    Uwk
  15. Beee Well-Known Member

    Here for the devs again a test of EQ2 in Karuupa Jungle

    Effency Core active (EQ2 running on 100% core #15): 130 FPS
    Performance Core only (EQ2 on hyperthreading 48% core #7): 240 FPS

    EQ2 must not run on the highest core with actual CPUs


    BTW: limiting EQ2 to 60 FPS reduces the load of performance cores to 10% :)
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    FPS in the triple digits is nice; I always appreciate it when it's there, but 60s are fine. :)

    What gets me is when I'm (usually) in a town/city and I go from good double- to low triple-digits suddenly down to like SINGLE. X-P

    But then, I have an old Win7 desktop that I usually play on; I'll have to pay more attention to what happens on my Win10 laptop.

    Uwk