EverqQuest2.exe 1.8gigs of memory usage?!?!?

OK, at home for lunch. Vista machine performed flawlessly. Had a constant 30+ FPS and it was smooth.
Vista 64
AMD Phenom X4 9950 BBE
8Gb RAM
nVidia GTX 260
EQ2 Client
The Windows 7 machine, same issue. Choppy performance with huge FPS drops. (Happens with only running a single client as well just not near as bad)
Windows 7 RC 64
AMD PhenomII X4 955 BBE
4Gb RAM
nVidia 8800 GTS OC
Station Launcher

Just a quick note, it does seem to make a big difference if you're in a nearly full T3 guild hall. Today I logged in to our GH, did a couple of RO's wandered around outside a bit, things were running good (maybe 40 fps avg in crowded areas with many trees etc). Then I zoned out to Antonica, zoned back in to GH, 5 min later... CRASH. Funny though is at the time of crash was up to only 1.2 gigs of ram, but pulling up task manager showed the client still runnning on one core, but the page file usage was up to a whopping 2.08 gigs. Before GU53, normally on my system whether running EQII or not, page file usage only around 357-385MB average. Anyhow these out-of-memory issues are getting annoying, any good workarounds we can try in the meantime? One time I got an out of memory errorr saying it was requesting only about 7.5 megabytes, yet in the error message log it said the game client was only using 833 MB at the time?? What gives? I have 2 gigs of ram, and even with the .5 gig windoze resevered for itself, thats still like 1536 MB... I remember that time it crashed I was just standing out in the open somewhere in Thundering Steppes and hit the 'screenshot' button... instant death lol

Core 2 Duo 8500 running at 3.16GHz (stock 9.5 multi)
2 Gigs OCZ Plat DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 2T FSB : DRAM = 5:8
Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB
Windows XP Pro SP3

Here's some stuff from the last guild hall out of memory crashlog, don't know if this helps:
Game Data:
SOEBuild: SOEBuild=6065L
SOEVersionString: SOEVersionString=2009/11/19 16:05:47
OS Version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 VER_NT_WORKSTATION
CPU: 2 x86 GenuineIntel 4MHz RDTSC MSR CMPXCHG8 SSE SSE2
DirectX Version: 9.0c
Video Card/Driver: [NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT] [nv4_disp.dll] 6.14.11.8250 {d7b71e3e-4562-11cf-e45a-4e2500c2cb35}
Time at crash: Wed Nov 25 22:49:26 2009
Login Server: none
Performance: 7
Game Uptime: 11188 seconds
Position last frame: 815.35, -47.95, 1601.51
Zone name: qey_guildhall_tier3
Time in Zone: 9127 seconds
Previous Zone name: GameScene::ZR_NETWORKED_ZONE_CHANGE
Multi-core support: enabled
Low-Memory Mode: enabled

Log:
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...
Received chat channel update msg...

Thread Data:
Primary Thread Id: 3940
Current Thread Id: 1636
Current Thread Priority: 0

Memory:
AddressLimitMB: 2048
Load: 90%
Total physical: 2146410496
Free physical: 198279168
Total pagefile: 4131704832
Free pagefile: 1900351488
Total virtual: 2147352576
Free virtual: 108904448

Memory Manager:
Allocations: 368016
Bytes Allocated: 883675488
Max Allocations: 371301
Max Bytes Allocated: 891677456
System Memory Allocated (MB): 856
Limit: 1535
Number of Allocate Calls: 4008012
Number of Free Calls: 3639996

Whatever has been patching in, I noticed the problem first about 2 months ago. I have 2 accounts, and I run two laptops:
System 1
Model: Dell Precision M4300
OS: Windows XP Pro
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo T7300 @ 2.00 GHz
Memory: 3.50 GB RAM (1.99 GHz)
Video: NVidia Quadro FX 360M
System 2
Model: MacBook Pro
OS: Vista 32bit on 80GB Windows Partition (Boot Camp)
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo T8300 @ 2.40 GHz
Memory: 4.0 GB
Video: NVidia GeForce 8600 GT
I ran 2 windowed clients of this game flawlessly on the original (Dell) system when I returned to this game a year and a half ago at Balanced settings. Today, I can't even run one client on Extreme Performance settings, windowed or otherwise, even after a complete format of the system and a re-install of the game. The framerate is simply unplayable.
I was able to run 2 windowed clients of this game flawlessly on the MacBook Pro up until late summer using balanced settings, when I had to turn the settings down to extreme performance in order to preserve framerate. Two patches ago, I was only able to run one client without suffering severe performance degradation while using extreme performance settings. At best today, I can play one client (windowed) at Very High Perfomrance Settings while noticing only minimal performance/framerate loss. Extreme Performance Setting is still playable, at the moment.
The strangest difference between both systems was the way performance issues presented themselves between the systems. The Dell (up until 3 patches ago) was able to run the game, but every 5 minutes I would experience approximately 3 minutes of massive framerate loss (on the other computer I would appear to run around in circles for 3 mintues), and during this period I had no game response whatsoever. It would correct itself, then it would be smooth playing for another 5 minutes, and then the cycle repeated. This was enough to render the game unplayable on the Dell for most situations, and first presented itself in or around September. It was the week before Halloween when performance became such an issue that I was unable to stand it any longer.
It seems that with every patch the problem intensifies. I have not noticed any improvements whatsoever, despite any "fixes" that have been made. The problem has remained the same, worsening with each patch, noticed on both systems.
I have recently ordered a rather beefy i7 Desktop, however, if I notice any performance issues whatsoever, I'm gone. Sorry Sony, but this is unacceptable. One of the major reasons I continued to play EQ2 was because it was Laptop friendly and compatible with older systems (if you consider a 1 year old and 2 year old system "older"), and I'm on the road quite a bit. My budget only allows me to upgrade every so often, and I generally operate on 3 systems (Mac/PC/Laptop/Desktop), but I consider myself privileged in that my computers are a business expense. Most aren't so lucky. If many others are experiencing what I've been experiencing, this issue is going to drive players away.

Been playing since 2004 and never seen anything like this. Last patch made the game almost unplayable, and for the last weeks I've been running the game in extreme performance. Most zones are okish on my normal settings (except Kunzar and Kylong where I can't even move now), but then comes the lag-spikes and 1 fps. As a healer I don't have time to go into options mid-fight and load my LOL-mode profile. Plus the interface is lagging too.
Win7 64bit. Memory usage is fine, fps isn't.

naMessiah wrote:

Interesting comment for this thread.
Be that as it may, what are you using to monitor your memory usage / system performance. I myself am using two b/g applications to keep an eye on things, Cacheman and ProcessLasso.
When the frame rate drops I notice two things:
- physical memory (RAM) usage tops out, causing the app. to use the slower pagefile memory;
- processor usage drops dramatically.
If left unattended, this will cause continued poor fps and in the worst case can crash my system.
I noticed some better memory trimming functionallity after the latest hotfix, (Thanks SOE,) but the memory still gets out of control at times and I have to manually reset/recover it.
BD
EDIT: hit submit b4 i was finished. oops.

Hello ... ? Anyone out there or has everyone given up on this and just done like I did ? I changed my settings to high performance from very high quality and now all players look like they are wearing spandex jumpsuits.
I have yet to see any fix and still crash rather frequently if I swap back to high quality. I know ... everyone went back to WoW ... like my wife did ... hoping that maybe next year the memory problem will be sorted out. I am really in disbelief that this has drug on soooo long.
Please fix this problem. I really want to continue playing this marvelous game, but right now EQ1 looks better.

TSR-DanielH wrote:

Yup there was a fix. Here is the info from Page 24. There is another Post from SOE a couple of pages back from that, Rothgar I think it was...

Just came back to the game after taking about a month off. I don't crash, but EQ is running at 1.7-8 GBs. And this is on High Performance... I used to be able to run this game fine on balanced settings.. now I have to run this game on Extreme Performance and it takes FOREVER to load a zone.

I have a couple Questions.
I scanned through out this thread and keep reading about how little patches are being implemented to 'help' the problem. What I want to know is; what does the EQ2 team feel is acceptable memory usage running on regular settings?
I'm asking because I don't want just a fix that "Alows me to play" I want to play with the most optimal experience I can get.
What's the goal in all of this?

badmotorfinger wrote:

oh, and I should mention, this was all accuring the last couple of days... so still after the latest patch. .... Hope this issue isn't closed..

I play most every night, and I did see that Rothgar posted on page 24 that there was a hotfix (there have been several) ... but it was a "this might help some" type of hotfix ... and I am sure that for some it fixed the issue of major memory usage (like you). My guess is that most players affected turned their graphics settings down (like I did) and are just living with it.
However from what I have seen, the hotfix has yet to fix the lag that occurred after LU53 and now LU54 is coming very quickly. I still have to play with reduced settings and am wondering if this is going to just fade away or are they going to make an effort to actually fix the problem ... yes I know they WERE working on it ... but are they STILL working on it, or have they decided that the players have stopped whining so they can move on to bigger and better things ... like the tank rebalance/aggro fix ... that no one wanted (lol) ... sorry, could not resist. <jk>

I don't know what was patched today. But the framerate drop has become almost constant, the game is pretty much unplayable right now.

Ya its way worse for me too, same settings.

Karel@Lucan DLere wrote:

GPU shadows. Turn them off or use CPU for the time being.

I'm playing in Atari mode, this issue is completely unrelated to Shadows or any other GFX settings~.

Most of the people here I'm seeing probably have shadows turned on. This is a monumental waste of memory, since it really doesn't add much to the game. I have mine off, using an on-board graphics chip, and the most I've seen is 1.45GB used, and that was in North Qeynos during Heroes Festival. Might want to give that a shot and see if it makes a difference.

Xariama@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Karel@Lucan DLere wrote:

I'm still playing EQ2 in lowest possible Gumby-mode settings to avoid the crashes, taking "Extreme Performance" and then dropping settings as low as they can go. I'm hopeful that SOE can eventually repair the rest of the "out of memory" issues so that I can once more play at "High Performance" settings without crashing after zoning a few times. I test this after each game patch, hoping to see a fix.
Between client memory issues and Nvidia drivers, it has combined into a long spell of Atarivision graphics.


That being said, it's not all Doom and Gloom 8-bit: other games are performing smashingly well on my system with brilliant artwork!

Issues still continue as bad as when I made my last post, the rate at which I experience framerate drops is appalling considering I've everything turned off and pre GU#53 my framerate was steady (even if it wasn't spectacular).

Screenshot of a raid, everything at minimal or turned off when possible. As it can be seen on the framerate graph, it simply spikes even when I'm not doing anything other than standing. The normal framerate is of 30~35 which drops to 5~10 during spikes.

Just tanding in the GH, notice that drop down even though there's nothing going on.
My PC specs haven't changed since GU#52, there's no new software or anything that wasn't there -before-. This problem is completely game related, I don't know what was modified but it made the whole game unplayable for those with average PCs.

I'm crashing again over the last 3-4 days. Out of memory again and i am using CPU Shadows as advised. Gonna turn off shadows now.