Aion, CPU, and Graphics

[lifeblood]

I play Aion (CryEngine based) with all the graphics maxed out (1440x900) using my PC (see sig below) without any problems. Last night for the first time I was in a fort when it was attacked. We had about 150 players in a small space and my graphics went to pot. I couldn't move and the screen was at 3fps. I went into video options and lowered many of my settings and that gave me 10fps but all characters were vague shapes. I was monitoring my resources at the time and while I didn't hear the video card fan crank up, my RAM usage went over 3 gig's and my 2.3GHz CPU was hitting 90% - 100% on both cores.

So, I think I'm ok on RAM (for now), I will stick with my current video card, but I am considering a CPU upgrade. I'm looking at a Athlon II X3 9.3GHz. That will give me a third core and 600MHz speed increase. The question is, will that help with the FPS issue and vagueness of the characters? Is my CPU a large part of the problem?

After it was all over I went back into the video settings and saw I still had max anti-aliasing on as well as other things I should have turned down for that fight. Next time I defend/attack a fort I will do a better job of turning down settings.

 

[heat901]

I play Aion (CryEngine based) with all the graphics maxed out (1440x900) using my PC (see sig below) without any problems. Last night for the first time I was in a fort when it was attacked. We had about 150 players in a small space and my graphics went to pot. I couldn't move and the screen was at 3fps. I went into video options and lowered many of my settings and that gave me 10fps but all characters were vague shapes. I was monitoring my resources at the time and while I didn't hear the video card fan crank up, my RAM usage went over 3 gig's and my 2.3GHz CPU was hitting 90% - 100% on both cores.

So, I think I'm ok on RAM (for now), I will stick with my current video card, but I am considering a CPU upgrade. I'm looking at a Athlon II X3 9.3GHz. That will give me a third core and 600MHz speed increase. The question is, will that help with the FPS issue and vagueness of the characters? Is my CPU a large part of the problem?

After it was all over I went back into the video settings and saw I still had max anti-aliasing on as well as other things I should have turned down for that fight. Next time I defend/attack a fort I will do a better job of turning down settings.

64 bit or 32 bit?

 

[lifeblood]

64 bit or 32 bit?

The OS? 64 bit.

 

[heat901]

The OS? 64 bit.

I would say drop the AA to 2 or none at all, AA seems to always eat alot on the ATI cards(4870 - res 1680X1050).

I had 64bit win7 ult...with only 2 gb it was giving me some issues when I upgraded to 6 gb it helped. Though yours is probably just that AA at max.

How sweet does that game look? It always kinda made me drool for an MMO though it make my card sound like it was going into hyper drive.

 

[lifeblood]

Next time I decide to do a fort battle I will definitely turn the AA to none, along with all the other things to their lowest settings. Hopefully that will do the trick. I was just surprised that a lowly ol MMPOG could max out my dual core CPU. I wouldn't have figured it was possible. That will teach me to assume.

 

[heat901]

Next time I decide to do a fort battle I will definitely turn the AA to none, along with all the other things to their lowest settings. Hopefully that will do the trick. I was just surprised that a lowly ol MMPOG could max out my dual core CPU. I wouldn't have figured it was possible. That will teach me to assume.

When I was in that main city panderoium or whatever and I had 4 AA my frames would go down to the single digits. So I brought it down to 2 and that seems to keep me in the 20s area. Normally I leave all the other settings alone or up them and just mess with the AA accordingly.

 

[TechBoyJK]

people still playing this game? I've thought about signing up.

 

[soccerballtux]

I would say drop the AA to 2 or none at all, AA seems to always eat alot on the ATI cards(4870 - res 1680X1050).

I had 64bit win7 ult...with only 2 gb it was giving me some issues when I upgraded to 6 gb it helped. Though yours is probably just that AA at max.

How sweet does that game look? It always kinda made me drool for an MMO though it make my card sound like it was going into hyper drive.

Your evidence is interesting, but seeing OP's CPU was at 90-100% I think that pretty much informs us of the problem right there.

OP I'd go ahead and get a quad core. You can get a Ph2 945 right now for $132 after bing cashback and $10 off $100 orders-- http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2043571
You'd be able to overclock that to 3.4 probably on stock cooling no problem. I would just double check that your board supports it.

 

[heat901]

Your evidence is interesting, but seeing OP's CPU was at 90-100% I think that pretty much informs us of the problem right there.

OP I'd go ahead and get a quad core. You can get a Ph2 945 right now for $132 after bing cashback and $10 off $100 orders-- http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2043571
You'd be able to overclock that to 3.4 probably on stock cooling no problem. I would just double check that your board supports it.

I do find it odd that his video card fan doesn't crank up when running and/or able to run at 8 AA. Unless you have some sweet fan

I have a 2.4 core 2 duo e6600 overclocked to 3.0 (got it in 2006)and didnt have the issue. Perhaps if you try to bump it up a little with an overclock to see if the frames increase it should tell you that if the CPU is limiting your GPU. Though I do not know how overclockable the none Black edition AMDs are so it might not work.

Soccerballtux is probably right though.

 

[heat901]

people still playing this game? I've thought about signing up.

I liked it and dislike it all at the same time. It has the wow feel but the classes seem a little bit more balanced/interesting. Its more of a GRIND though. Main reason I stopped playing is the game is based on PVP at end game for the most part. Once you get up there,though I didnt(I know I did it and you d do it) it comes to higher lvl messing with the low level guys trying to level. You cant do dmg to the higher lvls because in the game there is balance if they are 6 lvl above you or something like that all your attacks auto resist. SO if you are pveing in a pvp zone(basically all of aion is) trying to complete quest to level, you will basically get slaughtered and fighting back is pointless.

Abyss is sweet though....

 

[lifeblood]

Once you get up there,though I didnt(I know I did it and you d do it) it comes to higher lvl messing with the low level guys trying to level... SO if you are pveing in a pvp zone(basically all of aion is) trying to complete quest to level, you will basically get slaughtered and fighting back is pointless.

I agree.

I like it but as a low level character (lvl 26) I'm a walking target in Abyss (main PvP area). You need to be 30+ to have a chance. I spend a lot of time watching my back and instantly run if I see an opposing player. Because I'm so low I just assume he's higher level than me and can kick my ass. It doesn't help that I work solo.

Working outside of the abyss is easier but you can't let your guard down as the opposing players can still sneak in and gank you. It teaches you to be paranoid.

 

[heat901]

I agree.

I like it but as a low level character (lvl 26) I'm a walking target in Abyss (main PvP area). You need to be 30+ to have a chance. I spend a lot of time watching my back and instantly run if I see an opposing player. Because I'm so low I just assume he's higher level than me and can kick my ass. It doesn't help that I work solo.

Working outside of the abyss is easier but you can't let your guard down as the opposing players can still sneak in and gank you. It teaches you to be paranoid.

Also the player base seems to be a little immature. The game is based more on solo than grouping as well, though I didnt pvp much I could see grouping opening up more when you start to.

 

[soccerballtux]

I do find it odd that his video card fan doesn't crank up when running and/or able to run at 8 AA. Unless you have some sweet fan

I have a 2.4 core 2 duo e6600 overclocked to 3.0 (got it in 2006)and didnt have the issue. Perhaps if you try to bump it up a little with an overclock to see if the frames increase it should tell you that if the CPU is limiting your GPU. Though I do not know how overclockable the none Black edition AMDs are so it might not work.

Soccerballtux is probably right though.

Well that is a much faster CPU than OP's, so that might be it.
OP: http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=A780GXH/128M is the cpus your board supports.

 

[BW86]

So, I think I'm ok on RAM (for now), I will stick with my current video card, but I am considering a CPU upgrade. I'm looking at a Athlon II X3 9.3GHz. That will give me a third core and 600MHz speed increase. The question is, will that help with the FPS issue and vagueness of the characters? Is my CPU a large part of the problem?

damn, that thing is going to be blazing fast ^_^

 

[lifeblood]

I'm going to wait for another fort fight, turn my display settings way down (especially AA), and see how it goes. If it's still does not display well enough I'm going to upgrade the CPU. Thanks for all the advice.

BTW, thank you AMD for making AM3 CPU's work in AM2+ motherboards.

 

[lifeblood]

damn, that thing is going to be blazing fast ^_^

Um, make that a 2.9 GHz CPU. Otherwise I'd put the DoE and it's supercomputers out of business.

 

[JACKDRUID]

people still playing this game? I've thought about signing up.

dont... do not do it.. unless you like to

1. get ganked by level 40-50 while doing a quest at level 20-35
2. get ganked again when you walk back to try to finish the quest
3-99 . get ganked again and again and again... which really extend your grinding even further.

100. never able to afford anything in auction house due to extremely high prices
101. get you kill stolen by thousands of bots
102. defeat a boss in a group 100 times, only to receiving some gold and white crappy drops
103. lag forever in pvp area group fights

 

[VashHT]

There's a graphics option to maintain constant FPS. I would use that when you do fort battles, worked pretty well for me.

 

[xCxStylex]

Two words for OP

SHIFT F12.


Also, no matter HOW good your computer is, NO one gets good frames at fort raids.

Disables rendering of characters.



Also... @ Techboy - DONT play it. It's a terrible game.

After failing 4 tries on crafting the Hot Heart of Magic, I stopped playing and realized it was a waste of my life.

It's the most retarded cockblock in a game ever, completely based on luck.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Aion isn't perfect. Shift-F12 is mandatory anytime you get in a group of even 50+, there are significant PvP hurdles to leveling in the abyss, and the similarities to WoW start to fade away when you hit 35+ and realize that the game is a major grind.

All that being said, it's a fun experience for veteran MMO players. I've had PvP fights that started on the lower layer of the abyss, extended to the upper layer of the abyss (300m+ flying directly up), and then finally ended at an artifact on the lower level again. You have to be able to deal with losing 1v2 to 1v6 fights to the enemy faction without it ruining your day, but there are ways to avoid getting ganked if you're an experienced gamer and make good use of your radar.

One trick I picked up early on that helps a lot is to seperate out a chat tab for enemy player combat and dock it in a corner of your screen. It will pick up enemy player actions much further away than your radar will and let you know most of the time when there are enemies in the area. You can also get a lot of information about them (number, class, approximate level) before they come into your range based on the skills they are using.

The overall polish is very good and the flight mechanic is a lot of fun (imo) for PvP. As a result, I think Aion's probably worth playing for a couple of months or so if you're a longtime MMO gamer who doesn't mind a game that is a grind. It's not worth playing if you want to put so much time into it that you're the most powerful character, but no MMO is worth playing under that framework.

 

[blckgrffn]

They had better not turn Guild Wars into this!!!

*shakes fist*

 

[j0j081]

Don't bother upgrading that happens to everyone during fort raids. I just got a 5850 and that did increase my frames a bit but whenever I know I'm doing something fort related shift f12 is pretty much the only cure. Hopefully it is something they can work out in patches.