Official Thread: Performance Issues

Taniwha_D · 12-17-2006 01:45 PM

Woo boy. What can I say? Since the Dec. release came out, I've gone from 50-60 FPS to 10, 12 FPS, 20 MAX.

Standing in Pocket D, I "Lost Connection to MapServer" 23 times in three minutes.

I recently upgraded my mobo, reinstalled my OS fresh, installed new drivers for my vidcard, did a clean install of the game... in the week or so my PC was on blocks for rebuild, that's when the latest version came out. And on an upgraded PC, I now get half the framerate I did.

Before I reinstalled, I was starting to lose interest in CoH, because I encountered a terribly frustrated gameplay 'wall'. I figured once I rebuilt the PC, I'd be fair and give it another shot. Maybe I could enjoy it once I figured a way past that 'wall'.

So I get back to the game, and I get 12 FPS.

It's a slideshow.

It appears to me I made a mistake being willing to give CoH another shot. I doubt you'll have it fixed before my little remaining patience in the game's problems runs out.

For reference, I proved it's not my PC today by running vidcard-intensive games at 60FPS. Half-Life 2 at 1024x768 with 4xFSAA on a Geforce 7600, 2+GhzPC, 1GB RAM.

The only thing giving me poor performance is CoH.

DXDIAG:
Machine name: COMPY2200
Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195) Service Pack 4
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ECS
System Model: M848A
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2700
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 315MB used, 4146MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINNT
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6800
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0041&SUBSYS_00000000 &REV_A1
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 960 (16 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9371 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 4527488 bytes

CFIndustries · 12-17-2006 02:54 PM

Here's the wind-up, and the pitch!
(details a bit sketchy, working from memory)

-----
ISSUE 3 thru most of ISSUE 5:

CPU: AMD Socket A 1 GHz Processor
RAM: 256 MB
OS: Windows (pre-ME)
Video Card: nVidia MX440
Sound Card: some generic P.O.S.
Motherboard: another generic P.O.S.
Hard Drive: unknown slow-speed IDE
Connection: 512/1024 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 1152x864
UI Scaling: 75%
Character Detail: 75%
World Detail: 75%
Particle Count: 10,000
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "medium" settings. Nothing outrageous.

Game worked like a charm. Framerates were decent except for my Claws/DA scrapper, I'd say around 25fps. DA powers combined with SuperJump dropped frame considerably and as this character became my main I dropped the Particle Count to 5000.

Talos Station was always horrid, even when barely anyone was around, probably closer to 10fps. Lag for large teams was only problematic in the 40+ games and never bad enough to hurt functionality.

-----
ISSUE 5 thru most of ISSUE 6:

CPU: AMD Socket A 3000+ Processor (3.1 GHz Bartin Core)
RAM: 512 MB
OS: Windows ME
Video Card: nVidia MX440
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Motherboard: MSI KT6V
Hard Drive: 2x 80 GB Seagate 7500 RPM SATA (RAID 0 via Mobo)
Connection: 768/1.5 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 1152x864
UI Scaling: 75%
Character Detail: 75%
World Detail: 75%
Particle Count: 5,000
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "medium" settings. Nothing outrageous.

Original CPU self-destructed. Decided to rebuild the PC a bit. Extra RAM and sound card didn't make alot of difference.

Issue 6 caused a noticeable drop in framerates, probably about -5fps. Lag is more common in the 30+ game, but nothing earth-shattering yet. But it is getting a bit annoying.

Villains has always had horrid framerates, but I was so pissed about "ED" I ignored it. But I'd say easily half of Heroes framerates, even outdoors, which means about 10-15 fps.

-----
Late ISSUE 6:

CPU: AMD Socket A 3000+ Processor (3.1 GHz Barton Core)
RAM: 1 GB
OS: Windows XP Pro
Video Card: nVidia NX6600 (MSI)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Motherboard: MSI KT6V
Hard Drive: 2x 80 GB Seagate 7500 RPM SATA (RAID 0 via Mobo)
Connection: 768/1.5 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 1152x864
UI Scaling: 75%
Character Detail: 75%
World Detail: 75%
Particle Count: 25,000
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "high" settings.

For the last two weeks of I6, I enjoyed graphical bliss. I turned-on many of the cool effects, and realized how much of the graphical wonderland I had been missing. Even with all the features enabled, I could keep-up a reasonable 20-30fps in Heroes, and a tolerable 14-20 in Villains.

I should note that Arachnos maps from the get-go always ate another half of the framerate on a good day, which means 5-7 fps in this state.

That was not to last however...

-----
ISSUE 7:

CPU: AMD Socket A 3000+ Processor (3.1 GHz Barton Core)
RAM: 1 GB
OS: Windows XP Pro
Video Card: nVidia NX6600 (MSI)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Motherboard: MSI KT6V
Hard Drive: 2x 80 GB Seagate 7500 RPM SATA (RAID 0 via Mobo)
Connection: 768/1.5 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 1152x864
UI Scaling: 75%
Character Detail: 50%
World Detail: 50%
Particle Count: 5,000
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "medium" settings.

When I7 came out framerates just tanked. I had to stop playing villains because outdoors was 8fps and indoors was more like 4-5fps. Arachnos maps and Grandville I could barely get past 5fps, and often dropped to less than 1fps with a full team. Heroes on the other hand was still a respectable 18-20 fps.

-----
ISSUE 8:

CPU: AMD Socket A 3000+ Processor (3.1 GHz Barton Core)
RAM: 1 GB
OS: Windows XP Pro
Video Card: nVidia NX6600 (MSI)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Motherboard: MSI KT6V
Hard Drive: 2x 80 GB Seagate 7500 RPM SATA (RAID 0 via Mobo)
Connection: 768/1.5 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 1152x864
UI Scaling: 75%
Character Detail: 50%
World Detail: 50%
Particle Count: 5,000
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "medium" settings.

Villains is currently about 10fps outdoors, Heroes is about 18fps, standing still. While moving, it will vary, but about 8fps for villains, about 14fps for Heroes. Hero-side took a small speed hit with I8. With a full team, I8 really shows it's stripes, taking heroes down to less than 5 fps if enough AoE-heavy people are on the team.

Also, whereas Hero lag pre-I8 was more like a general slowdown, Villains was always stuttery, with nasty "spikes" where framerate would STOP for a few seconds. Now with I8, than same stutter is on the Hero side. I much preferred the old Hero lag which had a very consistant slow-down, not the up-n-down lag I get now.

-----
NEW SYSTEM COMING:
In a last-ditch attempt to overcome the lag, I have parts on order and I should have this built by end of the year:

CPU: Intel Core Duo 2 2.4 GHz Socket 775
RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400
OS: Windows XP Pro
Video Card: 2x (SLi) eVGA 7950GT
Sound Card: Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
Motherboard: eVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR NF680i 775
Hard Drive: 2x 80 GB Seagate 7500 RPM SATA (RAID 0 via Mobo?)
Connection: 768/1.5 ADSL (SpeakEasy SysAdmin Package)
Resolution: 3840x1024 (3x 19" ViewSonic 2ms VX922 with TripleHead2Go...decided to spoil myself...)
UI Scaling: unknown
Character Detail: 75-100%
World Detail: 75-100%
Particle Count: 20,000+
Other Graphics Settings: Mostly on "high" settings.

I expect good things from this setup. It may not be top-of-the-line but it's definitely above-par and above-average near as I can tell, and would be to drool over for most of the people I know.

If this doesn't seem to work, well I guess I give-up. Every issues brings a framerate penalty and unless I see some serious FPS improvements (given the specs on my current setup versus the new components, I expect 30+ fps outdoors), I can get things like NWN2 and other games I've been drooling at but had no time for, since this system is above-n-beyond the needs of most games out at the moment. I want my darned eye candy! ;P

If you need any more details Lighthouse, let me know. I will certainly get back one or the other before New Years with how the new gear is running. *crosses fingers*

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention my biggest pet peeves:

--You may have noticed I've never left "medium" settings despite the FPS hits. It's because starting with I6 the sliders stopped making any difference. I doubt I gain more than 1-2 fps going from "low" settings to "medium." Even turning things OFF made so little difference that I opted to keep some of the eye candy on.

--I tried the trick where you set game resolution less than screen resolution, but I can't stand what it does. I guess because my full-time job is graphics and I am sensitive to pixelation from being a Photoshop jockey, I can see every visual discrepancy from the game resolution vs. video resolution mismatch and find it both disorienting and distracting. Had to switch it back to matching.

Brakner · 12-17-2006 06:57 PM

Just started playing again after 6 months.

Old system

Intel 2.8 (800 ) Northwood
2048 PC3200 ram
Nvidia 6800GT 128 AGP
Soyo Dragon 2 PE865 MB
SB Audigy
160g WD ATA 100 HD

Average of 20 to 25 FPS outside with most set to Medium and High. 1280 x 1024

New System

Core2Duo 6400 (2113 stock)or(300x8, 2400 OC)
2048 Corsair XMS2 TWIN2-6400
Sapphire (ATI) x1950xt 256
Asus P5B-E 965p MB
SB Audigy 4
250g Sata 2 3.0 HD

Fresh install of windows with most recent MB, video and soundcard drivers. I get 20 - 30 FPS outside at 1280 x 1024 with most settings to high, some medium ( no high water or depth of view ). Considering this system is capable of playing Oblivion at 1280 x 1024 all settings high ( no AA or AF ) and maintains a constant 60-100 FPS outside, this is sad.....

My DxDiag.txt

Brakner · 12-17-2006 07:31 PM

Ok I did a bit more searching and found these two threads. All I can say is WOW, after adding -renderthread 1 to my "C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CovUpdater.exe" line on the icon properties, I now get 40 to 60 fps outside. Ok this is playable now, why was this turned off by default?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....e=4&fpart=1

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...17#Post6650817

Taniwha_D · 12-18-2006 09:31 PM

So, uh, Just to check it out, I loaded up CoH in Safe Mode to see just how bad I8 has geficked my framerate.

I got a whopping 2 FPS at Atlas' statue, and 10FPS inside City Hall.

It worked before I8, and now it... don't. Will this be fixed anytime soon, I wonder? Or should I just continue to pay a few months until it's playable again?

Syndace · 12-18-2006 10:36 PM

im paying.. and the framerates for me are still bad. I already posted my specs.. great system running the game, but the game is lagging like crazy

Someone mentioned loose coding.. code isnt being deleted so it builds up.. is this really whats going on here?

Nerfherder · 12-19-2006 07:25 AM

P4 3.2GHz
1GB RAM
GeForce 7800GS
250GB S-ATA disk
Latest everything when it comes to drivers, tried both with and without -renderthread 1...

...and I have 9fps in Cap Au Diable. Just tried a CoT mission (aura mission) and was happy the few times I got more then 15fps, most of the time it was between 10-15fps tho with occasional dips into 4-5 fps.

Gamebreaking? Absolutely.

Any and all spelling, grammar and logic errors are intentional so this post will blend seamlessly into the Internet
---------------------------
Unbelievable. You, [subject name here], must be the pride of [subject hometown here]!

_Ariel_ · 12-19-2006 11:43 PM

Well after todays patch, 12.19.06, I was running fine in a mission with a full team. My frame rates were between 15 - 20. As soon as I exited the mission my frame rates dropped to between 5 - 6 fps and stayed there. I tried entering a new mission and then exiting and the frame rates still remained between 5 - 6 fps. I ended up exiting the game and logging back in to get my frame rates back up.

I had a fair mix of AT's on my team.
There were two Ill/Rads, one Granite Tank, one WS (for part of the mission), one PB (for part of the mission), an Emp Defender, two scrappers and myself playing an Elec/Elec blaster. We were fighting Nemesis with lots of bubbles and vengeance fx's going off plus the controllers pets and debuffs.

Earlier I was running solo doing police band missions, with no performance problems in mission or upon exiting the missions.

Dr_Spectre · 12-20-2006 08:23 AM

* Since i8 - did the Manticore TF. All of us (8) crashed multiple times; only common thread (for me at least) was it always happened in a city zone, not a mission.

* In Pocket D, the xmas Chalet, I can almost guarantee a crash by going to one of the blue vent 'ski lifts'. Crash symptoms: total screen freeze and sound looping.

System specs: 1.7ghz cpu, 256mgb graphic card, 1 gig ram.

Dr. Spectre of the Midnight Avengers
Taxibot 1
Getaway, of the Rogue Isles Getaway Service
Golden Ager of the GotGA

Guardian_Pixie · 12-20-2006 08:42 AM

I have a Pentium 4 (2.8 GHz) with 1 GB RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 card. I cannot be on a team larger than 3 without severe framerate drops. I was on a team of 8 the other day, and I may as well have left myself at the door; I was completely useless due to the lag and framerate.

Also, since the most recent patch, my memory leak skyrockets to 1/2 a gig after running 2 missions, requiring me to restart my computer to be able to play longer. I used to be able to play for hours before the leak became a problem.

It is very frustrating.

FlameOn · 12-20-2006 09:16 AM

I have a Pentium 4, 3Gb Ram a Nvidia 7900 GTX and before I8 I ran beautiful, now I'm getting crashes going from one zone to the next, including in Pocket D, my frame rates are really bad and I'm getting very choppy gameplay and alot of rubberbanding. I make sure no other apps are running and I have the latetest video drivers.

Shield · 12-20-2006 12:37 PM

I got a P4 3.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 512MB Nvidia 7950 GT, SATA 75GB 10k RPM HD, 750W Power, 8 Fans, and I am tired of crashing at least 3 times a day. I even rebuilt my machine from scratch with a naked version of XP and only COV/COH and nothing else. I also have what i call super computer which has 4 Gig RAM, Dual Xeon 3.6 GHZ, 1 Gig RAM Nvidia 8800 Video, RAID 0-1 72Gig 15k SCSI, and COh/COV crashes and bad bad bad lag. This needs to be fixed. I even called them, they told me taht they only roubleshoot the PC, not the coding part of the game. Useless...

Shield · 12-20-2006 12:39 PM

Oh one more thing, what is the best way to monitor the frame rate.

Thanks

CFIndustries · 12-20-2006 12:52 PM

/showfps 1 (turns it on)
/showfps 0 (turns it off)

What I'd like to know is when using this feature what the numbers shown in parenthesis mean.

Shield · 12-20-2006 01:56 PM

That should be the frame per second rate.

CFIndustries · 12-20-2006 01:58 PM

[ QUOTE ]
That should be the frame per second rate.

[/ QUOTE ]
To be more clear, there are two numbers...the first one I believe is clearly labelled "fps" while there is a second set next to it that I can't remember how it's labelled. I'm not in front of the game right now to be more specific.

Shield · 12-20-2006 05:06 PM

## (##m/Fm) the ##m-->means milseconnds per frame the first two ## means the frame number or number fraem oer milseconds

CFIndustries · 12-20-2006 11:55 PM

For your consideration Lighthouse:

Here's what I got tonight, the last night my old rig will be in service. Out of town for a week and then will build the new system. I did have a chance to set-up the triple-display, but only plugged-in one monitor. So this is the new VX922 rather than my previous 17" PressView, so the resolution is up from using that display (1024x872 I think I used). Oddly, didn't affect framerates much using the larger resolution.

PERFORMANCE:
Outdoors.....Talos, Talos Tram area, and Faultline: 18-21fps
Indoors.....Warehouse map and Defeat Castillo cave/base map: 5fps (peak), 1.06fps (floor) in combat with spawns on Heroic: 8 person team
Server Status.....Green

HARDWARE:
Mobo.....MSI KT6V Socket A
Processor.....AMD Athlon 3000+ (Barton Core)
RAM.....1 GB (2x 512 MB, non-matched)
Video.....MSI GeForce 6600
Audio.....Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Display.....ViewSonic VX922 (analog port)

IN-GAME SETTINGS:
Screen/UI Resolution.....1280x1024 (native display resolution)
3D Resolution Scaling.....1280x1024
Refresh Rate.....75
Advanced Settings.....Enabled

Supress Extra Player FX.....Enabled
Particle Physics Quality.....Low
World Texture Quality.....Medium
Character Texture Quality.....Medium
World Detail.....50%
Character Detail.....50%
Max Particle Count.....5000
Vertical Sync.....Enabled
FSAA.....4x
Shadows.....Enabled
Use Geometry Buffers.....Enabled
Anisotropic Filtering.....8x
Texture Crispness.....Smooth
Water Effects.....Low Quality
Depth of Field Effects.....Disabled
Bloom Effects.....None

Sound FX Volume.....50%
Music Volume.....0%
Sound Playback Mode.....Performance
3D Sound.....Disabled

NVIDIA DRIVER SETTINGS:
Antialiasing setting.....Application-controlled
Anisotropic filtering.....Application-controlled
Image seting.....Quality
Vertical sync.....Application-controlled
Force mipmaps.....None
Conformant texture clamp.....On
Extension limit.....Off
Hardware acceleration.....Single-display mode
Trilinear optimization.....On
Anisotropic mip filter optimization.....On
Anisotropic sample optimization.....On
Triple buffering.....On
Negative LOD bias.....Clamp

Broomhilda · 12-21-2006 12:32 AM

I just wanted to add this in for you guys. (the Devs) I played on a group of 6 last night and was having horrid frame rate problems. Then my buddie who was playing a Plant dom had to take a break. While he was gone I had no drop in frame rate. The game ran great. Then when he returned and hit even his single target hold, BOOM there went my frame rate right down the tolet. And when he let loose with a Crawler OMG basicly I get in one hit and then fight is over before lock up ends. It seemed to be the tenticles, if I could turn away from them or they went down because the mobs were dead the frame rate went back up. I have also noticed that this happens with Warmth from corruptors, just not quite as bad.

This computer

AMD 3100+ sempron
1 GB RAM
BFG Nvidia 7800 GTX AGP, Latest drivers
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy Plat., latest drivers
Window XP Home
e~Trust EZArmor, Have not noticed any differance in praformance with disabled or active.

Broomhilda BS/Regen/BM Scrapper, Fiddle Faddle Shield/ElecM/BM Tank,
And many others..
Dev's With all the Great new content, Please!! dont forget to fix the bugs with the old content. There is a storm a brewing because they are not getting fixed. If its a problem that no one is reporting them? Well Maybe you need to look at your tech support then..

Larry · 12-21-2006 03:01 AM

P4 3.07 Ghz
1.25 Gb ram
BFG Nvidia 7600 GS OC
Win XP

I recently returned to CoV after almost a year. I used to play it using my onboard video card--don't know how I ever managed that. I recently upgraded to the 7600 GS OC, along with a better power supply to accomodate it, specifically in order to play this game. I play on minimal settings--looks just fine to me-- I care more about the game running smoothly. I expected that I would at least be able to do that much, but that hasn't been the case.

I don't get the map server disconnects and crashes and so on--my main problem is erratic frame rates. Teaming is bad enough--always plummeting frame rates there--but even solo I'm getting it. I can't even identify a potential source of the problem; it seems entirely random. For example:

4:18- Longbow base mission. Entering hallway, fps drops (and when I say "drops", I mean instantaneously plummets) from 42 to 8. Recovers to 38, then drops from 38 to 5 exiting hallway into large room.

4:19- "Enhancement Found" text. Fps drops from 28 to 2.

4:21- Fighting Longbow. Fps drops from 28 to 3.

4:23- Fighting Longbow. Fps drops from 30 to 6.

(Regarding previous two entries: many more instances of fighting Longbow bear no effect on fps).

4:24- Exiting hallway. Fps JUMPS from 5 to 38.

4:25- Fighting Longbow. Fps drops from 37 to 6.

4:27- Standing still (making note of previous drop). Fps JUMPS from 8 to 40.

4:28- Special Longbow attack drops fps from 38 to 16.

4:29- "Mission Complete" text. Fps drops from 38 to 7.

4:30- "Enhancement Found" text. This time has no effect on fps.

4:31- Standing still. Fps JUMPS from 34 to 54.

4:33- Standing still. Fps drops from 42 to 10.

I can't understand what's going on here, but it certainly doesn't seem right. I wouldn't even care if it only dropped into the teens so that it didn't noticeably affect the game.

I've run several speed tests on my cable connection, and the results are consistently high quality.

Mr_Grey · 12-21-2006 08:17 AM

I've been having intermittent lag issues. The game plays fine for a few seconds, then stops nearly still. If I'm with a team, it's worse and I get the dreaded mapserver message until the fight is over.

What's bothersome is that I KNOW my machine can handle the game, otherwise I wouldn't have those smooth moments. And I don't just mean running smooth, standing still smooth, I mean full on power blasting, making a dent in the game then I'm suddenly hip-deep in molasses. Heck, I can even NOT be engaging in superhero work and the game starts to crawl. Also, I get this performance regardless of the graphics setting, from minimal to recommended (I just don't need top quality, so I don't try it). What's going on?

My Stories

Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.

_Ariel_ · 12-24-2006 02:09 AM

Well I tried a Hammie raid today and same thing I ran into before the latest patch.

Everything ran fine while in The Hive. After all the fun and games with Hammie I was running 30 fps but once I left the zone my frame rate dropped to 6 fps and stayed there. The only way to fix it was to log out of the game and back again. This time though I tried tp'ing directly to my base rather than going through Eden.

Ms_Miraculous · 12-27-2006 02:31 PM

Since the patch:
1) Whole teams crashed to the desktop simultaneously during missions, just travelling to the mission sites, or during fighting (4-8 people). This happens at least 2-3 times in an evening.

2) Disconnected from Mapserver happens, and affects our whole team (4-8 people)

3) When you first log in you don't experience any lag, but as soon as you do 1-3 missions, as soon as you leave the mission, the lag (framerate), drops to an insanely low level, and within a few minutes of that you will crash to the desktop.

Using /RELOADGFX does nothing in most cases.

If you go back into the game after the crash the game is not laggy, until you do another 1-3 missions, and the pain starts all over again!!!!

It is becoming very very predictable. It has become very painful to play, and reactivating other accounts like from WoW and Guild Wars, has become very hard to resist...

This is the best game out there... ...when it works...

Karisma · 12-29-2006 12:33 PM

Yes, this is a great game and I understand things poop out from time to time so this is more of a communication than a complaint. However, I personally did not have a single crash since around end of August beginning of September 06 when I started playing again until about a week after I8 came out. I have now crashed about 5 times, either zoning or going into a mish. Additionally, the mish load times are much slower than they were. I used to be in quick and now it seems quite lengthy (which makes me wonder if I'm about to crash.) Anyway, I've send the crash report on at least 3 of the occasions. Don't know what it is, but I'm sure you guys are on it. You're great!!! : )

CFIndustries · 12-29-2006 07:58 PM

Well things are looking hopeful...

Mobo.....eVGA nForce 680i SLI
Processor.....Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (-renderthread enabled)
RAM.....2 GB (2x 1 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 Twin2X)
Video.....2x eVGA e-GeForce 7950 GT KO (SLI, though SLI doesn't seem to be running so far)
Audio.....Creative Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
Display.....ViewSonic VX922 (analog port)

PERFORMANCE:
Outdoors.....Talos, Talos Tram area, and Faultline: 64-75fps
Indoors.....Crotoa outdoor maps, cave maps: 5-person team, 54-70fps; 8-person team, 33-65fps
Server Status.....Yellow/Green

NOTES:
--What reminded me of the memory leak bug got me on exit of a Crotoa mission map. Inside mission was at least 65fps standing still, yet when I zoned to Crotoa (exit mission) I was at 37fps. Moved to Talos tram area, still 37 fps. Tried /reloadgfx, still 37 fps. Quit game and re-launched, got back my usual 75fps at Talos Tram. So that is definitely a bug. Like I said, reminds me of the "memory leaks" of the past.

--The teams I've had so far (both pre and post new system) have been low on the "splat" powers and big auras. So that will likely cut-into these fps numbers. I also haven't visited Villains, which usually is good for a 50% fps drop (y'all really need to fix that, it's far too big an fps difference between the two games).

--FPS is limited by Refresh Rate somehow. Since I re-installed the game it defaulted to 60 and initially the FPS capped at 60fps. When I reset to 75 refresh, my FPS capped at 75fps. I couldn't test higher since my monitor doesn't support refresh rates higher than 75.

--5-6 teammates seems a good sweet spot for FPS. more than that caused a bigger drop-off.

COMMENTS:
--I find it a bit distrubing that just get a respectable 30 FPS in combat that I needed a fairly robust system like this. This is NOT a system typical among my friends.

--I was swapping stories with a team earlier today and we all agree that I3, I4, and I5 were the last times this game ran on "average" hardware at good speeds. In other words, if you ran a system close to the "minimum requirements" you could still be effective and have reasonably fluid combat, 20+ FPS. We concluded quite separate from each other that I6 is when it all went downhill. We also all agreed that I8 has simply turned this into a game that a "basic" system can play into a game only self-professed "gamers" and their tweaked and upper-middle and high-end systems can enjoy fully.

--I've been playing at sub-20 FPS for so long I'd forgotten how gorgeous this game is when you can get higher FPS rates, and how much more effective I can be as a player. Wow.

I'm going to switch to my TripleHead2Go setup now, so that'll be it for the comparative tests. I will get back to you on any wierdness I see after I establish a baseline there.

BTW: How do I tell if SLI is running or not? I've seen CoH screenies with an SLI logo showing, but mine isn't doing that.