Are you wondering how to run this game as smooth as possible ? Would you like someone to test, change and retest stuff until they eventually come up with pre-chewed checklist so you can see in the blink of an eye what to improve about your computer to run this game smooth at release time ? Well, look no further because I have done the work for you. Hope you enjoy. This guide was last edited to reflect the may 17 early access build.
List of impact per hardware pc component:
1. Central processing unit (CPU)
high, depending on which video card you use you will need a stronger processor. Nvidia cards draw their power greatly on the processor and thus generate extra load. ATI cards operate at maximum speed pretty much independent of the processor. In both cases the game itself requires a considerable deal of continuous processing power. I'm very happy to see a continous 30-70% load on all 4 cores on a Q6600 overclocked to 3.3Ghz (default clock = 2.4Ghz). This leads me to believe that the current client has really good multicore support and seems to scale very well. For this reason it's highly recommended to use a latest gen dualcore or even better get a quadcore!!
2. Random access Memory (RAM)
The amount of memory installed in your computer is absolutely critical to running this game smooth. The game itself has been developped as a 32-bit executable with LA (large address awareness) enabled. What does this mean? 32-bit executables are by design restricted to 2GB per running process on a 32bit OS. (ageofconan32.exe = 1 process = the whole game) As you zone to the inn or other zones, the executable size in memory will try to cache all this information (= keep it loaded in memory in the form of ageofconan32.exe growing in memory usage size) to give you a smoother gaming experience. I have noticed that the "working set" of the executable grows to as large as 1.9-2GB (since latest checkup), this is how much of your physically present RAM is being used by the game. If you don't have that amount of free ram BEFORE starting up the game, your game will slow down after zoning enough times and slow down even further over time until you restart it to make the game use less memory again. For this reason you need under XP at least 2.5GB in your computer to run this game smooth and under Vista at least 3GB. Aside from the physical usage there's also the virtual size (the actual size of the process) which I have seen to grow as large as about 2.1GB after zoning alot. The current gameclient releases it's allocated memory from loaded zones very good so you always stay in the 1.5-2GB physical usage range and that is very good.
note: 4GB is the ideal amount needed to run this smooth along with whatever other stuff you run on your OS (services, background apps, the OS memory itself) Vista will even use the extra memory to help cache other stuff. I have 8 and beyond 4GB you do not notice much more improvement in speed and smoothness so 8GB is NOT necessary for running ONLY this game while having all other apps closed. However having 8GB will help considerably with caching the zone loadings and other stuff under Vista as well as allow you to simultaneously run a bunch of other windows programs. Above 4GB is a luxury however, not a must have. A total of 2GB in your computer means running the game at decreased performance. This is inevitable. memory is cheap so try to get 3 or 4.
note: the speed of the memory is completely trivial when compared to the actual amount of memory. Having e.g 1066 Mhz mem instead of 667Mhz will only yield a 1-3% memory read speed increase in synthetical benchmarks but in a game don't even feel or notice anything at all. Think about that before buying expensive memory
note: although increasing your RAM from 2GB to 3GB is in essence not a direct increase in fps but instead makes the game play and loading/zoning feel alot smoother, it should be noted however that if you lack alot of RAM your FPS will be affected through stuttering etc. Running the game with 1GB e.g will give such problematic play (enough to feel 'unplayable') Having 2GB is therefore a bare minimum for running at all while 3GB is the minimum for running smooth. 4GB is a good standard. More memory with Vista 64 gives you better HD access caching. For more details about memory see the /3GB guide
3. Graphics processing unit (GPU)
Critical impact!! This game uses pretty advanced graphics that are a bit ahead of it's time. This allows for a visually stunning game under ideal circumstances with future hardware. I have been able to run at 1900*1200 at high graphic settings in a quite smooth way using 8800GT cards. A retest with 2 of those in SLI showed that SLI does work. does not make any difference in the current game client. It's absolutelty critical to have a latest gen of graph card for smooth play (nvidia 8800series or ati 3XXX series and up) The graphics card therefore is well worth your money for this game, more than buying the latest processor in any case. Upon measuring videocardmemory usage I noticed that outdoors 512MB is saturated all the time on resolutions 1600*1200 and up. Get 768 or more memory on the card if you can.
To test performance of the current client I used the following settings: resolution = 1920*1200, no bloom, no AA, everything else maxxed out including all distance sliders. Then I zone from Khemi to Old tarantia and let go of my keyboard and mouse. Here's what I measure with ctrl+alt+f in-game:
1 8800GT card on nvidia "let my application decide" : 21-22 fps
1 8800GT card on nvidia "Age of conan advance profile" : 24-27 fps
2*8800GT SLI on nvidia "let my application decide" : 31-32 fps
2*8800GT SLI on nvidia "Age of conan advance profile" : 33-35 fps
This was measured with non-OC cards with 512MB, vista 64-bit SP1 on DX10 with ALL possible settings maxxed except those mentioned. That means DX10 (yes it's working) with shadows from all etc with distance view range 3500meter etc...I'm totally stunned by this good performance. I never expected to get 30+ frames at all times on max settings in a heavy graphical zone like Old tarantia. Superb job from the devs.
note: naturally the above fps listed is a torture test!! You will not play like this mostly but instead turn the video options somewhat down and see your fps about double this. Anyway for the quality of the graphics this kind of fps is superb imho !! See tips and tricks for configuration. This part about hardware.
note: not all graphic cards appear to be "well compatible" with AOC. For example the latest badass 9800x2 series are known to give you trouble and low performance in many cases most probably due to bad driver support. all 8800series are rocksolid choices for this game as long as they have 512MB ram on them as an absolute minimum. Don't use a card with less memory !! All latest gen ATI cards such as 29XX and 3XXX series appear to be doing well as well. Note that x2 cards such as 9800x2 only use 512MB memory in reality since they have 2 chips with each 512MB and only one can be used by it's internal SLI. ATI is known to currently give less fps in general than the nvidia cards. I don't know why but when comparing fps from different people I came to this conclusion.
4. The disc subsystem (HD or a RAID of HD's)
important and severly underestimated. This component does not increase your fps in any way (at least not to a noticeable degree) but DOES effect exclusively ALL ZONING experiences which is pretty much from launching the game to going in and out of zones nonstop (in tortage e.g) The sky is the limit here since the game dir is over 24GB as it is today and parts of that are being loaded into memory as you zone. I have tested the game while running it off a latest generation 7200RPM harddrive (samsung 400GB) and later on a RAID 0 of two WD Raptor 10000RPM disks. My god the difference is day and night. With the single 7200RPM disk the loading screens take double the time and I can listen to up to an entire song while zoning into the game. On the raid system I could only hear the part of the women with the high voice and I never hear the rest of that song because I'm already ingame. This feels so good. If I had the money I would buy a 32GB HyperOS hyperdrive to run the game on because it would be blazing fast then no doubt. I can only imagine how good that must feel but I'm already very happy with the raid0 system. Adding more than 2 drives to the raid0 made a further improvement in loading times but only marginal like 10% (not worth it imho) For smooth experience ofc you have no data or anything else running off your game disk or raid system except the game and maybe the OS (peferably even only the game itself and nothingelse)
That's it for the hardware part. Plz RATE this thread and give comments or requests to sticky this if you like it. Thx
disclaimer: All findings in this thread are based solely on the personal testing experience of a game betatester. I will take no responsability for any damage that certain software or hardware changes may cause to your computer or data by executing actions suggested in this thread. Please execute any actions only after careful consideration, research and above all always at your OWN risk.
