IZ3D best Plateforms Working Configurations

[sael]

Hello,
Im am looking for some working plateform configuration for Age of Conan and Everquest

I need to "double" my 3D computing power.
Actualy my Plateform is :
Asus P5B , 4 Go Ram
Core 2 Duo E8500 ( 3,16 Go)
NV GTX280 1 Go ram
Windows XP 32Bit SP3.
I have 15 to 40 FPS and i want to get up to 25 40 FPS.

What im looking for :
- someone able to test Age of Conan with MatroxDualHead2go and NV SLI
- someone able to test this Everquest with MatroxDualHead2go and NV SLI

OR
- someone able to test Age of Conan with CrossfireX
- someone able to test this Everquest with CrossfireX

In Both case can you Tell me if you were able to render the game and the Hardware list u used.

My goal is to build a plateform who can work these 2 games with 25 + FPS
If you have a SLI or a CrossfireX plateform working with these 2 games could you please post your hardware config, this wil lhelp me to take best choice for my next plateform.

I asked this question to IZ3D forums but they dont officialy support MatroxDualHead2go or CrossfireX yet and then they cant make Hardware Recomendations yet.

Thanks for your help.

Everquest Can be downloaded as a trial to www.everquest.com

[cirk2]

Hello,
I need to "double" my 3D computing power.
Actualy my Plateform is :
Asus P5B , 4 Go Ram
Core 2 Duo E8500 ( 3,16 Go)
NV GTX280 1 Go ram
Windows XP 32Bit SP3.
I have 15 to 40 FPS and i want to get up to 25 40 FPS.

WTf You have that sytem and want to DOUBLE your performance?

Get an MB with Nforce 790i SLI chipset, an Core 2 Quad Extreme with 4x3ghz, an second gtx280, and watercooling...

Then you can overloch th cpu to 4x4ghz and the gpu also way up...

But I think you won't need that just thet the viewing range from 3kilometers to 2 kilometers... lol

[sael]

Thanks for cirk2 for replying.

SLI is NOT working with IZ3D and Actual NV drivers.

But if you are able to state that with a single GTX280 and your recommended Hardware platform i will be able to Get Everquest and Age of Conan with 25 + frames in S3D I will go for it.

I don't Believe in Quad Core Computing Actually, unless some Devs at IZ3D tells me they can use quad core Efficiently and that i would gain a lot using Quad CPU.
Very few Game Engines are able to use more then 2 CPU.
Everquest and Age of Conan are told to be able to use them but when you look at the CPU load its mostly using 1 CPU .

The job is about rendering 2 X 1680X1024 frames simultaneously using a "Platform".

[cirk2]

Wait I don't own this sytem i cant say you it runs with 25pfs+

But do soe testing for me:

Reduce the Viewing range by 1/3 i think this will be an greate improvement in fps

[LukePC1]

I don't belive in too many CPUs as well.
2 are ok: one for gaming and one for everything in the background and for some few optimized games. Usually a high frequency is better to have a high FPS, because otherwise the CPU could be the bottleneck!

The main performance source (for gaming) is the GPU and the driver. If the driver is bad, it can pull FPS down.

I think having a AMD crossfireX rig won't increase much in tearms of performance - except maybe if you have 3 or 4 cards LOL

My question is: how can those games have too low FPS on such a monster card??? It makes no/little sense. If AoC is optimized for 8800 (in high resolution?) then it should be perfect for gtx 280 in S-3D...

Other Idea: try to lower FSAA a little. Maybe it consumes your GPU memory and lags are the result...

[cybereality]

I'm not sure its even possible to double the performance of that rig unless you are talking about a super-computer or something like that. I would probably tweak the timings on the RAM and also overclock the CPU if you have cooling to support that. I've got an E8400 running at 3.6 GHz, you should be able to get at least that high on the E8500 with no problem (as long as you have a nice high-end air-cooler or better). Tweaking the RAM can also give decent gains in some games.

I am a little suspicious of SLI at this point. I've read some stuff about micro-stuttering and other various SLI issues and in some cases SLI is actually slower than just one single card (even though the FPS falsely displays an increase). SLI also has problems with dual-monitor so this causes compatibility issues with the iz3D (since it takes 2 inputs). So SLI is probably not the one-stop solution to your problems, but the driver support may improve with time.

With that rig you should be able to run Everquest maxed out. That game is really old, I don't see how it could be a problem. Age of Conan, I can't help you much there. That game seems really taxing, even on the best hardware, so you may have to just turn some settings down. CrossfireX is a possibility and the MatroxDualHead2go might help if you can use it with SLI (but then again, maybe not). So its unlikely you will get double the performance in any case, but you can surely snag a few extra FPS with the right tweaks.

[LukePC1]

CrossfireX is a possibility, but I don't think the MatroxDualHead2go are even close to the power of the GTX 280 you already have. So its unlikely you will get double the performance in any case, but you can surely snag a few extra FPS with the right tweaks.

Er... the Matrox thing should be just for providing 2 outputs instead of 1 (all others are turned off with SLI).

So make SLI --> have only one output --> make 2 out of one output to plug in the IZ3D...
Problem is, I'm not shure, if the IZ3D will work with SLI + Matrox dualhead. There could be more information on the forum (or in IZ3D forum).

[sael]

I think i could Overclock my CPU a bit that could be step one.

I just have to change the MB and get a CrossfireX better MB in case i should head to CrossfireX

Getting better ram could help to get a Faster FSB for CPU.

Nvidia SLI + MatroxDualHead2go Adapter should be "working" with IZ3D but they don't officially support it, that's why I'm asking if someone got one of these working configuration.

Talking about CPU overclocking the CPU has little impact on 3DMark 2006 this should help a bit but im not too confident but evey bit could help of course.

Talking about Reducing FSAA, I could try that too i stick to 4XFSAA and 4X Anisotropic i could try 2XFS11 and 2X Anisotropic.

I Tried to lower the "Render distance from 1/3" this help in everquest and i have to test it for Age of Conan, thanks to CirK2.

[LukePC1]

You could look into [/url=http://mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=11518#11518] THIS thread. It has a similar topic (at leas ... lution...)

[cybereality]

CrossfireX is a possibility, but I don't think the MatroxDualHead2go are even close to the power of the GTX 280 you already have. So its unlikely you will get double the performance in any case, but you can surely snag a few extra FPS with the right tweaks.

Er... the Matrox thing should be just for providing 2 outputs instead of 1 (all others are turned off with SLI).

My mistake, thanks for the correction. For some reason I though the Matrox card had its own GPU, but now I see that it just piggy-backs off your existing card. My bad.

[sael]

Well against all of my "predictions" Overclocking CPU from 3GHz to 4GHz produced some desired effects (Water colling was already installed).

I got a 3-5 frames increase in Age of Conan and Better results in Everquest (cant benchmark it ATM) but CPU stopped to stall at 100% on CPU0 (good news).

I had to set IZ3Ddriver Exe and IZ3Dlocker exe Affinity to CPU1 to get some better results with Everquest.

IZ3D labs are doing extended testings i hope they will give me some good news soon about SLI or CrossfireX.

[LukePC1]

I've got an Idea for the mega system:
What about 2 times 4870 x2 in CrossfireX? That should give you 4 GPUs a very high hydro bill and a lot of (overkill?) S-3D power

I'm not shure, if it would work, though...

All 'normal' crossfireX solutions would 'only' bring about the same performance as a single GTX280 (although 2 4870s would be cheaper afaik).

Edit:
Corrected 3870 for 4870...
Sorry typing error or Knot in my brain...

[sael]

IZ3D recommends to get twice the GPU ram needed to get things working fine.

3870X2 only has 512 Mo Ramp per GPU, I'm not sure it will be enough.
If you look at www.tomshardware.com most of Benchmarks fails on these cards because they don't have enough GPU RAM to activate Basic AA or Highest resolutions.
I'm not going for a low Ram GPU ATM because i want AA in and i want S3D in too

I'm still waiting IZ3D conclusions on CrossfireX and 2X 4870 1Go ram for my 3 favorites games.

[Welder]

Hello Luke,

Yes, there should be no issues with dual 3870x2's We would have tested it, but unfortunately one of them was DOA...

So, we instead hooked up a 3870x2 and just a 3870 in crossfireX mode, and it works without issue.

Sael: If I'm not mistaken, a 3870x2 is equal in benchmarks to an nvidia 8800.

We have not yet ordered the 4870 quite yet, because we just reconfigured everything for the 3870x2's, and the 4870 should not react much different, although it is possible because it's a completely new chip.

[LukePC1]

Ups sorry... typing error...
I wanted to write the 4870 x2^^

'only' one 4870 x2 might be not enough, since it's only about as fast as the gtx280 (I hope now it makes more sense )

I'll correct the above post

[Welder]

Ups sorry... typing error...
I wanted to write the 4870 x2^^

'only' one 4870 x2 might be not enough, since it's only about as fast as the gtx280 (I hope now it makes more sense )

I'll correct the above post

Oh ok, clear now

Yes, we have not tested one 4870x2, let alone 2

[cybereality]

I've got an Idea for the mega system:
What about 2 times 4870 x2 in CrossfireX? That should give you 4 GPUs a very high hydro bill and a lot of (overkill?) S-3D power

Yeah, if that worked it could be a killer system. Supposedly ATI fixed the multi-GPU issues as well so this may be the first dual-card solution with proper performance scaling.

[LukePC1]

...which should work with Iz3D and up to 4 (?) outputs = 2 Iz3D monitors in widescreen?? = below 1000$

On top it wouldn't be too expencive (compared to 2x GTX280 + Matrox dualhead2go = ca 1400$

[sael]

I'm not sure they would ever release some 4870X2 card with 2Go ram on board.

Better work on 2 X 4870 1Go Cards.

I'm still waiting the IZ3D team conclusion about it

[Welder]

...which should work with Iz3D and up to 4 (?) outputs = 2 Iz3D monitors in widescreen?? = below 1000$

On top it wouldn't be too expencive (compared to 2x GTX280 + Matrox dualhead2go = ca 1400$

Luke I believe crossfireX only supports 2 outputs

Don't quote me on that though... but I'm pretty sure.

[LukePC1]

Oh what a pity... I thought it has 4 plugs, so it might have 4 outputs, too

Well I have never realy thought of 2 GPUs for my PCs, because usually its just a waste of energy and money for me --> a single card for the same cost will do about the same with lower power consumption and less effort or configuration.

Well 2 outputs for crossfreX would still be enough to run iz3D screen

a little off topic:
do you show up and read this forum in turns? It seems a little like it and it's no bad Idea, too

[sael]

I Updated my Computer to get newer Mother Board and PCIE 2.0 support : Asus P5Q Deluxe and P45 chip-set.

This gave me better FPS in Age of Conan :
I don't go Below 18 FPS in heave zones and my average FPS are more like 20-25 is S3D.

On the other Hand I took some FPS benches over Everquest : result is bad : 25 FPS with Driver sleeping, 10-12 FPS with S3D activated on Heaviest Zone : Meldrath Majestic Mansion (MMM).

With driver off, i only get 35 FPS in MMM zone that's is BAD for a GTX280.

I benched Oblivion With Max detail this morning i get 36 - 50 Frames in S3D this morning.

Just to sum up things PCI-2.0 looks important to use with GTX280 this gave me 3-5 more FPS in S3D mode.

[dreamingawake]

wow. i dont even know where to begin but there are a ton of things you can do
to get more fps out of that game. your system should be crankin higher fps in my opinion.

make sure you aren't running any uneccessary background programs, make sure you've
defragged your hard drive, make sure all your settings in the nvidia control panel
are good, check the temperatures of your cpu and gpu.. if they're good
overclock more !! that 280 of yours probably has alot of head room. id wager
10-15 more fps you could gain easily!!