NVidia and VSOH

[GiggsBeckham11]

I am currently looking into getting a new computer to run Vanguard in a few weeks. I was planning on getting the NVidia 8000 GTS or GTX video card, however, I ahve read quite a few posts about how the game does not appear to be running well on any NVidia card. Is it worth getting one or should I be looking at ATI cards?

[rabb1t]

Runs totally fine on Nvidia, not sure where you got that.

As a side note - unless you are at 1920x1200 res or higher you will do just fine with an 8800 GTS. Additionally the GTS will be a normal sized card (compared to the oversized GTX) and only requires one PCIe power line (compared to the two the GTX needs).

If you really want an ATi you'd have to either get a far less powerful one (the x1950 is not as powerful as the GTS yet costs as much or more) as their DX10 GPUs won't be releasing for a month or two.

[Darkmoore]

Runs totally fine on Nvidia, not sure where you got that.

As a side note - unless you are at 1920x1200 res or higher you will do just fine with an 8800 GTS. Additionally the GTS will be a normal sized card (compared to the oversized GTX) and only requires one PCIe power line (compared to the two the GTX needs).

If you really want an ATi you'd have to either get a far less powerful one (the x1950 is not as powerful as the GTS yet costs as much or more) as their DX10 GPUs won't be releasing for a month or two.

Are you serious? The GTX needs 2 power cables??!! Dear God, how far are we going to go? LOL

[rabb1t]

Yup. Apparently each line only delivers up to 150w, and so 2 ensures that the GTX GPU has enough power. The same will happen with the ATi DX10 GPUs. However, there are rumors the ATi DX10 GPUs may go a step further and have the new 8-pin PCIe v2 plugs. (See the ramblings in the PCI express v2 Thread).

It isn't really a big deal though. All of the PSUs made over the past year or two which are about 500w and higher which are not cheap brands have had 2 PCIe 6-plug lines. :) There are decent ones you can get for about $60 if your PSU doesn't have it though (as well as converters from 4-plug to 6-plug style.)

[GiggsBeckham11]

Yup. Apparently each line only delivers up to 150w, and so 2 ensures that the GTX GPU has enough power. The same will happen with the ATi DX10 GPUs. However, there are rumors the ATi DX10 GPUs may go a step further and have the new 8-pin PCIe v2 plugs. (See the ramblings in the PCI express v2 Thread).

It isn't really a big deal though. All of the PSUs made over the past year or two which are about 500w and higher which are not cheap brands have had 2 PCIe 6-plug lines. :) There are decent ones you can get for about $60 if your PSU doesn't have it though (as well as converters from 4-plug to 6-plug style.)

Well, Ive just seen a few threads from this area and some other Vanguard related sites discussing the possiblity that the NVidia cards are not really optomized for perfect gameplay. I think some people were mentioning some strange particle effects. I'm pretty commited to getting the NVidia 8000 card, but just wanted some more knowledgable people to weigh in to insure that the problem was either only cosmetic and easily reparable, or non-existent.

[Fozzik]

Each line can provide up to 75 watts (I thought) and the socket can provide another 75W...according to the spec. So 3 x 75W = more power than the card will need...but 2 x 75W (the socket and one plug) was not quite enough.

I really don't think it matters what video card you have at this point (as far as brand goes, I mean). Although ATI may be having slightly less bugs because Sigil has a deal with them... ALL video cards are having issues because the game is just buggy right now. I know they are working on things, and from the experience of 18 months of beta, I can tell you that they will get things squared away.

The 8-series from NVidia might have some extra bugs because of its newness (is that a word?), but I think in a few months the game and the drivers will be just fine. The performance is worth a couple months of potential graphical glitches... at least IMHO.

[GiggsBeckham11]

Each line can provide up to 75 watts (I thought) and the socket can provide another 75W...according to the spec. So 3 x 75W = more power than the card will need...but 2 x 75W (the socket and one plug) was not quite enough.

I really don't think it matters what video card you have at this point (as far as brand goes, I mean). Although ATI may be having slightly less bugs because Sigil has a deal with them... ALL video cards are having issues because the game is just buggy right now. I know they are working on things, and from the experience of 18 months of beta, I can tell you that they will get things squared away.

The 8-series from NVidia might have some extra bugs because of its newness (is that a word?), but I think in a few months the game and the drivers will be just fine. The performance is worth a couple months of potential graphical glitches... at least IMHO.

Agreed...even if the 8000 series cards are not perfectly optomized I think that in the long run the performance will be well worth it. The only reason I would consider getting the GTX over the GTS is not for performance now, but rather for the performance boost in a few years. My wife will not allow me to upgrade components for a long time after I make this purchase so I figure I should just get the most powerful chip now so it will keep me going for a bit longer!

[Joshmvii]

I have the 8800 GTX and i'm running max resolution, every setting to the max and getting 30ish FPS in the open, and 50+ in smaller indoor areas. There are a few graphical glitches that I think will probably be worked out as Vanguard actually starts to support the 8000 series, but it's well worth it.

[GiggsBeckham11]

I have the 8800 GTX and i'm running max resolution, every setting to the max and getting 30ish FPS in the open, and 50+ in smaller indoor areas. There are a few graphical glitches that I think will probably be worked out as Vanguard actually starts to support the 8000 series, but it's well worth it.

Thanks for that input Joshmvii. It's nice to hear that. Would you mind letting me know what your CPU and memory is so I can get a feel for where you stand in those areas? Thanks man.

[Boceefus]

Thanks for that input Joshmvii. It's nice to hear that. Would you mind letting me know what your CPU and memory is so I can get a feel for where you stand in those areas? Thanks man.

The 8800GTX is a beast of a card and frankly theres not a CPU out that wont have some form of bottleneck for it. Your best bet for price/performance if your not a overclocker would be a C2D6600. A 6600 and a 680i MB and you can overclock to awesome speeds on stock air with good memory.

[rabb1t]

Peep the VG hardware thread in Foz's area. Several of us have posted specs.

[Joshmvii]

Thanks for that input Joshmvii. It's nice to hear that. Would you mind letting me know what your CPU and memory is so I can get a feel for where you stand in those areas? Thanks man.

Motherboard is Nforce 680i
My processor is an Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe
RAM is 2 GB Corsair DDR2 800Mhz

It runs perfectly, and i'm loving it, even without doing any overclocking yet. Glad I could help out!

[Nappyfoot]

Motherboard is Nforce 680i
My processor is an Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe
RAM is 2 GB Corsair DDR2 800Mhz

It runs perfectly, and i'm loving it, even without doing any overclocking yet. Glad I could help out!

I have:
Evga 680i
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe
2 GB Corsair DDR2 1066mhz
Xfx 8800GTX xxx edition.
Windows XP pro

I have not overclocked anything myself and everything runs real good except for 1 thing, random crashing. I crash to desktop every so often, normally when I am on horseback or running with a bard and I have to load up alot of things at once, ie 3 rivers/tursh. I have read a few things about the 8800 having memory leak problems right now with vanguard and I am pretty sure this is my problem. Joshmvii, or anyone else with the 8800 having this issue? If not any ideas to solve my problem?

[Lashnoll]

8800 GTS here and I have the same "crashing to desktop" problems.

As you have mentioned, it usually happens when crossing a couple of chunks in a small amount of time (on a horse or with a bard).

If I have to travel from Tursh to 3 rivers, I'm certain I will be kicked on the desktop once or before I reach destination. Great way for the devs to test this issue I guess..

[Aegorian]

Runs totally fine on Nvidia, not sure where you got that.

actually, to be honest, the majority of problem posts i noticed back in beta were people running nvidia cards. I wont say that is absolute truth, but it's just something i noticed.

[Nappyfoot]

I fired up my performance monitor on my G15 keyboard last night and decided to watch what my memory did as I played the game. When I first loaded into Vanguard I was at 57% usage after a couple minutes in the game the usage began to climb. I was crafting so the memory usage wasn't climbing very fast, but it was going up. I let it get to 99% usage, and seconds after it got to 99% I crashed to desktop. The memory leak is a real problem, my brother says his G15 reports no increase in memory usage, and he is using a 7800gtx. I hope Nvida/Sigil get together soon and fix this problem, /flush works sometimes but once you get over 80% usage it maybe knocks a couple % off. But you eventually crash, even with steady /flushing. The only good thing is that I know when I need to relog by watching the usage monitor, so atleast I can relog in safe spots to avoid my group dying if/when I crash.

[rabb1t]

actually, to be honest, the majority of problem posts i noticed back in beta were people running nvidia cards. I wont say that is absolute truth, but it's just something i noticed.

Consider that most of the people playing may have been Nvidia based.

Not saying that's so, but it's possible. It is like if you handed out 100 flags to people, 95 of which were blue and only 5 were orange. Then you say, 'well, x number of people said the flags were torn here and there and all of those torn flags were blue'. Well, there is a reason for that.

[Pugot]

Motherboard is Nforce 680i
My processor is an Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe
RAM is 2 GB Corsair DDR2 800Mhz

It runs perfectly, and i'm loving it, even without doing any overclocking yet. Glad I could help out!


I have this same setup with an 8800 GTX with vista and I am loving it. The graphics are amazing.

It does crash occasionally, but like someone posted above it will probably be fixed in a few months. It is strange though that I never crashed once on my Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz and 6800.

Just wanted to throw that in and a thank you to Rabbit and Fozzik. I also followed the build instructions and was successful on first boot-up. So far, so good. Now if only Vanguard would allow me to launch two clients...


Pugg
11 Warrior
Shidreth

[szaijan]

I fired up my performance monitor on my G15 keyboard last night and decided to watch what my memory did as I played the game. When I first loaded into Vanguard I was at 57% usage after a couple minutes in the game the usage began to climb. I was crafting so the memory usage wasn't climbing very fast, but it was going up. I let it get to 99% usage, and seconds after it got to 99% I crashed to desktop. The memory leak is a real problem, my brother says his G15 reports no increase in memory usage, and he is using a 7800gtx. I hope Nvida/Sigil get together soon and fix this problem, /flush works sometimes but once you get over 80% usage it maybe knocks a couple % off. But you eventually crash, even with steady /flushing. The only good thing is that I know when I need to relog by watching the usage monitor, so atleast I can relog in safe spots to avoid my group dying if/when I crash.

I use two 7800GTX in SLI (no, the SLI does not make a difference in FPS in this game for me, even using the 'Force Alternate Frame 1' SLI mode.) There was a definite memory leak through the end of beta and into release, and I'd see my performance slowly dwindle after playing for a few hours. I have NEVER crashed in this game however, even in beta. This runs counter to the experiences of my friends and I'm not sure why. I run Teamspeak and Trillian and numerous other utility programs in the background, so it's not like I'm running a clean system.

I run on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+. The only thing that I can identify different in my setup is that I use a fixed 4 GB paging file. It's possible that I just haven't played long enough to max out my virtual memory and so haven't crashed. I've never played longer than 4 hours at a time.

For those that are crashing, it's possible that setting your paging file to a fixed siz emight fix the issue or at least make it less frequent. When you set it up, first set the size to zero, reboot, then set it to 2x your installed memory, fixed size.