Computer letting me down in SL...

[Jamie Nobilis]

Hello there

I am keen to improve my SL experience, but my tower computer is letting me down.

This is what I have:

CPU: AMD Sempron(tm) 140 Processor (2712.38 MHz) Memory: 1024 MB

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)

Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation Graphics Card: GeForce 8400 GS/PCIe/SSE2

I'm finding that I freeze a lot in-world, and that latest SL and Firestorm viewers just slow my computer down so much I grind to a halt.

Can anyone out there me.  Is it a case of getting more memory? What do I need to upgrade so I can run SL at the best rate possible please?

Thanks in advance.

Jamie

[wrable Amat]

your memory is a little low but keep in mind it is not always your cpu,I have one hell of a system and I get that effect al the time.Second life services at times struggle to preform well. But it could not hurt to pump up the memory.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

As always a lot depends on your budget.  Even just buying an Nvidia 8600GT graphics card (very cheap on ebay) will improve your experience.  If you buy a more recent Nvidia graphics card (check the reviews and remember it is the second digit that generally indicates the card's power - bigger equals better) you will need a lot of case room (they are big) and also you will need to ensure you have a powerful enough power supply.

It would also be advantageous to update your RAM to 2GB - not too expensive either, and easy to fit.

[Baloo Uriza]

More RAM would do you a lot of good. Especially if you're using a theme other than Windows Classic.

[VRprofessor]

I looked up the benchmarks for your cpu and I am going to jump straight to suggesting a new computer.

Extra memory and a new graphics card will likely help, but your cpu is not going to give you much more.  I am trying to get my wife to upgrade her desktop which has about 2.5x the cpu power of yours and struggles with a couple of apps that are a lot less work than SL.

So we are back to your budget.  How much do you have/are you willing to spend?   Can you build or would you need a pre-built system? 

I spec'ed out an i5 system for my wife yesterday...about U.S. $750 without a graphics card....but still more capable than what you have now.  (It is what I used for a few months before adding a graphics card.)  Is that within your budget?

[Baloo Uriza]

I dunno about that. A new computer can't hurt, but I get acceptable performance out of an older laptop with a slower CPU running Debian.

[Linda Brynner]

Hi,

Your computer is too light. The main processor seems ok, but...

You could expand to at least to 2 Gb main memory total.

Main problem is the Graphics card, the Memory Interface Width.... 64 (ugh)... which was ok in 2006.

Nowadays, 192 is a minimum, but 256 makes a real difference.

You could find a cheap 9800 card, but be aware that SL itself has become even more demanding since viewer 2.8. Since then the rendering code has changed completely. Therefore i do not use the official viewer anymore but stayed at V1 based which has a more efficient rendering code. The reason LL changed was due to intellectual rights with open source.

But even with a 9800 SL is not going to be fast with the V2/3 official viewer.

Upgrade your card and i would advice to try a V1 based viewer such as Phoenix. It has all the new features.

But still do make sure you have a Memory Interface Width of 256 in your graphics card (usually the 9800 card has).

 

[Jennifer Boyle]

I don't know as much as the other people here, but I do have some pertinent experience.  A few months ago I replaced a computer that had a 3.2 GHz quad core CPU, 8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 RAM, and a GTX 470 with a new one, all of the components of which were better.  SL runs noticeably faster and smoother on the new one.  I don't know which parts were responsible for the improvement and which contributed nothing, but my experience does demonstrate that my old computer was not capable of giving me the best possible SL experience.

[Baloo Uriza]

Basically, the more memory, the faster the GPU and the more video memory you have, the better.  Those things, along with not running a desktop environment theme that relies on 3D acceleration (like the default Windows theme) do the most to help if you're sold on the Windows platform.