Lag Issue with SL Viewer

[Cubboboy]

I have sort of a mid range custom built PC, I can max out pretty much everything with it and have over 80fps (if the game allows) but only 2 games have issues, one of them being it is just not a well coded game.  The other game is of course Second Life.  My system specs well exceed what is required to run SL, but i still seem to have framerate issues where ever I go. The weird thing though, is that my framerate is the same at lowest and highest settings. Does anyone know a fix for this?

Specs

CPU: Phenom II x4 965 3.4ghz

GPU: GTX 650 2gb Superclocked

RAM: 8gb 1600mhz

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Most video games have fixed content and when you log into them they only have to download that content to your computer once with perhaps an occasional update the during another log in.  SL is different.  The content is fluid with thousands of items being created all the time.  Therefore it is necessary to download the 'scene' anytime you access it.  This can result in lag no matter how good your computer is, if your internet connection is not up to the job.  So that would be a good place to check out.  Do not use a wireless connection, they aren't supported, although some people report that they use it without problem.  Try an Ethernet cable for much better performance.  Satellite internet doesn't work well with SL either resulting in a lot of lag.

You may also want to check to make sure you have the latest drivers, even if you have a new system.  When I first used by new computer with SL, I found that I had to update my graphics drivers.

[Cubboboy]

I have everything updated as posted by the NVIDIA website and EVGA's website. I have seen people with slower internet than mine be able to max out settings with over 100fps. My internet speed is 10mbps down and .95mbps up. I'm thinking it may just be an issue with the SL viewer and might try one of the other viewers available for Second Life, though I haven't had much luck with those viewers in the past.

[Ansariel Hiller]

Maybe you just set graphics level too high (even some people with old hardware are keen on choosing ultra)?

[Cubboboy]

Well like I said, I don't get any FPS difference on highest settings that I do on lowest.

[Cincia Singh]

The three things you can do that will have the greatest impact on your SL experience are:

1. Shut down other programs on your computer that run in the background and use a little CPU and RAM, freeing up your system to concentrate resources on SL.

2. Reduce your draw distance. If you're in a club or shop that's 60m wide and your draw distance is set to 256m you are forcing your system to render things you can't see without camming out to them. Also, keep in mind that regions are only 512m wide so a draw distance of 256m can force your system to render objects you can't see in multiple regions.

3. If you are connecting to the internet by wifi, switch to a hardwire connection. In general SL does not like wifi.

The speed of your internet has little effect beyond a certain MB/sec rate because the SL servers have limits to how fast they send your computer updates.

Good luck!

[Qie Niangao]

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The weird thing though, is that my framerate is the same at lowest and highest settings. 

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That's weird. Just how low are your framerates?

Also, have you tried the "Hardware" part of Preferences / Graphics? I'm suspecting that there's some conflict between settings there and in the nVidia control panel. Well, to be more specific: if you haven't already tried this, disable Antialiasing in SL and see whether it makes a difference. If it does, then you may have some conflicting anti-aliasing setting in the control panel.

FWIW, I get over 90fps rendering a simple scene with a slightly overclocked GTX 660, which is faster than your 650, but the difference shouldn't be night-and-day.

Which raises the possibility that it's what you're rendering that's hurting your framerate. We can investigate that, too, but first let's see if it's just that settings conflict.

 

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

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Cubboboy wrote:

I have seen people with slower internet than mine be able to max out settings with over 100fps.

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That would have to be in an empty or near empty sim. 100 fps is simply not anything you should focus on when running SL. I run SL on a pretty high end system (3770K, GTX670, 16GB1600 DDR3 and SSD) and would see 100 fps in some places if I hadn't turned VSynch on. In crowded areas even my system struggles on ultra settings and it won't be able to draw more than 20-25 fps.

SL is user created, meaning you see about a quarter of the quality for a tenfold of the geometry and texture use (just estimating on all of those) compared to a profesionally made game. Somehow I get the feeling that if lowering the settings doesn't help your framerates, something you mention and something I experience every now and then, it's just the CPU not being able to feed your GPU fast enough. Just a feeling, hunch or idea, I really am not sure about this.

Two questions:

Do you see the low fps (same for low and high settings) on all sims or just a couple?

What exactly do you consider low fps?

[solstyse]

Wireless isn't as bad as most people claim. I have no problems with it. Where I did have to overcome some challenges were in the cpu usage department. That is my only source of lag, and it's because the on-chip graphics of my machine are pretty weak.

To the OP, do TPV's work any better for you? It seems that of all the viewers that exist, my computer gets along best with LL's CHUI viewer. Of course, mimicking the as installed settings on some of the tpv's gave me CHUI like results.