Tech question: Is this good?

[Benson Gravois]

Can anyone advise me on whether or not my computer specs are good for SL?

My processor is Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz   2.90 GHz

16 gb of RAM

My processor is 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Also with these specs what should my settings in sl be for optimum performance?

[shireena1]

Ok I will bite lol, The pc cpu and ram  is quite sufficient to run SL, but due to SL's graphics, if you just have an on board video card (especially shared grafix), it will not give you a good experience or even possibly not log you in. 

In a pc box, you will need a gaming grafix card, such as a gtx 1650, or an rtx nvidia card. In a laptop, you will need a good gaming laptop with a similar card as just mentioned. The graphics and the experience of the game is mostly due to grafix (in my opinion anyway)

As for the settings, the default setting decided by the viewer is a good start, but not always the best setting for you personally, and can be adjusted within the SL viewer itself.

[Lindal Kidd]

2 hours ago, Benson Gravois said:

Also with these specs what should my settings in sl be for optimum performance?

As Shireena says, your graphics card will play a huge role in performance. As far as "best settings" go, you'll have to experiment to determine the best balance (for you!) between performance (frame rate, rendering time) and the appearance of the world. Some things to experiment with:

• draw distance (less improves performance)
• Advanced Lighting Model (off improves performance)
• Shadows (off improves performance)
• LOD (set to 2 or less)
• particles (fewer, or off improves performance)
• avatar imposters (more improves performance)
• Lights (turning off local lights improves performance)
• Avatar Complexity (lower improves performance, but too low and everyone looks like a cloud)

And outside the Graphics settings, increasing the size of your cache can improve performance when you are in familiar places. Your height above ground and the number of avatars around you will affect your performance too.

You can create multiple graphics settings and save them, so you could have one set for when you're taking photos and another set for when you're in a crowded club.

[Nalates Urriah]

Shireena is right about the graphics support being weak.

i7 10th gen CPU is good, actually over kill for SL. BUT... the 2.9GHz is  s  l  o  w  for SL. However, it will give you usable performance.

The 16GB of memory is workable but too little without a graphics card/chip. The built-in graphics in the CPU sets aside RAM to use as video RAM. So, your viewer is going to be restricted and a bit slower. But it may be enough for you.

SL performance is complicated. You can find recommendations for how to get the best performance online, like here. Your CPU, graphics processor, amount and speed of memory, size and speed of your storage device, and the motherboard all contribute to or limit SL performance. To get the BEST performance you have to be pretty nerdy.

Then there are your personal preferences. Gamers often are all about frames per second (FPS). In SL you can get by with 10FPS, depending on what you are doing. 20FPS is comfortable in most cases. However the SL system is designed to run at 45FPS both client and server side. Several parts of the system run server-side so how fast your viewer runs has little or no effect on those processes. On the viewer side you can improve performance by reducing render quality. This makes tweaking the settings a very personal set of choices.

We can go through lots of technical details on what is BEST and how BEST to set up your system. But there is no point. The viewer will let you setup presets for various things you want to do in SL. You determine all those settings by experimenting and deciding what you like and what you will tolerate.

So, install the viewer and try it. Read the instructions I linked to for how to tweak the SL viewer for performance. Play with the system and decide. I have settings for fly-sailing, clubbing, shopping, and SL photography. Using my photo settings performance sucks but SL looks great. Using my flying-sailing settings I have way better performance and weaker rendering of SL.

SL settings are a balancing act...

[Exavor Diesel]

Problem is so many people run SL on non-gaming hardware. 

We could debate all day about whether or not SL is a game (one for another topic) but reality is that for SL to perform well, you need gaming spec hardware but more importantly, a dedicated GPU (graphics card) as others have mentioned. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Exavor Diesel

[Charalyne Blackwood]

https://secondlife.com/system-requirements

 

For reasons unknown the video cards listed are about ten years behind and largely out of production. Cards with high memory bandwidth are best, but they're terribly expensive

Edited October 9, 2022 by Charalyne Blackwood

[shireena1]

If I may add a humorous youtube vid, this is basically still what it is like to buy a pre-built computer.😀

 

[Charalyne Blackwood]

13 minutes ago, shireena1 said:

If I may add a humorous youtube vid, this is basically still what it is like to buy a pre-built computer.😀

 

I (over)configured one at a gaming computer manufacturer website. Between almost 900Tb of solid state drive space and a trio of Titan 3060 video cards, the final build price was along the lines of $35,000. Completely ridiculous, until I considered that some people have way more money than sense. Needless to say it met sysreq

[Lysistrata Szapira]

You don't mention if this is a desktop or laptop.   Basically you're dead in the water for SL if you're using onboard laptop graphics as has been mentioned above.   Intel graphic chipsets are crap as far as the Second Life viewers are concerned.   I couldn't run SL on a laptop until I "stole" my fiance's gaming rig.  

My desktop specs are as follows, and I have no issues in SL except in crowded sims.  These are older parts, but they work fine.  I don't normally run everything on ultra because I'm not a photographer/blogger. I have the Black Dragon viewer, and these specs kind of push my desktop to its limits.  Firestorm and the Linden viewer run fine. 

 

CPU
    Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.50GHz    28 °C
    Skylake 14nm Technology
RAM
    16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1066MHz (15-15-15-35)
Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z170XP-SLI-CF (U3E1)    31 °C
Graphics
    HP 27f (1920x1080@60Hz)
    XenSource Citrix Indirect Display Adapter (Undefined)
    2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (EVGA)    41 °C
    SLI Disabled

 

I don't have the gaming rig handy to show its specs.  Fiance "stole" it back. 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

21 hours ago, Benson Gravois said:

My processor is Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz   2.90 GHz

16 gb of RAM

My processor is 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Unless you forgot to mention the single most important piece of hardware, the graphics card, the answer is simply no. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Arduenn Schwartzman
Also, processors aren't operating systems.

[Bree Giffen]

It has an integrated intel graphics chipset. It might be able to run SL at the lowest settings. If that's a desktop system you could try to add a graphics card but if it's a laptop then you'd have to get a different one with better graphics support. Another thing to do is install the latest video drivers for it. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Bree Giffen
Correction

[Lyssa Greymoon]

The i7-10700 is a desktop CPU.

[Jaylinbridges]

His CPU has a built-in graphics processor, but anyone needing good performance in SL would add a separate video card.  It will certainly log you in and from there you have to decide if using the built in Intel graphics is good enough for you.

Intel Core i7-10700 - Core i7 10th Gen Comet Lake 8-Core 2.9 GHz LGA 1200 65W Intel UHD Graphics 630 Desktop Processor - BX8070110700

 

[kali Wylder]

What does good mean anyway?  I'm not that savvy about tech but my thinking is, Try logging in, see what happens.  If the world is a gray blur for more than 10 minutes, then I'd say your rig is not so good.  If you can see and move around easily, then you're good to go. What more do you need to know?

[Love Zhaoying]

Thought I remember reading in the Forums awhile back that certain "built-in graphics processors" and/or laptops with them, simply wouldn't work with Second Life? Or was that true "potatoes" (older models)?  

[Modulated]

9 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Thought I remember reading in the Forums awhile back that certain "built-in graphics processors" and/or laptops with them, simply wouldn't work with Second Life? Or was that true "potatoes" (older models)?  

Sl will run on just about anything, usually with integrated graphics you need to seriously lower your expectations and graphics settings if you just want to be inworld and don't really care about eyecandy.

[Sorciaa]

i run SL on my 2nd monitor and use my onboard graphics and for me, it runs fine even with my graphics turned up and draw distance 400ish for sailing.

[Modulated]

5 minutes ago, Sorciaa said:

i run SL on my 2nd monitor and use my onboard graphics and for me, it runs fine even with my graphics turned up and draw distance 400ish for sailing.

Define runs fine.

[Sorciaa]

45 FPS on mainland

https://gyazo.com/4ef80e549f6c7cec73bfd736a9262ff6

 

these settings

 

it " feels " like it runs the same as on my main monitor which is running off a 3080ti

[Lyssa Greymoon]

2 hours ago, Sorciaa said:

it " feels " like it runs the same as on my main monitor which is running off a 3080ti

Are you sure it isn’t running off the 3080ti? Nvidia cards can send output through the motherboard’s outputs. 

[Sorciaa]

2 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

Are you sure it isn’t running off the 3080ti? Nvidia cards can send output through the motherboard’s outputs. 

its running off  my UHD Graphics 770 and not the 3080

[bigmoe Whitfield]

19 minutes ago, Sorciaa said:

its running off  my UHD Graphics 770 and not the 3080

Mine refuses to use the built in for anything and direct runs through the 1070.    so maybe might checkcheck.

[Jaylinbridges]

If it's running on the integrated Intel chip, the monitor would be plugged into that output.  Easy way to check.

The 770 is better than older models - gamers seem to think 60 fps is the minimum for game play.  Overkill for SL though. 45 fps in SL depends on where you are - try Fogbound Blues at 8pm slt and see what 60 avatars do to your fps.  Shadows On usually kills low end graphic chips, which is why your 45 fps is suspect.  The 770 is designed for 12 gen Intel CPU's though - should be good enough for walking around SL.

Oh you had shadows turned off, so never mind,  45 fps seems reasonable for that chip for low avatars loads.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Jaylinbridges
never mind etc

[cunomar]

I have no idea how or if it could work but given SL entry level hardware is circa £700 in the UK (obviously i'm not sure about elsewhere?) I wonder if someone could devise a plugin module of some sort allowing playstation or xbox consoles to be used instead ?

[Carolyn Zapedzki]

Your processor and RAM are fine although personally I would want more RAM than that as I often do half a dozen things at once. You don't mention your graphics card though, a dedicated gaming graphics card is needed to get the best out of SL. 

My desktop:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (3591.69 MHz)
Memory: 32713 MB
Concurrency: 8
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit (Build 22000.1098)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/PCIe/SSE2
Graphics Card Memory: 6144 MB
 

My Laptop:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60GHz (2592 MHz)
Memory: 98064 MB
Concurrency: 6
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit (Build 22621.521)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: Quadro P2000/PCIe/SSE2
Graphics Card Memory: 4096 MB

My laptop actually runs better than my desktop, but getting high FPS on both.  Even using WIFi on the laptop is no detriment to performance.

I have to chuckle though when I think back to my pc I had when I started in SL, a dual core processor and something silly like a gig of ram, used to be lag central. But much better internet since then as well which is a big help.