Skanwolf

Cheryl, You mentioned an i3 and 4 gigs of ram, I assume its a brand name computer yes? Like Dell or HP, etc etc. If you check your power supply on the inside, or maybe just give the model number of your computer here, we can determine your power supply rating and if its at least 300 to 350watts (more than likely at least 300 for a brand name pc), then you can maybe drop in a more modern video card in there still without any problem. However, if you wanted to get something insane like in the 150 dollar or over range, then yes you'll probably need a new power supply to handle the load. The next thing is your screen, do you have any idea what your resolution is? maybe just give us the model number of your monitor, and did it come with your computer as a package? like a Dell or HP or Gateway screen. If its 1080p, that'll narrow down what kind of cards you can get, but if its lower than 1080p then there'll be some wiggle room for cheaper video cards since you won't be making the system push such a big image. It also just depends if you want everything running on High or Ultra settings with the particular resolution. Remember, screen size is not the same as resolution, a 20inch monitor can be 720p or even 1080p with certain manufacturers. Someone mentioned a GT630 above, thats by Nvidia, that would be a good choice over your onboard video from that i3. And GT640 would be even better, but then that will depend on your power supply.

Well, I suppose I've found the culprit. As far as I can tell the two users above are infact right, and this obviously wasn't the case before since I'd easily have over 10 IM windows open, along with nearby chat getting filled with messages in a busy sim, etc etc. But, I logged in with nobody nearby, empty chat, and no IMs. The FPS was fine, near 30, then I started testing with a friend in IM, with no issues just yet. But as I'm about to dismiss that as the problem, I do realize that the more and more we messaged each other, my FPS slowly drops .5 or so at a time per every couple of messages. So I'm assuming its hogging resources as the conversation history in the current IM window increases. I went from near 30fps, and now down to 14 after a good 15 to 20min long conversation. I even decided to flood the IM window myself with word definitions and I significantly dropped my own FPS. This obviously didn't happen before, so take this is constructive criticism and a means to fix it Hope this helps, but I'd like to know if anyone is experiencing the FPS drops after today's update in any other form, and not just chat windows. I can see how this would immediately begin dropping someone's FPS as soon as they enter a busy sim, which would make logging in pointless until its fixed.

Figured I'd give my two cents here about this issue. But it does seem related to today's (Oct 23rd that is) latest viewer update. As usual I installed it and it runs the very next time you open up the viewer. Things were fine til I maximized the window and would find it super laggy. First thought someone with an ENORMOUS script count showed up, or the area was being griefed, but then I tested by TP'ing out to another that is usually >empty< (so no lag, nothing whatsoever), yet my FPS was still cut down from 30 to as little as 5. It seems intermittent and I'm trying to see if chat windows cause it or not. This is really upsetting since I'd love to rollback to before the update but thats not an obvious option, that I know of. I'd like to see how widespread this is, because being a PC Tech, I know that my hardware didn't just suddenly start going bad