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So I've been part of SL now since 2005. And since that time I've watched the evolution of the grid over the entire time. And early on, back in the early years, it made sense that SL was laggy and performed terribly because hey everyone's PC's were so much less powerful. But since then the SL Viewer standard has remained pinned to minimum requirements that are no where near realistic in scope. And what's more the rendering technology even for a streamed asset platform of this type, is entirely built around standards that use literally none of the advanced CPU architecture or GPU architecture available to us in 2022. SL looks better than ever, but remains unable to pair those looks with acceptable performance because the Lab appears absolutely married to the minspec approach. But even in that case, new advances in Intel GPU architecture means even stuff like UHD integrated and the new ARC series of integrated chips, will have none of their advanced features used. With the low poly nature of collada mesh, and the low resolution assets SL is married to (2048x2048 is not a an HD resolution), the fact that my PC in 2022 gets the same 5 - 10 FPS on ultra with 256 draw distance in a sim that isn't EMPTY is literally embarrassing and really needs to be addressed if this platform ever wants to engage the modern user base that is out there, but avoids SL because it runs terribly and looks like a ten year old game even at its best. And while I understand not everyone in the world has a high end PC, there's no reason not to have support for the large percentage of power users in SL that do. In fact there is no reason why the minspec/integrated graphics design of SL is somehow exclusive to SL actually starting to use modern CPU and GPU capabilities. I'd like to see this platform last me another 15 years, but I'm starting to think its a waste of money to even upgrade my hardware any more other than for the tax write offs.

Besides SL, I play Microsoft Flight Simulator (well, the Resident Geek does. What I do is set the autopilot, sit, and watch the beautiful scenery go by.) The Geek came across this YouTube video with very detailed instructions on how to remove bloatware from Nvidia graphics drivers, and it's improved the performance of our computers across the board. I don't have any figures for SL, but you might want to try cleaning the junk out of your Nvidia drivers. Here's the link. NOTE: You must disconnect your computer from the internet during this process to keep it from stuffing all the junk back in. So TAKE NOTES because you won't be able to go back and refer to the video halfway through, unless you have a second computer or use your phone. SECOND NOTE: His procedure for enabling Safe Mode didn't work for us. Instead, do this: 1. In the Taskbar, type msconfig and hit Enter. In the System Configuration window that appears, click the Boot tab, and check the Safe Boot box. Restart your computer, it will automatically start in Safe Mode. When finished, repeat this process and un-check the box, then restart one last time. https://gyazo.com/7149091f962e166216f59e2ea0e5f6d7 THIRD NOTE: This removes GeForce Experience and the automatic driver updates. You'll have to go to Nvidia's site every now and then to check for new updates, and then use the above process to install the new drivers.

Using Firestorm and lately I experienced slow rezz of regions, slow FPS and not able to move as long textures are rezzing. Tried Black Dragon and noticed huge difference in usage of my GForce 1060 6 GB graphics. I used same settings and adjusted to same settings in both viewers and a low draw distance of 96 meters. Firestorm 6.3.9 (58205) May 27 2020 01:20:51 (64bit): GPU VRAM usage 3.2 GB Black Dragon 6.4.3.46541 (64bit): GPU VRAM usage 1.6 GB That is a huge difference! Notice Black Dragon uses the CPU more but at same time the memory more efficient. I am a little baffled by this huge difference - and for me, the general performance of FS has gone worse and worse with the latest updates.

Lemme first start off by listing my hardware: I7 3770k OC to 4.5 GHz, GTX 1080 Strix OC to 2100hz with 8gb of video memory, 8gb of 1600hz ram, SL on my SSD, Windows 10, the other stuff not really relevant. Looking at my hardware granted some parts a little outdated you would expect decent frames, but not really the case in most sims, usually average between 20-30 frames with advanced lighting, ambient, shadows (Sun and moon only) turned down to 1 shadow quality. This game while widely known as very poorly optimized, only uses about 30% of my GTX 1080 sometimes even less. A lot of the graphic presets are stuck in the past where GPU's only had a max of 2gb-2.5gb of memory while good for its time, that time has passed becoming obsolete with the newer cards out on the market today, you can pick up a 6gb 1060 for fairly cheap prices. I love the slider bar but for the game's memory buffer but to only use 30% of a beastly card is absurd, to say the least, leaving a lot of possible headroom wasted. I know the code is old and would require a bit of rework but quite honestly with the advancements in technology ever growing at rapid paces I don't see this game lasting another 5 years if that, there are already more sims than players and most sims only house about 2-4 "Actual" people the rest usually bots just to drum up traffic a bit, this game in my opinion has a lot of potential. I know quite a few people that have left just do too the unbearable lag in many situations, be that through poor connection to the game or poor utilization of the hardware available. This game needs an update to support the newer tech that's come to the market. I doubt this will ever happen or see the light of day, it seems devs don't really care about updating the game with things that actually matter toward performance sadly, some of the code may require a major overhaul, but even if it took 6 months or a year or so to do, the results, in the end, would be well worth it. Perhaps as a bridge gap and allow the game to use more of the available memory on the newer cards.

I was all excited... I thought I built a nearly perfect machine for SL but my frame rate totally is well.... poopy (2.8) CPU = AMD Threadripper GPU = Radeon Pro Duo (2 x 16BG) MB = Aorus X399 Gaming 7 RAM = Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB I crank ALL my settings to MAX... expecting to be able to process this without a problem. To max out everything across the board, what am I missing? Just want my framerate up now without losing any quality. Is it the RAM, or a setting I need to adjust elsewhere?

So im looking into rebuilding a budget workstation, as ive gotten back into hobbyist 3D modelling again. Problem is my Athlon 5350 just isnt up to the task for some of it. So i need a GPU. On ebay i found that Quadro FX 4600's from 2007 are being sold for ~15$ in grade A condition. And yes i know a quadro from 2007 is a bad choice, but considering its performance, the price is really good. Even if spending 20$ more would get me a lot more. Online it seems to be a 8800 GTX but with a different memory configuration. Looking up some performance benchmarks it definitely outclasses the integrated R3 8400 graphics on the athlon, so there will be an improvement. But im wondering exactly how a workstation GPU would benefit a game like SecondLife, being a oddly mesh intensive game, im thinking something like a workstation card would give a benefit over similar performing "gaming" cards such as the GT 720 which is a more modern card on par with it. Anyone here run older quadro/firepro cards with their respective workstation drivers? Does it give any noticeable performance increase for SL?