Volstrum wrote:
1) In the Options settings under the video settings (I think) find Model Detail and turn it down. Things will not look so pretty but performance should improve.
2) Same place look for Render Distance and turn it down. This will determine how far you can see (for items you can interact with) into the horizon.
While model detail and rendering distance do have a fairly large impact on preformance, there are a couple things that have a bigger one (imo)
The biggest is Complex Shader Distance, this one little slider controlls basically EVERY advanced rendering effect (aka pretty much everything but models/enviroments... the finer details on the ground/walls are a good example) which will eat up resources quickly.
The other is Shadows. Even minimal quality enviromental shadows (and ONLY those on) will lag you to hell and back in some places. Namely places with lots of enviromental objects cluttered together (Willow Woods comes to mind off the bat) or multiple light sources (aka windows) will be bad.
Those two are really the biggest hit on preformance. Chances are if you can run WoW fine on max then your setting something WAY too high whether you know it or not, especially since I don't think the various "preformance profiles" will actually change those sliders that are directly under it (in the same catagory). I'd have to be on my PC that can run EQ2 to check though. I had (before an upgrade I bought for EQ2) a PC that can play WoW fine on max, and it couldn't play EQ2 much above "Balanced" settings. My current rig (same as the WoW one but with upgraded ram to 2gigs) only runs it a notch or two above the balanced. Though I do use a custom set-up, but it is based off of a modified... well I forget the name but it is like two above balanced leaning towards the "prettier" side of things.
tzsjynx wrote:
Just curious, can you give specs on your brother's computer?
RAM-type, size?
Video Card brand, slot-type, memory size?
Hard drive RPMs, size?
Processor brand, type, speed?
It may be time to face the facts that you should be getting a new computer soon anyways, because with the games coming out this year runnin on DX10, EQ2s gonna be the least of your worries. Try holding out for Window's Vista cuz that computer will have to come with DX10 compatible card.
Unless it is a REALLY old PC, the HDD stuff shouldn't matter that much. Now, if he was on a really old PC with something like a SCSI HDD... Though if you do have low ram then the RPMs would matter some for the amount of file swapping you'd need to do.
Something else to look at is what kind of background programs you have running. If you're keeping a ton of IM and maybe a couple web browser windows open while playing eq2 it is going to effect preformance too.
In the end, if you want a new PC to play EQ2 fairly high in settings, expect to shell out about 1k or so. Plus or minus depending on options. I know in another thread about this exact same thing (I swear, we always get so many questions about "why does my game lag" we should ask for a NEW sticky for various things to help the lag and such >_> maybe in the morning i'll do somethin like that lol) that I found a decent pre-built (which I dislike those lol, much rather build one, but that isn't for everyone and the OP said he was stupid about PCs) from like dell or something for 800 that would run it decently and included a monitor (which took off like 200 from the price I think if you didn't want it). Wouldn't run it the best, but it would have run it decent.