The Mac Gamers Age Of Conan System Compatability Guide

[Dorfdad]

I would like to make an exclusive thread covering the Age of Conan and compatibility issues / tweaks and more for those of us interested in getting this game as it comes out on May 20th 2008....

I personally have an 2007 24" iMac with 4 Gigs of Ram and the ATI 2600 PRO 256mb video card so I will be reporting on the compatibility for that system.
If anyone was in the beta or played this on Bootcamp already please feel free to give us your system and recommendations.

[Huntn]

When my schedule settles down, I'm going to try it on my MBP. I'm curious about performance on XP, vs Vista 32bit, Vista 64 bit.

[Dorfdad]

from everything I have read Vista is slower due to many factors...
I would be more interested in XP Sp2 vs SP3 performance...

[jakeguy99]

MBP 2.4 Ghz 2GB Ram Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT

I am currently playing the early access with little to no problems. Settings under high I get about 15-25fps (you would think this is slow, but there was no lag). Under low settings (which still look amazingly good) i was averaging around 40 fps. The game is still a bit buggy, but they have most of the kinks figured out. There was also a small issue with the drivers, so make sure you are updated to insure no problems. So far i love the game and am currently level 30, hope to see you guys out there.

[iPapa]

Mac Pro (8-core 2.8Ghz, 10GB RAM, nVidia Geforce 8800GT)

I play via Bootcamp (I have not installed or upgraded any other Windows drivers - just using the standard Apple shipped ones). My Windows partition is Vista Ultimate (64 bit), and I run the game on a 23" ACD (1920x1200) without troubles at all.

Framerates never dip below 18fps on high settings (DX10, shader 3, mostly default high settings, but I've pushed some of them higher, and lowered slightly a few others). Normally the framerates are firmly placed between 30 and 50 fps (a patch for AoC was released on Sunday night which really improved the framerates).

The game is very stable. Last night I played some 4 hours without one single glitch. Load screens between zones are quick, graphics look great, servers are stable (I've tried three servers in Europe so far - Crom, Bori and Aquilonia).

[Dorfdad]

wow seems even with 8800 cards people are getting low frame rates. Im scared to fire it up now on my ATI 2600 HD pro (256).. If I can scrape by with lower settings and have it look good still I will be happy. Not looking forward to putting out 600+ for a new machine for this one game...

[iPapa]

Truth is the framerates have been very varied the last couple of days. Last night I played some 3-4 hours continously, and framerates at high settings (see my specs a bit higher up on this page) hovering around 50 all the time. A couple of times they went down into the 30s.

Earlier this week I got framerates down to 18. That said, the game is very tweakable. Sure you can run it on high settings and it looks great, but framerates won't be very high if your graphics card isn't up for the task.

The cool thing then is the fact that you can fiddle around with the settings and get (much) higher framerates if you lower for example shades, distance views and so on. Even when doing so, the game continues to look great. Either way your iMac shouldn't have troubles with this game. Just adjust your video settings within the game and settle for something that offers both good fps and graphical beauty.

[Dorfdad]

Picked this up last night and I have to say a few things.

#1. I have an Imac 2007 2.4ghz Core Duo 2 with the Ati 2600HD card and YES YES YES you can play the game decently on this system. I have 4 gigs of ram and have Vista 32bit installed. I may revert to XP SP3 with DX9 as the game does not support 10 yet may by End of year (they pushed it back)

#2. Im running at 1900x1200 on low settings I turned off shadows and increased the view distance to 1750m or close to that as the draw in up so close was annoying to me.. and Im getting good speeds even in town with other people running around.

I still have alot more tweaking to do, but for those on the fence in Bootcamp this game is playable and even on low settings I feel it looks as good if not better than WOW.

On a Side not after installing Vista and the game within 2 days I aldreayd have spyware crap on my PC not from the game but just windows. So im already cleaning up the system!!!

Know I remmember why I wanted a MAC!

[Huntn]

Can frame rates be displayed in-game or does it require 3rd party software like Fraps? Thanks.

[Dorfdad]

can be displayed in game easily using a few keys..

I wanted to let everyone know that I got some improvement to the game again using the 2007 Imac with the 2600 XT card this is very playable guys!

I wnet and downloaded ATI drivers from ATI's website and forced a new set of updated drivers into Vista for some reason the driver on there now is June 2007 or something close to that.

The newest driver is from May 2008 and it has given me a slight boost. You have to update your driver and point it to the directory when you extracted the files the .inf and select your video card it will not automatically install the newest for you.

Ive had no other issues using this driver so far..

[johngardiner]

hey guys, thought i'd report on my macbook pro findings.

I just bought my new macbook pro last night... 2.5ghz 512mb 2gb ram (ps i love it) and installed conan almost immediately.

I'm playing on native resolution 1440x900 and on low settings (i played on medium for a while but there really isnt too much difference.. just put it on low then up the draw distance to like 800m). I'm getting between 25-45fps so its very very playable. It was good fps on medium too but sometimes dragged down a bit so that's why I went down to low. Apparently the shadows in the game cause a lot of people problems so if your fps is struggling, try disabling them.

No matter what resolution and detail level you chose, the game is gorgeous, theres no denying that... also if anyone wants to look me up im a guardian on bloodspire... drop me a pm!

[Olvenskol]

Can frame rates be displayed in-game or does it require 3rd party software like Fraps? Thanks.

The game has two ways of reporting frame rates. Either hover your mouse over the lag meter, or type a key combination (I forget the keys, something like Alt - Ctl - F). Obviously, I always use the former.

BTW, my very playable 25-ish FPS dropped to 10-15 when I left Tartage after hitting level 22. I'm now looking for ways to improve that (even on low settings, I'm getting only marginally better than that). I'm not using a mac to play, btw, just thought I'd mention the big change I saw.

[Huntn]

hey guys, thought i'd report on my macbook pro findings.

I just bought my new macbook pro last night... 2.5ghz 512mb 2gb ram (ps i love it) and installed conan almost immediately.

I'm playing on native resolution 1440x900 and on low settings (i played on medium for a while but there really isnt too much difference.. just put it on low then up the draw distance to like 800m). I'm getting between 25-45fps so its very very playable. It was good fps on medium too but sometimes dragged down a bit so that's why I went down to low. Apparently the shadows in the game cause a lot of people problems so if your fps is struggling, try disabling them.

No matter what resolution and detail level you chose, the game is gorgeous, theres no denying that... also if anyone wants to look me up im a guardian on bloodspire... drop me a pm!

Great news! Yeah, those pesky shadows...

The game has two ways of reporting frame rates. Either hover your mouse over the lag meter, or type a key combination (I forget the keys, something like Alt - Ctl - F). Obviously, I always use the former.

BTW, my very playable 25-ish FPS dropped to 10-15 when I left Tartage after hitting level 22. I'm now looking for ways to improve that (even on low settings, I'm getting only marginally better than that). I'm not using a mac to play, btw, just thought I'd mention the big change I saw.

Thanks for the info! :)

[Doozer13]

My comp: iMac 24" 2.33 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7600 GT (2nd generation dual core iMac)

Very very preliminary report- I finished DLing the early entry and installing this morning and went right to playing with default settings, running around the beach. The intro videos were very choppy and not pleasant to watch- felt like my experience with games from 5+ years ago.

***************

At the default settings, full screen 1920x1200, the game was super super choppy- easily below 10FPS, probably about 5-7, maybe less, but didn't look impressive at all. From the demo videos I found on the site, this game really shines in it's fluid graphics and at the default settings I could hardly appreciate any of that. I'm used to playing WoW with all settings maxed (except for the Alias setting) full windowed mode at around 30-50+ FPS- running a ton of add-ons.

I quickly tried the medium settings- getting probably around 10 before dropping all the way to low. Even at the lowest basic setting, full screen was still choppy and not really playable IMO.

I wanted to see how I could get the best FPS, so I went windowed mode at the absolute lowest screen resolution 1070ish x 800 I think. I tooled around with some of the distance and effects options in advanced, trying to cut out anything that would probably slow my machine down. The good news is I was easily getting 40-50FPS- bottoming out in the low 30's during a very quick camera turn.

Unfortunately at these settings the game is hardly impressive to look at and I'm essentially playing on a 14"(?) monitor in the windowed setting. This seems to be the strangest thing for me, because everyone is saying the game looks great at any setting, but I'm not seeing it. The colors all seem kind of dark, feels more like a clean console game than a revolutionary computer title. I don't have much to compare it to, but visually I would say it reminded me of an old Xbox title like Prince of Persia- just more fluid movement.

I'm having some friends ask around their IT departments and see what other Mac gamers might recommend for tweaks. I really couldn't stand to run AoC lower than 30FPS after playing WoW at 15-20 FPS prior to buying my iMac. If I really can't improve the visuals, the gameplay would really have to kick a$$ for me to take this game over WoW.

More testing to come when I get home from work.

[Dorfdad]

My comp: iMac 24" 2.33 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7600 GT (2nd generation dual core iMac)

Very very preliminary report- I finished DLing the early entry and installing this morning and went right to playing with default settings, running around the beach. The intro videos were very choppy and not pleasant to watch- felt like my experience with games from 5+ years ago.

***************

At the default settings, full screen 1920x1200, the game was super super choppy- easily below 10FPS, probably about 5-7, maybe less, but didn't look impressive at all. From the demo videos I found on the site, this game really shines in it's fluid graphics and at the default settings I could hardly appreciate any of that. I'm used to playing WoW with all settings maxed (except for the Alias setting) full windowed mode at around 30-50+ FPS- running a ton of add-ons.

I quickly tried the medium settings- getting probably around 10 before dropping all the way to low. Even at the lowest basic setting, full screen was still choppy and not really playable IMO.

I wanted to see how I could get the best FPS, so I went windowed mode at the absolute lowest screen resolution 1070ish x 800 I think. I tooled around with some of the distance and effects options in advanced, trying to cut out anything that would probably slow my machine down. The good news is I was easily getting 40-50FPS- bottoming out in the low 30's during a very quick camera turn.

Unfortunately at these settings the game is hardly impressive to look at and I'm essentially playing on a 14"(?) monitor in the windowed setting. This seems to be the strangest thing for me, because everyone is saying the game looks great at any setting, but I'm not seeing it. The colors all seem kind of dark, feels more like a clean console game than a revolutionary computer title. I don't have much to compare it to, but visually I would say it reminded me of an old Xbox title like Prince of Persia- just more fluid movement.

I'm having some friends ask around their IT departments and see what other Mac gamers might recommend for tweaks. I really couldn't stand to run AoC lower than 30FPS after playing WoW at 15-20 FPS prior to buying my iMac. If I really can't improve the visuals, the gameplay would really have to kick a$$ for me to take this game over WoW.

More testing to come when I get home from work.

your a generation behind me on the Imac I have the 2007 with 2600 HD 256 and I can play it very nicely!


Here is a screen shot of it running on my macine in 1600x1050 32FPS dips to 19-20 in heavy sections so far...

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i50/Dorfdad/ImacAOC1900x1200.jpg

[gfoster610]

My comp: iMac 24" 2.33 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7600 GT (2nd generation dual core iMac)

Very very preliminary report- I finished DLing the early entry and installing this morning and went right to playing with default settings, running around the beach. The intro videos were very choppy and not pleasant to watch- felt like my experience with games from 5+ years ago.

***************

At the default settings, full screen 1920x1200, the game was super super choppy- easily below 10FPS, probably about 5-7, maybe less, but didn't look impressive at all. From the demo videos I found on the site, this game really shines in it's fluid graphics and at the default settings I could hardly appreciate any of that. I'm used to playing WoW with all settings maxed (except for the Alias setting) full windowed mode at around 30-50+ FPS- running a ton of add-ons.

I quickly tried the medium settings- getting probably around 10 before dropping all the way to low. Even at the lowest basic setting, full screen was still choppy and not really playable IMO.

I wanted to see how I could get the best FPS, so I went windowed mode at the absolute lowest screen resolution 1070ish x 800 I think. I tooled around with some of the distance and effects options in advanced, trying to cut out anything that would probably slow my machine down. The good news is I was easily getting 40-50FPS- bottoming out in the low 30's during a very quick camera turn.

Unfortunately at these settings the game is hardly impressive to look at and I'm essentially playing on a 14"(?) monitor in the windowed setting. This seems to be the strangest thing for me, because everyone is saying the game looks great at any setting, but I'm not seeing it. The colors all seem kind of dark, feels more like a clean console game than a revolutionary computer title. I don't have much to compare it to, but visually I would say it reminded me of an old Xbox title like Prince of Persia- just more fluid movement.

I'm having some friends ask around their IT departments and see what other Mac gamers might recommend for tweaks. I really couldn't stand to run AoC lower than 30FPS after playing WoW at 15-20 FPS prior to buying my iMac. If I really can't improve the visuals, the gameplay would really have to kick a$$ for me to take this game over WoW.

More testing to come when I get home from work.


A few questions:

1. Is you iMac running 10.4 or 10.5?
2. Was your Boot Camp partition created when you got the machine or later?

The reason I ask these two questions is because of drivers. If this is the original Boot Camp install under 10.4 there might be better drivers for you r card on the Leopard DVd if you have it. Also, I would suggest hitting NVIDIA's web site to see if there are updated drivers for your card. This might help with some of the issues that you're facing.

[Doozer13]

your a generation behind me on the Imac I have the 2007 with 2600 HD 256 and I can play it very nicely!

Here is a screen shot of it running on my macine in 1600x1050 32FPS dips to 19-20 in heavy sections so far...

I took some screen shots this morning and then a few more when I went home from lunch. My brother is running the same card on a PC without a dual processor and he tells me my screenies are laughable and I'm doing something very wrong.

A few questions:

1. Is you iMac running 10.4 or 10.5?
2. Was your Boot Camp partition created when you got the machine or later?

The reason I ask these two questions is because of drivers. If this is the original Boot Camp install under 10.4 there might be better drivers for you r card on the Leopard DVd if you have it. Also, I would suggest hitting NVIDIA's web site to see if there are updated drivers for your card. This might help with some of the issues that you're facing.

I Partitioned my drive during the bootcamp Beta many months ago. I upgraded to Leopard a few days ago, so I figured I'd be okay. Could that be a problem? Should I repartition a drive again using Leopard's Bootcamp? Man I'd hate to go through all the trouble of reintalling- could I just drag the AoC folder to my mac and then back over if I did repartition?

I also went to Nvidia's site to collect new drivers, first one that was 169.?? and then another my brother said I should get that was 175.??. I think that helped a bit. The lowest settings look better (For example I can now see the muscles definition on the back of my avatar, but my bro still tells me it's not as good as it should be). Still, I only get 20fps(turning fast)-40fps(standing still) at the absolute smallest windowed resolution, 8-15FPS at full screen, and low 20FPS average at 1600x1200.

Found this link to help tweak Advanced settings:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=13390&highlight=7900

I'll try to upload some screen shots when I get home.

[Doozer13]

your a generation behind me on the Imac I have the 2007 with 2600 HD 256 and I can play it very nicely!


Here is a screen shot of it running on my macine in 1600x1050 32FPS dips to 19-20 in heavy sections so far...

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i50/Dorfdad/ImacAOC1900x1200.jpg

If you'd be willing, I'd be curious to see screen grabs of your advanced settings if you've tweaked them. Anything special you had to do as far as video card software, bootcamp tricks, stuff that isn't obvious?

[Dorfdad]

If you'd be willing, I'd be curious to see screen grabs of your advanced settings if you've tweaked them. Anything special you had to do as far as video card software, bootcamp tricks, stuff that isn't obvious?


Sure. I downloaded the newest video drivers from ATI for the ATI HD 2600 XT and installed them manually through Bootcamp in VISTA 100 GIG NTFS partition.

If you drop the resolution to 1400x900 you will get about 45FPS I like 1900x1200 better though I drop some frames It only effects me in town where there is smoke or steam when I drop to 17-25 everywhere else im over 30fps.

4 Gigs of ram as well.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i50/Dorfdad/Capture.jpg

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i50/Dorfdad/Capture2.jpg

hope this helps. Turn off water reflections to gain a few more FPS... I just did this as well..

Im on Stormbringer server Azrular if you want to join up im level 16 now Guardian..

[Doozer13]

Thanks so much, I'll compare your settings to mine, but looks a lot like what I'm doing. I think my shader model quality is set at 2(lowest?) and I have High Quality View Distance at 25% which is probably too high. I reached Tortage last night so I compared your screenie to mine and it's fairly similar graphically speaking (I don't think I get as much detail, but then again I'm playing at a gimped resolution. I guess I'm so used to playing WoW, with all the bright comic colors, this realism thing doesn't seem quite right to me.

My brother helped me tweak some of the advanced settings and I seem to be running 20-30FPS very consistantly, with some spikes here and there when I turn fast or multiple people/NPCs run by. Very very playable, even if I have to sacrifice a lot of on screen real estate (1200 x 800 on my 24") At full screen I still chug along at 10-15FPS, which isn't good. Wonder how much the additional RAM helps, i've read anything over 3 isn't really doing anything, but then I'm still a gig short.

Only graphics issue I still have is the rendering of NPCs. Seems like sometimes when I'm running around Tortage NPCs take far longer than they should to appear- even in the Inn I've noticed this. Doesn't always happen, but when it does it's a little annoying.

ToS is great fun!

[Dorfdad]

for those interestd I found some more tweaks that help.

#1 TURN OFF PARTICLE DRAW DISTANCE this is the #1 Killer for FPS I found on my machine well maybe not the #1 but damn close..

#2. Play at 1600x1050 and 1400x900 with these settings and turning off Particles has resulted in me getting upwards of 65FPS in multiplayer situations.

Anywhere WIDE OPEN with lots of building meaning TOWNS you are going to take a hit without the best hardware but Im able to keep 27-30 FPS for the most part in town now..

Ive not booted into OSX in the last 3 days :( Im living in vista with SP1 and I have to say Im liking it...

[Dottore]

Any of you guys have trial key so I can try AoC on my iMac and see how it goes, please ?

[Dorfdad]

Any of you guys have trial key so I can try AoC on my iMac and see how it goes, please ?


Buddy Keys are not allowed yet. They are allowing users who bought the game play for a while, and also patching all the exploits and bugs first before allowing others to play... If you have a circuit city near you just go get it for 39.99 I got my local EB to price match well worth it even for 1 month!

[cluthz]

I'm playing om my MBP 2.2 GHz with 2GB ram and AoC runs decent.
I'm above 20 fps all the time and its normally around 25 I guess.
No lagging, but it could be a bit faster tho.

[MrOmelet]

I have a little older Macbook Pro (It's a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo [2GB RAM] and the ATI RadeonX1600) and was curios if it would even be possible to run AoC under bootcamp.

I'm guessing I can't since it's a bit outdated, but curious if anyone has installed it with the same setup.

[luffytubby]

Anyone with a 2008 Imac playing Conan? I would like to see how they would fair in bootcamp.

[Maul]

if anyone with a new 24" iMac with 3.06 ghz processor and with a 8800gs would post they're Fps, and settings it would greatly be appreciated. I know I can run it, just wondering how well.

[djinn]

I have been playing AoC on my MBP with Low Settings and its fine. It just depends on what you define Tolerable. :p

[Dorfdad]

Anyone with a 2008 Imac playing Conan? I would like to see how they would fair in bootcamp.


I have the 2007 with ths ATI 2600 in it and if you have the newest Imac with the Nvidia ther is NO reason not to get this game, You will have at least 50-60 FPS in single player games without a hitch and online you might drop to 30 in town... Im doing almost that with a far inferior card...

You probably can play on Medium with Zero problems or slowdown..

[juliancs]

I've got a 2.33ghz C2D 2 GB ram, and an x1600 256 MB...Do I have a chance? I want to run it at native resolution and have a decent view distance (even if low quality/no npcs). Everything else I am willing to turn down as low as it goes - no reflections, shadows, low shader version etc etc. Anyone with a similar set up got decent results? Playable I consider ~30fps.

[marcellonetto]

Guys, im running the game on an iMac 20' core 2 duo, 2 g ram and that ATI HD 2600 PRO..

However i get a really bad framerate and its really annoying to play at all..

10- fps all times...and a lot of freezes...


U guys seem to be playing with good framerates...

Any tips how to improve my performance?


All my game settings are the lowest possible!

[Sutekidane]

I'm playing this on my gaming PC but I found that turning off shadows completely brings my framerate from 20-25 to 55+

[cluthz]

Guys, im running the game on an iMac 20' core 2 duo, 2 g ram and that ATI HD 2600 PRO..

However i get a really bad framerate and its really annoying to play at all..

10- fps all times...and a lot of freezes...


U guys seem to be playing with good framerates...

Any tips how to improve my performance?


All my game settings are the lowest possible!

Tried different videocard drivers?

[luffytubby]

I have the 2007 with ths ATI 2600 in it and if you have the newest Imac with the Nvidia ther is NO reason not to get this game, You will have at least 50-60 FPS in single player games without a hitch and online you might drop to 30 in town... Im doing almost that with a far inferior card...

You probably can play on Medium with Zero problems or slowdown..


My laptop:

2,6 GHz(T9500 Penryn Core 2 Duo)
4 Gigs of Ram
Vista 32 Bit
Geforce 8600m GT 512 DDR2
200 GB Hard drive


I can run it with everything on lowest settings and I get frames between 5-40...


its an amazing game but very inconsistent.


I am considering buying a new computer JUST for this game. its one of the most awesome I have played in like... 10 years. The last MMO which where this revolutionary was UO and that is 11 years now!

Im afraid that C2D wont be enough... Maybe Quadcore is what is needed. So I dont know if an Imac is an option...I might have to go with a pc..


I want to run it at max on everything with high framerate(even when pvping in siege with lots of players)!

[cluthz]

I'm playing om my MBP 2.2 GHz with 2GB ram and AoC runs decent.
I'm above 20 fps all the time and its normally around 25 I guess.
No lagging, but it could be a bit faster tho.

After last nights patch I've gotten a bit better FPS and is usually around 30 now, even tho i've bumped gfx a bit.

[juliancs]

I've got a 2.33ghz C2D 2 GB ram, and an x1600 256 MB...Do I have a chance? I want to run it at native resolution and have a decent view distance (even if low quality/no npcs). Everything else I am willing to turn down as low as it goes - no reflections, shadows, low shader version etc etc. Anyone with a similar set up got decent results? Playable I consider ~30fps.

Bump for me? Anyone running at these specs?

[overcast]

from everything I have read Vista is slower due to many factors...
I would be more interested in XP Sp2 vs SP3 performance...
Try reading something that isn't from 2006. Vista is on par or exceeds XP in gaming now.

[overcast]

My laptop:

2,6 GHz(T9500 Penryn Core 2 Duo)
4 Gigs of Ram
Vista 32 Bit
Geforce 8600m GT 512 DDR2
200 GB Hard drive


I can run it with everything on lowest settings and I get frames between 5-40...


its an amazing game but very inconsistent.


I am considering buying a new computer JUST for this game. its one of the most awesome I have played in like... 10 years. The last MMO which where this revolutionary was UO and that is 11 years now!

Im afraid that C2D wont be enough... Maybe Quadcore is what is needed. So I dont know if an Imac is an option...I might have to go with a pc..


I want to run it at max on everything with high framerate(even when pvping in siege with lots of players)!
C2D is fine, you're playing on a garbage video card. My main gaming rig is STILL running an Opteron 165 @ 2.7GHZ, 4GB DDR, 2 x 8800GT in SLI on Vista Ultimate 64bit and it maxes out everything I play at 1920x1200 or higher with 50+ FPS, full lighting, shadows, textures, DX10, everything. Bioshock, Call of Duty 4.

[luffytubby]

hmmm okay:(


Still no one with a 3,0 Imac with 8800?

I really wanna know how Conan runs!

[johngardiner]

Try reading something that isn't from 2006. Vista is on par or exceeds XP in gaming now.

actually not true, most of the recent benchmarks still put xp a few fps in front of vista for most games... granted its smaller now than before but some people looooveee their fps :rolleyes:

[MikeMaximus]

hmmm okay:(

Still no one with a 3,0 Imac with 8800?

I really wanna know how Conan runs!

I got Conan installed last night (Win XP SP3) on 24" 3.0 iMac with the 8800.

Overall I think it runs very nice, load times are great especially.

On the default Medium video settings at 1920x1200 resolution I'm getting a fairly consistent 30fps in outdoor areas, and in close quarters it'll go to 40 - 60. Changing the settings to high seems to choke it though, the frame rate will barely hold 10 - 15 fps outdoors on high. But visually, all I noticed was improved lighting, so not worth it to play it on high imo.

I'll have to try turning shadows off as someone mentioned to see how much that boosts the frame rate.

[luffytubby]

I got Conan installed last night (Win XP SP3) on 24" 3.0 iMac with the 8800.

Overall I think it runs very nice, load times are great especially.

On the default Medium video settings at 1920x1200 resolution I'm getting a fairly consistent 30fps in outdoor areas, and in close quarters it'll go to 40 - 60. Changing the settings to high seems to choke it though, the frame rate will barely hold 10 - 15 fps outdoors on high. But visually, all I noticed was improved lighting, so not worth it to play it on high imo.

I'll have to try turning shadows off as someone mentioned to see how much that boosts the frame rate.


Cool. How much Ram do you have? Did you get the latest drivers? You also really need to check the AoC forums for people with performance issues. There are so many insane ideas and theories and stories about people and their performance. Its insane, I tell you!

[cluthz]

Bump for me? Anyone running at these specs?

No, I have almost same speccs and 8600GT, and the 8600 is far faster than the x1600.
With lowest settings (but native res) you´ll get around 30-40 fps I guess.
Anyways I´ve gotten a serious FPS boosts over the last days and I guess AoC has 30-50% better FPS now than it had the release day, it might improve a bit more aswell!

[MikeMaximus]

Cool. How much Ram do you have? Did you get the latest drivers? You also really need to check the AoC forums for people with performance issues. There are so many insane ideas and theories and stories about people and their performance. Its insane, I tell you!

Haha, well after waiting for the very lengthy install and patching process I just wanted to get to it. I'll probably do some settings tweaking this weekend after checking out the forums.

I have 2 gigs of ram in it and the latest boot camp. I tried getting new video drivers, but nvidia driver installation tells me that the card isn't supported. I'm a total boot camp n00b, so I don't know if there is a way to make that work.

**Edit**

Turning off shadows boosted me to 45 fps+ outdoors, definitely the first thing to do if your frame rate is bad.

[luffytubby]

Haha, well after waiting for the very lengthy install and patching process I just wanted to get to it. I'll probably do some settings tweaking this weekend after checking out the forums.

I have 2 gigs of ram in it and the latest boot camp. I tried getting new video drivers, but nvidia driver installation tells me that the card isn't supported. I'm a total boot camp n00b, so I don't know if there is a way to make that work.

**Edit**

Turning off shadows boosted me to 45 fps+ outdoors, definitely the first thing to do if your frame rate is bad.

Okay:)


It's because I was going to buy a new computer to play this game, and everyone suggested 8800s and good Dual core machines to play it on high!

I just dont know if 8800 GS is a decent card for Conan.


So before I go out to buy a 2000 dollar Imac, I would just need to know how the game runs:P but I havent met anyonne besides you who run the game and have the new high end Imac!

[crunka1ntdead]

Has anyone tried it on the 2.5 GHz Macbook Pro? I'm thinking about getting one, but want to be sure it can run AoC decently first.

[shellbryson]

Hmmm okay I tried my first bootcamp install lastnight. Blank 250Gb disk, installed Windows Vista via Bootcamp wizard in Leopard. All went smoothly, but AoC runs like poo.

I have a quad 3ghz, with 8Gb RAM, and an ATI x1900XT 512Mb card, and Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 installed. I have to run at 1280 x 800 to get anything over about 15fps (at best) with it dropping to unbearable 5-10fps in busy areas.

Any ideas what's up? I know the video card isn't the latest shiny beast, but surely I can get this game to run with something better than inch-square pixels on my 30" ACD?

I'm using the Bootcamp drivers... I couldn't find any newer Apple certified ones on the ATI/AMD web site (is there a hack to get the newer ATI drivers to work?).

[luffytubby]

Hmmm okay I tried my first bootcamp install lastnight. Blank 250Gb disk, installed Windows Vista via Bootcamp wizard in Leopard. All went smoothly, but AoC runs like poo.

I have a quad 3ghz, with 8Gb RAM, and an ATI x1900XT 512Mb card, and Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 installed. I have to run at 1280 x 800 to get anything over about 15fps (at best) with it dropping to unbearable 5-10fps in busy areas.

Any ideas what's up? I know the video card isn't the latest shiny beast, but surely I can get this game to run with something better than inch-square pixels on my 30" ACD?

I'm using the Bootcamp drivers... I couldn't find any newer Apple certified ones on the ATI/AMD web site (is there a hack to get the newer ATI drivers to work?).

Man, it's crazy. I heard similiar problems with PCs with similiar specs to yours.


First of all mate.

Use CTRL + ALT + Delete to check how many resources your using when running the game. There should be a performance tab, where you can see the activity of all your Cores. Can you tell me how much the cores are using when running Conan?


You see - Right now there is a big disagreement about Age of Conan being optimized for Quadcore or not. Some people say that the game uses all cores very well, without having either of them going to 100%(or very near at least). But other says that dual core is where it works best.


Though... I think that your problem is with GPU. 512 MB ram is very appreciated! I have 512 MB on my 8600 GT on my laptop, and I tell you mate... it runs like crap.


Is 15 FPS what you get in the main town(Tortage) or is it out in the wild?

[luffytubby]

Also mate.


The biggest performance killers seems to be Bloom, shadows and shader effect 3,0! Try adjusting these.


Conan also has an insane draw distance limit. the longer it is, the more it has to process.



How much ram do you have?

[MikeMaximus]

Okay:)


It's because I was going to buy a new computer to play this game, and everyone suggested 8800s and good Dual core machines to play it on high!

I just dont know if 8800 GS is a decent card for Conan.


So before I go out to buy a 2000 dollar Imac, I would just need to know how the game runs:P but I havent met anyonne besides you who run the game and have the new high end Imac!

Well for me this iMac is working great and i'm happy with it. Conan looks good enough and performs great on medium with tweaks. After turning off shadows I put some other settings on high and it still runs good. Having all settings on High is playable most of the time, but i'd prefer it to be smoother. Considering the 8800 card in the iMac seems to be some kind of modded laptop version I think that's pretty freakin awesome performance.

But if you want to play it with everything maxed out and get decent fps at a high resolution I can almost guarantee you can build a better performing PC for the cost of an iMac. I'm thinking you need more than one video card in Crossfire or SLI to get smooth performance at 1920x1200 with maxed out settings.

[luffytubby]

Well for me this iMac is working great and i'm happy with it. Conan looks good enough and performs great on medium with tweaks. After turning off shadows I put some other settings on high and it still runs good. Having all settings on High is playable most of the time, but i'd prefer it to be smoother. Considering the 8800 card in the iMac seems to be some kind of modded laptop version I think that's pretty freakin awesome performance.

But if you want to play it with everything maxed out and get decent fps at a high resolution I can almost guarantee you can build a better performing PC for the cost of an iMac. I'm thinking you need more than one video card in Crossfire or SLI to get smooth performance at 1920x1200 with maxed out settings.

The funny thing is mate, that actually SLI/Crossfire and DirectX10 is not supported yet!


May I ask what settings you did?


Did you use Vista 64 bit?(and do you have 4 gigs of ram?)

[patseguin]

They had DX10 support but then removed it with the last patch, probably because of bugs. Even now, performance degrades huge over time. I went from 35-40fps in a detailed outdoor zone to about 4-5fps after a couple hours. I have to exit AoC and reload to get back to normal. This is on my home built gaming PC. I am interested in trying the game on my Mac Pro w/8800GT, just have to re-install Vista on it.

[Kurrosh]

I am using the latest 2008 24inch iMac with 3.06ghz,4GB memory and nVidia 8800GS, I installed Vista – just normal vista 32-bit and no SP1. In the first few places i am well over 70 FPS almost all the time.
I am playing on Low settings, with very minimal view. Haven't changed any other settings.

Only got the game working today, so can't say much about other places.

–Kurrosh

[johngardiner]

why are you playing on such low settings?? you could pull off 40-50 fps on all high.. i get 30-40 with most on high on my MBP lol.. crank it!

[crunka1ntdead]

why are you playing on such low settings?? you could pull off 40-50 fps on all high.. i get 30-40 with most on high on my MBP lol.. crank it!

so it runs well on the MBP?

[johngardiner]

so it runs well on the MBP?

yeah.. I have the 2.5 with 512mb vram.. but when I'm out questing im always over 40fps with a mix of medium and high.. mostly high.. and shadows off

[luffytubby]

I am using the latest 2008 24inch iMac with 3.06ghz,4GB memory and nVidia 8800GS, I installed Vista – just normal vista 32-bit and no SP1. In the first few places i am well over 70 FPS almost all the time.
I am playing on Low settings, with very minimal view. Haven't changed any other settings.

Only got the game working today, so can't say much about other places.

–Kurrosh

:(


Try installing SP1. When I did, Vista recognized that I had 4 GB!


What is your FPS if your settings are on high(in Tortage)?

[esXXI]

Latest 24" iMac: 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 8800GS. Running on XP SP3. I run on tweaked Medium settings (shadows disabled, high quality textures) and get around 50-70 FPS (25-40fps with shadows on). On high it drops to around 15-25fps and much less enjoyable. I haven't played too much, you could probably get a good frame rate using High and then tweaking the draw distance for objects.

Biggest difference at the moment seems to be shadows, folks having slow downs should disable them and feel your FPS nearly double.

[DrBlack]

Does anyone know how this game will perform with a 128Mb 8600M GT Nvidia card, stock in the previous Macbook pros?

also... will this game really be worth the extra $15 a month, I've never played an MMO seriously.

cheers

[luffytubby]

Does anyone know how this game will perform with a 128Mb 8600M GT Nvidia card, stock in the previous Macbook pros?

also... will this game really be worth the extra $15 a month, I've never played an MMO seriously.

cheers

There seems to be a big difference between the performance people have gotten with various 8600 GTs card.

But 128 MB VRam... Not sure. I think the minimum is 256 but again, I am not sure!

[cluthz]

Does anyone know how this game will perform with a 128Mb 8600M GT Nvidia card, stock in the previous Macbook pros?

also... will this game really be worth the extra $15 a month, I've never played an MMO seriously.

cheers

I have the 2.2GHz, with 128 MB.
Yes it runs pretty ok, with settings low/med you can easily keep up 25-50 FPS

[DrBlack]

I have the 2.2GHz, with 128 MB.
Yes it runs pretty ok, with settings low/med you can easily keep up 25-50 FPS

Thanks... we'll I guess I need to get out my pocket book then and start hearing the lamentation of your women!!

Oh... another thing, I don't have the 30Gb on my bootcamp partition, do you think it would work okay running from an external hard drive?

cheers

[Kurrosh]

:(


Try installing SP1. When I did, Vista recognized that I had 4 GB!


What is your FPS if your settings are on high(in Tortage)?

On high, I get around 35-55. But I really don't see a big difference between High and Low tbh - i use low for the extra frames. I change the settings a bit, i leave shaders on, but not very high etc.

[luffytubby]

On high, I get around 35-55. But I really don't see a big difference between High and Low tbh - i use low for the extra frames. I change the settings a bit, i leave shaders on, but not very high etc.

hmm.. dont see a big difference? whats your draw distance set to? do you have enabled bloom and AA?

[Kurrosh]

hmm.. dont see a big difference? whats your draw distance set to? do you have enabled bloom and AA?

I don't have Bloom enabled, but my draw distance is minimum. I don't see the need for a big draw distance, so i put it low, not lowest but near there.

[Dorfdad]

Latest 24" iMac: 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 8800GS. Running on XP SP3. I run on tweaked Medium settings (shadows disabled, high quality textures) and get around 50-70 FPS (25-40fps with shadows on). On high it drops to around 15-25fps and much less enjoyable. I haven't played too much, you could probably get a good frame rate using High and then tweaking the draw distance for objects.

Biggest difference at the moment seems to be shadows, folks having slow downs should disable them and feel your FPS nearly double.

Your worst issue is Particles turn them off and be happy!

[Huntn]

also... will this game really be worth the extra $15 a month, I've never played an MMO seriously.


It seems to me that if you find the game worth playing, it will be worth $15 per month which is pretty inexpensive entertainment. Yes I like doing a lot of solo in past MMOs, but having real people running around is the attraction of MMOs which you really can't get in other game environments. And certain instances require the help of others. Working together with others can be most fun, as all those MMO addicts know. :)

[miklen]

yeah.. I have the 2.5 with 512mb vram.. but when I'm out questing im always over 40fps with a mix of medium and high.. mostly high.. and shadows off

I have almost the same MPB, tho I have 200gb 7200rpm hdd and 4gb ram. Which version of Windows do you run, and do you use standard Apple drivers or have you been out fetching some newer drivers?

Im running Vista 64bit Business with standard Apple drivers. I tried with XP SP3 first, but I got some strange video and sound lag, even when just running desktop with no active processes. So I tried Vista 64bit (to make sure Windows would recognize all 4gb ram, not sure if Vista 32bit can see all 4gb).

Anyways, my point is that Im running low settings, with shadows turned off, and yes I do peak at 70ish fps but I often go as low as 10 too. If there is any fog around or I am in some kind of ridiculous high textured Inn (what is up with The Thirsty Dog Inn?). Anyways any good advice is appreciated.

[cluthz]

I have almost the same MPB, tho I have 200gb 7200rpm hdd and 4gb ram. Which version of Windows do you run, and do you use standard Apple drivers or have you been out fetching some newer drivers?

Im running Vista 64bit Business with standard Apple drivers. I tried with XP SP3 first, but I got some strange video and sound lag, even when just running desktop with no active processes. So I tried Vista 64bit (to make sure Windows would recognize all 4gb ram, not sure if Vista 32bit can see all 4gb).

Anyways, my point is that Im running low settings, with shadows turned off, and yes I do peak at 70ish fps but I often go as low as 10 too. If there is any fog around or I am in some kind of ridiculous high textured Inn (what is up with The Thirsty Dog Inn?). Anyways any good advice is appreciated.

In XP i got 20% better performance with the 175.70 drivers compared to the standard ones. I'm using these : http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18611

You can find vista drivers on that site aswell.


And about thirsy dog, ye its laggy

[ophidean]

Finally got everything running last night. I will post some results after I get some game time in. Running boot camp with Vista Premium 32.

[qgi]

I'm freakin out...

I'm playing Age Of Conan on my MacBook Pro Core Duo 17'' 2,56GHz with 1GB RAM. I got all settings to extreme minimum (particles off, shadows off, shader to 2.0, quality textures off) and am playing under 1280*960. I also tried upgrading the display drivers and tweak the performance using ATIs CCC, but with no effect.
In Tortage I've got 19 frames max, and go down to 3 FPS regularily. It's simply not playable that way (the single player instance is way better though). Plus I have to wait 5 minutes after log-on before I can start playing...

Maybe I should finally invest in more RAM (or start saving for a 24'' 3Gig iMac).

[Huntn]

Maybe I should finally invest in more RAM (or start saving for a 24'' 3Gig iMac).

You definitely need more RAM.

[Doozer13]

My comp: iMac 24" 2.33 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7600 GT (2nd generation dual core iMac)


***Update***

We'll I've been playing AoC since release and I'm happy to report I'm finding the game very playable (at very modest settings, effects, resolution) and for the most part computer performance has not hindered my leveling enjoyment...

But I have a caveat. Now a level 60 I've spent some time grouping in the public dungeons know as the Cistern/Main System as well as powerleveling in AoE groups in the highest zones, and I have a bad feeling about what's to come and fear my computer really isn't up for playing AoC at its intended scale.

While I typically get between 20-30fps soloing and 30-40fps+ in private instances, my system practically comes to a halt in areas where I'm grouping tons of action all around. AoE packs of 20+ are not uncommon and I'm typically getting 1-3FPS at these points. I've read that raiding teams can be as large as 48 people and I can imagine city sieges being twice that size. I'm already having performance flashbacks of Molten Core on my powerbook (40-man raid in World of Warcraft). And I can almost forget about serious pvp. Thankfully I play an AoE/healing class, but targeting is nearly impossible at these framerates and if my teammates knew what my screen looked like they'd probably kick me out of the group.

Overall I'm pleased with my AoC experience thus far, but I'm already looking into building a PC for my gaming needs now and in the future. I love my Mac, but the inability to upgrade components like a video card in my iMac has me considering switching back for gaming. For half the price I can build a machine nearly twice as capable of handling these games.

[DrBlack]

After the latest release is anyone else getting a message about issues with the Nvidia driver release (for Macbook pro) that they never used to get. The still plays just fine only I no longer get the introductory animations... very odd!!

Does anyone know if the Macbook Pro 8600M GT Nvidia drivers can be updated through bootcamp?

cheers

[Pring]

I'm freakin out...

I'm playing Age Of Conan on my MacBook Pro Core Duo 17'' 2,56GHz with 1GB RAM. I got all settings to extreme minimum (particles off, shadows off, shader to 2.0, quality textures off) and am playing under 1280*960. I also tried upgrading the display drivers and tweak the performance using ATIs CCC, but with no effect.
In Tortage I've got 19 frames max, and go down to 3 FPS regularily. It's simply not playable that way (the single player instance is way better though). Plus I have to wait 5 minutes after log-on before I can start playing...

Maybe I should finally invest in more RAM (or start saving for a 24'' 3Gig iMac).

Read http://forums-us.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=36047

There's a bug in the game where playing on Low settings will give you WORSE FPS than High!

I performed the steps there and went from 5-10 FPS to 25.


Press ESC *or F10*.
Go to Video Options.
Click "High". I don't care if your computer sucks. Click it and shut up.
Go to the Advanced Tab.
Disable shadows completely.
If you are on a laptop, scroll down to the system texture cache bar and maximize it.
Click Apply, then OK.

[Skuba Skot]

After the latest release is anyone else getting a message about issues with the Nvidia driver release (for Macbook pro) that they never used to get. The still plays just fine only I no longer get the introductory animations... very odd!!

Does anyone know if the Macbook Pro 8600M GT Nvidia drivers can be updated through bootcamp?



After several days of stellar play, I started experiencing the same problems. I tried to update the drivers in OS X- which is not supported. I tried to update in XP, and while there is an update for the 8700M GT, there is not one for the 8600M GT. I am not quite sure what to do, but am glad I can push 'escape' to get past the introductory animations, then the game plays fine.

[cluthz]

After several days of stellar play, I started experiencing the same problems. I tried to update the drivers in OS X- which is not supported. I tried to update in XP, and while there is an update for the 8700M GT, there is not one for the 8600M GT. I am not quite sure what to do, but am glad I can push 'escape' to get past the introductory animations, then the game plays fine.

laptopvideo2go drivers is the way to go if you want performance, they are unsupported, but lots of people are using them with success.

[TFMTASAD]

I have an iMac 24" with the 3.06ghz processor. 4gb of ram and of course the 8800gs

I run the game somewhere between medium to high settings. I get most of time a solid 45-50fps.

[macboots]

hi. can you post your video setting please? (press f11 during game to take screenshot). i have same mac (3.06) with only 2gb ram and using vista x64 ultimate. i get framerates between 15-35, but i average probably 18. i have a high setting tweek, although as much as i played with it i can't get it right.

also, i have bootcamp 2.1, but manually installed nvidia driver 174.93 from laptopvideo2go. is it better to use that driver or just stick with bootcamp's driver? any advice would be appreciated.:

thanks!

[macboots]

trying to figure out once and for all which driver is better for imac 3.06; nvidia drivers (laptopvideo2go) or bootcamp (2.1).

for this i'm using 3DMark06 test (can be downloaded for free from their website). i'm using windows vista x64 ultimate, 2gb of ram. my card of course its the geforce 8800 gs.

i already have the nvidia driver 174.93 on my system and my score with 3DMark06 was 7830 (default settings from the free version of the program).

it would be great if someone with a same machine (preferably same windows type, but not that necessary) could post their score with bootcamp's drivers. i would do it myself, tried to uninstall the nvidia driver to reinstall the bootcamp one but had some direct3d problems so had to go back to nvidia one.

this will tell if for this peticular mac we should stay with nvidia or bootcamp drivers, so we can have a better performance with AoC, which is the reason why i'm doing this:D

[DrBlack]

After several days of stellar play, I started experiencing the same problems. I tried to update the drivers in OS X- which is not supported. I tried to update in XP, and while there is an update for the 8700M GT, there is not one for the 8600M GT. I am not quite sure what to do, but am glad I can push 'escape' to get past the introductory animations, then the game plays fine.

Well I sorted all this out finally... I ticked the box saying never show this message again on startup and vwa la! I get my animations on startup again. Also I upgraded my drivers to 163.75 through laptopvideo2go.com and I can play at medium to high with 2xAA and shadows disabled with around 15 fps on average, very playable and gorgeous to boot! I really am amazed an older MBP is handing this game so beautifully... then again... no I'm not.... Mac's rule!!! ... and I was a PC person for 20 years up until 6 months ago.

[Huntn]

Well I sorted all this out finally... I ticked the box saying never show this message again on startup and vwa la! I get my animations on startup again. Also I upgraded my drivers to 163.75 through laptopvideo2go.com and I can play at medium to high with 2xAA and shadows disabled with around 15 fps on average, very playable and gorgeous to boot! I really am amazed an older MBP is handing this game so beautifully... then again... no I'm not.... Mac's rule!!! ... and I was a PC person for 20 years up until 6 months ago.

Sounds great! :)

[macboots]

trying to figure out once and for all which driver is better for imac 3.06; nvidia drivers (laptopvideo2go) or bootcamp (2.1).

for this i'm using 3DMark06 test (can be downloaded for free from their website). i'm using windows vista x64 ultimate, 2gb of ram. my card of course its the geforce 8800 gs.

i already have the nvidia driver 174.93 on my system and my score with 3DMark06 was 7830 (default settings from the free version of the program).

it would be great if someone with a same machine (preferably same windows type, but not that necessary) could post their score with bootcamp's drivers. i would do it myself, tried to uninstall the nvidia driver to reinstall the bootcamp one but had some direct3d problems so had to go back to nvidia one.

this will tell if for this peticular mac we should stay with nvidia or bootcamp drivers, so we can have a better performance with AoC, which is the reason why i'm doing this:D

ok, i did some research. the thing is that the imacs are not officially supported by apple for vista x64 via bootcamp. the only ones that are supported right now are the mac pro, macbook pro 15" and 17" (all 2008 models only).

thats the reason why when i installed the bootcamp 2.1 drivers on vista x64, i had problems with direct3d, there was no hardware acceleration since the drivers used were only windows basic ones. so, the work around for this if you wanna keep vista x64 on the new imac is to donwload dirver 175.15 from the laptopvideo2go website.

now, i formatted my windows vista x64 partition and installed windows xp sp2. installed bootcamp 2.1 (this time the nvidia dirvers did worked, recognised the card as a geforce 8800 gs). i did the 3dmark06 test, and for my suprise, my score was 8530!!! (in vista x64 i got 7830).

that is an notable increase, dont know if it will reflect in age of conan (i'm currently installing it, as you may know, it takes some time!). i'll post my results later. hope this info helps anyone.

[TFMTASAD]

I'll try to take some screenshots for you later today. I run AoC under Vista Home Premium 32 bits. It plays very well. I'm curious to see if DirectX10 will improve my performance when it gets released for AoC later this summer ( I was told August).

What lowered framerate the most was :

-Bloom effect
-Shadows
-Water reflection

You don't have to turn them off completly but you can lower them and then turn the high resolution textures to HIGH, and most of the settings to high. I turned to LOW the shadow resolution. Turned OFF Bloom effect (it annoyed me anyway), and lowered water reflection to GROUND ONLY. I enabled grass, increased a bit it's drawing distance. And that was pretty much it.

Basically I started by selecting the MEDIUM option and I tweaked the settings from there.

[macboots]

I'll try to take some screenshots for you later today. I run AoC under Vista Home Premium 32 bits. It plays very well. I'm curious to see if DirectX10 will improve my performance when it gets released for AoC later this summer ( I was told August).

What lowered framerate the most was :

-Bloom effect
-Shadows
-Water reflection

You don't have to turn them off completly but you can lower them and then turn the high resolution textures to HIGH, and most of the settings to high. I turned to LOW the shadow resolution. Turned OFF Bloom effect (it annoyed me anyway), and lowered water reflection to GROUND ONLY. I enabled grass, increased a bit it's drawing distance. And that was pretty much it.

Basically I started by selecting the MEDIUM option and I tweaked the settings from there.

hi. thanks for your feedback. i'm currently playing on high with most of options set to medium, ground set to high, particle low. also i worked on high and tweeked it a bit. with shadows and bloom completely off, i think i'm in 25 frames average, with ups till 55 and lows to 12. but basically when in a fight i'm mostly in 18 fps.

i'll try your spec to see how it goes. also, i'm a bit obsessed now trying to see which windows gives better performance, so far xp has given me best results (based on 3dmark06). i'll install vista x32 and try the test to see if it beats the xp score.

[cluthz]

... i'm a bit obsessed now trying to see which windows gives better performance, so far xp has given me best results (based on 3dmark06). i'll install vista x32 and try the test to see if it beats the xp score.

Hehe, those numbers are benchmarks from app. No point on seeing which window version that run the bench fastest!
Try the game and see how it performs since the 3dMark score means nothing if the game runs crap.

[macboots]

yeah, i know. but the thing is that 3dmark06 is a good way to measure graphic performance, and it has worked for me in the past. but you are right in saying that its only an app, so it might not reflect on certain games.

in the other hand, i've noticed performance is better in aoc on xp. also, what i'm doing now is instead of using shader 3.0, i switched to 2.0. now, with ALL setting to high, draw distances and all that options set to far right, shadows (char only), AA 2x, everything else set on high (no bloom), my frames are between 35-75, i would say i average 50. its really awesome performance, but you loose all the eye candy that shader 3.0 provides. but until they optimise more sm 3.0 with patches, i'm sticking to sm 2.0 for the moment. the game looks awesome still.

[superman666]

So does anyone know how AoC will run on a:
MBP 2.4GHZ (Core2Duo)
2GB RAM
Nvidia 8600M GT
256MB Video Ram

I really am considering buying this game but have no idea how this will run in Bootcamp. Do they have those trial keys working now? Does anyone have one that they wanna offer? Would be much appreciated, I really wanna try it before buying it...

[luffx]

I built a new computer just for this game...

Q6600 Quad OC'd to 3.2Ghz.
4GB G.Skill 1066MHz. (now 8GB, haven't tested yet).
Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB.
EVGA 750i FTW mobo.

Vista Ultimate SP1 x64

I run the game @ 1680x1200 on High settings w/ shadows set to the 2nd highest setting.

I typically get 20FPS when fighting outside. I also find that the game runs BETTER on High (w/ shadows off) than it does on Medium settings.

[Nickdapimp]

Hey guys just a thought but you wanna start maybe a clan together? I made a lvl 80 in the game and sold it, now I'm starting new on another server. All of us mac users can play together and ask questions and get answered faster. I got the funding to start a vent server + website. If your interested please email me at Blizzshow@gmail.com and I'm a blogger on Lockergnome.com check me out at http://www.lockergnome.com/nn-assistance/ Also if you got AIM my sn is Pimpinfashzafool and my Skype is Blizzshow or Nick Nishanian. I got World of Warcraft experience till Black Temple, when Sunwell came out I quit the game because Sunwell killed the hard core experience of WoW. Let me know. I'll start another thread about this on Apple Games soon.

[Nickdapimp]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5616506#post5616506

[macboots]

Hey guys just a thought but you wanna start maybe a clan together? I made a lvl 80 in the game and sold it, now I'm starting new on another server. All of us mac users can play together and ask questions and get answered faster. I got the funding to start a vent server + website. If your interested please email me at Blizzshow@gmail.com and I'm a blogger on Lockergnome.com check me out at http://www.lockergnome.com/nn-assistance/ Also if you got AIM my sn is Pimpinfashzafool and my Skype is Blizzshow or Nick Nishanian. I got World of Warcraft experience till Black Temple, when Sunwell came out I quit the game because Sunwell killed the hard core experience of WoW. Let me know. I'll start another thread about this on Apple Games soon.

sounds fun

[Nickdapimp]

sounds fun



check it out at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5616506#post5616506

[Garumphsh]

Yet another question regarding how AoC would run.. :)

I am running a 20" 2.0GHz Duo Core iMac with the ATI HD2400 Video Card and 4 GB RAM. I play WoW, and I have it frame capped at 30 (though I imagine I could boost it to 40+) - in raids, I never slow down below 10 fps.

Would I have serious issues with AoC?

On an aside... I haven't installed Windows via Boot Camp yet... waiting to see if it would be worth it to do so. That said, if I install Windows, can I blow away the Win partition if I find I don't need/want it anymore?

Cheers!

-G

[Kurrosh]

Hmm...
Well, on a 2.0 Ghz machine with 4RAM I am at a complete loss. I am running 3.06 ghz and 4GB RAM and 8800GS, and it runs beautifully. I am always in between 30-60 fps – sometimes above, but rarely below. With less than 2.4GHz (recommended) it may not run as well as you hope. I have no clue about the graphics card :P I stay away from too technical details. It all comes down to what you think is playable Personally if I go below 20 I hate it, and below 10 I just stop. You can probably get better using particular settings, Windows XP is supposed to be better than Vista etc. But all in all, I think that you would most likely be in around the 20-40s. In a major city it may go down to 10.

If I were you, I would try and test it by installing a friends version, or something first.

And yes, you can delete the Windows partition very easily. Just go to Boot Camp Assistant, and Remove Partition, select which one and click Remove – something similar to that.

[Garumphsh]

I think that's what it will come down to. :-)

They really need a trial version option.. lol

[miklen]

I found out that changing from shader 3.0 to 2.0 gave me about 15-20fps, up to 30-40fps in very requireing zones. With shader 3.0 I always had a hard time when I was indoors, like the game was rendering the whole house including all the things I couldn't see. Shader 2.0 changed and and my fps sky rocketed.

I do not know what the difference is from 2.0 to 3.0 I cant see any visual difference, only in fps.

[jamigre]

Dunno if you guys still care about settings, and I am somewhat spamming the boards waiting for SP1 to install on Windoze Vista, but...

My MPB 2008, 2.5 ghz, 4G ram, nvidia 8600GT 512MB runs the game on mid/high - tweaked the settings - between 15fps in cities on with bloom turnder on, up to 60fps in instances / country, etc... in all, no porblems at all. well other than having to bootcamp.

[nickmooney]

Hiya guys, was having a hunt around and I can confirm that Age of Conan plays very, very, very well on a MacBook Pro aluminium unibody 2.4gHz with the built in 9600M GT graphics chip. Infact, here's a three minute video of me playing it.

Do excuse me if the video is a bit naff, but I've never used iMovie before yesterday (I'm new to the Mac scene) but the quality looks okay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlCk-c8v9Ig <-- That's on YouTube, but be sure to press the 'HQ' high quality button for the best quality.

Regards,
--Nick.

[Huntn]

Hiya guys, was having a hunt around and I can confirm that Age of Conan plays very, very, very well on a MacBook Pro aluminium unibody 2.4gHz with the built in 9600M GT graphics chip. Infact, here's a three minute video of me playing it.

Do excuse me if the video is a bit naff, but I've never used iMovie before yesterday (I'm new to the Mac scene) but the quality looks okay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlCk-c8v9Ig <-- That's on YouTube, but be sure to press the 'HQ' high quality button for the best quality.

Regards,
--Nick.

I did not realize that iMovie would capture game footage or was it captured with something else?

[nickmooney]

I did not realize that iMovie would capture game footage or was it captured with something else?

Back in the days when I was a full time Windows user and gamer I purchased a neat app called FraPS (which is a benchmarking tool for Frames Per Second (FraPS, fraps...) available from www.fraps.com - When I installed XP on my MacBook Pro I just downloaded it so that the life fps would be displayed in the top right corner. I just press F9 and it'll record the screen for me as an uncompressed AVI with audio.

When I'd got 15 minutes worth of footage I just rebooted into OSX and mounted the XP partition, nabbed the .avi's from it and after converting them to something Mac-friendly in QuickTime I dumped all of the clips in iMovie and chopped 'em around until I got something of a reasonable length to play with.

[0makol16]

anyone know how well AoC would run on the new macbooks? the specs are in my sig. thanks in advance!

[answer348]

Hiya guys, was having a hunt around and I can confirm that Age of Conan plays very, very, very well on a MacBook Pro aluminium unibody 2.4gHz with the built in 9600M GT graphics chip. Infact, here's a three minute video of me playing it.

Do excuse me if the video is a bit naff, but I've never used iMovie before yesterday (I'm new to the Mac scene) but the quality looks okay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlCk-c8v9Ig <-- That's on YouTube, but be sure to press the 'HQ' high quality button for the best quality.

Regards,
--Nick.

What level settings are you playing on? And have you tried playing on an external display?

I just bought a unibody 2.4ghz mbp, and I'm curious if I'll be able to power AoC on an external display.

[nickmooney]

I never tried it on an external display, but I doubt there would be any problem with it, unless it's Windows driver related.

In OSX I played World of Warcraft in both multi-display mode and mirror-display mode without issue. Not tried multi-head support on XP though as I don't have an external monitor anymore as the MacBook Pro LED screen is far superior to my old £800 22" LCD when it comes to richness of colour.

[sageian1]

does anyone know if this would work on the standard macbooks?

mine has a 2.4 GHz intel core duo processor, GMA X3100 graphics, all the standard macbook stuff...

so does anyone know if itll work?

[jamigre]

it'll work so's long as you go dual boot via bootcamp. Don't know if you can emulate it under wine or crossover.

Hope that helps.

[Nexcin]

Hi there!

Returning player to AoC. I was wondring if anyone has tried AoC on new MacBook Pro i7 setup and might be able to tell how well it runs at which settings?..

Thanks in advance.

[Nexcin]

Since noone could answer my question, i guess i can do my self :)

Im running AoC in 1650x1050 on MBP i7 and it runs smoooooooth! Very nice graphics, textures on High, no AA, view distance changed to 500, thats about all i changed.

I am very happy with this MBP and its performance. :D