Lag: What Causes It- A treatise j

#1

We all know what lag is- and we often blame Funcom servers-
But, I have been researching (and catching up) on today’s computers (rigs) and have learned much so far-

I have even learned my rig is more powerful than I had believed, after checking some things I found I am running a 6 gig Ram, Dual Core AMD and Ratheon 7310 graphics.

I had thought, in my noob-ness, that my ram was low, which caused lag- but now, I think different. My lag is worse with the World Boss, sometimes a large raid or Raid Finder- but mostly WB (even all the tricks, particles off, names off, so on). And disconnects (the Bane of Unconqueored) are somewhat common- (which may be due to my ISP more than hardware)

To the Point- What Causes Lag?

  1. Ram
  2. ISP
  3. Graphics Card
  4. Funcom Servers
  5. Single/Dual/Multi-Core

Any advice is appreciated, and my heartfelt thanks to those that already have helped my on my quest for a more current understanding of computers.

Graphics is Radeon not ratheon.

#2

In my experience from different games I’ve played lag is usually due to:

#2 ISP & the route and the nodes along the route your packages take to the server.

#3 The WB lag is probably a combination of package routing due to many players in same instance and also extra heavy on the Graphics Card, due to having many players on screen at the same time.
In large raids the mobs creates the extra load to the GC. Tho this is usually more an issue of low FPS than real lag.

I haven’t reached the Bane of Unconqueored, so I can’t say anything about that particular issue.

Edit: I know there is a graphics booster program for AoC, my friend uses it and it apparently reduces load times and gives better graphics even on low settings. Can’t reach him atm, but I’ll add the name of the program as soon as I get in touch with him.

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#3
  1. Ram: 6GB should be plenty ! it is easy to check : play then alt-tab to windows task manager, check the performance tab -> memory : if it’s almost completely used, you probably miss some.
  2. ISP: this is the most reasonable explanation. the previous post by @Gleb_Reawer gives a good explanation.
  3. Graphics Card: easy to test and fix by lowering graphics options
  4. Funcom Servers: that happens, when EVERYONE in the instance freeze and when you can play again, the fight didn’t evolve at all (look at health bars, if the opponents and allies didn’t take any damages for exemple).
  5. Single/Dual/Multi-Core: low single thread performance is bad for many (if not all) games of that generation
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#4

There are really 2 different lag situations: 1) The server lags (the mods stop hitting, everyone in the raid/6 man instance red bars.) 2) You connection lags (mobs continue to beat on you).
There is also low FPS which looks like lag, but is really totally different.

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#5

Lag can be caused my many things. I dont want to burst your bubble but the specs you listed are far from powerful. I’m guessing you are running a laptop from the look of the spec. Dual core APU(cpu+gpu in one), you have E1-1200 or E1-1500 APU which runs a whopping 1.40ghz or 1.48ghz and it’s below both minimum and recommended specs from 2008, and this is 100% the cause of the lag you have when doing world boss or raids. You have a low speed dual core with an intergrated gpu, a quick google reveals the hd 7310 is “good” for 720p. You are probably running a very slow harddrive as well and this is another cause of lags because you need to load resources from the harddrive and it can only do that by the speed of your harddrive unless it’s stored in memory.

In your case I will rate the lag you experience is from
APU (3 & 5) - You are running ancient hardware
Funcom Servers (Unpredictable)
ISP (Your isp is most certainly running newer technology than funcom servers)
Ram (You got enough ram)

I saw your other thread asking for recommendations for building a new computer and most of your lags will be gone but you will still have a few that most of us encounter, aka the funcom servers.

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#6

Thanks for the info! I know my rig is not powerful, but I think I said it was more powerful than I had thought or believed. No bubbles burst. It’s quite old by today’s standards, especially gaming.

I am catching up on knowledge from all the replies and now balancing budget v performance. Thanks to all for helping me move into the 21st century!I

#7

I’ve been lucky enough to not have experienced server freeze yet.

I noticed the FPS drops first time entering Old Tarantia Tradepost and then turning my character around in circles on the stairs and reduced my graphics settings in order to try to have 40 FPS at minimum, while running around there.

I have had and still do have some places where the ping meter goes to 4800ms+, most of them disappeared by themselves but f.ex. the Sailor’s Den in the Docks still lags. Not sure why, but I suspect my HDD and will re-install game to a SSD, in hopes of getting rid of them.

#8

Here is the link to the archived old forums that has the links to the graphics booster I told you about in my first reply. Hope it helps, my friend says it was as simple as copying the files to the right folder, no installation. But he might have used a different site to get the ReSahder.

I’m going to use it too when I finally get my lazy butt to re-install AoC to my SSD

http://forums-archive.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?191041-New-SweetFX-2-0-and-ReShade