Ryzom

I work for a wholesale computer parts distributor full-time and part-time for a computer hardware review website. I always find it interesting to see what sort of spectrum of hardware folks use in the different games I play. Many folks over the year I have played have made complaints in these forums about crashes, including myself. I soon realized that while other games are pretty lenient about hardware/driver issues, Ryzom is very sensitive about inconsistencies. Since release, Ryzom has become almost 100% stable for me, not to mention the fact that it has always played surprisingly smoothly, considering the amazing graphics and sweet special effects. Part of the performance/stability gain should really be attributed to the addition of a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and my latest video card.

So, to start this thing, I'll list my current configuration and I hope at least some of you follow suit. Let me know what you use and if you've had any problems with your configuration. Perhaps by cataloging this information we can help Nevrax to improve Ryzom to the point where any hardware configuration better than the minimum specifications will run the game smoothly and without crashing.

--------------------------------------------------
System Configuration:

Case: Lian-Li PC-65 (with 120MM blowhole - previously used for water-cooling radiator)
Motherboard: Abit AV8 "Third Eye"
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 939-pin "Winchester" Core
Memory: 2GB DDR400 (mix of OCZ and Mushkin)
Hard Drive(s): Seagate 160GB ATA133 7200RPM 2MB Cache, Western Digital 80GB ATA100 8MB Cache
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800Pro (with Zalman VGA cooler and passive ramsinks)
Audio: Onboard AC'97 (sounds surprisingly good in 4.1)
Network Card: Onboard Gigabit
Operating System: Windows XP Professional w/SP2
Monitor(s): NEC Multisync 6FGp 21" Flat CRT (it's old but still one sweet CRT), Hitachi CM611 17" semi-Flat CRT (used for browsing while playing Ryzom)
Keyboard: Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical (my favorite optical)
Speakers: Logitech Z560 4.1 THX Surround
--------------------------------------------------

I use a cardboard box with a kids toy processor and 1kb or ram with a 1.5mb hdd and 12mb vid card, one can say from my end the game runs really slow but its all lies i tell ye

J/k

Mines to slow, cant be m00ed to type the spec, just need more ram and faster Pro and il be like a Ninja in the wind *Ninja Bomb* - *Disapears* - *Rawr*

Btw i want ur pc, how about a kiss and a cuddle?

Ok, I'll bite. I upgraded my rig about five months ago from an Athlon XP 2100+ and a gig of DDR333. Runs Ryzom sweetly, as well as about anything else I've dared throw at it for now

Case: Startech ATXALUMGT
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Memory: 2gb DDR400 (Micron)
Hard Drives: 2 x Maxtor 80gb ATA100 5400rpm
Video: Gigabyte GeForce 6800GT 256MB PCI-E DVI-I
OS: Win XP Home w/ SP2
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy
Monitor: LG L1800P 18.1" LCD monitor
Keyboard: MS Internet Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Cordless Click! Plus Rechargeable
Speakers: Sennheiser HD202 Headphones. Have some Creative 5.1 speakers too, but almost never use them. Ought to clear them from my desk really...

I also work in a distributor company and have the lucky job of getting my hand on all the new things and make news rigs for sale in the Hardcore gamer class and in workstations class.

Have tested this game in quite many diffrent configs but it really comes down to the disk/ram speed, then playing.

It does't help much if you have the lates GFX card if you hard disk can't follow.

Let me explain...

Ryzom is quite strangly packed in cabs what are terrifing fragmated, this resolte in longer seektime for the files.

Also ryzom like quite much ram and filling up you free one quite fast if you don't have more then 1gb. mening it starts work on you swapfile on you system disk if you don't have any free.

This resolte in even longer seek time as the disk need to read the game and write i down in to the swap file insteed of directly to the ram.

And if you have the highest setting on grafics it means the game needs to load even more textures and read/write more form the disk and put into the ram or back to swapfile.
--
Let me give you some stats on theratical/real readings on disks and ram

One Ata 100 disk does around 30-50Mb/s
2 Ata 100 raid 0 does arounf 60-75MB/s if you use raptor disk or alike.
1-s-ata does around 60Mb

Now i you want real speed on you disk use a S-ata II Ncq disk for some 145mb/s on a sata controller what can handle 3Gbit. most Nforce 4 motherboard can handle those. or the intel 945 and 955 ones.
Their are many s-ata II disk out where but very few are 3Gbit and NCQ so be sure they handle both. or it now use you

Putting disk those in a raid 0 i quite fun to.

RAM it almost inpossible to count for real as is much depens on what timeing you got on them but form 4-8GB/s but as you see i a quite high step form the ata disk.

They buying get the ones what have the lowest CL,
For DDR1 CL2 is a good start and for DDR2 CL3 is also go place to start.
Let the RAM do most of the work if possblie
-----------------------

So for a good "Ryzom" rig.
Have loads of ram (no more the 3gb as most mother boards and os don't handle more) most perfed fast ones to.

Fast disk what ryzom is on (try not put the game on the system disk)

At the end comes the choice of grafic card (for Ryzom )
Wich im not going to dicus as so many have the own thouhts whats best.

But i recomned any of the high end cards from here and back 4 models. Please don't look on the low or midrange ones as they have allmost the same fetures but not the power to handle them. Better to buy a older top modell.

gah im rableling... anyway whats my point of wiev and it works, belive me this what i do for a living.

Get a lot of RAM, make a RAM-disk and copy You game there. Should be fastest as possible configuration for playing. Of cause copying a few giga from harddisk does take little time, but playing should be a joy. I haven't tryed it, as I never had enough RAM for it. Anyone tryed?

My old setup ran not too badl in full settings (well almost full, view distance was down a little), but my new set up really trashes it (Zora i am able to turn in less than 90 degree angles lol)

Old setup

Sapphire Radeon x800SE (AGP)
Maxtor IDE 20gb HDD (7500rpm)
Maxtor IDE 80gb HDD (7500rpm)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum Ex
1GB Unbranded 2700 ram
Athlon XP 3000+ with Thermaltake Volcano 11 Cooler
ASUS A78nx Mobo
Win XP Home
Thermaltake Xaser 3 Skull case

New Setup

Gigabyte Geforce 7800GTX (PCI-e)
2x Western Digital 78GB Raptor SATA (10,000 rpm)
Creative Soundblaster X-FI Fatal1ty FPS Edition (Currently offline due to lack of driver)
ASUS A8n-SLI Deluxe Mobo
2GB Corsair 3200 (Unmatched)
Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego with Gigabyte G-Power Pro Cooler
Win XP Pro 64-bit (reason theres no X-FI Driver grr, but hopefully soon)
Thermaltake Armor Case

Waiting to see how long contract lasts in work, before fillling up the ram slots and going SLI.

Only thing ive seen challenge it so far, is full settings in Doom 3, but its rarely noticable, just feels a little sluggish. Ryzom still jerks sometimes, but i believe thats due to only having a 1.1mbit connection.

Happy now i dont get a please wait when i check the trainers lol

ASUS A7N8X
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2 GHz)
512 MB RAM (underclocked to 133 MHz, mobo probs when it's set faster than cpu), soon 1536 MB RAM
BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC (you know..)
200 GB ATA133 7200 RPM Maxtor HD with 8MB Cache
MS Optical Intellimouse
Some random keyboard
19" Belinea CRT
2.1 Speakers

it's a el cheapo configuration that I bought at ebay labelled HAL9000 (the seller was some guy named l33tkubrick2005), good so far, but it insists on calling me 'Dave'. last time ryzom crashed I started laughing and saying 'not a single error, eh?'

j/k, (voted option 2)

P4 3G (800 fsb) -old type (not compatable with 9xx series mobo's )
MSI 875P NEO LSR -never lived up to its glowing reviews and refuses more memory
512M Corsair TwinX PC3200 (2,3,2,5 2.7v)
ATI 9800 Pro 128MB ?
Hitachi 60GB 7200 PATA (10GB C: , 50GB Games)
Hitachi 80GB 7200? SATAII (4GB Swap , 76GB Storage)
Onboard sound ,network
17" Monitor , no sound
WinXP Home
QuickShot Joystick (old style micro-switched) DIY hardwired into the keyboard , very handy for spaming ********* into chat as I try to run forward , one day i'll get round to changing that key

Im happy with my system though ive had lots of probs with Bios's trying to get it to perform as the release reviews on sites like Toms Hardware (they were either supplied with a special board or just copied the manufacturer blurb for their initial review ) , the only downer is its extreme dislike of memory , runs stable with fast settings on 512M but wont run at all at the slowest settings +max voltage if i add any more. This is the main reason I bought the SATA drive -for a fast swap file (only runs as SATA not SATAII because of mobo)

Everything runs fine except SoR -stalls on region changes and entering Cities ,clearly its the low (for Ryzom) memory thats the problem but I cant do much about that unless I change my mobo which would then also need new memory and CPU

Not sure ive got the two drives in the optimum configuration but i dont want to startup off the SATA (ive also heard probs with that and this mobo lol) and the Swap File needs to be on a different drive/interface for best performance so guess im stuck withit until my next major upgrade (not even Nevrax *soon*)

Oh BTW anyone know how to set the Swapfile to use the full 4GB partition by default AND not bring up a low space warning for that drive ? (I can set it to 4GB but get that annoying warning all the time Grrrr) -its on "Let windows configure" atm , though it has the full partition to itself

My addiction to shiny things is a bit costly -- maybe wasteful. My current supplier is ABSpc.com, 5 computers in 3 years (for two people -really!).

Latest is the Ultimate M6 with the SLI ready MB and my first AMD pc.

CASE THERMALTAKE|VA3000BWA
MB ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4
VGA EVGA GF 6800GT 256
POWER SUPPLY ANTEC TP2-550
CPU AMD 64 3800+ ATHLON 64 939P
DUAL DDR 1GB PC3200XL CORSAIR
HD200G|ST 7200 8M SATA
SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2 ZS PCI
MS|WIN XP PRO

I'm not running SLI or RAID in which the MB can support but the game runs like a dream compared to my "old" pc.

-Raku