Optimal PC Setup for Darkfall Online

First, some important information regarding running Darkfall Online on your PC.

1) Darkfall does not support multiple cores. The speed of your processor, not the number of cores is what matters. This is why a dual core E8400 clocked at 3.0 ghz is better than a quad core Q6600 clocked at 2.4 ghz
2) The game uses 3d sounds which are very processor intensive if you don't have a dedicated 3d sound card like an X-Fi.


That said, I have been playing Darkfall recently on a computer I built in January 2007 (inspired by this guide from silentpcreview). The basic setup was a Gigabyte P5W DH Deluxe mobo with a intel dual core E6600 processor (stock) 2 GB of DDR2 Ram (stock) and an XFX GT7950 GT (512MB). My sound card was a M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (no hardware 3d FX processor). For comparison, this setup ran WoW flawlessly (most PC's will), HL and CS on high settings fine, but I had to tone things down for Warhammer and Darkfall during large scale combat.

If you've got a similiar PC you can probably squeeze some reasonable FPS out of the rig just by turning the settings down:

Turn Shadows completely off (this is the biggest drain to FPS)
Turn ambient sounds off and 3d sounds to 8 (I only do this during sieges)
Uncheck Object Clipping
Disable Post Screen Effects
In windows task manager, set the Darkfall.exe process to high priority

Doing this with the above rig was giving me around 70FPS outside combat. In small PvP encounters i stayed above 30, at large sieges the game started to get choppy.

Since large scale siege combat plays such a prominent role in Darkfall, I set out to see what I could do to make it work. Here's what I did:

The E6600 processor I have is great for overclocking. It runs stock at 2.4Ghz and with my aftermarket cooling (Scythe Ninja) it runs at 30 C idle and 40 under load.

Check out the overclocker.net forums and dig up some information for overclocking your system. Make sure you have adequate cooling though, or else your PC won't be stable. I went for a modest overclock bumping my CPU from 2.4GHZ to 3.0 GHZ. Just this one change alone bumped my FPS about 10-15 FPS outside sieges. I didn't get to try large scale PvP with just the OC'd processor. I used this beginners overclocking guide I came across with a google search. It was a lot easier than I thought, especially since I had never done it before. At 3.0 GHZ I ran a stress test for 12 hours without any errors. CPU temps were stable at around 55 C. More than enough room to operate at a safe temp. I tried to keep pushing it further but started getting logic errors around 3.2 Ghz. I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking so I just left it back at 3.0.

The next thing I did was order some new toys from newegg (where I buy all my components -the best service, fast shipping and great prices!)

The first thing I did was double up on my RAM from 2GB to 4GB. Pretty simple, cost me $30 I would've gone to 8GB but I don't feel like upgrading my 32 bit XP right now. Once Windows 7 comes out I'll probably make the switch. I loaded up Darkfall now with my OC'd processor and double RAM to see how it ran. I didn't notice as much of an FPS increase as the overclock. But for 30 bucks the marginal performance is worth it IMO.

Next, I picked up this Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCIe 2.0 graphics card. I really think my 7950 GT was a major bottle neck. Check out this graphics card ranking list to see if your GPU is holding you back. Two things to note here if you're paying attention. My motherboard doesn't actually have a PCIe 2.0 slot, but the interface is backwards compatible and there is marginal performance loss if any. It's a fanless 4850, but only because I built my PC to be as quiet as possible. The only fans are aftermarket 120mm low noise ccase fans and everything else just has huge heat sinks on it. It's all about proper airflow management. Despite not having a fan on it, this card runs great. Temperatures under load are under 50 C!

The last change I made was swapping out my non-3D accelerated sound card for a Auzentech X-Fi Forte. Using onboard sound is fine when you're just standing around or small scale PvP, but once you get into sieges with 100+ people, all the sound spam just eats up your processor. By installing a dedicated 3DFX sound card I freed up my processor to focus on the graphical elements of the game. Not only does the game no longer sound retarded from running only 8 sounds but I am also getting directional sound. I can hear exactly which direction that mounted guy is coming from or where that miner is hacking away at a metal node. I went with the Auzentech version of the X-Fi which is a little more expensive than some of the Creative branded ones, but comes without the bloated software.

So what is the end result? Just standing around town, doing PvE or other less intensive Darkfall tasks - I am now getting between 170-195 FPS! That's more than a 100% increase from earlier. And this is with the default settings, minus shadows (for whatever reason turning shadows on still drops my FPS dramatically, into the 40s - definitely playable but not worth it).

What about siege combat? Well last night I went to the ATS vs Mitsubishi siege on Yssam. There were a lot of people there. MY FPS did drop considerably, into the 30-50 range. This is still good considering there were multiple alliances present, and tons of combat going on. No choppiness or client side lag and with the X-Fi installed I could actually leave my sound settings at default and hear everything.

All said and done I'm pretty happy with the results. I took a two year old PC (which was built using mid-level components at the time) and squeezed a lot of performance out of it with a minimal investment. After rebates, the whole upgrade cost me $308 including shipping. My PC now has enough power to run perfect in small scale combat and even runs smoothly in chaotic large scale sieges. It's certainly more than good enough to tide me over until the intel i7 systems become a little more affordable.


What is your system setup and how is your Darkfall performance?

P.S.

Before you run out and by the 4850 or X-Fi I linked here, make sure there is enough room in your case. The 4850 I bought is HUGE. I had to rearrange a lot of cabling to get it to fit. It's also sitting lower in the main chamber than wood be optimal for cooling purposes, but it still works. The X-Fi Forte is low profile (narrow) but still very long as well.