For Players With Low End Machines

Dedhed

Well aware that there are similar threads in the support sections, I'm creating this one for greater visibility.

There are plenty of people who want to play, but have low end machines and many who do with very low fps. Also, for quite a few, ye olde "get a better computer" comments are simply not helpful. My own comp is actually just under minimum spec and even with the changes, I tend to average about 10-11 fps. At least it's playable, though. So, below are my own relevant .ini file settings (there are some that I exclude for space and readability reasons that have nothing to do with performance) followed by a link to a very helpful thread from the past.

**Edited with info from a later post so the most relevant info is all up top**

All you should need to do is go to the in game Settings menu have the general Graphics setting at Minimum, Texture Quality at Medium, Subsampling at High and resolution at default for your monitor.

Checking back at the UserSettings file (on my computer -- Libraries/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live), the only lines I needed to change for a good performance boost were

SET COLOR_CORRECTION "0" from the default of "1"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1" from the default of "0"

This should give increased performance while keeping the game looking alright.

*Note* I didn't expect turning Color_Correction to "0" to help very much, but it did to a surprising degree. Same with PreferExclusiveFullscreen being set to "1"

SET MAGELIGHT_LIGHTS_VISIBLE "1"
SET PFX_SUPPRESS_DISTANCE_v2 "35.00000000"
SET PFX_GLOBAL_MAXIMUM "768"
SET MULTI_GPU_CHECK "1"
SET CachedRLREnabled "0"
SET CachedReflectionResolution "0"
SET CachedShadowFiltering "0"
SET ScreenshotFormat.2 "JPG"
SET PregameGammaCheckEnabled "0"
SET HardwareCheckEnabled.3 "0"
SET SUB_SAMPLING "2"
SET REFLECTION_QUALITY_v3 "0"
SET PARTICLE_DENSITY "0"
SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "0"
SET SHADOWS "0"
SET GAMMA_ADJUSTMENT "112"
SET VIEW_DISTANCE "0.69999999"
SET GPUSmoothingFrames "6"
SET MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS "1"
SET RAIN_WETNESS "0"
SET LENS_FLARE "0"
SET GOD_RAYS_v2 "0"
SET ANTI_ALIASING_v2 "0"
SET AMBIENT_OCCLUSION "0"
SET COLOR_GRADING_v1 "0"
SET BLOOM "0"
SET DEPTH_OF_FIELD "0"
SET TONE_MAPPING "1"
SET COLOR_CORRECTION "0"
SET SOFT_ALPHA "0"
SET DISTORTION "0"
SET CHARACTER_LIGHTING "0"
SET DIFFUSE_2_MAPS "0"
SET DETAIL_MAPS "0"
SET NORMAL_MAPS "0"
SET SPECULAR_MAPS "0"
SET CLUTTER_2D "0"
SET SIMPLE_SHADERS "1"
SET WATER_FOAM "0"
SET VSYNC_INTERVAL "1"
SET VSYNC "0"
SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "0"
SET PreferMaximizedWindow "0"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1"
SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2"

SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0"

As for SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11" I have found Direct X 11 to work best, but "D3D9" or OpenGL (not sure if that's "OGL" or "OpenGL" for the settings) might work better for some others. Also SET LuaMemoryLimitMB "256" starts at "64", but if you have the RAM to spare (this runs off RAM and deals with addons from what I've read, not sure if it affects/is affected by anything else), increasing it may help.

And now I link to a great reference thread that I have bookmarked. If this thread helps you, I suggest you bookmark it too. The post by @rosconeko in the linked thread explains what each setting is for.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/135971/terrible-fps#latest

Of special note are the posts by @ZOS_GaryA , @mra4nii and @rosconeko Hope this helps and happy gaming

Nestor

One thing that can help with any PC, but especially with hardware challenged PCs is to run the game under a clean boot. Less background apps, less for the PC to deal with besides the game

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Another thing to take some solace with, is a graphics card that can spank this game is less than $200 now. And, the newer ATIs are not as power hungry as they once were, so you don't have to chase a new Power Supply for these cards, most of the time anyway.

RazzPitazz

Nice work!

Dedhed

Thanks. For those who don't know, to find the settings file, go to the Elder Scrolls Online "live" folder. On my computer it's in Libraries/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live and the file is UserSettings.

I also use Game Booster which can be downloaded here http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.php

This program can temporarily close applications and processes to free up resources while you play. There are some other things such as using a proxy that I don't mess with.

In "Configure" (in the "Start Boost" window so it's for all games used, not just the individual ones in the "Gamebox"), I have pretty much everything checked to turn off while boost is on except Explorer.exe which is Windows Explorer and can cause problems if disabled.

Like I said, my comp is just under minimum requirements, but hey at least I can play

vovus69

Try to keep total RAM used by the game exe under 2 GB. I noticed that when it hits 2 GB I see some performance issues. Cannot prove this, but I guess this some heritage from 32bit nature of binaries.... Just FYI.

Rook_Master

Minimum Requirements are 2GB of RAM and 512MB Graphics Card.

And you're JUST UNDER that?


I don't even think your computer can even be called low-end. At that point I don't even think you want to own a better computer.

SafiyerAmitora

*sigh* If only I knew computers. I absolutely suck with technology though and have no idea what any of that is/means... #ComputerNoob

But yeah, I'm forced to deal with minimum graphics, 3-17 fps, and 180-30k ping.

Dedhed

8 GB on the RAM actually, but yeah got 256 MB dedicated graphics memory. That's where I'm just under. No matter, though. This thread is for helping users on the lower end and that's the point.

vovus69

It doesn't matter how much RAM do you have on the machine - as soon as exe in memory will exceed 2 GB I see performance issues.

jkemmery

Nestor wrote: »

Another thing to take some solace with, is a graphics card that can spank this game is less than $200 now. And, the newer ATIs are not as power hungry as they once were, so you don't have to chase a new Power Supply for these cards, most of the time anyway.

I've actually got a used EVGA Gt 640 that I've been considering putting up on EBay. If someone wants to PM me, I'd be happy to sell it.

Dedhed

Just did a clean UserSettings file to make sure how I could narrow this down to as few steps as possible for best combination of graphics and and performance. Found that it's very simple

For you, @SafiyerAmitora and others, I'm sure

All you should need to do is go to the in game Settings menu have the general Graphics setting at Minimum, Texture Quality at Medium, Subsampling at High and resolution at default for your monitor.

Checking back at the UserSettings file, the only lines I needed to change for a good performance boost were

SET COLOR_CORRECTION "0" from the default of "1"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1" from the default of "0"

This should give increased performance while keeping the game looking alright.

Changing these might help as well, but if you don't like to mess with files too much feel free to ignore them:

SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0" from default of "-1"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0" from default of "-1"

This is for lower end CPUs

jmrakasb14_ESO

It's people holding onto their old ancient hardware so long that prevents developers from making awesome games even better, period. I've personally seen this game run on some pretty old systems still using a 9800 GTX(Released in 2008!!!) Get with the times people. The world is moving on to bigger and better things. be grateful ESO runs as good as it does. Tiered of devs sacrificing quality for quantity. For those who know nothing about computers, if one simply goes into the Tech Support forum, I can guarantee there is MANY users who are willing to help guide you through what it would take to get your computer the upgrades it needs.

SHADOW2KK

I don`t mean to sound evil here but upgrade your rigs guys, everything you do will be enhanced, every game that you play will be like "omg wow look at the graphics and my fps is so good too, its soooo smoooooth".

No pain, no gain:P

SafiyerAmitora

SHADOW2KK wrote: »

I don`t mean to sound evil here but upgrade your rigs guys, everything you do will be enhanced, every game that you play will be like "omg wow look at the graphics and my fps is so good too, its soooo smoooooth".

No pain, no gain:P

Yes, but some people can't afford a whole new and amazing computer, so they're stuck trying to play with what they've got.

Endurance

Direct3D 9 would ALWAYS have better performance than Direct3d 11.. espeically on intel integrated graphics or HD series.. that was something i did back when oblivion came out and i only had a Geforce 260 GTX.. now i have titans SLI

SHADOW2KK

SafiyerAmitora wrote: »

SHADOW2KK wrote: »

I don`t mean to sound evil here but upgrade your rigs guys, everything you do will be enhanced, every game that you play will be like "omg wow look at the graphics and my fps is so good too, its soooo smoooooth".

No pain, no gain:P

Yes, but some people can't afford a whole new and amazing computer, so they're stuck trying to play with what they've got.

Aye true, but it doesn`t cost loads to build a half decent gaming rig, and I do feel sorry for the poor peeps with low end or antiquated rigs. Hope it gets sorted for all.

Argoniawind

Although I really only play on my consoles but until it does release for xbox, I have been using my computer of course my problem is the opposite from most of you lmao. I have a powerhouse computer but my graphics card bytes pun intended, I would upgrade the card but since im a console gamer I don't wanna wast my money so the card I do have came with the computer 2gb ram ddr3 lmao basically amd hd8570 http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/oem/8570#
anyhow that's all I gotta say lol

Ser Lobo

My older machine is one of the reasons why I am shifting to consoles. At the time, it was $2000 for a machine that I would use for pron or ESO only (and probably some EvE), or $500 for a console that was going to second as a bluray

SHADOW2KK wrote: »

I don`t mean to sound evil here but upgrade your rigs guys, everything you do will be enhanced, every game that you play will be like "omg wow look at the graphics and my fps is so good too, its soooo smoooooth".

No pain, no gain:P

This is one of the primary reasons I've mostly switched to consoles. My rig is too old to upgrade anymore without replacing the motherboard ... and then all the rest of the prime components. I run a backwoods version of windows XP corporate for multi-core processors. I can't run Vista or higher without a significant performance loss.

So I bought a $500 console that also seconds as my main entertainment machine (netflix, bluray, halo ... everything I want in my living room). I actually have come to prefer multiplayer games built with consoles in mind, as it means that there's little or no question at how good the oppponents machine is compared to mine. So much easier for devs to code for knowing what machine their players will use.

Then we talk about using only one single VOIP, almost everyone having a mic by default, and the luxury of relaxing in the living room while playing?

Only thing I really miss is my logitech mmo mouse and gamepad. So many keybinding options I prefer over the rather limited controller, especially for MMO's. And I wouldn't scoff at a 4k display, for sure.

SHADOW2KK

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

My older machine is one of the reasons why I am shifting to consoles. At the time, it was $2000 for a machine that I would use for pron or ESO only (and probably some EvE), or $500 for a console that was going to second as a bluray

SHADOW2KK wrote: »

I don`t mean to sound evil here but upgrade your rigs guys, everything you do will be enhanced, every game that you play will be like "omg wow look at the graphics and my fps is so good too, its soooo smoooooth".

No pain, no gain:P

This is one of the primary reasons I've mostly switched to consoles. My rig is too old to upgrade anymore without replacing the motherboard ... and then all the rest of the prime components. I run a backwoods version of windows XP corporate for multi-core processors. I can't run Vista or higher without a significant performance loss.

So I bought a $500 console that also seconds as my main entertainment machine (netflix, bluray, halo ... everything I want in my living room). I actually have come to prefer multiplayer games built with consoles in mind, as it means that there's little or no question at how good the oppponents machine is compared to mine. So much easier for devs to code for knowing what machine their players will use.

Then we talk about using only one single VOIP, almost everyone having a mic by default, and the luxury of relaxing in the living room while playing?

Only thing I really miss is my logitech mmo mouse and gamepad. So many keybinding options I prefer over the rather limited controller, especially for MMO's. And I wouldn't scoff at a 4k display, for sure.

Hehe I hear you matey, PCs are absolutely fantastic if you got a really good gaming rig, and a complete nightmare if you dont.

Then there is the cost of upgrading every so often..

I do prefer PCs to consoles, definitely for FPS shooters, although I can understand why peeps turn to consoles.

At the end of the day, regardless of the fact which medium you use to enjoy games, games are meant to be enjoyed and to have fun with like minded peeps.

qsnoopyjr

jmrakasb14_ESO wrote: »

It's people holding onto their old ancient hardware so long that prevents developers from making awesome games even better, period. I've personally seen this game run on some pretty old systems still using a 9800 GTX(Released in 2008!!!) Get with the times people. The world is moving on to bigger and better things. be grateful ESO runs as good as it does. Tiered of devs sacrificing quality for quantity. For those who know nothing about computers, if one simply goes into the Tech Support forum, I can guarantee there is MANY users who are willing to help guide you through what it would take to get your computer the upgrades it needs.

I agree with you, being a low end computer user myself (laptop 6GB ram 1GB vga).. if you got anything less than 512 MB vga than you are seriously out of date, samething with ram, if your less than 4GB than your out of date seriously.

Anyways point is, games could be a lot lot better if gaming companies went on the use as much of the computer as you can on a high quality computer. So like 12GB RAM and 2GB vga would be above minimal but not maximum settings type of deal.

What game did the approach where it dictates how good quality the game is and how much computer it uses? Quake1 did that approach, and it was highly successful, its what innovated FPS 3D, and lemme tell ya something, that game literally took over the high quality computers at that time, as in memory wise and graphics wise, everything.

Back in days you could only put 1 or 2 games on your computer, nowdays you put all the games you want (well like over 100 games)... Wayyyy too much storage we have now.

So I see your point, but I'm running on a laptop so me personally right now, I'd like to see this game more laptop friendly.
I mean who buys a desktop in college? That's what dorks do lol, "hey yo come to my room and check out my desktop" LOLL

Deheart

And this is why I say, that no matter how awesome the graphics and performance potential are for PC's, Consoles will always be better for me for gaming.

I pretty much have to mess around with the graphics, settings, and windows and personalize everything on PC's/Macs for each game if I want to get optimal performance in games. Then have to do it again when the game updates. I Hate that.

I am a plug it in and use it type of guy. The only problem is that Consoles don't usually carry all the MMO's that I like, which forces me to own a PC.

And Thanks, OP, I do appreciate the help though

Schurge

I understand times are tough and people can't always afford to upgrade. My gaming rig's mother board and graphics card gave out and normally I would be able to replace those parts right away but for now it looks like I am going to be stuck playing games on my refurbished university laptop for now...

But if you have $500 dollars to spend on a console if you know what you are doing that money can easily bring a computer up to par and there is no reason to ever spend $2000 on a new rig. You can make a gaming rig for $500 if you already have the software, operating system, monitor, and case. For $1000 you can start from scratch with a decent rig and replace one or two parts a year (that were originally released the previous year or two) and will ironically stay ahead of the curve in game performance despite always purchasing last gen parts. You don't need the lastest and greatest to run the best games on the highest settings.

Until developers actually start designing their games with 64 bit in mind our dual / quad cores and dozens of gigs of ram are just wenus measuring sticks anyway. I remember how excited I was to update to 64 bit "now I can use all my RAM"... well that was a let down. I don't think any of my games on STEAM are supported by 64 bit.

LocaButt

Rook_Master wrote: »

Minimum Requirements are 2GB of RAM and 512MB Graphics Card.

And you're JUST UNDER that?


I don't even think your computer can even be called low-end. At that point I don't even think you want to own a better computer.

I appreciate the helpful post. I think I am going to need it once this monster is done downloading. During beta it was a lag-fest for my PC, but idk if it was performance or just because it was beta. 1GB video card (but still a sucky Nvidia GeForce 210), 8GB ram. I really hate having to download this whole thing just to find out IF I can play it. However, if the OP can play it, I have hope.

To the poster that I quoted... just had to quote because that was too funny!

hamgatan

I finally upgraded my internals about 3 months ago after running the same kit for 6-7 years solid. The problem I find is that ESO is not really written to support legacy components despite whether or not they can handle it.

Which is kind of a joke because my old kit could handle the recent Wolfenstein at decent FPS quite nicely.

my old kit was 3 x GTX260 (896mb) SLi + Q9550 + 4GB DDR2 + Striker II Formula

I had incessant random crash problems with the game which seemed to worsen with each patch release. Unfortunately whilst some older systems can handle the game fine, there are random hardware bugs that cause it to crash frequently.

Here are some issues I faced and what eventually fixed them (All Windows 8.1)

1) Using a Solid State HDD - You CANNOT use one if your motherboard only supports ACPI BIOS types. Change to AHCI wherever possible. The problem with my board is it was ACPI only and I had an event log filled with I/O errors interfacing with that drive. Ghosting the drive back to a WD Black platter drive cured that issue. This literally solved most of my crashing issues with ESO almost immediately.

2) GTX200 Series Cards - they do not support anything about DX10. This was the other major cause of my crashes. As soon as I flipped out the tri SLi setup and replaced it with a single eVGA GTX-770, the problems were gone.

I have not reinstalled a thing. As soon as I upgraded to Z97 Sabertooth + i7 4770 Devils Canyon + DDR3 + GTX770 my crashes have been non-existent.

SafiyerAmitora

Dedhed wrote: »

Just did a clean UserSettings file to make sure how I could narrow this down to as few steps as possible for best combination of graphics and and performance. Found that it's very simple

For you, @SafiyerAmitora and others, I'm sure

All you should need to do is go to the in game Settings menu have the general Graphics setting at Minimum, Texture Quality at Medium, Subsampling at High and resolution at default for your monitor.

Checking back at the UserSettings file, the only lines I needed to change for a good performance boost were

SET COLOR_CORRECTION "0" from the default of "1"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1" from the default of "0"

This should give increased performance while keeping the game looking alright.

O_O

NGCHFDKHCGRHTDKHCHRIUVMGSYTIY!! Okay, so I tried this, and the loading screens when trying to switch between graphics settings went from like 10-15min to 2-3min. xD And it looks so much nicer than the minimum I had to deal with. ONLY problem is... my fps is now hanging around 2-6, rather than the 3-17 fps I'd normally get.

skillastat

I have 9 years old CPU (overclocked)

with new graphic card

I run this game smoothly in High graphics in PvE

and decent in PvP in Medium graphics

Dedhed

@SafiyerAmitora --> You might try also making these changes

This one is towards the top of the UserSettings file

SET GPUSmoothingFrames "1" it might be at 10

and

SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0" from default of "-1"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0" from default of "-1"

This is for older CPUs and is towards the bottom of the UserSettings file

Also, did you change ColorCorrection to 0 and PreferExclusiveFullscreen to 1?

SafiyerAmitora

Dedhed wrote: »

@SafiyerAmitora --> You might try also making these changes

This one is towards the top of the UserSettings file

SET GPUSmoothingFrames "1" it might be at 10

and

SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0" from default of "-1"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0" from default of "-1"

This is for older CPUs and is towards the bottom of the UserSettings file

Also, did you change ColorCorrection to 0 and PreferExclusiveFullscreen to 1?

Okay, I'll try those three. And yes, I changed those two.

SafiyerAmitora

Nope. Tried those 3, and no noticeable change. >.<

Dedhed

SafiyerAmitora wrote: »

Nope. Tried those 3, and no noticeable change. >.<

Well, you might have to turn some other stuff down, then. With Minimum settings, particles are still up a bit and magelight lighting on. These can be changed in the in game video settings. If your fps is still too low, you may need to turn down Textures or Resolution. The last setting I would lower is Subsampling, because it just looks bad on anything other than High.

Keep the UserSettings file changes you've already made, though. The first two definitely help.

SafiyerAmitora

Dedhed wrote: »

SafiyerAmitora wrote: »

Nope. Tried those 3, and no noticeable change. >.<

Well, you might have to turn some other stuff down, then. With Minimum settings, particles are still up a bit and magelight lighting on. These can be changed in the in game video settings. If your fps is still too low, you may need to turn down Textures or Resolution. The last setting I would lower is Subsampling, because it just looks bad on anything other than High.

Keep the UserSettings file changes you've already made, though. The first two definitely help.

Will do, thanks.