Question about 6-boxing on a single rig.

Treesong · Post by **Treesong** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:40 pm

Hiya, reposting this here from the Lite forums, since I just bought the Pro version.

Feel free to remove the post in the WinEQ2 Lite forums.

I have been contemplating taking up 6-boxing again, however this time on a single machine. I want to use WinEQ2 (the Pro version) and Keyclone. Now running 6 accounts is going to be a major systemhog I realize so I want to check a few things.

My rig:
Win XP, up to date (SP2 and so forth)
P5N32-E SLi mobo
2 gigs of OCZ platinum ddr2 4-4-4-15
Raptor 1500 HD
Core 2 Duo 6600
2x 8800 GTX in SLI.
Fast DSL con

So pretty good rig with a somewhat weak processor.

I would be running my 5 boxes on low settings off course.

My questions:

Is this even possible or would the network lag kill me: I love to run around with my boxes (on /follow) and I have had earlier experiences using old Wineq versions where the following toons would start to run in circles, aggroing everything in range. This was a few years ago so things might have changed.

Can my CPU handle this? Would a Quadcore CPU do a better job of this? (I could upgrade since this mobo is Quad ready)

Can my RAM handle this or would I have to install another 2 GB (I have a similar pair of DDR2 lying around, had to take that out since old Bios versions of this mobo were giving trouble, but I upgraded Bios so hopefully I can put them in again). Then set up Win XP to use 3GB.

If this setup is in any way viable, would using 2 monitors alleviate the load on the system at all(disabling SLI obviously and using my second 8800 for the second monitor). Or would the bottleneck be the CPU, network and RAM anyway?

Thanks for any answers!

Treesong · Post by **Treesong** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:46 pm

Oops, forgot to mention that this setup is for Everquest.

eqjoe · Post by **eqjoe** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:58 pm

How much video RAM on that card?

I have done 5 using XP 64 and 4 Gigs of RAM with DUAL 7950s SLI (for a total of 1 Gig Video RAM)

I got 20-30 FPS in the forground session with the background sessions set at 5. I didn't have any problems at all with network lag.

You could pull off 6 on one system I would think.

-j

Treesong · Post by **Treesong** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:20 pm

Each 8800 GTX has 756 ram. I tried the Dual monitor thing, with a monitor hooked up each to it's own card (disabling SLI obviously), but even with this setup, I could not get to run 2x3 (3 on each) simultaneously. I idi the trick where I log all accounts into serverselect first (this is no prblem at all), and then quickly try to log them all into charselect(which is where the Ram starts getting used), so that EQ would divide up the Ram fairly.

I never got to log in more then 4 or 5 at the same time, and even if I did, 1 or 2 instances would drop after that, with an error.

I will say though that EQwindows in itself works very smoothly. I had 3 instances running and the switching was compeltely painless. However, I have come to the conclusion that I hate swapping and Alt-tabbing between instances: it just feels worse then my old methods (see link).
I tried Keyclone but that does not work with EQ. I could try to get it working with Inner Space, but to be honest, I am done with software solutions. Too much trying out a billion things and settings, too many unknown factors come into play, too vulnerable for patches.

So I am going back to hardware methods, i.e. using separate comps, each connected to a macro-able Strategic Commander and using the Wireless Keyboard method (or a Vetra hib) for those group-commands.

This is how I used to box in 2004: http://forums.beastlords.org/index.php?topic=934.0

Thanks for the reply though and kudos to getting 5 instances to work simultaneously. Were you able to manage that session after session, or was it just a one-time miracle?

goby · Post by **goby** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:15 pm

I've 4 boxed on one machine with a much lower spec than your machine.
Amdx2 3800, 3gigs ram, nvidia 7900GT 256mb.
2x320gid Raid 0 Hdd.

I tried it with 2gigs of ram but load times were just too long, and zoning was much longer than normal. I would also get some hitching when running about.
Adding another gig of ram made a big difference, load times were much quicker and the hitching disappeared.
I have my settings at about medium with half the luclin models enabled.
I dont think EQ is processor and graphics intensive ( not that much anyway), just needs alot of ram and a fast hdd access.

eqjoe · Post by **eqjoe** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:35 am

You need XP64 and 4 gigs of RAM to pull it off.

-j

Treesong · Post by **Treesong** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:40 am

Well, I put in the extra 2 gb after I got the latest Bios but my system once again became unstable with it. There have been lots of trouble with the P5N 32-E SLI mobo trying it to run with 4gb, and even though this issue has been fixed for some with the newer Bios versions, still no go for me. Hang ups, errors and so forth. This is with two quit expensive pairs of OCZ Platinum 6400 of the exact same make and year.

Trust me, I have tried everything: RMA-ed one pair, ran memory checks, tried like a billion Bios settings (got the latest Bios), spent hours on the Asus forums. At some point I just get sick of it and took out the pair. Now everything runs fine again. Off course I moved from Holland to Australia during all this, so no way I am going to RMA that pair again. I don't even have the energy left to run memtests anymore. Fuck 4 GB, I guess I can play Bioshock and other cool games just fine with 2 GB.

The only games that "need" 4 GB are unoptimized pieces of crap like Vanguard anyway, and we all know putting in more GB didnt make that a better game.

I have a nice upgrade to Vista lying on my shelf, but I will only install that after Crysis and other DX 10 games are released. Hopefully those games will run just fine with 2GB.

Also never going to buy another Asus mobo again.

Thanks for listening to my Rant.

WOccam · Post by **WOccam** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:49 pm

I'm 6-boxing with 4 gigs of RAM and a 256 video card, using old models for some races, and it runs pretty well.

One problem with XP is it only allows 2 gigs to be used for programs and anything above that is reserved for system use.

A few months ago, I reluctantly switched to Vista -- turning off pretty nearly all of its new resource-demanding bells and switches -- and it's handling the 6-box much better. I've even been able to turn on a few things, like grass.

Previously, I often went into the yellow on the system stats numbers at the upper left corner of the screen, but now it stays in the white -- though just barely when first loading the characters.

fearless · Post by **fearless** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:46 pm

WOccam wrote:One problem with XP is it only allows 2 gigs to be used for programs and anything above that is reserved for system use.

This is not exactly true. All the right words are there, but they aren't in the format to be right.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223/en-us

nytemyst · Post by **nytemyst** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:54 pm

You should be able to pull it off. I do 6 toons with only 2 gigs of ram. same cpu as you. One 8800 gtx card.

I can pull off 7 toons but i have to load them all at the sametime. 8800gtx sucks for me with texture memory for some reason i always run out.

But on my other computer with an ati 1900XTC i can run 9 toons on same computer and still have like 900 texture memory left.

skeptic · Post by **skeptic** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:42 am

I am wondering if the limitation for me is on the vid card. I think I have a 7200 GS card since my 6800 Ultra burned out. I just went and bought a cheap replacement while I was waiting for the 8800s to come down in price. I can box 3 on my main with 4gb ram, 3.2ghz Intel CPU. I have managed to get 5 up, but the 5th crashes, and the 4th makes things pretty choppy. of course I do have some models loaded, so that might be an issue.

oternakn · Post by **oternakn** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:00 pm

any one know how to make keyclone work with innerspace??