Spiral Knights - Poll/discussion: how high can SK('s hardware requirements) go?

Poll/discussion: how high can SK('s hardware requirements) go?

10 replies [Last post]

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 07:18

Krakob

You know what's terribly demanding? Java.
The idea is that we post our specs and stuff and compare where/if we get lag and so... See if it might be Java's fault (of course, Java sucks, but does it make some lag more than others?), etc.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i5 3570k (3.5GHz, 4 cores)
GPU: Evga GeForce GTRX 660 TI
RAM: 8GB DDR3

Settings:
All maxed out.
Effects rendered; vertical sync enabled;
16x AA; high graphics settings;
1080p resolution (1920x1080)

Points of lag found so far:
Fihurrdurrsturm Citadel, various areas. I find that on D26, when taking the right path, I experience the most lag I have ever experienced on this computer in SK. Other places I find lag in include the rooms with switches that are on the end of both D26 paths (yes, they aren't identical, I know), the final battle of D27 and more within the citadel.

As for IMF, I don't think I've gotten any lag, really. That is quite strange as IMF tends to be more demanding. I will however say that I have hardly tested the area enough to properly judge.

Lastly, Shadow Lairs are indeed heavy. I have actually run what might be the worst of them, SL IMF here but it was quite a while ago so I am unable to say what settings I used then or how much lag I experienced.

'Nuff about me though, where do you lag?

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 07:29

Hawxindanite

I think you got good specs

I.5 is VERY good for gamers you shouldn't have a problem about it.

I honestly have a laptop (now crashed XD) with an awesome graphics card but a horrible cpu (intel centrino dual core).

I have another laptop with an I.4 (1.66 ghz dual core?) but a bad graphics card XD.

I'm wondering if I can bring the graphics card, from the laptop that crashed, to replace the bad graphics card on my laptop with a reasonable core. Can you help me? And btw I lagg at Snow areas (snow ruining everything!) and places with a lot of enemies.

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 10:09

Dogrock

You won't be able to mix and

You won't be able to mix and match laptop parts like that. The are usually custom made for the laptop model and soldered directly into the system.

"Lag" in snow areas is usually the graphics device on your computer not coping well with the game demands. Fog and smoke effects are traditionally very hard on low spec or mobile systems.

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 12:46

Tantarian

Lol

>See if it might be Java's fault (of course, Java sucks, but does it make some lag more than others?), etc.
Blame the coders and the hardware, not the tools. Java is one of the fastest languages around, and since SK is hardware accelerated even that does hardly matter.
If you're actually getting graphical lag, maybe you shouldn't be running the game in 1080p with 16AA.

As for the topic: I have had no lag other than network related one since they fixed that annoying freezing issue in the Shadow Lairs months ago.

Tue, 01/08/2013 - 09:58

Sir-Greenlink

Here are some specs of my

Here are some specs of my laptop from the Windows Experience Index interface:

Manufacturer: Acer
Model: Aspire 5733Z
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU P6200 @ 2.13GHz
System type: 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores: 2
Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB
Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics
Gaming graphics: 1755 MB Total available graphics memory
Primary hard disk: 303GB Free (448GB Total)

The amount of lag that I get at times will vary but I can usually run the game rather smoothly (I have had a few random disconnects and the like but my internet connection is to blame - these events happen rarely and for a short period of time). I have my graphics quality set to high, resolution at 1024x600 (not fullscreen), vertical sync enabled and antialiasing set to 1x. Should I encounter an issue with lag, I close any internet pages (if possible) and close a few of the background processes in the processes tab of task manager (they start up automatically and don't really serve much of a useful purpose - I should turn them off permanently). This helps to raise performance significantly. Believe it or not, using the fullscreen setting also seems to help.

The room with the fire grates and automatically closing gates in depth 25 of Firestorm Citadel can sometimes cause a major slowdown for me. Moving away from the area fixes this problem so I usually ask if someone else can do that one instead. Compound 42 (in general), Ghosts in the Machine (the first section of the first depth) and Heart of Ice (the arena-like room of the second depth all the way up to just before the boss) can also be bad at times. The Rabid Snarbolax Shadow Lair ran perfectly for me but I had a few problems with the Ice Queen one. Despite this, it was actually easier than Snarbolax.

A friend once said to me that playing the game for an extended period of time can cause it to run slowly, due to the fact the game doesn't dispose of unnecessary files properly (or something to that effect). In cases like these, closing the game and then reopening is rather effective.

This is everything that I know from my experience. I hope I've helped you in some way. :)

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 13:58

Canozo

Battlefield 3 on High settings gives me more FPS than Spiral Knights on High settings with AA on 4x... lol

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 14:18

Batabii

so far the most lag I've

so far the most lag I've NOTICED is in the winterfest mission, though that may just be more obvious due to the time limit.

Generally I play on high settings and dont have a problem though. IDK if steam users have a different experience than kongregate/web client/etc

Almost forgot:

Gateway DX4831
Rating: 5.9 Windows Experience Index

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.120830-0334)
Processor: n/a (4 CPUs)
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6072MB RAM
Page File: 18069MB used, 4648MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 64bit Unicode

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 14:53

Tennis

I experience a good amount of

I experience a good amount of lag everywhere but the Core is where I definitely get the most. It probably has to do with what Dogrock said about smoke/fog graphics.

I don't know much about computers but I've been told I have a decent computer with a horrible graphics card.

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz 2.33 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics Card: Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 15:47

Wodanct

Rating: 7.5
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB - DDR3 1866mhz
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti

I run Spiral Knights on high settings, x16 AA. I've only noticed warping here and there.. mostly in UFSC. My internet connection is 35mb/down and 5mb/up and I somehow only get 3 bars in SK which seems fishy to me. Also it is probably worth noting that I have 2 hards drive. The primary is a 256gb OCZ-Agility4 Solid State Drive. The slave drive is a 1TB Sata HD. (storage mostly). Using SSD with games doesn't make a real impact unless the game runs faulty.

I should also note that I've used this computer on SK for only maybe 2 weeks before I've moved on to bigger fish (for now). Maybe someday they will make content worth playing so I may return.

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 16:12

Pepperonius

It's worth mentioning

I'm fairly certain that Java (or at least the SK script) does not take advantage of dual core processors, and that a video card does not seem to impact SK performance. It is very much processor based, so a single core pentium 4 with 3.6ghz could well outperform a quad core 2ghz processor.

As for me, i'm running 2gb of ram, 512mb dedicated graphics card (En210 Silent) and an AMD 2.1GHZ dual core. I play on lowest settings, AA 1x and i can generally play with minimal frame drops.
Lycheesoup has very few problems with dropped frames, and his processor is 3ghz with an SSD drive (makes for wicked fast loading) and 6gb of ram. He also has a graphics card, although i can't recall which one.

Sun, 01/06/2013 - 17:51

#10

Flowchart

i5-3570
16GB Ram
No video card (Intel HD Graphics 4000)
128 GB SSD
Medium graphics 1920x1080, 2xAA

I don't use a dedicated video card and don't get too much lag, unless I'm running 3 clients at once on high settings.
I get more FPS on low/medium settings though.

Non-steam client runs a little better than Steam, and Linux (Ubuntu) had better performance than Windows.

On my old computer (AMD64 3500, 2GB ram), C42, HoI and SL bosses would lag a lot on low settings but everything else was ok.

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Poll/discussion: how high can SK('s hardware requirements) go?