INTRODUCTION

Previously, I was on a Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz (first-gen I think, it didn't have hyperthreading or any added letters)… 1 gig of generic RAM… and a GeForce4 Ti4200 which was the value king of its day, but times have changed. It can be blinding what can happen in a trio of years, and literally, I was being blinded on SL because my system could not keep up with the way I wanted to experience the world.

I eventually "bit the bullet" and found myself leaping for a new computer. Ended up completely rearranging my desk. Disassembled my music studio, put the synths and samplers away in a closet, leaned my master keyboard controller (ol' faithful Alesis QS8) at a sloped angle, back up against the wall, and approached this anew.

After all, I spend so much of my First Life on Second Life—it makes sense!

IN THEORY

I shopped at NCIX.com, which has become a juggernaut insofar as computer store kings in Canada. Did a lot of study on components, let it gel, and then ordered. It all happened so quickly, especially over the holidays, and I must give thumbs-up on my feet too for the professionalism with prefab assembly and speedy delivery. Not to mention they had a great shipping special.

The crucial question throughout the whole adventure was:


How well will this computer do with SL?


I'm aware there's confusion about this. A lot! I see a lot of anecdotes, speculation, and theory. But I'm very empirical, and I like to experience things myself—much as I have with Second Life—to really understand the choices I make.

Here's what I got:


PROCESSOR (CPU) - AMD Opteron 170
GRAPHICS CARD - eVGA e-GeForce 7800GT CO
MEMORY (RAM) -  OCZ EL Platinum PC3200 2GB
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS A8N-E
COMPUTER CASE - Antec Sonata II
HARD DRIVE -  Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB
DVD WRITER -  LG GSA-4167B


I also got an external USB shell for a spare hard drive should I need some swap storage in the future, and a Wacom Intuos3 as a nicey (and pricey) bonus because I want to draw more!

The main components are all popular items on NCIX's charts. Nothing obscure here, which is nice because the likelihood of finding a solution—should something go wrong—is easier if you're using something commonly known about.

Here's some further reasoning behind my choices: first, the CPU. NCIX just received a hot shipment of certain Optys, which were previously scarce. These include the Opteron 170, which has the same foundation as the consumer-targeted X2 dual-cores, but with several niceties like supposedly higher-grade silicon and a better heat sink. Originally I was looking at something like an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, but reading numerous informed web opinions, my mind was set. Plus, it just sounds kewl, not something I often relate to, but gotta treat myself once in awhile, right?

Just like the Millennium Falcon is a fast ship, the Opteron 170 is a fast chip. It's dual-core, which equates to GOOD FOR MULTITASKING! On my previous PC, running SL and other apps at the same time was an awful experience because SL tries to eat up your whole CPU. Ugh, I don't know how I managed, but I'd like to believe that strengthened my resolve. Now, I can run SL on one core (since it isn't optimized for dual-cores or 64-bit yet, but I look forward to that!), and have a hoggy graphics app on the other. And it's smooooooth. Makes a big practical difference. This is especially important for Residents who are creating content and want to edit and upload it inworld without quitting/opening programs repeatedly. It's now a lot easier for me to do many things at one time.

Overclocking is popular to get more performance out of your computer. I'm not an expert in this, but I read some specific articles, and from the BIOS of the A8N-E motherboard, I boosted the core speed from 2000 to 2300 MHz just by pushing a few keys to increase the multiplier. Instant speed boost! No additional adjustment needed—I did try for 2400 MHz later, but experienced some problems with artifacting (nasty graphics glitches), so toned it down. I may experiment more later… especially since I've commonly heard of Opteron 170s getting up to 2600-2700 MHz.

The graphics card wasn't an easy choice, but after I made it, it became crystal clear. If this had been months ago, I may have gone for a GeForce 6600GT, which is the true successor as price+performance leader to the Ti4200. I've heard great stories from Resis too. But as is often the case with computers, faster, cheaper things come out. So thus entered a new champ, the 6800GS, which is a cut-down variation of the 6800GT. Confusing model names aside, I consulted with some trusted friends for their advice and experience actually using graphics cards and then read through more websites. My decision was made. For a few more dollars, I stretched and got a 7800GT—currently the 2nd-fastest card in NVIDIA's line. The fastest, the 7800GTX, costs an unreasonable price premium for what seems to a marginal increase that really only shows up on very high resolutions.

And not just any 7800GT. eVGA's e-GeForce 7800GT CO is like a non-gimmicky "special edition" with a higher clock speed (CO means it has a copper heatsink), so it's speedier. On top of that, eVGA is known for their robust quality, as detailed in this review, and they have a Step-Up Program in case you want to upgrade to something even faster. Not a requirement, but it's nice to have the option.

A scatter of notes on performance I'd like to mention before continuing:

  1. Second Life will aggressively attack the weakest link in your chain. You can have a topnotch allround system, but if your Internet connection is bad and exhibits high packet loss, your overall experience will suffer. You can be on a very fast graphics card, but if your CPU can't keep up ("bottlenecking"), it's like running a three-legged race while having a walrus chained to your back. You must be strong and well-balanced. You must be one with the computer. :)
     
  2. Second, I don't have any formal science to back this up, but observationally, when it comes to SL, the three most important aspects in a computer system appear to be the Holy Trinity of: CPU, graphics card, and RAM. Time and time again, I've seen problems with one ruining the others like a radioactive contamination leak. A solid combo of fast CPU, speedy graphics card, and mint RAM will make it that much easier for you to have an enjoyable time.
     
  3. A common misconception is to compare Second Life to a game. And I'm not just talking from a philosophical/semantics standpoint, but how SL's load affects your computer. Think of SL more as a 3D modelling program in how computationally intensive it is. Processor usage often shows close to 100% for a good reason—SL wants to use everything you've got! But not just that. It's commonly stated that most 3D games have preloaded environments. SL's uniqueness is in being dynamic and emergent, which means a friend can spontaneously drop down 1,001 bouncy balls right next to you and your screen will freeze. Which can be hella annoying, but those frustrations have such a big upside when it comes to being improvisational and creative. You are a worldshaper, not a spectator. Think of Legos. They have ugly bumps and Lego cars break apart easily when dropped, but unlike Hot Wheels or a Matchbox racer, which have fixed forms, you can reassemble Legos—like SL—into something new.
     
  4. It would do one well to consider the recently-updated System Requirements. And remember this: on many games, you can get away with having a slower CPU paired with a fast graphics card. Not so with SL. Local Lighting and Shadows are CPU-bound, for example, and while the new ripple water (which I'll write more about in a mo') uses your GPU's (graphics card's) pixel shaders, there's a LOT of CPU number crunching involved in displaying objects inworld, especially when you're in dense, very primmy areas. (Prims are "primitive shapes" that make up the objects in Second Life, excluding avatars.) And that only compounds when you have many avatars at a given landmark. I can now say this from personal experience as well!
     
  5. SL is supposedly more compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards. There's some history to this.


Onwards… I got 2 gigabytes of RAM (woohoo!) because I had 1 gig on my previous 'puter, and it wasn't enough. SL will routinely use a few hundred megabytes, and with all the other things I'm running, like multiple browser tabs in Firefox, it adds up immensely. Plus, the OCZ kit was a great deal for some quality sticks of RAM, and it gives me space to breathe. I'm budget-conscious, but why cheap out and stress out over it?

The motherboard I chose—ASUS A8N-E—is a very popular standard. I don't forsee a need for SLI-accelerated graphics, so I saved some money there. This is just an excellent choice of garden-variety mobo. My older PC has a ASUS P4B533, so they've kept it up.

(I didn't get an additional sound card because I can cannibalize my P4's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 if need be, and because the A8N-E has onboard sound by Realtek. Also, my ears aren't what they once were either, due to the distorted hearing that comes with hyperacusis.)

The case is a newer model of the immensely-favored Antec Sonata, which my bro has for his own workstation. No-brainer, includes a power supply too—not the best but it's good.

Hard drive was also a simple choice. I'm pretty thrifty with space and I back up a lot, so on previous computers (including a Power Mac G3 with a 4-gig hard drive), I never filled it all up. 250 gigs is fine for me. If you're doing movie editing like machinima—which I like to call SLinema, hehe—you'll probably want more, or another hard drive. I'm having good performance on this puppy, fast copies and seek times and all.

DVD writer is also cheap and cheerful. LG has really been ramping this up. I haven't even burned a DVD on it yet but it's got oodles of read+write modes. Looking forward to working that out!

IN PRACTICE

And now for a subjective elaboration on how things have actually been going. In a word: YAYZERAMA!!! I'm extremely happy with my new home microcomputer, and it's a champ on Second Life. My viewer (meaning Second Life on my end, aka "the client") framerates are typically in the 20s-30s, but if it's an empty area like a sparse forest, they really skyrocket up to 60-70 FPS. In busy clubs with dozens of Resis, they'll get lowered to the 10s, and in the middle of chaotic sandbox situations with tons of twisted tori, I may still see them drop to single-digits. But that is perfectly normal with Second Life today, and it's a must-know that performance improvements are a priority to us at Linden Lab.

  • Just about every single one of my graphical options are turned on.
     
  • I'm running at 1024×768 on a Samsung 955DF monitor inherited from my previous PC, altho I do dream of such a time when I'll have dual flatpanel displays. The 955DF has blurry text and not a very true color representation, which is a sore point for me.
     

  • I usually have Draw Distance set to 160 meters, altho there are times when I'll crank it up to 256 and trot around admiring the landscape. 512 for epic still shots RULEZ!
     
  • Local Lighting performance is awful for me in 1.8. I remember even under certain hectic conditions in 1.6, it was tolerable on my old computer. So altho I like the glow—and it works inconsistently now, with some Light objects not lighting up as I rez them—I normally keep this off. Hope someday we'll have more lighting that's dependent on the graphics card. Would be nice to offload more eye candy.
     
  • Shadows are either ON or OFF depending on how I feel. They can add depth to a scene, but they can also make some areas look unnecessarily dark. I like clicking it on and watching the darkness literally "burn in", especially when there are tall towers jutting upward in a stark landscape.
     
  • Taking High-res snapshots (from DEBUG menu, CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-D to activate that!) totally is the cat's meow. Only takes 5 seconds to snap it, compared to close to 30 on my old sys.
     
  • The reason why AVATAR VERTEX PROGRAM is checked off is because it gives avs more of a darker, "grittier" feel. Good for photographs with character. I've noticed that checking it on does provide a subtle boost, but it makes avs look kinda flat sometimes too. So I alternate on context.

  • And now, for more about ripple water… I was really bummed out when ripple water was introduced in version 1.8, and it wasn't compatible with my aging Ti4200. Le sigh. I joked that I'd be getting a whole new computer just for it. That wasn't such an exaggeration. It really is beautiful to sit on a shore and watch the surface undulate—maybe we'll get seafoam froth and floatsam+jetsam, as well as assorted plankton bits washing up someday… wheee!


And this is what my "About Second Life" looks like:



As a matter of human reassurance—looking up to those who know better—and in the interest of completeness, I scoured the SL Forums looking if anyone else is using a similar system. Huns Valen is, and he's an extremely judicious arbiter when it comes to exacting technical quality AND value balance. Several others are also big fans of dual-core AMD processors. You could go the Intel or Mac route, or even Macintel route; I'm just mentioning what I have. Whatever works best for you!

A COUPLE MORE NOTES

TWEAK your NVIDIA drivers to get the best visual quality. This is one of the best-kept secrets, and should NOT be kept that way! While SL has an Anisotropic filtering mode (which basically means textures at an angle will look sharper), if you're on a high-end graphics card, it's far from the best you can do. You can turn on Antialiasing too, to smooth away all the jaggies. Graphics cards which aren't as fast will experience noticeable slowdown as a tradeoff, but my 7800GT has ample juice. Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to do this through SL's own preferences. It's confusing to get to where you do it and I think it differs depending on your computer, but here's me as a rat through the maze in Windows XP:


START button —> CONTROL PANEL —> DISPLAY —> SETTINGS tab —> ADVANCED button—> [NAME OF YOUR GRAPHICS CARD HERE] tab


See?

I've cranked up those sliders to the right for the highest quality.

Here's a before+after comparison:


The ugliness on the left is what most Residents of SL see as the default if they don't get a-tweakin'. The right is the beauty I can't bear to part with. Please pardon the slight degradation due to the JPEG format. I wanted to show these in a manner that wasn't too hoggy. Things to look for: edges of the snow, the sheen of diagonal graffiti, the bases of the street lamp, and the overall aesthetics.

The other thing I wanted to mention is SETTING AFFINITY. What does that mean? As you recall, I mentioned that the Opteron 170—as well as other Opterons and AMD's Athlon 64 X2 line—are dual-core. That's like one body having two brains. Too much thinking without the right programming can lead to empuzzlement, however, and I've noticed some bugs. I'm not the only one either. Every few launches of SL, I began noticing odd stuttering, and extremely bizarre numbers in the Fast Timers (CTRL-SHIFT-9 with DEBUG menu on, instrumental for pinpointing performance problems).

I was worried something serious was wrong, but I did some Internet searches and learned these sorts of symptoms affect other programs too. The key is in SETTING AFFINITY, which limits Second Life to run on one of the two CPUs. SL isn't yet coded for multithreading either, so don't worry, your performance won't be halved or anything like that. Just makes it clear what goes where.

I've been looking for an easier way to set affinity permanently, but until that time, you can use the ImageCFG.exe utility to do it. You'll have to apply that every time SL gets updated, but it'll stick—easier than repeatedly opening the Windows Task Manager and right-clicking.

Hopefully, a future version of Second Life will take advantage of 64-bit chips and dual-cores. If your system's like mine, then SL will fly faster on the same computer you have today. It's not what I'd call "futureproofing", but it will allow you to squeeze more out of your investment.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

I've been a part of Second Life since September 2004, and I've seen a lot of words in the Technical Issues section of the SL Forums concerning what doesn't work with SL. But being an optimist, this is what does work for me. The cliched YMMV = Your Meterage May Vary applies, but I hope this info will help other Residents who want to get a new computer to use with SL, or perhaps those who aren't in SL yet and are curious about what performs well.

Finally, since price is a realistic concern to many, how much did this whole system, goodies and all, cost? About US$2100, and that includes taxes. The Intuos3 cost as much as a typical flat-panel monitor does, so factor that in, as well as an inexpensive keyboard and mouse. Not the cheapest of the cheap, but already I feel joyfully happy with my new computer—and she'll do many other things well too, not just Second Life.