Finally got my card. Got it installed and went for a test drive.

One area that is a big problem is Rivervale. With the last expansion
Rivervale became so laggy that I avoided going home when I could. Now
I get a few hiccups when I enter the zone, then it settles down to a
playable level. A hitch now and then, but nothing like before the
upgrade.

Checked out a few cities, some zones in between. Made technical
adjustments. On the whole quite pleased.

One thing I noticed was a bit of lag in laggy zones (Luclin was
almost unplayable until now)until I had been there a bit. When I went
to the Bazaar I just did a slow 360 and the lag went away. Figure
enough of the zone loaded into active memory to carry the play from
then on. Perhaps someone could explain what was actuall happening to
the system when I do this. Anyway, I do a scan of my environment when
I zone and things are pretty smooth.

This is my last upgrade to my present system. Have to replace my
tower next, and hope to hold out a while. How much can I spend every
year on these things? The family expects me to feed them, and I hate
to dissppoint them too often on that account just to play my game.

Now if DSL comes down a bit in price, I may try that. Could that be
the key to absolute smooth-as-butter-on-a-bald-monkey performance on
my aging machine? (The thing is just a bit over a year old. How fast
they grow old.)

Barto Proudfoot