Hi -
I play Everquest. I recently bought two computers to replace our Pentium 41.6mghz 512 meg RAM systems. The computers I bought are Dell 4600 2.8mghz, 512 meg RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, one has a 128 meg Nvidia Geforce 5200 video card, one has a 256 Nvidia Geforce 5200. My problem is that when I approach an area that has several playercharacters, the graphics start hesitating and I see the hard drive light flickering. If I approach an area with several NPC (nonplayercharacters) there is no hesitation, and everything else works fine with the game and the computer in general. Do you have any suggestions on how I can do away with the hesitation problem?

What kind of Internet Connection do u use ?
The problem with EQ might be the same i have with Ultima Online when there are several Player Characters nearby, at WBB i almost have lag every single time i pop by.
Static NPC/Vendors don´t cause that much lag though, same thing in UO as in EQ.

What u can try is check if anything is eating up your bandwith, especiall check if your network connection uses the QoS Service from Microsoft, which consumes ssome valuable bandwith. ANother thing would be fiddling around with MTU size etc.

But before doing that i would rahter check what happens in a low resolution video mode. See if u still have lag in crowded areas when playing in the lowest possible resolution.

I knew I was leaving out several critical infos, sorry. I have Cable from CharterCable, I had the speed checked on pitstop, and it was at the 3meg mark, over anything listed, and well above the average. At one time I knew a site on the internet that discussed MTU and had a small program a person could download to adjust for the best settings. I don't know where to set MTU, I will look for that site again. If anyone else is reading this, feel free to throw in your two cents worth.
By low resolution are you speaking of screen size? I run a fairly low resolution now, 800 x 600 . I will try turning off all the character models to see if that affects the hesitation. What I am mainly after is being able to run with the models on, higher res, etc. I would think the computer should handle the game. Thanks for your input and suggestions, I will read up on the MTU!

For that neat little tool to change MTU size easily check http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php and download TCPOptimizer