Performance

	Sign In Sign-Up

Enhancing Performance

While Diablo 2 seems like it is a very advanced game, believe it or not, it was designed to work on mediocre systems. Even though this is the case, many people have performance issues with this and other games. Some simple things you can do to help speed things up are listed here.

More Memory -- This is probably the most straightforward way to increase computer performance. The cost of RAM is at an all time low with prices in the the $1 per MB range. If you only have 32mb of RAM, consider adding at least another 64mb, or ideally, adding enough RAM to equal 128mb. This should be the bare minimum amount of RAM your system has.

Swapfile (Virtual Memory) -- I cannot emphasize this enough -- LET WINDOWS MANAGE ITS OWN SWAPFILE!!! Windows is designed this way. By specifying a swapfile size, you can effectively choke off the memory management to the point where your system bogs down. This is one of those recommendations that not everyone believes in. Some folks think that having a specified size on their swapfile is the best way. I dont and I believe that Microsoft knows better since they recommend letting Windows manage its own memory. Of course, as usual, YMMV.

Color Depth -- On slower systems, the color saturation that is displayed can often suck down performance making the computer sluggish. To change your color depth, go to DESKTOP---->RIGHT CLICK---->PROPERTIES---->SETTINGS. You will see the color tab to the right. It may say either 16 colors, 256 colors, 16 bit, or 32 bit true color. If it says 32 bit, drop your setting down to 16 bit. Apply the setting and see if your system speeds up. If not, repeat the previous steps and then drop the color to 256 colors (Diablo 2 was created with 256 colors). Apply the setting and check performance.

Load the Code -- If you have the luxury of hard drive space, load the entire game onto your hard drive. Currently the reported size of this file is a whopping 1.5 GB. A "No CD" hack will be required for this. I loaded Myth 2 Soulblighter and used a No CD hack which allows the huge maps to load almost instantly. This works for improving performance.

Turn off "Findfast" -- If you have Microsoft Office installed, you probably have "Findfast" running in the background. It loads in the Startup menu by default. Basically it runs in the background and almost constantly indexes all of your files so that you can find them quicker when running MS Office. This is a real performance killer. Perform CTRL-ALT-DEL and End Task on it.

Setting the DMA for your Hard drive -- DMA is an acronym for Direct Memory Access and many IDE hard drives and motherboards support it. Basically, it allows your processor to speed up transfer of data from the hard drive.

The advantage of using direct memory access with integrated device electronics (IDE) CD-ROM and disk drives is that it lowers CPU usage during I/O transfers.

To determine whether your drive supports DMA:

Go to START---->SETTINGS---->CONTROL PANEL---->SYSTEM ICON

Select the Device Manager tab Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry Select the drive you want to enable for DMA and click Properties On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box, if this box is unchecked, place a checkmark. If there is no check box (or it is grayed out), your motherboard chipset does not support the bus master interface. If the check box is not checked after you restart your system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because the hard disk may not support DMA.

Create a Maximum MTU setting (dial up users only) -- The MTU (maximum transmission unit) setting specifies the maximum size data packet that the IP driver can pass. Windows 98 has a bug that causes the default MTU to be 1500. Your system cannot pass this amount of data at one time. By changing your MTU setting to a specific amount, you will increase "throughput" on your dialup connection. Creating a new MTU setting involves creating a new key in the system registry.

ONLY ATTEMPT THIS CHANGE IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE REGISTRY!!! IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO BOOT YOUR COMPUTER. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU MAKING A MISTAKE!!

BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER, BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY. IF YOU SOMEHOW MAKE A MISTAKE AND CANNOT BOOT TO WINDOWS, HIT F8 WHILE THE COMPUTER IS TRYING TO BOOT. SELECT DOS MODE AND AT THE PROMPT, TYPE "SCANREG". YOU WILL BE PROMPTED TO PICK A COPY OF YOUR REGISTRY TO RESTORE.

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ALTER YOUR REGISTRY MANUALLY, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THIS SMALL PROGRAM THAT WILL PERFORM THE SAME FUNCTIONS AS WELL AS OTHER TWEAKS THAT CAN IMPROVE PERFORMANCE. MTU SPEED

To change the MTU settings:

1. Go to START---->RUN and type REGEDIT

2. Go to Hkey_Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlset/Services/Class/netTrans/000n (where n is your particular network adapter binding.) Look for the indicator that this key is for your dial up adapter and IP protocol.

3. Right click on the right panel

4. Select New / String Value

5. Type in "MaxMTU" (no quotes)

6. Double click on it and enter 576 (576 is the "industry standard", however, you can enter a higher or lower number if you wish. Mine is set at 852 and I get excellent throughput.)

Other things you can try (dial up users only) -- Checking your modem, ISP and phone lines can also yield benefits. Go to my Connectivity page to learn more.

Diablo 1 Home Diablo 2 Home Diablo 2 Troubleshooting Improve Your Performance Links