The weirdest part of the situation to me is the idea that the game hits a "wall" and threatens to crash on you if you open the graphics tab. That's bizarre. I've never heard of that behavior from the game before. Have you updated ALL of your drivers? Check that. Especially your video and audio drivers. Sometimes that has a major effect on things.
For a bit of background on the League problem and why I said what I said about the lag, for those who don't know: I was on a couple of Rikti Mothership Raids on Sunday that DJ Posthaste of The Cape Radio was running on Sunday. I caught the tail end of the first one and it was a slideshow disaster. And not just for those directly on the raid. Just entering the zone on an independent character, the zone itself, even in the Vanguard base, was lagged all to hell in the RWZ instance running the raid. Let me say that again - if you entered the zone and didn't even go NEAR the Mothership. Just stayed in the base. You would experience almost slideshow lag. Press a power button - 10 seconds pass before anything happens. It was BAD.
Before the second Rikti Mothership raid, it was suggested to do it "old school" and run it with the old independent teams run by a leader calling out pylons etc on the request channel. Okay - so the league breaks apart, people get onto independent teams and the raid is run in the old method.
Zone lag disappears. Poof. Gone. Raid runs lightening smooth. Like glass. No lag, even on ultra mode in the center bowl of the Mothership with all effects going.
Repeat: No. Lag. At. All.
Right. All that lag people have been complaining about in BAF and Lambda? It's not the maps. It's not the graphics. It's not any specific visual effect at all. It's the League group function itself. Has to be.
Ok - so MH, let's start with the basics - here's the official system requirements -
Minimum PC System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® Pentium® III 1 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 1 GHz MHz
RAM: 512 MB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI™ Radeon® 8500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card
Hard Drive Space: 4 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband Internet Connection
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
Recommended PC System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor
RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce FX 5600 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® 9600 (or higher)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
Recommended PC "Ultra Mode" System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor or higher
RAM: 4 GB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
OK. Looks like you've got a dual core processor. That's good. Quad would be better, of course, but hey, bigger is always better in gaming. It's not critical.
You say you have 4 GB of RAM. And that 1GB is not being used. Okay. I assume that's because of the 32 bit version of the operating system, from the context of your note on that? That's not good. The game should run fine in normal mode. But Ultra? You're running below spec for Ultra. I know 4 GB is said to be "recommended" for Ultra mode. But it REALLY should say that 4 GB is "minimum"! I'd say 6 GB of RAM is needed to really experience Ultra mode the way it should be with full framerate. City of Heroes STILL has a memory leak that makes it take up a lot of system resources. More than a lot of other games. So RAM is critical.
If the amount of RAM you are running is being throttled by your OS, then you're going to have to upgrade. It's really that simple. And if your motherboard can handle it, install some more RAM.
I really recommend upgrading to the 64 bit OS if at all possible. I can't stress that enough.
(Make sure you have a power supply that can handle the upgrades. One lesson I've learned in upgrading computers. You can install new stuff all you want, but if your power supply can't handle it, then it won't do any good. Most small upgrades like extra RAM and video cards won't stress this though. But if you've got a super cheapo system, it might be worth checking.)
Nothing wrong with your video card. That's a good one. My IRL friend Glenn runs that same card and gets outstanding performance out of it for Mass Effect 1 and 2 and MMOs like CoH.
Your net connection... hoo boy. I guess I don't need to tell you how fucked you are in that regard. I am curious about one thing though. What kind of network switch are you talking about? Is your connection split on a router between several different computers in your house at all times? Or is it a literal switch where only one computer is online at a time?
Anyway - It's possible to upgrade your system so that you can run ultra mode with good framerate and all. But nothing can help the rubber-banding you're likely experiencing. You WILL experience lag with the connection you have. There's no help for that other than moving to a city and getting proper broadband.
For a bit of background on the League problem and why I said what I said about the lag, for those who don't know: I was on a couple of Rikti Mothership Raids on Sunday that DJ Posthaste of The Cape Radio was running on Sunday. I caught the tail end of the first one and it was a slideshow disaster. And not just for those directly on the raid. Just entering the zone on an independent character, the zone itself, even in the Vanguard base, was lagged all to hell in the RWZ instance running the raid. Let me say that again - if you entered the zone and didn't even go NEAR the Mothership. Just stayed in the base. You would experience almost slideshow lag. Press a power button - 10 seconds pass before anything happens. It was BAD.
Before the second Rikti Mothership raid, it was suggested to do it "old school" and run it with the old independent teams run by a leader calling out pylons etc on the request channel. Okay - so the league breaks apart, people get onto independent teams and the raid is run in the old method.
Zone lag disappears. Poof. Gone. Raid runs lightening smooth. Like glass. No lag, even on ultra mode in the center bowl of the Mothership with all effects going.
Repeat: No. Lag. At. All.
Right. All that lag people have been complaining about in BAF and Lambda? It's not the maps. It's not the graphics. It's not any specific visual effect at all. It's the League group function itself. Has to be.
Ok - so MH, let's start with the basics - here's the official system requirements -
Minimum PC System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® Pentium® III 1 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 1 GHz MHz
RAM: 512 MB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI™ Radeon® 8500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card
Hard Drive Space: 4 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband Internet Connection
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
Recommended PC System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor
RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce FX 5600 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® 9600 (or higher)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
Recommended PC "Ultra Mode" System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor or higher
RAM: 4 GB RAM or more
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
Internet: Broadband
Input: Keyboard and Mouse
OK. Looks like you've got a dual core processor. That's good. Quad would be better, of course, but hey, bigger is always better in gaming. It's not critical.
You say you have 4 GB of RAM. And that 1GB is not being used. Okay. I assume that's because of the 32 bit version of the operating system, from the context of your note on that? That's not good. The game should run fine in normal mode. But Ultra? You're running below spec for Ultra. I know 4 GB is said to be "recommended" for Ultra mode. But it REALLY should say that 4 GB is "minimum"! I'd say 6 GB of RAM is needed to really experience Ultra mode the way it should be with full framerate. City of Heroes STILL has a memory leak that makes it take up a lot of system resources. More than a lot of other games. So RAM is critical.
If the amount of RAM you are running is being throttled by your OS, then you're going to have to upgrade. It's really that simple. And if your motherboard can handle it, install some more RAM.
I really recommend upgrading to the 64 bit OS if at all possible. I can't stress that enough.
(Make sure you have a power supply that can handle the upgrades. One lesson I've learned in upgrading computers. You can install new stuff all you want, but if your power supply can't handle it, then it won't do any good. Most small upgrades like extra RAM and video cards won't stress this though. But if you've got a super cheapo system, it might be worth checking.)
Nothing wrong with your video card. That's a good one. My IRL friend Glenn runs that same card and gets outstanding performance out of it for Mass Effect 1 and 2 and MMOs like CoH.
Your net connection... hoo boy. I guess I don't need to tell you how fucked you are in that regard. I am curious about one thing though. What kind of network switch are you talking about? Is your connection split on a router between several different computers in your house at all times? Or is it a literal switch where only one computer is online at a time?
Anyway - It's possible to upgrade your system so that you can run ultra mode with good framerate and all. But nothing can help the rubber-banding you're likely experiencing. You WILL experience lag with the connection you have. There's no help for that other than moving to a city and getting proper broadband.