WoW Performance

[themisfit610]

Hey all,

So - I'm getting into WoW pretty decently, and I think it's time to boost performance a bit.

In all of the pre-BC areas, frame rates are silky smooth with everything maxed at 1920x1200 and 2x AA.

In some of the BC areas (like zangermarsh for example), I get frame rates in the low 20s and high teens. WTF?

I've heard the Northrend areas are even more intense.

I play windowed at 1920x1080 a lot of the time for multitasking, and I know this hits performance a bit.

I know WoW is quite CPU dependant, and isn't multithreaded (at least not extensively). So, my 2.4 GHz Q6600 might be a bit of a bottleneck. I've overclocked it to 3 in the past without many problems, so I might do that.

GPU is starting to feel a little tired in some other games, especially at 1920x1200 (Far Cry 2 comes to mind).

What do you guys think?

~MiSfit

 

[mpilchfamily]

Nothing about your system is lacking in any way. I run an Opti 165 with a 7900GS and only 2Gb of RAM. I average about 35 to 40 FSP. Now my screen is only 1680x1050. But your hardware shouldn't be an issue here. It may be a slow internet connection. If your ping rate is low then your FSP will be low too.

 

[themisfit610]

Do you get these speeds in really demanding areas, though?

It's definitely a few specific zones - I'm consistently slowest in Zangermarsh and a bit slow in Shattrath.

I hear your logic, but I really don't think it's my internet connection. The ping icon is always green for me, and I only notice this in those areas.

I'll do some more testing when I get to Northrend (3 more levels to go). Then I can decide if more power is needed.

~MiSfit

 

[DSF]

I would suggest trying your overclock again to see whether that makes any difference. You could also turn the graphical settings down and see if that helps.

 

[mpilchfamily]

The most demanding area is in Zul'Drak durring a quest where you are riging the back of a giant. In this quest you have to kill off 100 undead. So you have a couple houndred of so NPC swarming around you. So FPS hits an all time low in this area. For me i dropped to about 20FPS. But in cities like Shatt i still stay above 30FSP.

BTW the Opti 165 is running stock @ 1.8Ghz. Its an AMD so a stock Q6600 blows my CPU away.

 

[themisfit610]

Hmm..

what settings do you play on? and on what OS?

 

[Slappy00]

i usually turn AA way down in WoW ... mostly since im moving so fast I really don't care, I also turn shadows way down (again I dont care about shadows)

I would look at your Video Card first and go from there

 

[themisfit610]

Yeah, the new shadows suck anyway, super buggy.

I might just turn them off entirely, but I do like AA.. Hmm.

Much testing to do.. and I haven't even done a raid yet...

~MiSfit

 

[mpilchfamily]

All my settings are on high. Running XP and the monitor is 1680X1050. Wow isn't really that intencive. Things do slow a bit when you have allot of people and NPCs. But then so does Simcity 4 when you have a large and full map. But then you get into the whole argument of poor coding on Simcity contributing to the slowdown.

 

[Triglet]

I just upgraded to the rig below, and saw a massive improvement in WoW from where I was (skt 939 w/2GB RAM). With the current setup I never drop below 40-45 in shat or dalaran, I haven't been to Zangar lately but I do remember that being a demanding area -- must be the particle effect or something. Everywhere I else I'm maxed at 60 now with is very nice.

I'm only running 1680 x 1050 as well, so that probably helps. I'd venture to say maybe that quad core doesn't have high enough clock to give you what you want? I don't know much about the difference in dual cores vs quad cores so take that with a grain of salt.

Edit -- Everything on high except the shadows. 4x AA I believe.

 

[mpilchfamily]

If his quad doesn't have high enough clock speed then how is my little 1.8GHz opti even running the game at all?

 

[Triglet]

Running the game and having decent frame rates are two things. My previous X2 4200 is very similar to your chip, and I know what kind of frames it gives in shat and dalaran with that video card because I have the same thing. Dips down into the 20's in high intensive areas, especially with a bunch of addons. 20's vs 40's is a huge difference to me anyway.

And WoW didn't used to be that intensive, but imo WoTLK changed all that.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Actually the major patch they did in preperation for the WotLK release added some better textures that made the game a bit more GPU intencive. The most obvious change was the backgrounds used for the loading screens. But they improved the shadows, not much of an improvment, and some other small increases.

Check the patch notes for the 3.xx.xx patch. I think thats the right one. I'm at work right now so i don't have it in front of me.

 

[TidusZ]

Honestly with those specs, fps shouldnt be an issue in WoW. Maybe try some system maintenance, format, get new drivers, overclock (Not even needed). Framerates in the high teens with a 3ghz quad and 8800gt is definitely an unexplainable phenomenon. Overclock that 8800gt.

 

[themisfit610]

It's only in Zangermarsh actually. Most other areas in outland are in the high 50s.

My quad is actually only running at 2.4 GHz. I've overclocked to 3 GHz before, with no problems, but I don't do it all the time.

Things seem pretty good. We'll see about Northrend. 2 more levels!

~MiSfit

 

[rivan]

I'm surprised noone's mentioned addons being a possible culprit yet.

Which, if any, are you using?

 

[smackababy]

Northrend is a lot more demanding than and BC areas. I never saw framerates below 20fps on my laptop in BC, but I've hit a few areas where I would get 14-15fps. Although, I will note shadows killed my frame rate. Try turning down shadows and see if that helps any.

Or you could play on medium settings. It isn't like the graphics in WoW are all that impressive anyway.

 

[gophins72]

gamespot recently did a "hardware guide" to WoW that has various different settings and how it affects your performance, you can try tweaking with those:
http://www.gamespot.com/featur...ml?tag=topslot;title;1

the things it plays with are "shadows", "view distance", "quality", "environmental detail", "terrain detail", and "terrain clutter density". it has a few graphs with numbers attached so you can see how each setting affects their test system.

 

[crimson117]

Disable all UI mods, rename/relocate your interface/addons folder, and try zangarmarsh again. If that fixes it, a poorly coded UI mod was to blame.

I run WOTLK with smooth framerates on an E8400 / 8800GT with 4gb ram, vista64.

 

[themisfit610]

Yeah, I have quite a few UI mods.... Titan, X-Perl, QuestHelper, QuestGuru, Auctioneer, AutoProfitX, Gatherer, and probably a few others I cant remember off the top of my head