Increasing WOW performance, 25mans

M

Menelmarar

Supreme [H]ardness
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System in sig.

I run 1920x1200, 2xAA, the effects slider on high. I get 90 fps around the world. Drop to 50-70 in places like Dal or smaller dungeons. Never really had an issue.

25mans are killing me. ~60fps standing around before a fight, but once everything kicks into high gear I drop into the teens. It's playable but headache inducing.

I incrementally dropped graphics down. 2xAA -> 1xAA. Then slider to medium, then even down another notch where textures drop to low. Only thing I got was a visually painful experience, didn't help FPS.

I'm thinking this indicates that I don't need a GPU upgrade...

CPU? I can easily and relatively cheaply drop a Q9550 in my current setup, from a local Microcenter, significant fix? It's a hassle. Have a Tuniq 120, so gotta remove motherboard to get at the bolts.

Videocard? some decent deals on 260's or maybe a 5series Radeon...?
 
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WoW is not as GPU intensive as it is CPU intensive. I would try upgrading your CPU first to see how that does if you have the spare money pick up a decent video card as well but my bet is your CPU is holding you back somewhat.
 
I don't play WoW any longer .... However, WoW loves both ram and CPU. The more memory and CPU you give it the better.
 
I have a Q9550 and a GTX 260 and run at the same resolution and settings as the OP. I still get slowdown on some 25 man fights, but not all. On 25 man Onyxia when the whelps come out, my framerate drops into the low teens. Usually though I have no problems.
 
Have you tried tweaking these settings? Supposedly can help if you have a multi-core processor. At least, before 3.3.2 it did. Not sure if it still helps, but you can always adjust some of these settings and see if your FPS increase.
 
Shadows are easily the biggest FPS killer. Turn them off if it isnt already, your FPS will jump a good bit.
 
Eradan said:
I have a Q9550 and a GTX 260 and run at the same resolution and settings as the OP. I still get slowdown on some 25 man fights, but not all. On 25 man Onyxia when the whelps come out, my framerate drops into the low teens. Usually though I have no problems.
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That's disappointing, really disappointing, as that's my cheapest most convenient upgrade path. =(

Ritorix said:
Shadows are easily the biggest FPS killer. Turn them off if it isnt already, your FPS will jump a good bit.
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That's the case for a lot of games. I find that with a lot of things, turn shadows down to low or med, and get turn up some amazing resolution/visuals otherwise. Will try that! Go back to bubble shadows. I have a feeling that when I moved slider all the way down to low notch, it would have done that though. Will have to verify.
 
wow would probably run better on something like an e8500/e8600 than a lower clocked quad

cpu hungry but doesn't do alot with extra cores, even with the changed they've made
 
Just talked to a guy with simliar issues. He upgraded to a 3Ghz Core 2 Dual and a HD5770. Didn't help him, still dips into the teens on 25man encounters.

SOL? =(
 
Menelmarar said:
Just talked to a guy with simliar issues. He upgraded to a 3Ghz Core 2 Dual and a HD5770. Didn't help him, still dips into the teens on 25man encounters.

SOL? =(
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It is definately a processor issue.

I have an i7 920 with a GTX260 and it stays smooth but my 9450 C2Q with a 5850 will dip into the teens on 25 mans.
 
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Are you OC'ed on the CPU? If not I would try that first to see if extra MHz helps performance before spending on a new CPU :)
 
I'm running with the Q9550 and GTX 260. I have 6GB of ram. I am using the evga 790i ultra mobo. I stay right around 60 FPS, in Dal I drop to ~30. 25m I don't have any problems with. All setting are maxed out.
 
WoW graphics are mediocre at best. Just bump them down a bit or OC your CPU.
 
drop the shadow slider to 1 or 2 ticks above minimum it has almost no noticeable difference but will greatly increase performance. I use the system in my sig and play at 1080p 2xaa 16xaf and everything maxed cept shadows at about halfway and usually stay at about 40-45fps on the most intense fights. and yes a faster dual will run wow better than a slow quad
 
I get between 40-60fps in 25-mans with my lowly computer at 1920x1080 w/ 4x AA. Everything is maxed except shadows. It's gotta be a setting you're running at.
 
I forget how to even go above 60 fps. That's as high as i ever get, and the only time I dip below 60 fps is if I am experiencing heavy lag. I don't know what it is, but lag can also dip your framerate, which would make sense. I'm assuming your fps dips down when you enter combat.
 
Quick tip:turn off Titles and Guild names.Grand Marshal Bob <Horde of Azzbeaters> may be a great guy but just plain old "Bob" x25 raiders will help a bunch.Bonus:you may actually be able to see the mob you're killing.

Also look into what addons you're running.Sure you may not notice any problems when running a DPS meter in a 5 man but you get huge volumes of data spam being calculated in real time during a 25.Quest Helper and it's clones.Make them all go away.Anything like Xperl that adds extra 3d models for party members and enemy targets.Short version, less is more with addons.
 
Sesheron said:
I forget how to even go above 60 fps. That's as high as i ever get, and the only time I dip below 60 fps is if I am experiencing heavy lag. I don't know what it is, but lag can also dip your framerate, which would make sense. I'm assuming your fps dips down when you enter combat.
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I regularly hit 90, this morning was logged in, out in Storm Peaks with noone around, running 100-110. I didn't have to do anything special...

VSYNC may be enabled on your PC, which locks FPS to display refresh rate. Which is a great feature... as long as your PC can maintain that framerate or higher consistantly. Once you can't generate 60FPS, it gets ugly. Choppy and laggy.

Conman said:
Quick tip:turn off Titles and Guild names.Grand Marshal Bob <Horde of Azzbeaters> may be a great guy but just plain old "Bob" x25 raiders will help a bunch.Bonus:you may actually be able to see the mob you're killing.

Also look into what addons you're running.Sure you may not notice any problems when running a DPS meter in a 5 man but you get huge volumes of data spam being calculated in real time during a 25.Quest Helper and it's clones.Make them all go away.Anything like Xperl that adds extra 3d models for party members and enemy targets.Short version, less is more with addons.
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Never have shown titles, and don't show the names over friendlies. Distracting and really clutters interface.

Quest helper is one I can disable.
Using xPerl, but portraits already disabled, useless clutter.
But good points, I'm sure theres some pruning I can do here.
 
If you drop your graphics settings and it does not increase the frame rate, it suggests a CPU bottleneck.

I would suggest looking at faster processor or for a budget option I'd buy some custom cooling for the current CPU and overclock it. For example I have an older quad core Q9450 but it's clocked at 3.6GHz by upping the FSB/Memory. That may require getting some faster memory however since memory basically doesn't overclock well, or leaving it out of 1:1 ratio with your CPU which effects performance.

If you have some spare cash, or you want a more future proof fix I'd suggest a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade to an i5 or i7 range. The i7 920 is the slowest i7 but overclocks like a mofo, that's my next planned upgrade :)
 
Menelmarar said:
Never have shown titles, and don't show the names over friendlies. Distracting and really clutters interface.

Quest helper is one I can disable.
Using xPerl, but portraits already disabled, useless clutter.
But good points, I'm sure theres some pruning I can do here.
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Also look at dumping meters & kick anyone in the raid in the nuts that has gearscore installed. Have you tried a more lightweight unit frames mod? I've switched to shadowed UF. Obviously have party frames disabled while in a raid.
 
@ OP:

When I upgraded from a 9800GTX to GTX285 I noticed that the graphics looked nicer but not a great leap in FPS. But when I upgraded my e6550 (oc'd at e6750) to an e8400 @ 3.6 (oc only by changing FSB) I got a huge boost in FPS. I have Vsync ON and I am steady at 60 FPS, and in intense graphic 25 mans I do dip a bit but nothing lower than 30 FPS even during Ony 25 whelp phase.

I would definitely look into upgrading CPU first either with a q9550/9650 or an e8400+. Next would be the GPU, really anything would be better than your current, and you can usually find deals on used here or CL. I'd think anything above a GTX260 (nvidia or ati) would be a nice improvement.
 
Menelmarar said:
System in sig.

I run 1920x1200, 2xAA, the effects slider on high. I get 90 fps around the world. Drop to 50-70 in places like Dal or smaller dungeons. Never really had an issue.

25mans are killing me. ~60fps standing around before a fight, but once everything kicks into high gear I drop into the teens. It's playable but headache inducing.

I incrementally dropped graphics down. 2xAA -> 1xAA. Then slider to medium, then even down another notch where textures drop to low. Only thing I got was a visually painful experience, didn't help FPS.

I'm thinking this indicates that I don't need a GPU upgrade...

CPU? I can easily and relatively cheaply drop a Q9550 in my current setup, from a local Microcenter, significant fix? It's a hassle. Have a Tuniq 120, so gotta remove motherboard to get at the bolts.

Videocard? some decent deals on 260's or maybe a 5series Radeon...?
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I have a nearly identical sig sitting down below, with some minor variations. I can tell you that with the video card upgrade I saw no video improvement (my old 8800GTX burned out on me about 1.5 months ago.) Upgrading to a GTX 260 Core 216 didn't improve framerates at all, so look at CPU solutions if you want to improve the performance.

For me it isn't a big issue--going down in to the teens on Rotface doesn't really suck since I'm a Mage and I kick ass even in low framerates... but for a healer or a tank I could see where potential issues could occur. To clarify: I don't really have any issues with the video as-is, but I will be looking at upgrading in a few months and I'll likely go Core i7 at that point.

Oh, one additional clarification: currently I'm running at stock speed, so around 2.4GHz... not OC'd. :( I used to OC it up above 3.4GHz but I've been taking it easy to ensure no additional issues occur until I upgrade. :) Perhaps OCing could provide you with some benefit?

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Are you running full screen or windowed mode? I have noticed my minimum frame rate increased considerably when I went back to full screen mode.
 
Overclocking my E6600 to 3.2 put me at around 25-30FPS in 25-mans. Just a heads up.
 
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