need help to imprve fps

D

Dasimpson

Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
641
ok i have a girlfriend who plays wow but there fps is low sub 30 and 1fps in 25man raid

system spec
cpu 2.8 pentium d
memory 2gb ddr2 800
graphics 8600gt 512mb
1tb sata hdd with 32mb cache
all settings low res 1024x768

she has had this pc for alot of years since 2007 if i remeber right.
she has only recently had to drop settings to low
tried a clean install of windows cleaned out tested all hardware and everything works fine
but still can not improve the fps for her so im hear asking for help very little to spend so no time wasters pls and thank you

what would you say needs to be changed
 
I bet she has a ton of background processes taking up CPU and memory resources. Open Msconfig and disable all but the necessary programs from starting up.
 
jbz7890 said:
I bet she has a ton of background processes taking up CPU and memory resources. Open Msconfig and disable all but the necessary programs from starting up.
Click to expand...

He said they tried a clean install of Windows so I doubt they have that many background processes.

Basically you have two options if you want to spend as little as possible. The first (and best IMO) option is to buy a decent video card. The 8600GT was a good budget card a few years ago but if you got something like a GTX 550 you should see a pretty big performance boost (it still won't be SMOOTH, but it'll help a lot).

The other option would be to just focus on a CPU/mobo upgrade. You can get some pretty cheap combo deals on the big etailers, plus the FS/FT forum right here on [H] will probably have something nice and for even less money. WoW is mostly CPU dependant, especially on those larger raids with lots of player models running around.

The only other thing I might suggest would be to at least take a look at complete systems people are selling on FS/FT. I have seen some smoking deals there on systems for $300 or less at times.

edit: One more thing. I see she only has 2gb of ram. A very very cheap upgrade would be to put another 2 gigs in (you could probably find someone on [H] practically giving a 2gb DDR2 stick away). It won't help with FPS but the system in general will feel a lot more responsive.
 
she only on xp 32bit so another 2gb of ram be a waste i tried her on windows 64bit and my god was that a head ach.

better gpu crossed my mind as a first thoght aslo but then i woundered if the cpu might hold her back plus she only games on an old crt monitor at 1024x768 could try 1280x1024 but think that would give her head achs with the eye strain and the smaller text

guess i could try my gpu in her pc see what diff it makes then try my cpu with her 8600gt to see if it is the cpu holding her back i see a busy next few days
 
The extra ram wouldn't be a waste, trust me. Even 3.5gb (the max amount for 32bit OS) is a big difference from 2gb.

Anyway, you're right on that the GPU alone won't make a huge difference, you would really need to upgrade the whole shebang but then you're starting to get pricey.
 
My $0.02 is that it's the CPU holding things back more than anything else. But swapping hardware - testing a new gpu in the old rig, testing the 8600 in a faster rig - is definitely the way to go to find where the weakest link is.
 
tell me about it what i was afraid of.
dont get many gamers in my area that have the kinda specs that spares would be better then her system and well i only replace parts that go bang or stop working in mine thanks for the help anyway was hopeing some one might know a few tricks
 
dont wont to test the 8600 in my system as my memory is faster then hers need to testall parts in hers really
 
looks like ill do that and get her to try a raid each time see what improves it the most for her then i can work out how much it wil cost from there
 
I just put this on Craig's list pm me if your interested we can work something out.
CPU AMD tri core at 2.8Ghz AM3 socket
RAM 4 gigs of DDR 2
Video card GTX 295
HDD 100gig and 500 gig
Mother board is an AM2+ socket I don't recall the model it has on-board video, network, audio, mic
Keyboard and mouse
24" display
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
I played WoW and star wars the old republic and skyrim on it and a media center it was the computer connected to my TV. All I really want is $100
 
What windows is that PC running? Possibly roll back to XP if it isn't?

What do you mean "clean installed?" Did you also complete reinstall WoW or just copy over a backed up folder? Do you use mods with WoW? I heard something about mods possibly eventually causing WoW to slow down.

You may want to try an older driver and not the latest for the GPU.

When you say recently had to drop the settings to low can you be more specific? Was this after a hardware or software change? Was this after a new version of WoW or expansion? Was it running fine before? If it was running fine before possibly check your temperatures.
 
Dasimpson said:
she only on xp 32bit so another 2gb of ram be a waste i tried her on windows 64bit and my god was that a head ach.

better gpu crossed my mind as a first thoght aslo but then i woundered if the cpu might hold her back plus she only games on an old crt monitor at 1024x768 could try 1280x1024 but think that would give her head achs with the eye strain and the smaller text

guess i could try my gpu in her pc see what diff it makes then try my cpu with her 8600gt to see if it is the cpu holding her back i see a busy next few days
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Let me update you a little on WoW.

WoW is heavily CPU dependent. Upgrading your GPU will likely do nothing for you with a Pentium D.

Something else you may want to look up is picking up a dedicate NIC, like an Intel CT adapter. It can help offload network traffic which will help in raid situations.

Updating to 2GB of ram isn't going to help either. If you want to see exactly how much memory you are using/need, play WoW for a while by running around fighting and zoning, then open Task Manager. Look at the performance tab, then look under Commit Charge and see what the peak is. This number is in KB, so say if it is peak 1,235,234, that would be 1.2GB. Think of ram as your desk. You can have an enormous but if you don't have enough work to take up all that desk space, you'll see zero benefit. Upgrading ram is needed when you using more space than what you have in ram (using the page file). That's why if you check you peak Commit Charge, you can see exactly how much memory+page file your system is using. If it's more than the memory you have, then you need to upgrade. If it's less, upgrading will likely mean zero benefit to you.
 
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pc runs windows xp driver is from the disk thatcame with the gpu wow is a clean install also no mods problems started after last cata patch
 
peak was 1.4gb and i agree i think the cpu is the problem all temps are normal heatsinks etc cleaned arctic 5 paste i have a few nic cards so will also give that a try
 
You forgot to mention what games she is playing.
In any case both that CPU and video card are pretty weak.
If your looking for a cheap CPU for gaming look at AMD options, as for the video card well uhh the 8600 was a major letdown even when it was just realeased.
 
and idid she plays world of warcraft and does paintshop kits art stuff
and to go amd that means new cpu and motherboard how is that a cheap option
 
Yup. WoW is older game and notorious more cpu bound. The pentium d is based on pentium 4/netburst archetexture and isnt that strong of a performer. I would definitely try your card in hers, to rule out gpu. Though be careful. If you buy a new motherboard/cpu you might have to buy new graphics card if the new motherboard doesnt support the graphics card.

The reason why AMD may be cheaper is because of how AMD prices its chips/mobo. AMD typically doesnt match intels performance and thus they are sold cheaper. They are genereally more the bang for the buck.

You said, It started after the last patch. As of dec 2011, i no longer play WoW. Was this the last patch that switches over to pandaria system? Blizzard for the next expansion sometimes release a major patch that add graphical options to the game that wasnt there previously. Double check all options to see if something new added that hurts performance.

Sadly she may just have to stick to 10 man raids. 25 man pushes the computer harder with 2.5 times as much spell particles/characters on screen.

Also is she running dual screen? If so i would run Tack manager and see if the cpu is fully pegged.

Can you download some benchmarks like 3dmark/futuremark, Sisoft sandra, that can test and compare your system to other similar systems to make sure its performing around where it should.
 
cheaper and lower ability hence i moved away from amd and to intel and nvidia.
i can try testing tools but i have feeling with the age of the systems im gunna find it hard to find systems to compare to

yes i think it was a latest update for the new expansion no extra settings that i can find no she not running daul screen but i was thinking of attaching mine to try and see what happens
 
problem has been found. i tried the 550ti no fps improvment. i then tried the e8500 in her system with the 8600gt frame rates jumped to 80fps everything low and 1024x768.
so the search starts for a qx6850 for me and she has my e8500 or we get a e8500 as cheap as possible for her.
 
Dasimpson said:
and idid she plays world of warcraft and does paintshop kits art stuff
and to go amd that means new cpu and motherboard how is that a cheap option
Click to expand...

Try ebay...... Look for a same socket CPU and a more modern video card......

In any case like the one of the poster said, that CPU is baaaad. Not sure if it is indeed same architecture as a Pentium 4 and if it were then still. Pentium 4s were also baaad. At that time AMD had the performance lead over intel with the Athlon 64.

I dont want to start an AMD/Intel flame war but if you only use intel cause it performs better, that being a little blunt, especially when it comes to gaming. If you play at high rez and are serious about gaming it doesnt matter, video card is what matters, and the gods honest truth is you can setup an AMD rig that should match or even out match and intel based rig for the same price.
How so? Well the money you save by getting an AMD cpu instead of intel can be put into more video card power. And thats what counts.
 
£70 for a e8500 is far less cost then a amd set up and same speed also wow is cpu dependent so bigger gpu wont do anything that i do know i went from an 8800gtx to a 550ti and well nothing in wow improved only added sx11 ability
 
Dasimpson said:
problem has been found. i tried the 550ti no fps improvment. i then tried the e8500 in her system with the 8600gt frame rates jumped to 80fps everything low and 1024x768.
so the search starts for a qx6850 for me and she has my e8500 or we get a e8500 as cheap as possible for her.
Click to expand...
Exactly the problem - cpu bound game. FYI, I wouldn't waste the money on a quad either. Stay with a faster per core Core2Duo. cpu (like the e8500).

WoW scales to use up to 3 cores, but even with 3 cores on Intel platform it's a tiny improvement over 2. Read this article to get an idea of how WoW scales with CPU's. Keep in mind that WoW was developed from the time when there were only single and dual core CPU's, so it's not threaded very well.

The article does continue to show that WoW scales up to 3 core decently on AMD platform though. This is IMO because AMD cpu's are typically slower per core anyways. The game probably is designed to stick with as few cores as possible and only move to other cores when needed, which you would on the slower but more cores AMD platform. Threading games out across more cores is not the end all answer to problems. The more you thread a game, the more problems can come up as certain computations are waiting for other cores to finish.
 
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Yup.. Pentium D is based on Pentium 4 netburst archetexture. From what i remember it was 2 seperate cores put together. Unlike the AMD dual core chips that was especially designed for dual core. Pentium 4 processor was very bad for intel, and they typically underperformed vs amd era chips. It wasnt till the Core series processors that intel started beating amd again. Ironically, the Core series was loosely based on pentium 3.

For where to buy: You can make a post in for sale forum, ebay, and dont forget amazon. Sometimes you can find some stuff on there for good price.
 
Do a raid and run some software to measure performance of the CPU and the GPU, one of them will be a bottleneck (be maxing out at 100% usage) that component needs an upgrade, if you're lucky it's just the video card and you can drop a little cash on something signifcantly better.

If you're unlucky and it's the CPU you'll need to go with a new CPU which means a new motherboard and RAM, and most likely a few other parts as well. It's a fairly old rig and optimisation of things like windows will only scrape you a few extra fps if you're lucky.
 
the quads would be for me and the gf would have my e8500 i play more games then just wow
 
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