Low FPS on second HDMI monitor

[Zub]

Hi all,

just curious if there is an easy explanation for this (i'm bad at hardware)

I have a laptop connected to second monitor via an HDMI cable.
When I start wow fullscreen on the laptop screen, (1366x900 i believe) everything is fine, I get Fps of 100+, however when i start wow fullscreen on the second monitor (HANS-G, 21inch 1680x1050) my FPS drops heavily (down to ~30ish)

This is even more visible in areas with alot of water effects (say, the swamp/lake area in durotar for example) where the display drops to 18-25fps if I move too much.
and movement stops being smooth.
Dropping the water quality setting helps obviously, but still i'm unimpressed.


Is it that my video card is just bad? I would have thought that a recent 2GB card would be able to handle a single wow better than that, particularly combined with a i7 and a fair amount of ram, but don't know really.

here are the specs of the laptop:
Toshiba 15.6" Satellite L750/0LM Notebook
- Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.20 GHz - 3.10 GHz
- NVIDIA® GeForce GT 525M 2GB
- 8GB DDR3 (1333Mhz)
- 640GB @ 5400rpm
- Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Thanks for your help
Zub

[Khatovar]

Let me start by saying this is only a guess based on what I've seen. It may well be related to the fact that I use 2 video cards {1 per monitor, non-crossfire}.

Check under WoW's Graphics options and set Monitor to Monitor 2. I did notice a huge drop in FPS if the game window was displaying on a monitor it wasn't assigned to in the ingame settings.

Before you do this, make note of your other graphics settings because it might reset some. Also, if you're using DX11, you might have to drop down to DX9 to get it to work at all. I'm pretty sure that's related to my setup because of the two video cards, though. WoW has an utter conniption fit if I try to use DX11 on my second card.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Some things I found while surfing around on the 525M laptops in general:

* nVidia CP -> Manage 3D Settings -> Global Settings -> "High Performance nVidia Processor" (if you haven't already)
* Folks report issues with the 290.xx series drivers but not with the 285.62 WHQL. That might have been resolved in the 295.xx series that's available now.
* Try removing the NVidia drivers, reinstall them with the "clean" option to clear out any cruft in there.
* Verify your BIOS settings specify the NVidia GPU and not the onboard Intel.

Good luck.

[Zub]

Thanks both for your comments

Check under WoW's Graphics options and set Monitor to Monitor 2.

I believe i've tried this already with no visible impact. But then again i've tried a number of things and could have missed this. Will try.

Also, if you're using DX11, you might have to drop down to DX9 to get it to work at all.

Is the difference between DX9 and DX11 very visible? is it better rendering and such?

* nVidia CP -> Manage 3D Settings -> Global Settings -> "High Performance nVidia Processor" (if you haven't already)
* Folks report issues with the 290.xx series drivers but not with the 285.62 WHQL. That might have been resolved in the 295.xx series that's available now.
* Try removing the NVidia drivers, reinstall them with the "clean" option to clear out any cruft in there.
* Verify your BIOS settings specify the NVidia GPU and not the onboard Intel.

Thanks i'll try when I arrive home (@work atm) fingers crossed. The machine is pretty much stock, so all default settings at the moment.
All in all, it's meant to be my slave screen, so not something i'll have to watch too much,

Cheers, feedback from tests posted later

[Zub]

ok weird -
First, in the list of monitors, i have Primary/Monitor 1/Monitor 2. Doesn't seem to change anything except which screen it selects when I start the game (primary = monitor1)
I've tried DX9 or 11, same behavior.

second, i don't seem to have the "High Performance nVidia Processor" option in my Nvidia settings, but i'll try and adjust others for WoW specifically to see if it makes an difference.

now for the interesting bit: If I configure WoW to be windowed as 1366x768 (the resolution of the laptop screen) then i can drag the wow window from one screen to the other.
While playing, and therefore not changing any video settings:
- When i drag wow towards the laptop screen the fps climbs to 60.0 within a second.
- when I drag wow towards the external screen, the fps decreases slowly to 30.0.
- if the screen is halfway across the screens, the fps is 30ish
I don't get it.

I also dont understand where those limitations are since they really indicate 30.0 or 60.0 (Dot zero) and vary very little.
the config.wtf file has
SET maxFPS "95"
SET maxFPSBk "25"
and the fps does indeed go to 25 when wow is not in the foreground. while typing this post for example.

Any input welcome.
cheers,
Zub

[MiRai]

Just a crazy thought... is the refresh rate on that external monitor set correctly?

[Zub]

Just a crazy thought... is the refresh rate on that external monitor set correctly?

Not sure, it's grayed out in WOW, set at 60Hz

Seems it's only enabled in Fullscreen mode, and lists either 59Hz or 60Hz

[edit] Bingo, when i set to Fullscreen (on either refresh rate) the fps goes to 60 on the external monitor.
Well spotted Mr MiRai, thanks!

Now that brings more questions though..
I'm back to using my old Keyclone at the moment, not sure i'll be able to work with fullscreen and multiple wows.
Also, why is it so different in fullscreen and windowed? i never noticed such a difference before.
Finally, while still exactly 60fps! and not 72 or 53 or 125, gah!

back to the settings.

[Khatovar]

ok weird -
First, in the list of monitors, i have Primary/Monitor 1/Monitor 2. Doesn't seem to change anything except which screen it selects when I start the game (primary = monitor1)
I've tried DX9 or 11, same behavior.

So you still get the same loss of FPS when you restart the game and it loads to the second screen?

I see a few notes about multiple monitors here and here but that's about it.

Multiple Monitors

• If you set your displays to use different color depths (e.g. - monitor 1 on 24-bit and monitor 2 on 16-bit), you can end up with very low framerates. For best results, please set all displays to 24 or 32 bit, whichever is available for your setup.
• If you're running World of Warcraft in Windowed mode, make sure that the screen isn't "bleeding" into the other monitor, especially if you're using multiple video cards.

[Zub]

I've revered to windowed, as alt-tabbing is a pain, but there is definitely a better fps in fullscreen.

Both monitors seem to be on same color settings
While looking at those settings however i tried to make my external monitor the primary ("Make this the main display") and suddenly the game started showing 60fps again.
then I restarted Wow and it got real confused -started on the laptop screen with the wrong resolution, couldnt click any buttons etc.

I'll look at your other suggestions

[johny_mnemonic]

I had same problem, good fps on primary monitor, bad fps on second. It turned out that the problem was second monitor was running on virtual graphic. I dont know, how it appeared in my system. Maybe with some driver reinstall.. But I removed the virtual graphic from system and the second monitor started running on physical VGA. This solved my problems with < 30 FPS on second monitor.