5box on 1machine - hardware used?

[Perrigrin]

Sorry, I realize this must be a common question, but I just cant seem to find the answer via search, so here goes:

I noticed quite a few of you multibox 5 toons on 1 pc - and I was looking for input on what hardware is needed to pull that off - I realize that 5 lower end pc's might be a better solution - but I cant go for that for space reasons :P

thanks, and if it is indeed a repost i apologize again and hope someone can point me in the right direction.

[Gallo]

I was actually looking for the answer to this today as well. I hang around these forums alot, and theres no "minimum requirements" for 5boxing on 1 machine, but a lot of people recommend a dual-core processor, 3-4gb RAM, and a fairly new graphics card.

I'm curious too... because I run with a Athlon XP 4000, 2gb RAM, and a GeForce 7800 with 512mb... but when I run 2 instances of WoW my CPU is at 80% and when I run 3 instances, I top out at 100%

The weird thing is (though I have only tested this for about 3 minutes of running around stormwind) that when I'm running 3 on my machine... even though I'm at 100% CPU usage, it's seemingly running smoothly. Odd.

[mxracer050]

My current specs for my PC, enable me to run 5 instances of WoW, at 100% CPU usage.

The FPS is smooth, and its quite playable. I have not tested a major city yet however.

EVGA 8800 GTX, 4GB RAM, 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo.

Check this post out. You might find some information.
http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=1595

I use 2 monitors, as it is a huge help when 5 boxing. Its on Horizontal Span.

[Aquaplex]

I have a E6300 duo core processor (2.1gzh oc'ed) with 4gigs of ram and nvidia 7950GT card. I am able to run 5 wows on 1 pc just fine but i have to set the vid settings on low for everything. I keep 1 window at 1650 wide screen res, the rest 4 are at 1024x768. I keep the other 4 windows minimized for the most part since this vid card cant take rendering 5 wow screens simultaneously. Only using 1 22" wide screen monitor right now but i'm thinking of getting another monitor or another 7950GT and setting it up in duel SLI mode.. Not sure if that will be worth it or not though..

[Perrigrin]

I have a E6300 duo core processor (2.1gzh oc'ed) with 4gigs of ram and nvidia 7950GT card. I am able to run 5 wows on 1 pc just fine but i have to set the vid settings on low for everything. I keep 1 window at 1650 wide screen res, the rest 4 are at 1024x768. I keep the other 4 windows minimized for the most part since this vid card cant take rendering 5 wow screens simultaneously. Only using 1 22" wide screen monitor right now but i'm thinking of getting another monitor or another 7950GT and setting it up in duel SLI mode.. Not sure if that will be worth it or not though..

when you say that it runs fine, does that mean you can pvp with it? i realize it wont be super smooth but with 5x firepower it might still be doable?

[Xzin]

I HAVE NOT TESTED THIS. But I have tested a lot of hardware and consider this to be a ballpark estimation. Don't buy a system without further input but this is a good guide for basic 5 boxing on a single system. For advanced PvP, you would probably want a beefer system. Load times are going to be a pain in the ass no matter what you do, short of going pure RAM based hard drive (which IS possible) or perhaps a solid state drive based system.

If you play with 640 x 480 or 800 x 600, minimum settings and use Keyclone, I would imagine a reasonable mid level dual core with 3 gigs of memory and a 7600 or better nvidia graphics card in horizontal span would be playable in most settings with 5 total WoWs running.

To be on the safe side, go with an 8600 or better (the price difference isn't much and WoW is GPU not CPU intensive). I would imagine such a system would be able to handle 5 WoWs for under $1000 for the entire system. Maybe even under $800.

But get more input - I boxed with single core systems 3 years ago when there were no dual core systems out there. I can play 5+ on my quad core system no problem..... but there are other factors out there too - so YMMV.

[Gallo]

Wow, this thread got me looking at video cards for the first time since I bought parts for my main rig (almost 2 years ago)... and holy crap have prices come down. I bought my 7800GT 256mb for $300 then... I just saw a 8800 512mb for $68 on newegg. Cripes!

[kalih]

I just got my system up and running. I had some problems with my dual-vid card setup under XP so I switched it to a single card using horizontal span and it seems to be working well.

My setup is:
Quad-core Q6660
4GB ram
8600 GT (I also bought a second card, I didn't end up using, and I'll return)

I bought the full system in the 950$ range, including shipping, not including monitors, which I already had.

I got it running yesterday, using the single vid-card, using horiz-span, with my main on a single monitor, and the others quad-screened on a second monitor. By tweaking the graphics settings, I was able to get them all running in the 40-60 fps range.

My experience matches yours, very specifically, tweaking video settings has a large impact on fps. My CPU usage hovers near 50-60%. It's very obvious that my framerate is determined by the vid-settings and is GPU bound and it seems to me you could get away with a near-top-of-the-line dual-core setup. If you really want high framerate, you need a good vid card. I'm getting 40-50fps with a 120$ card. My graphic settings are pretty much default on main (and roughly full-screen reso.. i think it was 1024x), and minimum on others (800x600, everything off/mininum except terrain distance which I have set in the middle).

[kalih]

I just saw a 8800 512mb for $68 on newegg. Cripes!

Erm. Really? Sure it wasn't an 8500?

[Xzin]

8500 is *considerably* crappier than a 8600. Or even a 7600 for that matter.

I refer you all to the VGA charts.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=856&model2=716&chart=287

8500 is WORSE than a 7600 GT. The blue bars indicate the two selected.

Select your own and do comparisons.

[vandemear]

I tried horizontal span, but the resolutions I could select were very limited. All of the widescreen picks were double the normal horizontal number. So I'd see 3840x1600 with no option to pick 1920x1600.

Is there a way I can give myself more resolution options? What I'm running now is my main at 1920x1600 and my 4 alts at 800x600 on the second monitor. All this is with dual view, but in cities I do get enough frame loss that it is annoying. I'd like to run the same resolutions, but in horizontal span mode to see if it improves my framerate.

[jrox]

If you're planning on buying a new video card and are willing to spend around $250 the 8800GT, which will be out tomorrow, is by far your best bet at the moment.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Nvidia_Geforce_8800GT_Review/5369-1.html

All the bench marks to date put it on the heels of the 8800GTX (a $500 card). Strange things are happening at nvidia, but this card seems to be an amazing deal no matter how you look at it.

If you're an ATI fan, they are supposedly releasing a card to combat the 8800GT in the near future.

[kermitforney]

I am still relatively new to 5 boxing in general, but my first go at it was 5 boxing on one computer. I found that when I minimized the other four windows I would slowly lose follow with my alt toons. I am running 64-bit Vista so my WOW instances would run in 32bit mode via Virtualization. This slowed down my performance GREATLY!!! My solution was to run 4 on an alternate PC and one (main) with maxed out video and all of my Add Ons loaded.

This not only freed up my resource problemo, but it is still easy to manage both key bindings and macros because they still reside on one machine. So now I use KeyClone w/Maximizer on my alternate PC for my alts and run my main computer (w/Dual Monitors) for my main toon with vid settings maxed and have thottbot, Nvidia Monitor, KeyClone or whatever you choose to display on the other monitor.

Performance Tips:

It also helps a TON to set your processor's Affinity for each process (instance) of WOW you are running. You can also set your WOW process' priority a bit higher to yield a tiny bit more performance, but it's barely noticeable.

Example: On my alt PCwith a dual core processor (Pentium D) I have two toons running on CPU0 and two toons running on CPU1.

**This only applies to people who have dual cores or more.