Overclock or get new parts???

[Lazzadorabcd]

I run 5 accounts from one computer

Before the 3.0 patches I was using about 50% of CPU resources and was running at medium video settings in game. I had no issues other than some lag in shat.

Since the patch I am using 100% of me resources and when i am in shat its just terrible... So maybe its also in part of the halloween stuff.


Just the same, I am trying to figure out if i should upgrade some stuff, get a new PC, or just start overclocking (which i am currently not doing).

My CPU:
Intel Duel Core 2 E6600 @ 2.4Ghz
ATI X1950XTX 512
8 gigs of OZC RAM
Raptor 10000prm HD
ASUS PW5 HD-deluxe
Windows XP 64 bit


This set up can definitely hand some overclocking.. I am just not convinced that is going to make a huge difference to my performance while playing wow.

I could replace the processor - I think the rest of the stuff is more than adequate... maybe i am wrong tho.


If anyone has any suggestion that would be great!!! thanks!

[pengwynman]

I run 5 accounts from one computer

Before the 3.0 patches I was using about 50% of CPU resources and was running at medium video settings in game. I had no issues other than some lag in shat.

Since the patch I am using 100% of me resources and when i am in shat its just terrible... So maybe its also in part of the halloween stuff.


Just the same, I am trying to figure out if i should upgrade some stuff, get a new PC, or just start overclocking (which i am currently not doing).

My CPU:
Intel Duel Core 2 E6600 @ 2.4Ghz
ATI X1950XTX 512
8 gigs of OZC RAM
Raptor 10000prm HD
ASUS PW5 HD-deluxe
Windows XP 64 bit


This set up can definitely hand some overclocking.. I am just not convinced that is going to make a huge difference to my performance while playing wow.

I could replace the processor - I think the rest of the stuff is more than adequate... maybe i am wrong tho.


If anyone has any suggestion that would be great!!! thanks!OC at your own risk, but i was able to OC my old E6600 from 2.4 to 3.4 with relative stability. could handle 3.0-3.2 ghz completely stable i would think. looks like you have plenty of memory, decent video card i suppose.

[Kicksome]

I OC'd my 2.4 to 3.0. I'd suggest doing that - it's a no-brainer.

[algol]

Overclocking is fun, easy, and often very effective.

BUT - the difficulty of achieving a stable overclock can increase drastically when your memory configuration is more difficult to drive. 8GB of memory --> usually overclocking severely limited.

Give it a try, but remember stability >> speed. If you can make your clients run a tad more smoothly but in exchange the rig goes BSOD every five minutes...that's not useful.

[Kicksome]

you can easily overclock to 3.0 from 2.4. It's almost guaranteed to work. Maybe bump it up to 2.8 if you're really scared. That's a 10% boost.

[Lazzadorabcd]

Thanks guys for the feedback!

I overclocked my processor tonight by about 20% but it did not seem to make a difference at all to my wow performance... If the problem with running the multiple clients is with the processor I would have guessed even the 20% would make a noticeable difference.

Perhaps the issue is my videocard? Or maybe the 64bit windows???

Can anyone recommend software for overclocking the video card? It looks like the catalyst software will do it - maybe that is good enough for the job. I don't really know that much about overclocking a video card. I am assuming its similar to a processor where you get some benchmark software and keep turning it up until you find the sweet spot.

Stupid pumpkins.... :)

If I can get it down to 70-80% usage that would be fine - I dont mind lag in Shat I do mind lag when i fighting bad guys. Also - I am assuming northend will be a fucking disaster if i am having lag issues in outlands.

[Bigdady92]

video card is ancient. Get a ATI 4850 with 512mb of RAM you'll see night and day performance.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

That CPU is so damned easy to OC to 3.0 or 3.2GHz if you have a decent heatsink, I'd definitely do that first. If that's not enough, then you can just upgrade the CPU to a quad core and be done with it.

[Lax]

Not to rain on anyone's parade but upgrading your hardware or overclocking isn't going to drop your CPU usage unless you are hitting an FPS limit (Edit for completeness: or adding more CPU cores). All you're going to manage to do is raise your FPS, making your PC work harder, and what you're asking how to do is free up CPU time... In order to free up some CPU time, it sounds like all you want is to drop your FPS limit by some degree. The FIRST question I would ask is what do you have your FPS limits set at (assuming you're using a solution that is capable of doing this), and what FPS are you getting? Then it's a no-brainer as far as adjusting the limits. Your foreground framerate really only needs to be 30+, and background can probably be as low as 20 -- it's also based on personal preference so I also expect someone to reply and say they wont play without 60 in the foreground, but note that DVD playback is about 30 fps. Higher framerates are more useful in other types of games (first-person shooters and such) where precision in turning and movement is paramount.

Hope this helps.

[Kicksome]

I saw a BIG difference when I OC'd from 2.4 to 3.1. I have a HD4870 video card and 6 gigs of ram. If you don't see an increase it's likely due to another bottleneck.

I'm using a SSD hard drive also.

[Hachoo]

I overclocked my 2.2GHz AMD X2 to 2.53GHz and saw a HUGE framerate increase. 15-20 to be exact (averaging 25-30 and went up to 45-50). CPU wasn't powerful enough to handle my 9800GT apparently. I'd upgrade to a quad core instead if I didn't have to buy a whole new MB and new memory for it.

[Lazzadorabcd]

Hello

I so I overclocked my CPU to 3.14Ghz and and video card to 695mhz core clock and 1098 memory clock

i haven't seen any improvement in performance at all....

This just doesn't make sense at all

the other thoughts are that the problem is my 64bit OS or just that its wow. I am not sure its wow because my guildies have no issues at all

[Lax]

64-bit OS is not hindering anything, the only real difference you should notice is the ability to have 4GB+ of RAM, and 64-bit drivers instead of 32-bit drivers (and in some cases, non-existant drivers). If you haven't checked for video driver updates, however, now would be the time.

Performance is not the same thing as showing lower CPU usage % in task manager -- the metric you want to be looking at is the in-game FPS (frames per second) indicator. You want it to be high (no less than 20-30), but most importantly you want it to be smooth. It's okay to give up some framerate in order to gain smoothness -- proper FPS limiting is going to give each game session more opportunity to render at the same speed. By overclocking your CPU and video card, your FPS should increase, but you want to spread that increase evenly -- if not, each session will essentially be fighting for what the active window is busy hogging. Note that without FPS limiting, CPU usage % in task manager is always going to be as close to 100% as possible, especially running 5 characters on 2 cores. You can also try changing CPU affinity if you haven't -- by default I believe WoW is using the first two available cores, so all 5 of your instances are probably trying to run on both cores. You could set 2 on 1 core and 3 on the other, and this will also result in smoother play to some degree.

If your video card is a limiting factor, then reducing game resolution as well as setting the video options to lowest detail/highest performance is going to help a lot.

If you want to look at a hardware purchase, increasing the number of cores is the first thing you would want to do. A quad core is going to perform significantly better with 5 than a dual core.

[Lazzadorabcd]

Thanks for the help

Right now the frame rate is like 10-15 when all the clients are up and running.

I turned the graphics settings down to the lowest they can be and shut off all the extras.

How do you change CPU affinity?

Thanks again!

[algol]

You can do it in Keyclone (Setup > Command Editor), but more generally in the Windows Task Manager (Right click a process, select Set Affinity).