Patch 2.3 and Core 2 Duo Nirvana

[Adronson]

After installing 2.3 I immediate saw some performance increase while at the AH and while doing some other chores around IF. I wasn't sure what was going on until reviewing the patch notes I saw this:

"The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores. "

So, to test I loaded up all four of my WOW accounts on my main machine and its running smooth as silk in Ironforge. CPU usage is hitting about 80%. Memory limits are causing some delays as page file is accessed, but overall its pretty impressive. This opens up all sorts of new possibilities.

FYI, I'm running a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2G ram. Windows XP pro.

[wougoose]

Nice to hear, especially since I just purchased a Quad :)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Buddy at work reported his going from 50-70 average to 200+ FPS since the patch. He's running a 2ghz core2duo.

[Team_Supa]

Yupyup core2 absolutely rules for 5box with keyclone :D.

120fps on main and i keep the other 4 not maximized windows at 25fps capped (Through config file to save zone/follow lag)

[Wilbur]

Heh, and with the release of the Penryn Processors its surely going to get better. Faster CPU's using less power and more transistors = win. Can't wait to get my hands on one of their new Quad cores :-D

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/12/intel_rolls_out_penryn/

[kermitforney]

Thank Lord Zues above that I work remotely!!! Time to get some testing goin OOOOOON!!! :twisted:

[kermitforney]

Ok, I think it's safe to say the improvements are slightly short of AMAZING!!!

I can 5 box on my main with 1 maximized and 4 minimized. BUT, I can now max my mains vid settings to 1280x1024 all settings maxed including the two new settings. My CPU percent runs between 60% - 70% and I still have to set Processor Affinity for the alts, but utilize both cores for the main.

BTW ~ My framerates hover around 70.

[Adronson]

One wonders if this improvement was done with the multi-boxing community in mind. Why would anyone else need it?

[Xzin]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe the 4+ million players with dual core machines?

:)

[Adronson]

Maybe, but I've found that WOW doesn't require a lot of resources to run. I'm running copies on some rather pitiful machines and I wouldn't think that any dual core machine would have trouble running one copy at a time.

But maybe I'm overestimating the abilities of low-end dual cores. Also, I tend not to max out all the video -- tend not to notice it after a few hours.

[Xzin]

Plus, not everybody ONLY runs WoW. They might be doing any number of things. This should help move WoW across both cores far better than before - so that if nothing else you are bumping up your FPS where as before the CPU just sat idle with excess capacity because WoW couldn't use it properly.

[Adronson]

Yes, I do suppose it will improve performance at the office -- alt-tabbing between budget spreadsheets and wow.

[Slats]

What about quad-core machines.

Do these suddenly become more viable?

-Slats

[Wilbur]

You'd assume so. Same principals & architecture. If WoW is now running as a complete multi-threaded application then there should be no diffrence between a dual core and a quad core (aside the quad core producing even better performance)

[Xzin]

The push to go from single to multi threaded is MUCH harder than multi to supporting quad cores.

[Team_Supa]

I remember seeing the option for how many cores in the config.wtf.

[MrLonghair]

Didn't notice anything at all on my AMD X2 dualcore.

[Wilbur]

'Cos X2's are teh suck!

[Vodka]

'Cos X2's are teh suck!

HOW DARE YE

[Los]

'Cos X2's are teh suck!

word

anyways, loads of improvement on the c2d front!

[Hippieman]

'Cos X2's are teh suck!

HOW DARE YE'cuz it's true :P