Weird FPS issue in windows mode.

[Lyonheart]

I searched around here and wow forums before posting. I found some ideas but I'm still left scratching my head. I now have two PCs.. both are high end rigs with vista 64 ultimate , 8 gigs of ram, GTX280s. One ( my original ) runs all 5 via keyclone with great FPS and smooth as can be. The new one runs like a slug when I'm in window mode ( even with just one client ) Whats weird is if I minimize the window, the small little window can then be stretched to however big i want and i can max the settings and have 60+ FPs and all 5 clients going. If i maximize while in window mode ( with or without the border ) I slow down to a crawl. If i run in the small window OR maximize with No window mode I can max everything out and run through the busiest zone with zero lag.

Looking for someone who might have ran into this, or knows a possible fix.

[Budkin]

I turned off questhhelper and low and behold no more lagg

[Lyonheart]

i have zero mods on this new rig atm

[Thulos]

The new one runs like a slug when I'm in window mode ( even with just one client ) Whats weird is if I minimize the window, the small little window can then be stretched to however big i want and i can max the settings and have 60+ FPs and all 5 clients going. I just purchased a GTX 260 yesterday and I am having this exact same issue. If I manually set the maximizer resolution to 1650x1000 instead of 1680x1050 then everything is just fine. But as soon as I maximize the window it drops to 10-15 FPS on a single client with ZERO plugins running. If I run fullscreen or at the 1650x1000 rsolution I get 70+ fps. I've read other people having the same issue with the gtx 2xx series of cards. Hopefully someone can figure out the issue because it really stinks.

Also please do not post about Questhelper or other mods because this issue is definately related to WoW/GTX 2xxx cards/drivers.

[Lyonheart]

Well i have two PCs.. both running 280GTX cards.. both have 6 to 8 gigs of DDR3 ram and Windows vista 64 ultimate. The New one is the core i7 and x58 mb other than chipsets they are exactly the same. My older one runs all 5 flawlessly.

I fixed the issue when running one client in any form ( window mode and not ) However When i run all 5 in keyclone its choppy as hell ( all settings on low ) and yes i have the min/max fps stuff set. I know its not a keyclone issue, its some window mode issue. Might have somthing to do with the new chip/mb. I have no idea.. just bums me the hell out. 3k on a new PC that wont let me MB like the older one 8(

BTW i built this new PC not JUST for wow.. my older one did that just fine. I spent the money for the ability to play other games, like Far Cry2.. Fallout3 etc in all their glory. IF it was not for that i would still just have one PC. Also this new PC is future proof having the new chipset/socket type etc.

^^That being said, my goal was to 10 box later on. I have 10 acnts and will have two teams at one point. But I cant get this new rig to run multi wows smooth. I would PAY a tech to come work it out, but since its really a multiboxer issue. I would need a multiboxing tech lol.

[Lyonheart]

update: It ended up being Hyperthreding. I turned off HT in the bios just to test out what a friend had suggested. Once i disabled HT and set the CPUs in keyclone. My lag problems are over.

With that said, why? hehe Why did HT screw things up? I thought HT HELPED improve performance when running multi apps, no? Any way, I'm super happy I got it fixed 8) I wanted to give this update so that those of you thinking about upgrading to Core i7 would have a heads up.

[Thulos]

update: It ended up being Hyperthreding. I turned off HT in the bios just to test out what a friend had suggested. Once i disabled HT and set the CPUs in keyclone. My lag problems are over.
Interesting. I have no option for disabling hyperthreading and it looks like the q6600 doesn't actually use it. The newer i7's do which is what you are using. I may be off on this though because I just started looking into this option. Regardless, I'm glad you got it solved. Hopefully I'll figure something out for my system soon. ;(

[Thulos]

I rebooted into XP and ran the game like I normally would for my main client and I had no problem running the game with windowed mode and maximized. Unfortunately this doesn't really help much because of XP 32 not recognizing enough memory to 5 box.

[mikekim]

have you tried a different graphics card driver? as some revisions can be flaky with FPS figures. try one of the older Nvidia drivers or one of the Omega ones

[Thulos]

have you tried a different graphics card driver? as some revisions can be flaky with FPS figures. try one of the older Nvidia drivers or one of the Omega ones
I tried the original drivers that came with the card which were 178.13 and the latest 180.48 downloaded drivers. What are Omega drivers? Is that like their super beta program? ROFL. Also can anyone recomend a free drivercleaner utility it looks like drivercleaner pro is now pay. Although I'm willing to buy it if that is the best option out there.

[moosejaw]

Omega drivers are unofficial enthusiast fixed drivers. The community usually fixes driver errors and limitations that the OEM's refuse to fix.

[Thulos]

I'll have to try the omega drivers tomorrow when i'm playing with this issue. I also posted a thread on the wow forums and I definitely have the issue isolated down to resolution scaling when maximizing a windowed mode session. If I launch the game at true 1680x1050 windowed mode I get perfectly normal fps. Yet if I launch the game at 1680x1018 which fits perfectly above the taskbar I get the fps issue. I have a running thread on the wow technical support forums. I've already received 4 blue replies which suprised me but this also leads me to believe that they are very aware of this issue and are trying to get more information to isolate and resolve it. I'll post more information as I recieve it but I at least have a solid work around. I just have to deal with not having a taskbar visible.

Here is a link to WoW forums post. I'm Cthulhu:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12890941965&sid=1&pageNo=1

[Thulos]

I tried using the Omega drivers this weekend and it made my system very unhappy. I don't think they work with the new GTX 260 core 216's at all. So I went back and ran the drivercleaner pro utility and installed all the latest drivers again and had no luck. Even on a single instance running in Dalaran I cannot crack 20fps. If I reboot into xp its 60+fps no problem. I think tonight I am going to blow away my XP 32 install and install XP 64 into that partition and give it a whirl. I"m aware there is an issue where you get half fps across two monitor using XP but I think even with that I would be better off. If anybody has feedback or experience with xp 64 I would love to hear from them.

[Frosty]

Also please do not post about Questhelper or other mods because this issue is definately related to WoW/GTX 2xxx cards/drivers.There are a ton of people having FPS problems right now with various CPUs/Cards/OSs. And while QuestHelper may not be a problem for you, it does in fact affect FPS and CPU usage in it's current state.
Disabeling it returned about 10-15 FPS for me on 3 different machines. :)

[Thulos]

Also please do not post about Questhelper or other mods because this issue is definately related to WoW/GTX 2xxx cards/drivers.There are a ton of people having FPS problems right now with various CPUs/Cards/OSs. And while QuestHelper may not be a problem for you, it does in fact affect FPS and CPU usage in it's current state.
Disabeling it returned about 10-15 FPS for me on 3 different machines. :)A valid point. In the case of myself and the original poster the issue exists with all mods disabled.

[turbonapkin]

update: It ended up being Hyperthreding. I turned off HT in the bios just to test out what a friend had suggested. Once i disabled HT and set the CPUs in keyclone. My lag problems are over.
Interesting. I have no option for disabling hyperthreading and it looks like the q6600 doesn't actually use it. The newer i7's do which is what you are using. I may be off on this though because I just started looking into this option. Regardless, I'm glad you got it solved. Hopefully I'll figure something out for my system soon. ;(You're right - hyperthreading was dropped in the core 2 series and returns in the i7 series (to critical acclaim in certain areas such as video encoding, mastering etc. - no idea if its of any use in wow)

As an added note - I am running a core i7 with hyperthreading on, and it runs five clients at maximum gfx like a dream. Once you spread affinity out across all eight cores you can really feel the performance gain, against loading up just a few cores.