So, does x2\SLI\CF work in WoW?

[weeep]

I haven't seen any benchmarks and I know that 2+ GPUs require application support to be utilized properly or they wont be any faster than single GPU card. I'm not satisfied with my 4870 performance while running 5box and even single box is laggy with all max in crowded areas. So did anyone test it?

[Noids99]

Three points to make here:

1. WoW does not benefit from multiple video card solutions (unless this has changed with WotlK?)

2. There are some tools which will allow you to decide which GPU will be used for each instance of WoW you open, which will allow you to utilise multi GPU setups better as a boxer.

3. If you are getting lag in crowded areas whilst single boxing, then the probably is more likely related to RAM or HDD data access than GPU/CPU performance. If you are unsure of this, lower all of your settings to low and see if this solves your lag issues. If it doesn't then do a search on the forums for symlinkind, SSDs and >7.5GB RAM + 64 bit OS.

Cheers

[weeep]

Yes, I'm sure that it is GPU limiting my fps, because only lowering graphic setings does increase them. Also I'm sometimes experiencing lags even when my cpu load is around 50% and there is no HDD activity.
Can you be more specific about tools that allow you to distribute GPU load between several application? I've never heard of them, but it might be the best option to add something like cheap 4830 to handle slave instances only.

[Tsunami]

Sli or CF won't help you. but it might be easier for us to help you if you tell us what your FPS are with no lag and what it drops to with the lag.

like many other posters have said before. drop your shadow to lowest setting and lower the slave settings to min. but my guess is the real bottle neck is in your ram - HDD exchange. if your in large population areas and your FPS is over 20 than i would say that is avg. Your video card should be able to handle any thing 5xwow can throw at it. there are plenty of multiboxers here that are using an 8800gs and don't have lag problems.

also consider your wow server, some of the lag may not be in your control but a factor of your internet connection, distance to wow server, wow server lag and data threw- put. 5 instances of wow require 5x the data to run. so any delays in this from your

hard drive -> ram -> cpu -> ethernet card -> ISP -> wow server -> ISP -> ethernet card -> ram ->cpu -> gpu.

the gpu is the last in a long chain of events to play the game.

[weeep]

Forgot to mention that I'm running main instance at 2560x1600 res with 4xAA, and this resolution is killing my card with shadows and other fancy stuff on even when singleboxing. Of course they are turned off when I 5-box.
I'm usually having 60-80fps, but when I'm in crowded area in dalaran or in wintergrasp or looking around that big open area with snowy trees (forgot the name) my fps can drop to 10-20.
And please stop speculating about other possible bottlenecks. I'm IT pro and I know for sure what causes my problems, I just dont want to type the long list of tests that lead me to this conclusion. I just want to know if adding another GPU would help, that's all.

[Iceorbz]

Forgot to mention that I'm running main instance at 2560x1600 res with 4xAA, and this resolution is killing my card with shadows and other fancy stuff on even when singleboxing. Of course they are turned off when I 5-box.
I'm usually having 60-80fps, but when I'm in crowded area in dalaran or in wintergrasp or looking around that big open area with snowy trees (forgot the name) my fps can drop to 10-20.
And please stop speculating about other possible bottlenecks. I'm IT pro and I know for sure what causes my problems, I just dont want to type the long list of tests that lead me to this conclusion. I just want to know if adding another GPU would help, that's all. /laugh a *IT* Pro would know what his issue is then.

And their speculations are correct, most of your latency comes from the harddrive anyways. Trying running wow of a SSD, symlinked and then report your FPS issues.
Keyclone can set the affinty of the wow program. What size screen are you running 2560x1600 on ?

[weeep]

Forgot to mention that I'm running main instance at 2560x1600 res with 4xAA, and this resolution is killing my card with shadows and other fancy stuff on even when singleboxing. Of course they are turned off when I 5-box.
I'm usually having 60-80fps, but when I'm in crowded area in dalaran or in wintergrasp or looking around that big open area with snowy trees (forgot the name) my fps can drop to 10-20.
And please stop speculating about other possible bottlenecks. I'm IT pro and I know for sure what causes my problems, I just dont want to type the long list of tests that lead me to this conclusion. I just want to know if adding another GPU would help, that's all. /laugh a *IT* Pro would know what his issue is then.

And their speculations are correct, most of your latency comes from the harddrive anyways. Trying running wow of a SSD, symlinked and then report your FPS issues.
Keyclone can set the affinty of the wow program. What size screen are you running 2560x1600 on ?Again, I *DO* know where my issues are coming from. Or maybe you can explain then why lowering graphic setting raises my fps if I'm HDD limited? There is NO HDD ACTIVITY AT ALL when I'm experiencing lag.
And I'm wondering how to set GPU affinity, not CPU.

[algol]

Lower video settings can mean a reduction in GPU load, video memory bandwidth required, CPU load, system RAM bandwidth required, amount of data to be retrieved from the hard drive...all this is quite deliberately transparent to the user.

Oh, and in some cases a multi-GPU setup will help WoW. Extreme resolutions at high graphics setings, for one. Especially, say, if you have several clients running which are each independently trying to talk to the GPU. Normally, no, because it's an old game and most of the work is because of the number of object to be rendered not the complexity of the rendering job. That last part is a little less true with Wrath, but it's still largely an MMO-type load being an MMO: lots of objects with limited individual complexity.

[weeep]

/sigh
/bored
Ok, feel like I have to type something to avoid further flooding.
1) Even when lagging my cpu load does not get higher than 50-60% on all cores.
2) There is no HDD activity. Page file is turned off, I have 8Gb RAM. I can stand still in one place for 15 min (I guess it would be enough to load all textures from HDD?) and still get same low FPS. And again, there is no HDD activity. The LED is not blinking, there is no HDD sound.
3) RAM bandwidth has extremely low influence on games. Doubling RAM performance will cause maximum 5-10% fps increase.
4) GPU load is always at 100% in such cases. It can drop below 100% when singleboxing, but it is at 100% when I'm experiencing lags.

So do any more fucking retards want to say that I'm not GPU limited?

[turbonapkin]

Your attitude totally sucks.

Why come looking for input if you're just going to act like this?

[Nairi]

SLI is your best choice if you want more gpu power, works with windowed gaming with new drivers.

edit: what tool are you using to see GPU load?

[Sarduci]

/sigh
/bored
Ok, feel like I have to type something to avoid further flooding.
1) Even when lagging my cpu load does not get higher than 50-60% on all cores.
2) There is no HDD activity. Page file is turned off, I have 8Gb RAM. I can stand still in one place for 15 min (I guess it would be enough to load all textures from HDD?) and still get same low FPS. And again, there is no HDD activity. The LED is not blinking, there is no HDD sound.
3) RAM bandwidth has extremely low influence on games. Doubling RAM performance will cause maximum 5-10% fps increase.
4) GPU load is always at 100% in such cases. It can drop below 100% when singleboxing, but it is at 100% when I'm experiencing lags.

So do any more fucking retards want to say that I'm not GPU limited?Faulty video card drivers - faulty video card firmware - faulty cooling on the video card - faulty video card - faulty motherboard - faulty power supply

As one IT "pro" to another, I'm glad I don't work with you on a day to day basis. The above should need no explanation to your expertise.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

[algol]

3) RAM bandwidth has extremely low influence on games.
You're rude AND wrong. Grats?

[not5150]

/sigh
/bored
Ok, feel like I have to type something to avoid further flooding.
1) Even when lagging my cpu load does not get higher than 50-60% on all cores.
2) There is no HDD activity. Page file is turned off, I have 8Gb RAM. I can stand still in one place for 15 min (I guess it would be enough to load all textures from HDD?) and still get same low FPS. And again, there is no HDD activity. The LED is not blinking, there is no HDD sound.
3) RAM bandwidth has extremely low influence on games. Doubling RAM performance will cause maximum 5-10% fps increase.
4) GPU load is always at 100% in such cases. It can drop below 100% when singleboxing, but it is at 100% when I'm experiencing lags.

So do any more fucking retards want to say that I'm not GPU limited?I'm interested in how you are calculating GPU load.

[not5150]

I'm IT pro and I know for sure what causes my problemsThis is usually a sure sign of disaster.

When you troubleshoot, you have to look at all options. God knows I've wasted hundreds of hours troubleshooting when "I was absolutely sure" something was the problem. Only to find out that wasn't the case at all.

[Noids99]

Hmmm... angry person...

Anyway, back to my original reply...

1. WoW does not benefit from XFire/SLI...

2. I remember Lax commenting that Innerspace could set GPU affinity. He didn't actually mention how, but if he is kind enough (not that you have given him any reason to be kind...) to pop into this thread, he may be able to enighten us as to the value of extra GPUs for multiple WoWs on one comp.

Cheers

[Thulos]

I'm interested in how you are calculating GPU load. Me too.

[pengwynman]

I'm interested in how you are calculating GPU load. Me too.i don't think it's possible with nvidia cards, you might be able to do it with rivatuner for ati cards.

[heffner]

How are you measuring FPS? I am pretty sure my add-on goes idle when I am not moving around and my FPS goes down. This could just be maximizer though, never really paid much attention.

[Nairi]

Hmmm... angry person...

Anyway, back to my original reply...

1. WoW does not benefit from XFire/SLI...

2. I remember Lax commenting that Innerspace could set GPU affinity. He didn't actually mention how, but if he is kind enough (not that you have given him any reason to be kind...) to pop into this thread, he may be able to enighten us as to the value of extra GPUs for multiple WoWs on one comp.

Cheershttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5103879232&sid=1

"World of Warcraft, like any 3D game as far as I know, can be made to take advantage of video cards in SLI. Check your World of Warcraft program specific settings in the nVidia control panel, you'll likely need to change the setting from "single card" to SFR/AFR. I believe this requires moving it from the recommended nVidia setting which may imply that any issues while playing the game in SLI will not be supported by them. I've never had any problems with it though. I think I use AFR1."

[Noids99]

Hmmm, very interesting thread. The crux of it seems that whilst SLI works for several people's setups with WoW, it does not work in others and given the fact that it is not officially supported, Nvidia will not help you out if you are one of the unlucky ones.

I would be interested to know people's experiences of running Xfire setups with multiple WoW instances on a single screen. Currently looking at a hardware upgrade myself for boxing and wanting to run 5 instances using windowsnapper on a 2560x1600 monitor. 4870x2 or GTX280?

Cheers