Performance Improvments

[Slats]

Hi all,

So I'm software boxing as I sold all my hardware setup bar my Vetra/s. Having a really good time so far. Anyhow I am running a single machine which is a:

Quad-Core Q9550
4GB RAM
GTX 280

I have two monitors, both at 1920x1200 resolution.

I run the main display at maximum detail and the 4 slaves at the lowest settings as I dont really care what they look like.

WoW Classic I get between 30-70fps on my main and about 30-40 on my clones. On TBC I get roughly the same, maybe 30-40 in Shattrah. Then I goto Dalaran and my computer just DIES. Pretty much eats up my availible memory down to about 400mb free, my hard drive thrashes like crazy and I get a fps of about 5-7 accross the board.

I've tried multiple drivers, I have 5 symlinked folders. I'm only running one hard disk but its a 10k RPM disk.

So what can I do to drastically improve performance?
* 2nd video card to run 2nd display?
* Solid State Disk for just the WoW installs
*Another 4GB of RAM?

I'm running Vista64bit btw.

Any advise on whats going to give me the biggest bang for my buck here is appreciated.

-Slats

[Pact]

Another 4GB of RAM = Win

Im running a q6600 with an 8600gts and 8gb of ram on vista home 64bit and i managed to get about 10-15fps in dalaran.
Which is bearable and playable. Then again im on a low pop server. But your processesor and video card are better than mine so you should be fine.

[Harem]

The ssd wouldn't hurt either - symlink the data folder.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

SSD couldn't hurt at all but 8G of RAM is a must for wotlk. anything less and you are in the crapper lol.

[moosejaw]

Biggest bang for the buck is going to be the ram. Once the data is loaded for dalaran you should be ok for the duration of your stay. Of course if want the data to load faster then get the ssd and symlink.

Do the ram first. It will be the difference between a Dalaran slide show or a movie.

[pewshamanper]

i have a 2.4ghz i mac with 3g of ram ati 2400 xt and getting 15fps in dalaran with 3 guys when there all in it

[mmmbox]

use 2 different hd's, one for OS and one for WoW as well helps when there is memory intensive applications/swapping going on and windows will swap alot no matter the amount of memory you have.

Hard set you swapfile to recomended size both min and max, windows has "it's" best intentions in mind not your WoW mboxing, remember that ;)

also look at which multisampling you are using in wow, if you are running your alts at 24bit x4 downgrade to x1, try doing same on main if you get better performance then you need a new gfx card to be able to run at "max"

ohh and also, defrag...

[pengwynman]

you have the same cpu and video card as me, only difference is i have 8gb of memory instead of 4... i still only get ~15-20fps in busy areas of dalaran but there's not a ton you can do to get better than that right now

also your resolution is higher than mine, i'm at 1680x1050 on my main, 800x600 x 4 clones
and what do your video settings look like? i'm all maxed out on my main, everything but spell detail turned down on the clones

[wowphreak]

Like other people of stated more memory gets yeh the most benefit.

Everything else will only marginally improve performance.

Reduce yer rez would also help.

[Slats]

My clones all have details set to lowest.

Main is maxxed out.

I'll grab some more RAM I think - biggest issue will be getting matching sticks. :/ My current stuff runs at 1150mhz.

Any recommendations on the swapfile?

[not5150]

Yeah, I recently upgraded from 4 to 8 GB for 5 boxing. WoWLK just hogs memory in some places.

8 GB of FB-DIMMs hurts :(

[wowphreak]

If yer going for 8 gigs yeh can skip the swap file, its only really needed if yeh don't have enough memory

[moosejaw]

If yer going for 8 gigs yeh can skip the swap file, its only really needed if yeh don't have enough memoryI have changed my mind on this. Without using a swap file the memory commit would creep up over 7k. Creating a small swap file of 1gb fixed this. No more memory creep.