Advise on getting a secondary screen

[TeamGrizzly]

I am currently 5-boxing on a Q9550 with 8GB ram, 4870X2 graphics, V.Rap HDD and 24” screen. I wish to get another screen for the alts while keeping the current screen for the main. Can my current system handle the load?

Currently, my rig is already choking occasionally with frame rates as low as 5 fps in some areas. Is there something I can upgrade (like more ram?) before getting a secondary screen?

[Sajuuk]

You shouldn't be having many troubles. What settings are you running at?
How about some more information about your system? OS, Game settings, resolutions, software being used to broadcast keys, etc.

[TeamGrizzly]

Using Vista 64. Running one notch below the maximum graphics settings for main and minimum on all 4 slaves. Using keyclone. Maximizer settings downloaded from keyclone website (the one for 5 clients on a single 1900 X 1200 screen). Will we normally see a big drop in frame rates after adding another screen?

[Sajuuk]

What resolutions are your main/slaves running at? Try reducing the resolution for your slaves (but keep the same aspect ratio for them)

[TeamGrizzly]

I believe it is currently 800X600 for all. However, if I get another screen, i will be doing 1900X1200 for the main. That's why not certain if my system can take it..

[daviddoran]

Did you turn sound off on the alts? That made a huge difference or me. Also, check the affinity. I have my main on 2 cores, and the other 2 cores run 1 wow each. I also run off of 2 hdds, one for the main one for the alts.

[TeamGrizzly]

Nope. I'll try turning off sound on the alts. For affinity, should U have my main on 2 cores and the remaining 2 cores run 2 wow each or 1 each for main and 2 alts while remaining 2 alts on the 4th core?

[daviddoran]

Well, experiment, but since I always run 1 leader and 4 slaves, and run the main at a much higher resolution, I want that instance to have the most cpu power available, so he gets core 0 and 1. Then each slave gets either core 2 or core 3, so cores 2 and 3 are running 2 instances of wow each. Works well for me.

WTB 6 core processor.... would make things so much easier...

[TeamGrizzly]

Looking at the maximizer settings in keyclone, the numbers displayed at the bottom is 1536X1200. However, in WOW interface, i see my resolution is listed as 800X600. So what resolution are all my windows running at? 1536X1200 or 800X600?

[Bloodcloud]

Looking at the maximizer settings in keyclone, the numbers displayed at the bottom is 1536X1200. However, in WOW interface, i see my resolution is listed as 800X600. So what resolution are all my windows running at? 1536X1200 or 800X600?If you want to adjust them, you can also (in keyclone) save the maximizer settings, edit them and change there the resolution.
(I had to do so because the 1920x1200 resolution was not listed)
After loading the profile it worked as a charm ,

[daviddoran]

also, in the commands section of keyclone setup, you can input the resolution, and that is the one that WoW runs at, and maximizer just adjusts the size that the window is drawn to. I try to keep mine matching.

[jag989]

I am currently 5-boxing on a Q9550 with 8GB ram, 4870X2 graphics, V.Rap HDD and 24” screen. I wish to get another screen for the alts while keeping the current screen for the main. Can my current system handle the load?

Currently, my rig is already choking occasionally with frame rates as low as 5 fps in some areas. Is there something I can upgrade (like more ram?) before getting a secondary screen?I wouldn't suggest getting more ram, open up your task manager while you have everything running - you're probably only using 3-6gb. I'm running a very similar setup but with a slower graphics config (2x 4850s) and it does fine on 2, 24" displays. Like others said, cap the FPS on the slaves, disable sound, look for any other processes on your computer eating up CPU usage.

If you're only running on 1 HDD, try adding 1-2 more. Even if they're cheap-o drives it should still be more suitable than running 5 from one disk.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

I am currently 5-boxing on a Q9550 with 8GB ram, 4870X2 graphics, V.Rap HDD and 24” screen. I wish to get another screen for the alts while keeping the current screen for the main. Can my current system handle the load?

Currently, my rig is already choking occasionally with frame rates as low as 5 fps in some areas. Is there something I can upgrade (like more ram?) before getting a secondary screen?I wouldn't suggest getting more ram, open up your task manager while you have everything running - you're probably only using 3-6gb. I'm running a very similar setup but with a slower graphics config (2x 4850s) and it does fine on 2, 24" displays. Like others said, cap the FPS on the slaves, disable sound, look for any other processes on your computer eating up CPU usage.

If you're only running on 1 HDD, try adding 1-2 more. Even if they're cheap-o drives it should still be more suitable than running 5 from one disk.first of all you should have enough RAM, other then that i agree with Jag989.

my suggestion would be to get another HDD and run the OS off of one and WoW off the other; or get an SSD (if you can afford it) to run WoW off of. but mainly get another HDD, OS's tend to be resorce hogs and will slow down just about anything.

also it would help to know where you are getting these low fps spikes. if you are getting them in Dalaran or wintersgrasp or w/e its called then that is something to be expected, a lot of other people have the exact same problem.

Hope this helps some. ^_^

~YYF

[TeamGrizzly]

I am currently 5-boxing on a Q9550 with 8GB ram, 4870X2 graphics, V.Rap HDD and 24” screen. I wish to get another screen for the alts while keeping the current screen for the main. Can my current system handle the load?

Currently, my rig is already choking occasionally with frame rates as low as 5 fps in some areas. Is there something I can upgrade (like more ram?) before getting a secondary screen?I wouldn't suggest getting more ram, open up your task manager while you have everything running - you're probably only using 3-6gb. I'm running a very similar setup but with a slower graphics config (2x 4850s) and it does fine on 2, 24" displays. Like others said, cap the FPS on the slaves, disable sound, look for any other processes on your computer eating up CPU usage.

If you're only running on 1 HDD, try adding 1-2 more. Even if they're cheap-o drives it should still be more suitable than running 5 from one disk.
I was previously running off 2 WOW installs. Main on c:\WoW1 and all 4 alts on c:\wow2. Tried changing to symbolic links as some had suggested in other threads with each alts on their own wow2, wow3, wow4 and wow5 folders and symbolic links to data, cache, interface folders in wow1. FPS actually went down after this change. I try getting a separate disk for WOW install and see if it works.

So what resolution should I use for 2 X 24" display? Correct me if I am wrong but i think keyclone requires all windows to be of the same resolution? If so, having 1920X1200 on all 5 windows would surely choke my PC to death.

[jag989]

I was previously running off 2 WOW installs. Main on c:\WoW1 and all 4 alts on c:\wow2. Tried changing to symbolic links as some had suggested in other threads with each alts on their own wow2, wow3, wow4 and wow5 folders and symbolic links to data, cache, interface folders in wow1. FPS actually went down after this change. I try getting a separate disk for WOW install and see if it works.

So what resolution should I use for 2 X 24" display? Correct me if I am wrong but i think keyclone requires all windows to be of the same resolution? If so, having 1920X1200 on all 5 windows would surely choke my PC to death.Not at all, you can set each instances resolution individually when you're configuring the maximizer. I do 1920x1200 on my main and then 800x600 on each of the 4 alts (stretched out a little to fit better). Having multiple copies of the game on one disk won't improve performance, however, it will definitely allow you to configure each individually.

[Ualaa]

My understanding of the different resolutions between Keyclone and Warcraft...

Basically Keyclone resolutions are a division of your actual screen size.
So if your monitor is set to 2560x1600, like mine, then Keyclone divides your actual resolution to determine where to put each window on the screen.

Your Warcraft resolution, within each Keyclone region, assumes it can go to whatever aspect ratio you want to set it.
If you tell warcraft to give you 800x600, the icons are huge but you don't have a whole lot of space.
If you tell warcraft to give you 1024x768, the icons are a little smaller within each window, and you have a little more space within each window.

It is as if Warcraft assumes the region it is running in, is a full screen with whatever resolution you set it to.

For best results, especially when swapping regions, its good for them to have the same ratio, which isn't necessarily the same resolution.
For example 800x600 reduces to a ratio of 4:3. 1024 and 768, each divided by 256, also gives you a 4:3 ratio.
Having the same ratio helps with mouse broadcasting too, if you go that route.