Pushing the CPU limits

[alcattle]

Have the machine running, 5 boxing with 2 monitors. Q6600 8gigs 8800 gts 320. When I load all 5 sessions and they load, I bury the needle at 100% CPU usage. One thing I can try is a sound card, as when loaded the sounds goes to hell. Other than that what can I do short of building an I7 system?

[Bot]

im assuming youre running vista 64? i ask because people have bought 8gig ram for standard xp before not knowing it does no good.
that sounds exactly like my comp and i have no problems running 5. i dont think you need to upgrade to i7 unless your processor is bad. in theory you should be runnin smooth. actually id think you stole my rig if i wasnt typing on it right now :) maybe you have a virus or spyware or somethign.

[Sajuuk]

Disable your in-game sound on all (or all but one) of your clients.

[Ellusionist]

I have the same processor with this ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003') cooler running at 3.2GHz. There is a *major* FPS difference in the stock 2.4GHz and being overclocked.

http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz1.png http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz2.png http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz3.png

http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz4.png http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz5.png http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/cpuz6.png

http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/coretemp-idle.png http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/q6600/coretemp-load.png

[jag989]

You mentioned that your cpu was at 100%, so you may have already done this.

Open your WTF/Config.wtf file in each of your WoW directories with a text editor. Find the line that says SET processAffinityMask "X" - make sure X is 15. Additionally, make sure no other applications are controlling which cores WoW uses. This will ensure that each copy has full access to all 4 cores (even though they will only ever use 2 at once).

Again, you're probably already doing this or something similar. However, if not, this will give you a 30-40% increase in FPS.

[brasssmunky]

yes, you might want to learn how to overclock, and that goes with getting a new cpu cooler (unless your computer is premanufactured, then you cant overclock) that should be a decent overclocking chip if its a G0 stepping (a program called cpu-z will tell you) anywho, any decent cooler will allow you to get that chip to at least 3.0 which is all you really need.
if you want more help, feel free to let me know and i can help teach you the basics

[Bot]

he shouldnt need to overclock i run 5 on the same setup just fine with no modifications. i have same chip same ram same vid card. no probalo. id look for issues with other components first before messing with the listed items is all im saying.

[alcattle]

STill not sure about the set affinity part. I set it in HKN but the WTF said affinity=3. can I set in game?

[Freddie]

Your hotkey sets affinity after WoW has set it so the hotkey has the last word.

If you want to check this -- if you want to be 100% certain about what your affinity setting really is -- after the games are running, open Task Manager, go to Processes, right click each Wow.exe one at a time, and select "Set Affinity." The operating system will show you how affinity is set for that process. Affinity is an operating system setting so the OS is the final authority.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I side step all these problems by running Atlon X2 6400 (3.2G not overclocked), with da BIG TYPHOON HEAT SINK.

[alcattle]

The affinity is set to 3. 4 cores on all WoWs. Sound is off on all WoWs. Will get a sound card this weekend. What else? Overclock? Oh usage on each Wow runs about 23-25% plus the rest of the crap loaded. Web, and HKN

[Ellusionist]

The affinity is set to 3. 4 cores on all WoWs. Sound is off on all WoWs. Will get a sound card this weekend. What else? Overclock? Oh usage on each Wow runs about 23-25% plus the rest of the crap loaded. Web, and HKNI've never used HKN, but if it's passing the same variable 'setProcessAffinity' that config.wtf uses, then your "Affinity" in HKN should be set to 15.

[Ellusionist]

http://www.ovsolutions.com/dual-boxing/spa.png

[confusedtx5]

If you're using Vista64, don't use Xp64 instead. Vista wastes alot of hardware resources. that said, your cpu shouldn't be maxing just from 5 wows. As with Bot above, I used to 5box with that same cpu, and only 4gigs of ram. Check that all your wow clients are running at the lowest detail possible and no addons and see what happens.

[Ellusionist]

If you're using Vista64, don't use Xp64 instead. Vista wastes alot of hardware resources. that said, your cpu shouldn't be maxing just from 5 wows. As with Bot above, I used to 5box with that same cpu, and only 4gigs of ram. Check that all your wow clients are running at the lowest detail possible and no addons and see what happens.I'd be interested in seeing screenshots of your CPU utilization below 100% while running five instances of wow.exe as well as temperatures per core. Very interested, actually.

Q6600 (Stock @ 2.4GHz), 4GB RAM? Screenshots please.

I'm just sayin'...

[confusedtx5]

Ill see what i can do. Unfortunately that rig is currently my media server. Im on a Corei7 940 w/ 6Gb ram now.

Edit: its an i7 940, not a i7 640 >.<

[Ellusionist]

Well I guess I was wrong, technically... idling in Dalaran with all five running, it was teetering between 97-98-99-100% usage across all cores. :D

You could post us a fullscreen shot of 5 WoW's on the taskbar with Task Manager loaded in the foreground from your new machine. :) I'm curious how the new i7's handle multiboxing. The numbers (and multiboxing review[er]s) show that they handle it VERY well, but it would be interesting to see what kind of load they carry while boxing.

We always hear the "dude, it's awesome!" or "man, this is so much faster than my old machine" comments, but nothing else... feed our minds with pictures!

[confusedtx5]

Maybe thats why I did ok with the q6600, i havent been to dal with my multibox teams yet :/

Yeah sure, ill take some screenies when i get home

[mrmcgee21]

I don't get how cool your Q6600 is running, I have the xact same cooler on my 9650 and it gets into the low 60's just going up to 3.6ghz ( from 3.0 stock ). I'm curious to know how you have your affinty's setup running 5 wow's Ellusionist if you care to share, I have 4 set to individual instances and the 5th spread across all 4 cores. Also I get maybe 30ish fps on whatever window I'm focuses on on dalaran and cap my backround fps at 10 on the other 4, I still get some hitching if I mount up and do laps around the main square of dalaran but its pretty smooth, fps stays around 18-24 or so even while running on the mount. That's with graphics basically all the way down except my main window has full clip. I guess I'm curious to compare my system to yours Ellusionist as we have very similar rigs except I'm running a 9650 which, I can barely clock past the speeds you can with a 6600 ... lol.

[Ellusionist]

I don't get how cool your Q6600 is running, I have the xact same cooler on my 9650 and it gets into the low 60's just going up to 3.6ghz ( from 3.0 stock ). I'm curious to know how you have your affinty's setup running 5 wow's Ellusionist if you care to share, I have 4 set to individual instances and the 5th spread across all 4 cores. Also I get maybe 30ish fps on whatever window I'm focuses on on dalaran and cap my backround fps at 10 on the other 4, I still get some hitching if I mount up and do laps around the main square of dalaran but its pretty smooth, fps stays around 18-24 or so even while running on the mount. That's with graphics basically all the way down except my main window has full clip. I guess I'm curious to compare my system to yours Ellusionist as we have very similar rigs except I'm running a 9650 which, I can barely clock past the speeds you can with a 6600 ... lol.No idea man, wish I could just point and say "there's your problem" but if you're running the same heatsink/fan combo and nearly the same chip, we should be about equal. :D

Amongst this list may be our differences:
1) I used Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. (Reviews are great, but is it better than conventional *cheap* paste? No clue. I just bought it because of the reviews. Might be a mental thing!)
2) My config.wtf files (all five) have "setProcessAffinity" set to 15.
3) I have five separate WoW folders on my Desktop for multiboxing, in which the "Data" directory is symlinked. It is symlinked to a sixth WoW folder, which I use if I'm playing one character. It looks like this:

Folder: World of Warcraft --> When I'm playing one character (damn me!), I use this. All graphics settings are cranked wide open.
Folder: World of Warcraft 1 --> Main multiboxing character's folder. The front guy. This runs fullscreen 1680x1050 with terrain distance and spell detail turned up, that's it. Its Interface\Addons and Data directories are also symlinked to the copy of WoW above.
Folder: World of Warcraft 2 --> Plain jane stripped down graphics, only has the "Data" directory symlinked to the top folder in this list. Plays on a 19" widescreen to my right. (All slaves are on that monitor in a 2x2 tiled fashion.)
Folder: World of Warcraft 3 --> Same as #2.
Folder: World of Warcraft 4 --> Same as #2.
Folder: World of Warcraft 5 --> Same as #2.

There may be an easier way to accomplish having different settings for characters #2-#5, but this works. :D Technically, I could just have one folder for Accounts #2-#5 with bare minimum video settings.

4) No affinities are set within Keyclone.
5) No maxfps or maxfpsbk variables are set within Keyclone. None. I noticed some inconsistencies while doing spread macros with maxfpsbk set. Some characters would spread correctly and some would skip frames (video lag) and look out of line.
6) As far as hardware, it's all run off of a 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda, so nothing fancy here. No RAID 0, not spanning across multiple hard drives to even the load, nothing. Video card is only the 512MB version of XFX's 9800GT.
7) Antec Nine Hundred computer case. After seeing it in person (building this machine), I build all my customers' PC's in this case now. Tons of fans, keeps everything cool.


I can't really think of anything else...

[confusedtx5]

Screenshots uploaded and going here: Core i7 screenshots. 5box in Stormwind ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=20902')

Whats your voltage at mcmcgee? thats the one that causes heat problems.

[Ellusionist]

Screenshots uploaded and going here: Core i7 screenshots. 5box in Stormwind ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=20902')

Whats your voltage at mcmcgee? thats the one that causes heat problems.Nice shots. Must be a difference in the chips and/or underlying technologies. Mine's at 85%-ish across all cores while standing in Orgrimmar (actually Orgrimmar would be like Ironforge to you guys). Your GPU(s) may be taking quite a load off your processor, too.

[confusedtx5]

Nice shots. Must be a difference in the chips and/or underlying technologies. Mine's at 85%-ish across all cores while standing in Orgrimmar (actually Orgrimmar would be like Ironforge to you guys). Your GPU(s) may be taking quite a load off your processor, too.


Good point, I hadn't thought of that. Whats the physics like in WoW? Maybe the GPUs doing the physics processing is helping alot?
Maybe try that alcattle? download the latest drivers for you graphics card and check that the physics software is being installed and make sure that the physics processing is enabled (In the Nvidia Control Panel)

[mrmcgee21]

I recently lowered the voltage to 1.25 in the bios which under a load on this 790i mobo is giving me abount 1.2 even sometimes drops to 1.19 even. While running wow in dalaran the processor is reporting about 63-65 C according to nvidia, some cores are as low as 55 but Core0 is around 63-65. My system runs well I was just hoping to be able to play with a little higher graphics I guess. I'm not sure whats causing the extreme heat, I'm also using artic silver myself. I have an apevia case so maybe thats the issue. I was wondering which way did you face the fan with your cooler Ellusionist? I wasn't sure what direction would be ideal when I mounted mine. I really don't want to move it though that thing was rediculously hard to get in there, I had to mount the thing then put the fan on it inside the case because of how my case is shaped.

This is the case I'm using, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144184 .. maybe the airflow is just really awful in there? Besides that my only guess is I just didnt get a good seat between my heatsink and cpu when I mounted it.

Also ISboxer has a thing that creates virtual files ( ie wtf config files ) for each char, so you can have individual settings on all instances that way without multiple installs.

[Ellusionist]

All of mine are pointed towards the back of the case. And yeah that cooler is a tight fit!

I'll have to look into ISBoxer, too.

[Nitro]

check that the physics software is being installed and make sure that the physics processing is enabled (In the Nvidia Control Panel)

I highly doubt that wow has the ability to take advantage of a physx processor. You have to code specifically for those. I don't think wow even has a physics engine.

[Catamer]

the i7 has 8 sudo cores running at 1/2 speed, you could disable the hyperthreadhing and have 4 cores running at full speed.
may people fall into the trap that they are getting 8 cores at full speed and your not.
for the i7 the cpu power (assuming a 2.4Ghz cpu) is 4x 2.4Ghz or 8x1.2Ghz and many find the 1.2Ghz is a little too slow to run wow properly.

that being said, your processor affinity mask should be set to 255, not 15. 15 is what you would use for 4 cores, 255 is what you would use for 8 cores.
or in binary 1111-1111 ( one bit per CPU )

make sure WoW thinks you can use 8 cores and make sure any addon like AutoHotKey or Keyclone also think you have and use 8 cores.

[Ellusionist]

Just an FYI, the original poster has a Q6600.

[mrmcgee21]

I re-mounted my heatsink last night and now I'm getting about 45C across all 4 cores at idle, 55ish under load, however this is according to nvidia system monitor. I ran speedfan and its saying 39C idle and 49-50 under load so, I'm not sure what to beleive. Either way its not rediculously hot so I'm pretty ok with where its at considering I'm still getting 3.6 out of it.