WoW and 2 graphic cards

[Deumus]

Hi all!

I play 5 accounts on one computer for the moment. But I cannot set the effects to medium or max.

I just want to know if it's possible to "assign" many WoW to a designated graphic cards or if WoW accept SLI mode.
Also need to know if SLI mode is a good idea or if it's better to buy others computers with a minimal config for medium effects.

Thanks in advance and sorry for my english :)

[Jafula]

Nvidia GTX260 and 8800GT, 5 box, expected FPS? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=137832')

Dual cards/monitors, worse FPS? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=137782#post137782')

[Other] Windows 7 and dual screen ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=208858#post208858')

WoW and SLI:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3707965682&sid=1

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=31055014&sid=1

You are probably better off with one GFX card and one/two monitors hanging off it. I've not tried SLI...

When five boxing, I found 1 machine for master and 1 machine for 4 slaves worked well for me.

[Tonuss]

SLI is supposed to work with WoW, but I wasn't able to get it stable with two ATI Radeon 4870s. I still have the two cards, but each is connected to a separate monitor. Usually I run my main on one monitor and the alts on another and that works fine. I've run all five on one monitor (and therefore one card) without any problems either, so having just one good video card should be plenty for 5-boxing, as long as the alt accounts are using the lowest video settings.

[Deumus]

Thanks Jafula, a good reading for me...

And it's what I already read. But I think blizzard maybe correct this problem and allow to assign wow on different graphic cards :(

I think I go buy two others computers with dual monitors both.

4 WoW on 1 computer in Dalaran is ....... and with effects at minimum.

[Bovidae]

SLI is supposed to work with WoW, but I wasn't able to get it stable with two ATI Radeon 4870s...
Back in the old days (prior to 1.12 iirc) the NVIDIA SLI logo was used by Blizz, even in game under the graphics menu. The funny thing was, WoW didn't get along with SLI WHAT-SO-EVER

I've never had luck getting ATI cards to run under SLI mode, you are not alone.

[Sajuuk]

SLI is supposed to work with WoW, but I wasn't able to get it stable with two ATI Radeon 4870s..
I've never had luck getting ATI cards to run under SLI mode, you are not alone.I wonder why...Oh, it's because ATI's Dual+GPU solution is crossfire, not sli.

[jak3676]

So, it looks like the best option is still to put all your money into 1 GFX card and split of multiple monitors from there. SLI/Crossfire may get you some help, but it doesn't look promising due to issues with SLI and Crossfire and a general lack of support from Blizz. I'm bummed cause I was hoping to set up 5-boxing with a 30" in the center and 2x 24" on either side (turned on thier side - aka portrait). But I'm not thinking even something like a 295 will push good FPS for a main on 2560x1600 and 4 slaves @ 1200x960. I'm not even sure how to hook up 3 monitors without getting into the problems off a single card. Maybe go SLI/Crossfire just for the extra physical hookups?

Does anyone know if there are any issues a 295 or 4870X2 (or any card that is essentially 2 GFX cards soldered together internally)?

[alcattle]

Does anyone know if there are any issues a 295 or 4870X2 (or any card that is essentially 2 GFX cards soldered together internally)?Look at a 4850x2 1/2 gig should be fine, and it has 4 monitor outputs

[alcattle]

SLI is supposed to work with WoW, but I wasn't able to get it stable with two ATI Radeon 4870s..
I've never had luck getting ATI cards to run under SLI mode, you are not alone.I wonder why...Oh, it's because ATI's Dual+GPU solution is crossfire, not sli.Still might work with the IS/Boxer software. I hear Lax has it so you can boot different WoW windows to different Video cards

[Deumus]

So, it looks like the best option is still to put all your money into 1 GFX card and split of multiple monitors from there.Uh? My Geforce GTX 260 is good enough, I think. But not good enough for comfortable effects (distance to view, objects on ground, ...) on 1 WoW (Main) and low effects on 4 WoW (Toons) and for Dalaran (I hate my 10 FPS on this city)

It's why I think about a solution. Multiple graphic cards or multiple computers. I think multiple computers seems to be the best choice.

[Lash]

I 3box on the same computer with 2 video cards(ati 4870 1gb without crossfire). With Innerspace you can specify which GPU a wow profile will use. Make sure you have a lot of ram and a fast disk to run 5 copies on 1 box.

[Taliesin]

For what it's worth here, I run 5 accounts with one machine (Dell 730). I have dual ATI Radeon HD cards (forget the exact model right now, I think 3850s), but opted to not use the Crossfire option, as I'm more a "divide and conquer" mentality. Each card supports a single 24" widescreen panel running at 1920x1200. I haven't run into any issues with supporting all this, even in Dalaran where I hardly even notice any lag, running with mostly low settings. I also don't have to worry about GPU affinities, since I balance the load at a basic level.

I would mention that clearing up most of the issues regarding "lag" (read: video sputtering and loading delays) in Dalaran had far more to do with getting excessive RAM, and required no tweaking of the video cards or settings for me. I run with 8GB of RAM now for these 5 accounts, and in Dalaran I tend to only have about 1GB to spare, at most, to give you an idea. This leaves me plenty of room to be running iTunes, IE, Firefox, Vent, and other applications in the background without slowing me down any further.

Do dual cards work for multiple monitors? Yes, though you should try to balance the load for best performance.

How well does SLI/Crossfire work with WoW? Seemed okay when I tried Crossfire at first, but I was only boxing 3 at that time, and I never had to deal with SLI with this machine.

Watch your CPU utilization and RAM usage, and disk access if you know how, to determine what is slowing you down the most. It's not always just a video issue.

EDIT: Oh yeah, using Windows Vista 64bit here, by the way.

[jak3676]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710

Looks like MS fixed this problem a while ago. Can't say I've tested it (I only have 1 GPU currently).

[Deumus]

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
RAM: 8Go
GPU: Geforce GTX 260
HDD: 5 WoW runs on a RAID 5 of 4 HD with 16Mb cache and 7200 RPM
Monitors: 22" 1680x1050, 20" 1280x1024; Main on 22", Slaves on 20"
O/S: Seven 64Bits
WOW Effects: Low
WOW Resolution: 1680x1050 for all but Toons is resize to 320x256. I switch between WOW windows several times.

I'm using Inner Space, G15 and G13.

I have 60 FPS on Main and 30 FPS on Slaves mostly of the time, with low effects. The FPS drop to ~25 on few zones and 10 FPS on Dalaran. My CPU and RAM is used at 100% and ~60% mostly of the time.

My goal is to have 60 FPS/30 FPS with effects to medium or high. It's not possible for the moment. If I just increase a little the View distance, my FPS drop to 30 on Main.

And my future goal is to have 5 monitors with 1680x1050 resolution.

[Ualaa]

I'm running:

Q6600 at 3.02 ghz (have not overclocked)
8gb 800mhz ddr2 ram.
1x 4870x2 video
10k rpm, Raptor HD.
Vista 64-bit, home premium.

With four clients running, I do not lose follow in Dalaran even with Crusader aura on.
I wouldn't say four clients is smooth in Dalaran or Wintergrasp.

With five clients, which is what I primarily box, follow sucks even dismounted at prime time.
At 3am server, five clients is fine on foot.

Everywhere else, including AV's or Shattrath runs just fine.

My system is not as good as the one you have listed.
I was planning on upgrading next summer, but am tempted to upgrade sooner.
Doesn't have to be a top-top end system, but I'd like to run smooth in Dalaran with 5 clients.

[alcattle]

I'm running:

Q6600 at 3.02 ghz (have not overclocked)
8gb 800mhz ddr2 ram.
1x 4870x2 video
10k rpm, Raptor HD.
Vista 64-bit, home premium.

With four clients running, I do not lose follow in Dalaran even with Crusader aura on.
I wouldn't say four clients is smooth in Dalaran or Wintergrasp.

With five clients, which is what I primarily box, follow sucks even dismounted at prime time.
At 3am server, five clients is fine on foot.

Everywhere else, including AV's or Shattrath runs just fine.

My system is not as good as the one you have listed.
I was planning on upgrading next summer, but am tempted to upgrade sooner.
Doesn't have to be a top-top end system, but I'd like to run smooth in Dalaran with 5 clients.Sounds like a good rig, where is the bottleneck? Maybe 2 mid-range cards instead of one that can't use all its power? Or will it take an i7 system?