Keyclone. 5 chars at same time. 1 pc. Lag when in crowded places :/ *Need tips* (solved, tyvm).

[newbox]

Hey everyone.

I got bitten by the bug and made 5 shamies for fun.

My setup:

Win home premium 32bit SP2.
Intel core2 quad cpu Q9550, 2,83 Ghz, 8,0 gig Ram, ATI Radeon HD-4870 x 2 (1024 meg x 2).
Pc-screen: 1 Acer G24.
1 Terrabyte harddrive. 17 mbit internet connection.

Im using Keyclone.

When i play all 5 accounts, questing, i have close to zero lag/stutter/the entire screen freezes a few seconds". When i enter Stormwind or a big city usually all screens freeze up a few secunds or more, then i can move a bit, then freezes up again and so on.

I got all accounts on the lowest possible grafixsettings ingame incl ingame resolution.

My plan is to Pvp eventually so hopefully i can get this sorted.


I could write down every setting i got on keyclone/ati catalyst but i wish to hear from someone that has a setup similar to mine first.
Also cleaned my pc, choosed settings for best performence everywhere i could.

Upgraded from 4 to 8 gig ram, cant say i noticed that big of a difference (using 4 x 2 gig Ram quality cards).

Currently using only one monitor, im about to buy another one (maybe that extra 1 gig of videoram for say accounts on that screen will make all the difference). Time will tell.

Ive used hours and hours and hours on this, still, im not satisfied yet. Havent found any topic on the internet that could help me out.



Pretty please, post your top tip: "which changes did you do that made your setup run smooth?" :-)



Hugs&kisses.

[cmeche]

Well, since you are on 32bit OS, the Ram limit is 3 gig.....I believe. So anything more is wasted.
But just about everyone runnning 5 accounts not on a i7 or similar system is going to feel some lag in cities.
I have an i7 system...and dalaran at peak time does get a tiny bit laggy.

[kate]

Yeah, you've got 5gb of wasted RAM (more or less). Your CPU can support a 64-bit OS, which will allow you to use all your RAM - so I'd recommend getting Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. You can get that from Newegg for around $100.

As to the other tips I would mention, look up config file modifications on wowwiki - there's one "ProcessorAffinityMask" that will open up all cores of your machine to run wow, and there are other changes you might be able to make (CPU dependent) that will change the way WoW addresses certain tasks that could speed things up.

[MiRai]

My top tip, just like the others:

You're running out of RAM running 5 instances of the game due to your 32-bit operating system.

[daanji]

I had similar issues when I entered dalaran. In my case , I have win7, core i7 920, 6 gb ram, and a nvivida gtx 260.

I had more than enough power to do dalaran, but it just wouldn't load and all toons got disconnected.

So I bought a solid state disk and all my loading issues when away. My theory is that in dalarn, it was taking so long toload everything from the slow ass hard drive, the client timed out.

[newbox]

I had similar issues when I entered dalaran. In my case , I have win7, core i7 920, 6 gb ram, and a nvivida gtx 260.

I had more than enough power to do dalaran, but it just wouldn't load and all toons got disconnected.

So I bought a solid state disk and all my loading issues when away. My theory is that in dalarn, it was taking so long toload everything from the slow ass hard drive, the client timed out.



Hey there, sounds most excellent. Thank you all those above for your suggestions so far.


I just read about the new windows 7 and after some research and compability testing i ordered windows 7 ultimate full edition. Looking forward to trying that out.


Regarding those Solid state drives (SDD) i've read about those and they seem awesome. Currently im no real computergeek when it comes to swapping parts inside the computer, only thing ive done to it is install the extra 4 gigs of Ram.

What kind of SDD do you recommend? Could i use one i just plug into my usb port instead of installing it inside my pc??
Do you run all your chars from that SSD?


Sidenote:
Just talked to a guy who could get me a "Crucial RealSSD C300 2,5" 128GB, SATA 6 Gb/s, (up to 355MB/140MB sec read/write). 400ish dollars.




The search for "perfect wow continues".. i sense a new motherboard is needed "soon". "/sob.." lol



If anyone else got pro tips on how to improve flow of the game please share them.

[daanji]

Personally, I bought this drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227395

It currently $307 and works beautifully. It made my 5-boxing experience so much more enjoyable. I no longer had to wait for loading screens as they are almost instant.

Whatever SSD drive you get, make sure it supports the TRIM command. Just read reviews on the drive to make sure it is supported and that the specifications are true.


If you have disposable income, then pick up two SSD drives and use them in a RAID+0 array. You'll get twice the performance, but you'll need 6 GB/s SATA to do so.

And no, plugging a SSD drive into USB wouldn't make sense. USB doesn't have the speed that SATA 6.0 Gb/S does.


It isn't hard to install it. If you motherboard supports SATA ( I assume it does) then simply attach the cable to the motherboard and drive. Most SSD drives are 2.5 inches, so you may want to get a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch drive converter. Look inside your case and make sure there is a free 3.5 inch slot available. If not, then you can use some velcro (serious). Just buy a roll of velcro from Home Depot and stick it on one side of the drive. SSD drives don't have any circuits exposed, so should be fine. That will keep the drive from moving and safe.


Ultimately, Win7 + SDD + your current 8GB RAM + your current setup should work very well.


I wish you luck and hope to hear a report of your success.


PS: The bonus benefit of SSD is that it speeds up everything about your computer. Once you go SSD, you'll never go back.

[newbox]

Thank you very much indeed for the tips. Im on the case. i`l be back with a update when the hardware is installed.

[Owltoid]

Jebus, you do not need a $400 SSD for WoW. I use my 32GB RiData SSD that costs less than $100 and everything is smooth. Just put WoW on the SSD (what else do you need it for, really?) and you're good to go.

[jinkobi]

I'm not saying 64 bit OS isn't better than a 32 bit OS. But I am still using Windows Vista 32 bit w/6g of RAM and am able to multibox just fine.

Might investigate your cache settings. There's a lot of things you can do to improve performance tremendously for free. Basically increasing your HD cache size should help a ton and it's free. Here's a guide I found on Techspot:

http://www.techspot.com/guides/72-windows-vista-memory-tweaking/

What you're really interested in is page 5 of the article:
http://www.techspot.com/guides/72-windows-vista-memory-tweaking/page5.html

If the tweaks don't help then not much else you can do but upgrade I suppose.

[MiRai]

But I am still using Windows Vista 32 bit w/6g of RAM and am able to multibox just fine.
And how exactly are you doing that? The limitation of 32 bit operating systems is indeed 4GB. Then the system or the hardware keep a little for themselves leaving you with less than 4GB total.

[jinkobi]

Well I'm not utilizing it all of course... It's installed 3X2gig memory sticks and says it's installed and that I have 6 gigs of memory accessable- I know it isn't physically possible to utilize it though.

But I'm not saying go get more memory - if I implied that I am sorry. My main point was to check out your cache settings and I am able to run 5 instances of WOW without the major lag you're describing. It's a free option and if it doesn't work out for you then the only choice is 64 bit.

[MiRai]

Well I'm not utilizing it all of course... It's installed 3X2gig memory sticks and says it's installed and that I have 6 gigs of memory accessable- I know it isn't physically possible to utilize it though.

But I'm not saying go get more memory - if I implied that I am sorry. My main point was to check out your cache settings and I am able to run 5 instances of WOW without the major lag you're describing. It's a free option and if it doesn't work out for you then the only choice is 64 bit.
Cool man, maybe I read into it too much but I just wanted to make sure the OP [or any future forum goers that use the lolwut search command] clearly understood.

[jinkobi]

Hey Fen here's something I found- another tweak if you will.



Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system which needs a specific tailored computer to work. As a matter of fact it is so memory hungry that it requires a powerful computer to run. This thing didn’t happen with XP which was as fast as a rocket even with as low as 512 MB of RAM and a low performing hardware. When Vista was released, Microsoft itself was very aware of its RAM-needs and in fact advised “at least” 1GB of RAM to run the O.S. on a computer. In the meanwhile a lot of people started buying 3,4,5 GB of RAM but what they didn’t know was that their 32 bit Windows Vista could only handle 3 GB at most! Luckily for those guys there is a little trick which enables their Vista “to overcome” that limit. Here is the trick:
Click Start.
Type CMD in the Search Bar.
PressCtrl + Shift + Enter to run cmd in administrative mode.
Type BCDEdit /set PAE forceenable
If this does not work try other 2 times at least. As a matter of fact Vista does not take this command right away in some cases. Make also sure to type the command in the same way it is written on point 4.
If Vista got this command successfully you should see the following message: the operation completed successfully.
To undo it, type: BCDEdit /deletevalue PAE
Source:
http://www.webtlk.com/2008/06/04/enable-more-than-4-gb-of-ram-in-32-bit-windows-vista/

It's still physically impossible I believe.

[balderrdash]

Could you really just run WoW off the SSD or do you need to install Windows on there as well to get the benefit? If you need Windows, what would be the minimum size, assuming you were running all the WoW's off one install? I've got a decent terrabyte drive for all my other date, but it'd be nice to remove the biggest bottleneck in my boxing for a hundred bucks or so if that's possible. If you get it, you'd have to reinstall Windows to the drive right? It's not the sort of thing you can just copy over and tell the bios to boot off the other drive I imagine.

[Owltoid]

The only thing on my SSD is WoW. I use a basic 7200 RPM drive for my operating system and porn.

[kate]

I had similar issues when I entered dalaran. In my case , I have win7, core i7 920, 6 gb ram, and a nvivida gtx 260.

I had more than enough power to do dalaran, but it just wouldn't load and all toons got disconnected.

So I bought a solid state disk and all my loading issues when away. My theory is that in dalarn, it was taking so long toload everything from the slow ass hard drive, the client timed out.

I don't have an SSD in, but I am capable of running all 5 instances in Dalaran at moderate settings and it's really smooth, and other than 2gb more ram and a 5850, my system is similar to yours.

What settings are you loading all 5 into Dalaran with?

[daanji]

Jebus, you do not need a $400 SSD for WoW. I use my 32GB RiData SSD that costs less than $100 and everything is smooth. Just put WoW on the SSD (what else do you need it for, really?) and you're good to go.

I never said you need a $400 drive. Any SSD that supports TRIM will do.

If you want a cheap fast drive, a smaller capacity drive will do fine. Its common sense.

I assume that most multi boxers have disposable income and as such getting an SSD isn't much of an issue.

[newbox]

Ok its time for a update and im very happy :D

I just installed win 7 ultimate 64 bit (the manual was very..bad.. i discovered i had to cancel the startup/boot (pressing "del" on my pc) and set the dvd drive to boot first (altered setting in the bios). This way i could run the 64bit cd that came along the win7 package.

Anyway i just walked and rode around sw, if and dala = no lag and zero stutter. Amazing...!


I got the 4 toons on the minimum settings possible (ingame), 15 fps max, 10 fps backgrd (on keyclone).
My main toon has a pretty decent resolution and 60 fps (30 background).
I use the first 2 cores on my main and the 4 others use the two other core (affinitysettings in keyclone).

Seems really imba so far. Wonder how this will be when i get the 128 gb ssd i ordered (didnt come in the mail today sadly).


Anyway, ty veeeery much for the tip that i needed to get 64bit! That did the trick for sure.

All seems ok now so gonna try bg's very soon.

Back with a update when i get the ssd drive. Plan to 10box eventually (got another pc in the works) :)

5 x lava burst so far = pro :)

[newbox]

Its time for a update, a happy one.

Today i managed to copy win 7 and wow + my essensial programs over to my new kinston vseries 128 gb desktop bundle SSD drive (got around 55 gigs to spare, this is my new /c drive). Im using the old harddrive as a extra harddrive i can store stuff on (/shows as /e drive).

What a difference.. Ive boosted up the grafixsettings on all toons and increased the fps somewhat too in keyclone so now they all move fluidly.

Not to mention the increased overall performance of the pc as a whole. Its a lot faster.

Wish i did this earlier.

Highly recommended :) :)


Ty again for all your insight and support.

[BrothelMeister]

Dial down every graphical setting (resolution excluded, but you can turn it down too if you want...) possible on all toons except the one you normally look at. This includes features.

Turn shadows down all the way on the main toon as well.

Profit.