QQ @ lag and inoperability

[binkiebink]

ok ive been boxing for a bit and ive been struggling to do so
please tell me if this information could be found somewhere else and provide a link i will gladly delete this post
but i could not find another thread that would inform me of my problem i did use the search bar but to no avail sorry for repeat threads

i normally 3 box because my computer somehow cannot take more than that

but i have always had the probllem where it sometimes refuses to open the third wow

and in any case my fps is never above 14
usually around 5
and my ping is never below 300

wtf is wrong?
i have high speed comcast

is it that i just need more ram? it couldnt be just that
im pretty sure i need a new video card but i want to be 100% before i blow my load all over a new nvidia


and these are my computers stats
if i missed anything tell me and ill put it up

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 990MB RAM
Page File: 612MB used, 1775MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
Card name: ECS RADEON XPRESS 200 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series (0x5954)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954&SUBSYS_1B341019&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB


please dont laugh at my nonwords

[zashi]

how many monitors?

[Wilbur]

Your PC - to be frank - is ill equipped for Multiboxing.

For starters

New Motherboard.
New CPU, Quad or Dual core.
RAM 2GB+
GPU Nvidia 8600GT 512MB(+)

Have you tried disabling the Nagle algorithm? That should knock around 40-50ms off. Next time you are ingame, fire up a command prompt and do a tracert to the WoW server you are playing on. That should tell you *WHERE* your connection is bottlenecking.

[zashi]

Oh wait, that's onboard video. If you have a PCI-E slot, you can throw in the video card that Wilbur suggested and bring it with you to a new box. That *should* fix most of your FPS issues, or at least move the bottleneck to the CPU.

PS - I can run 4-5 on a P4 3.2HT with an ooooold Radeon 9500NP (~=ti4200) and 1.5 gigs of ram. Bios/services/registry tweaking is a must.

[-silencer-]

I see three problems that immediately pop up.

1. You have onboard video processing. That means your memory will be shared as both system AND video memory. Frame rates will be much slower with nearly every onboard video compared to a separate videocard.

2. You only have 1GB of memory. WinXP will use a chunk of that, and each instance of WoW will as well. Add in the shared video memory requirement and you're WAY short on memory for multiple WoW instances.

3. You have a single core CPU. You *can* run two processor-heavy applications, but there will be a ton of context switching slowing things down.. add in a 3rd processor-heavy application and of course things are going to come to a grinding halt.

My guess is that your memory is the true limiting factor in even starting three WoW windows. There's just not enough for the OS, WoW1, WoW1 video, WoW2, WoW2 video, and then WoW3 & WoW3 video. However, even if you do manage to load 3 windows, with all the context switching your single core processor is working through to handle all the processes, your games will be extremely choppy - your processing power (lack of it) will affect lag. Throw in the onboard video solution for 3 windows.. and you're guaranteed unplayable frame rates. It's time to pony up for a new computer - you don't need quad core and 4GB memory for 3 instances of WoW, but you definitely need dual core, 2GB memory, and a separate videocard in the 8600-8800 series range. If you know someone to help build a computer, you can re-use things like the monitor, mouse & keyboard, hard drive, usually case & CD drives. The components you'll *need* are CPU, motherboard, RAM, video card, power supply, and possibly a case if you have one of those proprietary power supply size cases that don't meet the ATX PSU standard - certain Dells, HPs, etc.

[binkiebink]

looks like ill be robbing a bank very soon

check your local news papers

[Stabface]

Also, please don't confuse 'high speed internet' with 'low ping internet' as they are not the same thing... :)

[Hotnutz]

My system is very similar to yours except I now have a video card that I added and it still doesn't help alot.

They way your onboard video more than likely works since you have the radeon xpress 200 is with dynamic memory.
which is explained here http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/fastFaqLiteDocument?lc=en&cc=uk&dlc=en&docname=bph04502
just scroll down about a screen and you will see. It works very well for onboard but not with the stress multiple WoWs creates on the system.

Same chipset on the mobo, amount of ram and processor etc. And Im only running 2 WoWs on my system. You would be better off to upgrade as I am going to have to as well for more than 2.

I see processor usage between 60% and 100% even with using the maxfpsbk and pagefile usage a little over 1gb

The addition of a video card will improve your framerate a bit but town will still be hell.

So with that in mind you can see where the bottleneck lies. Processor, memory, and possibly hard drive being a lil overworked.

My ideal setup for anymore than 2 WoWs will definitly be with a dual or quad core processor, 2gb+ ram, and I think 1 hard drive per WoW (or some sort of raid setup?) will help immensely with load times

Good luck to you and if you find a fairly cheap solution to add just a third to run decently please let me know :D