My new 3,000$ setup & its problems.

[opt]

So i forked out 3,000 (around 2,800USD) for my new setup.
It included a Intel Q6600, 2x2g corsair PC-6400 memory, 2x PNY 8800GTs and 3 samsung 940n 19" monitors, to match my 4th monitor. On this machine I house my 4 shamans.
Im running a single machine (AMD 4200+) for my druid on a 22"wide.
I went all out on a machine and i bought the best I could afford, which is about the best on the market right now. All setup fine and working as intended.
However the real issues is the frame rate. Running all graphics on low and at 1024x768 and its a great dissapointment. The framerate is at 15-20fps, I have minimum mods installed, and as far as im aware, I have all the most recient & updated drivers.
Is this normal, did I have high expectations? Any advice is good advice.

[Diamndzngunz]

How many watts is your power supply? and is it SLI ready? and do you have the SLI options set up?

[opt]

Im running a thermaltake 750w PS, it was after market and was installed by my retailer, as was my whole system. The video cards where installed as SLI with the link attached, however what I've read in the past suggests to take the hardware link off.

[Wilbur]

Remove the SLI link.

[Diamndzngunz]

Wait wait wait. am I missing something with this removing of the SLI link?

[Wilbur]

They dont share resources anymore.

Good thing. :-D

[opt]

I removed the SLI link because i read a couple of times here that, thats what i should do if i was wanting to run 4 monitors.
Should i be putting it back in?

[Nixi]

I have pretty much the same problem when I run 5 toons on my new Intel Q6600, 2x2g Kingmax DDR-800 memory, 1x 8800GT. I don't have the extra 8800 that you've got, but I had no clue my guys would be struggling to get through Shattrath. I'm thinking about getting another 8800 GT, but i'm in the cross roads of xkeys, the video card or a new monitor.

X-keys: More control over my toons. I can start mapping abilities that I've neglected to use due to button space.

Video card: Will plugging in another 8800 GT (non-sli) make my toons run through Shattrath without having to pause every few feet for everyone to catch up? (no idea what kind of power supply i have. I was harping about getting "the best" and at the time i was under the impression a 450 W was good enough for 2x 8800 GTs. I hope it's enough.)

Monitor: I can move the 4 toons off my 22". I've got a 19" square mon, 22" wide, and i have no clue what size mon to get next. I just know the 4 toons on my 22" isn't comfortable, and playing just 2 toons on a 22" portrait isn't practical.

[Wilbur]

450W is not good enough for 1 8800GT never mind two. 22Amps per 12V Rail is generally recommended for an 8800GT.

If you are having problems with texture load times then you probably need another HDD to run WoW instances from.

[keyclone]

opt... try removing the number of monitors from the equation to check if the monitor drivers are the issue.

so... remove 1 video card and leave just 1 monitor. run all your wows in 1024x768 mode... overlapping each other but in such a way that you can see all the fps labels (stacked)

if that works, add the 2nd monitor... try all wows on 1 screen, then move 1/2 over to the new screen... does the fps drop?

add the 2nd card back in... 1 monitor... check fps before putting a wow on the new screen... then move some over... comparing the fps each time

please post your results (and a pic would be awesome).

g'luck!

[Mokoi]

Keyclone lies, he's not out to help you just confuse you!

the real solution is:

up up down down left right left right select start

thats for 2 SLI cards

up up down down left right left right B A B A for single SLI mode.

hope this helps.

[Knytestorme]

know you've been here a while opt and likely read all the stickies more than once but going to ask...are you running windows xp and your desktop not as spanned, cause with essentially the same setup as you (only single 7800gtx) that was the issue that caused me to get capped at around 20fps on my main.

[Nitro]

One thing that helped me a little in this situation was to set the processor affinity: Bring up the windows task manager, switch to the process tab and right click each instance of wow and make sure all 4 processors are checked. I think some people on these forums have suggested giving each instance of wow its own core for affinity but that would not be a good solution, let the os spread cpu use by checking all four. **you will have to do this each time you run wow

Are you using keyclone to setup your windows? If you are then as a test try just running them in windowed mode normally without keyclones setup to see if its better, if it is you may want to consider wow maximizer for layout (i had this issue)

Another issue I had (while using maximizer i think) is that the client was actually running at a higher resolution 1024x 766 and i was laying it out at 800x600 compressing a higher resolution window thus wasting massive amounts of resources x 4 windows.

[Diamndzngunz]

They dont share resources anymore.

Good thing. :-DNow is this for running dual monitors or a single one would work also? I use one monitor so I would hate to remove the SLI cable and loose that performance.

[Stabface]

I'll put 5$ that you're running XP and don't have the monitors set up correctly :)

[Wilbur]

Oh yeah, thats for dual/triple/quad monitors.

For 1 monitor SLI is better.

[opt]

thats awsome, i had a sleep and wake up and had all these replies, <3 DB
I am running windows XP, im using Horizontal Span and not Duel View. In the past on my 4200amd i was able to run all 5 instances on that machine with 2 monitors, so im not so much of a newb:P
For now I am using octopus & its maximising program, sorry keyclone i promise ill upgrade soon, i just wanted to get in and get it going.
Time to start working on what you guys have suggested to me.
brb

[opt]

Here are my results

1 Video Card 1 Monitor
4xWoW Stacked
Frames: 90-100fps
CPU Usage: 65-70%

1 Video Card 2 Monitors [Duel View]
2xWoW Stacker per Monitor
Frames: 45-50fps
CPU Usage: 50-60%

1 Video Cards 2 Monitors [Horizional Span]
2xWoW Stacker per Monitor
Frames: 80-90fps
CPU Usage: 55-65%

2 Video Cards 3 Monitors
2xWow Monitor 1, 1xWow Monitor 2,3
Frames: 35-40fps
CPU Usage: 40-45%

2 Video Cards 4 Monitors
1 WoW Per Monitor
Frames: 15-25fps
CPU Usage: 35-45%

CPU usage goes down but Im not really keen on clocking my machine, the weather here is often around 40-45degrees (104-113 fahrenheit) and id be worried to fry something.
Im going to try setting affinity and playing around with resolutions and see if it makes a difference.
Thanks

[Xzin]

Yes, make sure you remove SLI. It doesn't offer any compelling benefits (and in fact probably slows things down, among other problems) for WoW.

I dare say it because Vista isn't good for much else but you MIGHT want to try switching to Vista and seeing if that helps out at all. It handles multiple monitors and DirectX much better than XP does and should, in theory, offer far better framerates.

There is no reason

1 Video Card 1 Monitor
4xWoW Stacked
Frames: 90-100fps
CPU Usage: 65-70%

should turn into this when you DOUBLE the amount of video card power.

2 Video Cards 4 Monitors
1 WoW Per Monitor
Frames: 15-25fps
CPU Usage: 35-45%

I mean, I assume you are bumping up the resolution and all but still.... this speaks more of a driver issue than anything else.

[Diamndzngunz]

Oh yeah, thats for dual/triple/quad monitors.

For 1 monitor SLI is better.Thanks Wil.

[Trowabarton756]

Yes, make sure you remove SLI. It doesn't offer any compelling benefits (and in fact probably slows things down, among other problems) for WoW.

I dare say it because Vista isn't good for much else but you MIGHT want to try switching to Vista and seeing if that helps out at all. It handles multiple monitors and DirectX much better than XP does and should, in theory, offer far better framerates.

There is no reason

1 Video Card 1 Monitor
4xWoW Stacked
Frames: 90-100fps
CPU Usage: 65-70%

should turn into this when you DOUBLE the amount of video card power.

2 Video Cards 4 Monitors
1 WoW Per Monitor
Frames: 15-25fps
CPU Usage: 35-45%

I mean, I assume you are bumping up the resolution and all but still.... this speaks more of a driver issue than anything else.Well regardless of what he has in the video part of WoW, wouldn't keyclone maximizer resize everything? And power supply like someone said earlier could factor in.

[Bollwerk]

I'm going to agree with Xzin here. Using 2 video cards and 4 monitors, you're best off with Vista. And as other people have said, turn off SLI and remove the SLI bridge between the tops of the 2 cards. SLI only works properly with a single monitor. I am 99% sure the power supply has nothing to do with his problem. If it was the power supply, he would have a different problem.

[Lyonheart]

i made a post about this.. i want to run 3 now ( 4 later ) with my 2 ATi 3780 cards. they are in crossfire.. so as with SLI.. i take the crossfire bridge off ? Right now my PC does not see the 3rd motitor.

[Bollwerk]

i made a post about this.. i want to run 3 now ( 4 later ) with my 2 ATi 3780 cards. they are in crossfire.. so as with SLI.. i take the crossfire bridge off ? Right now my PC does not see the 3rd motitor.Correct. SLI and Crossfire should only be used for a single monitor setup.

[Bravo]

I don't have the extra 8800 that you've got, but I had no clue my guys would be struggling to get through ShattrathI had the same problem with the same setup until I OC'd my q6600 to 3 ghz, this greatly helped. Now I don't cringe when I have to turn in dailies

[Bollwerk]

I don't have the extra 8800 that you've got, but I had no clue my guys would be struggling to get through ShattrathI had the same problem with the same setup until I OC'd my q6600 to 3 ghz, this greatly helped. Now I don't cringe when I have to turn in dailiesI had problems in Shatt also until I upgraded from 2GB to 4GB of RAM.