Multiboxing on a laptop?

[yarr]

Has anyone been able to multibox comfortably on a laptop? I'm thinking of buying one that I can 3/4 box on (for when i travel or visit at my GF's house)
IF anyone has been able to multibox comfortably can they put the stats of that laptop here? I was thinking of something like

Core2duo dual core
3GB ram
Geforce 8400 or something better than that.

[sanix]

I just got a new desktop computer but before that I was using my old desktopn for my main and a laptop for my 4 clones.
The stats are:

Duo core 2GHz
2G RAM
Nvidia Quadro NVS 135M

I was lagging a bit in cities but otherwise it was enough to play.
The problem you are going to have is the screen size : everything is going to be tiny

[Anozireth]

I have been running 3 clients on my laptop. Don't have the actual specs handy, but here's what I recall off the top of my head. It's a 2.0ghz Core2, 2gb of ram and the 8400 GS. It's less than ideal, but it's playable with settings all at minimum. Cities and other busy areas can be a problem, as well as certain graphical effects like fog. I think a fourth client would be pushing it with my system.

Edit: As the poster above noted, to keep the framerate up on the main window I have to scale the others so small that it's impossible to read anything and tough to interact with everything in the UI for looting and quests and such.

[ilikemages]

laptops max out at 3 clients :)

mine runs 3 at

60 fps/45/45

[yarr]

Oops double post.

On a side note, the post delete button doesn't seem to work.

[yarr]

laptops max out at 3 clients :)

mine runs 3 at

60 fps/45/45

what's the specs on your machine?

And what resolution do you have on each window?

Do you have a widescreen LCD? How do you set up the windows? just trying to plan ahead for what would be the ideal setup, ideal type of LCD, and what kinda screen size I will want.

Thanks!

[Sanctume]

Area 51 9750 laptop. 19" 1900x1200 res. I can 4-box comfortably when I last tested.

I 3-box now, but on 3 separate machines.

[mlwhitt]

I have a Toshiba Satellite X205-S7483 Gaming Laptop along with an external 22" LCD and I am able to play with four 800x600 windows without any major problems except when I am in Org. I had just been running 2 copies and another copy on my iMac but I just last night went ahead and went a full 5 accounts and have ran 4 pretty good. I only have 256Mb Video RAM and 3Gb system RAM.

Pretty much it is all up to what you find acceptable. If you are willing to drop the texture levels and such down to minimum you should be able to run without any real problems. I spend most of my time in Instances so that helps cut down on the FPS problem too. I get around 45FPS on all four windows when I am in an instance. When I am out in the world in most zones I get around 32FPS. In Org I get around 15FPS or even less depending on the time of day.

[Quix]

I have an ACER 5672 with:
Intel T2300 processor
2gb Ram
ATI 1600 Vid card with 256mb ram

I can run 3 clients on it minimum settings without too much trouble.

The thing was a steal from new egg a year ago for around $1,000 us.

[Anozireth]

Just wanted to add some more to this one. This thread got me curious about what would happen if I tried more than 3 instances on my laptop, so I got a couple more trial accounts and went for the full 5. At first, the FPS was so low that it was unplayable. Then I discovered the wonderful maxfps and maxfpsbk commands. Setting these to a modest 30 and 12 resulted in a very playable experience. The clones are just fast enough to work and it frees up the processor for the main window which runs at a smooth 30 fps (which is better than I was getting with only 3 instances without these commands). I might up the values a little even since my processor usage is not even at 100% with this setup.

On a side note, I seem to have a problem when switching the windows using keyclone's PiP function. After heavily using the PiP while getting macros set up for the new 5-man team, eventually all the windows became capped at 12 FPS (which of course isn't really playable for the main). It seems like WoW is failing to recognize when it gets focus back. The only fix I could find was to restart all the clients. I'm still not sure if this is due to the PiP or the focus following the mouse between windows. I plan to do more investigation when I get a chance.

[yarr]

Just wanted to add some more to this one. This thread got me curious about what would happen if I tried more than 3 instances on my laptop, so I got a couple more trial accounts and went for the full 5. At first, the FPS was so low that it was unplayable. Then I discovered the wonderful maxfps and maxfpsbk commands. Setting these to a modest 30 and 12 resulted in a very playable experience. The clones are just fast enough to work and it frees up the processor for the main window which runs at a smooth 30 fps (which is better than I was getting with only 3 instances without these commands). I might up the values a little even since my processor usage is not even at 100% with this setup.

On a side note, I seem to have a problem when switching the windows using keyclone's PiP function. After heavily using the PiP while getting macros set up for the new 5-man team, eventually all the windows became capped at 12 FPS (which of course isn't really playable for the main). It seems like WoW is failing to recognize when it gets focus back. The only fix I could find was to restart all the clients. I'm still not sure if this is due to the PiP or the focus following the mouse between windows. I plan to do more investigation when I get a chance.

cool, good info here, thanks everyone who posted!

Could i get some info on what specs your machine is running?

This is the kind of machine I was thinking of getting: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115453

EDITS: btw a lot of machines come with vista now adays.... Would it be a good idea to revert it back to XP? Or just deal with vista quirks? I have not tried vista before not sure what to expect but i have heard a lot of bad/annoying things about it.

[Anozireth]

Mine is a Dell Inspiron 1420 with Core2 Duo T7250 @ 2.00 Ghz. 2 GB of RAM. Video is the NVIDIA 8400M GS 128MB. 14 inch display at 1440x900 resolution. Running Vista Home Premium. About 5 months old now. It's not a top of the line laptop, but it's pretty close. I did buy it intending to use it for gaming at times.

For 5 instances, I'm running the main window at 1000x750 with the clones all stacked to the right side, each at a tiny 300x225. Can't really see much on the clones (can't read anything at all), but it isn't too hard to handle looting and quests. The delay of changing focus between windows is more annoying than the tiny screens IMO. As I mentioned, capping the background framerate on the clones is really the key to having the main window playable.

All in all, it is playable but definitely leaves me wanting more. I'd like to upgrade (or replace) my old desktop that can barely handle two for a system that can easily handle all 5 at at least 800x600, but it's hard to convince the wife to let me buy two new monitors and a new computer when I just bought the laptop. :D

[Ðeceased]

got myself an apple macbook pro 2.4gh Intel Core 2 Duo Nvidia 8600M GT and 4gb of ram.. (3 under vista tho)

handles my 5 accounts fine altho slight heating problems atm (shouldn't be such a problem on non mac laptops tho if the manufacturer is capable)
I let mine run at the minimum required fps for keyclone as I'm heat limited rather than speed ;( (trying to get that fixed)

screen size is a little bit of an issue unless you have a second monitor to plug into when you get home :)

I can't tell you how nice it is to be outside playing WoW tho :thumbup:

[minty]

handles my 5 accounts fine altho slight heating problems atm (shouldn't be such a problem on non mac laptops tho if the manufacturer is capable)
I let mine run at the minimum required fps for keyclone as I'm heat limited rather than speed ;( (trying to get that fixed)


Check out smcFanControl here ('http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/page5/page5.html'). It lets you override the minimum fan speed and really helps with keeping the macbook cooled off. I'm using an older core duo macbook pro that's got worse heat issues than the more recent revisions, so I actually use that program when I'm not multiboxing too. Apple settings really aim for quiet over cool. Default minimum fan speed is 1000 rpm. I override it to 3000 rpm and can only hear the fans if I try while getting a significant temp reduction.


As for performance on this machine, I run 4 at a time with no issues on minimum graphics settings. 5 tasks it though, but is still moderately playable.

Core Duo 2GHz
2 GB ram
Radeon X1600 w/ 128MB

4 instances running on secondary screen at 960x600, 5th on laptop screen at 1440x900.

[Ðeceased]

Check out smcFanControl here ('http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/page5/page5.html'). It lets you override the minimum fan speed and really helps with keeping the macbook cooled off. I'm using an older core duo macbook pro that's got worse heat issues than the more recent revisions, so I actually use that program when I'm not multiboxing too. Apple settings really aim for quiet over cool. Default minimum fan speed is 1000 rpm. I override it to 3000 rpm and can only hear the fans if I try while getting a significant temp reduction.
I've been using it for a while now too :) only thing is to be sure it won't overheat, I have to pump them up to 5500 rpm.. and also use a portable heatsink for my laptop when I'm at my desk.
If I'm doing it somewhere else i have to turn them up even higher :S

u got similar numbers or should I go have it looked at? u mentioned 3000 rpm.. is that when ur multiboxing?

[Noids99]

I've recently started 5 boxing on my lappie and not going to badly at the moment, although cities take a good 20secs or so before they smooth out. My toons are only 20ish though so I have not experienced Outlands which are supposely more taxing to the system.

My specs are:

Core2duo 7400 (2.2GHz)

2GB Ram

512MB 7950GTX



I set the main to run off core1 in keyclone and the remainder to run off core2. MAXFPS is 45 and MAXFPSBK is 15. The majority of the time, all of the clients run at these max lvls. Graphics settings are basically medium qualilty.



Two main problems I find with my system. Occasionally I will get an insane slowdown which sometimes crashes WoW. Running Taskmanager, it tends to show bugger all free physical memory and a large chunk in the PF so I'm assuming I am out of RAM and the program is struggling with the HDD instead. I really want to grab an extra 2GB as a result.

My other problem is the display. 17" 1920 x 1200. Its generally an awesome LCD, but I run my main as a large full sized window on the left with 4 alts tiled vertically down the right side. This is the only way to make the main big enough to play. If I want to do anything with the alts I have to PiP which gets tedious. I have tried running a second SRT monitor at 1600X1200, but can't get keyclone maximiser to scale it properly, so I've given up and just run off the lappie screen. Saying that, the vid card still had absolutely no probs pushing around the extra pixels on that screen, so I still hold that the RAM is whats holding me back with my setup for now.



Cheers

[minty]

u got similar numbers or should I go have it looked at? u mentioned 3000 rpm.. is that when ur multiboxing?

3000rpm is how I leave it for normal use. When multiboxing I push them to at least 4000, often 5000, depending if I'm playing 4 or 5.

[xtobbenx]

I got the Acer Aspire 5920 Gaming Laptop, 2x 2,2intel CPUs. 4gb ram, and a 8600 nvidia card and i run 4clients just fine. But i think that my resent upgrade from2k to 4k ram helped alot but i was only dualboxing on 2k.. so i dont really know.