Any way to boost fps?

[TeamGrizzly]

I am running 5 instances of WoW using HKN with the main toon on a 27" screen (2560X1440) and 4 clones on separate 24" screen (1920X1080). All 5 WoW windows are currently at 2560X1440 resolution (all under one directory). Frame rate is acceptable most of the time (around 60+ fps) but sometimes will drop to unplayable levels (below 10 fps) especially at crowed places (like Ashran).

Is there any way to boost the fps? I tried reducing resolution to 1920X1080 but resulting image on the 27" looks pretty bad. Text, for example, became way less sharp to the extend that they are difficult to read. Not sure if I am setting up WoW wrongly or problem lies with HKN. Suggestions?

[Khatovar]

Are your slaves all running at lower settings? You don't mention framecaps on the slaves. There's a good page over on ISBoxer.com about framerates (http://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Tweak_your_framerate), most of which is still relevant. The only differences {offhand} are - you'd need to use ingame commands or the ingame slider directly to set framecaps

/console maxfps 60
/console maxfpsbk 10

The first macro sets a maximum FPS of 60 while the game is in the foreground. The second sets the maximum FPS while the game is in the background {slave instances} to 10 FPS.

The second difference is no "CPU Strategy Wizard" in HotKeyNet, but you can still do a lot of the same things with ingame macros. Use the SetAffinity (http://hotkeynet.com/ref/setaffinity.html) command for Hyperthreading (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/19242-My-Main-runs-very-slow-when-using-HKN). For a lot of other bits, you can look over some of the old "FPS Saver (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/44575-Advanced-Video-Settings?p=337130#post337130)" macros. I can't speak to the cvars being uptodate or even valid for WoD, but it's someplace to start.

Keep in mind, new expansions mean new graphics. WoD gave us new character models and prettier ground clutter, both of which can be a performance hit. If it's been a while since you've played {which your post history indicates}, MoP also increased the actual distance of View Distance settings and added some stuff like SSAO, different refraction {IIRC}, DX9 vs DX11 that impacted a lot of people. You should revisit all your graphics settings if you're playing an old, updated version, though you'll probably save yourself some headache simply using a fresh install.


Outside of that, I'd make sure you've limited the addons on the slaves to reduce the load - no need to have Auctioneer loaded 5 times or whatever. You can even use something like this (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/45215-Newb-IS-boxer-help-please?p=343530&viewfull=1#post343530)in the FPS Saver/swap macro to enable and disable addon sets as needed.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

My PC (460GTX, i7-2600K @ 3.4GHz) won't handle full-up DX11 WoW at 1920x1080 x5. I had to do a few things to get mine looking OK but being playable:

1) Manage CPU affinity. This is critical. I use ISBoxer but I do not use any of the defaults as those always left me with at least one or two windows that stuttered badly. My CPU affinity is like so:

Slot 1 = cores 0, 1, 2, 3
Slot 2 = 0, 1, 2, 3
Slot 3 = 4, 5, 6, 7
Slot 4 = 4, 5, 6, 7
Slot 5 = 2, 3, 4, 5
dxNothing slot = 0, 1, 6, 7 (you won't use it now but noting to be thorough)

2) Turn down graphics settings. Mine are set just high enough to see Bad Things On The Ground(tm) and look reasonably pretty without incurring much overhead.

1920x1080
Anti-aliasing = none
Graphics page:
VSync = Enabled
Texture Rez = Fair
Texture filtering = bilinear
Projected Textures = Enabled
View Distance (see below)
Environment Detail = Low
Ground clutter = low
Shadow quality = low
Liquid Detail = low
Sunshafts = low
Particle Density = good
SSAO = disabled
Refraction = disabled
Advanced page:
Triple buffering = disabled
Reduce input lag = disabled
Hardware cursor = enabled
Graphics API = DX11
Show new character models = UNchecked (this was a large problem in major cities)

3) Background FPS set to very low as Khatovar noted above. My maxfps = 60 and maxfpsbk = 12.

4) Use a farclip macro to limit draw distance.

ViewDistanceShort:
/console farclip 1

ViewDistanceLong: (for your main toon you are driving with)
/console farclip 750

Hope that helps. Some of the options in the graphics section can be set via console commands. http://www.wowwiki.com/Console_variables has a lot of them.

[CMKCot]

there's an option under the system/advanced setting menu on wow that allows you to load the old character models. that helps a LOT on the other clients.