Low Framerate

[g3brown]

I'm currently trying to multi-box 5 WoW accounts. I have a Q6600, 8GB, 8800GTX running Vista x64. I'm running my main client in windowed mode @ 1280x800 on a 30" LCD and the slave accounts using maximizer on a second 21" LCD @ 840x525 (I've tried 800x600 as well). I should note that I run the 1280x800 maximized with the taskbar visible, but I have experimented with no border and non-windowed mode as well.

After reading a little in this forum I thought this system would handle it. It isn't. I'm getting frame rates in the teens in the Orc starting area. I've played WoW for a couple months now with the same system with all video settings max out (except for resolution) and I've never really noticed any performance issue except maybe a few hiccups in Shatt when things are busy. Thinking it might improve the situation I dropped in another video card in my system (8800GT) and attached the 2nd monitor to that card. Much to my surprise it really didn't improve the situation.

I feel like this system should be able to handle 5 simultaneous copies of the game running, but I can't get a decent frame rate. I would want at least 60 fps on my main.

I'm going to nuke my OS in the next day just to be sure there isn't any driver issues lingering around. I really feel like I'm messing something, perhaps some secret video setting lurking in an ini file somewhere. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? I really like the idea of trying to pull this off with a single system and two monitors versus multiple computers. Thanks!

[Knytestorme]

That system should do it so not sure what it could be. Since you're running vista you don't have to worry about the dual-screen xp bug so that's not it.

Have you tried it with the main client running fullscreen on the 30"....oh yeah, the other thing to be careful of if running them all in windowed mode is that none of the clients are overlapping each other (or onto the other screen) by even a pixel as that will lead to low framerates too. Finally, are you running keyclone and if so have you set your front and back framerates?

[Sovereign]

have you checked your cpu and gpu heat levels?

[Nitro]

Do you have aero running? that would cause the problem you are describing.

[g3brown]

Thanks for the suggestions Knytestorme. Still haven't had any luck though. I can't even run 2 slaves smoothly. My 2nd screen is 1680x1050 native, so I was using:

margin=0,525,0,840
margin=0,525,840,0
margin=525,0,0,840
margin=525,0,840,0

I changed it to:

margin=0,530,0,845
margin=0,530,845,0
margin=530,0,0,845
margin=530,0,845,0

That left a 10 pixel border between all the windows. I'm using hotkeynet 0.127 build 94, but I haven't really started with it yet as I can't get what I consider a playable frame rate.

Sovereign: heat isn't a problem

Nirto: I tried that, but in my experience with Vista, I've never had that make or break something.

If I minimize all the windows, my main plays smooth. That is the only thing I've notice that helps the situation. If I uncheck the vertical sync option, the game reports high frame rates, but it is still dropping frames as things studder across the screen.

[Skrimshaw]

Odd, I'm running almost the identical setup with the exception of 4GB of RAM and 2 - 22" Monitors instead of a 30 and 21. I have mine all set to 60 front and 30 back and they run that maxed all the time even in Ogr or UC. Are you running the windows via keyclones maximizer? That would be the only other difference between our setups that would make that big of an impact. I know when I run 4 windows and don't use keyclone's maximizer my FPS drop significantly.

[Chorizotarian]

I'm finding it helpful to limit my main to 30 fps with vsync off. That way I get a smooth 30 fps as opposed to 45-60 with shudders.

[Bovidae]

Perhaps your bottleneck is not related to video processing.

You say you are running a Q6600, have you overclocked it to at least 3.0ghz? Have you set your different instances to different processor affinities? WoW will properly utilize two cores, so setting instance 1&2 to CPU#0/1 and instance 3,4&5 to CPU#2/3 would definitely be better than letting the application decide (which will cram everything onto CPU#0/1)

8gb RAM + WoW = TehSuck
WoW will only utilize the first 4gb because it is a 32bit application. Using 1gb+ of this on video memory will only compound this problem, because now you only have 3gb available to system memory. I'm sure you are using virtual memory (the old pagefile.sys) Maybe that read/write time is contributing to your low performance. There is no real solution for this afaik except for Raid0 Raptors

FPS caps. I set my slaves to cap at 15fps. I don't really play from their screens, but only monitor them, so perfect animation is not as pertinent as it is for the main box. This should conserve power for your focus, maybe.

[Nitro]

Thanks for the suggestions Knytestorme. Still haven't had any luck though. I can't even run 2 slaves smoothly. My 2nd screen is 1680x1050 native, so I was using:

margin=0,525,0,840
margin=0,525,840,0
margin=525,0,0,840
margin=525,0,840,0

I changed it to:

margin=0,530,0,845
margin=0,530,845,0
margin=530,0,0,845
margin=530,0,845,0

That left a 10 pixel border between all the windows. I'm using hotkeynet 0.127 build 94, but I haven't really started with it yet as I can't get what I consider a playable frame rate.

Sovereign: heat isn't a problem

Nirto: I tried that, but in my experience with Vista, I've never had that make or break something.

If I minimize all the windows, my main plays smooth. That is the only thing I've notice that helps the situation. If I uncheck the vertical sync option, the game reports high frame rates, but it is still dropping frames as things studder across the screen.

When you are lagging pull up your Task Manager and tells us what you see, is your CPU running at 100% ?

[Aradar]

I am not a computer guru by any means so I will simply state my own experiences:

I also have a 30" monitor that runs one client, all settings maxed, perfectly fine, even in Shattrath but if I go to 2 clients windowed, it gets really funky. I do however run with two video cards dual linked to this monitor. As for adding an additional monitor, I have attempted this by turning the dual link off with again bad results. I finally decided on running all 5 clients on the 30" monitor and have had very little problems. I lag a bit when I first come in to town but if I give it time to catch up it's fine from there on. However, my crew has not been to Shattrath yet so we will see.

[Bollwerk]

Change from Aero to Vista Basic:

Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Personalization - Window Color and Appearance - "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" - select anything besides Windows Aero - such as Windows Vista Basic

[g3brown]

@Skrimshaw - I'm using Maximizer 1.4.1 that I found on Curse ('http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/146/'). I did purchase Keyclone and gave it a try. I didn't any noticeable frame rate improvement over Maximizer though. It did get me to playing with WoW's maxfps and maxfpsbk command lines though, which does affect my framerate. What resolutions do you run at on both your monitors?

@Bovidae - I wasn't using Keyclone, but I experimented with it and didn't better my results. To my knowledge a 32-bit application in Windows is limited to 2gb of memory. Windows should handle the memory dynamically though, since I'm running multiple 32-bit applications. When running all 5 clients, my system is only using about 2.5 GB. I think you are referring to the fact that most 32-bit operating systems have a 4GB limit of addressable memory.

@Nitro - It never hits 100%, stays around 65%-85%. Some of the cores are maxing out though.

@Aradar - You appear to be having my similar results. When you say add 2 clients windowed, do you mean on the same screen or one copy of WoW on each screen? Do you currently with your 5 copies on one screen with Maximizer or do you just alt-tab or whatever between the windows?

@Bollwerk - As stated before Aero vs Basic is not affecting my performance.

My slow frame rate appears to be related to the second screen. I tried a single screen solution where I put my main on the top of the screen at a resolution of 1280x560 stretched out to 2560x1120, then my 4 slaves across the bottom of the screen at 640x480 each. This works perfect. I get a smooth 60fps on my main. I'm still a little puzzled why I can't run the 4 slaves on the 2nd monitor without affecting the main's FPS though, especially since I'm running them off a separate card.

On a side note, I'm intrigued with Keyclones new PIP function. I'm not sure my thinking and playing style aligns with Keyclones though. Keyclone appears to be a software version of a keyboard multiplexer, where pressing key X would send X to each copy of WoW. I've been using HotkeyNet which allows me to capture X and then send X, Y, or/and Z to any or all copies of WoW running. Is this correct? Perhaps I could use Keyclone and HotkeyNet. For others reading this, another solution is AutoHotkey, but HotkeyNet seemed do be a little more straight forward to me :).

[Aradar]

@Aradar - You appear to be having my similar results. When you say add 2 clients windowed, do you mean on the same screen or one copy of WoW on each screen? Do you currently with your 5 copies on one screen with Maximizer or do you just alt-tab or whatever between the windows?

2 clients on one screen or multiple screens, doesn't matter. As for my setup, I use the maximizer built in to Keyclone.


My slow frame rate appears to be related to the second screen. I tried a single screen solution where I put my main on the top of the screen at a resolution of 1280x560 stretched out to 2560x1120, then my 4 slaves across the bottom of the screen at 640x480 each. This works perfect. I get a smooth 60fps on my main. I'm still a little puzzled why I can't run the 4 slaves on the 2nd monitor without affecting the main's FPS though, especially since I'm running them off a separate card.

I use this same setup, one on top, 4 across the bottom. For the most part, I get great fps on my main but I have the main’s video settings at default and the clones are set at minimal settings with an fps max of 15. I just recently got in to Scholo and Strath though and they both lag pretty bad for some reason so I have set my main to minimum settings as well.

[Chorizotarian]

Change from Aero to Vista Basic:

Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Personalization - Window Color and Appearance - "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" - select anything besides Windows Aero - such as Windows Vista Basic

It pains me to say this (<== works for MS), but this seems to have fixed my shuddering issue. Looks like I can now run my main at full-screen 2560x1600, 60fps and 4 alts on secondary monitors. Thanks!

[Chorizotarian]

Follow-up to my previous post: "Windows Standard" works great for me, but when I tried Vista Basic today I got a sharp drop in FR on my main (really low, like 15 fps). Not sure what to make of that.