Quad core but not impressed.

[shaeman]

After much misery trying to get my graphics card and network usb dongle working I finally managed to get my pc up and running.

Copy wow across, fire it up and I'm dying to check out the frames per second this puppy will give.

I run around shatrath and my frames per second is 30...... just 30.

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.

Details of my rig are

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 8MB CACHE 1066 MHZ TOWER COMPUTER WITH NVIDIA 8500GT 1024MB DDR2 GRAPHICS CARD.
500GB 16MB CACHE SATA HARD DRIVE
WITH 20X DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVDRW + 2GB DDR 2 MEMORY .

OS is VIsta 64.


I was kind of expecting double the frames per second.

Am I being unrealistic?

I then decided to run a second instance of wow on it - the second one fired up and the frame rates dropped through the floor -with 8fps on one and 10-15 I guess on the other. Surely this isn't right.

Anyone with similar specs seeing the same level of performance - or more importantly far better performance?

my vista 32 cheap laptop amd turion 64 2.2 ghz laptop with 2 gig memory and a nvidia geoforce 6100 seems to handle two instances better, and runs one instance of wow in a window at 15 fps.

I really thought my quad core machine was going to rock.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get the level of performance I feel I should be getting out of this box?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The 8500 may be your culprit. Specs VS the 8800GT:

Core clock: 450Mhz vs 600+MHz
Stream Processors: 16 vs 112
Memory bus: 128bit vs 256bit
Memory clock: 600MHz vs 1800MHz

So you're talking about a card with about 1/3 of the processing power of an 8800GT. If you're talking about running a high-rez single monitor or dual-monitor setup, I can see that being an issue.

[Sarduci]

My four followers are running capped at 30fps, my main is capped at 60fps and that's where they all sit 99% of the time. 8800GTS for the video card w/Q6600, 8GB RAM, 64bit Vista Business

[Bovidae]

The 8500 may be your culprit. Specs VS the 8800GT:

Core clock: 450Mhz vs 600+MHz
Stream Processors: 16 vs 112
Memory bus: 128bit vs 256bit
Memory clock: 600MHz vs 1800MHz

So you're talking about a card with about 1/3 of the processing power of an 8800GT. If you're talking about running a high-rez single monitor or dual-monitor setup, I can see that being an issue.This would be my first suspect.

Also, WoW will only run on two cores, #0 and #1 by default. Even then, only sound functions are split to the second core. Take a look at the performance tab of the Windows Task Manager, it may give you some insight to how much you're loading the different cores.

Don't forget to set the processor affinity to #2 and #3 for the second instance, or else you will be slamming your first core, while your other cores are taking a nap. If you turn the sound off, on your slaves, you can asign slaves to run on 1 specific core only: Slave 1-core#1, Slave2-core#2, Slave3-core#3.

If at all possible, do no cross the gap of this dual dual-core chip. Remember, the Q6600 is basicly 2 core2duos on 1 die. There is a bus between cores#0/1 and cores#2/3, but the link between these two chips is considerably weaker.

[Chorizotarian]

If at all possible, do no cross the gap of this dual dual-core chip. Remember, the Q6600 is basicly 2 core2duos on 1 die. There is a bus between cores#0/1 and cores#2/3, but the link between these two chips is considerably weaker.

Can you explain this more? How do we avoid "crossing the gap"?

[zanthor]

8500GT is a VERY low end card.

[zanthor]

Question on the sound functions...

So if you are running 5 copies, 1 with sound, and 4 without... would it be best to set them up...

Main With Sound - Core 1/2
Alt1 - Core 3
Alt2 - Core 3
Alt3 - Core 4
Alt4 - Core 4

I'll have to play with this and see how that runs... could be interesting!

[Bovidae]

If at all possible, do no cross the gap of this dual dual-core chip. Remember, the Q6600 is basicly 2 core2duos on 1 die. There is a bus between cores#0/1 and cores#2/3, but the link between these two chips is considerably weaker.

Can you explain this more? How do we avoid "crossing the gap"?Setting a processes affinity to cores#0/2 or 1/2 or 1/3 (one core from each of the chips) would be theoretically lower performance than selecting cores#0/1 or cores#2/3. This would apply to any application capable of utilizing two cores.

Since WoW has such crappy dual core utilization to begin with, I suspect it's not that big of a deal, especially if you play with the sound off.

Main With Sound - Core 1/2
Alt1 - Core 3
Alt2 - Core 3
Alt3 - Core 4
Alt4 - Core 4

would probably be the best split for 5 boxing. To get a little more anal, you can force all your peripheral programs to the second core, because the Main WoW utilizes the first core A LOT MORE than the second core. Because of this, I force Ventrilo, Firefox, VLC onto the second core which is only running the MainWoW Sound.

ps/fyi: Intel/Windows starts counting cores at 0, so your quad core processor has cores 0, 1, 2, and 3

[Chorizotarian]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[Bovidae]

I LUV HARDWAREZ!!!

no problem

and special thanks to Mr Keyclone for integrating such a great affinity tool into his software, its just...great. I just wish I could find something as user friendly for the rest of windows.

[Kissell13]

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 8MB CACHE 1066 MHZ TOWER COMPUTER WITH NVIDIA 8500GT 1024MB DDR2 GRAPHICS CARD.
500GB 16MB CACHE SATA HARD DRIVE
WITH 20X DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVDRW + 2GB DDR 2 MEMORY .

OS is VIsta 64.2gb ram and 8500gt are most likely your problems.

[JD50]

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 8MB CACHE 1066 MHZ TOWER COMPUTER WITH NVIDIA 8500GT 1024MB DDR2 GRAPHICS CARD.
500GB 16MB CACHE SATA HARD DRIVE
WITH 20X DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVDRW + 2GB DDR 2 MEMORY .

OS is VIsta 64.2gb ram and 8500gt are most likely your problems.

QFT

Your video card is EXTREMELY low end and with RAM being as cheap as it is right now there is no reason to not have at least 4GB. I believe that you can get an 8800GT for around $200, which is a great price for such a good Video card.

[shaeman]

Excellent - thanks for the feedback so far, it's a great help.

I suppose I was expecting more - my laptop is quite low end (as mentioned). It's onboard nvidia has got to be far less superior than even the 8500gt surely. They both have vista (my desktop has 64), they both have 2gb of ram. I expected this desktop to at least run two wow's as well as my laptop.

Then again it's probably not such a great test that i've performed - On my laptop I have most of the detail set to low. On the desktop it was all set to high. I've not run tweakvista to turn off loads of services etc so will do that. I'll drop down the settings on the secondary wow's to the minimum detail possible. I may even turn down my settings a bit on the main machine. I'll turn of the sound on the secondaries (hadn't even done that).

How do i set the processor affinity? Is this a feature of vista or is it a feature of keyclone?

If it's keyclone I'll get that downloaded to my new pc and try that out.

I'll upgrade the ram as soon as possible, but will hold off on the graphics card for a bit, otherwise I will draw aggro from the wife boss :D , and that's a fight no 5 man team can win.

Worst comes to the worst I will be able to run two on my main machine and two on the laptop so four boxing at least.













I suppose I need to experiment further - I didn't give this a proper check last night. I'll have to work out how to

[JD50]

But that's the beauty of keeping the same case while you upgrade your PC. To her, it looks like the same PC that's been sitting there for the last couple of years. Little does she know you just put a brand new smoking fast video card in there. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. :D

[Bollwerk]

It is worth pointing out that the AMOUNT of memory on a video card has almost NOTHING to do with how fast it will perform.

1GB of video ram on an 8500GT is like having the interior room of an Expedition with the engine of a Geo Metro. =)

[shaeman]

Well - I am now far more impressed with quad core.

30 fps was in shattrath. This is running full screen at the highest res my graphics card will handle. As soon as i step outside shattrath the fps doubles. (I haven't even tried it in Azeroth which on my laptop yields higher fps than outlands).

I was failing miserably to compare like with like. My laptop had graphic detail dialed down, was running in a window (run it at full screen and it is gonna be 8-10 fps).

The 8500 may not be the best graphics card, but I suspect I will easily run 3 instances of wow on one machine. (I had two running - both with sound on, both with decent graphic detail and without trying to allocate a wow to another core). it was 30fps on both.

And I've upgraded the ram on the machine to 4gb so the only let down now is the graphics card.

[Drakkun]

I think I've posted it before, but if you're looking for a pure affinity program for windows, I use Mike Lin's SMP Seesaw Pro (http://www.mlin.net/SMPSeesaw.shtml ). I use this program daily with the 3D design and architectural programs at work. I have a dual quad core system and move applications around to any of the 8 cores for maximum performance daily.

[Wilbur]

For your main Use Cores 0 and 2

For Alts use Cores 1 and 3.

^^Because of how the chip is laid out (and what shares resources on low latency buses) this will give you the best performance.

[daviddoran]

I have a Q6600 OC'd to 3.3ghz, and I noticed huge performance improvement by putting the main on 0 and 1 and the alts on 2 and 3. Before I had them all on all cores, and the performance was inconsistent, one core at 100% and the others at like 10-20. Now its even accross the board.

[Havelcek]

For your main Use Cores 0 and 2

For Alts use Cores 1 and 3.

^^Because of how the chip is laid out (and what shares resources on low latency buses) this will give you the best performance.Probably a stupid question but how are you assigning more than one core per client? Keyclone seems to only allow the assignment of one core...

[Chorizotarian]

If you edit the config.wtf file directly you can do this:


SET processAffinityMask "12"

12 = 1100, so that means use core 3 or core 4. WoW doesn't really use both.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778017311&sid=1

[Havelcek]

Does keyclone override those settings?

[Chorizotarian]

I assume so, if you enable the option. I think there is also a Windows API to set the affinity, so barring confirmation from Rob about how the code works you'd have to play with it to be sure.

[Bovidae]

I do not set the Keyvclone affinity for my main, this lets WoW set it to 0/1 (default). Then I use Keyclone to assign the clones to individual cores. If you turn sound off on the clones, they can only use 1 core, anyways.

[Eteocles]

You can set it manually too: ctrl + alt + del > Click Wow.exe > Rightclick > Set Affinity... > Check desired Cores. I personally use Core 0+1 for main + secondary alt, and cores 2+3 for the last 3 alts; no noticeable difference and no hiccups.

8500gt 1gb ddr2 ram < 8800gt 512mb DDR3 ram. XFX slightly-overclocked 8800GT 512mb DDR3 on Newegg = $180ish(with optional rebate after the $180 I think); same one I bought and despite it being HUEG LIEK XBOX LOLZ(it's as long as my whole freakin mobo and as stall as the case is wide almost...I had to do some mighty careful SATA-cord maneuvering around it when I installed it) but it's worth it; again haven't had any hiccups. Definently upgrade the vidcard if nothing else, and I, personally, recommend going with 8800 vs any 9x00 series; based purely on what I've read, they don't run much better than 8800s, and an 8800 is overkill for WoW as it is anyways...no need to pay more for what you don't need :p

2gb ram is also bad for more than 3; newegg has G-Skill 4gb dual-channel ddr2 800mhz on sale for a measly $80, grab it while you can :p I paid $100 for 2gb last year so 80 for 4gb is a great deal, ram's cheap right now lol

I also recommend using maxfpsbk 20 on all windows, including your Main, since it's only the fps while the window is not up front.