I's there a favored guide I could follow?Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56894#post568 94
I's there a favored guide I could follow?Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56894#post568 94
www.overclockers.com and tomshardware both have FAQ's about it.
OC'ing may take some research. For RAM, it's much more difficult because a minor timings difference can result in memory corruption (I just went through this...gah). For CPUs, assuming your mobo is good quality, you can just up the multiplier (yours is probably set to 9x) until you get to 3.0-3.2GHz and call it a day. For RAM, you'll need to adjust your mobo BIOS timings tweaks to match the specs on the RAM. Once you get it all OC'd, you'll definitely want to run Prime95 in 4-core "Torture Test" mode overnight and make sure it doesn't show any errors. Here's some links to the tools you'll need to make sure everything is still kosher:
Core Temp utility -- for watching the temps on all 4 cores. Should run during normal gaming no higher than ~65-70C and no higher than ~80C under torture test.
CPU-Z timings and specs identification utility -- for making sure the RAM, CPU and FSB are running at the correct timings and voltages.
Prime95 for quad-core systems -- Same as basic prime95 but supports dual/triple/quad CPUs. Run this on torture test overnight to validate data integrity at your current settings. This thread has the link to the Windows 64bit version.
Looking at the basic datasheet for your RAM, it looks like the base timings are 5-5-5-18 @ 1.9V. You'll want to run CPU-Z and see what your voltage is ACTUALLY running at versus what you see in the RAM voltage settings, then tweak those to match it. As an example, mine was running at 1.8V by default but the RAM I have requires 2.0V. So I had to bump my "DDR2 Overvoltage" setting to +0.20V. Unfortunately, I don't see any settings for tRC, tRCD or any of the advanced stuff, which may or may not be a problem. Short version is set your mobo to 5-5-5-18 and the tweak to get it to 1.9V actual and then bump the speed/multiplier up a little and see if Prime95 will run successfully overnight. If it does, you're good. If not, back it off and try again. It's not a quick process and, as mentioned above, you'll get more results out of OC'ing your CPU than messing with the RAM.
Good luck!
If it were me, I would have spent $1000 on a 2nd machine to split the loads. With the way wow utilizes the resources of your machine, you would probably see alot more gain with in-city performance by splitting machines rather than upgrading your current one further.
This may be silly ... but I run on a MUCH older system then you ... you may want to try using WinEQ2 for your window management .... I run 5 and don't really lag at all.... though i havnt tried the other screen managers, as this one has always worked for me
I already have 12 machines that can run wow very well, but im a fan of a single box setup:Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Majo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56929#post5692 9
http://www.knightsofshadow.org/ftpsc.../wowsetup1.jpg
http://www.knightsofshadow.org/ftpsc.../wowsetup2.jpg
Just a warning, using this tool can eat a ton of time getting the tweaks just right but I love it non the less.
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
- Service Pack Integration
- Component Removal
- Unattended Setup
- Driver Integration *
- Hotfixes Integration **
- Tweaks
- Services Configuration
- Patches ***
- Bootable ISO creation
nlite is an OS mod tool. With it you can strip out all the crap in Windows like IE, WIM and anything else you want, the problem is that you *can* strip out too much and mess up your OS install but the tools warns you about what you should and shouldn't remove.
I've had great success using this tool in developing a lean XP SP2 install CD with all the latest nVidia/mobo/raid/ether drivers
When you run the tool you direct it to a CD and it extracts the installation files, then you can apply the latest SP's and hotfixes, all the drivers for your hardware (you can remove pre-existing ones as well), add an unattended installation config, remove/configure services, make registry tweaks, add any of your own apps to the image and then make a bootable CD.
Cheers!
The Windows OS's get progressively fatter with each new version so this app allows you to keep the best aspects and remove the crap that only slows your box down.
Yea nLites pretty cool, i use to manage alot of mobile devices in the MS labs (laptops, tapletPC, ultramobiles) and it was nice for building reinstallation disks with all the right drivers ready to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Korruptor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56980#pos t56980
/boggleQuote:
Originally Posted by 'Nitro',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56953#post569 53
O_o
I'm moving in, btw.
I wouldn't OC anything, personally. You have plenty of horsepower to run what you're trying to do. Something is obviously not working right. (For reference, I have a core 2 duo + 8800gtx + 30" monitor and run 60fps main screen everywhere but major cities - 5 clients).
Things I would try:
As mentioned, pull one of the cards out of the machine (do this, don't just disable one card or w/e, physically pull it out) and run it all on one video card. Vista is supposed to be better about multicard monitor handling, but I'm always suspicious of this because it's just not a frequently stressed scenario (not many people run multiple video cards, and the vast preponderance of those who do use it for SLI).
Pull 4G of RAM (2 sticks) out. Running 4 sticks of RAM often causes extra wait states or generally poor memory performance. If you want 8G of RAM, I recommend doing it with 2 sticks. At least pull 2 of your sticks out and try it with 4G to see what happens.
Don't run 5 copies of wow in 5 different directories, and especially not on 5 different disks (if that's what you're doing). You are blowing per-disk caching, AND you are wasting a ton of whatever OS disk caching is happening. Assuming 5 instances of wow can't run in system disk cache, which I'm virtually positive it won't, you are thrashing that cache because you are loading off different disks (the OS doesn't know it's the same data). As mentioned, you are WAY better of running it all out of a single wow directory because each time it loads data for one client, it will be cached for the other 4 that are probably going to come in right behind it and want to load the exact same data. You can use links if you want to have different key mappings, etc between the clients. This one change made a HUGE difference in my setup, FWIW.
Those are the things I would start with. Hope it helps.
The Final Verdict:
Got off work today and back to trying to track down the problem. The first thing I did was unplug monitor #2 from card number #2 and plug it into card #1 (effectivley giving me the same setup i use to have just with a new video card). I booted into my old XP Pro drive and set the dual monitors back to a spanned desktop so i could get a baseline of performance of the 9800GTX 512 vs the 8800 Ultra OC 768.
No fuckin joke, the 9800GTX smoked it hands down and I can now run through shat or ogr or sunwell with all 5 toons on one box at a whopping 40-50 fps. I couldnt be happier except if i woulda saved alot of money and just purchased one video card :p
Vista64 - dont bother, for 5 boxing on one machine vista is a waste of time, Xp Span mode is where its at.
Memory - Anything more than 4Gb is just not needed as has been mentioned by a few members of this forum before.
Dual Video Cards - I dont know why but this just seems to do nothing for us trash except trash our fps.
After reading all the reviews about the 9800gtx and most of them reflecting that its a trade off back on forth against the 8800 ultra i was very surprised, to be honest it did perform better in thier tests without AA running at some silly number so for 5 boxing wow this is one sweet card. Should be interesting to see how it holds up on an 8 hour run of high pop areas, ill report back on this later and let you all know.
I'm so happy to be running through cities 5 toons on 1 box at 40+ FPS - Goal Achieved and thanks for all your comments guys! :thumbsup:
I've had similar problems with Vista x64 and multiple cards/monitors, but I'm not willing to go back to XP due to security and other reasons. I might be willing to try Vista x32 though. Does anyone have a feel for whether the multiple GPU issues are better there?Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Nitro',index.php?page=Thread&postID=57017#post570 17
My computer hardware is the following:
Q6600 Quad Core
8800 GT 756 MB Vid Card
4 Gig Corsair 8xx Mhz
I play 4 chars and I get 45 FPS on ALL wow screens in Shat. I play on 1 PC and on 1 monitor.
just a note to compare you system with or for someone who is looking for a system.
<3 Menthu
Interesting post...I am close to ordering Vista64 with 8gb of RAM for new 5-box machine but this has made me pause.
Hardware is always on diminishing returns. Past a certain point, you can spend a ton of money and not see much improvement. SLI in particular is completely not worth it. From my experience, the numbers in graphics card reviews are amazingly inflated. In your case, it sounds like there's a bottleneck somewhere other than video cards or RAM. You're probably constrained by your bus or just the operating system.
Are you sure?Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Kaynin',index.php?page=Thread&postID=56771#post56 771
I'd love to know why having a second dedicated video card driving a second monitor is not any faster (in fact it seems slower) than having 1 video card drive 2 monitors... I had a 7900GTX OC sitting on the shelf and threw it in with the 8800GTS with a monitor connected to each and there was no improvement at all. This is running on Vista 32 with 4 gigs of ram, and WD raptor drives - all running on one wow installation.
I thought I read somewhere that there is a driver problem where the 2nd card's renderer will actually not be utilized at all. I don't know if this is true or not.
DOH! Think this might be Vista only related?Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Havelcek',index.php?page=Thread&postID=57575#post 57575
I wouldn't be shocked if its a WoW problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Crucial',index.php?page=Thread&postID=57580#post5 7580
This is all I could find so far: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Havelcek',index.php?page=Thread&postID=57575#post 57575
Nitro, did you end up pulling half your RAM?
WoW doesn't use DX10.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Crucial',index.php?page=Thread&postID=57667#post5 7667
Right but like I said, all I could find relating to this. Would be nice to know why 2 video cards + 2 monitors = same performance or worse performance as 1 video card driving two monitors.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Chorizotarian',index.php?page=Thread&postID=58722 #post58722
Na, all 8Gb and both vid card are still in the rig even though im not using it all. I still have my vista 64bit partition incase i need to use it for another game or something.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Havelcek',index.php?page=Thread&postID=58655#post 58655
Just thought I'd chime in here - since patch 2.4 I've seen a big drop in FPS on my main PC. My other PC's still run fine, but on my main in Shat & Sunwell I get 10-12 FPS consistantly. Pre-patch I was getting 50-60 no problemo. If you have a look through the WoW Tech Support forum, you see lots of posts mentioning either big drops in FPS, or outright crashing. I am 100% WoW is culprit - I can play other games like Crysis without any problem at all
BTW my system specs are:
2.4Ghz quad core CPU
4GB RAM
8800GTX 768MB RAM
Cheers,
Stealthy