MASSIVE performance increase in WoW

So, recently I did a massive update to my gaming PC - went from a Core2Duo to an i7 920, tons more RAM and an OS that can use it, and a graphics card that is about 2 generations better than my old one.

I saw a nice performance increase while 5-boxing, but nothing that was really AMAZING - Dalaran still killed me if I loaded in there on just 2 characters at prime time, and 5 characters would drop me down to 3 FPS, disconnect at least one instance of WoW half the time, and it was just miserable to try to get anywhere.

Then, on another set of forums I frequent, I saw someone mention the following tweaks to the Config file:

SET timingMethod "2"
SET componentThread "3"
SET M2Faster "3"

that are known to boost performance - basically they take change the way the game assigns priorities to various tasks.

Further, I saw that, since I just copied my wow install from my old machine to my new system that it was still set to use only 2 cores, not the 4+4 virtual that you can do on the i7's.

The end result is that after tweaking my config files I've got everyone merrily running around Dalaran with their FPS at the cap. Insane!

Moral of the story: check your config files and see if you can tweak anything to boost your performance!

One thing to keep in mind is to dial down the graphics of all but the main characters settings. (shadows are the most significant, but the particle density is pretty important too)

The newer video cards offer a pretty significant boost in performance. Going from a pair of Radeon 4870s to a pair of Radeon 5850s was the difference between running WoW with 2x AA and most options at half to running with 8x AA and all options at maximum (on a single instance of WOW on one monitor). The worst I get in Dalaran is 16-20 FPS if there is a huge crowd on the screen, otherwise it's 35-60 FPS everywhere. I can only imagine what it's like with the more powerful cards (5870, 5970, the NVIDIA 470/480).

I haven't tried my multibox setup yet, but it all ran fine on the 4870s and I figure I'll be just as happy with the 5850s. Maybe I'll try this weekend.

I completely nuked the shadows - that was just completely slaughtering my performance - and I guess visually it just doesn't mean much having high quality shadows since I'm usually moving so quickly that I don't notice them.

Is there a way to have the settings change on the fly depending on whether a window is in the background or foreground? Of course there's the FPS caps for back/foreground - but if I could have the effects scale up or down depending on whether the window was the primary or not, that would be spectacular.

As it is, right now I just have everyone set to medium-high settings because I do a lot of switching between windows/FTL with ISBoxer.

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Originally Posted by kate

I completely nuked the shadows - that was just completely slaughtering my performance - and I guess visually it just doesn't mean much having high quality shadows since I'm usually moving so quickly that I don't notice them.

Is there a way to have the settings change on the fly depending on whether a window is in the background or foreground? Of course there's the FPS caps for back/foreground - but if I could have the effects scale up or down depending on whether the window was the primary or not, that would be spectacular.

As it is, right now I just have everyone set to medium-high settings because I do a lot of switching between windows/FTL with ISBoxer.

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Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message:p

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

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Originally Posted by jinkobi

Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message:p

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

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Yeah - I was thinking since some settings don't require a restart those could be the ones tweaked. Probably those are also the ones that give the least performance boost, all things considered.

If you use ISboxer, you can change graphics depending on whether the window is in the foreground or not. http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthrea...ght=%2Fconsole

M

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Originally Posted by jinkobi

Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message:p

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

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do you ever loose your characters on auto fallow with epic flying? =/ I hate it when I go thru phased zone or some areas of flying and loose couple guys randomly..

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Originally Posted by Myc

do you ever loose your characters on auto fallow with epic flying? =/ I hate it when I go thru phased zone or some areas of flying and loose couple guys randomly..

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All the time my friend! Icecrown is a nightmare to me if I wipe. Leveled my 4 druids 2 by 2 and did quests willy nilly all over the place, lol. Been thinking about going back and getting everyone in the same phase at least for Icecrown. it's just such a chore and since we're in different phases there's no way to multibox it.

I'm always spamming my follow key+Jamba when outdoors. I try to avoid long outdoor flights as much as possible using summoning stones or LFG tool. Hoping leveling in Cataclysm I don't find myself with broken follows.

Inside instances or short walk it's no problem there.

Even if you're all in the same phase (all my characters are) you still have the same problem - any boundary where there's a phased spot will cause the toons to not see each other for a moment which breaks follow.

ah glad to see im not only one suffering.. well.. not glad.. but you know :p
yeah its brutal. even zoning in places.. ive poped into WG through the portal and all my toons see my tank and can buff or w/e but tank cant see any toons lol.

worst is definitely wiping in icecrown heroics. I spend like 2 minutes trying to pick up off the grave.
not many ways to fix tho? anyone have the max view distance turned up on screens? does it help?

(current vid settings - main is at Ultra / alts at lowlowlow of the low.)

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Originally Posted by kate

Even if you're all in the same phase (all my characters are) you still have the same problem - any boundary where there's a phased spot will cause the toons to not see each other for a moment which breaks follow.

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So true. There's even a few weird spots like in Gundrak on the bridge my guys sometimes break there. Ah well at least I could see them to spam follow, lol. Being unable to see them when you're right there is frustrating!

Has anyone taken their 2 seater rocket yet to a place where you and the passenger are in different phases? I'm still curious what would happen.

Phase lines break follow.

Pretty much, since they were following, they're facing the same way.
So when Jamba spams me with the, "You're going too fast!" message (love custom messages)...

I push the Up Arrow key, which is slaves only - move forward.
And then a moment later, hit my follow key.

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

Phase lines break follow.

Pretty much, since they were following, they're facing the same way.
So when Jamba spams me with the, "You're going too fast!" message (love custom messages)...

I push the Up Arrow key, which is slaves only - move forward.
And then a moment later, hit my follow key.

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That's how I've been handling it, too. I'm really glad I implemented the arrow keys to move my slaves - makes EVERYTHING so much easier.

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

So when Jamba spams me with the, "You're going too fast!" message (love custom messages)...

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Hahaha good to see i'm not the only one who is using/enjoying custom messages. Mine was 'hey slow down you mofo' for a while. Which makes me curious as to what other players their customs are :)

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Originally Posted by kate

Then, on another set of forums I frequent, I saw someone mention the following tweaks to the Config file:

SET timingMethod "2"
SET componentThread "3"
SET M2Faster "3"

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Got a question here, not just to the OP, but to all that use this tweak. I run four accounts on my laptop listed in my sig with Keyclone and slaves systemlinked from the main's folder. Do I copy these three lines and put them only in my main's config file, or do it to all four? Also do I have to change the numbers any on any of them? My main and slaves all have everything turned off but the mouse hardware option. It slows everything down if it's off on everyone. Main has view distance up all the way and the option to see AoE spells cast on the ground, but everything else is off. Even turned off AA and VSync on everyone's too to help.

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Originally Posted by lans83

Got a question here, not just to the OP, but to all that use this tweak. I run four accounts on my laptop listed in my sig with Keyclone and slaves systemlinked from the main's folder. Do I copy these three lines and put them only in my main's config file, or do it to all four? Also do I have to change the numbers any on any of them? My main and slaves all have everything turned off but the mouse hardware option. It slows everything down if it's off on everyone. Main has view distance up all the way and the option to see AoE spells cast on the ground, but everything else is off. Even turned off AA and VSync on everyone's too to help.

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For the most part, those tweaks are intended to take advantage of high-end hardware so might not work so well on lower-power stuff. For example, when I made those tweaks on my old system (which was running a Core2Duo), it actually *hurt* the performance somewhat. I say try it out and see what happens.

You want to put them in the config file for each instance of wow you run, so the config folders for all of your characters.

As far as ICC, it seems at least for my guys that picking up the battle before the citidel quest or the other one with jousting will force them into the same instance in front of ICC for GY runs. I haven't died since I picked it up, but they are able to follow and see each other out front now for the first time since I raised up my last three shamans as long as that quest is in my log. There are still annoying phase break lines from dalaran to ICC but at least I can send two up to summon the rest now.

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Originally Posted by balderrdash

There are still annoying phase break lines from dalaran to ICC but at least I can send two up to summon the rest now.

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I might've overlooked it somehow, but isn't or shouldn't there be summoning stone in Dalaran for VH? I mean, there's one in SW and Org, why not Dal? Or are my eyes that bad and missed it?

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Originally Posted by lans83

I might've overlooked it somehow, but isn't or shouldn't there be summoning stone in Dalaran for VH? I mean, there's one in SW and Org, why not Dal? Or are my eyes that bad and missed it?

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Nope, probably the only WOTLK dungeon without one.
I assume it was done to prevent summoning toons that weren't high enough to get to Dal normally (even though you can warlock summon)

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Originally Posted by Hivetyrant

Nope, probably the only WOTLK dungeon without one.
I assume it was done to prevent summoning toons that weren't high enough to get to Dal normally (even though you can warlock summon)

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True, true, I took my lvl 30 warlock team to Dalaran through a mage portal and now use them to summon my alts. Takes a while to do it, but it's a free ride. Plus, my mages are not high enough yet to learn the portals. Still don't see why they haven't added one, all the other stones in the world may now allow lvl 80s to use them, but you still have to be the minimum lvl requirement to use, don't you?

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Originally Posted by lans83

True, true, I took my lvl 30 warlock team to Dalaran through a mage portal and now use them to summon my alts. Takes a while to do it, but it's a free ride. Plus, my mages are not high enough yet to learn the portals. Still don't see why they haven't added one, all the other stones in the world may now allow lvl 80s to use them, but you still have to be the minimum lvl requirement to use, don't you?

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Think the level requirement on summoning stones is only level 10.

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Originally Posted by jinkobi

Think the level requirement on summoning stones is only level 10.

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It's 15.