Patch 2.3 and Core 2 Duo Nirvana

[Adronson]

After installing 2.3 I immediate saw some performance increase while at the AH and while doing some other chores around IF. I wasn't sure what was going on until reviewing the patch notes I saw this:

"The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores. "

So, to test I loaded up all four of my WOW accounts on my main machine and its running smooth as silk in Ironforge. CPU usage is hitting about 80%. Memory limits are causing some delays as page file is accessed, but overall its pretty impressive. This opens up all sorts of new possibilities.

FYI, I'm running a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2G ram. Windows XP pro.

[wougoose]

Nice to hear, especially since I just purchased a Quad

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Buddy at work reported his going from 50-70 average to 200+ FPS since the patch. He's running a 2ghz core2duo.

[Team_Supa]

Yupyup core2 absolutely rules for 5box with keyclone .

120fps on main and i keep the other 4 not maximized windows at 25fps capped (Through config file to save zone/follow lag)

[Wilbur]

Heh, and with the release of the Penryn Processors its surely going to get better. Faster CPU's using less power and more transistors = win. Can't wait to get my hands on one of their new Quad cores :-D

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11...ls_out_penryn/

[kermitforney]

Thank Lord Zues above that I work remotely!!! Time to get some testing goin OOOOOON!!! :twisted:

[kermitforney]

Ok, I think it's safe to say the improvements are slightly short of AMAZING!!!

I can 5 box on my main with 1 maximized and 4 minimized. BUT, I can now max my mains vid settings to 1280x1024 all settings maxed including the two new settings. My CPU percent runs between 60% - 70% and I still have to set Processor Affinity for the alts, but utilize both cores for the main.

BTW ~ My framerates hover around 70.

[Adronson]

One wonders if this improvement was done with the multi-boxing community in mind. Why would anyone else need it?

[Xzin]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe the 4+ million players with dual core machines?

[Adronson]

Maybe, but I've found that WOW doesn't require a lot of resources to run. I'm running copies on some rather pitiful machines and I wouldn't think that any dual core machine would have trouble running one copy at a time.

But maybe I'm overestimating the abilities of low-end dual cores. Also, I tend not to max out all the video -- tend not to notice it after a few hours.