A commentary on Memory, CPU Speed and Performance

[zanthor]

Ok, over the years of just playing WoW and multiboxing combined I have often found myself upgrading something to make the game run smoother, faster, more the way I want it.

Generally I run all low settings with two exceptions, I must have my viewing distance set to at least 75% of max, I'd really prefer 100% max so I can see things coming. I also run with high spell details due to the fact that so many spell effects are avoidable IF you see them (on the ground) and avoid them.

That said, I've been disappointed with my performance overall for quite some time, I was running a beefy, but not bleeding edge system:

• AMD Phenom 9600 (2.3ghz quad core)
• 4gb DDR2 ram
• SATA Drives
• XFX 8800GT
• Windows Vista 32 Bit

This system would run 1 or 5 about the same, it really wasn't a huge performer, but all would run smoothly out in the world withl ivable latency in Shatt/Org/Etc.

As time went on, I decided to take a shot at the 64 bit OS, since I was only using 3.2gb of ram from Vista 32 and would sometimes page to disk.... I jumped on Vista 64 and everything got better. Things were smooth, but I found I was still using about 80-90% of the ram in most cases. I still ran smooth except in Shatt/Org/Etc.

With Lich King I found myself frequently paging, flights between locations were horrible, and I'd often lose follow when approaching heavily populated areas.

So, I bit the bullet and bought 8GB of ram. I also bit the bullet on the install and instead of leaving everything at "Auto" (Which apparently means the worst possible settings where the cheapest ram in the planet will work) and set my ram at 5-4-4-18 with a CAS of 5... voltage at 2.1v, all according to the manufacturers guidelines...

Fired up wow... flew out of Dalaran which normally is a huge slideshow... 28fps all the way. (console maxfps=28)

So I hearth... /console maxfps=40

Flew out of Dalaran and again, I'm sitting at 35-40fps most of the way.

I'm stunned. I'm honestly not sure if this is the timing settings or the extra ram, I can tell you that I normally sit at 5-7gb used memory now and never page. I'd still like to bump the performance up a bit, and I'll probably do so when the 3.0ghz quad core phenoms hit the shelves... but I no longer feel that I *NEED* the extra performance, it's now a would be nice.

[Fizzler]

I am tempted to buy a Quad 8 Gig machine myself. I am having a heck of a time in populated area.

[weeep]

It's all because of extra RAM, 8Gb is a MUST for 5-boxer. Timings and memory speed are almost insignificant, I've read some review where RAM speed was doubled, but gaming performance gain was about 5-10% max. And your timings settings do not double RAM performance, I guess it is 20-30% improvement.

[Notes]

I too did add 4 more GB's, mayor improvement... No, that's wrong ... It's just what it should have been from the beginning! Now running 8gb, system uses around 6 gb when playing, little more in a big city...

8)

[pengwynman]

when i first started multiboxing i was running vista 32-bit with an 8800gtx and 4gb of ram installed, dual-core e6600. i upgraded to a quad-care q9550 and gtx 280 but still used vista 32, and honestly performance SUCKED. the gtx 280 ate 1gb of my system memory, leaving 3gb for the OS and 5 instances of wow. upgraded to vista 64 at the same time i got another 4gb of memory, bringing me to 8gb total. wow uses 5-6gb total when i'm multiboxing.

[algol]

I am tempted to buy a Quad 8 Gig machine myself. I am having a heck of a time in populated area.

The Q6600 will run you about $200 and the 8GB about another $100. Actually, for $100 on top of that you can get an SSD for your data folder.

[heffner]

It's a nice feeling when things work out!

I have my new system "half built". My old main computer died so I built a similar system to yours (Q6600, 8GIG RAM, 64Bit vista) - although I stuck my old HD etc in the new computer so I haven't actually installed Vista yet. I am debating on the SSD, since my current slave box hasn't given my much trouble or loading issues (once I switched to symlinking), but that's only in Outland (which is totally empty now). Will have to do some pricing on those and see.