Smy-linking is directing each wow as to where to look for the data files. Whether you have is symlinked or separate directories it is not going to effect the memory. a symlink "Symbolic Link" is a virtual folder that points to a folder in a different directory. we are dealing with hard drive space/location NOT memory usage.

what has performed the best for me is symlinking. i have tried all the other combinations. with the symlink the hard drive is not bouncing all over the place trying to pick up the same piece of database information (players, objections, textures, etc.....) from 5 different directories in 5 different physical locations. With symlink all 5 wow's are trying to grab it from the same directory through the symlink redirecting each request to a shared directory. (EDIT: I have not tried 5 separate hard drives, with wow separated to each one.)

You are trying to compare memory usage for 5 programs (WoW) with different ways that they store their database information. Of course you can't measure any real difference. Whether you locate your data base in 1 or 5 locations, each Wow is going to only load the same amount of it in memory each time.

you should be testing loading times/disk access times to see differences between the different methods, that is the benefit of symlinking.

With OSX, it will use any unused memory present in the system as a cache for disk access. it will dynamically allocate and deallocate it, and you wont see it happening in the monitor.

Wired = System/OS vital memory (non-touchable. its "wired" in and cant be unallocated)
Active = Used by applications
Inactive = WAS used by an application that was closed (it keeps this memory ready to be used if the app is reopened)
Free = Free, not used


Hope that clears a few things up.



also, second graphics card = no improvement in frame rate, only benefit is more than 2 monitors.

memory is your friend. about 8gigs is the point of diminishing returns.

in my tests, distance has more of an impact than detail/texture quality. i run my main window fullscreen on my 30 everything maxed. and the other 4 split evenly on the second 30", and the other 2 20" screens are for things like safari to lookup wowhead/thottbot, widgets, watch a movie, etc. I have my settings at 60fps main, and 15 slaves. i average 25-40fps on main screen (this is after wotlk it used to be better during Vanila wow & TBC) and still rocksolid 15fps on slaves.