Where is my hardware bottleneck? *5 Boxing on single PC*

[DLoweinc]

I'm running the following setup and while everything works fine outside of Dalaran, IN Dalaran sucks big donkey balls when I have all 5 guys trying to ride around.

Intel Q9550 (quad core @ 2.83Ghz)

8GB DDR2 @ 800MHz

2 - 32GB SSD's in RAID 0 (wow is installed here, symlinked)

Radeon 4870 - 512MB (overclocked to 790 GPU clock, 1050 memory clock)

I run all 5 on a single 22" monitor. I use Innerspace. Main window is full settings locked to 45 FPS max (1680x1050), alt windows are lowest settings, locked to 15FPS max (800x600).

Anyone able to tell me where the bottleneck is? I avoid Dalaran if I can because the frame rates suck.

When I check the GPU usage it never goes above 75% or 80% when all windows are going, even in Dalaran.

My CPU usage seems to sit around 60% as well.

I'm confused as to where the bottleneck is, anyone able to help?

Would a 4870 - 1GB help?

[magwo]

I would guess your GPU. Not sure how appropriate it is to box with ATI cards.. I have Nvidia and it works.

[DLoweinc]

Should I just expect lag in Dalaran?

I disabled my page file in Vista (64) and if I turn up the draw distance to full on my slaves Innerspace crashes because I run out of RAM! (Works fine in instances, but on a gryphon or in Dalaran it dies)

[weeep]

You don't have enough video RAM. 1Gb is minimum for Dalaran.

[moosejaw]

Should I just expect lag in Dalaran?

I disabled my page file in Vista (64) and if I turn up the draw distance to full on my slaves Innerspace crashes because I run out of RAM! (Works fine in instances, but on a gryphon or in Dalaran it dies)

I would recommend enabling the page file and setting it to 500 mb. There are certain applications that require a page file being present and if it isn't there they will address your physical ram. This is why you ran out of physical memory. Been there, done that. Use a page file.

[EvoX]

Another thing to look at if youre using an ATi card is to be sure that in the in-game video settings you have "Vertical Synch" unchecked. Checked or unchecked dictates whether my rig can run 5 toons or not. Also I've noticed server lag (or lack thereof) from different realms can be the difference of seamless or choppy. My experience so far unfortunately doesnt include Dalaran, but I've been (keyclone) 5 boxing on 2 monitors from a 512MB Radeon 4850 / Q6600 CPU / 4GB PC6400.

also, +1 on using a page file ^^

[Hachoo]

How bad IS dalaran? Honestly I don't think you can expect too great of FPS in dalaran. I have similar specs to you (except no SSDs) and I generally get around 15-18FPS in dalaran running around the streets, and ~30-40 inside of small buildings. I don't really expect anything better than that and its fine for me since I'm never in Dalaran for more than 15 minutes.

[Thulos]

You don't have enough video RAM. 1Gb is minimum for Dalaran.

What is your source for this information? I'd love to test your theory out but I haven't figured out a way to track video memory usage in Vista.

[Tombs]

Reinstall directx and video drivers. I find that helps with my 4870 1gb.

[Sajuuk]

You don't have enough video RAM. 1Gb is minimum for Dalaran.

Funny, I get maxed out FPS on my slaves and around 30 on my main while in dalaran.

Using a 9600GT 512MB.