How many wows could i logically run on my pc?

[Robash]

My PC is about 4 years old, my specs are:

P4 3.2 ghz
3 gigs ddr2
BFG 6800 GT (Factory overlocked)

I had a similiar setup about a week ago (except I had 1gig ram) and I could run 2 pretty good, never tried 3 though. but that would probably be pushing it.

As for addons, I use twoboxtoolkit for auto excepting quests, and it has some other nice features for boxing, but I would suggest you take a look at the addons forum.

[henrik.falk]

I run 5 wow with my 1.7 GHz Pentium-M laptop with 2 GB RAM and Nvidia 6800 GO. All resolutions are 800x600. That works just fine.
I do run those five wow with one single data directory, but i don't think that matters.

[Robash]

I do run those five wow with one single data directory, but i don't think that matters.

It matters, on my old system I could barely run 2 wows using multiple directories

[henrik.falk]

It matters, on my old system I could barely run 2 wows using multiple directories

Great :-) I didn't even bother to try with separate data directories. Seemed like a waste of hard drive.

[Wilbur]

If you are running 5 from 5 seperate directories you negate the usefulness of a) Processor cache b) Hard Drive cache.

Running all from 1 Directory gives you a noticable boost in performance when loading textures or joining a BG/Instance.

[perenor]

If you are running 5 from 5 seperate directories you negate the usefulness of a) Processor cache b) Hard Drive cache.

Running all from 1 Directory gives you a noticable boost in performance when loading textures or joining a BG/Instance.

Suggestions for boosting things on my setup?

Hardware
Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz
2 Gigs RAM
GeForce 7600 GS 256megs RAM

I run 2 toons and 2 WoW installs separately (Master & Slave).

The slave install is for all the followers, and master for the main.

Both run at the same resolution (1280x1024).
Both run in Window Mode Maximized. I noticed this saves me a TON for alt tabbing when I need to.

Things aren't really slow or choppy for me (actually quite nice), but if I want to try to get a 3rd on here, I'd like to make sure I can minimize the drags now.

The reason I run 2 like this is probably the same as most others.
1-Fewer addons on the slave. (I could always just trigger which get loaded where like any other time)
2-Lower graphical settings on the slave. (However, the difference isn't that much between the 2).

I was toying between setting affinity and not. I haven't noticed any major differences, but then I haven't gotten into any instances yet. My toons are still babies.

[Wilbur]

Aren't addons and such set per character?

If you wanted to upgrade your system to put an extra character in there, the only thing I'd suggest upgrading would be your graphics card.

512MB 8800GT should see you through up until around 5 characters.

[perenor]

Aren't addons and such set per character?

If you wanted to upgrade your system to put an extra character in there, the only thing I'd suggest upgrading would be your graphics card.

512MB 8800GT should see you through up until around 5 characters.

Yeah, I'm planning on getting a new video card soon as well as a 22in wide screen monitor, and maybe another gig of ram.

Addons are per character, but it's nice not having so many to click off for the slaves. However, that's a convenience I'm willing to lose if it means better performance if I run them both out of the same directory.

[Wilbur]

Give it a little try, you might notice it, you might not.

[ivoti]

I'm running four clients each in their own directory on a AMD 64x2 4400 with a gig of memory and a 1900XT 512MB. Three clients run at 560x525 and the main at 1680x525 and each one is getting over 40 fps at a minimum. Haven't taken them to a major city yet and I'm expecting that to be a slide show but who knows.

A couple months down the road I hope to add another monitor and some memory so I can add my fifth character. Adding another monitor will probably be a bit more resource heavy but I'm optimistic.