Diagnosing my current specs, and improving them

[Jeddius]

First of all let me say this forum is always great and I appreciate all the help given here. Now to business...

I am having some cpu issues with WoW. Basically my game is very choppy. Nothing feels fluid or runs smooth, especially in high traffic areas and 25 man's. This isn't really a boxing question but I know you guys are smart.

What should I check for to see how my system rates? Should I be looking for RAM and my graphics card? Could somebody tell me where to go for that information in the computer. I'd like to troubleshoot my cpu and find out where the problem is. In 25 man's I'm getting around 10fps, and latency in the triple digits usually. I have a Dell desktp and beyond that unsure of the specifics.

If anyone could point me in a general direction that would be really appreciated.

[Enndo]

start button, right click on my computer, select properties: this window will list your ram and cpu speed.

start button, right click my computer, click properties, click hardware tab, click device manager button, double click display adapters, this will list your video card.

right click on the start button, click explore or it may be explore all users, than in the list in the new window, right click c: drive, select properties this will tell you your free space on your drive, wow needs like 10 gigs or something

right click anywhere on your task bar on your desktop while wow is running, click task manager, click the performance tab, this will show you how much of your cpu and ram is being used while your gaming and help you see what needs upgrading.

[Jeddius]

Awesome...I will post that info tonight and hopefully I can get some feedback on where I stand and how to fix my cpu.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Latency lag isnt about computer specs, its the connection to the server. If you are in triple digits you need a faster internet (or try that bigfoot nic card but its not all that) connection or move to a relm with a datacenter near you.

[Ozbert]

I brought my team out of retirement last weekend. While setting everything up again, I forgot to distribute my WoW instances across all my CPU cores resulting in all 5 of them running on two cores. That gave a very very laggy experience in crowded areas.

I also forgot to re-apply the TCPAckFrequency registy setting, putting my network latency up in the 250-300ms range. Now that I've remembered, it's back down to sub-100ms

[Jeddius]

start button, right click on my computer, select properties: this window will list your ram and cpu speed.

start button, right click my computer, click properties, click hardware tab, click device manager button, double click display adapters, this will list your video card.

right click on the start button, click explore or it may be explore all users, than in the list in the new window, right click c: drive, select properties this will tell you your free space on your drive, wow needs like 10 gigs or something

right click anywhere on your task bar on your desktop while wow is running, click task manager, click the performance tab, this will show you how much of your cpu and ram is being used while your gaming and help you see what needs upgrading.

Cpu speed and ram: Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHZ, 2.99GHz, 2.5 GB of RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Free Space: 12 Gigs
While Running WoW: I was in Dalaran and my CPU usage was between 60-70 percent...my PF usage was .99 GB.

So does this mean I need more upgrades on my cpu or a faster internet provider? Hopefully somebody can decode those numbers. Thanks again.

[alcattle]

How many toons are you running? The system should be fine for 1 and maybe 2 toons. after that every part is weak. And I am not sure you have much room to upgrade a Dell, so will some won't.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ya how many toons at what video resolutions and are setting minimized on the alts?

Is your ping to the server over 200ms?

[Jeddius]

I'm only running one toon. Not sure if you mean latency by ping, but usually it's 120 or so. Edit: I logged into Dalaran and it's 219 now.

[Jeddius]

Just bumping this to keep it current. Haven't heard back if I need more hardware now that I posted my info.