Small Advice/Hardware Upgrade?

[benk]

Hi,

i play all my 5 Toons on one PC : -> i7-920 CPU ( Not OC ) , GTX 285 with 2 GB RAM,12 GB RAM,Vista,SSD ..CÜU Affinity is 5 Toons-> all Cores together

I thought this one can handle all without prob...I Setup my 4 Toons on lowest Details and 15 FPS,my Main has overall max. Details..but Shadowdeatails not..only in the middle.Resololution on main is 1920x1200 ( 27 " ).

I have most of the times FPS 60...but in some Regions i have only FPS 30-40 and Gameplay isnt very smooth anymore..this regions are Ashenvale and Stranglethon...( level 30 now )..

Do you have any Ideas how i can put more Power in the System ? Should i use Symlinks Folder? , Maybe a GTX 295? or a 975 CPU? , Will a second Graphiccard work? Maybe 2 x 285 GTX..but not linked as SLI ? one for toons,one for main.. I also tried OC on Turbomodus @ 3,2 GHZ..but my System was not stable. What should i got For? GPU or CPU PoWER?

[Fizzler]

you should go with neither. How many addons are you running? The spec of your machine is light years above mine and I get 45 fps on main window everywhere but heavily populated areas. It is very playable for me of course I dumb down my graphics to min on slaves and about mid range for my main. You have made some great choices on your computer specs it is much of what I want but I would probably OC the processor with appropriate cooling. That is just me I am an OC'ing nut.

I have maxFPS on my main set for 45 fps and bckFPS for slaves at 20 fps. Works great.

Both Ashenvale and Strangle are heavy on the textures perhaps the high environmental and clutter detail is hosing you up?

[Durone]

I have the same System as you and I use an Affinity of 255. It works really good. Only a very crowded Dalaran causes some jumps...

[fleaplus]

Definitely look into a cooling upgrade. I use the Xigmatek Dark Knight (S1283V) with my i7 and it works well overclocked or not. Actually, if you are still using stock cooling you might be experiencing the i7 underclocking itself due to overheating EVEN at stock speeds. Five copies of WoW running on a single processor can stress it even more than running a game like Crysis.

As for performance, it should generally be pretty well in pre-BC areas. Check to see you do not have MSAA set too high. It is around the resolution switching option, not in the video option page. Affinity should be ok with all set to use any core, but definitely monitor task manager while playing to double check it is working properly for a while.

If you are seriously thinking about putting more cash into a video card or such, consider building a second system. Even moving a single client (the tank) off to a cheap dual core system would seriously improve bandwidth to the other four instances. Personally, I use four dual core machines along with my original i7 box I built back in December. This setup will be patch-proof and takes any performance issues out of the equation.

[Sajuuk]

Definitely look into a cooling upgrade. I use the Xigmatek Dark Knight (S1283V) with my i7 and it works well overclocked or not. Actually, if you are still using stock cooling you might be experiencing the i7 underclocking itself due to overheating EVEN at stock speeds. Five copies of WoW running on a single processor can stress it even more than running a game like Crysis.


Personally, I use four dual core machines along with my original i7 box I built back in December. This setup will be patch-proof and takes any performance issues out of the equation.

The CPU will only throttle itself if it's hitting 100C, which I'm pretty sure IS NOT the issue, especially at stock speeds. If you're really wondering what your CPU temperatures are like...download RealTemp 3 and run it while playing.

You also knows what stresses a CPU? IntelBurnTest/Prime 95/other stability testing programs. More so than running 5xWoW on one machine. Here's a thought - what resolution do you have the alternate windows rendering at? Try reducing it. 30-40 FPS is NOT BAD PERFORMANCE. Don't be whining about smooth fps unless you've raided in a fight that requires you to change attention in a 4FPS environment.

Four dual cores running alongside an i7? That's a waste.