Tweaking Notebook Performance

[crowdx]

Hi all,
I have a Dell Studio 1732 notebook with an ati 3600 video card and 4 gigs of memory. Using it for 5 boxing it seems "ok" in the horde starting area (Tauren). My concern is that it will die a swift death in northrend.
I currently have everything in the game turned down to min, with only the main toon having the view distance at about 25%.
Is there anything else either in the Wow config file or even in the Ati control panel which might help the system performance? My cpu seems fine (it is a core duo, can't remember which one) and memory is at about 3gig used with these settings so I think it is the video card that need some tweaking
Any insight greatly appreciated

[Slimjim19]

I am also running a dell. Its 2 years old now with a dual core processor and 4 gig ram. I have view distance to minimum and graphics pretty bare. It runs 5 ok with a few exceptions.

Areas where the game tries to make it foggy with an effect
Terokkar forest - the area where the plague is by shat.
Borean tundra - near the shores. There are 2 different areas.

Other then that, I cant have more then 2 guys in Dalaran at a time.

It works fine in all the instances I have done. And most leveling was fine.

[crowdx]

Which video card are you using ? , mine as stated about is the ATI Mobility 3600 which has dedicated 512mb memory.
I have noticed even on my desktop that some of the fog effects do slow things down
My notebook is about a year old at this point.

[Slimjim19]

mine was the nvidia mobile adapter. nothing special. I have noticed that the laptop pretty much is at the upper limits of the graphics card, ram and processor depending on where I am. It still runs playable though until I get a new desktop purchased next month.

[crowdx]

I am thinking tonight I may check and see if overriding the WoW settings with the video cards performance helps things any. Do you have any app that tracks the video card to see how stressed it is?
CPU and Memory are easy to see

[Slimjim19]

No, I just generally blame it when memory and cpu are fine.

[crowdx]

ditto