MASSIVE performance increase in WoW

[kate]

So, recently I did a massive update to my gaming PC - went from a Core2Duo to an i7 920, tons more RAM and an OS that can use it, and a graphics card that is about 2 generations better than my old one.

I saw a nice performance increase while 5-boxing, but nothing that was really AMAZING - Dalaran still killed me if I loaded in there on just 2 characters at prime time, and 5 characters would drop me down to 3 FPS, disconnect at least one instance of WoW half the time, and it was just miserable to try to get anywhere.

Then, on another set of forums I frequent, I saw someone mention the following tweaks to the Config file:

SET timingMethod "2"
SET componentThread "3"
SET M2Faster "3"

that are known to boost performance - basically they take change the way the game assigns priorities to various tasks.

Further, I saw that, since I just copied my wow install from my old machine to my new system that it was still set to use only 2 cores, not the 4+4 virtual that you can do on the i7's.

The end result is that after tweaking my config files I've got everyone merrily running around Dalaran with their FPS at the cap. Insane!

Moral of the story: check your config files and see if you can tweak anything to boost your performance!

[BrothelMeister]

One thing to keep in mind is to dial down the graphics of all but the main characters settings. (shadows are the most significant, but the particle density is pretty important too)

[Tonuss]

The newer video cards offer a pretty significant boost in performance. Going from a pair of Radeon 4870s to a pair of Radeon 5850s was the difference between running WoW with 2x AA and most options at half to running with 8x AA and all options at maximum (on a single instance of WOW on one monitor). The worst I get in Dalaran is 16-20 FPS if there is a huge crowd on the screen, otherwise it's 35-60 FPS everywhere. I can only imagine what it's like with the more powerful cards (5870, 5970, the NVIDIA 470/480).

I haven't tried my multibox setup yet, but it all ran fine on the 4870s and I figure I'll be just as happy with the 5850s. Maybe I'll try this weekend.

[kate]

I completely nuked the shadows - that was just completely slaughtering my performance - and I guess visually it just doesn't mean much having high quality shadows since I'm usually moving so quickly that I don't notice them.

Is there a way to have the settings change on the fly depending on whether a window is in the background or foreground? Of course there's the FPS caps for back/foreground - but if I could have the effects scale up or down depending on whether the window was the primary or not, that would be spectacular.

As it is, right now I just have everyone set to medium-high settings because I do a lot of switching between windows/FTL with ISBoxer.

[jinkobi]

I completely nuked the shadows - that was just completely slaughtering my performance - and I guess visually it just doesn't mean much having high quality shadows since I'm usually moving so quickly that I don't notice them.

Is there a way to have the settings change on the fly depending on whether a window is in the background or foreground? Of course there's the FPS caps for back/foreground - but if I could have the effects scale up or down depending on whether the window was the primary or not, that would be spectacular.

As it is, right now I just have everyone set to medium-high settings because I do a lot of switching between windows/FTL with ISBoxer.

Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

[kate]

Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

Yeah - I was thinking since some settings don't require a restart those could be the ones tweaked. Probably those are also the ones that give the least performance boost, all things considered.

[scartomyzon]

If you use ISboxer, you can change graphics depending on whether the window is in the foreground or not. http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthrea...ght=%2Fconsole

M

[Myc]

Unfortunately not because some graphics changes require the game to be restarted. Sure we've all seen the message

My main window the graphics are at max and my slaves are dialed down so bad they can barely see 10 feet in front of them lol. Works fine for me though.

do you ever loose your characters on auto fallow with epic flying? =/ I hate it when I go thru phased zone or some areas of flying and loose couple guys randomly..

[jinkobi]

do you ever loose your characters on auto fallow with epic flying? =/ I hate it when I go thru phased zone or some areas of flying and loose couple guys randomly..

All the time my friend! Icecrown is a nightmare to me if I wipe. Leveled my 4 druids 2 by 2 and did quests willy nilly all over the place, lol. Been thinking about going back and getting everyone in the same phase at least for Icecrown. it's just such a chore and since we're in different phases there's no way to multibox it.

I'm always spamming my follow key+Jamba when outdoors. I try to avoid long outdoor flights as much as possible using summoning stones or LFG tool. Hoping leveling in Cataclysm I don't find myself with broken follows.

Inside instances or short walk it's no problem there.

[kate]

Even if you're all in the same phase (all my characters are) you still have the same problem - any boundary where there's a phased spot will cause the toons to not see each other for a moment which breaks follow.