Performance Issue

[FuRySnoW]

Hi everyone, I just recently got interested in multi-boxing WoW. I just got a new computer and my goal is to run WoW 2-5 times on one computer with 2 20' monitors. The problem I've run into is, when I run even 2 WoW windows, it runs VERY choppy and is basically unplayable with the huge amount of lagging. These are the specs of my computer:

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66GHz
4 GB of RAM (of course XP only sees 3.25)
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (I believe this card splits 256 MB between the 2 monitors for a total of 512 MB)

With this set-up It seems to me that I should have no problems running WoW 2 or even 5 times, so could someone with experience help me with this and tell me what I might be doing wrong?

[dRiN]

Are you spanning your display? This might be the solution. Everywhere on this forum there is talk that it is bugged on secondary output.

[FuRySnoW]

I been trying to find out if I am spanning, and I'm not sure what you mean by that. Is there something I'm missing?

[Chorizotarian]

I found that v-sync was a bottleneck for me. I have a dual core with 2 nVidia 8800 GTXs and 2 monitors. I'm trying to run 4 chars at the moment, all on that 1 machine. Here's what I found with the WoW v-sync option enabled:

1. Start clone 1 on display 2 (low settings) - 60 fps
2. Start clone 2 on display 2 (ditto) - both clones dip to 30 fps (aka 60 fps / 2)
3. Start clone 3 on display 2 (ditto) - all clones dip to 20 fps (aka 60 fps / 3)
4. Start main on display 1 (high or low settings, didn't matter) - 20 fps

Obviously there is a suspicious pattern in the fps from steps 1-3, and 4 seals the deal for what is going on. WoW is trying to sync the frame rate for each clone's copy of the game to the refresh rate of monitor 2 (60 fps), and since the code isn't set up to handle this situation it winds up splitting the difference. My main display then syncs to the least common denominator frame rate of 20 fps. If I killed off one of the clone WoWs the main fps went back up to 30 fps; kill off 2 it goes up to 60 fps.

The solution that I found was to turn off WoW's software v-sync on all copies and enable hardware v-sync through the nVidia control panel. I then get something like 40 fps on all copies, and my main jumps up to 45 or so when I limit the fps of the clones to something reasonable like 20 fps bg through keyclone.

Don't know if this will work for you since you have an ATI card, but it might be worth a shot!

[Stabface]

You can either Extend or Stretch and to be honest it's been so long since I screwed around with an ATI card I can't remember which one works for 3D apps. But I do remember the key was to do it through the CCC and not through the Windows display properties.

First lets reset it back to single monitor mode. Right click your desktop and go to Properties. Select your secondary monitor and uncheck the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" box. Click Apply, OK. Then reboot. When your machine restarts it should only display on the main monitor.

Now open up the Catalyst Control Center and select Displays Manager. You should see your main monitor there and your secondary in the "Attached displays currently disabled" box. If not then... screw around until you have the secondary disabled. Now, right click on the disabled monitor and you should some options to "Extend" or "Stretch". EDIT: I dug up an old post of mine ^.^ what you want is Stretch mode. So enable that and then try. Let us know how it goes.