Multiboxing Hardware Science!

[Ualaa]

I like the video feed use.

Stormwind doesn't seem that busy, for a peak hours.
I'm used to far more people crowding its streets.

Ten boxing is even neater than five boxing.

[MiRai]

Pheh. Pop another 580 3GB in and rock on.

I've never been able to use the second GPU's VRAM while attempting to split the load between cards. If
someone has been successful in doing so I'd like to know (A GPU-Z screenshot would be great).

the 2nd video peektime on your realm?

I like the video feed use.

Stormwind doesn't seem that busy, for a peak hours.
I'm used to far more people crowding its streets.

Ten boxing is even neater than five boxing.

The time in the video is 23:33 which would have been 21:33 server time so it could have been a bit
"peakier" so to speak for a week day. Orgrimmar's population is much more concentrated compared to
Stormwind's... perhaps I should have created a Horde team instead (I like my Human Females, though).
Kil'jaeden is listed as "High" almost 24 hours a day and we have a very good H:A ratio compared to most of
the High populated realms, although Horde does have more among their ranks.

It is funny you mention it, because when I went over towards The Canals I was going to head over to the
second Auction House and see how many people were over there; but, I decided I didn't want to walk that
far and put a transition in the video if the venture wasn't worth it.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Excellent. I am amazed that you can render 10 screens at the full resolution with a single gpu, although a very good one.

Clearly the 3G option is paying off as well.

Your switching is still a bit (not much though) worse then my alt/tab method but then again you can see all 10 of your characters whereas I can only see 6 of mine at a time (one per computer). But I can see in full screen and don't have to pip in and out to do things with those characters. But my system requires 6 1920X1200 monitors whereas yours only needs one or two.

Ya well I guess there isn't much more to be said, for 10 boxing the 580 3G is the best (and I don't think that duel gpu is going to help you that much in wow, nor will duel cards).

1 Box: 460 2G (might not get all effects though)
5 Box: 6950 2G
10 Box: 580 3G

As you can see with you superior equipment you did much better then me (but there are more people in Org):



Spin / Fly around Test (all about the same) Nvidia440 3GVideoRam 5 Clients (4 in background on lowest options); I play full screen 1920 X 1200.

5 Clients: Low Options: 13fps Ultra: 9fps

1 Client: Low Options: 27fps Ultra: 14fps (63/361 ms ping)



Spin / Fly Around / Stationary Test (all about the same) Nvidia460 1GVideoRam 5 Clients (4 in background on lowest options); I play full screen 1920 X 1200.

5 Clients: Low Options: 22fps Ultra: 14fps

1 Client: Low Options: 35fps Ultra: 19fps



Its fairly clear that going over 10 boxing on one computer isnt going to happen, as you were close to the 3G max as it is.


I notice that the GPU and Memory controller loads are relativly low, meaning it might be possible to get by with a bit weaker gpu (although we need to know if you were runniing full ultra in the main), if you can find one with 3G. And it does seem like the CPU is getting a real workout as well so maybe CPU needs be stonger then what I would have thought.

[MiRai]

Excellent. I am amazed that you can render 10 screens at the full resolution with a single gpu, although a very good one.

Too many people are giving me crap about peak times for the Alliance that night so I've decided that I'll create
10 new Horde tonight and take them into Orgrimmar... this should be exciting.

Clearly the 3G option is paying off as well.

I am definitely happy I went with the 3GB route.

Your switching is still a bit (not much though) worse then my alt/tab method

I am going to do my best (depending on Orgrimmar lag) to adjust my settings accordingly to show a nice quick
swap instead of that delayed one. It's mainly the Texture Resolution and Shadows that I will need to adjust.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ok after spending the last couple of hours looking up video cards it seems there is little choice for 5 or 10 boxing.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...90,2879-7.html



1st; Discrete: GTX 580 Discrete: HD 5970

2nd: Discrete: GTX 295, GTX 480, GTX 570 Discrete: HD 4870 X2, HD 6970

3rd: Discrete: HD 4850 X2, HD 5870, HD 6950


Given that few are 2 or 3G (some are 1.5G but that seems insufficient) you choices are:

5 or 10 Box: 580 3G (5970 is a dual gpu card)

5 Box: 6970 2G or 6950 2G (or the more expensive and harder to find GV-R5876P-2GD may as well get the 580 3G instead of this)

1 Box or Budget: 460 2G


Here's the cheap (off brands) on the 580 3G $539:

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics...tml?cid=123620


6950 2G $299:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HIS-ATI-Radeon-H...item415a184edc


$250

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123

[MiRai]

You want Orgrimmar? You got Orgrimmar @ 7:42PM Friday night.






10 Boxing Test in Orgrimmar on Kil'jaeden.

All Windows @ 1920 x 1080 (Good Settings)
Using ISBoxer

2600K @ 4.6GHz [Venomous-X Cooler]
EVGA GTX 580 3GB
Intel 510 SSD

You didn't like Stormwind on KJ, so I give you Orgrimmar. Again, I had to use FRAPS's DWM recording
feature to capture the Windows Task Manager, GPU-Z, RealTemp, and ISBoxer's Video FX. The DWM
recording feature adds a large amount of CPU processing overhead (~30%) while in use so I decided to
cap the recording to 30 FPS -- I felt this gave more accurate readings across the board instead of using
60FPS and having the FPS erratically jump around.

If you're considering 10 boxing World of Warcraft this was just an initial test to see where my hardware
stood performance-wise. Actual PvP and PvE raiding may require additional tweaking or lower settings than a
simple major city walk through and I obviously cannot test either of those at the moment... maybe one day.

The big words "File Change" are for those who are curious where the FRAPS files split themselves. Some
people experience frame rate dips during the file creation and I was trying to show all angles of performance
here.

For the window swapping portion of the video I spun my mouse wheel like a madman to show that window
swapping was super fast and instant as it should be. Then I showed it in a much slower manner. My last test
included a custom window swapping macro that increased swap times, this video did not.

Yes, I realize that some of the Video FX on some of the windows are missing. I had a sync issue that I didn't
feel like manually fixing while FRAPS was eating away at HDD space.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well you are at good effects, and 30 fps max but still the gpu dosnt seem to be stressed to much.

You do drop to 20ish fps when loading a lot of new characters (like when you first run out of the enterence). And it is far from clear if you would get more then 40fps if you were unlimited.

But no matter there seems no lag or stuttering and the game is very playable at anything over 20fps and even down to 10fps, as long as there is no lag or stuttering.

I didn't take into account that your cpu had to do fraps and stuffs so ya the cpu seems more then strong enough for the job and any fps loss is on the gpu I would think.

Ya the switching is excellent, as good as mine. Mine dosn't mess up the screen though but thats nothing. It is really amazing that you are rendering 10 screens at 1920 X 1080. The 9 alts are also at good efffects?

I really don't think I miss anything by not tileing, maybe you drop aoe targeted spells a lot better though, but outside of that the screens are just to small to be really usefull (even considering you put the 9 on another monitor). I would think for 4 though tiled on a seperate monitor you could see a lot more.

Still overall there is no question you can easy 10 box with your system, and that you have the best video card at under $550 for the job. Any more spent would have just given way to small return for the $.

[MiRai]

Given that few are 2 or 3G (some are 1.5G but that seems insufficient) you choices are:

5 or 10 Box: 580 3G (5970 is a dual gpu card)

5 Box: 6970 2G or 6950 2G (or the more expensive and harder to find GV-R5876P-2GD may as well get the 580 3G instead of this)

1 Box or Budget: 460 2G

EVGA actually offers a GTX 560 2GB SSC and a GTX 560 Ti 2GB. It would seem that although the Ti is
technically better than the non-Ti 560, because it's an SSC card (stock factory OC'd) that it may be on par with
the big brother Ti version. Anandtech does a review on Asus's GTX 560 DirectCU II and it is also a factory OC'd
(slightly faster than EVGA's OC) card that seems to hold it's own against the Ti cards.

While I was looking at Newegg I realized that Asus's card is cheaper than both of those EVGA cards and would
perform better than them, but... it only has 1GB of VRAM. Guess that's where the price increase on the EVGA
cards comes from.

However, Tom's Hardware shows that the GTX 560 Ti is slightly better than the 6950 2GB. So, for anyone
looking for the nVidia equivalent of the 6950 2GB, EVGA's GTX 560 Ti 2GB would be it.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Good call, seems $50 cheaper then the 6950 also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-GeForce-GTX...item4aabf5763f

Well $30 after shipping considered but still it seems a better deal:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-RADEON-HD695...item588e706982

[jiagu-wimem]

what here talk about ? not hardware tools ??