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	[x] Attachment Details

World of Warcraft FPS boost needed

Zones: Massive Multiple Online Role Playing and Other Online Games, Other Strategy Games

Tags: fps, wow, warcraft, world

I have an issue in World of Warcraft where i can't go above 60fps. I know that my computer is plenty powerful enough to reach 100's of FPS because of testing in other games. It is very possible that I just don't have it all setup correctly - which i wouldn't doubt. My background is in network topology, not gaming rigs (not anymore at least).

I own a Dell Dimension XPS 600 - about 1 year old. I have (2) nVidia 7800 GTX 256mb video cards that are running (2) Dell 2001(2001 is the model #) 21" monitors. I am not currently running SLI, but have that option. So, the two video cards are in the system, and i have both monitors plugged into the top video card.

For WoW, i run at 1600 x 1200 in Windowed Mode, but maximized. This way i can have the game take up one of my monitors, and have whatever else open on the other monitor and i can drag my mouse out of the game and use whatever else i have open without the game minmizing.

I run with full options - and normally get around 50fps when out in the world. In AQ40 or Naxx i get around 15 (on avg) and in some parts of those instances (and other instances as well) i drop to around 5fps. I've done all the "easy" things to increase FPS like removing names, turning down spell detail, and have taken down a lot of the other settings as well just to test for an increase in FPS.

So my question is: Are there any hardware options i should be messing with to increase FPS? Should i always use SLI for the boost in FPS? Can i use SLI and still use both monitors while playing?

I'll clarify whatever I need to, just ask. Thanks guys.

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8.3

Question Stats

Zone: Gamers

Question Asked By: TheJabster

Solution Provided By: Callandor

Participating Experts: 14

Solution Grade: A

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Open Discussion

Comment by MaximusMeridiuso

Higher FPS usually has a effect on the latency on any game also. If you play a FPS game online and notice a ping of let's say 80 on high settings. You go and switch to the lowest settings with a higher FPS, I bet your latency will be a heck lot better. I also notice the average gamer puts no effort into the optimization of there services, I suggest closing out anything that isn't needed to run and maybe find a modded INF for your video card that is optimized.

Comment by Jshade

"It was my understanding that Movies run at 30 FPS and the human eye cannot really distiguish
anything over 30-40 FPS."

Not so. Television uses motion blur technology so 30FPS seems smooth. I've been playing FPS games for years and you can definatley tell the difference.

The issue is WoW FPS is tied to your desktop refresh rate, similar to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor's "com_maxfps" setting defaulting to the same as desktop refresh rate. In Call of duty and medal of honor, you could always adjust the variable, "com_maxfps 500" for example. If you can't get above 60fps, your desktop refresh rate is probably set to 60. Try adjusting that to a higher refresh and see if your WoW FPS doesn't jump to match it.

Comment by TheNightwalker

mess around with your graphic card settings, that usually helps me :)

Comment by TheNightwalker

mess around with your graphic card settings, that usually helps me :)

Comment by blokeinabox

Have you tried disabling V_Sync in the Graphics options?

Comment by Verulam

As mentioned above - disabling V_Sync removed the 60fps cap for me. You may experience graphical tearing however.

Comment by Ghzsystems

You could also try a different video card. I just got the Geforce 9600GT SSC version. It can run FULL anything. Maxed everything. Including with programs such as nvtweaker and nvtray maxed out. Even have it set for 16s anti-alias. I am running a 1.80ghz core duo from intel. Running through the primetime at Ironforge doesn't even pose a problem, not even a shutter, and one of the most graphically drawn out items is things like smoke effects. I noticed on my old card that mounts required alot of processor/graphics power to display without lag. Now with the new card but same computer, same setup... I get anywhere from 60-80fps and when it's solid... it maters most. Bouning to 100fps isn't anything special if it isn't consistant.

Comment by cwftech

keep all your settings up

disable smooth mouse

disable v-synch

if that doesnt do it, look at some different drivers like omega drivers (depending on your chipset)

Comment by Ghzsystems

Holy lord!! I need to use spell check.

Comment by courtnewman

You can also try changing the priority of the process thread from normal to high in your task manager for the WoW application. For me this has helped alot for FPS.

Comment by CptGiggles

The human eye see's images at about 24 fps. Your brain cannot process the information any faster. If you were to limit the game's fps which I do (i have several running at the same time.... don't ask) you would not be able to tell the difference. I have a command line argument passed that limits my wow.exe executable to 30 fps and I swear I cannot tell a difference. The game isn't choppy at all. So what your really doing by trying to squeeze extra fps is making your rig hotter/work harder all for nothing but bragging rights. I cannot tell a difference between my 120 fps and my 30 fps game. The only thing that this effects is when you enter large towns such as Orgrimmar, it takes a bit longer to render everyone because it's rendering them at a slower pace, but non-the less its negligible.

Comment by courtnewman

CptGiggles you correct with fact that the human eye can only see 24fps and trained human eyes maybe a little faster. But it another thing where you know that your hardware has the ability to produce high FPS but results from the in game FPS meter is saying its much lower than expected.

For me that is really annoying and it saying that I have a problem somewhere in my system... or... if the FPS is really low then I may need to upgrade.

Comment by CptGiggles

I see your point, but what I should have said is... the fps meters for these games are rarely accurate... (Knowing blizzard, ill give it a 99% chance that their number is no where near what it actually is). The fact that people are worried because WOW reports a small number when they should be getting a large number is extra stress on the user that need not be there. If it looks smooth to you... your fine. The only reason to worry over the extra fps is to say... "my system can get ____fps in WOW" To me its like saying 'My computer can list 500 places after the decimal when i type in excel....' (god only knows if it truly can) Theres really no point to worry. I would be worried if his video card(s) were spinning heavily with only 40 or so fps... cause that would lead me to belive theres a driver/hardware issue.

After rereading the author's post, he says hes gets 15fps and 5fps in populated areas. I've had this happen to me, since its in a populated area and you have a good graphics card, the reason (from my experiences) is from latency. WOW is loading all the art and placing it on the video card's ram, so rendering takes a back seat. the more people there are, the more memory it has to fill (and in many cases, swap)

Comment by courtnewman

I've seen a top notch gaming system run 60FPS+ in heavly dense areas.

But my wife would kill me if I went and spend that kina money for that performance.

Comment by Ice_Engine

CptGiggles,

First of all, there is a giant difference between 30fps and 60fps on a computer monitor. Movies and Cinema use motion blur so 24/25fps fools your eyes to looks smoother than a computer game which does not use any blur.

Any gamer can easily tell the difference between 40fps and 60fps, and 30fps is just plain choppy. On an LCD you want vsync locked and your game running at a solid 60fps, end of story. If vsync is off, you will just get horizontal tearing (some people don't care - they just want to show off their FPS) and your LCD cannot display over 60fps anyway (60hz) so the extra frames are discarded and the textures "tear" due to the video card and the monitor being out of sync. When testing your video card's maximum frame rate you would turn vsync off, but again your monitor is still only displaying 60 frames.

I remember having a CRT that had 160hz refresh and I would put vsync on and games were buttery smooth, compared to even 100hz.

I think the correct statement would be that you don't "care" of the difference between 30+fps but a lot of us gamers care a great deal.

Cheers.

Comment by CptGiggles

I don't necessarily agree with what Ice_Engine said. I have my wow copy locked at 24fps. I can't tell a difference when it's just me grinding. It could be that my monitor/video card employ something that make it better for me, but I've had problems with WOW overtaxing my computer just for the extra 100 or so fps (which is not worth the extra heat my video card gives off, if you ask me). You know the 'we'll use whatever we can' mentality.

Clearly you are mistaken when you talk about the fact that 30fps is 'plain choppy'. I have my copy throttled down below this and no one has ever seen any problems while playing on my box. You are correct in saying that I do not care about the extra 30 fps because its system resources I could be using elsewhere. But my comment was in response to the author's question about his system underpreforming, in which I clearly say "Theres really no point to worry." Not that you shouldnt care anything about frame rates, but I was pointing out that frame rate drops like he describes happen to everyone but the most gluttonist gamers. (The people who feel like shelling out WAY TOO MUCH for the latest and greatest for things like a game such as WOW)

Comment by Callandor

I would like to know what Ice_Engine means by "Movies and Cinema use motion blur so 24/25fps fools your eyes to looks smoother than a computer game which does not use any blur." The film reels are a series of still frames displayed 24 in one second, and it is the brain that is fooled into thinking it is motion when it is not. Computer displays operate on the same principle, and scientists have determined that the threshold for the brain being fooled requires at least 24 fps. Bad synchronization between what the game is outputting and what the screen is displaying can lead to artifacts.

Comment by Ice_Engine

Movies and Film uses motion blur. With a typical 180 degree shutter, the exposed image movement, and subsequent motion blur, is therefore recorded for 1/48th of a second. Because blurring simulates fluidity (film), sharpness simulates stuttering (games on an LCD).

Locking 24fps in WoW is just plain silly. No offense. Do this experiment ... play WoW at 60fps with vsync on and then lock it at 24fps like you've had, and ask a friend to tell you what they think. I am guessing some people have a higher/lower tolerance of these things. Some people's glasses are full of crud and you wonder how they can see through them, but they don't even notice. Same phenomenon perhaps.

Comment by Callandor

I don't agree with this motion blur theory. I know how motion picture cameras work - they don't operate at a fixed shutter speed of 1/48th of a sec; they are variable and depend on ambient light and how much the lens is stopped down, much like a still camera. Any blur you see is an intended film effect by the director, but it is too much to claim that this is present in every film; it is a result of the director's creativity. The director may even choose very fast shutter settings and high speed film advance to slow down the motion, so what you see is the exact opposite of blur.

It may be the case that people have different tolerances for different frame rates, but that is not related to the technical details of how movies are made.

Comment by Ice_Engine

Motion picture cameras that photograph at 24fps usually are set at a shutter angle of 180 degrees, which translates into 1/48th second shutter speed per frame.

Think of how fast you can move your hand over the course of 2 seconds. If you expose a piece of film for two seconds while you move your hand, the silver is trying to draw your hand at every moment of those two seconds onto one piece of film.

So if you want to see really sharp detail, you try to expose the film for as short a time as possible by closing the gap in the shutter. But we need light to make those silver bits arrange themselves, so the less amount of time you expose your film, the less light gets in, so the more light you'll need on your subject.

We've established that a film camera shooting 24 frames of film a second will spin the shutter 24 times in one second. That means each full spin takes 1/24th of a second. If the shutter is at 180 degrees, for half of the time it's blocking light. It's only allowing light through half of the time, or for 1/48th of a second each spin. So there's your 1/48th.

Comment by CptGiggles

I lock WOW at 30 fps because:

1. I have a moderately powered computer with a directx10 video card so some of my available ram gets used by the video card.

2. I have a dual core processor in my laptop and a streamlined version of vista (disabling several bells and wistles

3. When wow runs by itself (which it oftentimes does) (I'm ignoring system processes and internet browsers) it tries to use all of my cpu and gpu.

this results in WOW running at anywhere from 80 - 140 fps depending... i dont like how hot my computer gets when its like this, so i throttle it down. I tried at least 10 different variances of fps and my computer benefited the most while still providing me with a perfect picture at 30 fps.

When i went much lower the system seemed to be more susceptible to fps spikes

EITHER WAY: we have hijacked this man's question in order to have a conversation that fits more on a general forum than a question/answer forum. DONE.

Comment by Callandor

There's more on this subject in this thread http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?topic_id=23&msg_id=0007ii, for those who have an interest in it. I see how 1/48th is arrived at, but while 180 degrees is standard, the angle in one of the cameras mentioned can vary from 11 to 180. It is not always clear what the setting was when watching a movie.

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