People with super rigs who play WoW

[pak]

I play WoW and I play it a lot. Been playing since closed beta and have over 200 days played since launch. I raid 5 nights a week @ 5 hours a night. Just a lil background. (yeah, Im sick)

Now I know my rig isnt top of the line and defenitely not the fastest, but you can admit its pretty decent. It actually runs great, but I want it to run flawlessly. Specifically, to those who play wow and raid high end, Im talking about the zerg when fighting nerfarian and he hits 20%. That zerg brings my pc down on its knees begging for mercy. I get 5fps! Slideshow FTL.

I have thought about going with an SLI setup and/or 7950, also have considered dual core proc, but wow just doesnt like these setups. Recently, blizz has "fixed" the dual core issue where dual core rigs were capped at 64fps. From what I have heard first hand from people is that their FPS is higher, but WoW does not take advantage of dual core procs. And the same goes for dual GPU 7950/SLI. The game just doesnt take advantage of it.

So you guys with super rigs that play wow, tell me how your set ups run. Also, if you can, take a look at mine. What can I do?

--pak

[Adragontattoo]

I noticed no real drastic difference in WoW between my old 478 2.8 with a 6600GT and my new 3800x2 with dual 7600GT's honestly.

[BossBorot]

From my experiences with wow, and my sister's, it appears that the uber video cards dont see much benifit as most of the hickups in wow are lag related. However I never done the exact thing that you mentioned that caused the slideshow.

[CGR]

WOW is not really a graphic intensive game. I run it on max settings and only go below 40fps when in Org and its got everyone and their mother AEIng after a raid.

[SuperFarStucker]

lol, my fps in warcraft 3 is capped at 64... that is strange. I don't think a 7900gt should have any trouble muscling through wow, my friend was doing just fine on a 9800xt and a xp 2xxx he is sicker than you are I do believe, more like 250 days /played since closed beta. He only had the slightest of problems in 40 man raid instances and he was running his monitor at some obscene resolution where it didn't even have a 1:1 mapping (1920x1440 i believe), turn down aa and filtering and you should be fine.

[pak]

maybe thats my problem, cuz I have to play at max eye candy.


--pak

[Merlin7777]

still even with max eye candy, wow is not that intensive. your videocard should be able to handle it without a problem, although what resolution are you playing at?

[Prodigious]

There is a hell of a difference between the quality of graphics and the processing strain of graphics. This applies to any game or engine ever made. Don't confuse the two.

WoW is no Crysis, for sure. However, the shader techniques they use do not lend themselves to efficiency, and don't scale well with increasing renderable objects. In fact blizzard released an improvement for this very issue in a recent patch. However, it didn't completely fix the problem. WoW's engine becomes vastly more resource dependant when you introduce player numbers on the scales of 40vs40 raids in AV. This is why your system comes to a crawl.

The effect is more pronounced on some hardware configurations than others.

[Prodigious]

lol, my fps in warcraft 3 is capped at 64... that is strange. I don't think a 7900gt should have any trouble muscling through wow, my friend was doing just fine on a 9800xt and a xp 2xxx he is sicker than you are I do believe, more like 250 days /played since closed beta. He only had the slightest of problems in 40 man raid instances and he was running his monitor at some obscene resolution where it didn't even have a 1:1 mapping (1920x1440 i believe), turn down aa and filtering and you should be fine.
turn off vsync.

[pak]

I dont think its his vsync if he capped at 64. Thats the dual core issue. When you turn on the vsync you cap at 60.

and I run everything on high @ 1600x1200.

--pak

[Wicked Klown]

With a A64 3500 Venice, Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe, eVga 7900GT and 2gigs OCZ Gx ram. I was pulling between 40 and 60FPS in MC running a res of 1600 x 1200 x 32 with med to max details. Before on an Intel 520 OCed to 3.6GHz, eVga 6800GT and 1 gig PC3200 Geil ram I was pulling 5 to 20FPS in MC. Running the same settings. IF you are running any add ons turn them off when you do high end raids as it will help alittle.

[pak]

With a A64 3500 Venice, Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe, eVga 7900GT and 2gigs OCZ Gx ram. I was pulling between 40 and 60FPS in MC running a res of 1600 x 1200 x 32 with med to max details. Before on an Intel 520 OCed to 3.6GHz, eVga 6800GT and 1 gig PC3200 Geil ram I was pulling 5 to 20FPS in MC. Running the same settings. IF you are running any add ons turn them off when you do high end raids as it will help alittle.


Im fine in general raiding. Im talkn about certain situations such as the AoE zerg that happends @ 20% Nefarian Kill. There are close to 100 mobs that come and must be AoE'd down. That situation is about the only time I lag. It is a very intense and detailed zerg.

--pak

[Wicked Klown]

Well then that would pretty much be the same as the old SS/TM PvPing. There was nothing out there to help as there was to much gonig on for a rig to keep up with. By the way what server do you play on and what side?

[pak]

archimonde/alliance

--pak

[SuperFarStucker]

If it was a vsync issue my framerate would be capped at 85.

[Krome]

The requirements are really low for that game, I don't see why you would have problems......

System Requirements:


Windows
98/ME/2000/XP
800 MHz or higher CPU
256 MB or more of RAM
32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c or above
56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
Mac
OS X 10.3.5
933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
56k or higher modem with an Internet connection

[Prodigious]

The requirements are really low for that game, I don't see why you would have problems......

System Requirements:


Windows
98/ME/2000/XP
800 MHz or higher CPU
256 MB or more of RAM
32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c or above
56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
Mac
OS X 10.3.5
933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
Recommended specs have nothing to do with the type of encounters experienced during raids nor the performance impact of addons. I know with my rogue main, there's a lot of addons I need for max effectiveness but they make my system crawl during raids because they track a lot of stuff.

[GerrFel]

On the rig you see listed, the Nefarian rush doesn't make my computer beg like everyone elses, it runs smoothly. And I'm a priest, which means I'm still healing and watching heal meters while it's going on. Fine for me..

[Redstone]

Pak, how many addon's are you runnin? I've found they are the main crippler of preformance in WoW. Try a complete clean install of the addons and only enable the essentials during raids.

[pak]

Yeah, its my addons. I have over 100 addon folders. Rogue main aswell. But I do not think I could play without most of the addons I have. Way to spoiled every since beta cosmos.

--pak

[johnny*]

I don't seem to have a problem w/ the Nef zerg, but the vael fight pretty much owns my rig. From my experience, WoW seems to benefit most from uber memory performance, specifically high bandwidth. WoW performance for me suffered quite a bit when I moved from 512mb x 2 @ 267 2.5-3-2-5 to 1gb x 2 @ 246 2.5-4-3-8, even with a 60mhz higher CPU clock w/ these new sticks. Disabling addons seems to alleviate much of the stress, but I, too, am very dependant on my mods :beer:

[pak]

Good memory huh? Thats about the only thing in my system that sux. I been looking for a reason to upgrade my ram, but when I asked in the memory section of this forum, I got a few response from people that said better memory really wouldnt help my WoW gaming. But if your telling me first hand that it has, maybe its time for me to go shopping.

--pak

[SunTzu69]

Wow is very memory instensive. Particularly in large open areas. Wow works differently from other games in how it deals with world data being loaded. There are never any load times when traveling through the world.

I noticed a difference when I went from 1GB to 2GB of ram in WoW. If you search the WoW forums I am certain that you will find posts by Blizzard on how memory intensive the game is.

[pak]

Well Im running 2x1gig of some gskill value ram. Run it on a divider having it run currently at 218ish@2.5 3 3 7. So Im guessing I want to get some memory I dont have to run at a divider. Something that would run 260@ tight timings and that would result in some higher bandwidth memory? Correct?

any suggestions?

I would like to get some memory that would clock higher than 260 is 2x1gig form just in case I do get my CPU to go higher.

--pak

*EDIT* And if WoW really is very memory intensive, maybe I can manipulate my clock to get some very high speeds and keep me at 2.6. Im sure it possible.

[beau_safken]

I'd say the best thing about a good computer and Wow....

Raids = easy now and lots of shiny :D
Lagforge = Ironforge.

Pretty much about it.

[InThrees]

I really need to pay for another month to get screenshots and inventory tallies so I can ebay my account.

[Redstone]

Pk I'm not sure new memory is going to help much unless you have faulty sticks. Look at my sig. My set up doesnt touch yours but i have everything maxed out in game. I dont overclock my ram either. There is no way you need 100 addons all going at once during raids. How are your AH, quest, or map addons going to help during raids?

One other thing, is your overclock completely stable? I have found WoW plays horrible on anything but a stable set up.

[pak]

I dont really have over 100 addons it was more of an exaggeration. And I run pretty damn stable. I dont actually game @ 10x260. I normally bring it down to 10x255ish when I game only cuz it can get really hot where I live. And as far as my addons, ive reduced it as much as I can and try to make it as lag friendly as possible.

Dont get me wrong, its not like my rig doesnt run good. In fact I think it runs great. There are just little situations that run less than flawlessly that I would love to improve just to improve. Tinkering with my rig keeps me busy between raids.

Im slowly learning that its not my hardware so much as it is WoW. Its really sad to me that WoW does not take advantage of some of the newer technologies that arent so new. Dual core CPU and SLI.

--pak

[johnny*]

You're right in that WoW poorly utilizes CPU and GPU power, perhaps as a result of poor coding. I firmly believe, however, that WoW performs noticeably better with high-performance memory (bandwidth/timings), based on my own experience. Judging by the rest of your system, memory seems like the most logical/economical upgrade, especially when compared to the SLI setup you're considering; honestly, popping for a second GPU to put in a machine you only use to play WoW is ludicrous, imo.

Btw, If WoW is the only gaming you do, 512mb x 2 should be adequate, if not preferable over a 2 gig set. I play at 1680x1050 with all video settings maxed, and have never seen my page file usage go above 800 megs, even when running it with several background programs. I'm actually considering RMA'ing my old sticks and reverting back to them (3rd set of 512mb x 2 Crucial Ballistix, failed after 4 months) as I spend the majority of my gaming time playing WoW; well, plus the mem. controller on this damn Clawhammer is a huge POS and hates high FSB with my 2 gig set :rolleyes:

That's my $0.02 anyhow...

[pak]

You're right in that WoW poorly utilizes CPU and GPU power, perhaps as a result of poor coding. I firmly believe, however, that WoW performs noticeably better with high-performance memory (bandwidth/timings), based on my own experience. Judging by the rest of your system, memory seems like the most logical/economical upgrade, especially when compared to the SLI setup you're considering; honestly, popping for a second GPU to put in a machine you only use to play WoW is ludicrous, imo.

Btw, If WoW is the only gaming you do, 512mb x 2 should be adequate, if not preferable over a 2 gig set. I play at 1680x1050 with all video settings maxed, and have never seen my page file usage go above 800 megs, even when running it with several background programs. I'm actually considering RMA'ing my old sticks and reverting back to them (3rd set of 512mb x 2 Crucial Ballistix, failed after 4 months) as I spend the majority of my gaming time playing WoW; well, plus the mem. controller on this damn Clawhammer is a huge POS and hates high FSB with my 2 gig set :rolleyes:

That's my $0.02 anyhow...

I would just like to verify this statement. Being that WoW is my primary game, I took this idea of higher memory bandwidth with a lot of great consideration.

Previously, I was a 3700+ 754 clawhammer CPU. I was gimped as far as memory bandwidth goes. On sandra, I would score 3200s. So I knew I had to go to a new mobo/cpu setup to gain any significant gains in memory bandwidth. FOr a little while I toyed around with am2-ddr2 setups but in the end came across a great deal on our forums for a 3700+ san diego and DFI board. So I opt'd that route.

With NO oc'n so far, I score 6000 on sandra. But the best part is, WoW runs 10x better. Of any upgrade I have had, CPU, memory, GPU, HD's, this upgrade to increase my memory bandwidth has been by far the most gain I have seen ever in my time playing this game.

I just can't wait to get some really good memory and see how it compare to my cheap memory.


Just want to thank johnny for his post. It has really answered a lot for me.

--pak

[Seven]

As people have said, WoW is really more about the CPU and memory.

Having all the crap for player models, enviornments on a fast CPU and memory will give you noticible performance increases.

A fast videocard doesn't hurt either.