Memory, reason for low fps?

[Guardix]

So I've been looking around and seen some rigs go with 40+ fps during raids.
My rig currently pulls, while standing in Orgrimmar, 20 fps (It's a rather populated server) and during a boss fight in ICC it sometimes drop to 10 fps.
- Not that lucky when you're working on LK HC on 25man :/.

These are my WoW settings:
1920x1200, 24bit color/24bit depth 1xMultisample

View distance: 40%
Terrain Blending: 100%
Particle density: 100%
Shadow quality: 0%
Environment detail: 70%
Ground clutter density: 80%
Ground clutter radius: 80%
Texture resolution: 100%
Texture Filtering: 100%
Weather intensity: 40%
Player textures: 100%

Specular lightning and Death effect enabled.
Maximized window mode.

processAffinityMask is set to 15.


My rig is as follows:
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1329291


I run a pair of dual channel Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/2G with the timings 4-4-4-12 and a single stick Kingston KHX6400D2LL/1G with the same timings.
The single ram stick is rather new, I bought it to see if it made any difference.
It now runs dual channel asymmetric though.

I have been thinking of overclocking my CPU to get an FSBRAM ratio of 1:1, but I find my CPU temps to be a little too high, 70C degrees.
I hope adding some more cooling pasta and clean the cooler will help. it is after all around 3 years since I last put some on it.


I know my machine is getting old, but shouldn't it be able to perform better? Also I tried to set my my ram frequency to 800MHz, but once I loaded WoW I got a BSOD. Shouldn't the system be able to pull that? I mean the sticker on the RAM says 800MHz.

[Haleth]

Try turning Texture filtering to the minimum, and particle density to 30%. Texture filtering is a killer and particle density in Icecrown hits on your fps like a truck.

[d87]

I know my machine is getting old

quadcore with 4gb ram is already getting old ? right

try to pull out this single 1gb module.

allo iirc processAffinityMask should be equal to amount of cores in your system. i don't why it's 15 in your config, maybe that's fine.
Tried resetting config ?

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by d87 allo iirc processAffinityMask should be equal to amount of cores in your system. i don't why it's 15 in your config, maybe that's fine. Tried resetting config ?

255 for 8 cores, 15 for quad, 3 for dual and 1 for single. But to my understanding, there's no need to do this anymore as the game will detect your hardware and use the best setting.

[v6o]

Also unless you need to play in window mode, play in fullscreen mode. Usually means another few FPS.

[Guardix]

Thank you for your inputs!

I am aware of that playing in windowed mode gives less fps, but it's annoying to play without. It's way too awesome if you use dual screen, as it makes everything easier especially coding. I do however believe I have to sacrifice a little and play in fullscreen during intense boss fights (not that I suck without).

I haven't yet removed the one stick of RAM, but I will give it a try sometime.

Turning down texture filtering gave a tiny performance boost, not to mention particle density - but that is not much of a surprise with all the aoe effects from players. Or even fire plus elementals on Halion.

I hope to see some more ideas to what I can do, to run smoother.

[VexVishnu]

Originally Posted by v6o Also unless you need to play in window mode, play in fullscreen mode. Usually means another few FPS.

I see this quite often but for me it's the exact opposite. I get another 12 (on avg) FPS playing in windowed than I would playing in fullscreen. :/

[v6o]

Originally Posted by VexVishnu I see this quite often but for me it's the exact opposite. I get another 12 (on avg) FPS playing in windowed than I would playing in fullscreen. :/

Is it possible you are using vsync and triple buffering in fullscreen and only 60hertz on your monitor... if so that could be one reason as window mode doesn't allow either.

I usually use maximized window mode also because I alt tab quite often and Skype minimize my fullscreen applications when someone gets invited..

[break19]

Originally Posted by VexVishnu I see this quite often but for me it's the exact opposite. I get another 12 (on avg) FPS playing in windowed than I would playing in fullscreen. :/

If you're using opengl (and if you're on OSX, you are), it has the same rendering speed for windowed apps, as it does for full screen apps, and since the windowed app theoretically can be a smaller size/resolution, it can be faster, depending on how big the window is, among other things.

DirectX is the only one that is actually faster fullscreen than windowed, given equal resolution of each.

Of course, directX is also faster in full screen than OpenGL is, on the same hardware, but they're approximately the same speeds if you run windowed.

[Haleth]

With the GLL engine on Mac WoW doesn't hit over 30 fps if it's windowed, unless it's windowed *and* maximized (= fullscreen but still treated as windowed).