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How do I increase my FPS?
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Post by
drbob3002
Alright, let's cut right to the chase: In 25-man raids I have 2-5 FPS. This sucks really bad when trying to DPS, because a hunter that is a full tier of gear lower than me is doing more DPS than me, and I know my shot rotation is perfect.
I've created threads like this in the past (on the WoW forums) and some people suggested different things which I tried (new video card
, more RAM
) but neither of them have bumped up the FPS a noticeable amount.
I just want a
SUREFIRE
way to increase my FPS in WoW (and other games). And please, don't say something like, "turn down video settings lol"..
(If my computer information is needed please let me know what you need to know, and how to access that information. I'm not very keen on computer hardware.)
Post by
Domh
If you're not seeing a performance increase with upgraded hardware, odds are you have some form of software issue.
I'd suggest running a malware/spyware/virus scan on the machine. I use Eset's NOD32, which has a free trail. I also use spybot search and destroy. But any reputable AV and spyware scanner should work well enough.
In terms of your video settings, I'd also suggest turning shadow detail all the way down. This is basically the newest feature and most power consuming. I usually keep this off myself as it has a HUGE effect on your framerates.
If your computer checks out as not having any malware, and changing your video settings doesn't help I'd suggest the quickest easiest thing to do would be to format the machine and reinstall everything. Over time the Window's registry will bloat and more and more crap finds it's way into your system to slow it down. Some people suggest reformatting as often as every six months to keep things optimum, but I tend to wait about a year myself. A fresh install would also remove any potential malware that might get missed by a scanner.
Before you do that though, I'd also like to know what kind of system you're running.
To find out this, you can go to your start menu, and depending on your version of Windows and it's setup, either click "Run" or in the search box, and type "dxdiag". What I'd like to know is pretty much everything that shows up in the system information section.
In any case, good luck with it.
Post by
309394
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
drbob3002
If you're not seeing a performance increase with upgraded hardware, odds are you have some form of software issue.
I'd suggest running a malware/spyware/virus scan on the machine. I use Eset's NOD32, which has a free trail. I also use spybot search and destroy. But any reputable AV and spyware scanner should work well enough.
In terms of your video settings, I'd also suggest turning shadow detail all the way down. This is basically the newest feature and most power consuming. I usually keep this off myself as it has a HUGE effect on your framerates.
If your computer checks out as not having any malware, and changing your video settings doesn't help I'd suggest the quickest easiest thing to do would be to format the machine and reinstall everything. Over time the Window's registry will bloat and more and more crap finds it's way into your system to slow it down. Some people suggest reformatting as often as every six months to keep things optimum, but I tend to wait about a year myself. A fresh install would also remove any potential malware that might get missed by a scanner.
Before you do that though, I'd also like to know what kind of system you're running.
To find out this, you can go to your start menu, and depending on your version of Windows and it's setup, either click "Run" or in the search box, and type "dxdiag". What I'd like to know is pretty much everything that shows up in the system information section.
In any case, good luck with it.
I regularly scan my computer, and most of the time it comes up with next to no infections.
I keep the shadow details at the lowest setting.
However, I could use a reformat..haven't had one in quite some time now.
Here's the info:
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System Model: EMACHINES
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 3584MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3328MB RAM
Page File: 889MB used, 5763MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
A
SUREFIRE
method of increasing your FPS is to spend about $1500 on a "gaming computer".
Ok, now that I've got that out of my system... :)
You say you got a new video card. Which one did you get? How much RAM does your system now have? How old is your computer? What other hardware upgrades have you made (such as hard drive and power supply)? Have you tried disabling all your addons to see what effect it has on FPS?
I got the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, (see above for RAM), my computer is about two years old, and I haven't made any other hardware upgrades other than RAM and video card.
As for addons, I could probably do with disabling some of them during raids (carbonite is a definite, it uses a good amount of memory and I do not need it during raids. Maybe recount too.) but that would be a minimal FPS boost at most.
Post by
309394
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
drbob3002
The specs look like you ought to get better FPS than you are.
Domh said something that gave me an idea for what to suggest: CCleaner. It's a good, free registry checker. It can tell you if there are any problems there (not likely to be causing FPS problems, but it's not a bad thing to do on a regular basis).
You might try defragging the disk. It probably won't get you much, but again something that's a good idea anyway.
If you're running in windowed mode, you might gain some FPS by switching to "true" full screen mode.
As an experiment, try turning off your anti-virus software for one session to see if it's causing the slowdown. (I had one that did.... but I forget which one it was. It was one of the freebie ones).
I'll try out CCleaner as well as defragging the disk, however I literally do not even have an antivirus. I don't need it. When my dad found out I didn't (he's a network administrator where he works, so he likes my computer to be as protected as possible) he installed antivirus and everything, did a scan, and literally found
nothing
, and all any antivirus programs do is slow down WoW so I think I'm fine on that for now.
Oh, and I prefer window mode much more than fullscreen, mainly because I'm running with a dual-monitor setup.
Post by
309394
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
drbob3002
I prefer windowed mode too, but I'm willing to take the hit on FPS to gain the task bar at the bottom of the screen. :)
(Dunno if you saw my mention of distance setting - you replied while I was composing my edit)
No, I actually missed that. However, one major point I'm trying to make is to not have to change video settings at all (if possible I'd like to even play on ultra settings (which is possible in 5-man heroics while still maintaining good FPS)). Of course I can just lower all my video settings and FPS will be (almost) a non-issue, but I prefer to play the game as it was meant to be played, in it's full glory.
Edit: By the way I appreciate all the help! I'm going to try a couple things today once the servers come back up, but if you have any other ideas please post 'em up, I'm open to suggestions and willing to buy new hardware if needed, but I just want to improve my darn FPS!
Ever tried doing heroic Twin Val'kyr with ~2FPS trying to dodge orbs of the opposite color, and attempting to switch colors etc.? It's not fun!
Post by
138330
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
309394
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System Model: EMACHINES
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 3584MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3328MB RAM
Page File: 889MB used, 5763MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
I've bolded the things that aren't good.
Firstly, Windows 7 is memory intensive, to the same degree as Windows Vista (if not more so). The
recommended
minimum memory for win7 is 1gb (for the 32bit). The recommended
actual
minimum memory requirements for 32bit is probably closer to 2gb. The more ram in your system the less time your system spends recovering things from your page file, and the faster it is. This, however, is not the main bottleneck in your system.
Your processor is. The AMD 64 3700+ is the equivalent to the Intel Pentium 4. You
really
ought to be running something stronger. As an example, I just recently upgraded my system from a P4 to a core i7 (2.66Ghz, OC'd to 4Ghz), and I saw almost triple the frame rate I had prior to the upgrade (same graphics card, the only differences between my old specs and my new ones are my processor and ram). The biggest limiting factor is that your current processor is single core. More and more applications are being optimized (if not out right designed) to run on multi-core systems.
edit:
For the record, my current system specs and framerates in wow:
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Overclocked to 4.00Ghz)
RAM: 6gigs of Corsair Dominator 1066Mhz (Overclocked to 1600Mhz)
GPU: EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb
Framerates: (Max settings except for shadows, which is set at 50%. Running in Windowed Mode)
Dalaran: 40-80 FPS depending on congestion
Flying above Icecrown looking over the zone: 90-150 FPS
Fighting in Icecrown (tournament dailies): 50-100 FPS
Zoomed in, staring at a wall: 200-300 FPS
Post by
Domh
I'd say the processor is your choking point at the moment. An upgrade to a dual core might do you wonders, as WoW is capable of using two cores (and only two cores, so more is just overkill). Also, given the age of the foundations of WoW's Graphics engine, it does offload a fair amount of the processing to the CPU so it will certainly affect your framerates. That being said, looking at the 3700+ it looks like any upgrade to the CPU you make is going to require an upgraded mainboard, and this possibly replacing RAM and even the power supply - making for one expensive upgrade. If you're going to do any more upgrades at this point, you're probably best off doing a complete overhaul or building a new system from scratch.
RAM looks good. 4 GB should be more than enough for Windows 7, as benchmarks and reviews have been showing increased performance over Vista on lower end systems. That being said, since you are running 32-bit Win 7, you're currently being capped at about 3.3 GB or so, due to limitations of the 32 bit addressing system. If you can try Win 7 64-bit you'll get back that last chunk of memory, but it's probably not worth it.
A few things you can try are disabling the Windows Aero interface, which since you're playing in windowed mode could save a few more FPS. I'm not sure how to do this in Win 7, as I've yet to set aside time to upgrade myself, but I imagine it's easily googleable. Additionally, setting the computer to performance mode might help (under system in control panel, advanced settings, advanced tab, and settings in the performance section). Again I'm not sure how this works under windows 7 myself, but I'll warn you that in a few cases it did cause some issues with rendering when I tried it on Vista some time ago (specifically cursor flicker), with very little gain.
Post by
Wanderingfox
I'd say the processor is your choking point at the moment. An upgrade to a dual core might do you wonders, as WoW is capable of using two cores (and only two cores, so more is just overkill). Also, given the age of the foundations of WoW's Graphics engine, it does offload a fair amount of the processing to the CPU so it will certainly affect your framerates. That being said, looking at the 3700+ it looks like any upgrade to the CPU you make is going to require an upgraded mainboard, and this possibly replacing RAM and even the power supply - making for one expensive upgrade. If you're going to do any more upgrades at this point, you're probably best off doing a complete overhaul or building a new system from scratch.
RAM looks good. 4 GB should be more than enough for Windows 7, as benchmarks and reviews have been showing increased performance over Vista on lower end systems. That being said, since you are running 32-bit Win 7, you're currently being capped at about 3.3 GB or so, due to limitations of the 32 bit addressing system. If you can try Win 7 64-bit you'll get back that last chunk of memory, but it's probably not worth it.
A few things you can try are disabling the Windows Aero interface, which since you're playing in windowed mode could save a few more FPS. I'm not sure how to do this in Win 7, as I've yet to set aside time to upgrade myself, but I imagine it's easily googleable. Additionally, setting the computer to performance mode might help (under system in control panel, advanced settings, advanced tab, and settings in the performance section). Again I'm not sure how this works under windows 7 myself, but I'll warn you that in a few cases it did cause some issues with rendering when I tried it on Vista some time ago (specifically cursor flicker), with very little gain.
More is not an overkill, and WoW CAN use more than 2 cores. Just not at the same time. Specifically, if you tell WoW to execute on all cores of a quad core w/ hyperthreading (processorAffinityMask 255), it will attempt to use all 8 logical cores, specifically it will run its intensive threads on the
two least used cores
of the available ones (in this case 8). This means that other applications (such as a web browser, or Windows itself) will likely not be running on the same cores as WoW unless your system is at full load. This means there's less fighting over resources than if you had set WoW to use the first 2 cores only (processorAffinityMask 3).
Does it make a huge difference in WoW? No. Does it make a difference if you multi-task and run numerous other things while running WoW at the same time? Yes.
That, and quad-cores are getting down into the reasonable price range (a core i7 920 is under $300 now, and can be easily OC'd to 4Ghz).
edit:
It's worth noting that running WoW on a core i7 with a mask of 255 can cause WoW to run both of it's main threads on the same physical core, thus lowering performance. The optimal setting for an i7 is 85.
edit2:
It's also probably worth noting that you can't run win7 x64 on a 32bit processor.
Post by
Domh
Ah yes. Touche. I should definitely caught the 32 bit CPU 64 bit OS thing in my post. Just goes to show I should reread what I'm posting, and not answer questions half asleep.
More cores will definitely be better for multitasking, as stated above, especially if you're running Windows 7 which is supposed to have increased multicore performance. I apologize as I was thinking from a purely WoW standpoint, which really wouldn't be sound advice in the real world.
Also, the above CPU optimizing is definitely useful. I set my own i7's process affinity mask to 85 as well, as I was having some bizarre issue with Vista trying to put everything on the hyperthread virtual cores for a while (while I was dual boxing), and it resolved some choppiness issues I had been having.
Good luck with it all, and let us know if you get the issue resolved.
Post by
Healingpains
I am not really sure what I can do to optimize my laptop. Here are my specs. Any suggestions are appreciated. However, be mindful I am pretty much computer technicals retarded. LOL.
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 5/12/2012, 18:07:42
Machine name:
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120330-1504)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
System Model: K53E
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/18/11 09:40:22 Ver: 04.06.03
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3874MB RAM
Page File: 1943MB used, 5803MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode
------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Post by
TheReal
Should have started your own thread, but whatever.
According to
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K53E/#specifications
, your computer uses integrated graphics, which means it shares memory with everything else (no dedicated graphics processing memory). WoW is fairly dependent on CPU, and yours is quite a few steps up from mine. I use the 64-bit client (which you should do if you're not already) and I have a discrete but relatively crappy graphics processor on my laptop and I still manage 12 fps on lowest settings in LFR raids. Optimal? No. Playable? Barely.
If you're going to see an increase in frame rates with your laptop, it's going to come from the 64-bit client. There isn't much else you can do.
Post by
Healingpains
as in use the 64 bit client wow? or do I need to change a setting on my laptop. Also, should I be using the directx 11 setting under the wow interface section or the Directx 9? To be completely honest, I don't even know what client I am running for wow. But I have seen multiple posts about people having issues with the 64 bit wow client. Have they resolved the issues with it? How do I know which client I am running? How do I change to the 64 bit if I am not running it now?
Sorry for all of the questions at once, like I said, I am new to all of this stuff. Thank you for your time and knowledge with this.
Post by
TheReal
Hey, I wouldn't have answered if I wasn't willing to help!
Get the 64-bit client here:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3988300405
. You won't need to change any settings on your laptop. When WoW gets another patch, this thread will come in handy:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4079625547
because the 64-bit client won't update automatically. I haven't had any issues with the 64-bit client, but that's not a guarantee because my laptop is different from yours and the client is really only in beta testing.
Use DirectX11.
On your log-in screen in the lower left, you'll see the WoW patch number and either (x86) or (x64). If you're running the 64-bit client, you'll see (x64). If you're not, you'll see (x86). After you install it correctly, WoW will default to using the 64-bit client. The first thread I linked above tells how to revert to 32-bit if you're having issues.
Good luck and have fun!
Post by
Healingpains
Installed 64 bit and switched to directx 11. Doesn't seem to really make a difference, but it was worth a try. It may be a little better, can't really tell to be honest. I use Advanced System Care 5 to help with turning off un-needed stuff when I am running wow. I also use a windowed mode because of how often I tab out to do research on my toons, and read theory crafting. I don't understand all of it but the knowledge I do get from it is nice. I will keep tinkering with it and see what happens. Also, I run my settings so that the overall is at a Good rating. That may be why I didn't see a huge difference. At some point I am going to build my own desktop. I have been doing research little by little about how to do it, what I should buy and things of that nature. I am pretty new to wowhead but I really like the site because of the wealth of knowledge people are willing to share, such as yourself. Thanks for the advice, the expertise and the assistance. It's people like you who make playing the game enjoyable.
Post by
TheReal
/brofist
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