Settings that Maximize Performance

Bag · 08/02/07, 10:02 AM

This is not related to addons. I'm talking about pure settings that you've found to be ideal for performance in your particular machine. For example, on my laptop, which is running an athlon 64 processor, and a basic 128 mb independent video card, I need to run WoW in full-screen mode to achieve the best performance. However, on my desktop, which is a somewhat older machine, I get much better performance in windowed mode maximized.

Also, some other things I was wondering about:

I have a 22" widescreen monitor, which is optimized for 1600x1050 res. That res is really intensive, though. Is there another resolution which I could run at without making it look terrible? Also, is multisampling a particularly important setting for performance?

Harem · 08/02/07, 11:11 AM

Running at anything other than native resolution on an LCD is going to look funny and weird. I would suggest running windowed at a lower resolution, or running full screen at a lower resolution and setting your LCD/graphics card to not scale the resolution, meaning black bars at the sides/top of your screen.

Opioid · 08/02/07, 12:46 PM

This article will give you a gauge of the per-setting by per-setting effects of each possibility:
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Hardware Performance Guide - Features at GameSpot

Though you may have a different video card, the proportions remain useful and correct analogues.

aleyro · 08/02/07, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Bag

Also, is multisampling a particularly important setting for performance?

In my experience, multisampling can deliver a much "smoother" image, but it comes at a very high cost in terms of framerate. if your trying to optimize your performance, go with 1x.

Some general tips for improving your performance:

make sure your video card drivers are up to date. If you have an nvidia video card, then winXP is your best bet; the nvidia drivers for vista are less than outstanding. If you have ATI, then your basically fine with either XP or vista, with XP holding on to a slight advantage with driver maturity.

Set everything in the "video options" to the lowest possible setting, set your resolution to run at whatever is native to your monitor (yes, even if its something high), and go into your video card config and set everything to max performance there as well. Disable smooth shading, full screen glow, and death effect. turn on triple buffering, and that other option on the right hand side which i can't seem to remember the name of right now.

Also, most likely, your going to want to turn off "use hardware acceleration" in the sound properties (unless your 100% sure that you have a hardware accelerator- i.e., you installed it yourself or have seen it with your own eyes).

Finally, shut down all external applications, turn off all unused services, and defrag your hard drive at least once a month, and deftinately after every patch. if at all possible, put your wow installation on a seperate physical hard drive from the rest of your windows installation.

If you’re still not happy, consider adding some ram. More than 2 GB ram won't help you much; if you already have that much ram, and your frame rate is crap after doing all of the above, then it’s probably time to buy a new pc. If you have more than 2 GB ram, and a spanking new PC with a fast processor, and your performance is STILL crap, then the disk may be the culprit; wow reads from the disk quite a bit, and a slow disk can bring the whole show crashing down. Consider adding a new internal hard drive.

Bag · 08/02/07, 12:58 PM

Great tips, guys. Appreciate them all.

Malan · 08/02/07, 1:05 PM

I'm amazed that the gamespot article indicates that having the weather shader on or off makes almost no difference in performance.

Snowcrasher · 08/02/07, 1:17 PM

Originally Posted by Malan

I'm amazed that the gamespot article indicates that having the weather shader on or off makes almost no difference in performance.

Where they did the test (Hellfire) doesn't have weather changes though right?

Gasmask · 08/02/07, 1:38 PM

Usually when I think of maximizing performance, I don't think of feral druid. Is rerolling an option, Bag?

Bag · 08/02/07, 1:39 PM

Kaber · 08/02/07, 1:47 PM

Originally Posted by aleyro

in my experience, multisampling can deliver a much "smoother" image, but it comes at a very high cost in terms of framerate. if your trying to optimize your performance, go with 1x.

some general tips for improving your performance:

make sure your video card drivers are up to date. if you have an nvidia video card, then winXP is your best bet; the nvidia drivers for vista are less than outstanding. if you have ATI, then your basically fine with either XP or vista, with XP holding on to a slight advantage with driver maturity.

set everything in the "video options" to the lowest possible setting, set your resolution to run at whatever is native to your monitor (yes, even if its something high), and go into your video card config and set everything to max performance there as well. disable smooth shading, full screen glow, and death effect. turn on triple buffering, and that other option on the right hand side which i can't seem to remember the name of right now.

also, most likely, your going to want to turn off "use hardware acceleration" in the sound properties (unless your 100% sure that you have a hardware accelerator- i.e., you installed it yourself or have seen it with your own eyes).

finally, shut down all external applications, turn off all unused services, and defrag your hard drive at least once a month, and deftinately after every patch. if at all possible, put your wow installation on a seperate physical hard drive from the rest of your windows installation.

if your still not happy, consider adding some ram. more than 2gb ram won't help you much; if you already have that much ram, and your frame rate is crap after doing all of the above, then its probably time to buy a new pc. if you have more than 2gb ram, and a spanking new PC with a fast processor, and your performance is STILL crap, then the disk may be the culprit; wow reads from the disk quite a bit, and a slow disk can bring the whole show crashing down. consider adding a new internal hard drive.

I keep running into issues where every time I attempt to set my Multi-Sample rates to 1x from 4x, it reverts back when I restart WoW. Is there some fix for that? My frame rates have been pretty bad on a lot of our raids lately, and it would be a huge help if the setting was not always reverting to 4x.

kycan · 08/02/07, 1:56 PM

Originally Posted by Kaber

I keep running into issues where every time I attempt to set my Multi-Sample rates to 1x from 4x, it reverts back when I restart WoW. Is there some fix for that? My frame rates have been pretty bad on a lot of our raids lately, and it would be a huge help if the setting was not always reverting to 4x.

Not to follow with just a "me too!" post, but I have also experienced this oddity. I'm guessing it may have to do with running the game in windowed mode, but that is an uneducated guess. I must say though, I don't think I measured a significant difference in frame rate, regardless of what I had it at. Go figure.

GokieKS · 08/02/07, 1:58 PM

Originally Posted by Kaber

I keep running into issues where every time I attempt to set my Multi-Sample rates to 1x from 4x, it reverts back when I restart WoW. Is there some fix for that? My frame rates have been pretty bad on a lot of our raids lately, and it would be a huge help if the setting was not always reverting to 4x.

Check to make sure your video card drivers are not forcing specific AA/AF settings on any applications, but letting the applications decide on what level AA/AF to use.

Bag · 08/02/07, 2:01 PM

Originally Posted by GokieKS

Check to make sure your video card drivers are not forcing specific AA/AF settings on any applications, but letting the applications decide on what level AA/AF to use.

Easiest way to check this?

Thiris · 08/02/07, 2:08 PM

Originally Posted by GokieKS

Check to make sure your video card drivers are not forcing specific AA/AF settings on any applications, but letting the applications decide on what level AA/AF to use.

Or you could force your video card to use lower settings and have it override game settings as well. I do that currently while I'm dual boxing so I can get decent framerates on both instances of WoW while I have any other programs/etc running.

aleyro · 08/02/07, 3:01 PM

Originally Posted by Kaber

I keep running into issues where every time I attempt to set my Multi-Sample rates to 1x from 4x, it reverts back when I restart WoW. ...

Originally Posted by kycan

...I have also experienced this oddity....

Originally Posted by GokieKS

Check to make sure your video card drivers are not forcing specific ...settings...

Originally Posted by Bag

Easiest way to check this?

The easiest way to check this differs slightly if your running winxp or vista, and differs greatly depending on what video card you have. Basically, your trying to get to your "display poperties" control panel, and click on the tab specific to your video card. In Vista, you go "personalize->display settings->advanced->(your video card)". Once you find your video card's control panel, basically turn everything down, or set it to "let the application decide", or whatever your card's vendor calls that option.

Originally Posted by kycan

... I don't think I measured a significant difference in frame rate, regardless of what I had [multisampling] at. Go figure.

This might be because it wasn't actually changing the multisampling rate,because your video card had it "clamped" down at a certain setting. What multisampling does is(warning: the following may be wildly innacurate, but its how it was explained to me... ) it blends previous frames into the current frame to dramatically increase the quality of anti-aliasing. If you use 1x antialiasing, it goes back 1 frame. if you use 4x, it goes back 4 frames. on my machine, 2x is half the framerate of 1x, 4x is half the framerate of 2x, etc.

(edited for grammar.)