WoW optimization: FPS increase of ~200%

So I was bored today and decided to spend the whole afternoon doing some systematic testing of graphical settings - a single variable at a time. I was hoping to generate some nice graphs for everyone to discuss. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I hit the motherload about 10 min in. I haven't tried this tweak in anything other than PvE since I'm a noob and haven't reached the end-game or do PvP.

The screenshots speak for themselves (first a pic of the settings followed by in-game screenshot in the same spot - my other settings are max-res, v-sync off and 2xAA). The effect isn't as dramatic in busy areas btw (~30% in that really busy plaza in storm city).

I'm really curious to know if anyone can reproduce this experience.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/cyphedude/shadow_ultra2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/cyphedude/shadow_ultra.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/cyphedude/shadow_hi2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/cyphedude/shadow_hi.jpg

 

I'm not trying to be rude, but lower any visual quality settings usually increase fps as less computations have to be done. Shadows are actually one of the most demanding visual settings, so lowering dynamic(not baked in) shadow quality will increase fps GREATLY in any game(depending on what type of shadows they use).

 

One notch down on shadows had a more dramatic effect than lowering the view distance to 0. I mean, you have to admit, that's a little surprising, especially since there appears to be no appreciable difference in image quality.

 

I have never played wow and I have no clue what the view distance is, unless it's an adjustable frustum culling. In order to see the visual quality at that small of a bump on the shadows you would have to see it more up close. It's probably just not blending the shadows by skipping a shader based AA, and saving a couple shader passes.

 

in the wow thread it's already been noted that reducin shadows increases FPS, what people argue is "game is old shouldn't have to turn settings down"

 

I don't understand what's everyone's deal is with the m11x and WoW. I play on all high settings, v-sync on and get a constant 40-60fps in every situation, even when there's a boatload of other players doing stuff on screen.

I guess he wants nearly ultra settings with good smooth fps. I have the m11xR2 i7 btw.

 

I can show you screens where I only get 18fps. I also have an R2 with i7.

Out of curiosity, which drivers are you using? And are you OC'd? This is a new machine (came 3 days ago). All I did was update to latest official dell drivers.

 

Nothing surprising here.
That last notch of shadows pushes systems to keep up. I even knock it down that notch on my desktop.

Try it in Dalaran, ride around a couple of times and you will be looking at around 30fps imo. But that's fine.

 

- All latest Dell drivers including BIOS A03.
- No OCing, everything stock.
- 2x multisampling, all high settings, v-sync on. Constant 40-60fps.
- Turned down multisampling to 1x for benchmark purposes.

I did the griffon ride benchmark in game:
min: 20fps
max: 150fps
average: 60fps.

 

WoW isn't old. Well, the new shader and shadow engine isn't.

They added it in WOTLK because shadows used to be circular. The problem with Blizzard increasing the graphics of the game is that players with mediocre computers tend to get kicked in the nuts every time they add a graphical overhaul to the game.

When they added on the new shadows it was done poorly and very, very sloppy. Turning them down one notch probably removes a silly calculation and thus doesn't drain power so much.

 

There's no shader and shadow engine. Shadows are usually created by shaders and shaders are handled in the rending engine. Maybe they updated the way shadows are generated in the rendering engine.

 

if you read the wow performance issue thread. this has been highlighted for a long long time. while I also have updated ppl with another way to slightly further improve the in game performance. we really dont need another pointless thread to repeat what has been done before. thank you for your contribution thou. but i suggest you to search on threads before opening something that has been there for awhile.

 

Shadow quality is meh, - I always have left it as low as it goes

 

I'm sorry but I simply do not believe this statement at all. With all high settings on native resolution (1366x768) and with "boatload of other players doing stuff on your screen" in Dalaran it is impossible to get 40-60 FPS with this machine. This is a fact not a claim. The reason for this is the weak ultra-low voltage processor included in these systems. You do great on battery life, and on new games like Crysis where GPU power is more important, but you suck on older games which rely mostly on CPU.

I score 8.2k+ on 3DMark2006 with my system (specs below), play almost any game on normal to high settings perfectly (examples include Dragon Age, Borderlands, Crysis, Mafia 2, etc.) however, and a very unfortunate one at that, I cannot run WoW the way I want it to run. In a typical ICC25 raid, I turn almost every single graphics detail to LOW to have acceptable performance (and I don't accept sub 20 FPS to be acceptable).

Please post a screenshot, if you can, in Dalaran, with lots of people moving around, with your graphics details on high with 40+ FPS. Make sure the Alienware logo is visible so we can tell that it's actually your laptop and not another system. Also, post a screenshot, again, if you can, with you in an ICC25 raid, doing any boss fight with 24 other people around, having more than 10 FPS (not 40, not 30, not 20, but 10).

After spending countless hours fine tuning any system parameter I possibly can, I have decided that this system is definitely NOT a good choice for WoW on the go. But it's a GREAT choice for almost anything else (other games, work, internet) on the go.

 

I haven't even got to dalaran yet, so I am unable to do testing there. I've done random group dungeon quests, watch populated areas in Stormwind castle, griffon ride benchmark test and it never went below 40fps for me. What are your settings? Mine:

- multisampling 1x.
- native resolution 1366x768.
- All high settings.
- v-sync on.
- OCed to 160.
- Set nvidia control panel to "performance".

Once I get to dalaran I will do additional testing.

 

Where do you take the griffin benchmark test? Maybe we can set a fixed route and compare our numbers?

 

Does this not have dramatic effects on image quality? Since it basically turns off AF?

 

A helpful post for WoW players! A note to everyone though, turning down the shadow settings in any game on the M11x should improve the performance due to the low memory bandwidth of the GT335m.

 

I have an M11x R1 i play with all high setting except for Terrain distance at 1/2 and partical densitiy at 1/2 and shadows off, i get 20-30 in dal on high pop server and 20-25 in 25m ICC. and that is at max resolution on my 28.5" monitor. If im on the go and playing on the the native resolution and laptop screen the fps is even better.

With cata comming out soon i believe Blizzard will be making the game alot more GPU dependent which will solve alot of our fps issues.

 

Hello Hoach,

I'd really like to see a screenshot during a boss fight with " all high setting except for Terrain distance at 1/2 and partical densitiy at 1/2 and shadows off" on your 28.5'' external monitor that shows 20-25 FPS. And I don't mean when you zone inside the instance, I mean during an actual boss fight.

 

For benching purposes, I'd suggest the last faceroll boss in VoA25. The particle effects during the add phases (i.e. the "other" faceroll phase) seem to go really all the way on CPU/GPU.

 

Well, I don't know how my little r1 su7300 does it, but at native rez, most stuff on high or near high, vsync off and my perfectly acceptable settings as to the rest of the stuff, I was just running around Dal on my server (several hundred people in there at least, and I was showing between 39 and 74fps depending on where I was standing and whether a full herd was coming thru...sooo...
perhaps you havn't optimized your win7 install. For the rest of you wow freaks, I'm a beta tester and I'm getting great fps in cataclysm no problemo. In the gob starting areas I've seen 179 fps....I'm using the stock drivers that came on this box which I just received last week from the dell outlet store. Bios is a04. oh, cpu is running the bios overclock but havn't touched the gpu speeds yet, don't see any reason to so far.

temps while playing wow are running mid to low 30's on the cpu cores and 38 to low 40's on the 335. not bad, not bad at all.

seer

 

I don´t know what all this drama is about. I play on the normall resolution on my R2 i5, high settings (shadows all the way down though) and I get around 30-40 fps in raids. And this is with a load of addons.. Also I do not play in windowed mode.

What also helps alot in getting more fps, is putting the view distance down.. But you guys prob allready know that.