World of Warcraft - 4 fps on MBP

Hey All,

I have one of those older Macbook Pros (2.2ghz C2D, 4gb ram, 8600gt). My WoW framerate in cities hovers around a pitiful 4fps! Activity monitor shows that WoW is using 110% of the CPU (I suck at maths...but this seems impossible). Does anyone have a clue as to why this is happening? My Mac Mini gets 20-30fps in the same location!

 

Yes that's odd.... my Macbook Air gets at least 30 FPS in cities. I'd try another game to see if it's not just related to WoW just because I know the 8600's are prone to breaking. I had that exact config in 2007 and then it ran the game well also

 

Well as Durious suggested, it might be your 8600M GT as those were reported by Nvidia to carry possible defaults.


If it's not that, well here's a few questions:
#1 Are you running this on bootcamp or OSX(I'm unaware if WoW exists on OSX hence me asking)?
#2 What settings/resolution are you running WoW at?
#3 Have you tried monitoring your temperatures while running the game?

I ask #1 mostly because users have reported that bootcamp can sometimes cause lesser performance.

I ask #2 because certain settings on WoW cause massive drops in FPS(notably shadows).

I ask #3 because well...heating makes the GPU and CPU throttle. This could also relate to #1 as I've heard bootcamp also makes Macbooks and MBPs run hotter sometimes.

 

Was this frame rate from wotlk 10 or 25men raid?

 

Just to relate to item #1 blizzard games (WoW included) are on MAC\PC. To further clarify my response was running the game on MAC OS X, one being with his current config & the other on a MBA. Hope that further info helps.

 

The game is running on Mac OSX (Leopard). When it happens, I'm in Dalaran. Anywhere in Dalaran, I have this problem. I had the same problem in Stormwind and out in Icecrown. It was insane. Activity monitor says that WoW is taking between 70% and 120% of the cpu. It tends to hover around 101%. On my Mini, the CPU utilization is around 55%.

Edit: i reduced the settings to bare minimum at 1440x900 (native). 2-4fps.

 

OK which CPU is in your MBP vs your Mac Mini?

Also, have you checked background applications while running both games?

 

MBP = 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo
Mini = 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo

The Mini runs ddr3 ram, the MBP ddr2...but i highly doubt that makes up for 36 frames.

 

yeah i have the 17" mbp w/ the 9600m gt and I get above 30-40 in dalaran w/ everything maxed out. It freezes sometimes but not enough to where it bothers me. I also run about 40 or some addons.

 

something is clearly very wrong.

either

1. something is running on your macbook pro that you haven't thought about
2. you have a serious operating system issue that mandates a reinstallation of OS X
3. you have a hardware issue

i'd try to resolve them in that order.

1. try and find if anything is running that you weren't thinking about
2. reinstall mac os x
3. go to the apple store to have them check for a hardware problem

 

1)Check temperature for throttle
I agree with one of the previous poster.
As you know Mobile CPU throttles between state so it is possible to get 110% based on the Multiplier Steps your processor is in .
It can also be due to poor programming without considering of CPU P-state

 

Dalaran has somekind of design flaw, so it eats up computer resources very fast. My desktop obviously cannot handle Dalaran I use my macbook for Dalaran before, and the result is still pretty bad, only slightly better than using the desktop(specs see signature). Although both my setups have hard times in Dalaran, it is quite nice in Stormwind even with the Pentium 4 setup. It is very necessary for you to check if there are other programs running at the sametime. There is one thing worth noticing though, and it is closing the program window does not mean close the program.

 

Okay so after some checking, I've realized that the problem is basically that my computer crawls anywhere that there are a number of other players. Dalaran and Wintergrasp, for example. I'm able to go into dungeons and quest out in the open with all of my settings on high - and i'm getting between 40 and 70 fps. Once I get into a battleground or a heavily populated city, the MBP is useless. I guess it's odd for me b/c the Mac Mini runs these scenarious without a hitch. I have attempted to lower my detail settings all the way when in Dalaran and the battlegrounds, but the result is the same. 2-4fps.

 

Check the CPU
In game processing is still handled by the CPU while the graphics is rendered by the GPU.

 

K I found a partial solution. For whatever reason, putting the general performance slider to "low" did nothing. However, my solution was to put the slider to "high" detail and then dial back the shadows/ground clutter when in cities/battlegrounds. WoW runs fine. When questing or in raids, I can move everything back to high.

EDIT: the partial solution turned out to be that at 3AM there aren't enough players around to cause the slowdown. Oh well...

 

Sadly enough even my Quad Core gaming PC with all the toys I built still lags in Dalaran, and large Wintersgrasp battles it can get to a dead crawl.

Haven't found a solution, I try to spend as little time in Dalaran because of this

Thought maybe it was a connection thing but i'm on a steady 10meg cable modem.