What has the most impact on performance after resolution? (Low fps with old gpu)

[Deleted]

So currently, after upgrading to 2560x1600 im seeing much lower fps (obviously) due to my old GPU.
In game, just leveling in Spires of Arak im getting 35-45 fps and my settings are pretty much maxed. with CMAA and Vsync on.
I really don't like sacrificing graphical quality, but of course i would like better fps.... And i'm 100% aware that the solution is a GPU upgrade.
But the question is, that what setting has the most impact on performance, after resolution of course?

Settings are otherwise maxed but Shadows are on High.
Specs are in my sig.

GPU usage is 98% and its running at a horrifying constant 98*C due to reference cooling... VRAM usage is about 1550/2000mb


Settings: http://imgur.com/ansXj0c
GPU: http://imgur.com/X9Jt93v

[Thunderball]

AA and other postprocessing.

[psztol]

Yeah disable AA and Postprocessing, also check your scaling.
I run the game at 2560x1440 and I don't see any difference in image quality between 200% and 100% (is it only me?).

[Deleted]

Getting no difference between no AA and CMAA
Render scale is and has always been 100%. Upping it to 200% makes the game basically a picture slideshow

[Deleted]

Check your SSAO setting, the later settings make a big difference in performance. Also check your Water detail level, as later settings there are also very heavy.

Beyond that, also check your 'Reduce Input Lag' setting. It can take an extremely high toll on performance in some cases without yielding benefits.

[Mirishka]

Definitely AA (though there are some performance-friendly versions of it) and stuff like SSAO.

Keep in mind that WoW is very CPU-heavy - upgrading my PC to a top-end intel i7 processor made a bigger difference for me than any video card upgrade ever has.

[Deleted]

Other than forking out for a GPU, I'd lower that resolution to 1080p, turn AA off and get the shadows turned down. In fact, I'd turn it all down to a mix of high and good to make the most of your machine. Shadows are rendered models in WoW(under the ground) too so that will probably make the biggest improvement imo. Leave the render scaling, it might just kill your GPU which sounds like its on its last legs anyway.

[Zogarth]

Yeah disable AA and Postprocessing, also check your scaling.
I run the game at 2560x1440 and I don't see any difference in image quality between 200% and 100% (is it only me?).

This if we talk WoW specifically. In other games it is also often these, but it is also perfectly possible that it is some weird small option that fucks up everything, or some "special feature" that does it (I am looking at you Nvidia Hairworks!)

[Deleted]

wow didnt notice WoW uses nvidia hbao before!
Sadly it didnt have much of an impact on fps though...
neither does lowering shadows from High to Good.... still 40-45 just running around questing @ Draenor...

[Deleted]

I'd lower that resolution to 1080p
Leave the render scaling

Wrong advice. First step would be to reduce the render scale to be equivalent to 1920x1080 rendering:
1920/2560 = 0.75 (Render scale to use)

[Deleted]

Wrong advice. First step would be to reduce the render scale to be equivalent to 1920x1080 rendering:
1920/2560 = 0.75 (Render scale to use)

Instant solid 60 fps, Just that everything is so blurry that i cant play like this


edit: Actually brought it back up to 100% and now its 56-60 fps still.... What the heck.
edit2: And now its back to 38-45 just moving 30 yards forward.......... This is changing way too much

[Deleted]

Try killing add ons while you're tinkering with the settings. If you've not done any addon updates since the monitor change, the only explanation from the top of my head right now is an addon malfunction; either due to location (you've just not noticed before), or because one of your addons doesn't handle being enlarged correctly.

[Deleted]

Tried. No effect. Did notice that i've already gone from 1500mb to 1350mb memory usage, just lowering settings a little. But GPU usage is still at about 93%

Starting to look like the only option for 1600p gaming is a new GPU. Maybe GTX 1070/1060 or just a few old 970's in SLI..

[coprax]

edit: Actually brought it back up to 100% and now its 56-60 fps still.... What the heck.
edit2: And now its back to 38-45 just moving 30 yards forward.......... This is changing way too much

Could also be a VRAM/RAM issue. Get's dumped after chaning the scaling and then runs full again shortly after.

[Deleted]

Well here's my processes: http://imgur.com/4GS0PKG

Is Svchost supposed to be using that much RAM?
System is probably high, because out of my 16GB RAM i'm running a 1.5GB RamDisk..

[Lost Zero]

So currently, after upgrading to 2560x1600 im seeing much lower fps (obviously) due to my old GPU.
In game, just leveling in Spires of Arak im getting 35-45 fps and my settings are pretty much maxed. with CMAA and Vsync on.
I really don't like sacrificing graphical quality, but of course i would like better fps.... And i'm 100% aware that the solution is a GPU upgrade.
But the question is, that what setting has the most impact on performance, after resolution of course?

Settings are otherwise maxed but Shadows are on High.
Specs are in my sig.

GPU usage is 98% and its running at a horrifying constant 98*C due to reference cooling... VRAM usage is about 1550/2000mb


Settings: http://imgur.com/ansXj0c
GPU: http://imgur.com/X9Jt93v

Anything above FXAA tends to be a big performance hit. Shadows also do damage.

WoW is fairly processor heavy too, as most Blizzard games are.

[Deleted]

I'm aware that the game is processor heavy. Been playing since 2008 and reading these forums for 6 years.
I doubt that the Haswell i5 running at 4500mhz is the bottleneck... ? or ?

[Hottage]

Well here's my processes: http://imgur.com/4GS0PKG

Is Svchost supposed to be using that much RAM?
System is probably high, because out of my 16GB RAM i'm running a 1.5GB RamDisk..

If you check the PID of the svchost.exe process you can match it to the PID of services in the Services tab and see what is running in that container.

[Thunderball]

What is your GPU? By the looks of it you have only 1.5GB video memory and it's gonna be a huge bottleneck for 1440p.

[Lost Zero]

I'm aware that the game is processor heavy. Been playing since 2008 and reading these forums for 6 years.
I doubt that the Haswell i5 running at 4500mhz is the bottleneck... ? or ?

Ah, likely not.

The bottleneck is your card. WoW can be surprisingly demanding at higher resolutions. I'd go down to 1080.