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

[Deleted]

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.

Card is 2GB and it's currently using 1750mb flying from Lunarfall to Spires of Arak..
But yeah 2GB is so few nowadays.

Is there any point in Getting one 780 Ti or 970 for now, and adding a 2nd for SLI?
Can't really afford a 1070 at the moment due to being a car guy -_-

[Thunderball]

Definetely not worth getting a 780Ti. 970 is worth if you can find it for €250 or less. I'd wait for GTX 1060 but it might be long wait, definetely not in time for Legion release.

[Deleted]

Definetely not worth getting a 780Ti. 970 is worth if you can find it for €250 or less. I'd wait for GTX 1060 but it might be long wait, definetely not in time for Legion release.

There are some 970's for 200-230

[ComputerNerd]

Card is 2GB and it's currently using 1750mb flying from Lunarfall to Spires of Arak..
But yeah 2GB is so few nowadays.

Is there any point in Getting one 780 Ti or 970 for now, and adding a 2nd for SLI?
Can't really afford a 1070 at the moment due to being a car guy -_-

I don't think wow yet supports multiple GPU's.
Blizzard put out a post previously stating at that time no blizzard game was supporting that sort of setup.
I don't think that has changed.

[Deleted]

Was actually assuming that one 4GB 970 would run WoW smoothly. The additional one was just for other games in mind and future proofing

[Cilraaz]

GPU usage is 98% and its running at a horrifying constant 98*C due to reference cooling

Not sure how nobody caught this specific line. If it's running at 98C, it's right on the line of thermal throttling, which could be why you're seeing drastic jumps and drops in frame rate. There's no real reason for a GPU to constantly be running at that temperature. Have you tried using MSI Afterburner to set a fan profile that cranks up your fan speed? It might also be time for a good cleaning.

To answer your question, performance impact is generally:

Resolution > Render Scaling > AA > SSAO >= Shadows > View Distance > Liquid Detail = Sunshafts > Ground Clutter >= Environment Detail

The ones after View Distance can be pretty arguable, so they could be shifted around, but this is how it seemed to me after tooling with some settings.

As a side note, if you're not going to use MSAA, I'd suggest FXAA High over CMAA. While CMAA is on WoW's list as "better", it tends to smooth edges by smearing and makes images look blurrier than FXAA. It's all personal preference, though. -- Ignore this. Brain fart. Had them backwards. FXAA blurs. CMAA is often over-conservative and doesn't get all the jaggies.

[Deleted]

Not sure how nobody caught this specific line. If it's running at 98C, it's right on the line of thermal throttling, which could be why you're seeing drastic jumps and drops in frame rate. There's no real reason for a GPU to constantly be running at that temperature. Have you tried using MSI Afterburner to set a fan profile that cranks up your fan speed? It might also be time for a good cleaning.

To answer your question, performance impact is generally:

Resolution > Render Scaling > AA > SSAO >= Shadows > View Distance > Liquid Detail = Sunshafts > Ground Clutter >= Environment Detail

The ones after View Distance can be pretty arguable, so they could be shifted around, but this is how it seemed to me after tooling with some settings.

As a side note, if you're not going to use MSAA, I'd suggest FXAA High over CMAA. While CMAA is on WoW's list as "better", it tends to smooth edges by smearing and makes images look blurrier than FXAA. It's all personal preference, though.

Awesome reply Cilraaz. And yeah i was also in the believing that 98*C isnt exactly healthy. Its indeed a Zotac 680 with reference cooling. I clean my PC every few weeks but maybe i should really remove the GPU and clean it thoroughly.

The case ventilation itself is pretty good. 2x 140mm in front pulling and 1x right on the sucking air into the GPU. But i guess these old nvidia turbine coolers never were that good...

I've always thought of FXAA as smearing? But thanks for the tip! Ill try it again.


Edit: Oh yeah and i am using MSi afterburner, fan is on auto, and seems to always be at 100%. 1600p Seems to honestly murder this GPU

[Cilraaz]

Awesome reply Cilraaz. And yeah i was also in the believing that 98*C isnt exactly healthy. Its indeed a Zotac 680 with reference cooling. I clean my PC every few weeks but maybe i should really remove the GPU and clean it thoroughly.

The case ventilation itself is pretty good. 2x 140mm in front pulling and 1x right on the sucking air into the GPU. But i guess these old nvidia turbine coolers never were that good...

I've always thought of FXAA as smearing? But thanks for the tip! Ill try it again.


Edit: Oh yeah and i am using MSi afterburner, fan is on auto, and seems to always be at 100%. 1600p Seems to honestly murder this GPU

You have 2 fans pulling in. Do you have any fans blowing outward? If not, it could be creating a high pressure point in the case, which would serve to trap hot air.

100% fan speed and still 98C? Something has to be going on with that. Even on reference coolers, that shouldn't really be happening.

Also, you're right. I brain farted. FXAA does smear more than CMAA. CMAA, based on the C in the name, is more conservative, so you end up with more jaggies instead. I'm not sure why I had them reversed in my head.

Edit: A great comparison of AA types can be found at Eyes of the Beast.

[coprax]

98c? Wtf my card shuts down when it is slightly above 80 degrees XD

[Deleted]

Haha. Weeellll actually the only fan blowing out is my CPU's liquid cooler...
Got 3 sucking to cause the kind of pressure that doesnt cause dust :'D


Maybe it's time to open up the sound proofing of the R4 Pearl top side.. ?

[Thunderball]

Haha. Weeellll actually the only fan blowing out is my CPU's liquid cooler...
Got 3 sucking to cause the kind of pressure that doesnt cause dust :'D


Maybe it's time to open up the sound proofing of the R4 Pearl top side.. ?

Your liquid system cooler should be installed at the top. Mount back your rear exhaust fan and you should be ok.

Test with your side panel open if that will fix your WoW FPS drops.

[Cilraaz]

If you have 3 in and 1 out, you're creating a high pressure zone inside the case. While that's great for keeping dust out, it doesn't really give anywhere for heat to escape. Now, I'm not saying that alone is causing the GPU to go as high as 98C, it probably isn't helping.

[Deleted]

IIRC the cooler wouldnt fit between the case roof and the motherboard.. :/

Case space on top: http://imgur.com/Ub7hAfh

[Fascinate]

Fan placement really makes no difference in hardware temps. The key to have a cool running system is having an open top panel, or at least one fan blowing out. Its a tradeoff between having a cool room and hot running hardware or a hot room and cooler hardware, simple as that. (although with todays cooler hardware its not as big of an issue as it was in the past).

[Manu9]

I don't think wow yet supports multiple GPU's.
Blizzard put out a post previously stating at that time no blizzard game was supporting that sort of setup.
I don't think that has changed.

It may not "support" it, but it sure works with it, check benckmarks, WoW scales with 970 SLI very, very well.

[Thunderball]

IIRC the cooler wouldnt fit between the case roof and the motherboard.. :/

Case space on top: http://imgur.com/Ub7hAfh

If your liquid cooling set cant fit up top then just setup your exhaust fan up top and see how it goes.

[Lathais]

It may not "support" it, but it sure works with it, check benckmarks, WoW scales with 970 SLI very, very well.

Yeah, by not supporting it, that simply means if it doesn't work, Blizzard will not help you make it work, it's not their problem as they do not support it. I know a couple people who use it though and it does in fact work and work very well.

[I Push Buttons]

Have you ever replaced the thermal paste on your GPU? That is a pretty old card so the thermal paste is probably dried up and barely functioning if you never replaced it... Hence the 98C temps... I highly doubt you would get temps that bad from simple airflow problems... Almost any temp problem with a GPU I have ever seen (outside of bad OC) was due to inadequate connection between the heat sink and the processor (usually due to thermal paste).

And you really don't need SLI 970s or a 1070 to run WoW at 2560x1600... In fact you probably don't need a new GPU at all if you bring your temps down (and only play WoW, once again). Most newer GPUs with boost clocks and what not in them can actually do the opposite of a boost when they think they are in danger of damage, and throttle the clock DOWN if temps get to high. I can't remember if the 680 had a boost feature or not, but if it did your 680 might be throttling itself, especially at 98C which is literally like the max tolerated temp of the card.

[Deleted]

WoW is pretty much CPU Only, the only things you need GPU for is Resolution and AA. And since the Engine sucks ball you want a CPU with very high Core0-Clock (~4.5GHz).

So with that Resolution you definitely want to upgrade your GPU.

[ComputerNerd]

It may not "support" it, but it sure works with it, check benckmarks, WoW scales with 970 SLI very, very well.

For some people.
For others it is detrimental.

It doesn't simply "scale with SLI very, very well."

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/19644934297#2

The game takes no advantage of SLI or Crossfire configurations. It will tolerate them but occasionally we'll ask to have them disabled if an issue arises that we feel might be related to them, but's that's usually driver-related, and not always something the game is doing.

It is not specifically trying to utilise it, so your mileage may vary a lot.
I see other people saying that it actually makes things worse.

So until there is official support which has consistent results behind it, someone should not be aiming for a multiple GPU setup for WoW.
Do so for other games if you are in that position, and consider it a bonus if it works.