Low FPS? Check Here!

[Cilraaz]

Ok, it seems like almost half of the posts in this forum are "my framerate is low, help!" posts. So, here are basic troubleshooting steps that should be taken before making a post about your framerate.

First Steps

• Make sure your video drivers are up to date! (nVidia / ATi)
• Make sure that your video settings (Catalyst Control Center for ATi or nVidia Control Panel for nVidia) are set to use application settings (may also be called application preference)
• Make sure your DirectX installation is up to date if you are a Windows user. This can usually be done via Windows Update or Microsoft's DirectX website

Slow CPU?

Have a lower clock speed CPU (under 2.8GHz)? Your framerate is probably fine in Dalaran, open world, 5-mans, and maybe even 10-man raids, but you're seeing your big drop in 25-man raids. This is because 25-man raids have a lot of information to process between the 25 people attacking, the boss, the adds, and other effects (timers, counters, etc...not particle effects). The only suggestions that can be made in this scenario are:

• Disable your combat log and see if you gain any framerate (see instructions below)
• Disable as many addons as possible (especially Recount, as it's a CPU hog)
• Close background applications
• Run WoW in full screen mode, as this usually gains a bit of framerate

Disabling Your Combat Log

To disable your combat log:

• You will want to make note of what you are unchecking, as you need to re-check them later if you wish to re-enable your combat log.
• Go to your chat tabs and right click on the one titled "Combat Log"
• Go into "Settings"
• Choose the first box titled "Self"
• You will see several boxes below that are titled "Me", "Pet", "Friends", etc.
• Uncheck every box with a check mark in it
• Choose the box titled "Everything"
• Repeat steps 4 and 5
• Choose the box titled "What Happened to Me"
• Repeat steps 4 and 5
• Choose the box titled "Kills"
• Repeat steps 4 and 5

Macros That May Help

There are also macros that can lower your graphics beyond what the slider allows:

Yep, these worked pretty well for me:

#1:
/console m2Faster 1
/console ffx 0
/console hwPCF 1
/console shadowlod 0
/console timingmethod 1
/console showshadow 0
/console showfootprints 0
/console showfootprintparticles 0

#2:
/console overridefarclip 0
/console farclip 177
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console detailDoodadAlpha 0
/console groundeffectdensity 16

#3:
/console groundeffectdist 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console characterAmbient 1
/console extshadowquality 0
/console environmentDetail 0.5

Make 3 macros out of it and voila!

If using these macros cause any issues for you, try disabling M2Faster by typing: /console M2Faster 0

processAffinityMask (optional)

Finally, while you shouldn't have to do this, you can set the processAffinityMask variable in your Config.WTF file, which is found in <WoW Install Directory>\WTF

Depending on your number of cores, you will need to set processAffinityMask to a different value. You can copy/paste the line as found below for your CPU type. Make sure to only copy after the hyphen (starting with SET):

• Single Core CPU - SET processAffinityMask "1"
• Dual Core CPU - SET processAffinityMask "3"
• Tri Core CPU - SET processAffinityMask "7"
• Quad Core CPU (not i7) - SET processAffinityMask "15"
• Octo Core (8 cores) or i7 (4 hyperthreaded cores) CPU - SET processAffinityMask "255"

Troubleshooting (temps, clock speeds, etc)

None of that worked? It's time to check your temperatures and CPU clock while playing WoW. You can download Core Temp to view this information. If you'd like more information about your CPU, motherboard, or memory, you can also download CPU-Z. To test, you should do the following:

• Open Core Temp without WoW running (or any other program with a heavy CPU load)
• Check your CPU Frequency and temperatures in Core Temp
• Note: At this point, your CPU Frequency may be lower than your max clock speed
• Click "Options" at the top of Core Temp and select "Always On Top"
• Start WoW and log in
• Upon entering the world, check your CPU Frequency and temperatures in Core Temp (which should be overlaying WoW)
• Note: At this point, your CPU Frequency should be your max clock speed (advertised speed or whatever the chip was overclocked to)
• Slide Core Temp as out of your way as possible
• Play (or at least run around Dalaran) for a while (maybe 15-30 minutes) and check your CPU Frequency and temperatures again
• If at any point your framerate dips, immediately check your CPU Frequency and temperatures
• If you have to open a thread asking for help, please include your CPU Frequency and temperatures at each testing step

What we are looking for here is any drop in CPU Frequency or drastic raise in temperature (max temp will vary depending on which CPU you have). If you are having a heat issue, some CPUs will automatically downclock to avoid heat damage.

Heres another tip:
Run GPU-Z while running wow & turn on the logging. Some GPUs (most notably the gtx200 series & just recently an ati 5700 series experienced this) will downclock from 3d clocks to 2d clocks, causing poor fps.

RivaTuner can fix this issue. However unless you're experiencing the downclocking during combat causing poor FPS, you do NOT want to do this fix. Also, you'll want to increase your GPU's fan speed, probably to 100% to keep from overheating.
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/4238...nclocking.html

I do believe you can fix this issue for ATI cards via the Overclock utility. Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't have an ati card to test with.

Third Party Program Assistance

Also, I suggest using Game Booster if all else fails. This will shut down any unnecessary background services or applications (you get to choose which apps close, so it won't kill FireFox on you). That will help you squeeze a bit more out of lower end hardware.

Post For Help

If none of the above helps you, please make a new topic in the forum. Adding to another's thread (while appropriate in pretty much every other forum) makes troubleshooting very difficult, so we want to keep each person's issue in its own thread. Also, be certain to include the required information for help requests.



Change Log

• 06/03/2010: Added a link to the required help request information to the "Post for Help" section.
• 02/23/2010: I modified the Troubleshooting section to make use of Core Temp's "Always On Top" feature to avoid any downclocking issues while alt-tabbing.
• 02/23/2010: I've added a few things that people have posted deeper in the thread (thanks guys!). I also added headings to try to make the sections a bit clearer and re-ordered a few things to try to make the thread more logical. Keep any suggestions you have coming!

[m4xc4v413r4]

Awesome thread for this new Forum.

I've tried out GameBooster once and it didn't really have a significant impact on the FPS, they did go up but in my case, not enough to be worth having everything looking like crap. Maybe it's because i already try to have as few useless stuff running on background as i possibly can.

One thing i have on 90% of the time is iTunes since i always have some music playing (btw i use a PC with Win7 just in case you're wondering), and believe it or not, i don't get any loss of fps using it, on various tests i've done, i've seen no fps drop, actually, in some cases i've seen an increase in fps, up to 5 fps increase which is a lot for people struggling to get those nice stable 20-25.

Btw, about the "set processAffinityMask", do you really get an increase from 15 to 255 for an i7 for example?
Just asking because you talk about 15 for quad-core and 255 for octo-core, but there are no octo-core processors. Max right now is 4 cores with 2 threads per core. Hexa-cores are coming on march 2010 on the new i7's and i9's i believe, also with 2 threads per core (which for those that don't know is what the Hyperthreading is, because non-hyperthreading processors only have 1 thread per core).

[Cilraaz]

There are 8-core Macs out. As far as I know, they're just two quad core CPUs on separate dies, but the system treats it as an octo-core. Then again, I don't follow the Mac world very well, so I might be wrong.

The hyperthreaded quad cores (i7) can also be treated as octo-cores by WoW.

[edit: Corrected my info and removed i5's as a hyperthreaded quad core.]

[Bozkurt]

Many people overlook this one, but lower your resolution.

I remember playing Q2 at 640x480 on my Pentium I just so i could have that slight edge in online/LAN matches.

[Deleted]

Many people overlook this one, but lower your resolution.

I remember playing Q2 at 640x480 on my Pentium I just so i could have that slight edge in online/LAN matches.

That would be the last thing I'd do tho. Lowering the resolution makes your game look absolutely shit

[Mr_Bojangles]

I have not personally tested it, but the most recent patch claims that you do not need to amend the affinity line anymore.

[Cilraaz]

I have not personally tested it, but the most recent patch claims that you do not need to amend the affinity line anymore.

Finally, while you shouldn't have to do this, you can set the processAffinityMask variable

[Resa]

Just wanted to say a few things.

If running an Nvidia graphics card, go into the Nvidia Control Panel.
1. Disable PhysX.
2. Disable Antialiasing - Transparency
3. Disable Ambient Occlusion


After talking with Datth (US Tech Support GM), processaffinitymask now defaults to allowing your OS to choosing which cores of your CPU to run wow on. USUALLY, it'll default to allow wow to run on all cores - it actually is better with the offload %s - instead of running 0-10-80-50, with the default processaffinitymask, I'm running 10-40-40-40, and showing slightly better fps.

As for GameBooster, I realllly wouldn't recommend it. This program installs a toolbar (or did when my boyfriend installed it on my alt machine), which occasionally redirects your searches. Its by IObits - the same company that stole Malwarebytes' database and put it into their own anti-malware program, and tried charging people for it.
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index...howtopic=30989

1 last thing I'd like to stress, is how badly high memory addons, the combatlog & any addon that touches the combatlog will tank your fps.
This includes the following addons: Recount, Auctioneer, Questhelper, Miks SCT.
Add to that list any addon that communicates a lot: Carbonite (default settings), and GearScore are the worst.

[Cilraaz]

As for GameBooster, I realllly wouldn't recommend it. This program installs a toolbar (or did when my boyfriend installed it on my alt machine), which occasionally redirects your searches.

Umm, ok. It's never redirected any of my searches or installed any toolbars on my system, and I use it quite often on my laptop.

[Resa]

Odd.. I found a toolbar on his machine by iobits & promptly uninstalled the program.. Maybe I should check if theres any other iobits program on his machine I need to uninstall as well. :\

[Cilraaz]

It may also be an installation option. I installed the program months ago, so I don't remember.

[Deleted]

Odd.. I found a toolbar on his machine by iobits & promptly uninstalled the program.. Maybe I should check if theres any other iobits program on his machine I need to uninstall as well. :\

Quite some programs that are bundled with advertising packages do give the option to install it during the installation (Like Messenger Plus! for example). While I don't recommand these programs, some of them are fine, without the bundled packages.

[Resa]

Quite some programs that are bundled with advertising packages do give the option to install it during the installation (Like Messenger Plus! for example). While I don't recommand these programs, some of them are fine, without the bundled packages.

After what IOBits did with Malwarebytes, I don't trust any of their products.

[Spooked]

I read this some where feel free to LOL where applicable but for IT REALLY WORKS.

If you run Windows media player in the background (without playing anything on it) then load wow your fps goes up due to something in the code of windows media player that forces your cpu and memory to only focus on whatever your focusing on. I'm into building computers and stuff but I have no clue when it comes to software specifics code or any of that stuff.

All I'm preaching is that it works for me lol.

[Deleted]

I read this some where feel free to LOL where applicable but for IT REALLY WORKS.

If you run Windows media player in the background (without playing anything on it) then load wow your fps goes up due to something in the code of windows media player that forces your cpu and memory to only focus on whatever your focusing on. I'm into building computers and stuff but I have no clue when it comes to software specifics code or any of that stuff.

All I'm preaching is that it works for me lol.

I know this was an really old solution (after patch 2.2?) and back then it worked. But I assume (and may hope ) it no longer works and that Blizzard fixed the issue

[Cilraaz]

I know this was an really old solution (after patch 2.2?) and back then it worked. But I assume (and may hope ) it no longer works and that Blizzard fixed the issue

You are correct. That "fix" is nearly 2 years old and has been outdated for quite a while.

[Spooked]

Well all i can say is "DOH" ;D

[walexia]

I know this was an really old solution (after patch 2.2?) and back then it worked. But I assume (and may hope ) it no longer works and that Blizzard fixed the issue

i don't get what you mean here , i thought higher fps is good why would you not want some secret such as this to not work?

[Deleted]

i don't get what you mean here , i thought higher fps is good why would you not want some secret such as this to not work?

I hope Blizzard fixed the issue what caused the fps-loss, not fix the FPS-increase with WMP. I hope they fixed it so that WMP is no longer needed

[Cilraaz]

I hope Blizzard fixed the issue what caused the fps-loss, not fix the FPS-increase with WMP. I hope they fixed it so that WMP is no longer needed

This is correct.