Heavy fps drop

[Deleted]

Since it's my 1st post here ,i'll start by saying Hello everybody
..And now back to the topic.
Since Cata launch i've been in 10 man raiding guild , didnt had any problems with fps there whatsoever.(fps round 40-50)
I've lately changed guild to a 25 man raiding and during 1st trash pull i went "omfg what the hell" mode , bassicly in combat my fps drops down to 3-5 fps (on lowest details)
(12-15 in out of combat) , which from the tank perspective is very bad (Rotating tanks on Halfus heroic with 2 fps ? no thanks )

1st thought was - Add0ns , as i thought i've done , i dropped to only using addons that i find necessary (DBM , Bagnon , Pitbull frames and Healbot which i use as raid frames + comes handy when i have to play on offspec)
and yet while it increased my outdoor FPS (up to roughly 55 ) , in 25 man it's still as low as it was.

2nd thought - maybe i got a Virus ? i've scanned my pc with AdAware and Spybot but nothing was detected

i've also tryed to disable all programs running background while playing...still no result

So i've came here to ask you for help..maybe you will find the solution of my problem

Ofc : Shadows / Liquid details / Sunshafts / Particle Density is either on Low or Disabled
my PC :
Windows XP home
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2,50 GHz
2gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT

All Drivers are up to date

Any Help / Feedback will be appreciated =]
Thanks a lot

Edit : Forgot to add , During WoTLK i've been in 25 man guild , on exact same PC , which way more addons , and i didnt had FPS drop below 30 , i do understand that Cata has higher requirements but its surely isnt that big difference.

[Fuzzykins]

Your processor is crap, your GPU is dated, you've got VERY little RAM (Though WoW really won't utilize all of it anyway.).
Get a new computer, as your current one won't cut it.
/thread

[Barneebrown]

Are you playing windowed mode or fullscreen?
Have you checked the running temp of your gpu? it may be getting too hot..
Is it certain bosses or does this happen in all cata 25 mans?


Blizzard is trying to drop some of the mess that causes frame rates to drop like a rock, I think recently they made desecration for DKs to not be placed if the mob is immune (ie. Raid boss). Things like this should help.

[jpleveille]

I guess you have XP-32bits, so increasing memory won't allow you to exceed 3Gb anyway. XP is quite outdated.

Fuzzykins is right on your video card. As for the CPU, it's a version with lower cache, but still decent. I myself run the game with a Q9550 at an extreme setting and it's pretty smooth.

Check CPU and GPU temps. Hot chips can decrease perfs a lot.

You may also have HD issues, especially if Windows constantly swaps to disk when WoW is running. Try killing some processes (MSN, Firefox/IE/Chrome, Curse client, anti-virus if you feel comfortable with it, etc.). Defrag your disk (the one that has WoW on - BTW, it helps having WoW on a different physical disk than the OS one, not just on a different partition).

XP = 2001. 10 years later, it's now 7. WoW now runs under DX11 (though experimental, it runs fine and increases perfs by 30% on avg). A 64-bit OS would help by supporting more than 3Gb of RAM. Today's HDs are faster than ever and a DX11 graphic card wouldn't hurt (GTX460 runs WoW just fine on most configurations and it's easily affordable).

[Velyndina]

Oh crap...I have the same video card as him >.<

I get pretty big FPS drops as well in some zones if I'm using High/Ultra graphics.
Never had FPS issues in raids, 10 or 25

[sirnoobalots]

10 mans are not that graphic intensive but once you hit the 25 man level the graphics get alot more demanding just be happy you dont have 40 mans to worry about

[Zapah]

I'm on board with this post. I run a Q9550 alongside a Evga GTX 285 2g FTW edition. I really dip down in performance in 25 mans. It's not horrible but gameplay is by no means smooth. Difference between Ultra and Low settings is a mere 3-5 FPS gain. My GPU usage on fights like Cho'Gall is no higher than 20%. By no means are these fights graphically intensive. I simply cannot understand what CPU calculations could be going on that just smashes my FPS.

[ispano]

Have you ever played one of the old NES games, like the arcade style TMNT games? When the game got more than like 5-6 sprites on screen it slowed to a crawl. While not exactly the same, it's the same concept. Everything you're doing in the game is calculated by the CPU, the GPU only renders the 3D models, nothing else really. The CPU also has to supply the GPU with the data to do that, and if it's choking on other tasks, your FPS takes a hit. I think some things like shadows are also done using the CPU.