WoW and a new G5

[DJMad]

So my laptop is not really cutting it anymore for games, so I am thinking of picking up a new g5 desktop before I finish school. I was just wondering how well wow will run on the new 2ghz g5 with 256vram and 1gig ram. currently I am on a 1ghz tibook and get max 10fps.

I am also thinking of picking up a 20 or 23" display not sure yet.

[HiRez]

So my laptop is not really cutting it anymore for games, so I am thinking of picking up a new g5 desktop before I finish school. I was just wondering how well wow will run on the new 2ghz g5 with 256vram and 1gig ram. currently I am on a 1ghz tibook and get max 10fps.

I am also thinking of picking up a 20 or 23" display not sure yet.Runs pretty well on my dual 2.0 G5. You should do well on your proposed setup.

I generally get about:
Indoors: 30-75 fps
Outdoors: 20-35 fps
Raids/busy IF: 7-20 fps

My other specs:
Dual 2.0 G5 PowerMac
1.5 GB RAM
Radeon 9600 Pro 64 MB
1280x960 res.

WoW graphics settings "mediumish":
Low terrain settings
High quality textures
Shader effects
Vertex shaders
Trilinear filtering
Vertical sync off

Your GPU should do even better, however I would recommend at least 1 GB RAM for good WoW performance, and a hard drive RAID array wouldn't hurt, as WoW can get bogged down trying to load textures off disk (although it's better about that than it used to be in earlier versions).

EDIT: I had written "dual 2.5" instead of "dual 2.0" ... wishful thinking I guess. :rolleyes:

[combatcolin]

No One got a new G5 yet?

[Mr_Ed]

No One got a new G5 yet?

I thought the new ones were not shipping for a few weeks.

[Soulstorm]

See my G5 in my sig. My FPS is:

Indoors: 70 fps
outdoors: 30 fps
Raids:: 15-20 fps

I run wow at 1280x1024 resolution, maxed out settings, with FSAA disabled.

Note that I have the ATI 9600XT (128 mbytes VRAM, not 64)

[Demon Hunter]

I thought the new ones were not shipping for a few weeks.

I saw a new 17" at the Apple Store...

[combatcolin]

Im looking at the widescreen res, 1920 * 1200 on my PC is only 2FPS!

[DJMad]

See my G5 in my sig. My FPS is:

Indoors: 70 fps
outdoors: 30 fps
Raids:: 15-20 fps

I run wow at 1280x1024 resolution, maxed out settings, with FSAA disabled.

Note that I have the ATI 9600XT (128 mbytes VRAM, not 64)

this makes me excited that I will also be able to get these rates with the new 2ghz g5. It seems in benchmarks they are about the same. It will be a big help, since Iam just starting to run mc with a serious guild. In our rag fight lastnight I was pulling 1 frame every 5 sec so 15-20 is amazing to me. Not to mention on my laptop in the best spots I still dont get more then 15fps.

[risc]

The problem with the current Power Mac G5 PCIe machines is the video card options aren't very good for gaming, currently the AGP Power Mac is the best gaming Mac you can get. I have a Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz, 256 MB nVIDIA 6800 Ultra, 2 GB RAM, 20" ACD and I get 60 FPS inside, 50-60 FPS outside, and around 30 FPS in a place like Ogrimmar full of heaps of dudes, at 1680x1050 with everything on full (all effect turned on), except Terrain Distance and Environment Detail on Medium. I should note I have v-sync on so 60 FPS is as high as I'm going to get.

[Demon Hunter]

The problem with the current Power Mac G5 PCIe machines is the video card options aren't very good for gaming, currently the AGP Power Mac is the best gaming Mac you can get. I have a Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz, 256 MB nVIDIA 6800 Ultra, 2 GB RAM, 20" ACD and I get 60 FPS inside, 50-60 FPS outside, and around 30 FPS in a place like Ogrimmar full of heaps of dudes, at 1680x1050 with everything on full (all effect turned on), except Terrain Distance and Environment Detail on Medium. I should note I have v-sync on so 60 FPS is as high as I'm going to get.

Why do you say that? The 6600 is a decent card, and now the two upper models actually get 256MB. Once the 7800 is BTO... so expensive though. :(

[risc]

Why do you say that? The 6600 is a decent card, and now the two upper models actually get 256MB. Once the 7800 is BTO... so expensive though. :(

Yeah once the 7800 becomes available, if it even does. Like I said currently the AGP Power Macs are better machines for gaming, look a the choices of cards 6800 GT, 6800 Ultra, X800 XT, X850 XT all of these are better than the 6600 in the PCIe Power Mac.

[Wild Ace]

How do you find out how many fps you're playing with? Where do you go to find out? Sorry, I'm a noob.

[risc]

How do you find out how many fps you're playing with? Where do you go to find out? Sorry, I'm a noob.

control + r

[Wild Ace]

Thanks, risc!

[EricNau]

control + r
OK...it doesn't work for me. Is this for any Mac? (I have an iMac G5 Rev. B). Do I have to do that while playing a game, any game or does it have to be a certain one?
I'm feeling kinda stupid. :o

[HiRez]

OK...it doesn't work for me. Is this for any Mac? (I have an iMac G5 Rev. B). Do I have to do that while playing a game, any game or does it have to be a certain one?That's just for WoW (although most 3D FPS-type games have a way to see it), but it works fine on both my Macs that have WoW loaded (an old Titanium PowerBook and a dual 2.0 G5). Are you sure you're pressing CONTROL-r and not Command-r or Option-r? If you are and it's not working, go into the WoW key bindings interface and look for that setting, I think it might be bindable and maybe it got cleared or set to something else somehow on your system.

[HiRez]

Off-topic: just tried Edit Post and noticed a new interface for it that pops up an editing pane in situ instead of loading a separate editing window (and it's much faster that way), very spiffy MacRumors! :)

[EricNau]

That's just for WoW (although most 3D FPS-type games have a way to see it), but it works fine on both my Macs that have WoW loaded (an old Titanium PowerBook and a dual 2.0 G5). Are you sure you're pressing CONTROL-r and not Command-r or Option-r? If you are and it's not working, go into the WoW key bindings interface and look for that setting, I think it might be bindable and maybe it got cleared or set to something else somehow on your system.
Don't have WoW :( Is it any good? I haven't had a chance to play it.

[Hydra]

Don't have WoW :( Is it any good? I haven't had a chance to play it.

I was worried my iBook wouldn't run it, but once I got my 10day free pass I was hooed. By far the best game ever made :)

[risc]

Don't have WoW :( Is it any good? I haven't had a chance to play it.

It isn't called World of WarCRACK for nothing.

[lasuther]

I was worried my iBook wouldn't run it, but once I got my 10day free pass I was hooed. By far the best game ever made :)


It truely is the best game ever made. I can't stop playing. Play at your own risk.

lasuther

[mus0r]

I have a dual 1.8, 1GB, X800 setup with a 23" ACD...:D

WoW is great on the big screen. In all honesty, I can't really see the difference in quality between the default and cranking everything up. :confused: Yeah, I can see a little farther into the distance, but that's all I notice.

Now, Halo or Doom 3 is a different story; I can totally see the difference there. But in WoW...not so much.

[combatcolin]

I have a dual 1.8, 1GB, X800 setup with a 23" ACD...:D

WoW is great on the big screen. In all honesty, I can't really see the difference in quality between the default and cranking everything up. :confused: Yeah, I can see a little farther into the distance, but that's all I notice.

Now, Halo or Doom 3 is a different story; I can totally see the difference there. But in WoW...not so much.

Changing between the normal widescreen and top widesceen mode gives you a huge increase in qualiry - and a huge decrease in my frame rates.

Reason why im buying/building a new PC soon.

[Melkor]

How good do you think it would run on a powerbook with 2GB RAM and 7200 rpm drive? (im not sure if the drive makes a difference to the game performance, I know very little about computers)

[combatcolin]

Actually a fast HD does make a diffarence with WOW, and yours is a good speed.

Lots of RAM always helps too.

[Hydra]

Actually a fast HD does make a diffarence with WOW, and yours is a good speed.

Lots of RAM always helps too.

Maybe when starting the game, but it doesn't affect ingame fps.
Tons of RAM is the solution, it gets rid of the annoying swapping.

[combatcolin]

When the rest of the system is waiting for the hard drive to keep up, then yes, a fast HD will increase frame rate.

[Sutekidane]

Yes, the Caching of files when you first start WoW is very minimal, most of the data gets loaded "on-the-fly." I want a new iMac... wahh...

[HiRez]

Maybe when starting the game, but it doesn't affect ingame fps.
Tons of RAM is the solution, it gets rid of the annoying swapping.NO. That is not true, hard disk access most definitely can be affected by drive bandwidth. WoW does, in fact, load data continuously off disk, and using a slow disk is often the cause of "choppiness". More RAM can help, as can more VRAM and a faster CPU and faster GPU, but only up to a point. You cannot load the entire game into RAM, and WoW won't even attempt to do so. It utilizes more of your available RAM now than it did in earlier versions, but it's still made to continuously load data off disk.

[combatcolin]

See, told you ;)

My HD sounds like its about to reach escape velocity at times playing WOW...

[combatcolin]

So, anyone got there new Dual Cores's yet?

[G5guy]

I just got the new dual 2.3 G5 with 6600 graphics. I used to have the dual 2.0 with 6800 ultra. In WOW - the new one is faster!

I can't believe it. Apple really did some work on the drivers for the new cards and system. I installed the same hard drive in each one. I don't have specific fps numbers for the old one, but the new one get 65-70 fps in SW and 15 FPS looking at a large crowd in IF. It gets about 25 fps flying thru Elwynn Forest ( terrain dist 50%). This is all at 1600x1024.

I have the 7800 on order - can't wait!