World of Warcraft Performance

[patseguin]

I'm playing the game now on a dual 2 GHz G5 with 1 GB RAM and nVidia 6800 Ultra. I set the game to 1680 X 1050 and maxed everything out and performs like crap, not to mention no pixel shader effects are enabled on Mac. I had hoped anything I threw at the 6800 would be no problem. Anyone else having performance problems? I'm also playing it on my Dell XPS laptop with 256MB Radeon 9800 Mobility at 1920 X 1200 with everything maxed and all pixel shader options on. It is smooth as silk.

[Laslo Panaflex]

From what I have read the drivers for the 6800 suck right now, you have to wait untill Apple makes some better ones.

FWIW the WoW stress test ran at 70fps in indoor areas, and 30fps outdoors, maxed out at 1920X1200 res on my home computer in my sig.

[patseguin]

From what I have read the drivers for the 6800 suck right now, you have to wait untill Apple makes some better ones.

FWIW the WoW stress test ran at 70fps in indoor areas, and 30fps outdoors, maxed out at 1920X1200 res on my home computer in my sig.

Any problems with that 23"? I had one but returned it because of the pink problem.

[Laslo Panaflex]

Any problems with that 23"? I had one but returned it because of the pink problem.

Barely a pink tint on it, nothing calibrating didn't fix.

[Converted2Truth]

I'm playing the game now on a dual 2 GHz G5 with 1 GB RAM and nVidia 6800 Ultra. I set the game to 1680 X 1050 and maxed everything out and performs like crap, not to mention no pixel shader effects are enabled on Mac. I had hoped anything I threw at the 6800 would be no problem. Anyone else having performance problems? I'm also playing it on my Dell XPS laptop with 256MB Radeon 9800 Mobility at 1920 X 1200 with everything maxed and all pixel shader options on. It is smooth as silk.
This is REALLY bad news... I was hopeing this card would rock. It's almost like they're using the 5200 driver for the 6800's Wouldn't supprise me a bit if all they added was 30" support to the 5200 driver...

Should i cancel my GT preorder?

[patseguin]

This is REALLY bad news... I was hopeing this card would rock. It's almost like they're using the 5200 driver for the 6800's Wouldn't supprise me a bit if all they added was 30" support to the 5200 driver...

Should i cancel my GT preorder?

Well, I have heard that the first release of the driver sucks. Hopefully it will be better in 10.3.6. I don't think it's nearly worth the money now though.

[vraxtus]

From what I have read the drivers for the 6800 suck right now, you have to wait untill Apple makes some better ones.

FWIW the WoW stress test ran at 70fps in indoor areas, and 30fps outdoors, maxed out at 1920X1200 res on my home computer in my sig.

I'm curious how you got those numbers.

[iZzle]

Has anyone played on the PowerBook that i have in my signature? :confused:

[Converted2Truth]

I'm curious how you got those numbers.
maybe there's a room in WOW that only has 4 walls, a roof, a floor, all with no textures, and no lighting...

Yeah, there's just no way.

[patseguin]

I wonder if another .5 or full GIG of RAM would help...

[bertinman]

maybe you guys have some other external problem besides the game...

I run it on a 1gig ti book with a ati9000. just fine for me. not "70fps" at any moment but I can kick some ass in raids no prob. And, if you can do that, your framerate is fine.

seems like ati drivers are better than nvidias at this point.

[Laslo Panaflex]

I'm curious how you got those numbers.

Well, I just ran the game the whole time with the FPS monitor up, I forget what the command is to show it, maybe Apple + R? Anyway, that's just what I was getting, it was the stress test, from what I hear Blizzard have made many changes since then, I wouldn't be surprised if it ran slower now . . .

[Laslo Panaflex]

maybe there's a room in WOW that only has 4 walls, a roof, a floor, all with no textures, and no lighting...

Yeah, there's just no way.

Nope, pretty much all indoor areas gave me 60-70 fps. Specifically the Ironforge zone in Dun Morogh, I remeber getting 60-70 there, and that zone is a huge indoor city.

Plus, you are using dual 1.8 and vraxus is using single 1.8 G5, maybe the processor has a significant impact on performance?

[Converted2Truth]

Nope, pretty much all indoor areas gave me 60-70 fps. Specifically the Ironforge zone in Dun Morogh, I remeber getting 60-70 there, and that zone is a huge indoor city.

Plus, you are using dual 1.8 and vraxus is using single 1.8 G5, maybe the processor has a significant impact on performance?
Tests have shown that the Rev.A(2x900mhz bus 8gb max) dual 1.8 is unnoticably slower than the dual 2.0 given the same hardware config. My dual also has the advantage of RAID 0, which makes it faster than any stock mac. I doubt the RAID helps though...

I sure hope WOW isn't CPU bound to the point where it demands a 2.0G5 for acceptable framerates... From my understanding, this game is more GPU/Bandwidth bound than CPU, in which case, we're using the same GPU and should be getting similar performance. My original WOW experience was definately enjoyable on my system, but i wanted to run the moe foe @1600x1200 with everything turned up. Sounds like even with the 6800 that's not gonna happen.

EDIT: also like to point out that WOW is not SMP enabled. I know their marketing campain states, "Optimized for use on Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading", but i highly doubt the app was written to take advantage of multi-processor machines. If they seperated the audio into a seperate thread, maybe i would see minor speed improvements of vraxus, but since hes got a much better vcard than either of us, i doubt we'd beat him.

[patseguin]

Well, I had hoped the 6800 would allow me to max everything out too. I don't think WOW has a next-generation graphics engine so a 6800 should chew it up and spit it out. My mobility 9800 256MB runs smooth with everything maxed and 2X antialiasing. I guess I'll be enjoying WOW on my laptop until the Mac version runs better.

The game is addicitive as crack isn't it though?

[Anticipat3]

Sure is.

I've been playing on my PC for the most part, but just for kicks I fired it up on my Powerbook -- 1.33 / R9700, and it runs well enough to play, but not great.

I'm surprised to hear that it performs poorly on the G5s -- I'd think if it was decent on my powerbook they'd have no problems.

[Converted2Truth]

It's the crappy nvidia driver port done by apple. I've got money says they took the driver code for the 5200, added support for 30" and ddvi, flashed the 6800 rom, and called it quits. This really pisses me off.

[RGunner]

on its way back to Apple... not worth $550 let alone the $600 that most have to pay...

what a shame.

will await the X cards from ATI

[xgsrpg]

Has anyone played on the PowerBook that i have in my signature? :confused:

I have. As of yesterday, the game was running around 12-19FPS, with most of the areas being around 16/17 FPS. I noticed that bringing the resolution down for me didn't do anything, the only setting I had to bring down alot was terrain view distance, which heightened performance dramatically without hampering enjoyment of the game.

[patseguin]

on its way back to Apple... not worth $550 let alone the $600 that most have to pay...

what a shame.

will await the X cards from ATI

I may do the same exact thing. I'll probably have to pay a restocking fee and get an adapter for my new aluminum display to work with my 9600 card (ADC) though.

[ijimk]

Well WoW runs great at 1680 by 1050 on the g5 in my sig. I don't worry over frames per sec i just know it runs smooth and looks great everything is maxed out. I love this game. :D

[xgsrpg]

Well WoW runs great at 1680 by 1050 on the g5 in my sig. I don't worry over frames per sec i just know it runs smooth and looks great everything is maxed out. I love this game. :D

I don't worry about FPS either, but people's level of when a game is acceptable for play is different. FPS is a concrete way of measuring performance, and people can find out for themselves whether that is acceptable for them. For example, one person that gets 20FPS might say "I get good performance," but a person who gets 25FPS might say "it runs horribly slow." It all depends on people's opinion.

[RGunner]

I may do the same exact thing. I'll probably have to pay a restocking fee and get an adapter for my new aluminum display to work with my 9600 card (ADC) though.

just a note, my G5 / 9600 (stock) has both a DVI and an ADC connector.

[RGunner]

and I still do not regret sending the 6800U back...

would like to know how it performs with the latest drivers tho.

my $550 feels better in my billfold :), perhaps a photo iPod!

[kgapp]

I am running the beta WOW on a 2.5 G5 with 6800 Ultra in 2560X1600 resolution on a 30" display. My performance with all settings maxed is quite acceptable. I average 50-60 frames outdoors and 60-90 frames indoors. Now my system is pretty much maxed out in terms of performance but I am surprised you are taking such a performance hit with a 2.0 and the 6800. I would think that with my increased resolution I would have similar results to yours. Do you have a lot of other background applications running that could be slowing you down? Perhaps the newly released 10.3.6 will offer performance gains. I am cloning right now in preparation for the update.

[QCassidy352]

Well WoW runs great at 1680 by 1050 on the g5 in my sig. I don't worry over frames per sec i just know it runs smooth and looks great everything is maxed out. I love this game. :D

glad to hear that. I have the same set up as you except that mine is a single processor rev. A 1.8. (Radeon 9600 Pro, 20" cinema)

[clr900]

I have not played the WoW beta since updating to 10.3.6 however on 10.3.5 the 6800 could play everything maxed with great frames except for one option called full screen bloom effect. This could be the original posters problem. Whenever I turned this on the frames would drop incredibly low. However, I think Nvidia has a ways to go yet with update to drivers because I think this 6800 has untapped power.

[Golem]

I get 15-30 fps with the resolution one setting below max and the all the settings middled

Stock Dual 1.8 with 1.5Gb ram

[patseguin]

Just installed 10.3.6 and found out how to enable frame rates in WOW. I'm getting 14-20 fps outdoors. That is pitiful for a $600 card. It is going back. I can use my 9600 Pro for rates like that...

[RGunner]

this was my same conclusion, the 9600 is fine for most apps / games.

the three strikes against the 6800U card for me:

1) cannot use G5 OSX DVD to recover / repair permissions / AHT - all fail
2) blocks adjacent PCI slot (i knew this when buying)
3) performance just is not that much more than 9800 Pro (which is $249 on Ebay lately).

Hopefully the X800 cards arrive and show some muster.

You might note this tho.. The 23" cinema (ALU) was cured instantly of the pink hue when 10.3.6 was installed and the default color calibration was chosen. My night was made :)

[patseguin]

this was my same conclusion, the 9600 is fine for most apps / games.

the three strikes against the 6800U card for me:

1) cannot use G5 OSX DVD to recover / repair permissions / AHT - all fail
2) blocks adjacent PCI slot (i knew this when buying)
3) performance just is not that much more than 9800 Pro (which is $249 on Ebay lately).

Hopefully the X800 cards arrive and show some muster.

You might note this tho.. The 23" cinema (ALU) was cured instantly of the pink hue when 10.3.6 was installed and the default color calibration was chosen. My night was made :)

Whoa, are you serious? All it took was an OS update to fix that? If that's the case, I'm going back and getting the 23".

[RGunner]

there still is a slight brown cast (very slight) from pure white along the right and left edge... heck even CRT's are not perfect, this will suit for now.

the pink color is completely gone on a white background, and no stuck pixels... very pleased with 23" today.

[clr900]

I don't know why some of you guys with the 6800 ultra are getting such bad performance. I would not be so hasty to return it, I think some driver updates might be the issue.

[kilpajr]

I have. As of yesterday, the game was running around 12-19FPS, with most of the areas being around 16/17 FPS. I noticed that bringing the resolution down for me didn't do anything, the only setting I had to bring down alot was terrain view distance, which heightened performance dramatically without hampering enjoyment of the game.

What kind of settings are you using? I can't believe the performance is that low, especially considering that people are able to play with ati 9000 and nvidia 5200 graphics cards in PBs. I am really looking forward to this game but I will be disappointed if I get this kind of performance. My worries about performance are the only thing holding me back from pre-ordering the Collector's Edition.

Also, what are the specs of your PB? How much RAM and video RAM do you have?

If anyone else is playing on a PB, what kind of fps are you getting?

[MacGuy1]

I don't seem to understand why you people are dissing the 6800 Ultra so much. I installed mine yesterday and the performance increase is AMAZING. I run a Dual 1.8 G5 (PCI-X version) 1GB ram 160GB HD and, of course, a 6800 Ultra.

[Cooknn]

I can't find a gameplay video of this title. Is it 3rd person perspective like Tomb Raider where you can see your character?

[BrianKonarsMac]

i average 17 fps on a GeForce4MX (use control + R for frame rates).

haven't tested my PB, but i'd assume maybe 18-19 fps.

in large towns at peak hours the FPS drops to closer to 8, flight is drastically improved, i now average 17 fps while flying, i used to get closer to 5 (first stress test).

[patseguin]

I don't seem to understand why you people are dissing the 6800 Ultra so much. I installed mine yesterday and the performance increase is AMAZING. I run a Dual 1.8 G5 (PCI-X version) 1GB ram 160GB HD and, of course, a 6800 Ultra.

I'm "dissing" it because performance sucks, at least in WoW. 15-17 fps is unacceptable for a $600 card.

[rbarris]

I'm "dissing" it because performance sucks, at least in WoW. 15-17 fps is unacceptable for a $600 card.

WoW is rarely GPU limited.

Easiest thing to do to improve FPS on WoW is reduce the farclip or terrain distance option. The maximum setting taxes the CPU and memory to the limit.

Rob

[patseguin]

WoW is rarely GPU limited.

Easiest thing to do to improve FPS on WoW is reduce the farclip or terrain distance option. The maximum setting taxes the CPU and memory to the limit.

Rob

My 3.4GHz P4 and Radeon Mobility 9800 256 perform smoothly with everything maxed out. Is it just that the Mac can't handle that? I would have thought the 6800 card would handle this game engine easily.

[BrianKonarsMac]

My 3.4GHz P4 and Radeon Mobility 9800 256 perform smoothly with everything maxed out. Is it just that the Mac can't handle that? I would have thought the 6800 card would handle this game engine easily.when someone gets the same FPS with a 6800 as a GeForce4MX....obviously something is wrong with the drivers.

I can't find a gameplay video of this title. Is it 3rd person perspective like Tomb Raider where you can see your character?you can set the camera however you like.

are WoW's servers down? after the patch...there are no more servers... :confused: :mad:

[rbarris]

My 3.4GHz P4 and Radeon Mobility 9800 256 perform smoothly with everything maxed out. Is it just that the Mac can't handle that? I would have thought the 6800 card would handle this game engine easily.

Well, you are also running on the Mac with vertex shaders off until we re-enable them in an upcoming patch, and I am going to guess a 2GHz or lower processor in comparison with the 3.4GHz P4 you are testing against.

[patseguin]

Well, you are also running on the Mac with vertex shaders off until we re-enable them in an upcoming patch, and I am going to guess a 2GHz or lower processor in comparison with the 3.4GHz P4 you are testing against.

Yeah, dual 2 GHz G5. My P4 laptop is giving me 24-30 fps outdoors and that is with everything maxed and at 1920 X 1200. I'm willing to be it's crappy 6800 Mac drivers.

[ijimk]

Well i checked my fps and i average 25-35 fps with an ati 9600 128 mb card. I turned everything all the way down and got between 60-70 fps. When i get 25 -35 i have the game maxed at 1680 by 1050. The game is awesome. Night elf hunters rule. :cool:

[patseguin]

Well i checked my fps and i average 25-35 fps with an ati 9600 128 mb card. I turned everything all the way down and got between 60-70 fps. When i get 25 -35 i have the game maxed at 1680 by 1050. The game is awesome. Night elf hunters rule. :cool:

Is that 25-35 fps with everything maxed?

[Macamus Prime]

I really want to dive into this game. I will wait until Tiger comes out and see if there are any driver/performance changes which will make this game run better on a PB than what I have read so far.