Anyone using a 09 Mac Pro for World of Warcraft?

[Dr.Pants]

The graphics in Wow have been consistently updated over the years with the patches and expansions... it is a modern game.

I didn't mean to infer that!

However, IMO, I do think WoW needs a completly new engine, considering its age - even with the constant updates, they can only do so much. I don't play WoW, idk how large the updates were or what they improved (google, here I come), but I can see making the engine more efficient on newer hardware.

Thus, since I'm going on engine optimizations on current hardware, wouldn't benchmarks for more recent games be directly proportional to the benchmarks for other games that have the same usage pattern?

What I was mainly getting at is that ported Halo (meant to run at the max resoltuion on the Xbox, xxx*480, IIRC) has too many problems for it to bench nicely on modern hardware.

 

[thepawn]

Mmm, the unfortunate thing about wow is it has three varaibles effecting its framerate because its a massive xml processing engine - internet speed, gpu and cpu...and in some situations, cpu keeps the fps down.

One of the good things though in using it for benchmarks is that WoW for MAC is a native app - not cider... it's use of highly-detailed shadows is a OpenGL taxing event that can show the difference in GPU cards.

 

[archangel890]

That sucks. Guess I'll wait before ditching my 4870.

Fortunately thepawn I managed to get the PostProcessing CUDA app to work in the background, a lot less taxing on the machine. Gonna wait and see how it reacts in a 25 man.

 

[nilka]

I am picking up this thread again as I didnt completly get a proper answer to my question. Does anyone have a octo 2.26 Ghz Mac pro with either the GTX 285 or the Radeon 4870 and play World of Warcraft on it?

If so What is your framerate in Dalaran and more importantly what is your framerate in either 25 TotC or 25 Ulduar?

Dying to know this

 

[Dragonforce]

Sorry, I don't have the octo, only the quad, but I'll give you my values:

Dalaran, at prime time: 30-40 fps
Ulduar25 and Crusader: 40-50 fps

Using the preset "ultra" settings and an Apple stock 4870

 

[Cindori]

About dalaran...

The issues in Dalaran (or Shatt before that, or IronLag before that) has to do with programming bottlenecks in interpreting the data that is coming to the client. That's why the one statement in there that "the clock speed makes the biggest difference" for the most part is the right one...multicores will help out the mac client, but only clock speed will make it higher unless they work on getting the client to handle the streams better.

It's all that object-location placement updating that slows it down once your gfx card is good enough to handle the terrain and textures. That's why network can also bottleneck it (though I have a 50/20 fios connection, so its not network here).

To that end though, I generally don't care if the fps is low in dalaran (20+ is fine with me), I'm not battling there.... as long as I'm 40+ in most raids is all I'm happy about.

 

[HyperX13]

Im specifically looking for folks using a the Apple 4870 512Mb , any PC 4870, or a 4890 (Hell let me know if you are using the GTX 285 Mac edition also) in combination with a 30" monitor.

If I could get a few responses as to performace that would be great. Im looking at this setup and I play WoW frequently , but that is the ONLY game I play... thanks in advance

I played WOW on Mac Pro 2006 with original vid card and it flew. I have the Apple 30 inch display

 

[andyOSX]

Uh, that was an acronym, not an insult.



And a Mac Mini can make it look as good as it can. It's a five year old game. ANYTHING can play it.

That is simply not true, I have a MB 13" with a 2GHz core 2 duo and the 9400m, the same specs as the Mac Mini. The game runs playable, but with most settings near their lowest, and that's only on a 1280x800 screen. On some instances, certain visual effects cause the framerate to drop BELOW 8fps. So no, a Mac mini can NOT "make it look as good as it can".

Also, even though the game is old, Wrath of the Litch King is only months old and it has far more advanced graphics than the original game. It is not up to the standard of other new games, but it is certainly able to benefit from more than a Mac mini