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Lagging hard when playing WoW

J

JordanLB23

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
213
0
am lagging extremely hard when playing WoW. I have a 2008 aluminum macbook pro.

when i have wow, firefox, vent and msn running my mac is at 72 celcius with 4021 rpm for the fans.

anyway to make it not lag? would a cooling pad help?
 
When i was using my 2008 pro. I used SMC fancontrol to turn up my fan RPM before i start on intensive programs, that helped it a little.

Also, when using your laptop at home with a AC adaptor. Take the battery out when playing the game, its easier on those models than the brand new ones now.
 
Lag is usually referred to as high latency, but I think you're talking about low fps?

My 2007 MBP to run WoW pretty well, even 25 man is pretty playable when I turn down graphics a bit.
If you run several applications alongside WoW, be sure you have 4GB RAM, also be sure you have 20GB+ free HD space.

If it's a Unibody, set performance to highest in Energy Saving, to enable the best graphics card.
 
Open up Activity Monitor in /Applications/Utilities. See if there is anything out of the ordinary using up %CPU (total is out of 200%) or anything is happening under 'Disk Activity'.

Since we do need clarification, as cluthz brought up, are you referring to game lag (low fps) or internet lag (higher ping). What does the health bar next to your bags say as you mouse over it? Is the ping above 500? What about the fps? Also when is it lagging? Usually it's the crowded places in capitals, and in those places it's usually half the Blizzard server, and half your computer if it can't handle all the ppl running around.

nzsprinter said:
When i was using my 2008 pro. I used SMC fancontrol to turn up my fan RPM before i start on intensive programs, that helped it a little.
Click to expand...

The 4k fan speed is actually lower that what I expect running any recent game. Pre-increasing the fan speed does nothing.

Also, when using your laptop at home with a AC adaptor. Take the battery out when playing the game, its easier on those models than the brand new ones now.
Click to expand...

Ignore that completely, keep the battery in.
 
nzsprinter said:
... Take the battery out when playing the game, its easier on those models than the brand new ones now.
Click to expand...

Never do that!
Taking out the battery is limiting the performance of your machine.
Without the battery, the machine will automatically clock it self down to about half the speed
 
i got 42 mb running for addons in wow

got 13 fps atm win a 25 man raid, but i go to 1-5 fps when the encounter starts
88 ms
 
JordanLB23 said:
i got 42 mb running for addons in wow

got 13 fps atm win a 25 man raid, but i go to 1-5 fps when the encounter starts
88 ms
Click to expand...
88 ms, means you are not lagging, but have bad FPS.

In the apple menu, choose: About this Mac.
A little window will show up and it will show which CPU you have and how much memory, if you have 2GB or less, you should get more.

I manage to stay above 20 FPS in the encounters in ICC25 (except Marrowgar, which is 15ish) with my 2007 MBP, yours should do better.
 
I have 2 gb, i thought that was decent?

and how do i get more? is there something i can buy to add on? or do i need to bring in my macbookpro and actually have people add it for me?
 
sammich said:
What settings are you running the game at? And is this a new development, has it suddenly become more laggy?
Click to expand...


i played WoW like 4-5 months ago and didnt have this only during raids. i did have 1 fps in dalran, but was always fine during boss fights.

now i lag 1-5 fps during boss fights
 
JordanLB23 said:
I have 2 gb, i thought that was decent?

and how do i get more? is there something i can buy to add on? or do i need to bring in my macbookpro and actually have people add it for me?
Click to expand...

It has been a year since I played WoW, don't know how the new updates to the game have changed performance. But I played with 2GB of ram when I started 25-mans and it was fine. I played at 1680x1050 on my 17" MBP with the x1600 from 3.5 years back, easily playable almost always above 25fps. IIRC, my settings were around the middle-high mark, not at the max.

More RAM is the easiest way to improve performance on any machine. RAM you can generally do yourself if you're careful. Open the system profiler: click on the apple in the menu bar, then 'about my mac', then 'more info' in the new window. Under the hardware overview, what is you model identifier? And is your machine a 17 or a 15"?
 
macbookpro 4,1

15 inch


is ther something i can buy at a bestbuy where it can let me increase my ram or something to improve fps?
 
so basically i just need new memory?

how much should i buy and how much should i b epaying? and what brand should i get?
 
RAM is relatively cheap these days, and you may as well install 4GB and replace both sticks.

One of the cheapest places is newegg.com, find the type (667MHz DDR2 memory (PC2-5300)) on there, and choose a good brand, generally with a good rating and whatever you're prepared to pay for it.

I'd recommend you to buy it online as it will almost always be cheaper, but you won't get it right away. But if you going to BB anyway, check online to see how much more you're getting and which brand is good.
 
you sure ram wil solve it? ill just buy one 4 g and add it on following that video.

is there a specific brand/type i should buy? imogoing to buy it at BB
 
To the original poster, my 17MBP GPU is failing and my symptoms are no video all of a sudden. It doesn't happen all the time and it resolves suddenly, or via reboot (s).

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

The performance of the video card has not "Degraded". I don't think your problem is the video card. If you are in doubt, just Xbench it.

I am awaiting the arrival of my new 13", and ill take my 17" to the store. Hopefully they will believe me that I encounter the issue "regularly", and won't have to wait until it happens again to jump into my car while praying the machine stays broken... because I have nothing else to do with my life...

Good luck,
 
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