Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New iMac problems with World of Warcraft

Georgio

Georgio

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
369
38
Essex, UK
So I bought a new i7 iMac last week, the 27" 3.4 GHz with 6970M GPU, everything seems ok apart from Wow.
First use in anger was in a raid last Sunday and I was getting major graphical pauses during BWD, I noticed that the recommended tab on graphics set everything to low or fair with projected textures off.
So i ramped everything back up to my usual settings and that was when the pauses really started.

My previous machine was also an i7 iMac, the 2.93 GHz with the 5750M GPU and that ran Wow perfectly with the recommended tab putting most settings on high.
So what I don't understand is that the 6970M GPU is much more powerful than the 5750M and yet I'm getting much worse performance.
Has anyone else who has bought a new Sandybridge i5/i7 iMac found a similar experience in Wow?
Is there a way of testing the GPU in OSX to see if it's knackered?
Cheers in advance.
 
Something is wrong with your mac. I run almost everything at max settings and get pretty smooth FPS. About 40-100+ FPS.

There are some known issues the apple opengl driver that won't let you turn up AA if you have liquid detail at anything above fair. And some other wierdness like graphics settings not always taking effect after you hit apply.

But I haven't had these pauses you describe. Have you checked your temps when this occurs?
 
I had the same stuttering and generally low performance...and then I did a migration from my MacBook air's application folder to the iMac and it fixed itself...don't really know what changed but it's all good now. Everything on ultra and shadow on fair at native res.
 
Thanks for the replies guys; I've installed on Win7 now as well and I'm getting 60fps in Ogrimmar with everything on high except sunshafts turned off, so it's a MacOS issue and not the hardware.
Just to note that this is using DirectX 9 and it looks incredible with far more detail and clarity than on the MacOS.
If all else fails, I'll use the Win7 version tomorrow as I'm supposed to be raiding.
 
In win7 I set the slider to ultra, AF 16x, AA 4x, DX11, Vsync on, and I get 33-60fps. It always looks smooth. Even with sunshafts on max.
 
As i replied in another thread. Apple's opengl drivers aint the top of the line so to speak... There are a few buggs whit combined settings i will tell you about (that i know, might be others).

First. Multisampling does NOT work if you are using Liquid Details above Fair.
Multisampling will slow your FPS to unplayable when using anything other then Sunshafts: Disabled. Other than that i can cap 60fps with everything except Shadows set to Ultra (Shadows on high). Or as i prefer it, Everything on Ultra and cap my fps at 30 (which is enough for me).

There are also known bugs according to the wow forums where people are experiencing massive fps drops when turning the camera to fast etc.
 
If you copied your install over from your previous Mac there's a chance that something in the WTF or Cache is borked.

I would try the following in this order to correct it (if you did a copy instead of a fresh install):

-Move your Cache and WTF folders to your desktop from your /applications/Worldofwarcraft directory -- then login, your past settings will be lost so you'll have to set everything up manually.

-Run the repair tool which should be found in the same applications/Worldofwarcraft folder

-And as a final option, go for a full reinstall (saving any addons you use to your desktop first can be a good idea)
 
Cheers guys, I tried reinstalling Wow from scratch using just the Cataclysm disk then downloading the remaining game content (all 9GB of it lol) but the issue of minimum settings is still there in OSX.
I'm not overly worried though as I'll just game in Win7 as that's the whole point of installing a windows partition in the first place.
I still can't get over how damn good everything looks under DirectX with everything but sunshafts maxxed out; all these years of struggling with openGL and it's cr*p fps...:eek:

Is there any benefit to using Directx11, which is selectable from the wow options menu or is Directx9 still the way to go?
 
Georgio said:
Cheers guys, I tried reinstalling Wow from scratch using just the Cataclysm disk then downloading the remaining game content (all 9GB of it lol) but the issue of minimum settings is still there in OSX.
I'm not overly worried though as I'll just game in Win7 as that's the whole point of installing a windows partition in the first place.
I still can't get over how damn good everything looks under DirectX with everything but sunshafts maxxed out; all these years of struggling with openGL and it's cr*p fps...:eek:

Is there any benefit to using Directx11, which is selectable from the wow options menu or is Directx9 still the way to go?
Click to expand...

Are you sitting on the high end 27"? If so, try this under OS X.
Slide your settings bar to Ultra. Set liquid details to fair, Sunshafts to disable, Multisampling to 8x and Shadows to High and reply with your FPS.(I am pretty sure you should get a nice looking playable experience)
 
Have you installed the graphics update that was recently released? It fixes a bunch of performance bugs. If WoW was running fine on the 5750 on your old iMac, but not on the 6970M something is wrong.
 
Muppi said:
Are you sitting on the high end 27"? If so, try this under OS X.
Slide your settings bar to Ultra. Set liquid details to fair, Sunshafts to disable, Multisampling to 8x and Shadows to High and reply with your FPS.(I am pretty sure you should get a nice looking playable experience)
Click to expand...

Yup on the i7 3.4GHz with 12GB RAM 6790M 1GB

It's unplayable for me with OSX atm, that's why I installed it on my Win7 partition. In ogrimmar I'm getting 20fps tops at 2550x1440 with everything set at default, i.e. low/fair.

But that isn't even a smooth fps; if I rotate the HD goes crazy until I stop, then players/shadows appear.

I've tried a complete format/reinstall of OSX followed up by updating from the downloadable patch for 10.6.7.

Everything has been updated in software update, all firmware is upto date.
Reinstalled a clean Wow from the Cataclysm disk, updated through the launcher so downloaded 9GB's of additional content.

No add-ons installed apart from the default Bliz ones, so a completely clean configuration.

Problem is this:

• Opening up options/video and everything is set to low/fair and off by default.
• If I mouse over the options to see the recommended settings, everything is listed as low/fair/off.
• I can ramp up the settings manually to what they should be i.e. max. to ultra (with multisampling at x1 and sunshafts disabled) but everything becomes a jerky mess.
• Nothing else is running in the background and it's the same wether I run full screen or windowed mode.
I just don't understand it, Wow should be absolutely flying if my old i7 5750 setup is anything to go by, but this is worse than my even older duo-core iMac with 9800 graphics.
 
Georgio said:
Cheers guys, I tried reinstalling Wow from scratch using just the Cataclysm disk then downloading the remaining game content (all 9GB of it lol) but the issue of minimum settings is still there in OSX.
I'm not overly worried though as I'll just game in Win7 as that's the whole point of installing a windows partition in the first place.
I still can't get over how damn good everything looks under DirectX with everything but sunshafts maxxed out; all these years of struggling with openGL and it's cr*p fps...:eek:

Is there any benefit to using Directx11, which is selectable from the wow options menu or is Directx9 still the way to go?
Click to expand...

You should be able to run sunshafts at max in windows. And yes, DX11 is the way to go. Not only more eye candy but also better performance. In windows I max everything and still get playable FPS everywhere.
 
Interesting. I actually run WoW on Ultra everything under OSX and the only issue I have is FPS slowdown when I spin camera way too quickly. Other than that, the game is very much playable.
 
I have the 27" 3.1, 6970 with 1gb.

Running at native resolution. Set the slider to "Ultra" and scaled back shadows (to high) and AA. Get very consistent 60-140 FPS everywhere.

EDIT: This is in OSX
 
God damn give your fps ;)
I will get to the bottom of this as it's annoying to say the least.

Dute said:
I have the 27" 3.1, 6970 with 1gb.

Running at native resolution. Set the slider to "Ultra" and scaled back shadows (to high) and AA. Get very consistent 60-140 FPS everywhere.

EDIT: This is in OSX
Click to expand...
 
While playing on pretty high settings recently (under osx and slider set to ultra with shadows turned down to high, multisampling 8x and thus liquid details fair and sunshafts disabled) ive usually been capped at 30fps(capped by preferences) all the time, raids, bg's and orgrimmar.

Ive been going outside to help friends a few times and been herbing in Uldum etc. Most noticable so far in Uldum is that my framerate drops to and everything starts getting laggy, i can be down to 14-20 fps and rollercosting quite fast inbetween. It can be this way in other outside-zones as well but most often not that bad. (tried turning settings down quite a bit and still got that result).

Im running on a 2011 iMac 27", 4gb ram and 1gb gfx. While in uldum i noticed that iStat pro says ive only got 32mb ram free.

Any Ideas why this only happens in the outside zones? I've already thought about adding more ram once the paycheck arrives.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Delete your config.wtf file.

If you migrated or just copied your WoW folder over, it is probably thinking it is still running on your older iMac, and is set to run at its settings.
 
tsugaru said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Delete your config.wtf file.

If you migrated or just copied your WoW folder over, it is probably thinking it is still running on your older iMac, and is set to run at its settings.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. Never had an older iMac but i do think i copied addons from my macbook pro when i started... Is it just the config.wtf i need to delete?
 
Under Mac versions turn off that sunlight feature (forget its real name) and dial down shadows.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Ya, or just move it out if the wow folder.

And the feature is sunshafts. I disable that and shadows, as I find them distracting during raids.

Try that out.
 
tsugaru said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Ya, or just move it out if the wow folder.

And the feature is sunshafts. I disable that and shadows, as I find them distracting during raids.

Try that out.
Click to expand...

I have disabled sunshafts otherwise i cant use multisampling(fps drops to 7). The problem aint raids and bg's etc. I'm fps caped during those events aswell as im fps-caped in orgrimmar. The problem i have is when i go outside orgrimmar to other zones like Uldum. There my fps drops and studders around 14-20 and gives a laggy experience, even when trying to turn settings down.
 
You're only running 4GB RAM and the system is probably hogging half of that especially if you've got other apps. running like Vent, Firefox etc.
You need more RAM and the simplest option is to buy 2x4GB to fill the two vacant slots and keep your existing 2x2GB where they are making a total of 12GB.
Wow is a massive resource hog, especially in OSX so more RAM is the smart move especially given how cheap it is atm.

I bought 2x4GB Crucial RAM for my Mac for about £70 and it arrived next day, so kudos to them.


Muppi said:
I have disabled sunshafts otherwise i cant use multisampling(fps drops to 7). The problem aint raids and bg's etc. I'm fps caped during those events aswell as im fps-caped in orgrimmar. The problem i have is when i go outside orgrimmar to other zones like Uldum. There my fps drops and studders around 14-20 and gives a laggy experience, even when trying to turn settings down.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back