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PowerMac not so powerfull

Solafaa

Solafaa

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 15, 2004
667
0
Daddy said not to talk to strangers
Hello, i have 2 PM's (powermacs) that i use. One is a dual 2.5 and the one having the problem is dual 2.0 GHz with 2 GB SDRAM, 23" monitor and 256 video card. When i play WoW on the 2.5 its perfect, i have no problems what so ever. On the 2.0 i get very bad preformance, such as 11 FPS in WoW sometimes, most of teh time its around 40. I know this is normal due to lag and such but i have no problems what so ever with the 2.5. What could i do to make it better?

- I dont have much programs on the backround, maybe safari, itunes thats it.
- I donwload lots of files, about 4-5 GB a week and rip DVD's often as i rather watch them on my desktop.

Thats what i could think of of teh top of my head.

EDITE: While i was playing now it got down to 6 fps (Frams per sec).
 
maybe some of your preferences are corrupt. If you archive and install, it will probably fix your problems. To do this, put the CD that you got with the computer in the CD drive, restart the computer holding down the "C" key, and then when you see the window to reformat the HD, click "options" and archive and install". This will take your home folder, set it aside, and give a fresh new OS... you'll have you d/l all the updates of course.
 
Solafaa said:
Hello, i have 2 PM's (powermacs) that i use. One is a dual 2.5 and the one having the problem is dual 2.0 GHz with 2 GB SDRAM, 23" monitor and 256 video card. When i play WoW on the 2.5 its perfect, i have no problems what so ever. On the 2.0 i get very bad preformance, such as 11 FPS in WoW sometimes, most of teh time its around 40. I know this is normal due to lag and such but i have no problems what so ever with the 2.5. What could i do to make it better?

- I dont have much programs on the backround, maybe safari, itunes thats it.
- I donwload lots of files, about 4-5 GB a week and rip DVD's often as i rather watch them on my desktop.

Thats what i could think of of teh top of my head.

EDITE: While i was playing now it got down to 6 fps (Frams per sec).
Click to expand...
I think you might want to restart your computer before playing games. So that the RAM gets flushed of all the programs that you had on at one point. It might also be something that is just a problem in WoW. Is WoW uptodate.
 
You also may want to tweak the video settings in WoW. Max settings in that game kill the performance, but don't make that much of a visual difference over somewhat lower settings.
 
varmit said:
I think you might want to restart your computer before playing games. So that the RAM gets flushed of all the programs that you had on at one point. It might also be something that is just a problem in WoW. Is WoW uptodate.
Click to expand...

Its still a problem, even if i restart. I cant play WoW if its not updated, its an MMOG so everytimei connect it auto updates.
 
Chaszmyr said:
You also may want to tweak the video settings in WoW. Max settings in that game kill the performance, but don't make that much of a visual difference over somewhat lower settings.
Click to expand...

I have it on MAX on my other PM and it works fine. There IS something wrong but i cant figer it out, ,it lagging big time and the frams rate is so slow that its not worth playing, but on my other PM iots great.
 
Can you swap video cards between the two machines and see if the problem follows the card or remains with the machine? Which two video cards do you have?
 
daveL said:
Can you swap video cards between the two machines and see if the problem follows the card or remains with the machine? Which two video cards do you have?
Click to expand...

On both PM's i have the 256 MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 required to run the 30" apple display, its the same video card.
 
Solafaa said:
On both PM's i have the 256 MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 required to run the 30" apple display, its the same video card.
Click to expand...
In that case, just swap the HDs to see if it's a software issue.

The problem should follow the drive to the other machine if it is an issue with software.
 
Solafaa said:
On both PM's i have the 256 MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 required to run the 30" apple display, its the same video card.
Click to expand...
Are they both running with the same settings and screen size? The 1920x1200 resolution of a 23" display should put a strain on any card.
 
ChrisFromCanada said:
If you have the same vid card in both machines then why does you sig say you have a 128Mb video card in your 2.5 and you have a 256Mb card in the 2.0?
Click to expand...

Because i got ripd of my iMac G5 and got a PM insted and did not change the sig. Both PM's have 256MB cards but i am not sure about the res since i am at my home and the other desktop is at my office (i run my own office).
 
also, check to make sure that the processor speed is not set to automatic, but set to highest. You do this in energy saver under system preferences.
 
Solafaa said:
I have it on MAX on my other PM and it works fine. There IS something wrong but i cant figer it out, ,it lagging big time and the frams rate is so slow that its not worth playing, but on my other PM iots great.
Click to expand...

Don't be so determined to find something wrong: There isn't. I run WoW on a comparable system, and I found that performance was awful with max settings.

As for why the other one has better performance... You said yourself it has faster processors, that may be part of it. Also, running the same versions of OSX? each time they've upgraded Panther, they have updated the video drivers.
 
Chaszmyr said:
Don't be so determined to find something wrong: There isn't. I run WoW on a comparable system, and I found that performance was awful with max settings.

As for why the other one has better performance... You said yourself it has faster processors, that may be part of it. Also, running the same versions of OSX? each time they've upgraded Panther, they have updated the video drivers.
Click to expand...

I dont think a .5 would have a huge effect, once is running on 40-60 FPS and teh one i am useing gets to 2 FPS (just checked) then goes to 10 FPS. My friends 15" PB does better, with this setup i have it should ru on +30 FPS but it nevers get over that.
 
Chaszmyr said:
As for why the other one has better performance... You said yourself it has faster processors, that may be part of it. Also, running the same versions of OSX? each time they've upgraded Panther, they have updated the video drivers.
Click to expand...

The problem i have is that althou one is 2.5 an dthe other is 2.0 i dont see a reason why should be able to run on max settings with +40-60 FPS and the other gets as low as 2-30 FPS, it just does not add up.
 
Solafaa said:
Sorry but could i have this in english? i have no idea what you just said.
Click to expand...
Oh, sorry. If you have a firewire cable, you can connect the 2 PMs with it, then start up the 2.0 PM using the disk on the 2.5. On the 2.5, restart it (after attaching the firewire cable) while holding down the "t" key, until the firewire icon appears. At this point, the 2.5 is acting like a fw storage device. It should show up on the 2.0 as a mounted disk volume. Select the 2.5 volume in the Startup Disk System Preference and restart the 2.0. The 2.0 should boot up on the 2.5 disk. See if you still have the WoW problem.

HTH

Edit: Here's a link with a bit more detail:

http://developer.apple.com/document...Macintosh_CPUs-G3/iBook30Sept00/iBook-10.html

P.S. If I got something wrong here, anyone please feel free to correct me.
 
daveL said:
Oh, sorry. If you have a firewire cable, you can connect the 2 PMs with it, then start up the 2.0 PM using the disk on the 2.5. On the 2.5, restart it (after attaching the firewire cable) while holding down the "t" key, until the firewire icon appears. At this point, the 2.5 is acting like a fw storage device. It should show up on the 2.0 as a mounted disk volume. Select the 2.5 volume in the Startup Disk System Preference and restart the 2.0. The 2.0 should boot up on the 2.5 disk. See if you still have the WoW problem.

HTH

Edit: Here's a link with a bit more detail:

http://developer.apple.com/document...Macintosh_CPUs-G3/iBook30Sept00/iBook-10.html

P.S. If I got something wrong here, anyone please feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...

The two PM's are like 30 mins away, I know that the problem is with the 2.0, i only want to know whats wronge. I am 100% sure that there is so,metime wrong wit the 2.0 but i cant figier it, THAT my problem.
 
Solafaa said:
The two PM's are like 30 mins away, I know that the problem is with the 2.0, i only want to know whats wronge. I am 100% sure that there is so,metime wrong wit the 2.0 but i cant figier it, THAT my problem.
Click to expand...
What about your net connection? Is one's internet connection much slower than the other? This would definitely create lag.

If this isnt the problem, have you tried the archive and install suggested up at the top? This may fix your problems. Or maybe a clean install of WoW.
 
Solafaa said:
The two PM's are like 30 mins away, I know that the problem is with the 2.0, i only want to know whats wronge. I am 100% sure that there is so,metime wrong wit the 2.0 but i cant figier it, THAT my problem.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I didn't catch that small detail :) You're screwed :) Anyway, do you have a spare firewire drive around? You could do a fresh install on it and see if that helps, without wiping out your current boot disk.
 
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