WOW- Why can't I get a consistant FPS

[streetbl]

I run a
G5(non-intel)

Dualcore 2.3g

2.5 G DDR2 ram
Nvidia GeForce 7800GT 256MB



When I'm in raids its like 15-20 FPS, and when I'm not its hovering around 30

Seems REALLY low. When I try to use the Mac video capture options forget about it.

Its there anything I can do? Download , or change settings? I mean out of games settings, I can lower all the in game settings, but it seems silly my Machine can't run better than this.

 

[AppleWoW]

delete all addons! and besides that thats as good as your gonna get. I get like 4-7 FPS on my G4 mac tower case so yeah.

 

[HiRez]

One thing that might help is to use the maxfps setting. That can help to smooth out framerate peaks and dips if you use a reasonable value. You might try setting it for 20 in the raid, and then nudge it down if it's still bad. Type /maxfps 20 in the text window in WoW. But yeah, framerates can just suck in raids, you may have to live with it short of upgrading your hardware. Also check your network connections, are you getting a low latency?

 

[apfhex]

Well, yeah, the more stuff going on onscreen the slower your framerate. Lots of people have problems in raids (not me on my might MP, but...). Turning down in-game graphics settings is really what you have to do, maybe you can find a balance between good looks and playable framerate.

 

[streetbl]

I'll try out the FPS setting thing.

My main concern is why do people on with systems not as powerful as mine end up running ridiculous frame rates while mine is sub-par. It seems like something is wrong.

My hardware is GREAT.... compared to many. and my LAtency is 36MS its the lowest latency of anyone I know.

the /maxfps 20 doesn't do anything apparently

 

[HiRez]

I'll try out the FPS setting thing.

My main concern is why do people on with systems not as powerful as mine end up running ridiculous frame rates while mine is sub-par. It seems like something is wrong.

My hardware is GREAT.... compared to many. and my LAtency is 36MS its the lowest latency of anyone I know.

the /maxfps 20 doesn't do anything apparently

What maxfps does is cap the frame rate at the number you specify. What can happen when the frame rate is allowed to roam free (always pushing as many frames as it can) is that it'll bunch up some frames and when a system bottleneck occurs (network, CPU, GPU, disk, whatever), it has to suddenly throttle back the frame rate to catch up. This can cause dips in performance. WoW isn't really a game that needs ridiculous frame rates. Personally I find anything over about 25-30 is good, and what is much more important in this game is consistent frame rates. So maxfps can help with that in the right conditions. But depending on what's happening in your system, you may not notice an effect (except if you read the frame rate it should be capped at the number you set).

Anyway though, I've never gotten great fps in WoW raids regardless of the system, and I almost always end up turning settings down to help.

 

[elstinko]

dual 2.0 G5 X800 XT graphics

I am baffled why my FPS is so poor.

My System:
Dual G5 2.0Ghz
X800 XT ATI graphics
3 gigs of RAM
7200 RPM SATA HD
TIGER OS X

I get 8-12 FPS anywhere even 5 man instances. The starting cinematic even chugs as the camera moves through the land. The flying chugs down to 6 fps. All around either macs totally suck for gaming or something else is bottlenecking performance.

So far I have:
Ran Tech Tool Pro. -> Passed
Made sure ALL running apps are off
Bought and installed new 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
Reinstalled OS clean
Turned off ALL quality settings to strict performance in G card and game.
Tested network performance and see that the ping is really low. 2.6 mbps DL / 700kbps UL-> passed

I can only suspect the SATA controller on Mobo making the hard drive not spin fast enough because my G card is fast and RAM is hefty and fast too. I don't know what diagnostic to do anymore but 8 fps sucks balls. It's unplayable. I do want to note that when I boot my OS the hard drive grinds very hard until the os is fully loaded. I never knew Seagate Baracudas to make such a harsh grinding noise when opening apps and booting.

One thing that annoys about mac graphics and that is on PC's ATI and Nvidia come out with driver updates almost weekly. The mac ATI control panel and drivers are like 2.5 years old. Why isn't there a catalyst driver and control center that is more robust and updated for mac?

All in all if anyone has insight to where I can take my diagnostic from here I am all ears.