WoW and RAM performance testing...

I thank Anand for their guide they did a good job of confirming what I thought. However they only made a small "blurb" about RAM being important. The rig you see in my sig was a temporary state. I was was playing WoW with a 2500+, 333 MHz DDR and a 6600 GT OC to about 570/1150. In Org (orc city) the game would often turn into a slide show. Well yesterday I finally got a nice set of 512 DIMMs again.

I decide to do a quick test with the area which causes my system to puke which is running through Org. The test was done on a Saturday evening (worst time of course) and done by logging in at the Org gates running into town through the bank through the AH and then back out again. During this time I kept an eye on my average FPS as well as how much the system "hitched/stuttered" (X FPS to 0 to X FPS again). Also attention was paid for how long it took for the toons to appear in AH and for the mailbox to "appear"

Proc = Barton 2500+ @ Stock Speed
Video = XFX 6600 GT @ 570/1150
RAM = 1 to 3 sticks of 512 MB PC3200 Memory, 2.5-3-3-8 timing running at @ 333 MHz (board does not support 3 sticks running at 400 MHz).
Game settings = 1280x1024, max texture quality, no AF, no AA, enviromental detail = min, distances = middle, default UI

512 MB
Stuttering/Hitching = Severe. I did this test 3x. Each time I needed to just stop and wait for 30 seconds to allow things to load and settle out.
FPS = 15-30FPS.
Time to appear = About 10 seconds after I stopped "stuttering".
Conclusion = 512 MB really just sucks. Also after a good 4 hour stint on WoW I needed to reboot because WoW just taking more memory. Since I didn't have it the game FPS would consistantly go down over time. Eventually even flights on the bat would stutter.

1024 MB
Stuttering/Hitching = Gone. Once I went to 1024 MB everything cleared up.
FPS = 50-60FPS.
Time to appear = About 10 seconds.
Conclusion = 1024 MB really quite good. The only thing that is a slightly annoyance is going to the AH or mailbox and having to wait a short period of time. However it is much much better than 512 MB

1.5 GB
Stuttering/Hitching = None
FPS = 50-60FPS.
Time to appear = 1-2 seconds.
Conclusion = 1.5 GB is near perfect. The delay for the toons/mailbox was pretty respectable since there were 300 people in Org that night.

Current Config
Proc = Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ Speed
Video = XFX 6600 GT @ 570/1150
RAM = 2 sticks of 512 MB PC3200 Memory, 2.5-3-3-8 timing running at @ 400 MHz
Game settings = 1280x1024, max texture quality, 2x AF, 4x AA, enviromental detail = middle, distances = max, default UI
3dmark03 = 8600

Stuttering/Hitching = None
FPS = 60FPS.
Time to appear = About 10 seconds.
Conclusion = This setting feels good. The increase in processor and memory bandwidth now keeps my FPS pegged at 60 with vertical sync. I still get delay in "appearance time" but only in Org. My guess is a better harddrive would help in order to get the textures to memory quicker.

Side conclusion

You can build a fairly [H]ard WoW box on the cheap. If you already have the monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers...$500-$600 could keep you tickled pink on this game. You don't need a A64 3500+ and a 6800GT to get great performnce out of WoW. It wouldn't hurt though.

Final conclusion

The most critical parameter in WoW is the RAM. 512 MB is just not enough when running WinXP. The 1GB mark is more important than it is given credit for. If you are playing WoW you really need to be thinking 1GB w/ the current RAM prices. It is just too cheap to give up something that can make certain parts of the game much more enjoyable.

Off to kill more NE rogues and gnomes...

-tReP

Trepidati0n said:

The most critical parameter in WoW is the RAM. 512 MB is just not enough when running WinXP. The 1GB mark is more important than it is given credit for. If you are playing WoW you really need to be thinking 1GB w/ the current RAM prices. It is just too cheap to give up something that can make certain parts of the game much more enjoyable.

Click to expand...

I agree with that 100%. Having 1GB of RAM or more is the best upgrade you can make for WoW. Everything is so much smoother and loads so much faster it's a totally different game experience.

2nd best upgrade would be a faster processor. This makes a bigger difference than the video card, and is true for most MMORPGs, espeically in busy areas.

Example: When I upgraded my system from a 3200+ Barton to a 3200+ Winchester (everything else the same except the mobo: NF2->NF3) I was able to comfortably bump my resolution from 1024x768 to 1280x1024 AND have a higher FPS in the process. This was all done with the same video card... ATI 9800pro (all in-game video settings on max and ansio on 2nd highest setting).

3rd best upgrade would be a new video card. Raw power is raw power, but honestly, if you have a fast CPU and 1GB of RAM, you can run this game reasonably well on even a GF3 (I have and it works pretty well)

4th best upgrade would be a hard drive. This is like the icing on the cake. Once you've done all the other upgrades you can shave a couple seconds of load time here and there with a fast hard drive.

I found the same thing. RAM is even more important for Alliance in Ironforge though, as there are almost always more Alliance than Horde. Right now I'm running 3x512mb at DDR200. Slow RAM, but my game used to crash in IF before with 512mb.

I notice an occasional bit of hitching if I leave something running in the background. However, if everything is turned off, I'm fine. I'm actually thinking about getting 2GB of memory for this game.