Reply With Quotemore ram and better vid card would help you out a great deal.
I'm getting a LOT of stuttering and slowdown whenever I arrive in a heavily-populated area like a new city. Also gryphon rides are effectively slideshows for me.
I'm wondering how much of this is network lag and how much is my own computer. I have a 2.2Ghz system with 512Mb RAM and a GeForce 4 card. I'm wondering if any of these issues are likely to improve if I were to add, say, 512Mb of RAM. Any thoughts?
(Didn't know whether to post this in Games or Hardware, but eventually decided on Games if only to annoy those people who think there are two many WoW threads.)
more ram and better vid card would help you out a great deal.
I'd even suggest a cheap (but better) card with a lot of RAM.
I upgraded from a GF4 to a GF5200 w/256MB of RAM, and I have less slowdowns than some of my buddies with better cards and less VRAM.
yeah... I've been thinking about a better vidcard. I've got a GeForce 4 5950 with 256Mb RAM... is that considered pretty shit by today's standards?
I used to drop to ~3 FPS (or worse) whenever I'd griffon ride into the vicinity of large populated cities with 768MB ram and a Radeon 9800/Pro.
I added 1GB of memory (and went back to dual channel from non-dual channel, though I don't think this was a huge effect) and that all but went away. Now I get 1-3 tiny, 1/4 second or less hitches running into Ironforge.
I'd guess what you're seeing is system ram based moreso than video card, and your upgrade dollars would be best spent there.
Right now I have 512Mb of DDR-SDRAM on a single stick in one slot, and then there's another slot (the same) empty next to it... what's the most RAM of that type that I can get on a single stick?
I'd imagine the video card is what's hurting you the most here...
I had a friend who went out and bought a GF4 when they were initially launched, because another buddy had just gotten the fastest GF3 and he thought he would be 'one-upping' him.
We all know how horrible the naming convention was, the GF4's were slower than most GF2s. He could barely even play Counter-Strike, and his machine was more than capable otherwise. I'd look there first, and extra RAM is always nice.
Gary, sounds like you've got pretty much the same system as I do. Ram seems to make the most difference - my brother's computer with a 1.8ghz CPU and lower-end video card provides a much smoother experience than my system, even though his specs are lower. The difference is, he's got a gig of Ram
The Geforce4 MX's were similar to the GF2's; the GF4 4x00's were very quick (for the time, and still not horrible).Originally Posted by ProStyle
If you've got a 256MB 5950, but only 512MB RAM, I'd definitely go with another 512MB (or 1GB, if your motherboard can use it) of RAM -- it's far more likely to be helpful, and is useful regardless.
It's the RAM, definitely. My friend had the exact same problem (he even mentioned the flight problem several times) and he's using a GeForce 3. Bumping the RAM up to 756 fixed it, but I'd say go for a gig if you're upgrading. Your video card is fine.
Ahhh yes, the good old "MX". Thanks for refreshing my memory and correcting my generalization of all GF4 cards.
Another vote for system RAM. I'm playing with a 9500 card (flashed to 9800), and the game plays totally smoothly for me because I have 1 gig of RAM. (I bumped up to 1 gig because I was having the same type of problem in Planetside that you are now having in WoW. I'm convinced that computer games have gotten to some point where amount of system RAM is at least as important as quality of videocard.)
Well, the people who said it was the RAM were absolutely right. I just installed an extra stick of 512K DDR, taking me up to 1024K, and my WoW experience has changed *utterly*. It used to take 30-60 seconds after landing in a major city for everything to stop stuttering, and now the city is fluid the second I land. Gryphon rides used to be little more than slideshows, and now they're smooth as silk.
I'm honestly a bit flabbergasted at what a huge difference the extra RAM has made. I mean, intellectually I know it should make a big difference, but to actually see the night-and-day difference from what I've been struggling by with... wow.
Thanks to everyone for the advice in this thread!
Yes, everyone told me the same thing. I have two almost identical computers but the one with the better video card was stuttering in Orgrimarr. It was the one with 512 meg of ram while the other computer with a cheap video card ran much better with a gig of ram. I should be getting an upgrade by Monday and my wife will be much happier.
ian
It's the RAM, Gary. You'll want 1GB for smoothness. You will still get occasional lag and pauses in Ironforge, but that's more a server issue than a client issue.
Wait till you get 8Mb in there. Hoo boy! :P
Just going from 512 to 768 in my machine made the stuttering pretty much go away for me.
I'm looking into some memory - how important is the type? I've got one 512 mb stick of DDR 333 ram in there at the moment, can I just add more DDR ram and I'll be fine? Would this be ok?
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