Performance in WoW compared to Windows.

Howdy!

A while ago I bought a MacBook Pro since I wanted to learn more about mac and OSX. I have been coding and working in different types of Linux/UNIX enviroments and of course a lot in Windows too. I am primarily a coder but also an administrator. Since I knew very litte about mac I decided that I needed to get some experience with the machine. I adored my MacBook. It's wonderful! I love the operating system and I am eager to start coding some in it.

However - I am not only a coder, I am also a huge fan of World of Warcraft and I play it A LOT (I even have a wife who is hooked so I have another one pushing to play more in my home - no, no kids yet).

So I decided to switch from the crappy windows OS to Mac even on my stationary computer and bought a Mac Pro. It arrived and it was a disaster!!!
I got WAY worse performance on the Mac Pro then I have on my windows machine.

Now I am far from an expert on hardware - I can build a windows machine if you give me all the parts in a bag - but I don't know which CPU is for which socket type and stuff so when I present the hardware here be patient if I don't express myself 100% correct.

Machine I have (Windows XP):
1 Intel Core2 Quad 2.66GHz processor
4 gb internal memory
NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 756 mb graphic card.

With this hardware I get 50-60 fps in central Shattrath with ALL graphic settings turned up to max, everything enabled in 1920x1200 at 4x multisample.
Something I am *not* entirely pleased with since this means that on raids I dip down to a minimum of 25 fps. I would like a guranteed minimum of 50 fps in the worst raids.

Okie, so I though "I buy a really cool Mac Pro and the fps will be better and I can start exploring the Mac OSX for real". So I bought this:
Mac Pro with
2 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
4 gb internal memory
NVidia GEForce 8800 GT 512 mb graphic card.

With this hardware ont he Mac I get 25-30 fps in central Shattrath with ALL graphic settings turned up to max, everything enabled in 1920x1200 at 4x multisample.

That was not really what I expected.

I have quickly told Mac that I want to return the product (you have 14 days possibility to do that here) but I really don't want to send it back. I would like some of you guys to tell me "DOH! you made bla bla bla bla misstake" and tell me how to fix it *here's hoping*

Anyway, anyone with experience from running WoW on a Mac Pro in 1920x1200 and wish to share their experience would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks in advance.

// Anders

I did a little Googling, and there could be a couple solutions. One in particular involves moving your graphics card to a different slot (it may be in a slower 4x PCIe slot vs the 16x PCIe slot). Read through the forum posting below.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3773499360&sid=1

It's also worth pointing out that your new graphics card is a fair bit inferior to the one you had in your Windows box. See this comparison chart from nVidia:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_8800.html

I understand the Windows version will provide you with better FPS anyway, as with virtually all games.

Have you installed Windows with Bootcamp?

Never mind, that link seems to cover it pretty well.

My MacBook Pro gets around 60 fps and my MacPro quad core running 2 separate copies of the game on 2 separate 22" monitors gets 50-75 fps each. My Windows Vista gaming machine with 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM and 8800GT 512 Video card gets 60 fps on 2 separate copies of the game on 2 separate 24" monitors at the same time. All setting are turned to max. I don't know what could be causing your problem except the already stated options.

Both my iMac and my Macbook Pro get much better performance then what you are getting. I would have to say the problem is not that you are on a mac. I would also like to say that buying or returning your Mac Pro based solely on its performance in WoW is just silly.

you paid alot of money for the machine. if you are unhappy with it i would return it. bottom line is its going to bother you whenever you use the machine wondering whats wrong with it. the only difference is your time will have run out to return it.

I guess what im saying is dont get stuck with a machine your not happy with you will regret it later.

I get about 50 FPS on both my MBP and my Dell XPS2 laptops in Shattrath.

So for me, it's not a huge issue.

WOHOO!!! I figured it out!

It's multisample and full screen glow effects that are currently buggy in the WoW client. With 1x multisample and full screen glow effects turned off it worked WAY better than my windows machine.

So now I am very happy.

Thanks all for pitching in!

// Anders
Sweden

theonegod said:

Both my iMac and my Macbook Pro get much better performance then what you are getting. I would have to say the problem is not that you are on a mac. I would also like to say that buying or returning your Mac Pro based solely on its performance in WoW is just silly.

Click to expand...

Well... It might be silly, but I am a real super wow addict and I really wanted a Mac. So I purchased the mac cause I wanted a mac (not cause I wanted a wow game machine). But since it seemed that I could not play WoW on it and that's a huge bunch of my time with my computer then it felt wrong to keep it.

You are allowed to think I am silly, I can live with that. Rather silly and happy than cool and sad.

// Anders

Heh yeah I was going to mention that. The 4x multisample is nice but it does seem a little buggy. My MBP runs highest settings 50+ well Glad you figured it out though that rocks, enjoy your mac.

Oh and if your on the Ravencrest Realm send me a pst we'll play

yeah, my MBP ranges from 65 to 120 fps. It used to cap out at 30 fps, but patches from blizzard and the leopard graphics update helped.

I just quit wow , Gave my account away, I have WAY more free time , So im getting 0fps in wow and its great : ) sorry to go off topic !!

Macs For Surfin said:

I just quit wow , Gave my account away, I have WAY more free time , So im getting 0fps in wow and its great : ) sorry to go off topic !!

Click to expand...

There is no use in quitting... we all go back!

And I am glad to hear that WoW runs good for you now Anders!

I wont be back, I could not handle leveling again!!

How are you guys getting such good FPS in WOW? I am getting 30FPS average on my MACBOOK Pro. Here is my setup:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 128 MB

rist said:

VRAM (Total): 128 MB

Click to expand...

My guess.

Mine too. Although 30FPS is very playable.