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World of Warcraft on the 5500

post #1 of 36
3/8/06 at 2:24am
Thread Starter 
Hello all. I've got 5500. Had it for about a month and a half. I just recently bought world of warcraft. It plays decent most of the time, but when i'm:
a. in a big city
b. on a gryphin
c. going into a new city

it begins to lag and studder, sometimes bigtime. My roommate has a similar laptop and his has no problem with the same spots on the same settings. I have no other programs open or running in the backround.

My specs are:

1.7 pentium M
512 RAM (i'm thinking this is the problem)
256mb NVIDIA 6600
5400 RPM 60 gig HD


My question is: Would having 1 or 2 gigs or RAM stop the studdering (mostly)? Has anybody ever tested to see the difference?

Thanks
Steven
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post #2 of 36
3/8/06 at 2:59am
I have the an m5500
its got 1gb and runs fine, no studdering
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post #3 of 36
3/8/06 at 4:27am
I'm pretty sure that's your problem. Got a crappy laptop here also with 512M.
For me sometimes it takes a few minute until it gets back to life.
You need atleast 200-300 for windows and once windows is up there are alot of hidden services/programs etc...
Then when you start the game you are left with like 30M free and that is Cached memory (Hard-drive) and not the real memory so it slows everything alot.
Could also be you connection also, incase you use Firewall or router, then you need to open some ports. Thik it was 3274 or something (at work so can't check. You can check support page for the correct ports.
Good luck.
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post #4 of 36
3/8/06 at 10:38am
Thread Starter 
I don't have a firewall open when I run WoW. Actually, I don't have any unneeded services open. I'm thinking RAM all the way. Now I just gotta go pour another $100 into this computer...
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post #5 of 36
3/8/06 at 3:05pm
I'd like to poll the audience. If you had to stress importance in creating a gaming laptop, what would the order be? I would think it would be something like:

1. Video Card,
2. RAM
3. Px Speed
4. Hard Drive (storage, rpm)

IMO it doesn't matter if your vid card is 256 or 512, if you don't have more than a GIG on your system it's going to lag.
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post #6 of 36
3/8/06 at 5:16pm
ram, vidcard , then px speed then hard drive space
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post #7 of 36
3/8/06 at 5:26pm
agreed.

of course thats given that you have a somewhat current videocard.
but for WoW its definantly the ram, a gig will smooth things our nicely considering that WoW doesnt "zone" that much. you should get lots of ram to load the world textures. if you can afford it try 2 gigs and lets us know wht you think.
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post #8 of 36
3/8/06 at 5:35pm
maddawg,

in MMORPG games, RAM is the most important factor - if you go read up on other sites, its the most recommended upgrade, especially if you want to see a fair jump in performance in WoW. 512 just won't cut it.
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post #9 of 36
3/8/06 at 8:24pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I thought it was the RAM, but I wanted to be 100% before I went and spent $200 for 2 gigs of RAM.

Thanks again
Steven

BTW, My character is Sielmar in the Kul Tiras Realm. LVL 20 mage. (i just started playing a few days ago)


Edit: I no longer play Sielmar. My character is Aszolus, a level 65 Night Elf Druid on the PVP server Garithos. Dang friends are all alliance, so I couldn't be a cow like I wanted to be
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post #10 of 36
3/8/06 at 10:38pm
I think you can get 2 GB from Newegg for $150 - 160 these days.
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post #11 of 36
3/9/06 at 9:32pm
its the memory

when i got my 5500 WoW was kinda laggy. but once i put a gig stick in giving me 1.5 gig all those problems disapeared.

untill you get some new memory go into the video settings and lower most of the settings. turning off character names, guild names, etc.. does a lot in the means of smoothing things out. also if your on dialup big cities will perpetually be a problem. i dunno your connection speed but i needed to say that.

btw im sniffit lvl 60 warlock on bloodhoof
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post #12 of 36
3/9/06 at 9:55pm
EQ2 player here. It's WAY more of a hardeware hog than WOW. I'd need a 512 MB video card to turn everything on. We'll see how it runs on my new rig when I get it. I'm only scoring 491 in 3dMark06 with my desktop right now and it runs pretty good, so I'm guessing I'll be happy with the outcome .

Lasdran, Lev 41 Necro, Kithcor
(and other alts)
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post #13 of 36
3/11/06 at 2:26am
Im a wow’er myself.

Wow is kind of low on the graphic requirements compared to other 3d games (doom3 BF2 ect)

Your always going to get lower frame rates in large cities, this is mainly due to server lag.

On a desktop running 2x 7800gt in SLI I drop as low as 40 FPS in cities.


Anyway, most WOW forums will say you need at least 768MB ram. My desktop has 1 GB and WOW can use most of that.

Laptop has 2 GB and that’s too much for WOW.

Upgrading your ram will improve yours system, but as previously posted, your vid card is the bottleneck.

PS: ways to improve FPS in wow

#1 lower terrain distance, 4 ticks is all you “need” to play the game
#2 disable “full screen glow effect”

Hope this helped
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post #14 of 36
3/11/06 at 10:46pm
What kind of Processor speed would you need to run wow?
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post #15 of 36
3/12/06 at 7:19pm
i've got a 5600 with 1 gb ram and like.. 3.2 ghz processor, good internet and all, but my computers fan is always on like crazy and is jumpy in big towns. this game also makes my computer overheat once every few hours. so i have like twice the ram and that doesn't seem to make much of a difference
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post #16 of 36
3/26/06 at 12:49pm
I just got my M5500 yesterday. I've got 2GB of Ram, 2.26 processor, 6600 nvidia and the first thing I did was try to play WOW.....

The results were unimpressive. It actually runs smoother on my ThinkPad with the integrated Intel. At some point the avatar jerks and I can't even turn in around in one motion. I'm wondering what's wrong. Could the graphics card's drivers need updating? What is the best resolution setting from the video options display? Is there something else that I need to tweak?

And yes I've got the graphics card turned on. I've already booted it up with the 6600 switched off.
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post #17 of 36
3/26/06 at 2:02pm
Shadowplay - you should be able to run WoW like crazy with those specs. Sounds like it's a driver issue or something else. What res are you playing at? And while I don't think this would do it - do you have the power management settings so it stays at max all the time, or at least automatically switches when it needs to?

Also - have you run 3DMark05 or 06 - that will show if there is anything wrong with your card?
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post #18 of 36
3/26/06 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Shadowplay - you should be able to run WoW like crazy with those specs. Sounds like it's a driver issue or something else. What res are you playing at? And while I don't think this would do it - do you have the power management settings so it stays at max all the time, or at least automatically switches when it needs to?

Also - have you run 3DMark05 or 06 - that will show if there is anything wrong with your card?
Shaz, I'm trying to play at 1600x1200 (wide). I tried the 1920x1200 but since I've installed my anti-virus software, any time I try to access the video options within the game my computer freezes and reboots. What's up with that?
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post #19 of 36
3/26/06 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadowplay
I just got my M5500 yesterday. I've got 2GB of Ram, 2.26 processor, 6600 nvidia and the first thing I did was try to play WOW.....

The results were unimpressive. It actually runs smoother on my ThinkPad with the integrated Intel. At some point the avatar jerks and I can't even turn in around in one motion. I'm wondering what's wrong. Could the graphics card's drivers need updating? What is the best resolution setting from the video options display? Is there something else that I need to tweak?

And yes I've got the graphics card turned on. I've already booted it up with the 6600 switched off.

yea is your power button green when it turns on? that to let you know it is the 6600go on and maybe try updating you drivers...

here for ya drivers
http://www.tweaksrus.com/index.php?o...592&Itemid=41/
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post #20 of 36
3/26/06 at 9:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guntizzle
yea is your power button green when it turns on? that to let you know it is the 6600go on and maybe try updating you drivers...

here for ya drivers
http://www.tweaksrus.com/index.php?o...592&Itemid=41/

My power button is green. I went to the MyHive home page and downloaded the driver associated with the 6600. Before that I installed BF2 and the same thing happened!! I got 5 seconds into the game and it freezes and reboots the machine.

That's two games in a row. Combine this with the dead pixel I have in the center of my screen and I totally feel like I've been had.
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