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Wes · Mar 30, 2006, 02:32 PM

I'm considering upgrading the graphics card in my G5 (dual 2.0, 1.5 gig RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro 128). I was simply wondering if an upgrade would be worth my while? I currently average about 30-35 fps when outdoors, 25-ish in cities, and 15-20 ish in large scale pvp.

As I mainly PvP I would like the highest framerate I can get. I've been looking at the x800 as a possible card, but would like advice.

Would I see much of an improvment? Or is WoW more bound by my CPU speed?

(P.S. running at 1680x1050 resolution)

zerostar · Mar 30, 2006, 02:47 PM

Strange I am getting at least 40/45 fps in any area, I am running a dual 2.0 with a radeon 9800 pro 256 and 4GB Ram.

I am also using a WD Raptor hard drive, not sure is that makes any difference besides load time.

That said, I would think your fps will double using an x800, and I think a dual 2.0 will push it just fine. that is my opion though, perhaps someone who knows will chime in.

Wes · Mar 30, 2006, 03:04 PM

I have most my options turned "high-ish". With terrain distance being around 70%. Are you running with low settings?

Oh, I should add that I'm running at 1680x1050. That could be it.

Leonard · Mar 30, 2006, 03:11 PM

Zerostar, are you running at 1680 x 1050 like Wes? It could also be another graphics parm that he has set higher than you.

I'd agree with Zerostar, you would definitely benefit in switching to a Radeon X800XT. The Radeon X800XT is made for any PowerMac G5's. Should definitely help your framerates - not sure if it would double , but it should be close to double depending on what your other graphics parms (FSAA, T&L, shaders, and whatever else WOW allows you to set) are set to.

Chuckit · Mar 30, 2006, 03:39 PM

Wes, do you have the full-screen glow effect turned on? Blizzard has said that's a major FPS-killer.

Wes · Mar 30, 2006, 05:02 PM

Nope. I have most sliders up all the way, terrain texture all the way down. Terrain distance at 70% like I said. Multisampling at the lowest level, and trilinear filtering off.

I have a fair number of ui mods running. But check, rather frequently, my framerate with all of them disabled to make sure none of them are affecting my performance that much.

mhuie · Mar 30, 2006, 07:39 PM

For PVP just turn terrain distance down to around 30-40%. There is no reason to have it that high other than the game looks better, you're not going to see players from farther away.

Wes · Mar 31, 2006, 10:19 PM

Actually don't players start disappearing into the fog when the distance is around 30%? I was trying it out in AB the other night. And when its all the way down you can't see the farm from the LM (at all). Around 50% you seemed to be able to see all the players just fine, but 70% just made everything look sooo much better.

Perhaps they always draw in at the same distance, but they seem to "fade away" sooner if the terrain distance is to low.

Wes · Apr 2, 2006, 06:35 PM

So... is the general feeling that I'll see a marked improvement with the X800? I'd like my fps to constantly be 35 or so. As I find that gameplay is quite a bit more enjoyable.

a2daj · Apr 4, 2006, 12:38 AM

Try turning your terrain distance to 30-50% first to see if your average performance increases. The terrain distance is typically CPU bound, particularly on Macs. Getting an X800 won't necessarily help in situations where the CPU is the limiting factor.

Wes · Apr 4, 2006, 03:49 AM

My fps does see a rather significant jump when I lower the terrain distance (its easily the biggest factor in my fps). I'm guessing that isn't a good sign?

I do wonder, people are always saying how great their G5 plays WoW, are they all just lying?

And where did you find this "CPU-bound" information? I was hunting for whatever info I could find on the subject but couldn't find anything.

a2daj · 03:50 PM

It's what we in the industry (still trying to figure out what industry that is) call Subjective Information, aka, an opinion.

I know my G5 plays WoW great because it suits my needs. I wouldn't say I'm lying. but what I deem 'great' is going to be different than someone else's.

In regards to the CPU-bound information and Texture Distance, it's the type of information you could deduce if you keep track of that stuff (or get the information straight from the developer

). For a dynamically loading engine the more stuff that's being seen, the more that has to be loaded and processed before sending to the card. The amount of data that gets processed increases exponentially as you increase the view distance since what you see is essentially a cone and not a tunnel.

jamil5454 · Apr 4, 2006, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by a2daj

It's what we in the industry (still trying to figure out what industry that is) call Subjective Information, aka, an opinion.

I know my G5 plays WoW great because it suits my needs. I wouldn't say I'm lying. but what I deem 'great' is going to be different than someone else's.

In regards to the CPU-bound information and Texture Distance, it's the type of information you could deduce if you keep track of that stuff (or get the information straight from the developer

). For a dynamically loading engine the more stuff that's being seen, the more that has to be loaded and processed before sending to the card. The amount of data that gets processed increases exponentially as you increase the view distance since what you see is essentially a cone and not a tunnel.

But, at the same time, the card still has to render what is seen. I would say the video card is the bottleneck in this scenario.

a2daj · Apr 5, 2006, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

But, at the same time, the card still has to render what is seen. I would say the video card is the bottleneck in this scenario.

I see the same type of performance drop in my Dual 2.5 with a Radeon X800. Drop the resolution and increase the texture distance. I see the performance drop just the same as at higher resolutions.

mhuie · Apr 12, 2006, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Wes

My fps does see a rather significant jump when I lower the terrain distance (its easily the biggest factor in my fps). I'm guessing that isn't a good sign?

I do wonder, people are always saying how great their G5 plays WoW, are they all just lying?

And where did you find this "CPU-bound" information? I was hunting for whatever info I could find on the subject but couldn't find anything.

90% of all Mac gaming threads I see are more about actually getting the game to run, than run at an acceptable speed. (Doom 3 on a Mac mini comes to mind). Seems to me that Mac gamers compromise on performance- probably because the GFX cards cost so much.

I got great performance from WoW on my G5 when i turned the rez down, almost all the options down and color depth down.

Now I just play on my $300 PC, sub $100 gfx card and I run at 1920x1200.