Choppiness suggestions?Follow

SOunds like either your HD or RAM is in need of some repair, I'm no computer wiz so you may want to get a second oppinion :P
I sugegst you run some program that can check if they're broken tho, I had similar problem and it turned out my HD was broken.

I would say latency, but I doubt that. Possibly RAM, which would suck since you bought an alienware, which would be my guess. This game is pretty RAM intensive imo, mostly due to the no zone lines and amount of data for backgrounds and all.

A good way to test this would be to turn the graphics down to, well, zilch. If you still get choppiness then it could be your hard drive, but unless you did something to it I fail to see how such a new PC could have something wrong with that.

If you get no, or very little choppiness, then you need more ram.

Mind if I ask what the specs are of your PC as far as RAM and CPU go? Though I doubt CPU is even in question here.


NOTE: When I said "I fail to see how..." I was referring to the fact that, I assume, the PC has run fine for the last 3months then this started when she (I assume she with the "Princess") got WoW.

That is definatly your computer. It is accessing the hard drive excessively causing the choppy play you describe. A few soultions.

1) MORE RAM- having at least 512 megs is needed, shoot for 1 gig.

2) Turn off background programs.. these use up your exsisting RAM.

3) Try turning down some options.

It really sounds like it is having to load new textures from the HD and this is what slows you down.

I doubt it is the ram, I have run a memory checker for that overnight several times never an issue. It is most likely an issue with the graphics card IMO, because it does it across the board, on other games like FFXI and Warcraft 3 as well.

I am thinking there will be a new driver from Nvidia soon since their last driver fixed the crashing every 15-30 minute issue that forced me to restart. I did not skimp on this pc, I had it built by Alienware because they have a great repuation for building gaming machines.

As to the specs:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/2/2004, 15:36:26
Machine name: VYGERV
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: alienware
System Model: alienware
BIOS: BIOS Date: 04/02/04 13:33:00 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 242MB used, 2218MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: None
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0333&SUBSYS_194E270F&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: NEC MultiSync FE991SB
Monitor Max Res: 1792,1344
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6693 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/29/2004 16:50:00, 3736704 bytes

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B800]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_20021102&REV_04
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0444 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 6/23/2004 17:36:20, 371376 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 4000, 192000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 64, 62
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 64, 62
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: Yes
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
Sound Test Result: Not run

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B800]
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0444 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 6/23/2004 17:36:20, 371376 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x41
Format Flags: 0xFFF

i have a similar problem. when ever i enter town or a large group of people is running around me my frames per second drops to like 3 or so. i have been told the game would run slow because i only have 248 mb of ram(i suppose i have 256 and 8 of them are being used by something else? i just know when i check my system specs it said 248.) i am going to get some more ram tonight to add to my pc because it makes fights with horde members in large groups impossible. i had planned on upgrading to 512, but after reading this i may be upgrading to even more.

that 8 megs is most likely being used by your video card. is it an onboard card. meaning its not in a slot?

Have you tried running any benchmark programs, especially the ones that test the video. I think 3dmark is one that is usually used but I haven't run any in a while. You should run them and make sure that your system is scoring up to par with other systems in your hardware range. That is obviously an awesome computer so you shouldn't be having any problems getting good scores on the benchmarks.

If you get good benchmarks then it is probably something related to WoW specifically.
Have you tried tweaking the various resolutions/refresh rates in the game? I noticed that some resolutions caused a lot of lag, while others(if even they were a better resolution) would be a lot smoother. I think I run mine at 1600x1200 at 75 Hz which seemed a lot better than 72 Hz or 85 Hz.

Checking to make sure your harddrive isn't fragmented isn't a terrible idea even though it is a new machine. I'm assuming you got a fat hard drive to match the computer, so you shouldn't be running low on space, but if you are, that could also be causing problems.

When the game starts slowing down have you tried alt-tabbing out and making sure there isn't another process eating up your memory/cpu?

Just a few things to try. Problems as vague as this can be very difficult to troubleshoot on a windows system.

During the choppiness in the game, do you notice a lot of activity from your HDD? If that's the case, maybe your page file is too large. I would try to see how much memory are used during the choppiness on your memory and page file.

I set mine to 500min - 500max that way it's always the same block of area that it uses. That minimize the fragmentation on your HDD.

I also set a defrag schedule to run every 1st monday of the month.

I don't think this is anything to do with the PC.
I'm pretty sure its a database hiccup. I get the same
symptom on my PC and the HDD isn't hammering away, nor
is the video, RAM, etc struggling to keep up.

This isn't about jerky play, low frame rate, etc, its
about the game stopping dead for 30 seconds, and then
suddenly telling you that your character has died.

I'm hoping that as characters migrate to less crowded
servers and Bliz learn more about database performance
optimisation, this will happen less and less.

The only thing I don't understand though, is that the last
time it happened to me, was at 3am eastern central time,
which I thought was late enough that most other ppl should
have gone to bed. Hence should have been no lag.

Take Care,
Cherreia.