Low fps in my mmorpg games

I'm an avid pc gamer (ironically with low tech skills) and last year I upgraded my laptop to an Alienware 17. For the first six or so months I spent my PC time playing World of Warcraft. I could play this game with 60 fps on ultra settings, but after I was bored of WoW's new MOP expansion. I noticed that Rift went f2p and I decided to check it out. When I started playing I put the graphics on ultra, but quickly after I had to turn it down when I realized at best I would get 8 fps, then I tried high with 14 fps, and finally I stuck to medium at 25 fps (with anything involving cpu turned off or low). Now I was okay with this because I could still play the game just had to avoid capital cities. But now the FFXIV mmo is coming out soon and with ever better graphics then Rift i'm really worried the game will be unplayable or stuck on low graphics with everything optional turned off.

Specs:
Model: M17xR4

BIOS: InsydeH20

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60 Hz

Directx Version: Directx 11

Card: Geforce GTX 675m

any suggestions on something I might need to upgrade or anything that's outdated and might be a problem (again I am not very techy)

 

First off welcome to the NBR Alienware forums!!

now down to business. I personally would update your graphics card driver and clean out your air vents. I'm not up to speed on the best current Nvidia driver, so hopefully someone else can pop in with that info.

 

welcome to nbr!

the 675m is basically just a renamed 580m overclocked, based on the older fermi core.. i'd recommend upgrading your video card to see the improvements you're looking for.

 

thx for the help

what gaming card would you recommend in the $200-$350 price range?

 

Well you could go for the 7970m, but that is like in the $400-$450 dollar range.

Try looking at your drivers and such first though. Might help out a little bit.

 

You aren't running on battery are you? I say that because the other day I was and wondered why my 580 was lagging so bad in EQ. I didn't even notice the outlet needed to be reset from a power failure LOL. Suddenly my computer just turned off ( never noticed the low battery alert). I thought I broke it haha. Figured it out,plugged in the PSU and back to 60+ FPS. I love it when problems turn out to be my error

 

Are you absolutely certain that the issue is not with your internet connection or (more likely) the servers that you are playing on? Does WOW still work well on higher settings?
Do you have any standalone games that you can try out and see how well they play?

 

4 main causes for that issue:

Battery mode (make sure it is plugged)
Internet Connection (use any other offline game)
Overheating (check this)
Optimus (check this)