Crappy framerate with WoW

So I've been running WoW on fullscreen without problems for a few weeks now, and it's been going at a nice 40FPS or so. Today, for some inexplicable reason, the game suddenly starts chunking every couple of seconds or so and basically becomes unplayable. I've checked the power settings and it's on high performance, optimal performance for graphics settings, and I've twiddled with all the options in the Catalyst Control Center. My question is, how did this happen, and are there any graphics settings that I didn't think of adjusting?

Here's some info about my system:
Asus f3jp
Vista, 32 bit
2Mb RAM

Thanks in advance

 

Seems like more of a gaming/video issue than an Asus problem. As to why the game is "chunking", maybe your virus scanner is running. Disable powerplay entirely. Did you install new drivers lately? Maybe revert to the older drivers instead.

 

Its because you have 2Mb ram.


Seriously, it might be the server.

 

WoW Servers have a tendency to become chunky when it approaches Tuesday. Check if the backround downloader is running or not, that ****s with the system.

 

Background downloader isn't running, and I checked to make sure that the power options for the graphics card was set to "optimal performance" and not "balanced" or "optimal battery life". I reinstalled the drivers for my video card but that didn't make any difference. I also don't have any virus scanner running in the background.

I did install a wireless router recently so I could play at home, but I managed to play for a few hours after installing the router and it ran fine. It was only the next day that it started acting up.

I am wondering if it's some mysterious quirk in windows vista, or in CCC or graphics card drivers, or even with the power options. I don't think it's WoW because I'm getting a reasonable 100-200ms latency and the system requirements for the game itself aren't that demanding by today's standards. I also don't think it's a problem with lag on Blizzard's servers because that kind of lag produces different effects from what I'm experiencing.

 

Maybe someone is jumping onto your wireless network and eating up your bandwidth... I am not trying to say that you didn't protect your network or anything, but I hear it is common....

 

I don't think anyone's hijacking my bandwidth; besides, I brought my laptop to work and plugged it into the network there and got the same problem.

One thing I notice is that the framerate follows an almost perfect sinewave function with a period of about 5 seconds; so every 5 seconds it cycles from about 60 FPS to 15 and then back to 60 again. This cycle was independent of whatever I had on the screen, whether I was facing a blank wall in the game, or a large scene with many objects in my view.

I am now extremely curious what could be causing my computer to do this.

 

It could also be your drivers, most graphic drivers are not stable for vista yet.

 

This is the second time I read this thread and every time I do Kaspersky Internet Security warns of a Phishing attack. The address it reports is the following: http://members.lycos.co.uk/rhcpcrony/asusw3j.jpg. WTF is one of you guys doing?

 

rhcpcrony's name is in the url for the picture! A phishing site is a site that disguises itself as a trusted site in hopes of gathering some sensitive information from you. I bet lycos is just trying to figure out where the picture is being used or maybe the picture is infected with some type of virus.

 

New patch is around 390MB, that will be eating some bandwidth, depends how you have that set as well, there is an option "not" to throttle the background downloader which would make a big difference in playability, however saying that in your case sounds like a process running in the background somewhere.

 

your Kaspersky Internet Security is junk.

 

A few things regarding your answer:
1. I didn't attack anyone, just reported a potential problem that could be occuring.
2. If you're the one that's causing that problem (which I knew but didn't want to start flamming anyone), it should be your obligation to check if everyting is correct from your part. Posting "your Kaspersky Internet Security is junk" doesn't help. Does it help if I say that your jpg is junk? Don't think so.
3. I never had any problem with KIS before and it comes listed as one of the best anti-virus/anti-spyware/etc suites available on several tests (google it and find your answer). This means that, if a threat is detected by KIS I would trust in the software not on "your Kaspersky Internet Security is junk" that comes from someone I don't know.

 

I agree with rhcpcrony, KIS is being stupid.

 

Sorry didnt mean to sound like that.
But, 1) My link is not malicious 2) Im only using lycos to host my image and 3) nobody else has that problem.

It happens dude, programs act up sometimes...

 

So if there's another process running quietly in the background somewhere and hogging my processor, how do I find it? Will it show up in the task manager?

 

I have a F3JP and am getting anywhere from 80-140fps in WoW. But I did scrap Vista and load XP instead. I am also using the x1700 drivers from the Asus site dated 9/06. I also upgraded to 2GB of ram. Chances are its Vista that is causing your problems. The video drivers are terrible (both ATI & nVidia). I was using Vista on my desktop with a 9700gs and was getting 15-25fps in WoW. Once I went back to XP, I was getting 60+fps.

 

Ctrl-Alt-Del, look in the Processes tab. Check the cpu usage column on the right side for any obvious offenders running at high %, and you can start backtracking from there. This trick is unlikely to work while you're running WoW, however, so if it's something about the software or patch then it's a software problem you won't find and everything when your pc at idle will be normal.

You can also try looking in the startup processes, found in msconfig.exe (Run this from start menu); this gives you a list of the background programs that could be eating cpu cycles too.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll give those a try.

What really irks me is that I had WoW running PERFECTLY since a week after getting this laptop, and then all of a sudden a few days ago this happens. Maybe it is a background downloader or some random program that just got installed.

 

hmm... so I checked the processes, there's one process called WmiPrvSE.exe, listed under the user name "Network Service" that is using up CPU resources.

What is more, it is cycling from 0% to about 50% of CPU usage and then back again to 0% every 5 seconds, which is exactly the frequency of my FPS fluctuations in WoW

Now, is it possible to change the settings of this process so it doesn't mess with my CPU the way it is now?

 

According to Google, the process appears to be a core XP file that manages service access and such. However, there can be problems depending on where it might be installed, as some malware installations might activate a copy. See here for a more complete description, or just enter the processs name in google for other hits.

From your description of recent onset timing, sounds like that might have been what happened to you. You could try a System Restore back to a time prior to start of this problem for you - that might be a simple fix.

 

I turned off system restore. I suspect it may be caused because I recently installed a wireless router, and I ran into some trouble installing it so I called the helpdesk (Linksys) and they told me to do a bunch of stuff and that may have caused the process to act like this. That's my suspicion, because the process is listed as having been started by "Network Services" in the task manager.

 

The tedious way I do things with my super hot (temperature wise) laptop is to ctrl-alt-del and end the process tree for explorer.exe (of course closing sensitive aps, and my anti-virus/firewall [somehow, I don't know how they do it] run without explorer) and use all of my possible system resources for the games that I play.