6800GO and World of Warcraft issue

Hey everyone. So I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a nvidia geforce go 6800. I recently started playing WoW, and at the beginning it ran great. I was at a constant 65FPS. As of recently, my FPS has been getting really really bad spikes. For example, when I enter populated areas with 10+ more other people on the screen, my frames go all the way down to 10FPS, and even worse, when I enter big cities I'm down to 1-2FPS. Now at the beggining I ran all setting on default, and now I'm running all setting on as low as possible and its worse. When I'm standing still in an empty field, my FPS is 65+. Sometimes as I'm traveling around my frames will spike up and down from 14 to 60. Overheating can't be an issue, because my computer can turned off, and as soon as I log into the game it happens. I've also installed the new drivers from laptopvideo and I've also turned all UI mods off. None of these seem to fix my problem. Is this type of frame rate normal for the 6800? With everything set to as low as possible, what else can I do to improve this?

Edit: Heres the rig details

Dell Inspiron 9300
Intel Pentium M 1.7ghz
Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 256DDR
512MB DDR2 Ram
40GB Samsung 5400RPM HD

 

If I'm reading you correctly, this is symptomatic of a low amount of RAM.

World of Warcraft is a RAM hog and runs best with a full 1GB, and whether or not that really is the source of your trouble, upgrading your RAM will improve your World of Warcraft performance.

 

I've read around here and everyone running the Geforce Go 6800 is running World of warcraft on max settings at high resolutions flawlessly. I'm running it on as low as possible. So you think just by upping my ram, WoW will run like everyone elses?

 

512 is very small on a gaming lappy, the reason why it might have run well at first is you had less programs installed and running, Try shutting anything that uses large amounts of ram off then run WoW

 

I can walk into IF at peak hours and still get 30-40 fps with highest settings (but no aa). This is only with a 6600go. I think doubling your ram will improve performance by a lot.

 

you definitely need more ram...it wont spike as much, and it will be faster overall..and you wont stutter as much when entering new places/raids..etc...

pb,out.

 

It doesn't sound like a RAM problem to me. Wow does run best on 1GB+ though. It would be wise to upgrade. But if you were running it fine @ 60FPS and now its down to like 10 there is a big problem. I'm not really sure what you should do. If all else fails you can re-install the game, then re-install and update your graphics card drivers. Another thing to make sure of is that you don't have a ton of spyware or adaware hogging up your system resources.

 

I have a I9300...specs in sig. I run the game on 1440x900 resolution with all settings maxed and I get 60+FPS...I drop in IF, but that is because there are so many people.

It is a RAM problem because that is how people get rendered, they are put into RAM for the time before they are rendered. I would definently upgrade the RAM, I noticed a big difference in populated areas when I upgraded from 1GB to 2GB of RAM.

Hope this helps.

 

Wow thanks for the quick response everyone. Very helpful. Well I guess my only choice now is to upgrade my ram. Has anyone done that before on the 9300?

 

It is easy...the panel is in the middle on the bottom of the laptop I believe it is held by 2 screws. Once you open the panel you just move the silver tabs and take out the old ram and put in the new stuff. It is actually really easy.

Hope this helps.

 

Alright well thanks everyone. I appreciate the help a lot. So I guess now I'm out memory shopping.

 

i recommend OCZ ram. never had any trouble with any of the 3 sets i have used.

pb,out.

 

Seconding OCZ memory. I have had two sticks of it in my laptop for about four months now, and it's running flawlessly. The quality of the chip itself is higher than your average brand by a good amount, say, Transcend.

 

Dropping to 1-2 fps does not sound like a ram problem to me.

Could be a driver issue, try another driver for your 6800.

 

We're helping him buy memory, Mike.

Chaz

 

he said he went from 65+ fps, and dropped TO 1-2 fps..dropping by 1-2 fps is fine, but dropping from 65+ -> 1-2 is a huge loss.. and in this case, it is most likely a ram issue.

pb,out.

 

I had a friend test out WoW on my ASUS Z81sp with 1GB of ram with a 6800 Go and it handled it without any problems. he ran it at max settings without any issues.

 

for any game that is out right now, 1gb is bare minimum i would play with...2gb being ideal (seems like it still isnt enough while playing oblivion with very high settings)

pb,out.

 

Ooooo, I wanna try out this oblivion. Graphics look great. Probably run it on my desktop since my laptop wont be up to the challenge.