WoW and P-6860fx

For those that play WoW on this machine. What is the best driver available for the video card to get the most graphic wise?

 

www.laptopvideo2go.com

Use the latest driver for your OS.

 

Well, I was looking through the site earlier, and I noticed some posters saying X version of driver is better for X game. Is there any truth to this. And what do the new drivers usually provide anyway?

 

I don't know the answer to your question specifically, but I can give you some general information. Typically newer drivers are like updates and patches for games. It fixes bugs/errors, and makes it run more efficiently and better. Most of the time the newest driver for your video card will be the best overall, but sometimes the newest driver is not stable for particular games and you have to roll back to the one before. Hope this helps some. The newest driver for your video card should be ideal.

 

The 177.66 drivers have been pretty solid for me, better than a couple others I've tried. Check this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265740

 

You could use the basic VGA drivers and probably STILL get 30FPS in WoW.

 

Hey... only hard core gamers use the VGA drivers. Stop telling all of our secrets

I use the 175.63 drivers and on the downloaded trial i was floating around 200 fps with everything on the highest setting i could find in the game, I wasn't in a heavy combat environment (as i don't play and was just screwing around on the first mission) but i never dropped below 180 fps. I don't know how that would change with 300 people on screen all trying to kill things, but even then i doubt it would ever drop below 80 fps.

The 6860 is WAY to good a rig to ever worry about WoW. Age of Conan is another beast all together, but WoW is pretty graphics lite even on maxed out settings.

 

Speaking of AoC, I just picked it up for my 6860. Any thoughts before I crack the seal and can't return it?

...now back to your regularly scheduled thread...

 

I don't know many people (real life friends) that liked it enough to stick with it, to be honest. Most went back to WoW, EVE, or EQ. I've not played it myself, though.

 

It should play AoC no problems. Though i would recommend upgrading to the t8300 for a pretty flawless system that will play it no problems on the high settings.

 

I use the ones from Gateway's website. I used the high-detail graphics macro (look it up) and it still runs like a champ.

 

Do not use 177.79 repeat DO NOT USE 177.79. I experienced over a 30fps loss and it was super choppy.

 

Thanks for the tip, I had been trying to update my driver to that today but I'll just wait it out for now. I'm using 175.xx and really haven't had a problem.

 

There is nothing wrong with sticking to what works for you.

 

Thanx! Think I'll stay with my T9300 though...(see below)

"we now return control of your thread to you..."

 

I am confused now reading this thread also. I've made a thread before stating that I hover around 30-50fps no matter what. It even dips down to the low 20's during combat. I understand when you are in a large city or in some of the newer BC areas where there are a lot of enemies and people questing, but not all the time.

Now I mean, it is not unplayable by a long long shot, but it's almost annoying hearing everyone reporting such good frame rates and I'm struggling to get half of what they are getting on the same exact machine. Now I have tried a whole bunch of drivers to no avail. Some may run a little less choppy than others but it's still the same average FPS with little to no variance. Any ideas?

 

Try running a program like 3dmark 06 to get an idea if maybe somethings wrong with your machine and make sure your machine is set to high performance power option which can be found in the right hand corner where that little battery symbol is . You may have already tried all these things or know about everything i mentioned but atleast by testing a synthetic benchmark you can get an idea if something may be wrong.

 

What realm?

 

Did you turn off the v - sync?

 

I'm d/l 3dmark06 right now so we'll see in a few minutes if anything is wrong. I really think I might be missing a driver or something is just wrong in general because I seem to not be getting as good of performance as most of the people I talk to.

 

It posted a result of 6850 marks.

 

Did you disable Vsync in your game options in WOW ? because that will slaughter your framerates when it go's from 60 to 30 fps all the time but you can also enable tripple buffering there to if you want to run vsync on which will try to hold your framerate at a constant 60fps . Just an FYI vsync will make it so your screen doesnt get the tearing effect but it will cap your framerate at 60fps the same as your monitors refresh rate , some people cant handle the screen tearing while others dont mind it me personally i dont ever run it so YMMV.

 

6850 is a solid 3dMark06 score. I like the 177.66 drivers so far. They've offered good performance in WoW (and you get a little bump in 3dMark06).

 

Those are the drivers that I am running currently. Alright, so should I leave VSYNC off and triple buffering off also?

 

V-Sync helps to reduce screen tearing, so that is completely up to you and your performance. I tend to leave them both on just because I hate screen tears (they weren't anything major, just a slight distraction). But that limits your peak FPS to 60 no matter the conditions. But human eyes don't typically register any difference beyond 70 fps, if i recall correctly.

Fraps has been a problem for me in Vista (old version of Fraps is probably the issue) so I haven't been running it lately, but when I tested with V-sync on I varied from about 20 FPS (lagtastic Shat on a busy night) to max of 60 in some zones that are less dense with people and environment. The problem is that 30-50 FPS may be perfectly normal, but a light/heavy night, lower/higher population (I'm on Blackhand, high pop), your ISP server or any other number of factors may be impacting you at any given moment.

To be honest, I think you're more worried than you should be. I think you're fine. But to ease your mind, you should check out your performance with v-sync off and see if screen tearing is even a problem. If it's not, then leave it off. Generally speaking, you should see your peak FPS over 60, but it doesn't mean your overall consistent performance is going to improve to a higher FPS.

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm really not all the worried about it, I just want to make sure that I have re-installed all my drivers and software correctly. I would hate to see my FPS effected because of user error.