FPS in WoW

[ApolloIV]

i just built my new rig and just got wow all ready to start playing. well my old pc I really couldn't play in windows mode because my frames would drop crazy low so i always stayed in fullscreen mode when i was doing anything important. well now that i have my new rig i assumed that windows mode would be no problem. when i use windows mode my fps ranges from 56 all the way down to 27, does this sound right? the kicker is that my brother has a 8800gs is his and can run windows mode and be at almost a constant ~50. i have 30 days to decide if i want to keep my 4850, and wondering if it would be a better idea to get my money back and go get an 8800. could i really tweak the card that much in ccc to get it to run a bit better. the 8800 in my brothers is running stock to, no OC to any of the pc.

 

[Squirtis]

well i'm pretty sure the 4850 are better than 8800, maybe shoot for a 9800?

what OSs are you guys running and how much ram yall have?

 

[Preacher]

Apollo , don't listen to the above poster.
My X1900XT plays is at about 170 FPS , so just start changing setting and all the regular maintenance stuff, no hardware change is necessary.

 

[KSoD]

Preacher is right. What are your other specs? What else are you running? Could be that you have so much of your resources put to other tasks that running in Windowed mode is a drain.

 

[Squirtis]

hey i never said he needed to get a new card. i was just suggesting if he was, i think the 4850 is already better than a 8800.

to run wow you should be fine, i can run wow and cod4 at the same time at full settings at 60 fps on my 8800.

but i'm wondering what OS you're using cuz i'm pretty sure they handle windowed mode differently, like i'm pretty sure vista and xp have differences in how they handle windowed mode. also it might be ram, like i had previously suggested.

and i'd make sure all your drivers are updated, and your direct x has the latest SDK files.

*edit* just noticed your sig. says you have 4 gigs of ram, which makes me think you're running vista 64...i have the same setup and i would try out my wow in windowed mode and see if the same thing is happening but my account isn't active right now :/ sorry.

 

[Akubane]

yeah thats a bit odd. doesn't take a whole lot to run wow. with that set-up you should be able to push 50+ at 2650x1600 windowed or not heh.

i run vista64 and play wow windowed. it does drop fps from fullscreen to window but only by about 5-10% ish. The only time it stutters is if i go to the 2nd monitor and click to make that screen active, but that's just screen focus issue.
but xp or vista you shouldn't have any issues.
you run two screens like i described above, or is it just the 1 screen ith a huge fps drop?

 

[ApolloIV]

i'm running xp pro, havent gotten vista yet, kinda leaning towards not getting it. i'm running whats in my sig and hes running a intel dual core at 1.4 with 2gb of ram. also just noticed that my card at ideal is at 68 degrees?

oh also we both usually run a media player, firefox, ventrilo, and an IM program, so nothing to major

 

[wafflehammer]

what size monitor do you guys have?

 

[ApolloIV]

well he has a 22" and i have a 19". also i just adjusted my fan speed so it's running a lot cooler now so i think that might have been part of the problem also.

 

[wafflehammer]

do you have speedstepping on?