The problem I'm having:

I encounter random low FPS areas. It seems to be directly related to these things after extensive testing:

*Terrain Distance
*Ground Clutter Detail
*Ground Clutter Radius
*Ground Clutter Density

If I stand in Ironforge and look down the hall (across the lava pit) outside of the Hall of Arms, my PC crawls down to 16 - 19 FPS. If I turn around and look inside the Hall of Arms, I jump up around 40 - 50 FPS. This is with all settings turned up to their highest, also AA at 4x and AF on the 2nd notch.

If I look down the same hall and lower the above mentioned settings (terrain distance, ground clutter detail, etc.) I can get up to 29 - 30 fps. This is with Vsync OFF, by the way.

Another problem area is Darkshire. If I'm out there with all my settings turned up, I get 15 - 25 fps at most. However if I turn all 4 of the mentioned options down to their lowest, suddenly I'm capped at 59 - 60 fps if I have Vsync on. So I feel obviously that something in my system is directly related to these settings, and either not powerful enough or something of the sort.

Here are my system specs:
750 watt PSU with 1 60amp 12v rail
*AMD 64 X2 6000
*2 gb of RAM (g.skill)
*8800GT 512mb 256-bit (also have tested with a 9500GT, SAME EXACT FPS in the same spots!)
*320 Western Digital SATA drive

I am at my wit's end on this one. I've swapped my CPU, GPU, and PSU all to no avail. I've tried about 6 different driver sets for my Nvidia card, and am currently just using the latest for the 9500GT as that runs exactly the same as any other I tried (I did most of my testing with the 8800GT since it is the more powerful card).

I have a laptop with a 9500GS, 3gb of ram, and an Intel 2.56ghz with 3mb cache, and it runs WoW capped at 60 FPS flawlessly in these places I mentioned. Plus the Laptop is running Vista 32. My desktop is running XP Pro, however I'm running Vista Home Premium on the desktop on another drive with WoW installed and am having the exact same problem, exact same FPS, in the exact same places.

So it is DEFINITELY system related somehow. I don't know what the heck is going on, and I'm really fed up with it. I don't want to buy a whole other PC just to play WoW, as my system should be WAY more than needed. I used to run WoW on a 2.8ghz P4, 2gb ram, and an ATI x850 Platinum card capped at 60 FPS almost everywhere. So something is definitely NOT right but I haven't a clue as to what it is and I'm really frustrated at this point.

Some other stuff I've tried that has not helped (I'll try to be thorough):
*Reloading Windows (both Vista and XP)
*Cleared out all Add-Ons
*Deleted WTF/Cache/whatever else folders
*Checked my cooling (everything's within good temp ranges, cooler than average actually)

Also - if I adjust my AA and AF from highest to lowest settings, I get exactly the same FPS. So AA and AF do not effect the FPS at all. Also the screen resolution does not effect the problem. I get the same FPS in the problem areas whether I'm running 800x600 or 1440x900. No change at all.

ANY ideas anyone? I have nothing else to try. :(

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--Rav

Hi Braille,

It sounds like either the processor or another device is capping your framerate. Try checking the System Performance Guide sticky and check the throttling and overheating sections. Grab Process Explorer and RMClock from those sections and run them alongside the game. What's everything doing? _____System Performance Guide

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Tech Support
IsAbsolutePath/path is not absolute
How did I do? https://www.surveymk.com/s.aspx?sm=0o9_2bN8NdNe5k1ArM6eRbqg_3d_3d

Well one way to look at it is:

1. P4's don't really throttle or go into power save mode unless it's overheating.
2. Your laptop has EIST but it's not kicking in or doesn't feel like kicking in, especially if it's plugged in.
3. AMD Cool and Quiet could be kicking in. It's defaulted to ON anyways.

My older Athlon 64 X2 5600+ system with an 7800GT matches your other systems in performance. I don't see why your current one can't.

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Tech Support
IsAbsolutePath/path is not absolute
How did I do? https://www.surveymk.com/s.aspx?sm=0o9_2bN8NdNe5k1ArM6eRbqg_3d_3d

I haven't seen an HT Link going under 800MHz so this is pretty new. What happens if you did something like resetting your BIOS or update it?

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Tech Support
IsAbsolutePath/path is not absolute
How did I do? https://www.surveymk.com/s.aspx?sm=0o9_2bN8NdNe5k1ArM6eRbqg_3d_3d