How to Increase World of Warcraft FPS on Windows XP or Vista
I am addicted to World of Warcraft. There. I said it. My problem? I play on a laptop and it’s a piece of crap. The desktop at my parent’s house is not much better. Im lucky if I can pull 10FPS, and in 25man raids it goes as low as 4 sometimes making gameplay almost impossible. I have chosen not to participate in 25 man or 40 man raids due to the lag issues.
One of the reasons the gameplay and FPS (Frames Per Second) are so horrible is due to the number of applications and programs I have installed on my computer. I remember when my laptop was new, the game ran pretty fast; still not amazing because I use an on-board video card, but it was definitely playable. As time goes on you load your computer up with crap on a daily basis which ultimately slows down your machine.
Last night I thought of something brilliant and I plan to share with you a method that will show you how to increase your World of Warcraft FPS without having to buy any new hardware or software.
How To: WOW FPS
Create a new User Account in Windows.
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I know you were all expecting some lengthy list of instructions but really, that’s it. All you need to do is create a new User Account in Windows. On that User Account you will install nothing but Warcraft. This way when you want to play WOW you log off of your main profile, and log in to the new one. The least amount of programs and applications will be loaded into memory leaving the majority of your resources for gaming.
The above method is the cheap man’s way to get better perfromance on a crappy computer for World of Warcraft.
Do not get into the habit of browsing or installing anything on this profile or you’ll just end up back where you were before.
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“I am addicted to World of Warcraft. There. I said it.”
- Finally, you admit it!!
That’s a good start, you should take it a step further though and shut down other things that run in the background. IE, sync software, curse client, anything else you have running in the background (and was installed by an admin so it runs no matter the user.)
I’ve had some luck with Game Booster for the uninitiated.
thanks for the tip. I ‘ll check it out. I also found that if you are using Windows Vista, then go out and buy a 4Gig USB key and plug it in. Windows Vista has a feature called Ready Boost which uses the space on the USB drive as an extra cache. This increased my fps by another 10 or so
to shut down stuff in the background to go start>run and type ‘msconfig’. go to the ‘startup’ tab and shut down everything in there that looks unfamiliiar. honestly uncheck EVERYTHINg (except the obvious stuff like virus cleaner or firewall). Then, when something doesnt work ill go back in and look for it and check the box so it turns on when your computer boots.
-this doesnt uninstall programs, it just prevents all that extra crap from running in the background.
ive usually noticed like 30% speed increase with the cmoputer in general after doing this
I love world of warcraft personlly. I believe its the best mmorpg out there. If any of you play warcraft i found this great site with an amazing guide I just bought it works amazingly, its called Levelingapaladin.com. By the way this is a really great post man. Enjoyed it.
Some excellent information there. Thank You.
Hey great article. Very well written. Specially that part about the accounts. I found a site pretty similar to your. Think it´s more about Leveling up but anyway. Pretty nice site.
Take care
A new hardware profile could help too.
Simple, Precise and to the point. Using another profile is a great way to increase performance with any game. I do have a game profile on machine that all I have is installed are games nothing else loads except the games when I play which is awesome.
Hey, thanks Dan. I’ve been searching for a way to do this. I’m also getting about 12fps and it really sucks. I’m convident your method will work but I think we should both get a better computer.
Is it really easy as that? I have an old and slow laptop myself (plus the plug has a short in it so the battery is always empty) and this might be helpful – thanks!
I love WoW and have played it since day 1.. the only thing that bothered me was the frustrating part of leveling the toons up to the level cap… if you happen to play a warrior by any chance, here’s a warrior guide that cen help you to save some time.
Thanks again, Dan and have fun with the Cataclysm
my old laptop had the same problem. as soon as I unplug the power cord, the batter dies within a few seconds. had to leave it plugged in all the time.
I have a new MBP now and playing at 70-100FPS. Dont know how I played with such low fps before this. it's awesome
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Very great tip Dan for any noobie starting to play wow just want to throw in there that if you are looking for a guide to make game play faster and more fun for you and your friends you should look into my page I found this to be the best around
http://hubpages.com/hub/Horde-Levling-and-Daili...
awesome tip, alot of people talk about going great lengths to enhance performance, but your tip is the most effective. thanks man
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good tip, but going through MSCONFIG and removing startup programs, and clearing out unwanted Services can also improve performance.