Worse graphic performance from better system?

[lyphe]

Hi guys,

I've been trying to figure out why my wife's computer ( which is better specced than mine ), appears to have worse performance when playing World of Warcraft.

The two issues I'm having are this:

1) WoW recommends settings based on a variety of factors such as gpu, ram, etc. WoW recommends to me that I run the entire game on Ultra ( max ) settings, and I do this with no problem. WoW recommends to my wife that she run all her settings at High ( mid range ). For some reason, it believes she has a less capable computer.

2) Just in case the recommendations were wrong, I tried running her at max settings - but the system was not enjoying it. There was noticeable stutter and it was working hard. It was not able to run it as well as my system can. Here are the two computers we are discussing:


My System

i7 920 Bloomfield @ 2.67ghz
12g DDR3 @ 1066
Windows7 64b
EVGA GTX480 card
WD Velociraptor drive - game dedicated
Monitor - Dell 27" Ultrasharp 2560 x 1440

Her System

i7 [strike]970[/strike] 870 Lynnfield @ 2.93ghz
12g DDR3 @ 1333
Windows7 64b
EVGA GTX580 card
Basic Gateway drive - game dedicated
Monitor - Dell 27" Ultrasharp 2560 x 1440


Things I've tried in order to figure this out are:

- Ensured we both have the most up to date video drivers from nVidia
- Checked drivers for processor and bios
- Confirmed her GPU interface is PCI-Express x 16
- Ensured we are both running the game with DX11 enabled
- Both running game in 64bit mode
- No relevant background programs running that I can see
- v synch is enabled on both systems

The other odd thing is that after running the Windows performance index on both systems, she came back with a lower "memory operations per second" than me, even though she is supposed to have speedier ram. Mine clocked in at 7.6 and she came in at 7.5. Both systems have Samsung ram.

The only thing that stands out to me is her Lynnfield processor (vs) my Bloomfield, but I thought they were supposed to be very close - or at least close enough that I should not see a noticeable difference.

This is a real mystery to me given the GTX580 vs my old gen 480. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Thx in advance,

Phil

 

[akamrcrack]

Windows Experience Index is crap and should never be used to compare a system to another because its buggy and shines zero light on what the actual system performs like.

 

[shamsmu]

so what happens when you actually run WOW maxed out ultra in your wife's computer? does it run well? if it does, then you have nothing to worry about. I couldn't care less about the WEI scores, its as inaccurate as they come. Try running 3dmark11 P-test on both computers and compare the scores http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/download/. Also try heaven 3.0 benchmark(run at maximum settings) http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/

If, somehow, your wife's computer get lower scores in those tests, then let us know so we can run a troubleshoot on your wife's computer.

 

[lyphe]

so what happens when you actually run WOW maxed out ultra in your wife's computer? does it run well? if it does, then you have nothing to worry about. I couldn't care less about the WEI scores, its as inaccurate as they come. Try running 3dmark11 P-test on both computers and compare the scores http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/download/. Also try heaven 3.0 benchmark(run at maximum settings) http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/

If, somehow, your wife's computer get lower scores in those tests, then let us know so we can run a troubleshoot on your wife's computer.

Her computer cannot run wow at the same settings as mine without serious performance loss. There is a noticeable gap in performance between our two systems when playing wow.

 

[shamsmu]

Her computer cannot run wow at the same settings as mine without serious performance loss. There is a noticeable gap in performance between our two systems when playing wow.

I see! sounds like a faulty component in your wife's pc.

What power supplies are you using for both machines?

can you swap the gpus on both system and see what happens?

If you start getting worse results that would mean the gtx 580 is faulty.

 

[lyphe]

i think you mean your wife's PC has a i7-870, not a 970

is she running any mods different then you? perhaps you should try a different benchmark and see if the GTX 580 is running properly. Is it getting enough power?

You are correct - I fixed the op ( should have read 870 ).

How do I check if the unit is actually getting enough power? I know we checked the psu at the time of install to ensure it was big enough - but not sure how to check that the gpu is actually getting all the power it should ...

Also, is there a benchmark that you would suggest to try? I know some are bad and put a strain on the system, but not sure which ...

 

[Sunius]

I suspect an addons, since you never wrote you tried to disable them. They can seriously hinder performance in world of warcraft! Why don't you disable them and tell us whether it helped.

 

[alexander0884]

First of all:

What motherboard do you both use?

You should be aware that the i7 870 and i7 920 are different, and the i7 870 had issues with RAM and PCI 16x lanes due to the design specs.

Naturally, this is the eason you are getting lower scores. You may try probing and adjusting your ram timings in BIOS but I am unsure what your motherboard/chipset is capable off without looking at the specs.

 

[alexander0884]

PS: WoW is a very CPU intensive game, make suer that she is utilising the 870 to its max potential by overclocking etc.

COnsult http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/266502-10-tomshardware

 

[lyphe]

Best answer selected by lyphe.