Frosstbyte

I'm including in this question the full text of the e-mail I sent blizzard, but I'll summarize the point up here if you don't want to read all the crap. Basically WoW just patched and since then I've seen a major drop off in performance from 25-30 FPS to 5-15 FPS (depending on if I'm looking at terrain/NPCs or PCs). blizzard suggested that all users update their video card drivers to alleviate this problem. Unfortunately, I have a laptop so nvidia doesn't support my video card so I can't update my drivers. I tried Omega drivers and those failed to recognize my monitor's correct native resolution or the fact that I actually *have* a video card and just ran off onboard.

i have a GeForce Go 6600 128 MB, just for reference. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what my options are? Am I just out of luck? Thanks.

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Full Text of E-mail Follows (Ignore unless you want all the details):

Since 1.9 I have had a serious drop off in system performance and I am hoping I can find some blue help about what I can do to get better performance.

Pre-1.9 I consistently experienced FPS ranging between 20 and 30 FPS in all zones including IF around the bank and in 40-man instances w/ many mobs (like Razorgore, Broodlord and nef phase 1). My pre-1.9 video settings are as follows:
1920x1200 resolution
24 bit color
60 Hz refresh
Medium terrain distance
low environmental detail
low anisotropic
low terrain texture
high detail
level of detail checked
Enable All Pixel Shaders
(with all subgroups checked)
Vertex animation shaders checked
smooth shading unchecked
hardware cursor and smooth mouse checked
vertical sync checked

Post 1.9 I experience lower frame rates across the board, generally 15-25 FPS and severe drops in FPS near the bank in IF and in 40-man raids to below 10 FPS. Since 1.9 I have changed my video settings from above to:
low spell detail
low texture detail
unchecked terrain highlights
unchecked full-screen glow effect

I should emphasize that the problems I'm seeing with FPS *only*occur when I'm looking at other players. In the middle of nowhere with only mobs and terrain I experience 25-30 FPS consistently. Since I turned my settings down, I've seen sustained 35-40 FPS times, but if I turned around and saw a raid group, it'd come to a screeching halt with 5-6 FPS. My group FPS has not improved in any meaningful way since I turned down my settings.

I have a voodooPC Envy 522:u laptop with Windows XP Professional. I have 1 GIG of RAM, a 2.00 Pentium M processor and an nVidia GeForce Go 6600 128 MB GPU. I'm running DirectX 9.0(c). I use ctmod, ctraidassist, titan bar, nurfed HUD, mobinfo2, tipbuddy, a nerfarian drakonid counter, weaponswap and a nefarian warning system.

I have tried installing the official nVidia updated drivers to no avaial. I also tried installing the Omega drivers, which failed to recognize my hardware configuration and neither recognized my monitor's correct native resolution nor the fact that I have a video card.

It is still possible for me to play, but it is not nearly as pleasant or pretty as it was before 1.9. I am hoping someone (blue or otherwise) can give me some advice about what's causing the problem or what I can do to fix the problem so I don't continue to experience these performance issues.

Thank you very much in advance.

feelgood

I've never played WoW or even have played any gaming on my laptop. So, have you done research into issues specifically relating to patch 1.9 and nvidia's brand of video card?

For now, you should reduce the resource demand on the video card including lowering resolution, turning anti-aliasing, etc etc. That way, you can continue to game before someone post an answer ot your question.

sailor

Ugh, good luck getting any response from Blizzard. Their horrible customer service and uncanny ability to just ignore any problems are a big part of why I stopped playing WoW.

For the time being, do like FeelGood said, not much else I can suggest

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

feelgood

Considering the world of "big corporate-mofos" with bad customer service like bizzard, often the best strategy to resolve issues is research. Look through bizzard's forum or other WOW related forums, look at nvidia's website, tinker around, etc.

Sorry I'm a bad help for you