I finally got World of Warcraft and all ancillary patches loaded on my laptop today and I wanted to drop in and report on the difference between the desktop and the laptop on Windows Vista. I expected the laptop to perform better and I was right.
The laptop is a HP Pavilion dv8000 17″ Core Duo. It’s got 1GB Ram, dual 100GB Hard Disks, a nVidia Geforce Go video card with 128MB of dedicated video RAM. I decided to test two scenarios, full screen 1440×900 and windowed mode 1280×728 widescreen.
Full screen on this laptop with Windows XP stayed almost always at 60.0fps pegged. Sometimes it would dip below, but for the most part, that was the norm. With the default video drivers, this dropped down into the 45fps range, sometimes as low as 30 when busy. For good measure, I tried to download the updated Forceware drivers to test these modes with nVidia drivers but had no luck. If anyone out there has a place to get a 32 bit driver for the nVidia GeForce Go 7600 chipset, let me know.
Again, with the default driver, Windowed mode oddly enough performed better. The average frame rate was 50fps. I am sure some is due to drawing the smaller resolution, but in my experience, windowed mode usually performs a little behind full screen. I won’t go into a great deal of detail here other than to say it does perform a lot better on the core duo. The performance is more in line of what I would expect. The first CPU is hitting about 50% load, while the second is running 70% load. The 1GB of RAM is also hitting around 75% usage.
As always the game looks great, and it plays much better than my desktop. I am sure a lot of you more dedicated gamers are running much beefier systems than my desktop and will experience a much better game play than I do. I have an aging video card and processor that really limits the performance. It does however show that Vista itself can perform quite well on a system that is a little older.
i try running WoW on my pc with vista and when ive done the first update for the game it comes up with a error message!!
what should i do?
I am thinking about purchasing a used HP DV8000 with the Turion processor, I just want to make sure that it can play World of Warcraft because I absolutely LOVE that game and since you obviously play and have the laptop I wanted to get your opinion on how well it works on that laptop. Thanks!
well same as the first comment i try to download it on windows vista emachines computer and it comes up with an error message wat do i do to get it to work?
hello,
I just brought a laptop and i have installed and downloaded wow, however when i login to my account it shuts down the whole laptop…. any ideas?
When you install wow on vista, you have to set it up to use permissions… you are not an administrator.. it does not allow you to manipulate every aspect of the OS even though you are in the administrator group… So just go to the file where the dll is trying to install and give yourself full permission to that folder… done
Hey im having some truble download wow… i have windows vista on my laptop i save the file, open it, it has the blizzard downloader and it stays at 0%! can anyone give me ideas? i left in runnoing for 2 days at it didnt change… if anyone knows what i could do e-mail me at: Dylan_John_Fox@hotmail.com thanks
Regarding #5 When you install wow on vista, you have to set it up to use permissions… you are not an administrator.. it does not allow you to manipulate every aspect of the OS even though you are in the administrator group… So just go to the file where the dll is trying to install and give yourself full permission to that folder… done
Can someone tell where to make the dll change so I can grant full permission to that file?
Hi, I just bought an Acer with a Turion 64 2.0GHz 1 Gb RAM and ATI RADEON Xpress 1100 video Card, and Windows Vista Home Premium.
Some people has told me that this video card does not support or “it isnot compatible” with the game World of Warcraft.
Can anyone tell me if the memory card ATI RADEON xpress 1100 has any problem with this game? As far as i know it is a very good video card, designed for th AMD Turion 64.
my luck with vista and warcraft has been bad.the display driver keeps crashing causing the screen to go black randomly.there have been many people with the same problem…..warcraft+vista=trouble&headache
yeah, hardscale i had the same problem and lived with it for a while until i got tired of it. so i went to the wow website check the some post someone left on there and it had a way to fix the black out thing. i did it and it works! but now when i play my comp has a really low frame rate and ive even had it crash, only the game crashed though which was weird.
hey i have a dell inspiron E1505 and i have the same prob with the black out screen it comes up and says your system has halted or w/e and i was wondering if u have to download a patch for WoW for vista because the game did come out before vista…..
i have vistA AND WHEN I DOWNLOAD cd#2 it says it cannot read installertome2.exe what can i do
I bought the Acer with a Turion 64 2.0GHz 1 Gb RAM and ATI RADEON Xpress 1100 video Card in Feb 07 to play.
For the cost, WoW is playable to an extent with an outdoor average of 10-12fps all video settings set LOW @ 1024×786 resolution. In addition, CPU takes a 100% hit with most background applications turned off. I have a separate Hardware Profile to game with and run just the minimum services, etc to load windows and the game.
Laptop runs VERY hot, especially around the touchpad/keyboard area.
If you want to PVP forget about it, theres too much system lag, usually I get less than 10-12 fps in WSG and AB. Its so bad I can’t see my warriors feet moving when I’m running. Even clicking an action button takes the laptop a half second to recognize.
Instances/indoors are more manageable, often getting FPS in the upper 20s.
While the Acer is an overall nice laptop at the cost, the ATE Xpress 1100 is a pretty weak card. Anymore I use the laptop to check AH & farm mats and I really can not recommend this one for WoW.
TO HARDSCALE
I have your same problem… Is their ANY Way to fix it? email me @ happyunicornme@yahoo.com
to get ur wow to work u need to phone costomer services and they will tell u how to download another update to play the game tht wot i had to do
http://www.zappd.com/articles/2007/02/15/fixing-world-of-warcraft-patch-error.php
has the fix…
I’ve been having the same problem as happyme and hardscale, does anyone know how to prevent/solve the random screen blackouts? I can’t PvP and it’s caused me to die while grinding several times, incredibly annoying!
Hey guys. I just purchased a HP Slimline. 400GB HD, 2GB Ram, Athlon 64×2 dual core +5000, Nvidia 6150 GeForce vid card, and Vista Home Pre. The frame rate runs about 25FPS in IF and other places. When i get to OUTLANDs it hovers around 15. I’ve turned down the video settings. Is it my video card causing the trouble or Vista. I’m about tired of it running so slow. I’m not about wiping the hard drive and installing windows XP. My much older laptop runs way smoother…. Also do you guys know if the slimline takes a regular size video card. Maybe i can just replace it?
Joe, your PC is good, one thing letting you down… your Video card.
I think the slimline could fit some cards in… nothing too special though.
I only have a geforce 7500 le myself and run about 48-63 anywhere, but in citys packed about 35-45… After loads of vista tweaking that is.
Now, here’s some quick tips to up that FPS. Take off specualar lighting, and full screen glow affect under the WoW video options.
Right click your WoW icon, click the compatibility tab, check the box to run it in XP SP2 mode, And tick the box to disable visual themes and desktop composition. And check the box to run the program as Administrator (all under the same tab [compatibility].
Please note when you start up WoW (if you check the box to run as Admin’) you’ll get a message saying continue or cancel, one of the annoying vista things you get whenever you open WoW now.
But it’ll help a lot.
I hope this helps you Joe, and anyone else.
-Geoff
Justin I have the same laptop as you, and it’s fine WHEN YOU’RE NOT GAMING! This video card is just HORRIBLE for WOW (world of warcraft) I am generally at 8 FPS. my highest frames per second is around 20 .. even when I’m at 20 fps it lasts seriously, 6 seconds before it drops down to 2fps. It looks like I’m lagging to everyone else when I run. You’re right. Forget about PVPing.
I really hate my laptop now.
no wow= me sad.
i downloaded the ten day free trial for w.o.w. i have a dell inspiron with windows vista home premium and the built in video card. it works really well. but will this change when i buy the game and install the discs?
stewart » I wouldn’t think so, it’s the same game. Party on!
Ok for all you Vista users with only 1gb of ram. Vista is a RAM Hog. I am running a 2.8ghz Athalon+64 Duel Core, 4 gigs of ram, 2 320gb hard drives, and 2 EVGA 512mb 8600 gts (using SLI of course) and running Vista Ultimate. Vista just running the OS no programs uses about 25% of my ram (1 gb). So try installing some more ram, or Install xp. AS for frame rates outlands has alot more stuff going on (As the area is entirely rendered, opposed to Azeroth which is only partailly rendered). on a 256mb Ati crap Graphics card from a local store (office max, Walmart) and 2gb of ram , 2ghz Athalon running Xp Pro i get arround 25 fps in outland and 55ish in Azeroth.
There is also an addon out there called Framerate Adjuster. it will adjust your frame rate and settings automatically so you will have more consistant performance (it trys to keep you at 25fps or higher) Hope it helps
lilloki2000 » Ok, that’s not exactly fair. Windows Vista, like XP and Mac OS X, use is relevant to how much is installed, a 1GB machine would not use 1GB for the OS obviously. If you have 4GB then you have more used, but with proper drivers, I can get 30+fps on a core 2 duo laptop with 2GB ram and a geforce go 7600 video.
ive just got a pressarion v6500 2gb ram 1.9GHz amd turion 64 x 2. GeForce 7150m running vista home. Cant get more than single figure fps. Tryed everything ive read on every forum and nothing works. I dont know much about computers so if anybody sees anything in my spec above or has any ideas, let me know..thanx
I really need help, There is no problem with me downloading World of Warcraft(first version) but when I put in the Burning Crusades 1st disc it doesnt say Install Burning Crusades, instead it just says play, When i click play nothing happens. CAN SOMONE PLEASE HELP.
Email me at : stick_it_in@hotmail.com
Hey guys i need some help. I just went out and bought a stock ///compaq Sr5410f pentium dual-core e2160 (1.8ghz), with 1GB of Ram, and 320 gb of hard drive memory, Windows Vista home premium/// i know this computer is prolly lame to a lot of people haha but i just wanted the comptuer for important stuff like work and shit, but i would wana play wow sometimes, and other games like guild wars and what not. so i was wondering if my comp is capable of playing wow. im assuming the core duo is differnt from my intel dual-core, so is my dual core 1.8ghz a peice of crap? this comp seems to be running kinda slow, so im having doubts of even wasting my time to see if wow will run. and if i want to make this computer run really smooth, even when playing games liek wow, is all i need is a better graphics card and like one more gb of ram? im so confused.
i had the same problem as alot, i just baught a computer from newegg.com its manufactured by cyberpower and its got an AMD athlon(tm) 64 x2 dual core processor 6000+ 3.02 GHz 2 gb’s of ram. windows vista gave me an error message when i finished downloading WOW, then vista said it failed but wanted to know if it should restart with settings it thaught would work so i said yes… and it worked
works for me… lol.
hope this helps
hey guys. I’ve got a Dell Inspiron E1505 with vista. 2gb of ram, 1.73 duo core processor, and ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 video card running on Vista. I could run WoW perfectly fine for maybe 3 months. After that, my computer started to do something weird. Every 20-30 minutes or so, my screen would blink while I played, and I would drop about 10-20 fps (from 40 or so to 15-20 fps). After another 20-30 minutes, the screen would blink again and the framerate would go back to normal. Anyone have any solution to this? Could it be because my laptop is overheating? It seems to run really really hot sometimes.
Thanks!
i have vista and i place the first cd in the drive and it just brings up 2 files on the screen no installer , i try to click the installer file but i carnt ?
Im going to Nuy a laptop And i was thinking what should i get Vista or XP home this is the laptops spec
Screen 15.4″ WXGA X-Brite 1280 x 800 TFT Screen
Processor Intel T5550 Dual Core Mobile 2MB Cache Processor
Processor Speed 2 x 1.83GHz
Memory 2GB DDR2 667MHz Memory
Hard Drive 160GB SATA Hard Drive
Drive DVD/RW Multi Burner
Modem 56K Internal Modem
Graphics Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB Graphics
Sound High Definition Audio
Speakers 2 x 1.5 Watt
Memory Slots 2x DDR2 SO-DIMM
Memory Capacity 4GB
Audio In Port 1 x Mic-in
Audio Out Port 1 x H’phone/Speakers
Networking Port Intel 10/100 Ethernet LAN & Wireless
Ext Monitor Port 1 x VGA Port
RJ11 Modem Port 1 x RJ11 Modem Port
Power Socket AC Power Adapter
USB Ports 3 x USB 2.0
PCMCIA Port 1 x Express Card Slot (34mm)
Bluetooth Yes
Webcam 1.3 Megapixel
AC Adaptor AC Adapter Supplied
Internal Battery 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Touchpad Glidepad with 2 buttons
Dimensions (mm) 34h x 359w x 268d
Warranty 12 Mths RTB
Weight 2.5Kg with battery
OS Compliance Windows XP / Vista
Notes 7in-1 Card Reader SD/Mini SD/RSMMC/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD
Please reply soon
Ty
Buy * lol
I was also ment to say i want it to play WoW With out lagg
thats why im gettin the laptop
i love this game ty!
Hey, I just Installed WoW on my laptop and it all loads up fine, trailer loads perfect and the program opens but there is only one problem…when I go to login it just gets stuck at authenticating… write back at dreda_1@hotmail.com
Hello all. I just bought my self a quad Core CPU with a gforce 9600 Gt blah blah basicly this pc will take me to the moon. But one prob Vista is a prick.Only will let me do the update once if i exit it …I have to reinstall wow. Any idears
Hey people. I think i got the meanest problem with my new bought computer in the world. Installed Vista, instaled wow, took 4 houres. When i logged in everything owrking gr8, played for a while, and the went to school. When i came back and tryed log in, it went fine, untill i could see my char. the comp froze in place, and the only thing i could do is restarting it. And it does the same every time, even happen when i wasent trying with wow once. I bought it, like i said, 2 month ago. Called support, and they said its hard/soft ware issue, “maby”.
So, what shall i do?? Help me plz
//Worried and sad wow player.
hey guys, i just baught a new dell with vista, i put in the disc serveral times and nothing had come up, any ideas? if so email me at airbourne_07@hotmail.com thnx!