MMO's do not require good hardware?

[funky monk]

This is annoying as hell. GPU-Z won't even launch and HWiNFO64 doesn't even see the AMD GPU.

The CCC settings are affecting my framerates, so I assume that the AMD GPU is being utilized.

What else can I do?

Run it on sensible settings? The difference in visual quality between anti aliasing when you really start to crank it and go into the performance hogging territory is almost none. If you lower the AA a little then you should have no problems and be flying. If you just want to push every slider to the max whithout realising it makes zero real world difference for bragging rights then grow up.

If you've tried running at sensible settings and it's still playing badly then I'd be a little less condescending and would be more willing to help, however I see no evidence for this.

[troyguitar]

Moving AA to 1x MS and most everything else down still puts me at ~40fps flying around SW.

Besides, by benchmarks I should be seeing 60+ fps at ultra with 8x AA and I am not, more like 20-30...

[Greg]

Just FYI but if you enable V-Sync and it can't hit 60FPS, it gets capped at 30FPS so that it can still stay in sync with the 60Hz refresh rate. As for the 'awesome hardware,' keep in mind these are laptop parts. My desktop GTX 680 runs circles around your puny little mobile 7970M .

If your results are really that bad compared to what reviews indicate you should get you either have driver issues or something is simply wrong with your system. But sliding every graphics option over to max and complaining about the settings won't get you anywhere. AA and AF can be incredibly taxing on most systems, even desktop cards. Try replicating the results in the reviews (same exact settings and resolutions) and post back your results (including what settings you used and what reviews you read).

[YodaGoneMad]

The problem is the drivers dell ships with the 7970m. You need to figure out what Slick and the other guys are using. With proper drivers you should be perfectly fine.

I run Tera at maxed settings 1080p and am at locked 60 FPS 95% of the time, this is a truly stunning MMO running the Unreal 3 engine, much more demanding than WoW. I have not played WoW on my new laptop yet, but on my old desktop I ran it maxed at 60 FPS, and my 580m is roughly twice as fast as my old desktop card.

[Greg]

That's a good point. AMD drivers are available on their website but be sure to select the mobility ones. Last I checked 12.4 is now available.

[troyguitar]

I just upgraded to the same drivers as Slick and saw a ~2-3 fps increase. Something is just plain not working. This is ridiculous.

[masterchef341]

I was under the assumption that the 7970M would give me 60 fps with everything on max settings like every post on this forum leads one to believe, turns out I may have wasted a lot of $$ on a system that is not nearly as good as I thought.

This is a community forum. The information that you get from people here is not official information. You have to make a personal assessment on the validity of any statements that are made here.

If some post led you to believe that the 7970m would play any game at playable frame rates and 1080p + 8xSSAA, well then, that's unfortunate that you built your expectations around misinformation. No games will be playable at 8xSSAA and 1080p. That's like trying to render the game at 15000*8600, it's not even close to realistic in real time on modern hardware, even for a relatively low requirements game like WoW, and most people aren't talking about this when they say max settings, because SSAA in particular isn't meant for real time 3d in full resolution anyway, so it's outside of the scope of "game" settings.

Of course, this doesn't change the fact that the 7970m is the fastest mobile GPU that exists, so it's not like you could have picked something more powerful if your expectations were different. You'll just need to temper your expectations to the reality of the capabilities of modern hardware. If you just have "max out" envy / ocd, you'll have to find a way to enjoy your games without worrying about the positions of the sliders in the control panel and the settings menu. It's as if it was the 90's and you were upset that your SNES games aren't in 3D with dynamic shadows. It's just totally outside of the capabilities of modern hardware and your expectations are way out in left field.

Perhaps part of that comes from not understanding what the graphics settings actually represent, especially in the control panel, and just operating on the underlying assumption that the best hardware should be able to use the maximum settings for the games you are interested in.

Keep in mind, for every game that ever comes out, I can create a graphics setting that brings performance out of the playable range, no matter what hardware you have. "Max settings" isn't a well defined term, so don't worry about meeting that mark, because that mark doesn't exist.

[troyguitar]

It's not just community posts. Legit sites are telling me I should see 75+ fps with 8x AA and I can't even get 60fps with 1x AA. Something is radically wrong.

[Greg]

Alright, let's try to separate the game from the GPU. First off, could you download and run 3dMark Vantage with the standard profile (its the only one available when you use the free version). Can you link to the full results page that will pop up when the test is complete? That'll at least help rule out driver issues or anything like that.

Next up, maybe post screen shots showing ALL the settings from not only CCC but the in game WoW settings. Again, that'll help us ID which settings might be too much or which simply shouldn't be enabled.

[masterchef341]

what type of AA are you using? MS / Adaptive / SS?

from the control center settings: check the AMD optimization for tessellation, especially if you are playing with DX11 settings.

uncheck morphological filtering, check the "use application settings" box for anti-aliasing.

Under catalyst AI, leave the slider in the middle (quality), check the box that says enable surface format optimization

You can leave mipmap detail level all the way to the right (High Quality)

Vertical Refresh should be set to: Off, unless application specifies

Under Anti-Aliasing Mode: select Multi-Sample AA (the left option)

Start there. Then run 3dmark 11 as suggested. Post the results. Post a screenshot of your WoW settings as well.