Laggy frame-rates with two WoW clients but perfect with one.

[NuG050]

Ok, so I've searched around and couldn't find anything reasonable, in terms of solutions, to my simple problem:

With a single instance of WoW, everything runs silky smooth. Everything at max and in windowed mode. Though things don't show up on the screen (far distances) as good as others, it still works fairly good. FPS is really nice (haven't actually checked the actual # but I don't have issues so I didn't think to look).

Now, with the addition of a second instance of WoW (either same folder or separate folder or second drive) it becomes so laggy that you can't even do anything.

I've tried turning off sound on both, lowering graphics, and even uninstalling all antiviral proggies.

I remember it still ran very well when I had everything on max and had four copies of WoW running (same directory).

I have a fairly modest system:

1 x E8400
2 x 1GB RAM
1 x BFG 8800GT OC2
1 x GigaByte Mobo (can't remember the model off-hand)
1 x 650W PSU
1 x Samsung 19" LCD
1 x Windows XP Pro

I can run other programs without issues (Far Cry 2, Unreal 3, Crysis) but with WoW, I can't run two copies!

Here's my questions:

1) Does screen refresh rate (set in WoW) have to match my LCD's refresh rate? The game doesn't seem to run any better (or worse) if it's set at the default 75Mhz (my LCD does 60Mhz).

2) Does running multiple instances of WoW on separate drives/folders really help? I've tried but didn't seem to offer any improvement other than load and access times but even that's only slight...

3) Does the graphic settings/sounds make that much of a difference? I've tried toning it down and turning off all sounds on all instances of WoW and haven't seen any improvements. The last thing I haven't tried is either lowering or turning off the shadows, as I've read that it helped some people. But haven't considered it since...well, it looks damn nice...^_^

4) Would getting an additional Gig of RAM (for a total of 3GB) be worth it to improve performance? But again, if my current system can handle almost anything, would 3GB REALLY make that much of a difference?!

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and hopefully offer some suggestions for me to try...and no, I don't want to buy another computer to do this with; I want to keep it strictly on one machine to save space. Besides, wifey isn't down with needing to be on a separate power-grid in order to power my multiple machines...^_^ Thanks, again!

[elsegundo]

1. no. refresh rate is meant for crt monitors.

2. slight load and access time. plus better customization of addons preferences, etc.

3. turn down your multi-sampling and anti-aliasing to x1, turn down your background fps to 10. this is in addition to turning off sound and shadows.

4. two gigs of ram can go to possibly 3 instances with no hiccups.

[NuG050]

1. no. refresh rate is meant for crt monitors.

2. slight load and access time. plus better customization of addons preferences, etc.

3. turn down your multi-sampling and anti-aliasing to x1, turn down your background fps to 10. this is in addition to turning off sound and shadows.

4. two gigs of ram can go to possibly 3 instances with no hiccups.

1) That's what I was figuring since I never saw a difference. Thanks for clearing that up.

2) Since I'm just starting out with dualboxing, my needs are fairly simple and haven't gone too far into pure customization...in fact, my GUI is relatively stock with only ArcHuD2 (can't live without that!) and for simplicity, Necrosis. I'm still learning the macros!

3) Multi-Sampling for the main or for the clones? This goes back to your point for #2 where I can have the clones to default to lower graphical settings vs having to change them all the time. I'll try to use multi-copies again.

4) That's what I was thinking. I mean, something weird must have changed since now and before since I was able to run 4 without much of an issue but now, two is a drag...but upon further reasing, it does seem that shadows put an extreme drain on the system...

Ok...so, with multiple copies...is there a way to have one directory/folder with the game with multiple copies of only the WTF folder? Meaning, that the game will continue to use the single copy of WoW for loading and what-not, but use separate folders for default configurations?

Thanks, again, for your help on my noobness and quest to be a better multiboxer! I've done generic multiboxing (with basic /follow and macro'ing) and have gotten a few toons to 46-ish...but now, I want to move my 70 toons to other accounts and level them up simultaneously in Wrath...hehehe...

[NuG050]

2) Multiple instances of WoW in multiple folders allows settings to be set correctly and permanently rather than having to do setting changes each and every time.
3) Turning off shadows fixed the problem. I'm able to maintain my multisampling and color-depth and still run 3 instances of WoW without any issues anywhere. I've decided to NOT to limit my FPS for the time being until I notice more slow downs with my current set-up.

Defragging also helps...

Thanks for your assistance, elseguno...I truly appreciate it!