How to speed up World of Warcraft

10 steps to Speeding up world of Warcraft

2022-02-12T20:31:00.022-06:00

I have been repairing computers for about 18 years and been playing this game off and on for over 5 years.

If you stick with me and do most of these steps you will be able to play Warcraft much more smoothly and have less lag and a more responsive game play. This info is free.

Heres a summary of the posts:

1. Speed UP your Internet

get a faster ping, speed up your internet

2. Software tweaks 4 faster Warcraft

tweak your computer for maximum speed

3. hardware upgrades and tweaks

upgrade your computer if you can afford it

4. Tweak your router for Warcraft

giving Warcraft a special place on your router

5. Tweak your Warcraft settings

Turn off the eye candy to make your frame rate dandy...

6. Manage add-on's for maximum effect

control your add-on's by making groups of add ons for specific uses

7. Get your self the friends with benefits package

if you join under "recruit a friend" you will level faster

8. Choosing the fastest Warcraft Realm

a closer realm can mean a faster ping

9. Choose the best World of Warcraft battle group

choose a server that has the best alliance/horde/noob ratio for you

10. Choosing your guild

Get the most upgrades or the right people

join with "recruit a friend" if possible.
A free Warcraft trial is available from the ad sense links on the side of this page.

Lets go to the first step, tweaking your internet

If you don't have the latest expansion buy it

Step one Speeding up your internet to make your game faster

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First off if your a horde on the Ner'zhul server this info is not for you. Stay slow, go elsewhere! these are not the tweaks your looking for! lol

Speeding up the internet is crucial to making Warcraft faster. Some people point to latency as being the only thing that slows down Warcraft. Not so!

I am talking to you "background virus scanner!"

There are many slowdowns and bottle necks but latency is a major one.

If you just want to do a quick fix and skip the whole show I am putting on here then just install Leatrix Latency restart and play. It should speed up Warcraft quite a bit.

However, if your like some of my guildies and you can't walk through a crowded area like the Stormwind business district without fits and starts then let's get our "tweak" on.

One of my guildies hearthed in goldshire cause hearthing into Stormwind or dalaran was too laggy. Yes, its sad. Enough said.

Your "ping" or "latency" is how fast your computer can communicate with Warcraft servers.
How close you are to a sever can have a big effect, more on choosing the "right" server on later posts below.

TESTING ONE, TWO, THREE

First we need to test your current speeds and latency.

Start up warcraft and note your current latency. Its easy to find.

You could even install a "add on" to tell you what your latency is and log values for you from a site like curse.com More on add ons later.

There is a little bar on your Warcraft interface you can click on to see your latency. Write this value down.

Next check your internet web speed and write it down at a site like speedtest.net. Make sure that you have turned off Warcraft and the only internet program running is one browser.

On the speed test site click a place on the map near you and the start the test.

Write down the values.

Make sure no one else is using the internet in your house at the time.

These values can go up or down depending on the server you choose and web traffic at the time.

Do you know what speed your supposed to be getting? Does speed test tell you your getting close to that speed?

Its good to know what speed you are actually paying for and a call to your internet server provider can let you know that speed as well as the temperature and weather conditions in India.

(Just kidding AT&T you're all right.)

If you live in place where you have many choices for internet service you could (gasp!) choose a faster one.

Netflix has recently published the speeds of many providers so shop around. Netflix would know. (think about it)

There is also the national broadband map by your pals at the united states government.

Next make a system backup with windows built in "System restore". If you don't know what that is or how to use it go to you tube and put in "how to use system restore" and your current operating system. Watch the video and do what it says then come back to this page.

Once we have the speed values for the internet connection and the warcraft ping. We can start monkeying around with your settings. We will download some registry values to speed up your connection. You download the settings for the type of windows you have then click on them to install them. Then after restarting the computer we can test again and compare the two values.

TWEAKING YOUR CONNECTION PAINLESSLY

The settings come from this excellent site SpeedGuide.net

For Windows XP

Next we download and install the right registry tweaks for your system.

For cable:

sguide_tweak_2k.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP and Windows 2000 (all versions). This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.
OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3 | version: 1.0 | date: 12/18/01 | filesize: 1 KB

For DSL:

sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP/2000 and DSL connections using PPPoE. This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. It is specifically designed for PPPoE DSL connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.
OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3 | version: 1.0 | date: 12/18/01 | filesize: 1 KB

Click them and say "yes" when it says "do you want to make these changes"

For Windows vista, Windows 7 and 2008 Server

This runs as a batch file. Scary I know but it's legit.

SG Vista TCP/IP Patch
Description: The SG Vista TCP/IP patch us a quick way to optimize Vista TCP/IP settings for broadband internet connections. It sets both netsh auto tunning levels and modifies the Windows Registry as recommended by our Vista Tweaks article. It is recommended to run the patch when logged in with administrative priviledges. The patch allows for reverting all settings to their respective Windows default values as well. Note you may have to right-click the link above and choose "Save Target As..." to save to your computer. To apply, save to your desktop and run as administrator (right-click -> run as administrator). Type Y when prompted to optimize parameters.
OS: Windows Vista 32/64, Server 2008 | version: 1.5 | date: 01/24/2010 | filesize: 4.86KB

Next we go back to speedtest.net and run our internet tests again. You might run them three times and average them and pick the same server or place you tested last time.

Is it faster?

If your running Windows 7 or vista or Windows XP you can restore the old settings easily by using the system restore back up you made.

You should always make a system restore back up each time you make major changes or install a new program.

For most people the registry entries from speed guide will be fine and are very easy to install.

However, If your technically inclined and you want to tweak your internet even more or you have super fast internet like "fios" you can down load a free program called "Cablenut"

This program lays out all most all your internet settings and you can download pre-made settings files and change the values that way. You can also find settings for cablenut by googling "cablenut settings" and "fios", "cable", "DLS" etc.

People write settings for all kinds of internet pipes and save them to a settings file.

Cablenut comes with some settings all ready in the program. You need to choose the operating system and your current connection type and speed. I used this program and found a fios cable nut settings file and installed those values with good success for a friend of mine.

Here is the step by step from the good people at cablenuts. Be for warned there is a little bit of technical knowledge needed here so keep that in mind.

THIS NEXT TIP COULD EASILY DOUBLE YOUR PING, DON'T SKIP IT.

Next after restarting your computer I would absolutely run this program called leatrix latency. This makes your computer and Wow's computers communicate quicker. We do this one after the above tweaks because we don't want the previous tweaks to interfere with this one.
heres how this program works (taken from their site)

If you could listen to a conversation between your computer and the game server, this is what you would hear.

Before Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:

Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over to you, got it?"
Your computer: ...
Server: "Come on, answer me! I don't have all day! Stop wasting time!"
Your computer: ...
Server: "Ok, forget it, I've waited long enough, sending another one over! Got it?"
Your computer: "Yep, got that one, also got the one you sent before, thanks."
Server: "Well, why didn't you acknowledge the first one when I sent it? I was waiting ages!"
Your computer: "Sorry, I'm just trying to make the network more efficient by bundling the acknowledgements together in pairs. This is how I'm setup by default."

After Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:

Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over, got it?"

Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"

Server: "That was fast! Ok, here's another, got that?"

Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"

Server: "Wow! What an improvement! Now that's more like it!"

Your computer: "Yep, it's certainly keeping me on my toes, thanks!"

Leatrix Latency

Installation video

After installing the Leatrix latency reboot!

Don't skip the reboot or I will send out someone with your "noob" badge with your name on it right this very instant.

Once rebooted turn on wow again and check your ping and compare it with the ping value you wrote down just like I told you to. Faster? If not you can undo the changes using system restore.

Please post in the comments the results you get from trying these fixes.

Oh and about the fees, you can save a little cash by using the prepaid warcraft cards advertised at the right margin. $10.95 a month instead of $14.00.. $36.00 a year savings.

World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-Paid Time Card

$10.94 a month

Next some software speed ups.

(Roll gratuitous ads)

Step two: Software to make Warcraft run faster

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Lets look at some software to make Warcraft faster and speed up your computer

Some people are worried about key loggers and other nasty things that can be found and I dont blame them. I had my account hacked. That's where someone finds out your password and steals all your stuff. I received my stuff back due to the excellent customer service GMs at blizzard.

If your concerned about key loggers coming off this web page in the listed software just Google the software I mention and go directly to the publishers site and download it from there.

Also get yourself a "authenticator" It is a little gizmo that you press that gives you a number code to put into Warcraft to validate your account. Mine was about 6.00 us and makes your account near uncrackable.

Authenticator

To the super geeks reading this I apologize for the computer 101 routine but some people need this.

The way I have explained it to customers is a computer is like a kitchen.
The cook is the CPU or the brain.
The kitchen counters are the RAM,
The cabinets and fridge is the hard drive space.
The dishes you are making are like the programs running.
Each dish needs items from the Cabinets, (flour, eggs, milk etc)
It takes longer to get to items in the fridge or cabinets than it does the counter tops.
You can get to the things on the counters easily but there is limited space.
The more counter space you have (ram) the easier it is to make multiple dishes.
Its stress full to make to many things at once. (to many programs running)
The less dishes you are making the faster the cook (cpu) can work.

32 or 64 bit windows?

First off lets talk about windows. They have 64 bit versions for vista, windows 7 and xp. It takes a system built for 64 bit computing to run it. You really should be playing on a 64 bit system. Why? well let me tell ya why, spanky.

Any 32 bit windows will only allow you to access 3 Gb of ram but no more. 64 bit builds of windows allows you to access much more ram.
On my 64 bit windows Warcraft often takes over 4GB of ram. The message here is max out your ram and get a 64 bit build for maximum Warcraft performance. More on hardware later.

Trimming down auto startup programs

Your computer is clogged up with many programs that start up along with windows. These programs installed themselves to start up automatically without asking your permission. Each one takes up computer "brain" time CPU and memory. You need to go weed out these start up programs.

The easiest program to use creates a new item in your control panel. You install it open it up and uncheck all the little programs that start up automatically that you dont really need. That would be most of them. If you want to change your mind just go back and put a check mark by them again. Easy and its free. Donate if you want to this guy does good work.

Download Startup Control Panel 2.8 (59kb)

Next lets make reasonably sure that every program that wants to start up automatically has to ask permission first. This is good for protecting from some viruses as well. this tiny little program will make every newly installed program politely ask permission before adding items to start automatically.

Download StartupMonitor 1.02 (60kb archive containing setup MSI)

Next a more detailed startup item tool for those so inclined. This one lists all kinds of startup items including windows services. Most users wont want this much info but the technically inclined will like this.

Autoruns for Windows v10.06

By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

Published: November 29, 2010

Download Autoruns and Autorunsc

(605 KB)

You can trim services and all kinds of items from starting up automatically. As always make a system restore backup first if you want to be safe.

Next to the hard drive.

Warcraft uses a large amount of memory to run.

THATS A VERY LARGE AMOUNT MONKEY BOY!

When your computer runs out of RAM which is "solid state" memory it uses part of your hard drive like RAM. Your Hard drive is like a record player sort of. it spins around and has a magnetic "needle" that reads the memory.
Your hard drive is way slower than RAM. Way way way way slower.

The file on your hard drive your computer uses like ram is called your "swap file" or "page file". This file on your hard drive often gets broken up into several pieces and makes it slower for your computer to get to since the magnetic "needle"has to jump around all over the place a lot to find all the pieces. If the file is one contiguous piece it can access it faster.

Windows uses a program called "defrag" to make the files on your hard drive as contiguous (one piece) as possible.

Thats if you ever run it, which most people don't, leaving their hard drive in the same state as a "cat lady" hoarders house after a free swap meet and five espressos.

A defragging program lets you keep your stash of digital goods but in a orderly manner. Thats if you run it. You can set it up so it runs automatically without you messing with it. You can look up "how to set your defrag program automatically" on Goggle or you tube.

The defrag program doesn't reassemble your page file while your using windows, so the page file usually stays divided up into several small pieces.

This little free program will consolidate your page file every time you start windows. This makes your page file one big piece. Unzip it in the programs folder and then run it. Choose the options "run at every boot" This one works in XP only.

For Windows 7 and vista we need this next program to defrag the page file. We need it for windows xp for optimal file placement.

Fastest Warcraft file placement

Your hard drive reads files on the outside of its "record" or circle than it does on the inside. Most defrag programs don't let you choose where to put your files on the hard drive so you cant put Warcraft on the fastest part.

This program does let you choose where to put programs or files. this company calls it a File Placement Optimizer. Your hard drive can access the files on the out side of the hard drive much faster than files on the inside of the hard drive.

UltimateDefrag 30 Day, No Obligation, Free Trial Download....

You should go into the program settings and specify that your world of Warcraft folder is on the outer edge of the hard drive. This will mean your computer can access your Warcraft files faster meaning a more responsive quicker loading Warcraft.

This program also has a feature that lets you defrag your page file before Windows starts up and works with xp, vista and windows 7. Warcraft uses gigabytes of ram and on most systems Warcraft will take up "swap file" space. So it is important to have a quick swap file. This is true for most of us mortals with regular systems.

Putting Warcraft files and your pagefile.sys folder at the outside edge of your hard drive can make Warcraft much faster.

If you can afford it go out and buy yourself a big fat SSD drive (solid state drive) and forget about defraging forever you lucky person you.

Turning off un-needed programs and services.

Your Windows computer runs programs and "services" that take up memory and processor time. To run Warcraft you don't need to run all the services you normally might. If only there was some way to turn off the services and programs you don't need to run Warcraft then there would be more memory and processor time for gaming. There are a few programs that do this. If you know of more than I list here please let me know in the comments section.

Game booster

For those with a AMD chip in their computer there is a great program that will optimize your computer for whatever task your asking it to do. It only works on AMD computers though. Install it run it and tell it you want your computer optimized for gaming.

AMD fusion utility for desktop

Tweaking your graphics card

Tweaking your graphics card is something you can do that could possibly fry it. Over clocking can do this. If you don't know what your doing with over clocking just don't. These programs below will let you speed up your card faster than the company set it to go. There are plenty of forums and such where you can learn how to safely over clock. I am telling you here to skip it unless your competent at his kind of thing. Yes I warned you three times.

AMD graphics tweak
If you have a new ATI graphics card you need to check out this program for tweaking it.

Download AMD OverDrive™ 3.2

Read the performance tuning guide for more information

Do you know of a great nvidia tweaking program or a ati one, please post if comments so I can add it here.

Tweaked graphics drivers

Normal drivers that come with windows are well "just normal."

Many geeks tweak drivers for better gaming performance. There are tons of these drivers.

I like Omega drivers they seem to work well.

Be sure to make a system restore back up before you install these drivers.
After installing them run Warcraft and if its faster keep the new drivers. If there are "artifacts" on the screen or other irregularities roll it back using system restore and find your self some other tweaked driver or return to the windows defaults.

Omega drivers

Making sure that Warcraft gets the most computer "brain" (cpu) time.

Process lasso is a program that watches all the programs that try to use your computers "brain" (CPU) and limits each one so that no one program grabs too much brain (cpu) time.

It also lets you go full throttle on any program you choose such as World of Warcraft. There is a free trial that allows the gaming feature. This program is useful if you have a older computer, if you find the game halting and stuttering, or if you want to make sure that no other program like a virus scan is going to cause you to wipe a raid.

This program is great while your in the trial period. During that period you can specify in the settings to not throttle Warcraft access to the CPU. However after the trial period expires it will make Warcraft way slower because it will throttle Warcraft as well. At that point buy the program.

ONLY if it made a real difference. It did on my system. It kinda forces your computer to give its resources mainly to Warcraft.

Heres a link to the trial version

Or if you just want o cut to the chase and buy it now click here $24.95 USD (single pc license)

Next to hard ware upgrades and tweaks

Roll the gratuitous ads, lol

Hardware

2019-02-14T15:47:00.009-06:00

Under construction
The biggest upgrade any computer system can make speed wise is the ram.

RAM RAM RAM RAM!
forget all about that macho stuff and buy your puter some ram! I think John Cougar Melancamp sang that.

32 or 64 bit windows?

First off lets talk about windows. They have 64 bit versions for vista, windows 7 and xp. It takes a system built for 64 bit computing to run it. You really should be playing on a 64 bit system.

Any 32 bit windows will only allow you to access around 3 Gb of ram but no more. 64 bit builds of windows allows you to access much more ram. In some systems the graphic card uses some system ram.

On my 64 bit windows Warcraft often takes over 4GB of ram. The message here is max out your ram and get a 64 bit build for maximum Warcraft performance.

Its fairly easy to find out how much Ram you can stuff in your box.

The easiest way I know of is by visiting the good folks at crucial.com.

scan my system

You can go to their site and run there little scanner that will scan your system and tell you what ram you have and to what extent you can upgrade.

You can scan it at crucial but you can buy the ram somewhere else. Compare contrast. I personally have bought ram cheap on ebay.

If ya want a warranty and someone to stand behind that ram though you need to go with a good RAM company. Crucial is good but my favorite is Corsair. (I love you corsair) :)

Keep in mind Windows 32 bit ceiling.

here's a except from a true geek performance site (extreme overclocking)

"No XP does not support directX11, and no it will not support over 3gb. Yes windows 7 is better in every way.Windows 7 also gets the same FPS or better in most to all games. Yes you would be stupid for using XP instead of windows 7."

Another excerpt

"if you're running a 32bit operating system as a gaming machine, there is absolutely no reason to purchase more than 2GB of ram "

There is a sort of kinda iffy workaround some of you 32 bit folk could try. Here's the link to that.

I am going to mention ram timings but this is not for just the average computer user. Skip this paragraph if your not computer competent. You need to know what he ram timings are that are in your system ram. and then you need to go open the bios program. The bios program is the program that starts up your system and tells your system where and what everything is. Some bios programs list everything and are highly configurable. Most though wont go in to ram timings or only allow automatic timings set by "ssd". If your bios lets you configure ram timing it can make a real difference if they are set correctly to the ram you have. You can find ram timings by a system utility that tells you whats in your computer like scisoft sandra or you can possibly get the correct timing from the crucial scanner listed above. On some systems the placement of the ram can make a difference. Your bios needs to support memory "interweaving". Once again this is not for the average Joe. Buy your local geek friend a pizza and have him do this for you. You can try to do the research and set this up but sometimes it makes your system un-bootable then you have to short the cmos battery jumper to reset your bios to defaults. Whew! your eyes glazed over yet?

The newer windows support the newest direct x. You should have the newest direct x on your system because its the software that helps to generate all those nifty graphics your system puts on the screen for you.

Just Google "direct x" and install the latest one. its easy. Direct x11 is much better than direct x 10 if the software is able to use it. Windows 7 and vista can, windows XP can not.

Next to tweak your router

Tweak your router

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Tweak your router

giving Warcraft a special place on your router

UNDER
CONSTRUCTION

- Firewalls*
- If you have a firewall, be sure that it is set up to allow for incoming connections on Port 3724, 6112, 6113, 6114, and 4000 for the TCP (also called TCP/IP) protocol. More information on how to open ports for some popular firewalls can be found on our Blizzard Downloader Networking Help page under the Firewalls section. If your firewall is not listed there or you need more help, please refer to your firewall documentation or contact the manufacturer.
- Important note: Please be aware that many popular firewalls will become very restrictive to traffic when disabled. Please be sure any firewalls you have installed are configured correctly and enabled in order to use the downloader effectively.

- Routers*
- Be sure that the router configuration has Port 3724, 6112, 6113, 6114, and 4000 forwarded to your computer, and only your computer. Having the same port forwarded to more than one computer connected to the router can cause a conflict, which may result in slow download speeds. More information and instructions on how to forward ports for some popular routers can be found on our Blizzard Downloading Networking Helppage under the Routers section.
- Be sure that no computers are in the DMZ (demilitarized zone). If a computer is set up to be in the DMZ, then there may be a conflict, which may cause slow download speeds.
- Be sure that any other computers on the network are not running any programs that utilize large amounts of bandwidth. Remember that a router simply lets all of the computers connected share the connection. It does not increase the bandwidth of the connection!

next tweaking your Warcraft settings

Tweak your Warcraft settings Turn off the eye candy to make your frame rate dandy...

2017-02-14T15:48:00.002-06:00

Tweak your Warcraft settings
Turn off the eye candy to make your frame rate dandy...

under construction

Next managing add-on's to the best effect

Manage add ons for maximum effect control your add ons by making groups of add ons for specific uses

2016-02-14T15:49:00.001-06:00

Manage add ons for maximum effect

control your add ons by making groups of add ons for specific uses

under construction

Next level faster with "recruit a friend" promotion

Get your self the friends with benefits package if you join under "recruit a friend" you will level faster

2015-02-14T15:50:00.002-06:00

Get your self the friends with benefits package

if you join under "recruit a friend" you will level faster

under construction
Next choose the realm server group that's closest to you

Choosing Warcraft Realm a closer realm can mean a faster ping

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Choosing Warcraft Realm

a closer realm can mean a faster ping

Next the best alliance/horde/noob ratio for you

http://howtospeedupwarcraft.blogspot.com/2011/02/choose-fastest-world-of-warcraft-server.html

Choose the fastest World of Warcraft server choose a server that has the best alliance/horde/noob ratio for you

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Choose the fastest World of Warcraft server

choose a server that has the best alliance/horde/noob ratio for you

Next choose the right guild for you

Choosing your guild

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Choosing your guild