Nvidia 8600M GT / 8600GT / GTS FPS increase for WoW ( World of Warcraft ) & other games

We have seen so many posts on forums and websites complaining about low FPS in games. Personally I found the FPS in 25 man raids in WOW to be really bad. After a lot of research I have finally found the reason why the graphic card performance was so bad. This article should help you fix this problem.

Most new Nvidia graphic cards have a feature called PowerMizer that reduces the clock speed of the graphic card in order to save power.

“NVIDIA® PowerMizer® technology is an intelligent power management solution available on all NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) that can effectively extend battery life and reduce wasted power – all while providing performance on demand even while plugged in the wall.”

While this is supposed to help with power management, it actually slows down the GPU while playing games after a few minutes. Ever noticed that games start off good and then FPS drops ? This is the reason. It underclocks the GPU, now that is something we dont want while gaming.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z

This program while show you the GPU core clock and the GPU memory clock. Dont get worried you dont have to know much about it. Run the program before starting the game and then watch it after a few min into the game. This is what you will probably see.

Notice the GPU is working slower, thus the slower FPS. We need to disable PowerMizer. This is explained in the next section.

How to disable PowerMizer

Download PowerMizer. Run the program as an administrator in Vista. Disable PowerMizer and restart the computer. Enjoy !

If you want to do registry editing manually, you can find a tutorial here.

Now if you arent planning to run games for a long time you could turn PowerMizer back on to save battery.

Please remember to leave a comment here if this helps you !

About the Author of this post

Alfred is a Pilot & Tech blogger from Bangalore, India. He has worked with DSL providers like AOL, SBC, Verizon & Covad as a tech specialist. Currently he is pursuing a career in aviation.
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