100% CPU Usage from World of Warcraft?

[darkphobia]

Alright, here it goes. This computer is a gateway laptop, brand new. 4GB RAM, Centrino2 Duo processor running Windows Vista 62 bit.

One would think that such a decent computer would be able to handle a 500k memory program like World of Warcraft. In fact, it ran like a dream when I first picked the computer up. However recently the graphics have been lagging terribly, and I finally found out why. When I open the game, I go from 6% to anywhere from 80-100% CPU Usage in the snap of a finger. Now, on the processes page, the biggest process right beneath Warcraft is dwm.exe, which is the computer itself as a friend told me. Why it's working so hard to run itself doesn't really make sense to me. I've tried defragging, I've tried clearing up space on the drives. The only thing I haven't tried is re-installing the game, which if I can avoid it would be great.

Any ideas?

[macdad-]

DWM.exe is the Desktop Windows Managment...the program that shows those pretty 3-d kind taskbars and such.

You should not kill this proccess, but instead you can switch it to Classic mode that removes the Glass/3d look of the taskbars, windows and stuff.

That will increase your performance.

[darkphobia]

That definately helped lower the numbers a bit, but when the game is running and active, I'm still sitting at 50%+, which I would think is still unnecessarily high.

The graphics are at their lowest setting for the game. I tried setting it to fullscreen mode, and the huge CPU usage problem still exists. It's not at 100% anymore, but 85% is still pretty insane.

Just thought of something. Would it make a difference if WoW was run on the D drive instead of C? I'm not very computer savvy, the idea just popped into my head, heheh.

Also think I should add that the graphics card in the computer is NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS. I'm wondering if there's a way to adjust the card to better handle the grapics aspect. Perhaps having it on its highest setting is hurting more than helping?

[macdad-]

Can you scan your system with HijackThis and post the logs here?

[BC_Programmer]

It's a game. It's designed to use the CPU as much as possible.

[Mulreay]

That is fair mate. Games do eat up usage but there ment to. If it's pulling in 85% usage what else do you need your playing a game!! If your playing the game and trying to use some other programme then... it will never work the way you hope it will.

[macdad-]

It's a game. It's designed to use the CPU as much as possible.

Metal Gear Solid on my computer doesn't even use but 45% of CPU time