Tweaking the garbage collector (for techheads only)
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 10th 2007 at 4:04PM
Bewarned: this post has to do with a technical, hidden process in your WoW client, something involving how your computer's memory is used and how you might be able to make it a little faster. But if you're not interested in the technical side of things, don't worry: this post is extremely skippable. The upshot is that while you can download an addon right now to possibly make your memory usage a little faster, the same functionality is coming to the regular client in 2.3. So feel free to move on to the next post if that's all you wanted to know.If you're still reading, you probably know by now that we're talking about garbage collection. Cladhaire has a well-written thread started in the UI and Macros forum that goes over exactly how garbage collection works in your computer's RAM-- after Burning Crusade, the WoW client uses a process called "incremental garbage collection," which dynamically deallocates memory as it falls out of use within the application. The problem, as I understand it, is that sometimes the memory won't actually fall out of use, which means the garbage collector won't kick off, which means garbage will sometimes sit in memory for a while waiting to be collected. For those times, there's GCTweak, an addon which you can install that will occasionally force the garbage collector to do its thing. If you have really low system memory, this might help, but only slightly.
At any rate, while this is interesting (probably moreso to those of you comp sci majors out there), it's really a nonissue-- Slouken confirms that exactly this functionality is being built into the standard client in 2.3. If you're really good at this technical stuff, GCTweak might let you tweak your system enough to pump out a few extra FPS on a lower end system. But if you don't know RAM from ROM, and can't be bothered with all this technical wackiness, just wait until 2.3, and you'll get this same functionality anyway.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cladhaire Sep 10th 2007 4:15PM
Its good to know you guys have spies lurking in the Ui community. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or clarifications about the post (either by email at gmail.com, on the thread, or right here at wowinsider.com).
- Cladhaire
Addie Sep 10th 2007 4:29PM
Is this the same thing that PerformanceFu does when I left click it? ...and is between 45 and 60 really bad for memory usage?
Mike Schramm Sep 10th 2007 4:34PM
Heh, thanks Cladhaire. I'm not super technical, so let me know if I get any of the major details wrong, but yeah we're more than happy to dive into the UI scene occasionally.
drew Sep 10th 2007 4:55PM
Hey Clad! Nice work. :)
-- ayb
Mike Sep 10th 2007 5:06PM
You can also use FuPerformance with those that have Fubar. It also has a forced garbage collector. It comes in handy.
John Vilsack Sep 10th 2007 5:34PM
If I am not mistaken, garbage collection is one of those nifty little features that make using libraries like ACE so useful.
Most addons come prepackaged with the specific libraries from ACE that they need. This makes it simple for anyone to simply download any individual addon and not worry about downloading a separate download just to make these addons all work.
When WOW loads, it takes each addon and loads everything that addon tells it to...one right after another. If you think about it, many of these addons will more than likely use the same pieces of code from ACE. In many cases, this loading of addons is just the WoW loader being told to repeat itself over and over and over again until the interface comes up.
Once you are in game and /dance-ing naked at the IF mailbox, all of those addons would just sit there and be unoptimized and gunk up your system. Lucky for us, there is garbage collection.
Amongst other things, garbage collection looks at all the crap it just loaded up and starts pitching things it doesn't need. This means that for every time you loaded ACE's functions repetitively, it dumps all but the one it needs.
This is what makes using libraries such a big deal. If you use a bunch of addons from the same "tree", you can offer yourself the same functionality and eek out a few more FPS than if you used addons developed another way.
Hope this helps. Any errors can be blamed on me typing this from work :)
Grundi Sep 10th 2007 6:03PM
Has anyone mentioned the Ace addon, PerformanceFu?! No? Good, then I'll be the first. You can click your Fubar at anytime to run the garbage collector.
Actually, I don't like pointless sarcastic posts, so I'm sorry for jumping all over ppl who only post and never read the forums. So here's a useful tip!
Is your game running slow? It might be bloated addons. go to http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info4939-Warmup.html and get this addon. It displays the load-time and memory usage of every addon u have. Also it will turn itself off after reloading the UI, so turn it back on to use it again.
Grundi Sep 10th 2007 6:07PM
***UPDATED***
/wu will open the performance screen after reloading your UI.
Cladhaire Sep 10th 2007 6:12PM
@ Addie: Not entirely, that forces a full garbage collection. This helps the normal system handle that garbage naturally.
@ John Vilsack: That's an over simplification of the issue. I'm 100% of the camp that says users should care about what an addon _does_ not which libraries it uses. The gains that most people purport are typically nothing more than smoke and mirrors. If you happen to find addons that work well for you, more power to you!
Cladhaire Sep 10th 2007 6:14PM
@ Grundi: Its already been mentioned, and doesn't do the same thing that this addon does, in any regards. Its a different approach to an entirely different problem.
Sakesaru Sep 11th 2007 10:34AM
@7 "Has anyone mentioned the Ace addon, PerformanceFu?! No? Good, then I'll be the first. You can click your Fubar at anytime to run the garbage collector."
#5 did =)
Grundi Sep 12th 2007 12:20AM
@ cladhaire: sure i realize my advise was about a different type of programming. But it all deals with the fps for me, running on a laptop. Plus i didn't want to just make fun of ppl w/o giving some helpful advice. hope it worked...
mike Nov 14th 2007 12:27PM
or just spend 20 bucks for another gig of ram, and don't bother with this, wow is capped at 85 frames per second, a 500 dollar computer can run wow at max settings at 85 frames per second all the time