What is needed to play WoW.

[Jetster]

I have a buddy that plays WOW on a Pentium D 805 with a 7600GT 256MB DDR3 card and 2GB DDR2 667, with no issues.

But he can only set it on "fair" settings and the newer expansions require a but more power

But it does play at a descent rate Ive played it with the same hardware

 

[<<Onafets>>]

I'm running on ultra (aa and af on max and such) at about 40fps on my current specs. Shouldn't be too hard to pickup a GTS 250 for less than $120 and I don't think it will bottle neck on a P4 (correct me if im wrong) assuming you have a pci-e slot

 

[mrw1986]

I have a buddy that plays WOW on a Pentium D 805 with a 7600GT 256MB DDR3 card and 2GB DDR2 667, with no issues.

Your buddy must play on incredibly low settings then.

My girlfriend's rig consists of a Pentium D830, 8800GTX, and 4gb DDR2-800 and all her settings are on medium or lower and the game still gets <20fps in a lot of places. My rig on the other hand runs it at the highest possible settings never going below 30fps.

 

[repman244]

Get a Pentium D it has more features than SB, you can use it as a heater!

On a more serious note, the game itself isn't that graphically advanced, but it's really poorly optimized and loves fast dual cores. Just get an i3 SB and be done with it.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

What you truly need to play WoW as it's meant to be is no other life whatsoever.

 

[brandonwh64]

Look, Im not saying its a graphic lovers dream but he plays on 1280x1024 on high settings and it gets around 40-50FPS.

 

[newtekie1]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I kind of posted this and then passed out from exhaustion and just woke up... I'll clearify somethings. He isn't looking to run it at max, the machine he was wanting to run it on was a Socket 423 P4 @1.5GHz w/ a 9500Pro...

Honestly 720p@Medium setting is way more than enough to make him happy. Unfortunately a whole new build is out of the question at this point, so I'm going to have to use some spare parts I have laying around(case, PSU, hdd, DVD drive). So really I'm looking for the absolute cheapest mobo/video/ram combo that will at least let him run the game on medium, even low, settings. His budget is about $100...

I'm actually thinking about giving him my E4500/P5B/4GB combo from my sig, and giving him a GT240 I have laying around as well. Then taking the money and building an AMD rig for myself to replace it. Would the GT240 be enough?

 

[entropy13]

I'm actually thinking about giving him my E4500/P5B/4GB combo from my sig, and giving him a GT240 I have laying around as well. Then taking the money and building an AMD rig for myself to replace it. Would the GT240 be enough?

Enough? It's great already, you'd (well, him, not you exactly) probably max it if it's at 1280x720.

The GT 240 is certainly enough, especially since it would be DirectX 9 and not DirectX 11.

 

[Mathragh]

Whatever he chooses, i would recommend a DX11 card/APU since it(WoW) runs up to 25% better in DX11 mode than it would in DX9 mode on the same hardware.

Also, going Intel for the fps would probably be a non-argument for him, since he probably isnt going for the MAX fps, but just decent playability.

I would go for the best bang for buck possible, and thats probably the APU, together with a 6670.

Hybrid crossfire would also increase his performance by alot since wow can run in DX11.
This means that WoW wont be held back by the absence of DX9 support for the hybrid crossfire those Llano's support.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea try and grab an AMD A6 3650 or w.e APU that is, with a cheap mobo and 4gigs ram,

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

CPU + onboard GPU + mobo $200

maybe check the FS threads i think, TheLaughingMan has an AMD APU for sale, and maybe a mobo as well but im not sure.

 

[Jetster]

Look for a used 775 Socket board and a Core 2 Duo. Them maybe Nvidia 8600gt

Used you might get lucky and get it all for $100 off E-bay


There are a lot of 775 boards on E-bay now do to the 1155 being so popular

 

[yogurt_21]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I kind of posted this and then passed out from exhaustion and just woke up... I'll clearify somethings. He isn't looking to run it at max, the machine he was wanting to run it on was a Socket 423 P4 @1.5GHz w/ a 9500Pro...

Honestly 720p@Medium setting is way more than enough to make him happy. Unfortunately a whole new build is out of the question at this point, so I'm going to have to use some spare parts I have laying around(case, PSU, hdd, DVD drive). So really I'm looking for the absolute cheapest mobo/video/ram combo that will at least let him run the game on medium, even low, settings. His budget is about $100...

I'm actually thinking about giving him my E4500/P5B/4GB combo from my sig, and giving him a GT240 I have laying around as well. Then taking the money and building an AMD rig for myself to replace it. Would the GT240 be enough?

sounds like you've already got a plan then, the e4500 rig with a gt240 would be more than enough for someone on a p4 1.5 and 9500 pro. In fact it would feel brand new to him and he'd be able to play at a detail level he never could before.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GT_430/21.html

 

[douglatins]

A creditcard and 15usd per month.

xD

 

[newtekie1]

sounds like you've already got a plan then, the e4500 rig with a gt240 would be more than enough for someone on a p4 1.5 and 9500 pro. In fact it would feel brand new to him and he'd be able to play at a detail level he never could before.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GT_430/21.html

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GT_430/images/wow_1280_1024.gifhttp://tpucdn.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GT_430/images/wow_1680_1050.gif

Yeah, I think that is definitely the plan, now that I know the GT240 is capable enough.

He never even powered the P4 machine on, it was given to him by a family member and he immediately gave it to me and said "here, make this play WoW"...

 

[Jegergrim]

I'm currently playing the last expansion on my 12.1 netbook, using Nvidia Ion + Intel Atom 1.6 dual core. Lowest settings on approximately 30 fps in open areas and up to 50 in closed. So Wow at lowest settings does not require much power at all

 

[GotNoRice]

It really isn't a demanding game, an i5 is way too much overkill... for this game.

No that's straight-up wrong. WoW can be forgiving or demanding depending on your settings, but generally it's more CPU intensive than anything else. There are many things that use the CPU a LOT. The most important thing to remember is that the engine has evolved a lot over the years and it's not the same game it was ~5 years ago. I used to do 10-man raids on a laptop with a Pentium-M 1.4Ghz and a Mobility Radeon 8500 (DirectX 8.1) and it worked great. With that same laptop now, trying to do anything beyond just standing somewhere lags so bad that I'll disconnect from the game.

The view distance is a killer, as this is one thing they have repeatedly increased over the years. Many people expect to be able to run Ultra but trying to see that far is going to stress a lot of rigs.

Another is the shadows engine. They revamped the entire thing a few years ago. If you go down to "Fair" or "Low", you will actually be using the old shadows engine at that point which i much less demanding.

Settings like ground clutter you can bring down without much ill effects.

I would start with most settings on low and inch them up gradually until you find something that is really sending your system over the edge.

Whatever he chooses, i would recommend a DX11 card/APU since it(WoW) runs up to 25% better in DX11 mode than it would in DX9 mode on the same hardware.

Wow runs better in DX11 but DX11 mode also works great on DX10 and DX10.1 cards too.

 

[Jetster]

Just a thought...Im building a HTPC and using a i3 550. Also using onboard HD graphics. With the i3 i5 i7 CPU have HD graphics build in and my i3 550 runs 1080p smoth. It gets a 4.8 on the graphics for Windows Experience Index. I wonder how it would play Wow?

Maybe Ill give it a try