PCs for WoW

[Mercutio]

It has suddenly become important for me to be an expert on World of Warcraft and specifically what kind of hardware one needs to reasonably max out graphics performance in Wow.

Problem: I don't have WoW or access to anyone who does have it.

Here's what I do know:
Blizzard's POS has problems with dual-core hardware. Folks with Dual Core machines (Intel or AMD) find their graphics capped at 64fps and "frequently choppy" at other times. Dual Cores have been out for quite some time but since Blizzard hasn't patched it yet, I doubt it's a priority.

On the other hand, a single-core Athlon64 3800 is plenty fast and plenty cheap.

I assume that 1GB RAM is sufficient for WoW. Other MMOs work well at about that range. 2GB is probably overkill, and might be a budget buster anyway.

Both the ATI R200 and nVidia 61x0 chipsets have onboard graphics that are directX 9 capable; this suggests that all WoW's graphics options can be turned on, if not maxed out. My inclination is to stick with onboard graphics if they're capable enough.

I'm told that an X1600 makes WoW silky smooth perfect from a graphics standpoint, at 1280x1024.

So somewhere between 1GB RAM and 2GB, and something between the onboard graphics of ATI or nVidia-based motherboards and an ATI x1600, there's WoW perfection. I think.

Does anyone play WoW?

 

[ddrueding]

Though I've never played WOW, I have (as you might imagine) some experience with it. Over 60% of the time logged at the gamecenter is WOW.

My original spec machines play quite nicely at 1024x768 with moderate graphics. Their spec is:

A64 3000+
1GB RAM
9800Pro

My High-Spec machines lay it very well at 1600x1200 with everything on:

A64 4000+
2GB RAM
X800GTO

For a while this second machine had an X1600 and it was great at 1280x1024. If you would like additional information or some tests run, let me know.

 

[Mercutio]

I'd like to know how a baseline nvidia 6100 works with it, and I'd like to know if the Dual Core thing is just BS. A $60 x700 seems like it might be OK; those are roughly on par with the old 9700.

I've got a group of 12 guys who are in a guild(?) who want these machines. Some of them have a budget and some are better off, so if I can make the machines decent and low-cost, it's a better option for all concerned. And then there's a 13th person who I know would be a WoW player if she had a decent PC.

 

[P5-133XL]

I have played WoW. I use a Radeon 9600 at 1280x1024, 3.2GHz P4, 1GB Ram; My estimation is that the video card is very much the limiting factor. It's not silky smooth and I have to turn off many options for it to be tolerable (30-40fps) and occasionally it will drop down to 6-10fps. With that in mind, a 9700 or even a 9800 while better, are not better enough at that resolution for silky smooth play.

I have no idea about the dual core issue, but I know that, with my card, I would wish that fps would stay at 60+fps. Invest in a good card rather than on-board video solutions.

1 GB of ram is fine; I have an addon that lists ram usage, and it garbage collects at about 50MB every 30 minutes or so.