Need the ultimate WoW Rig

[awb23]

Since the release of the expansion I just go re-addicted. Shame on me!!

Anyway I've got some christmas money that's burning a hole in my pocket.

My current rig has an ATI x800, AMD x64 1.8ghz, Chaintech VNF4Ultra, 1gig Ram, Samsung 22" Widescreen LCD.

As is, my computer plays WoW OK. I play at my monitors max resolution (1800something by 1400something I think?) No AA or AF though, my framerates drop if so. Most eye candy turned on, but some off to retain Framerates.

However, I get occasional choppiness when I do quick turns (computer loading? RAM?)....and I'd like to bump everything to max settings, which means max AA and AF.

What do you guys thing? I haven't really been keeping in the "know how" with all the latest video cards, RAM, CPU's etc. However, I do know I won't need the latest in hardware to get WoW where I want it, as it isn't THAT graphics intensive. I know I'll probably need a faster vid card to bump the AA and AF to max settings and maybe another gig of ram to reduce the hard drive choppiness (2g total).

What would you do?

 

[InFeXiOn]

Upgrade your video card and add a gig of RAM and you'll be fine. I play WoW at the same resolution as you, which is 1680x1050 on my Dell 22'' widescreen with everything maxed and AA off and I get around ~30-40fps, which isn't all too appealing - just need a GPU upgrade. But yeah, pick-up an x1950 or 7950 (whichever you prefer) and add another gig of RAM and you're good to go. Unless of course you play a lot of other high-end games, in which case, you should maybe consider a complete overhaul if you have the money to do so.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

I have a fairly modest machine --

Intel D975BX (bad axe) motherboard
Intel E6600
3GB of RAM
eVGA 7600GT 256MB video card
1x normal 250gb sata

using onboard sound, etc

there is nothing i can do to the settings in wow to make it slow down...

 

[soccerballtux]

My 6800GT OC'd to Ultra runs WoW fine. My bet is your processor is slowing things down. When I'm playing at the stock speed it's unusually choppy...which reminds me I need to run my Clockgen to overclock it to my settings (2.3Ghz). It's pretty much perfect then.

Also make sure you're not running anything in the background. I've found running Azureus and several torrents degrades performance significantly (java).

 

[Genx87]

WoW is a very easy game on the resources. I used to run everything to the tilt at 1600X1200 on my 6800 GT, A64 3000+, and 1.5GB of ram. It would get a little choppy in the main cities when there was 100 people to draw. Otherwise 99% of the time it ran fine.

I have a machine now that is abosultely overkill for WoW.

E6600
8800GTS
2GB ram
10K Raptor 16MB

 

[regnez]

Faster processor and another gig of ram. Your video card is fine for WoW, even with all the settings turned up.

And what kind of monitor do you have? I have never heard of 1800something x 1400something on a 22 inch- or anything else, for that matter. Maybe 1680x1050 if widescreen, or 1600x1200 if not?

 

[Noubourne]

1920x1200 fully maxxed here. Even before I went dual core though, the 7900GT is what did it. Definitely don't need more than a gig of RAM either.

I'd say vid card upgrade will do the trick.

 

[Noubourne]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
My 6800GT OC'd to Ultra runs WoW fine. My bet is your processor is slowing things down. When I'm playing at the stock speed it's unusually choppy...which reminds me I need to run my Clockgen to overclock it to my settings (2.3Ghz). It's pretty much perfect then.

Also make sure you're not running anything in the background. I've found running Azureus and several torrents degrades performance significantly (java).

Then you should get uTorrent. Much, MUCH smaller footprint.

I used to use Azureus until the day I tried uTorrent. I've seen it using like 8MB with about 10 downloads going.

 

[InFeXiOn]

Originally posted by: regnez
Faster processor and another gig of ram. Your video card is fine for WoW, even with all the settings turned up.

And what kind of monitor do you have? I have never heard of 1800something x 1400something on a 22 inch- or anything else, for that matter. Maybe 1680x1050 if widescreen, or 1600x1200 if not?

No, his video card is not "fine" for WoW. I know it's not a cutting edge game, but at 1680x1050 (his max resolution on that 22'') it's just not going to cut it. My 7600GS is struggling at 30-40fps in major cities and what not on that resolution WITH a X2 4200+ and 2GB of RAM.

 

[InlineFive]

WoW will not benefit from more than 1GB of memory, it's pretty well coded. What will help is a faster CPU and GPU.

 

[regnez]

Originally posted by: InFeXiOn

Originally posted by: regnez
Faster processor and another gig of ram. Your video card is fine for WoW, even with all the settings turned up.

And what kind of monitor do you have? I have never heard of 1800something x 1400something on a 22 inch- or anything else, for that matter. Maybe 1680x1050 if widescreen, or 1600x1200 if not?

No, his video card is not "fine" for WoW. I know it's not a cutting edge game, but at 1680x1050 (his max resolution on that 22'') it's just not going to cut it. My 7600GS is struggling at 30-40fps in major cities and what not on that resolution WITH a X2 4200+ and 2GB of RAM.

Depending on what kind of x800 he has, odds are good that it is better than your 7600gs. If it is an x800gto or above, then a new video card is not needed.

 

[InFeXiOn]

Originally posted by: regnez

Originally posted by: InFeXiOn

Originally posted by: regnez
Faster processor and another gig of ram. Your video card is fine for WoW, even with all the settings turned up.

And what kind of monitor do you have? I have never heard of 1800something x 1400something on a 22 inch- or anything else, for that matter. Maybe 1680x1050 if widescreen, or 1600x1200 if not?

No, his video card is not "fine" for WoW. I know it's not a cutting edge game, but at 1680x1050 (his max resolution on that 22'') it's just not going to cut it. My 7600GS is struggling at 30-40fps in major cities and what not on that resolution WITH a X2 4200+ and 2GB of RAM.

Depending on what kind of x800 he has, odds are good that it is better than your 7600gs. If it is an x800gto or above, then a new video card is not needed.

Odds also are that even if it is an x800 GTO that at 1680x1050 with everything cranked with AA and AF on (as he said he wants) then he's going to be getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of ~35-45 fps, roughly. Thus the need for a new video card. I personally think upgrading your GPU is unavoidable at this point. Although you do need a CPU upgrade as well, for WoW I'd recommend grabbing the video card first.. if you can't afford both.

 

[awb23]

I'm not sure what model of x800 it is. I got it quite awhile ago. My FPS is pretty smooth, 40-60fps without maxed settings (no AA or AF).

The only problem is the game gets choppy (like the hard drive gets accessed alot, and I'll get .5-1 second pauses every now and then) at which point it becomes somewhat unplayable, especially in the fast paced BG's. This is why I brought up I MIGHT need more than 1gb, but who knows.

About the resolution. I have no idea. I thought it was 1800x1400 something but I really can't remember (I'm not on my main computer at the moment). It's whatever the native resolution is on a 22" widescreen.


What video card do you guys recommend? I don't want to spend over 200. I just can't justify spending more than 200 on a video card. Hopefully I can get a pretty good upgrade for around 150 maybe?

 

[MDE]

WoW is a CPU\RAM hog. 2GB RAM and a faster CPU (or just overclock the one you have) is probably all you need unless you want some antialiasing, then you should look into a new video card. I play at 1600x1200 with all settings maxed and 4x AA and it runs very well, no lower than 35 FPS in "intense" areas.

 

[oynaz]

I think your best upgrade for WoW would be a faster processor. WoW is pretty CPU intensive.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: awb23
The only problem is the game gets choppy (like the hard drive gets accessed alot, and I'll get .5-1 second pauses every now and then) at which point it becomes somewhat unplayable, especially in the fast paced BG's. This is why I brought up I MIGHT need more than 1gb, but who knows.

My vote is on doubling your RAM. Sure, 1GB is fine for most places, but when it gets busy is where more RAM can avoid choppiness.

 

[Nickel020]

Originally posted by: InlineFive
WoW will not benefit from more than 1GB of memory, it's pretty well coded. What will help is a faster CPU and GPU.

Totally wrong.

WoW actually benefits most from memory. If you're raiding anf ahave like 40 Characters on screen at teh same time you need RAM. Just try a major city with 1GB and then 512MB, at the same graphics settings and it will become virtually unplayable, something like 1 FPS (I know because one of my brother's RAM sticks died and his game was unplayable at his usual settings).

Check out this thread at Elitist Jerks, all the harcore raiders pretty much agree that 2GB of RAM is a must.

Also I have 8800 GTS now in my rig, an it still gets choppy sometimes when I have lots of people on screen (1280x960, everything maxed, 4xAA).

 

[regnez]

Originally posted by: MDE
WoW is a CPU\RAM hog. 2GB RAM and a faster CPU (or just overclock the one you have) is probably all you need unless you want some antialiasing, then you should look into a new video card. I play at 1600x1200 with all settings maxed and 4x AA and it runs very well, no lower than 35 FPS in "intense" areas.

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: awb23
The only problem is the game gets choppy (like the hard drive gets accessed alot, and I'll get .5-1 second pauses every now and then) at which point it becomes somewhat unplayable, especially in the fast paced BG's. This is why I brought up I MIGHT need more than 1gb, but who knows.

My vote is on doubling your RAM. Sure, 1GB is fine for most places, but when it gets busy is where more RAM can avoid choppiness.

Originally posted by: Nickel020

Originally posted by: InlineFive
WoW will not benefit from more than 1GB of memory, it's pretty well coded. What will help is a faster CPU and GPU.

Totally wrong.

WoW actually benefits most from memory. If you're raiding anf ahave like 40 Characters on screen at teh same time you need RAM. Just try a major city with 1GB and then 512MB, at the same graphics settings and it will become virtually unplayable, something like 1 FPS (I know because one of my brother's RAM sticks died and his game was unplayable at his usual settings).

Check out this thread at Elitist Jerks, all the harcore raiders pretty much agree that 2GB of RAM is a must.

Also I have 8800 GTS now in my rig, an it still gets choppy sometimes when I have lots of people on screen (1280x960, everything maxed, 4xAA).

Damn, finally some people who agree. :thumbsup: