Which card for WoW on a 22" widescreen?

[b3av3r]

I am currently running WoW on my 19" screen and it runs alright. However, I plan on upgrading my entire system basically and upgrade to a C2D system. I am very confused on video card choices and options since I typically don't do anything graphic extensive and bargain cards have always worked for me.

WoW will be the most video extensive application on my system otherwise it is used for internet, Word, etc. I have a budget although I am not exactly sure what it is at the moment so the video card that will give me the best bang for my buck, not the highest end, would probably be what I am looking for.

What options would you guys recommend?

 

[Noema]

WoW is not a GPU intensive game by today's standards.

I used to play it on my 22" with all settings maxed @ 1680x1050 with a 7800GS AGP and it ran great.

This X1950Pro should handle the game very, very well, considering it's a good 20-25% faster than my old 7800GS.

 

[Sonikku]

WoW likes fast CPU's first and fore most. Ram would be second, 1 gig will do. 1.5 if you run a lot of applications in the background. The Core 2 Duo will by far make the biggest difference in performance. As for a card, eh. WoW runs about as well on my old 9600XT as it does on my X800XT AIOW in all but the highest of resolutions. The X1950pro is almost overkill for what you need.

 

[Noema]

Well, the X1950Pro is only $137, and it does offer excellent bang for the buck.

Plus it will allow him to crank the AA and AF in WoW even at 1680x1050. I mean, if he's just going to play one game, might as well make it look good.

 

[b3av3r]

thanks for the replies and for easing my nerves at the price too, $137 is a lot cheaper than I was expecting it to be

I am currently running 1GB of RAM however once I switch over to C2D I will be upping it to 2GB

 

[FrozenPie]

My friend runs WoW at 1024x768 resolution on a crappy igp and was wondering what kind of dirt cheap video to upgrade to. His comp is the Compaq Presario SR1603WM that he bought a while ago. He recently upgraded to 1 gig of ram. bought this from newegg
He isnt made of money so what would be the best card for him to play WoW and only WoW?
He budget is around $50 and I was thinking of a 8400gs? if only he was richer and had a few more bucks and maybe he could get the 7600gs or 7600gt...

what would you guys recommend? he just need something good enough to get decent fps

*btw this is his mobo A8AE-LE (AmberineM)

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: FrozenPie
My friend runs WoW at 1024x768 resolution on a crappy igp and was wondering what kind of dirt cheap video to upgrade to. His comp is the Compaq Presario SR1603WM that he bought a while ago. He recently upgraded to 1 gig of ram. bought this from newegg
He isnt made of money so what would be the best card for him to play WoW and only WoW?
He budget is around $50 and I was thinking of a 8400gs? if only he was richer and had a few more bucks and maybe he could get the 7600gs or 7600gt...

what would you guys recommend? he just need something good enough to get decent fps

*btw this is his mobo A8AE-LE (AmberineM)

For that price range I would seriously consider Ebay. Maybe a Radeon X800XL... I have an AIW X800XL in my secondary box and it plays WoW fine, even at 1680x1050 with 4xAA/16xAF. It struggles a bit at 1920x1200 (have to bump back AA to 2x), but it should be a great card for your friend.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: b3av3r
I am currently running WoW on my 19" screen and it runs alright. However, I plan on upgrading my entire system basically and upgrade to a C2D system. I am very confused on video card choices and options since I typically don't do anything graphic extensive and bargain cards have always worked for me.

WoW will be the most video extensive application on my system otherwise it is used for internet, Word, etc. I have a budget although I am not exactly sure what it is at the moment so the video card that will give me the best bang for my buck, not the highest end, would probably be what I am looking for.

What options would you guys recommend?

What kind of card do you have now?

I think BF2 is more demanding than WOW and I can BF2 with medium-high settings with my current setup on a 22" ws

 

[*kjm]

FrozenPie THIS would be a good card for him. Just make sure he has the supply to run it.

 

[woolfe9999]

I have run WoW on many different platforms since the game was released in 04, starting with an old Radeon 8500pro, then a 7600gt, and now an 8800 GTS. Various CPU's as well.

IMO it's a bit of a myth that WoW doesn't demand good hardware. It depends what you're doing in game. Sometimes with endgame raiding you can have 70+ player and NPC bots on the screen with lots of spell effects. I've had WoW run my current C2D e7750/8800 GTS rig down to 30 FPS in stretches sometimes in raid dungeons. The suppression rooms in pre-xpack blackwing lair used to run my 7600 gt rig down to 16-18 fps sustained for a half an hour. OTOH, outside of raiding, any old hardware will run the game liquid smooth.

- woolfe

 

[Sonikku]

All true. I recently played WoW high up on a flying mount with terrain distance maxed with full quality settings @ 1280x800 and my framerate dinked to 14fps with a brand new E6750 C2D, 2 gigs of DDR2 800 ram and an X1950XT 256mb card. Getting passable framerates in WoW is easy. Getting excellent ones in all aspects of the game are not.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The game runs fine on my laptop... single core Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB of PC2700, and an ATI X200 graphics chipset, which, as far as I've heard, is one of the worst graphics chipsets / cards you can get.

As others said, the processor and memory count for a lot more than the graphics card. An X1950 Pro or 7600GT / 7900GS should be plenty.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: woolfe9999
I have run WoW on many different platforms since the game was released in 04, starting with an old Radeon 8500pro, then a 7600gt, and now an 8800 GTS. Various CPU's as well.

IMO it's a bit of a myth that WoW doesn't demand good hardware. It depends what you're doing in game. Sometimes with endgame raiding you can have 70+ player and NPC bots on the screen with lots of spell effects. I've had WoW run my current C2D e7750/8800 GTS rig down to 30 FPS in stretches sometimes in raid dungeons. The suppression rooms in pre-xpack blackwing lair used to run my 7600 gt rig down to 16-18 fps sustained for a half an hour. OTOH, outside of raiding, any old hardware will run the game liquid smooth.

- woolfe

most that think WoW needs minor hardware have not experienced this kind of thing.

There have been times when I have so much going on my screen I swear I am going to BSOD...fortunately I don't

Except now there is that freaking nvidia bug since expansion 2.0 I am caught with. Some places I just freeze, others I am at full FPS. sucks.

 

[CurseTheSky]

^ Agreed. My 8800GTX gets down to the teens for FPS once in a while. It doesn't seem to happen in any other game / application, so I'm convinced it's something with WoW.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
^ Agreed. My 8800GTX gets down to the teens for FPS once in a while. It doesn't seem to happen in any other game / application, so I'm convinced it's something with WoW.

It's mostly outdoors in the outlands.

If you go inside any building there and set your character up so it can't 'see outside' FPS goes to your limit.

Blizz has been non-responsive. The thread there on this is up to 200 pages+