Building a World of Warcraft Machine $700

[NosBoost300]

I think the requirements too run the lich king expansion are going to be bumped, so I would get an 8800gt and be ready for it at this point.

its world of warcraft... a 6800gs played that game full.. an 8600gt would cream the crap outta it.. unless he was playing on a 30 inch monitor or something...

 

[Preacher]

My 9600XT played it on high 50fps. When i played it on this rig i got like 100-120 fps, on stock

 

[NosBoost300]

isnt the game capped to 60?

 

[wolfeyes89]

its world of warcraft... a 6800gs played that game full.. an 8600gt would cream the crap outta it.. unless he was playing on a 30 inch monitor or something...

Yeah it plays it on full but not all that smoothly, and I didn't say the 8600 wouldn't handle WOW. I said it wouldn't handle the lich king expansion all that well, because looking at some screens it has better graphics than WOW, or Burning Crusade. Although noting is official yet.

Ive played WOW on a 6800GT, and it wasn't all that smooth when you try a raid MC Core with 40+raid members (Although those days are long gone ).

 

[NosBoost300]

if a 7900gt did it dang well.. i think a 8600gt/s would do it just as good...

and do expansion packs really ever make games look better?

 

[wolfeyes89]

a 7900 is better than a 8600 in terms of fps.... A 7900 or 7950 would actually be a good buy for him, seeing as how WOW isnt DX-10, or maybe even a 1950, whichever he finds cheaper. Trust me an 8600 will bog down in a raid at max settings.
Theres also a crap load of rumors about the 8600 not being WOW friendly, I don't know if its the Drivers but go check the WOW forums for yourself.

I didnt say anything was official, but there are some rumors in the WOW forums about the lich king expansion getting a revamp in the graphics engine. And some screens do look pretty good, although who know if thats real gameplay we all know how that works.....

 

[Capricorn]

I believe that Blizzard does update the graphics from time-to-time. After several of the patch releases, I've had to update the latest Nvidia drivers for my card to resolve issues. If they weren't changing anything, that should not ever be the case.

I also second the recommendation that 2GB of RAM is a good idea. Windows XP and WoW fit in under the 1GB limit usually, but if you need to run Ventrilo and maybe a web browser to check out something (e.g., look up a quest by alt-tabbing out of the game), you're likely to exceed 1GB and start using virtual memory (i.e., swapping memory to/from disk).

 

[NosBoost300]

i stlil don't know about the 8800gt... i think you could go look for a receritified 7800gt/gtx on newegg for cheaper.. but if you can afford the 8800gt.. then by all means go for it!

 

[Capricorn]

I think the 8800 GT is the card to get for the mid-range gaming PC. It's faster than the 8800 GTS' for less money. I also agree that it's not needed for WoW. I have everything turned on with my 7900 GTX and still get frame rates of 150 fps or more. That said .. you may just want to play some other games occasionally that would make use of the 8800 GT.

 

[wolfeyes89]

I also second the recommendation that 2GB of RAM is a good idea. Windows XP and WoW fit in under the 1GB limit usually, but if you need to run Ventrilo and maybe a web browser to check out something (e.g., look up a quest by alt-tabbing out of the game), you're likely to exceed 1GB and start using virtual memory (i.e., swapping memory to/from disk).

Agreed, If your going to be playing in windowed mode (Fullscreen too, in fullscreen the difference in ram could be enormous seeing as how you have to minimize often)to use thottbot 2gbs is needed. Also lets not forget itunes or w/e music program you use, +vent, and your memory at 1gb could be pushing it.