Blizzard Reveals WoW: Cataclysm System Specs

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[citation][nom]tallpaul02[/nom]mac needs more power to play the game because OSX uses more system resources than Windows typically.[/citation]
Kind of, but not really.

Mac uses Open GL, which is not NEARLY as optimized as DirectX.
Furthermore, video card vendors optimize their drivers as much as they can on Windows, as they know many Windows users play games. On Mac OS X, they don't care as much, as a VERY small percentage of the Mac user-base uses 3d applications on a daily basis.

So it actually really isn't Apple's fault on this one. Except for the fact that they could probably help OpenGL development a TON if they really wanted to (which would help the lonely Linux people like me :-D).

More optimized drivers for Mac will come from the video card vendors once Apple and the Mac user base needs it. Which--considering Steam is now on Mac--will probably happen sooner rather then later. Only a matter of time.

MAYBE someday OpenGL will be the golden standard for games instead of DirectX. Which will be fantastic for those who prefer to not use Windows, as cross platform games will become more of a reality.
[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]Is this game working offline?I'd love if they create a game like Sony's Phantasy Star Universe, where you have an offline story mode, and can go online, for online playing with a subscription.[/citation]Ummm... No.
 
I don't see OpenGL taking the forefront of game graphics standards again. The reason OpenGL lost in the first place was because it was difficult to write in, you were limited in performance and some functionality was unattainable. That is not to say that OpenGL is bad, it does say that OpenGL was not written for making video games. It was designed for CAD style 3d work. The format I'm looking forward to since it could, if implemented properly sit across most devices for programming and certain aspects of rendering is OpenCL. This could make cross-platform porting much much easier, allowing for games in Windows, Linux, and Mac to only be limited by the quality of the drivers for the devices, if I understand OpenCL correctly.
 
[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]Yikes, why does Mac take twice the memory? And why does a "mobile" mac need so much more graphics processing power than a "desktop" mac? Doesn't really affect me, but those reqs seem odd.[/citation]

It doesn't need that much more graphics power perse ... its just that there is little between an Intel chip and those mentioned above in mac notebooks. The same goes for the dual core requirement, the only macs that have a single core x86 CPU use Intel grfx chips and where shipped with 512meg of ram. Apple style minimum and recommended system requirements would be something like,

Minimum: 20" imac or black ibook or newer
Recommended: unibody macbook or imac

A few years back when they ran PPC it was not uncommon for the requirements to be even more cryptic for non mac users like imac snowy or newer. This might seem weird but since apple only upgrades each line roughly once every two years and the components of the mac's sold are pretty much unchanged during the run of a model its an easy way for not so tech savy users to know if they can run the software.
 
I may be wrong on this, but from what I understand, Unix-based operating systems like Mac OSX (and Linux too, I think) never run the original programs themselves. It makes a copy of it and runs that. It's more stable that way, but it does use more memory.
 
[citation][nom]Ragnar-Kon[/nom]Kind of, but not really.Mac uses Open GL, which is not NEARLY as optimized as DirectX.Furthermore, video card vendors optimize their drivers as much as they can on Windows, as they know many Windows users play games. On Mac OS X, they don't care as much, as a VERY small percentage of the Mac user-base uses 3d applications on a daily basis.So it actually really isn't Apple's fault on this one. Except for the fact that they could probably help OpenGL development a TON if they really wanted to (which would help the lonely Linux people like me :-D).More optimized drivers for Mac will come from the video card vendors once Apple and the Mac user base needs it. Which--considering Steam is now on Mac--will probably happen sooner rather then later. Only a matter of time.MAYBE someday OpenGL will be the golden standard for games instead of DirectX. Which will be fantastic for those who prefer to not use Windows, as cross platform games will become more of a reality.Ummm... No.[/citation]


Actually OpenGl lost the battle a long time ago read here http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/opengl-directx,review-31330-6.html

Also DX11 goes to Linux read here
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/windows-gaming-in-linux-with-winex-2,review-475-2.html
 
[citation][nom]lukeiamyourfather[/nom]Also the unemployment benefits application paperwork because you got fired for skipping work.[/citation]

dont forget the possible devorse if you had a life prior to wow
 
So can I play this if I never bought any of the other expansions before? Or do you have to have them all stacked together to get this one? I might be interested in getting into this game just to explore the new worlds this expansion offers.
 
[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]If you have only the minimum system specs, you better have your viewing distance (and most other video effects) turned way down. Otherwise, you would be standing in Dalaran and think your system locked up (you'd be getting about 1 FPS).[/citation]

Actually even with the recommended specs you'd want view distance and everything else down!
On a dualcore i5 with 4GB memory and a current generation ati card, I'm still seeing just about 30fps at 'fair' settings with the current patch (on a laptop).

And on my quadcore with 6GB memory and 3 ati cards in cf I still can't hit vsync limit in most places.

Anyway with those unrealistic requirements I guess they still haven't created a much needed 64bit client. Sad indeed! It crashes like 3 times a day due to running out of memory as it is.
 
[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]Yikes, why does Mac take twice the memory? And why does a "mobile" mac need so much more graphics processing power than a "desktop" mac? Doesn't really affect me, but those reqs seem odd.[/citation]

With twice the computing power you will be lucky to get half the FPS on a mac.
 
ps the last patch doubled the space requirements, making it unable to patch the game while it was hosted on a first generation raptor drive. So the actual usable space requirement probably dictates having free space at least equal to the size of the base game installation.
 
[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]Actually even with the recommended specs you'd want view distance and everything else down!On a dualcore i5 with 4GB memory and a current generation ati card, I'm still seeing just about 30fps at 'fair' settings with the current patch (on a laptop).And on my quadcore with 6GB memory and 3 ati cards in cf I still can't hit vsync limit in most places.Anyway with those unrealistic requirements I guess they still haven't created a much needed 64bit client. Sad indeed! It crashes like 3 times a day due to running out of memory as it is.[/citation]
Yeah, I've got an i5 quad-core, 8GB ram, and a Radeon HD 5850 and I'm still getting low framerates (~30) in Dalaran. This all happened after the patch 4.0.1, so I don't know if it's just that many more people are back in the game now or if they pooched something in the patch. They'll get it sorted out, they always do. It'd also be nice if they could take care of the glitch where you frequently disconnect when trying to summon the Headless Horseman for the daily.
 
[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]Yikes, why does Mac take twice the memory? And why does a "mobile" mac need so much more graphics processing power than a "desktop" mac? Doesn't really affect me, but those reqs seem odd.[/citation]

Anything mobile consumes less power and so ends up not achieving the same amount of "processing power" compared to its desktop relatives. An i7 desktop is quite a but different than i7 mobile.
 
[citation][nom]Andernerd[/nom]This is kind of funny... notice how on Windows (or WINE, I bet!) you can play with a 1.3ghz processor, half the memory, and less graphics power - whereas Mac users will need a minimum of 2 cores.[/citation]

I'm just wondering why the Recommended Video Card for a windows desktop is 2X that of a mac in the ram side, and one gen higher on the physical side? Am I the only one who noticed that? Or were the anti-apple people the only ones who really cared to go into nit-pickin the other platform ;D

But seriously.. I don't know why a couple of ya'll are getting such low frame rates.. I'm currently running wow on my i7 920 rig, GTX 285, with 4gb of ram @ 1600mhz. Everything is running at stock speeds atm and i've got everything maxed at 1920-1200 and i rarely drop below 50 frames a second..

 
I have a i7-930 6GB RAM with a GTS 250 1GB - and I rarely get below 60 fps in Dalaran - even when I forget to turn off Human Tracking after questing and dailies.

Update your mods, I know I had to turn some off until they updated, because they messed with the client.
 
It's nice to know the minimum Requirements and I personally use the Recommended Requirements as the minimum baseline. When WotLK came out, I was able to run it on a single core Athlon with about 1GB ram and an IGP. The problem was ALL the settings were at the lowest posible settings and I could not port to Dalaran without dropping below 10 fps.

Now the real question is what do we need to run high to max settings at 1600x900 (or larger ) while doing a 25-man raid.
 
i'll say the 4.0.1 kicked my system's tail for sure... its almost like a single core athlon at 2.2 GHz isn't enough anymore >_< no biggie upgrading soon till then i'm playing wow at low settings and 600x800
 
[citation][nom]davewolfgang[/nom]I have a i7-930 6GB RAM with a GTS 250 1GB - and I rarely get below 60 fps in Dalaran - even when I forget to turn off Human Tracking after questing and dailies. Update your mods, I know I had to turn some off until they updated, because they messed with the client.[/citation]
I deleted all of my addons and downloaded only those made for 4.0.x, but I still get lag in Dalaran (not all the time, mostly at night during prime time). It's annoying, but not that big of an issue since the game is 60 FPS everywhere else, even in raids.
 
[citation][nom]JOSHSKORN[/nom]Maybe if Blizzard were to release more CPU & GPU demanding games, it would force most users to upgrade their PCs so they're able to play other demanding games. We'd end up with less MMORPG players and maybe more FPS gamers.[/citation]

Right, FPS fanboy. Anyone who doesn't play your games at your spec is wrong. Maybe roads should force you to buy a newer car so that you can go faster.
Bit sad that you want to try and force people to upgrade just because you can't handle them being happy playing an older looking game.
 
[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]Yeah, I've got an i5 quad-core, 8GB ram, and a Radeon HD 5850 and I'm still getting low framerates (~30) in Dalaran. This all happened after the patch 4.0.1, so I don't know if it's just that many more people are back in the game now or if they pooched something in the patch. They'll get it sorted out, they always do. It'd also be nice if they could take care of the glitch where you frequently disconnect when trying to summon the Headless Horseman for the daily.[/citation]

Think the supposedly upgraded graphics effects are at fault for the poor fps in dala. But even before the patch my system's been performing fairly poorly. I was hoping the 'multimonitor support' announced in the patch notes would fix it, but curiously enough it merely broke multi monitor support even more.

I'm sure they'll fix it. Next year or something.

ps. yesterday the HH bug wasn't an issue, as the login and realm servers in europe were down pretty much until late evening.
 
Seriously if you want to complain about low frame rates check them first outside dalaran. The network is just under heavy load and the frame drops and low frame rates in dalaran are just as much blizzards fault for releasing a patch as it is the fault of the 500+ wankers that feel like they should run circles in dalaran constantly.

In time when the network demands go down and people wont massively go to dalaran to respec their characters frame rates will be back to normal (and though normal might be 60fps in the rest of the world and raids in a place like dalaran it will always be lower then that). On my old Radeon 5450 i get 26fps on normal settings with a resolution of 1920x1080@60hz while i get about 9 in dalaran. Now on my new GTX 260 on high settings and the same resolution i get 60fps anywhere and again around 9 in dalaran.
 
[citation][nom]hemelskonijn[/nom]Seriously if you want to complain about low frame rates check them first outside dalaran. The network is just under heavy load and the frame drops and low frame rates in dalaran are just as much blizzards fault for releasing a patch as it is the fault of the 500+ wankers that feel like they should run circles in dalaran constantly.[/citation]

I did check outside dalaran. If I am flying over trees (wasn't an issue in 2009) the system'll slow down too, so it's definetly a graphics issue. Often when I fly from dalaran to naxx (weekly etc), I'll crash on my way there because of it. And even in eastern plaguelands, where nobody resides anymore, I'm occassionally running low 10s or less. Has something to do with how they tried to make the spritemapped trees into branched ones with sprites attached to the branches.

In short - dala fps might in part be network load, but it's not just that.
My server's only got 23k players (rated low or medium in population), and I've got a 50mbit connection ; if that is enough to overload blizzards network, they might want to hire me to help build their server park, cause all it takes is 3x dual 10Gbit intel adapters and windows 2008 r2 or linux 2.6 to satiate (if we assume all players are logged in at once, and use 2mbit each on average).
 
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