The Best Graphics Card for World of Warcraft?

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r_manic

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Continuing this thread (which I closed to prevent necro), what is the best card to run World of Warcraft, the latest version, all expansions installed?

I never bothered playing WoW, because it's an addicting drug that will turn my life into living hell (or so my WoW-manic friends report). So I'm relying on the benchmarks here to start of a new conversation. Looks like the GTX 260 does a great job even at higher resolutions? Then again, it is the most expensive card in the benchmark's line-up.
 

khelben1979

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Take a look here: WoW benchmarks.
 

Kithzaru

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Based on the OP....

I would agree with other posts that you would really want to upgrade your PSU first. Now, without knowing the dimensions of the case (hopefully someone with more experience with your specific computer will reply) you could look at this PSU..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008
39.99 after MIR


As far as actual performance goes, my understanding with WoW is that it is far more CPU and RAM intense than GPU intense. So you really shouldn't need to spend a lot of money on the GPU and still get decent results.

I wouldn't really recommend going with a 9600gt because for only a little bit more you could get a much better GPU. However, to give you an idea..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121318
69.99 after MIR

If you want to swing into the ATI court, then the 4770 or the 4850 is a good choice. I would have to recommend the 4850 over the 4770 though. The 4770 is an amazing GPU, but the 4850 is slightly more powerful and slightly cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824
$96.99

If you want to spend a little more and get something which will run a bit better then the gts250 is a good way to go.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143191
$119 after mir

The 4870 and the GTX260 yes will run WoW better and yes will run anything better, they do tend to be a but more pricey. (yes, i know the 4870's are having some awesome deals, but this is just in general).

I think to play WoW a 4870 or a GTX260 would be a bit overkill. Also, i don't know if that PSU i recommended would be able to handle that high of a card.

You may also want to look into maxing the RAM in the machine, especially if you multitask a bit.
 

Woody6977

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Like most have already said a $100 Radeon 4850 will smoke this game. Just make sure you have at least 2Gb of RAM under XP and 3GB of RAM under Vista. The CPU needs to be at least a mid lev. Core 2 Duo or Phenom which you can get for under $100.

Let me put it another way. My rig is as follows and the () are Newegg prices. Some of my stuff is no loner sold so I looked for the closest part.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35 (P45=$100)
Intel Quad Q6600: (Q8200=$150)
2GB DDR21066 OCZ: (Hyper-X=$37)
Asus Radeon 4850 512MB: (Saphire=$95)
Mushkin 550watt Modular: ($60.00, Yeah $60 and I have never had one fail!)

With this rig under XP I am able to convert 2 to 6 hours worth of movies to Divx and play WoW at 1920x1080 and everything turned all the way up and I get zero lag. Worry about lag issues when playing Far Cry 2, Fear 2, Bio Shock all on Vista.

Just got a surprize when getting these prices. Newegg has the 4870 for $135, the 4890 1Gb for $190, and for you Nvidia lovers the GTX275 is $210

I just purchased a HIS 4890 1Gb anyone looking to buy a Asus 4850?
 

neoanderthal

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I've got a Phenom II 720 @ 3.4 GHz, 4GB DDR2-800, and an EVGA GTX-260 (192). I play WoW (among other games) on a 27" 1920x1080 screen. I have the graphics set to 'ultra' (even shadows), AA to x8, and I get a uniform 60 fps just about everywhere. Occasionally in 'weather (rain, etc.) I will see a drop to 45 fps or so. If I drop the AA to x4, 60 fps solid, regardless.

Unless you're really, really on a budget, I'd suggest you go with at least a GTX 260. You'll be able to play most any game out there with some nice settings, and you'll never have to worry about your card being the laggard in WoW.
 

RODINE

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i have been struggling with this very question not only for years but for months.. and after reading through this thread.. i am left scratching my head.. because not only do i disagree highly with the recomendations.. i have tried them.

i have 3 GTX 260's in 3 way SLI...

Q9550 overclocked to 4Ghz watercooled
Gskill DDR3 1600mhz (underclocked to 1333mhz) 8 GB
BFG 1000 watt PSU EX series
WD Caviar black x4 in Raid 0, Cooler master raid cooler module, 1 WD caviar black for backup
XFX 790i SLI motherboard
Dell Ultrasharp 24" LCD 1920x1200


Now on to my point... on MAX ULTRA settings at 1920x1200 with my rig i get 20 - 30 FPS alone out in the game world in a zone like sholozar basin. disgustingly horrible.


Now before somebody jumps up thinking they are slick.. and spouts off .. wow does not support sli...

my machine was built first upgrading from a 9600 gt .. to ONE GTX 260.. still crappy fps so that sent me on a ticked off tangent to fix my issues... which later involved purchasing new motherboard, ram, processor, power supply.. 2 more video cards... raid... etc etc the list goes on.. and guess what.. still 30 fps with max settings...

so i have to highly disagree... wow is a very graphically intisive game as well as cpu intensive... 1 gtx 260 is not going to cut it... period.

let us see some benchmarks of systems that can pull their wait on a live server and give me respectable FPS alone, and in raid settings and i will buy that card.. until then.. i have several friends who play wow as well and they all get better FPS than i do with a single ATI 4890... AND DUO cores....

so can someone please post some benchmarks results.. live server... alone gaming and in a 25 man raid .. holding true to 60 fps or bettter.. and what system and video card solution they were using.

thanks..



 

RODINE

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somebody said 1 gtx 260 above would be overkill.....

BFG Gforce 260 GTX Three-way SLI
Q9550 overclocked to 4Ghz watercooled
Gskill DDR3 1600mhz (underclocked to 1333mhz) 8 GB
BFG 1000 watt PSU EX series
WD Caviar black x4 in Raid 0, Cooler master raid cooler module, 1 WD caviar black for backup
XFX 790i SLI motherboard
Dell Ultrasharp 24" LCD 1920x1200

















Blazing framerates







so for the Original poster.. none of these people giving you suggestions obviously play wow.. or have played in quite sometime... obviously based on facts.. they do not have a clue what they are talking about. I have a high end system.. and according to some of these posts.. my system should be able to run space shuttle launches, and sit in as a back up system for NORAD... considering 1 GTX 260 will do everything these people are claiming.. i have 3 of them and have yet to see anywhere close to these claims. and yes i have returned all three to the store 2x .. so that is... 6 different cards.... what are the chances i have recieved 6 faulty cards in a row..... my thoughts exactly... I have returned the motherboard, i have returned the ram, i have upgrade to windows 7 64bit, i have reinstalled windows over 10 times. i have reinstalled video drivers so many times i cant begin to try and remember how many times at this point. I have run on 1 card, 2 cards.. all three cards. Nothing, absolutly nothing shows me or anyone else associated with this build that anything is to blame except piss poor quality and way over hyped product results in regards to these crappy GTX 260's. I had people tell me.. over clock that Q9550.. thats the problem your processor is to weak to run those cards at 2.8ghz.. i purchased a water cooler and jacked it up to 4ghz... same FPS! shitty cards period.

use the facts people provide.. the benchmarks provided did not specify exact settings of the game.. nor if these tests were run on a private server... when it comes to wow i have found that no one really knows.. and the only people who care to respond are people that do not play the game or do not play anymore. Like the 10 year old who posted below me, obviously showing off the card his mother got him for christmas so he could wow it up on the game card that came in his stocking.

so lets see some hard evidence.. facts, pictures.. documents.. of real time gamers in extreme raid environments blazing over 60 fps.. if that data is provided.. i will buy that card.. right now.
 
G

Guest

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The notion that WoW runs perfectly on old low powered graphics cards is false. Believe me I've had more cards than most and played WoW for a long time.

There are always areas that have worse fps, dalaran is a joke and it's not unusual to be stuck around 30fps using even a 4870x2. That has more to do with the amount of people going around it.

The simple fact is, no graphics card will help much in some areas. There is one thing else - make sure you aren't running shadows at max, go one notch down and you'll see a decent improvement.
 

RODINE

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thanks for the intelligent response. some responses given have obviously recieved zero thought, and or the person did not read a thing before posting.

I agree 100%.. i have been playing wow since a little after original release. And i am a hardcore raider to date. FPS means everything in my world of max dps. and my problem as stated above, i read apparent false information on advertised, and on forums alike about the cards i finally chose to purchase. And to date, the cards have failed to deliver on my anticipated performance based on others input from forum after forum.

nobodys system is exactly the same.. although i have figured out that most likely the people bragging about the 260 most likely are not playing at a high resolution and or are not playing at TRUE ULTRA settings. and may also have failed to set up their video settings in the driver properly... because you can turn off AA and all sorts of other goodies in the driver.. and have the game set to 8x to make it appear like your settings are on ultra and they are by no means close to it.

this is actually my 2nd system since my race for higher fps.. the first system started with a single card upgrade and that was the 260gtx. and that did absolutly nothing for me. since i had an EVGA 750i with a E8500 at the time i went ahead and purchased another card hoping for at min a small boost in frame rates... and once again nothing... i tried ocing the E8500, but came to find out that the EVGA 750i did not like speeds over 3.5ghz at all.. so i switched to a quad core off of the EVGA cpu support list based on that motherboard.. then i came to find out based on many a user input.. that EVGA had made a typo.. although their support list had never been updated.. i had purchased my Q9550... which would not work in that motherboard... so i went back to the drawing board and got the 790i, new psu, 2 more 260's, water cooler, new ram... 4 new hard drives... and i am still stuck at 30'ish FPS at TRUE ULTRA settings as the pictures above show, also in dalaran a blazing 7 fps on my listed system.


and wow is not graphically intensive...? i get better FPS in crysis warhead at max settings on my system than i do in world of warcraft.... now repeat that grphcially intensive hype again?

thus my search for a quality graphics card continues.
 
G

Guest

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Something is wrong with your dalaran fps btw. Unless you are playing on an incredibly busy server and have a poor inet connection you should be getting 30ish fps even on max with your hardware.
 

RODINE

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Something is wrong with your dalaran fps btw. Unless you are playing on an incredibly busy server and have a poor inet connection you should be getting 30ish fps even on max with your hardware.












yes something is def wrong. its called Nvidia video cards.
 
G

Guest

Guest
As much as I can't stand Nvidia I'm not about to go that far.

You had shadows at max, I told you that was the #1 reason why the fps went to hell.

Take another screenshot with the shadows at one below max, I bet you are in the 20's at least. Even when I had the 5850 it just couldn't do max shadows - it's not a graphics card issue I'm pretty sure it's a wow issue.
 

RODINE

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i know of several ATI CARD users that i raid with who play on ultra. I disagree. its an Nvidia issue. not a wow issue.

I appriciate any input.. but show me data, facts to support your theory.

Lowering graphics settings is unacceptable.

You wouldnt purchase a 5000 furnace for your home, and when it costs more to run than what you expected.. would you make you and your family suffer by lowering it to 50 deg instead of 70.. No, youd go after the manufacturer, and demand the performance that you paid for.
 
G

Guest

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Uhh.

I can show you 60fps on max settings anwhere, then when I go to Dalaran it's 34fps.

You won't find a single graphics card that can maintain 60fps at all times in wow. Not now, probably not ever.

Anybody who has ATI cards and is telling you that they maintain a perfect 60+fps at ALL times on MAX settings is a liar plain and simple.
 

RODINE

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Uhh.

I can show you 60fps on max settings anwhere, then when I go to Dalaran it's 34fps.

You won't find a single graphics card that can maintain 60fps at all times in wow. Not now, probably not ever.

Anybody who has ATI cards and is telling you that they maintain a perfect 60+fps at ALL times on MAX settings is a liar plain and simple.


EXACTLY... which is exactly why the people above in this thread are idiots. trying to sell people that wow is not graphically intensive.


and by "anywhere" you mean ICC 25 AOE pulls and everything... , ulduar siege vehicles on the way to flame leviathan... so anywhere but dalaran.. meter pegged at 60...

and reading what is said above... one could imply that the graphical demands in wow are equal to or if not greater than crysis.
 
No, when they say that they mean you are far more bound by a weak CPU than a weak GPU in making things playable. They don't say you might not need to learn how to adjust the sliders from right to left.

And this is related to the original post that asked about 'near maximum; settings not at 'max Ultra'.

Also if you think you need 60fps to play WOW then you're not doing it right.

You may be a WOW fanboi, who searched out this thread in google just to post to it, but no one really cares, as it relates to the original thread which is even older than the August 2009 of this OLD thread, it addresses the question.

FAQin' wow n00bz !! [:mousemonkey:2]

[:thegreatgrapeape:7]


 
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