World of Warcraft at 1920x1200.

[Mozillauser]

Hello

Started playing world of warcraft (again). I have a Dell 2407WFP 24" and a Sapphire X1600XT (256 mb) video card. My optimal resolution is 1920x1200, however, at that resolution the game acts sloppy and slow in a way. By using Ati tray tools I saw that my FPS is around 30-35 and when testing at 1024x768 the FPS is 60, quite a difference. I've tried to adjust the ingame graphical settings to a lower configuration, but that wont help.

Do i need a new video card? Maybe my video card memory is simply to low.
If the video card is the problem, What Video Card would you recomend?

This is a list of my current hardware:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz Socket
Memory: G.Skill DDR2 PC2-6400 DDR2-800 HZ 2X1GB.
Motherboard: Asus P5B DLX/WIFI-AP, P965, Socket-775,
Case : Antec Sonata II Miditower .450W
Harddrive: Western Digital Raptor 36GB SATA 16MB 10000RPM
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express

Thanks for all help and advice.

 

[postmortemIA]

Yeah, gaming at 1920x1200 requires high end card, not mainstream.

You can try to play on 1600x1200 if you cna set up 1:1 mapping, or 1280x800/1440x900/1680x1050 if you want to preserve aspect ratio.

 

[Mozillauser]

Thanks for your response.
I'm probably buying an end game card soon, NVIDIA or Ati?. I?m not that updated on video cards and what cards I should wait for. I?m not buying a sapphire card again, because I?ve had a lot of heat issues with mine, had to remove the thermal paste a week ago because the paste they applied had dried out.

Saw that the latest NVIDIA cards has up to 640 onboard video memory, seems nice and probably enough for me.

 

[Fraggable]

As long as the card you pick has 512MB of memory you'll be fine. The 8800GTS has 320 or 640 and the GTX has 768, but if you can't afford the 8800GTS 640, then a 7950GT with 512MB would be fine. Also, a X1900XT or up would work ok too. Just make sure you pick the 512MB versions because some will come in cheaper 256MB versions also, and that wouldn't work out so well for a display of that size.

 

[chizow]

The latest 320MB GTS review at HOCP showed anything above an X1900 locking frames at 60+ FPS at 1920 in WoW. 8800s seem to have quite a few issues with WoW still so that's something to consider. The X1900+ should give you similar performance without as many problems but you give up future DX10 compliance. I'd check out the NV Gaming forums and see how serious the unresolved issues are, but I know there's a lot of people having problems with 8-series cards and WoW.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: chizow
The latest 320MB GTS review at HOCP showed anything above an X1900 locking frames at 60+ FPS at 1920 in WoW. 8800s seem to have quite a few issues with WoW still so that's something to consider. The X1900+ should give you similar performance without as many problems but you give up future DX10 compliance. I'd check out the NV Gaming forums and see how serious the unresolved issues are, but I know there's a lot of people having problems with 8-series cards and WoW.

Only problem I ever had was in the Outlands with Arrakoa villages causing the computer to lock up completely. Of course, I also had (and maybe still have) this issue with playing videos and WoW at the same time. Other than that, I don't know where these "quite a few" numbers are coming from.

Oh and I've also seen over 400 FPS in WoW before on my 8800GTX at 1680x1050 at full graphics .

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Only problem I ever had was in the Outlands with Arrakoa villages causing the computer to lock up completely. Of course, I also had (and maybe still have) this issue with playing videos and WoW at the same time. Other than that, I don't know where these "quite a few" numbers are coming from.

Oh and I've also seen over 400 FPS in WoW before on my 8800GTX at 1680x1050 at full graphics .

Idk what the specific issues are, I just know that 20-30% of the threads in the NV gaming forums are WoW/8800 related. Seems like a lot of the problems popped up with BC expansion.

HOCP probably enabled Vsync, which is ideal on a large LCD anyways to avoid tearing. Not much point in having 400 FPS if its one big blurry/ripped mess.

 

[nitromullet]

I haven't had any problems playing WoW on an 8-series card on either XP or Vista.

 

[Mozillauser]

okay, thanks again, quick responses.
I feel a bit more updated on video cards now

 

[MDE]

I play on an X1900XT 512MB at 1600x1200 with 4x AA and I don't have any complaints.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: chizow
Idk what the specific issues are, I just know that 20-30% of the threads in the NV gaming forums are WoW/8800 related. Seems like a lot of the problems popped up with BC expansion.

If you see any examples of the threads, please post them here so I can take a peak at them. I'd like to see if I have seen any of these issues before.

Originally posted by: chizow
HOCP probably enabled Vsync, which is ideal on a large LCD anyways to avoid tearing. Not much point in having 400 FPS if its one big blurry/ripped mess.

Oh I know it's VSync and I turned it off. 400 FPS looked fine though .

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
If you see any examples of the threads, please post them here so I can take a peak at them. I'd like to see if I have seen any of these issues before.

Oh I know it's VSync and I turned it off. 400 FPS looked fine though .

NV MMO Forums

Seems like most of the complaints are about low FPS. Not sure how much of that is hardware/software/driver problems unrelated to the 8800s, but that shouldn't really be a complaint considering WoW is relatively light in terms of graphics requirements. Also seems to be a lot of crashing in certain zones in BC. I do remember a comment by an AT user saying they crashed a lot in some end-game zone where they spend most of their time raiding.

As for Vsync, I'm pretty sure it'd be required on a 2407 (unless the A04 fixed it) to avoid serious tearing/artifacting. Even after I enabled Vsync there was considerable motion blurring/morphing on the A03 I had for about two weeks. If you have a faster panel with a higher refresh and lower resolution or a CRT 400 FPS might be fine but idk about a 2407 @ 1920.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: chizow
NV MMO Forums

Seems like most of the complaints are about low FPS. Not sure how much of that is hardware/software/driver problems unrelated to the 8800s, but that shouldn't really be a complaint considering WoW is relatively light in terms of graphics requirements. Also seems to be a lot of crashing in certain zones in BC. I do remember a comment by an AT user saying they crashed a lot in some end-game zone where they spend most of their time raiding.

Wow, it seems the problematic cards really are all over... 6-series, 7-series, G80's.

But I'm really not sure what to say about this. I mean, like I mentioned, I've only ever had one specific WoW issue with the Arrakoa (bird people) villages in Terokkar Forest, but other than that, I've had a fairly flawless time. In fact, the other day, I was running two WoW's at once in Windowed mode (non-maximized) with one on each monitor and all video settings maxed :Q! Of course at times it didn't really like this much (data access and switching had to have been really taxing), but for the most part I saw 40+fps on each game at the same time.

 

[happy medium]

There should be x1950gt's out in a week or so with 512mb of memory and under 200.00$. I say just be patient and save yourself more than a hundred bucks to play Wow at high res. For Wow a 8800 series is overkill.

Edit: heres a 1950gt 512mb for 237.00$ and they just came out. They will drop the prices fast once New Egg and other main stream sites get them. They have one for AGP too soon.

http://www.stonebridgecomputing.com.au/catalog/-p-6812.html

 

[QuantumPion]

I have an 8800gtx and play at 1600x1200. I can use 4x anti-aliasing just fine but at 8x I get some slowdowns when there is a lot going on (multiple aoe spells, raids, etc).

 

[Zebo]

I would get anything less tan a 640MB GTS at 19x12 - these guys all have you on the edge with their recs and poor price/performance.

Get this and be happy for awile
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122018

 

[Rinaun]

nvm. Get a 8800 GTS 640 if you can. Worth ti imo.

 

[swatX]

Originally posted by: Rinaun
nvm. Get a 8800 GTS 640 if you can. Worth ti imo.

One of my suitemate bought a 8800gts 640mb and i was very impressed with the card. Worth it if u have a nice lcd and play on high resolution with everything turned on.

PS: if u are getting 8800gts, i recommend getting either Evga or BFG 8800gts 640mb

 

[secretanchitman]

my 7900GT (overclocked to 550/800) works nicely with WoW at 1920x1080 4xAA/8xAF. 60fps...rig is in my sig.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

8800 cards and WoW enjoy the 11 pages even I posted in it.


Link

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
my 7900GT (overclocked to 550/800) works nicely with WoW at 1920x1080 4xAA/8xAF. 60fps...rig is in my sig.

The NEW x1950gt performance is on par with a 7900gt and should be around 175.00$ out soon. Don't buy a 400.00$ video card unless you need it! This guys running a pent D too.
In my opinion the only thing you'll need a 8800 for (in WoW) is 200 fps which looks the same as 60fps. Unless you play first person shooters (waiting for Crysis?) your wasting your money on a 8800.

 

[QuantumPion]

If you have a dual core cpu, you can't get above 62 fps anyway, as WoW now utilizes dual cores but is framerate limited (like vsync I guess).

 

[Mozillauser]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
my 7900GT (overclocked to 550/800) works nicely with WoW at 1920x1080 4xAA/8xAF. 60fps...rig is in my sig.

The NEW x1950gt performance is on par with a 7900gt and should be around 175.00$ out soon. Don't buy a 400.00$ video card unless you need it! This guys running a pent D too.
In my opinion the only thing you'll need a 8800 for (in WoW) is 200 fps which looks the same as 60fps. Unless you play first person shooters (waiting for Crysis?) your wasting your money on a 8800.

Hm, true. However, X1950Pro have better Benchmark and Gaming results compared to the new x1950gt, the gt may be a bit cheaper, i'll probably go for the X1950 Pro Gigabyte (512). The gt and pro version has about the same price range here in Sweden .

 

[Aikouka]

Pfft, I like my WoW set at 16xQ AA and 16xQ AF... but I guess some of us can live being sub-par .

 

[chizow]

Running max quality etc. is all fine and good, but being greeted with a BSOD every time you enter a certain zone isn't. I haven't played WoW but I know that a wide spread and repeatable bug like this is more than just a nuisance. I'm not sure how much time people spend in the zones that cause crashing, but in an MMORPG the problem can vary from being annoying to making the game unplayable.

All the recommendations for a G80 are nice if the OP actually has an interest in playing other games. Being the ex-MMO junky that I am, I'd choose a card for compatibilty over image quality as long as both provided similar frame rates. My brother and a few cousins sneak time in WoW when their wives aren't looking and they've specifically said they won't upgrade to an 8800 until the problems are fixed. IQ and a few more unnoticeable FPS are great until half your guild crashes during a raid.