WoW @ max settings

[brillj]

Looking for a little advice as I know very little about video cards. The only game I play is WoW, and I'm wanting to upgrade to something that will allow me to play with all settings maxed out.

My current rig consists of an AMD 64 X2 4600+, 3GB RAM, and a crappy nVidia 7500LE. I play at 1680x1050. Would upgrading to an HD3850 256mb allow me to reach my goal?

 

[soccerballtux]

Yes definitely.

 

[Aznguy1872]

I would probably push it to a 512 mb card instead just because you are playing at that res.

 

[zeroburrito]

res not high enough for the ram to really matter.

 

[taltamir]

I maxed out wow back in the day using a 7900GS... so yes, you will max it out.

 

[Glayde]

A lot of wow fps performance is also determined by your UI mods.

If you're using a lot of mods, some poorly written mods may hurt yuor performance a bit.

 

[Ares202]

yeh i maxed out WOW on my 7800gt on 1680x1050 so id reccomend the 3850 which is about 40% faster than my old 7800

 

[Anubis]

im currently running a DC opty 150 @ stock with a 7600 GT and i can max settings in WoW, 2 gigs or ram win xp

1680*1050

and as glayde said mods impact preformance a ton, update or convert to ACE mods and prformance will go up

 

[nitromullet]

AA settings can also affect WoW fps a lot as well. I really like using SuperSampling-transparency AA (forced via the driver) with WoW because it has a lot of vegetation that benefits from it. With an 8800GTX @ 1920x1200 with 8xSStrAA/16xAF I get fps dips down into the 20s, especially in terokkar forest. That being said the game also plays quite well on a 7900GS with 4xAA/16xAF at 1920x1200, so I'm pretty sure that an HD3850 will work wonderfully with for what the OP wants.

 

[Tebor0]

I run WoW Maxed at 1900x1200 with full AA. I have about 80MB of addons (90% are WoWAce based) so during your average raid my fps goes from high 100's to low 20's when there's lots going on.

Vista 32Bit
E6750
4GB
8800GT SC

 

[doadea]

Originally posted by: Tebor0
I run WoW Maxed at 1900x1200 with full AA. I have about 80MB of addons (90% are WoWAce based) so during your average raid my fps goes from high 100's to low 20's when there's lots going on.

Vista 32Bit
E6750
4GB
8800GT SC

The reason the FPS suffers in raids is not due to your video card. No video card in the world will stop laggy raids. It has to do with the WOW servers, lagtime, and the internet connections of everyone involved with the raid.

 

[Quiksilver]

Hmm...
Considering WOW is a more CPU & memory intensive game, I would be curious if he would see an fps improvement if he were to use 2 sticks of memory and use the 1T command rate as opposed to 2T that you have to use when using more than 2 sticks of memory.

Oh! and yeah upgrade to the 3850.

 

[Binky]

Quicksilver is about the only one that answered this correctly. WOW is very CPU and memory dependent. Your video card does suck, but don't think that this is your only problem. If I were you, I would still upgrade the video first, but then I'd take a serious look at the CPU if this didn't allow enough eye candy.

Oh, and let's not forget that WOW is accessing files 3gb and larger. How's your hard disk?

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Binky
Quicksilver is about the only one that answered this correctly. WOW is very CPU and memory dependent. Your video card does suck, but don't think that this is your only problem. If I were you, I would still upgrade the video first, but then I'd take a serious look at the CPU if this didn't allow enough eye candy.

Oh, and let's not forget that WOW is accessing files 3gb and larger. How's your hard disk?

The OP stated his rig is "an AMD 64 X2 4600+, 3GB RAM, and a crappy nVidia 7500LE". His CPU/RAM are MORE than enough to play WoW no matter how you slice it. He could use a video card upgrade, but a CPU/RAM upgrade would not even be noticeable.

I went from a Athlon 4400+ (skt939) + 2GB DDR 400 to a Core2Duo E6600 + 2GB DDR2 800 with the same video card (7900GTX), and there was no noticeable difference in WoW performance. I did notice a considerable jump in frames when I SLI'ed another 7900GTX into the mix though.

 

[ss284]

Im using a 6600 GT while im waiting for my 8800 GT on my e6400@3.2 .

1600-1200 no AA, 4x AF runs smooth. Its really just the addons and your CPU/mem.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Binky
Quicksilver is about the only one that answered this correctly. WOW is very CPU and memory dependent. Your video card does suck, but don't think that this is your only problem. If I were you, I would still upgrade the video first, but then I'd take a serious look at the CPU if this didn't allow enough eye candy.

Oh, and let's not forget that WOW is accessing files 3gb and larger. How's your hard disk?

The OP stated his rig is "an AMD 64 X2 4600+, 3GB RAM, and a crappy nVidia 7500LE". His CPU/RAM are MORE than enough to play WoW no matter how you slice it. He could use a video card upgrade, but a CPU/RAM upgrade would not even be noticeable.

I went from a Athlon 4400+ (skt939) + 2GB DDR 400 to a Core2Duo E6600 + 2GB DDR2 800 with the same video card (7900GTX), and there was no noticeable difference in WoW performance. I did notice a considerable jump in frames when I SLI'ed another 7900GTX into the mix though.

Did you change from XP to Vista in the same switch? If so, please comment after you test XP Performance vs XP Performance or Vista Performance vs Vista Performance.

It's been proven left and right that Vista is slower overall than XP.

If you didn't ignore the upper part of this post.

In any case you are correct about his processor being sufficient for the game, but as I said I'm wondering if he will benefit from using 2GB @ 1T instead of 3GB & 2T.

 

[bryanW1995]

do you really think that he'd have a noticeable improvement going from 2T to 1T? I know that A64's benefit more from 1T than c2d's, but a 4600+ even at 2T is WAY more than enough for WOW, especially at 1680x1050.

3850 is your cheapest bet, you can get for around 179 at newegg right now. I've seen them at 169 or even 159 (plus tax ) at best buy, so you can get them cheap. 8800gt 256 would also be a great card, but it has a price and performance more in line with 3870 so it might bust your budget a bit.

edit: the 169 3850 was the msi with the oc to 690, it's up to 179 plus shipping now. I saw an 8800gt 256 for 210 + shipping at newegg the other, but it quickly went oos and I haven't seen any others show up. Unless you think that you could possibly go with another, more video-intensive game in the future, your best bet right now is probably 3850.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
do you really think that he'd have a noticeable improvement going from 2T to 1T? I know that A64's benefit more from 1T than c2d's, but a 4600+ even at 2T is WAY more than enough for WOW, especially at 1680x1050.

No, i'm just curious how much it would be :S I would think it could be like 3-10 FPS.

 

[Sheninat0r]

Just about any video card from 7600/7800 up would be able to max out WoW at that res.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: brillj
My current rig consists of an AMD 64 X2 4600+, 3GB RAM, and a crappy nVidia 7500LE.

A Hewlett-Packard computer? Very tough to find info on that GPU. It's either a slightly faster 7300 series or a cut down 7600. Either way I think it is the weak link in your setup.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: QuiksilverX1
Did you change from XP to Vista in the same switch? If so, please comment after you test XP Performance vs XP Performance or Vista Performance vs Vista Performance.

It's been proven left and right that Vista is slower overall than XP.

No, I didn't. Vista came out months after I got my Core2Duo.

 

[Quiksilver]

Then that is really fscked up =< Unless. of course WoW found your other processor sufficient enough.

 

[xgsound]

Here is a link to a summary of what effects WOW performance. http://www.gamespot.com/features/6164252/index.html The tabs shows relative FPS with various video cards along with mem and cpu charts. My nephew is playing nicely (level 65) with a 7900gs, 4800+X2, 2 GB RAM, and 320 Gb SATA drive.

If you find your PSU insufficient, this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/...104953&Tpk=fsp%2bax400 at $44 is driving his rig and is working with a 8800GT 512 also.


Jim