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Building a computer for World of Warcraft
Mitten
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
How much money would it cost to build a PC that could run WoW at 60 FPS with everything on high, max shadow quality, 4x multisampling, etc. at a 1680x1050 resolution? This is assuming that you already have a monitor/speakers/whatever else.
I'm mostly just asking out of curiosity. A friend brought it up and I really don't know anything about computers beyond browsing the internet. I don't have anywhere near the spare cash for this sort of thing, but I feel like I need to know now.
I'm mostly just asking out of curiosity. A friend brought it up and I really don't know anything about computers beyond browsing the internet. I don't have anywhere near the spare cash for this sort of thing, but I feel like I need to know now.
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A good CPU and a good GPU can run up to about $700. $1200 isn't a bad price range, including needing a monitor that goes up that high.
Bowen's advice is sound, the Build Thread will give you ideas on templates and components that will meet your needs and budget.
It's 18 months old, so should be able to find all that stuff cheap.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
I'm guessing you don't even need a computer anywhere near that good to pull ~60, especially at the lower resolution he's talking about. WoW is a pretty easy program to run.
It also seems a lot of parts sellers have picked up on wow and the 3.33GHz duos as they're usually the most expensive ones.
Really easy to overclock a slower Core2Duo to push beyond 3.33 though. Although the cost of getting a cpu cooler upgrade might not justify just getting the 3.33 in the first place.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Server lag doesn't equate directly to Frames per Second, although the net effect (the game not responding or acting "jumpy") might appear to be the same. However, FPS is locally limited (and could be caused by being CPU-, I/O-, or GPU-bound processes, or some combination). Server lag is performance problems anywhere from the back of your computer all the way up to, and including, the server the game's running on. The cause, cost, and ability to mitigate FPS and lag problems differ rather significantly.
However, you are correct in that there is a point of diminishing returns that is usually reached well before you get into the $Texas top-of-the line gaming computers, and that many MMOs do no benefit from expensive hardware (not having software written to take full advantage of it). Overspending in one area will not overcome bottlenecks in other areas. You want a balanced approach to your computer build.
However, the Computer Build Thread, although it's long, does have a good OP that is relatively up to date, and the thread is chock-full of bleeding edge vs. bang-for-the-buck discussions. We're really just covering an already well-tread path here in H/A. Let the gearheads in Moe's help you.
I am running a q6600@3.0ghz with a GTX 280 and turning shadows up just kills it.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
I only have a ATI HD4650
Core 2 Duo E6750 (overclocked to 2.93GHz from 2.66GHz)
8800GT, 512MB VRAM
4GB RAM
Windows 7 x64
2048x1152 resolution
All settings at ultra, with multisampling turned down to 2x due to massive resolution. 60 FPS in non-taxing environments, 20 FPS in more taxing environments (Dalaran, for example).
The hardware is almost 3 years old, and was purchased for $1100. You could probably do much better at less than half the cost now.
To play WoW? Yes it is. OP shouldn't spend more than 300 and it'll run it flawlessly.
Eveything else, you can just go cheap on and it'll run it flawlessly.
Yeah because a core2duo and a mobo itself didn't just eat up that $300.
Oh wait, you're talking about a fucking celeron chip from best buy preloaded with shitware. Sorry. The minute you start going for those lower chips, you'll notice a huge decrease in performance in wow.
It'll still run, but not at that resolution, with that frame-rate, with everything cranked up. Now if you do pay $300 for a pc, you'll likely get great frame-rates in dalaran, but anywhere else you'll be pissed you didn't spend the extra money.
Comparing computers is like comparing restaurants. Generally you don't compare McDonalds to Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. But you also don't compare McDonalds to a steakhouse either.
Also upgrading your pc every other year is probably the stupidest idea ever.
As it stands, the hugest performance sink in wow still is the CPU, god only knows why. The next is the GPU, all the rest of the stuff will only improve loading issues, any broadband connection will cover the "lag" issue and will be limited by your providor.
Having a broadband connection rated at 10 megs trying to pump 1 meg (if that) through it is a tad overkill as well.
He's not looking to run "well enough to play."
Yeah I could probably find him any off the shelf pc that can do that for $200.
Also the engine has changed considerably in 4 years. Low can run on roasted turkey sub and high settings pretty much requires top of the line.
Yeah, $600 is foolishly low and I am foolish. $1200, though, I am still unconvinced of, especially given that all he'd be buying is the tower.
In any event, it's true that we have a specially purposed computer build thread full of specially purposed computer builders for this very special purpose.
Wether it's worth your money is debatable, but it's the best way to up that part of the game. (I don't play anymore, but I remember (re)loading being quite tedious).
I did a quick google and found some evidence that the effect is at least nontrivial.
Edit: As long as he had no qualms with having to upgrade possibly every expansion he could probably get away with $600 on a tower PC with those settings.
My original price assumption was guessing he probably didn't want to be doing that. Because it's pretty stupid to do.
But that really doesn't answer the question, which is complicated slightly by what you intend to do once you've loaded the game. If you want 60fps at max settings while standing still in East Jabib, Outlands, your equipment will be a lot cheaper than if you're trying to get 60fps at the same settings while fighting a raid boss in Icecrown Citadel with 24 other people all spamming area effects while the boss is doing his screen-filling, monitor-killing, once-a-minute raid-wide bitch-slap of doom.
This thread is actually kind of relevant to me, because I do raid and I can't tell you how many times I've been killed trying to something delicate because I'm only getting 5-10 fps, so we're thinking it's time I upgraded my motherboard/CPU. I just upgraded to a Radeon HD 5700 series card from an ancient nvidia, and I've got a CPU sitting in the closet waiting for next month's purchase of a compatible motherboard. My hard drives aren't changing, so without those, or sound cards or anything like that, processor, motherboard, graphics card, and memory are probably going to add up to about $7-800.
I'm going a little overboard so I don't have to replace anything for a number of years (and also because I beat my computer to death even when I don't have a game up), but I'd say you can probably get the kind of game experience you're asking about for about $200 less than that if you don't mind upgrading again soon.
edit: Sander called it, but my husband now runs WoW from a SSD and he can't say enough about the difference in loading times.
Um I called it. Edit that