What Graphic Card to buy for World of Warcraft.

Othergods

Othergods

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Below are the system requirements for the game, I have 256 MB of Ram now planning on going to 512 MB. I currently have the standard card that comes in the Dell Dimension 2400, what would be a good card that will run this game that will not cost me an arm and a leg. I have no plans for really playing any other PC Games for a while so it does not need to be Top of the line.

Windows® System 98/ME/2000/XP OS:

800 MHz or higher CPU.
256 MB or more of RAM.
32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware Transform and Lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better.
4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
DirectX® 9.0c or above.
A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.
 
First off, 512MB RAM IS VITAL. If you can, get more than that. You also might call Dell to see if your system's motherboard can support 400MHz RAM, if so, spring the extre few bucks for 400MHz DDR. It's worth it.

My card is a GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB DDR 8xAGP, it cost me $150 when I got it a year ago, so now it will probably cost around $100-120, or less. It is a DirectX 8 card, so I can play Half-life 2 with a good framerate in most parts of the game but sometimes it will get a little choppy.

Judging by the system requirements of WoW, which by todays standards are REALLY LOW, you might even get by on a Radeon 7500 64mb card, and you could get that for less than $50, I'd imagine.

Of course, your best bet is to just get a good video card, which will probably cost at least an arm... we're talking around $300 for a GeForce 6800 LE, and that should get you by nicely, even for Doom 3 and Half-life 2.

Also judging by your current system specs, your CPU should be a 2.4GHz Intel Celeron (Celeron sucks ass, but oh well), you should be set. Just get more RAM and a better video card and you'll have yourself a decent gaming machine.
 
CompUSA should have the ATI All in Wonder 9600XT 128MB Video Card for $125. Is that a decent card? Thanks for the info so far.
 
You might want to double check, but I'm pretty sure that the 2400 doesn't have an AGP slot. This will severely limit your graphic card choices, as there are not many cards still made that still use a regular PCI slot connection. I know that the Radeon 9200 series and Geforce 5200 series had PCI versions. Neither of these is really an ideal gaming card, but you can find them in 64 and 128 MB versions on Newegg and that should be more than enough if you're just looking to run the game.
 
I am using a GeForce3 Ti200 and WoW looks incredible on it. The frame rates are stable at 20-30 fps in most open areas and around 45 fps in enclosed areas. Keep in mind that the Ti model GF3's are the higher end versions. Some hardware tests put the GF3Ti's ahead of the GF4Mx's. I paid $200 (or was it $300) when it came out 3 years ago so I'd say you could get them fairly cheap now.

My other PC stats (the relevant ones anyway) in case you are wondering.

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
768 MB RAM
 
[quote name='rickc25']You might want to double check, but I'm pretty sure that the 2400 doesn't have an AGP slot. This will severely limit your graphic card choices, as there are not many cards still made that still use a regular PCI slot connection. I know that the Radeon 9200 series and Geforce 5200 series had PCI versions. Neither of these is really an ideal gaming card, but you can find them in 64 and 128 MB versions on Newegg and that should be more than enough if you're just looking to run the game.[/quote]Thanks for the info!!! I had no Idea, I will check NewEgg Out.
 
Should I be concerned with the Core and Effective Speeds? I see some are 333 & 400 and there are some that are not specified.
 
I'm *trying* to hold out and let PCI Express take off a little more. I'm wanting to build a new rig with a motherboard having a PCI Express slot. Really sucks too, now that this.. HL 2.. and Doom 3 are out.

By the way, the 2400 has integrated graphics. You can probably pick up one of the higher level Dell motherboards (4800 or so, will fit just fine..) on Ebay for around 80 bucks new, and if you have a Pentium processor.. just swap em out. Boom.. you now have an AGP slot.
 
WOW really doesn't have that intensive of system requirements so you would be well off with just a mainstream card. The newest from ATI and Nvidia are the X700 XT and 6600 gt. You will be good with either of those cards. Don't know what your budget is, these are
 
I can get a SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9200SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI, Model "100565L" -OEM for $53 from New Egg is this one OK?

It has to be a PCI, no AGP Slot in my machine.
 
ok, be ready to be told by MANY ppl not to get SE cards...i got one once 9200 SE...didnt have a problem with it and i dont see what is wrong with SE cards, but ppl say they are not good...
 
Cool, thanks swetoot9 I also could get a Chaintech nVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit for $77 the PCI slot only is really limiting.
 
They're aren't really many choices for PCI cards...just get the best you can afford, don't settle for just ok. I don't imagine there are any PCI card available for over $200 so just get the best you can and make sure its NOT PCI EXPRESS!!!! I think that PCX 5300 is PCI Express which you do not have.
 
I just wanna throw in that World of Warcraft's graphics are very scalable to a lower end video card. You can pretty much get by with any recent video card.
I'm running a GeForce FX 5600, and it runs pretty decent with all graphic options maxed out.
 
I have a geforce 4 4200 TI. That card is good enough to run WoW? If so i might go out and pick up the game tonight, thought i was going to have to buy a new card to play this game. Everything else i have is good to go.

Amd 64 3000
512 megs corsair ddr 400 ram
Lan Party mother board with 1600 fsb
500 watt ps


oh and another question while we are on the subject of WoW. Is it available in DVD format or just CD?

Thanks
 
[quote name='wingeddragon']I have a geforce 4 4200 TI. That card is good enough to run WoW? If so i might go out and pick up the game tonight, thought i was going to have to buy a new card to play this game. Everything else i have is good to go.

Amd 64 3000
512 megs corsair ddr 400 ram
Lan Party mother board with 1600 fsb
500 watt ps


oh and another question while we are on the subject of WoW. Is it available in DVD format or just CD?

Thanks[/quote]Yeah you should be fine playing the game. I played it last night with my standard Dell set up with 256K Ram and the integrated variable 32-64 MB card. It ran ok, a bit choppy at times but playable. I can not wait for my Ram and Video Card to show up so I can crank up the details.
 
I just got WOW, and I am debating on which computer I should play it on, what do you guys think?

the computer in my room has a nvida geforce fx 5200 128 MB, and the computer in the office has a ati radeon 9600 128MB
 
Tenzor, both of those cards should work just fine so it's only a matter of which computer is most comfortable to sit at. You will spend a ton of time playing.
 
[quote name='Othergods']the PCI slot only is really limiting.[/quote]

yes, yes it is, i have a dell 2350 and have put off getting a graphics card because of it...im sure you can get something good tho, i mean i can run sims 2 on the dell intergrated video card...
 
I'm currently running a Athlon 64 3500+, with 2 gigs of Ram, a 6800GT, and a Rapto 10K hard drive.

Anything else is just garbage :p7

Running at 16X12 with all the settings turned up. Very cool.

Seriously though- if you just want to play the game in low-res you can- a P3 1000 with 512 of ram and a GeForce4 4600 runs it fine at 8X67
 
[quote name='daphatty']Tenzor, both of those cards should work just fine so it's only a matter of which computer is most comfortable to sit at. You will spend a ton of time playing.[/quote]

thanks daphatty, I think I will play on this one in my room. Maybe we can play together in WOW once I sign up
 
[quote name='tenzor'][quote name='daphatty']Tenzor, both of those cards should work just fine so it's only a matter of which computer is most comfortable to sit at. You will spend a ton of time playing.[/quote]

thanks daphatty, I think I will play on this one in my room. Maybe we can play together in WOW once I sign up[/quote]

Sure thing. I won't be on much over the next couple weeks while I work on my research paper but once that's done... IT'S ON!!! :)

I created two characters just to make sure I get the names. I'll be playing on the Llane server on the EST cluster in case anyone wants to join that server. My character names are daphatty (Horde) and brenda (Alliance).
 
Just as a comparison (I'm not trying to start any WoW/EQ2 fanboy wars)...

Here's my machine specs:
Dell Dimension XPS
Pentium 4 3ghz
2 gigs ram
Radeon 9800xt w/256megs ram

...and I played the WoW beta with no lag whatsoever and everything totally maxed. After realizing that WoW wasn't for me (I couldn't get over the graphics and the simplicity), I decided upon EQ2. I can only run EQ2 in second highest-setting and I still get some lag every now and then.

Even though I'm not a fan of WoW (I loved D2), I have to commend Blizzard for making the game accessible to so many people (which definitely has its downside as all the "I'm gonna hax0r your machine because you pwnd me, I am 733ter" crew has joined WoW as well as decent people).

In contrast to my system, here's my gf's:

Dell Dimension something
Pentium 4 2.8ghz
512 megs ram
geforce 4 ti4200

and she can barely run eq2 in the next to lowest setting. I think Sony's totally alienated half of their audience because of the insane system specs. You basically have to have a machine that can run Doom 3 in order to play EQ2.

I'm glad to hear you can run WoW, I think if you get a decent PCI card you'll be gtg. I imagine that Blizzard has done the smart thing and has made WoW playable on this generation's machines. I imagine that the expansions will greatly increase the graphical capability.
 
[quote name='Othergods']CompUSA should have the ATI All in Wonder 9600XT 128MB Video Card for $125. Is that a decent card? Thanks for the info so far.[/quote]

BestBuy has it for $100. It could even run HL2 in the right conditions. I'll be picking it up tomorrow, despite not having a comp. :p
 
[quote name='azel'] I imagine that the expansions will greatly increase the graphical capability.[/quote]

I'd have to disagree with this statement. To do so would require the entire graphical engine to be overhauled and texture maps and environments to be completely redone. I'd say that the graphical specs will stay the same despite the advancement of graphical hardware. If such a thing were easy to do then Sony would have done so with Everquest.
 
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