Cheapest GFX card capable of playing WoW?

[sidthesexist]

As the title says due to my former 7950 going pop (will never buy anything from XFX again....) i have had to revert to an ancient 5770 which is starting to grunt a little even on low setting when doing anything more than solo in WoW.

So what would be the cheapest card around at the moment that could handle raiding on at least medium settings?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The last comparison I saw placed the Nvidia cards favourably but that was before the latest patch which is much more graphically intense.

I would probably aim for a GTX960 or R9 380 at least IMHO.

 

[CyberCrow]

Whats your budget

 

[sidthesexist]

Ideally sub £150 could probably stretch a little more if i really had too.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

The game is still horrifically CPU bound, and if you plan on Raiding you still need a decent GPU if you want over 60fps and the graphics turned up.

For reference the system in my signature would still dip below 60fps in some extreme 15 man raids at Heroic and Mythic difficulty. While PvP in the likes of Ashran would see me with FPS in the 20's in cases if there are over 60 people in a brawl.

If you're not planning on maxing it out and play at High with not too much world PvP something like the GTX 960 or 380 is fine for medium settings and raids., and the 390 being the sweet spot for it all if you're going to play at High settings.

 

[ubersonic]

Back during TBC I was doing dailies on a 16MB ATI Mobility Radeon, but it wasn't very playable even at 640x480.

Advice others have given is good however I will add that if you were okay with how your 7950 played it then you can pick them and the 7970 up used for <£100.

 

[meldarthx]

380 would handle it without any issues.......still think 960 is priced too high compared to 380......

I'd go with the 380 as 4 gig version of 960 is more expensive at 215+ for that price might as well put 45 more quid is and get the much faster 390 at 259

where as you can have 380 4 gig at 179 at least here at OCUK; not checked other prices.....I wouldn't waste money on getting 2 gig version of either card....

or if you don't want to pay the extra 30 for 380... go with this; this will be the fastest card you can get in your budget that will most likely do medium settings....still say go for the 380...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-365-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=3060

 

[mods1965]

Why not think about picking up a second hand R9 290? I have that card and can max out settings with my 4970K at 60FPS plus, raiding etc.

 

[bru]

If you are thinking of a card primarily for WOW only then you really need to look at an NVidia card, as they far outclass their AMD counterparts in that game. It not an problem but the performance difference is quite broad.

Here is a couple of links to show what I mean. one relevant and one not so.

Relevant 960 benchmark

Not so relevant but more recent benchmark