Need advice on graphics card upgrade for World of Warcraft

[llykstw]

Hi all.

I'm currently running:

Intel C2D E6600
2gb DDR2 667MHz
2 x 256MB GEFORCE 7600GT PCIe in SLI
on vista 64.

I only use the thing for World of Warcraft, running on a 22" monitor at 1680x1050. Since the latest Warcraft expansion, I'm getting poor framerates, judder and general poor performance, probably because it placed a lot of extra graphical demands into the game.

I can't stick more ram in the system, because the motherboard is super-picky on RAM and refuses to POST if you stick more than 2gb in there regardless of configuration even though it's meant to support up to 4gb (thanks Asus!).

So I'm looking at upgrading the graphics, as the 7600s are very old now. I'm running in SLI at the moment, but Warcraft doesn't really support dual cards, so I'm probably going to move to a single card solution instead. I want to stick with Nvidia, as I've had some bad experiences with ATIs before and they don't tend to work as well with Warcraft as the Nvidias do (graphics artifacts and the like are more common with ATIs in this game in my experience).

What sort of card will I need to run Warcraft at more or less maximum settings at 1680x1050 on this sort of rig?

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[Ben M]

From what I hear, everyone gets stutter since the latest expansion. It's the game's fault, not your hardware.

 

[PixelChef]

My 8800 GTX ran WoW @ 1680x1050 on max settings, no AA, with 100+ fps usually. So if that is really the only game you want it for, I'd get a second hand one.

 

[siuko]

Check my Sig for system specs.

I run wow at 1680 * 1050 with all graphics settings max + AA and High AF. It looks a lot nicer as well!

It does still stutter a small amount sometimes - but I'm at 60 fps (vsync) about 95% of the time.

It was a massive increase in graphics quality and speed from my old ATI 1950pro!

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Bear in mind a lot of the hardest places in the game are actually *CPU* limited not GPU limited, so turn shadows off and clock the nuts off your processor and you'll get a better experience
Took a picture for someone else the other day to prove the point; my quad is at 3.2Ghz. In Dalaran, core 3/4 weren't used, but core 1 was over 80% all the time pretty much, and core 2 was sitting at 60, so wow was using a Core2 at over 2.6Ghz+ of usage just for that, and framerates stayed low even when I minned and maxed graphic settings.

 

[llykstw]

My 8800 GTX ran WoW @ 1680x1050 on max settings, no AA, with 100+ fps usually. So if that is really the only game you want it for, I'd get a second hand one.

Was that before or after WOTLK expansion came out?

Check my Sig for system specs.

I run wow at 1680 * 1050 with all graphics settings max + AA and High AF. It looks a lot nicer as well!

It does still stutter a small amount sometimes - but I'm at 60 fps (vsync) about 95% of the time.

It was a massive increase in graphics quality and speed from my old ATI 1950pro!

I really want to avoid ATIs, unless they're really significantly better at the given price point. I had such nightmares with my previous Radeon when running WoW.

Bear in mind a lot of the hardest places in the game are actually *CPU* limited not GPU limited, so turn shadows off and clock the nuts off your processor and you'll get a better experience
Took a picture for someone else the other day to prove the point; my quad is at 3.2Ghz. In Dalaran, core 3/4 weren't used, but core 1 was over 80% all the time pretty much, and core 2 was sitting at 60, so wow was using a Core2 at over 2.6Ghz+ of usage just for that, and framerates stayed low even when I minned and maxed graphic settings.

I've read that WoW isn't programmed to use more than 2 processors, so a quad-core shouldn't really have any performance advantage over a dual-core when running it? Admittedly I'm just repeating what I've been told and don't personally understand the complexities of that sort of thing! I take your point though - pretty much the whole rig I'm running could stand to be upgraded, but atm I think the GPU is most in need, as there's such a noticeable performance difference when messing with the graphics settings that it looks like a GPU bottleneck's developed.

 

[siuko]

Fair enough about wanting to avoid ATI's - but speed wise you would want something close to a 4850 or above....

I also think WoW uses 1 core as the main game core, it then offloads some other processing (such as audio etc) to another core. A quad core would then still have 2 extra cores to run windows smoothly.

 

[llykstw]

Fair enough about wanting to avoid ATI's - but speed wise you would want something close to a 4850 or above....

I also think WoW uses 1 core as the main game core, it then offloads some other processing (such as audio etc) to another core. A quad core would then still have 2 extra cores to run windows smoothly.

That's a good point. I'll certainly have to get a new mobo/cpu package fairly soon, ofc that will invalidate my Vista installation

At the risk of sounding stupid, what's the general equivalence between ATI and Nvidia cards these days? I'm only really familiar with the Nvidia stuff, and was expecting to have to get an 8800 at the minimum, probably a 9800GT or something. How does the 4850 sit with those?

 

[AtreuS]

For that rez a 8800gt (512mb)will run wow perfectly. My rig plays it at 1680x1050 full whack and very rarely drops below 60fps even in 25mans.

 

[Zillio]

Got a Geforce 280 and a Q6600, scine the expansion I am getting low frame rates 16-25 FPS in raid or busy cities. Overclocking has a small increase in FPS (1-3 FPS) and dropping the graphics settings to min will keep me above 20 FPS even in the most intense of fights at a res of 1680x1050. Still I had hopped my system would play wow at good FPS with all the bells and whistles on but it seems not. I am afraid, as my experience has shown, a new graphics card will not improve your wow experience much.

 

[ro55o]

The 4850 is the equivalent to the 9800gtx+. The 9800gt is a re-badged 8800gt and sits below both cards in terms of performance.

 

[siuko]

I found when switching from my 1950pro to my 4850 that WoW still seemed to stutter and lag when I played initially.

I reset all the graphics settings in wow to defaults, and also the same on my graphics card settings (AA and AF etc).

I then reset all the settings manually which seemed to help smooth everything out. Why? I have no idea - except maybe settings that are on my 4850 werent on the 1950pro... Who knows - but maybe worth a try.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

I've read that WoW isn't programmed to use more than 2 processors, so a quad-core shouldn't really have any performance advantage over a dual-core when running it? Admittedly I'm just repeating what I've been told and don't personally understand the complexities of that sort of thing! I take your point though - pretty much the whole rig I'm running could stand to be upgraded, but atm I think the GPU is most in need, as there's such a noticeable performance difference when messing with the graphics settings that it looks like a GPU bottleneck's developed.

I specifically stated WoW only uses 2 of my cores, but that the actual power draw on them is worth overclocking your CPU for, as in equivalent terms, Dalaran pulled over 2.6Ghz of processing on core 1, and about 2Ghz on core 2. If you have a stock processor, you're going to be very limited.

On the other hand background programmes can use my quad

 

[Alexrose1uk]

That's a good point. I'll certainly have to get a new mobo/cpu package fairly soon, ofc that will invalidate my Vista installation

At the risk of sounding stupid, what's the general equivalence between ATI and Nvidia cards these days? I'm only really familiar with the Nvidia stuff, and was expecting to have to get an 8800 at the minimum, probably a 9800GT or something. How does the 4850 sit with those?

The 4850 is faster than both, its competitor is the 9800GTX+

 

[siuko]

I guess the other question is why are you keeping away from ATI?

I went from an Nvidia 6800 > Ati 1950 Pro > Ati 4850.

And I have been pleased with the performance and stability

 

[llykstw]

Thanks, this is all really useful advice

I'm avoiding ATI simply because I used to run a Radeon, and it gave me lots of graphical glitches when running Warcraft. WoW advertises that it's 'optmisied for Nvidia' and whilst I tended to assume that was just marketing guff, when I changed to an Nvidia card it eliminated all the issues, and has run brilliantly. It makes me reluctant to go back to ATI, that's all.

Think I might just bite the bullet and upgrade everything, rather than messing about with bits and bobs one at a time.

How does the Q6600 energy efficient chip on the site compare with the Q8xxx series for performance? I see they're all at more or less the same price point.

 

[Sasahara]

Lets clear a few things up.

Wow is not multi core enabled, it will only use 1 core, or split the load over multiple cores, it will not exceed 100% of a single cores load.

So the faster single core you have the better, E8400-8600 or !7 920+ are the best & but an overclocked E6600 isn't that bad.

Wow will run on sli rig, but it will only use one gpu, so the extra card isn't being used.

Wow is Ram and Hard Drive hog, as you have a problem going over 2gb, make sure you have as little else running on you pc as possible. Installing wow on a different HD to the OS can help in some cases.(Not worth buying a new HD)

I run an [email protected](I'll overclock it soon, just being lasy) with a 8800GTX and get 35-200fps @1680x1050 depending on area.

Using my old 7800GTX I'm still getting around 25(major city)-130 fps.

That's with all settings on max, 8xAA on the 8800GTX, not sure what it was on the 78000GTX.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Lets clear a few things up.

Wow is not multi core enabled, it will only use 1 core, or split the load over multiple cores, it will not exceed 100% of a single cores load.

Wrong. WoW is multi-core enabled for dual core and has been for about a year and a half when it was introduced in one of the larger patches. It will use almost 100% of core 1 and a fair chunk of core 2, if you don't believe me I can produce proof of it taking up 150% equivalent of one of my cores What it is not is quad core enabled. I'm also pretty sure last time I checked a lot of people had actually got SLI running with WoW.

 

[kerrgreg]

anyway that does mean that a dual core is fine.

by the sounds of it you maybe best buying a new motherboard and gpu that way you can upgrade to 4gb of ram and witha new gpu and a oc'd cpu get a good increase in wow

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Yep, although I'd suggest trying the overclock first