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New system for WOW

Soldato
Joined
27 Oct 2010
Posts
3,053
Location
ireland
hi first off i'm looking at a new pc for wow and keep changing my mind after listening to other peoples opinions, my 1st question is an AMD phenom ii x6 core as good as an i7 and if not is it better than an i5?. People keep telling me wow is all about cpu and i was originally planning on an i3 predator oc'd to 4.2 ghz but then realised it's a lot to spend for an i3, would i be able to play wow on ultra in 25man raid with 30+ fps on a quad core amd or would it be worth the extra 120 pounds to go for the amd 6 core here are the pc's i've chosen both with windows 7 and a gtx 460, or would an i5 be better than both? So far the pc i was opting for was the 6core as i want it to last a long time without having to upgrade it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-035-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat= This i5 has a 5770 instead as putting a gtx 460 in is to expensive
 
In my experience WoW runs best with Intel CPU & NVidia GPU (better performance in heavy raids).

Looking at those systems though I would go with the Titan Decimator (1055T+GTX460), ideally the third system (i5@4ghz) with a GTX460 would be the fastest for WoW but as you can't afford a GTX460 with that one then I'd go with the first.
 
The titan decimator would be a good choice. Good Cpu, and a good Gpu too, so would be ideal for the game. If with about medium detail on 1920x1080, you should be able to achieve about 60fps.
 
Just so you are aware wow only uses 2 cores (can be tweaked to use 4 but does not improve performance), so quad core ain't gonna be much benefit. The i3 at 4.2 ghz would be a good option.
 
Just to give you an idea of what WoW requires to run at full whack at 1080p, I used to run it on a [email protected], 4gb RAM and a HD4870 512MB. It ran flawlessly in all raids and PvP. The only dip was the initial Daralan lag where it might pop down to 20fps for a few seconds to load up the rest. Other then that, constant 60fps from what I could see.
 
WOW seems to love CPU 2/3 and GPU 1/3 imo
Minimum of 3Gb of RAM, but more seems to make no real diff.
SSD really helps load times in heavy areas, very noticeable in Dalaran for example.

I would agree there seems to be a slight favourability in WOW to Nvidia, its not massive though.

I am sure the i3 would be good, but I would say you would notice a slight diff with the i5.

WOW seems to love high speed processors, there is a slight, very slight improvement from 2+ cores.

If you turn all the settings to max at something like 1920x1200 it will screw over anything in some places. Some of the graphics settings will nuke anything, we have played with these settings in my guild over vent and it really makes a massive difference. (Roughly same spec systems, similar FPS, tweak setting xxx, what FPS impact have you seen? yeap mines stayed same so thats the effect of the setting not 10 new players wandering by, kinda conversations)

WOW can run on low spec systems, WOW will also bring even the most powerful totheir knees at times. If your happy with occasional issues then you can spec a lot lower, if your determined to use brute force (ie overspecced pc) to try to counter issues then spend as much as you can, but do not ignore graphics or cpu, you need both.

If you run a LOT of addons, especially combat log based ones, eg parry detectors, boss mods etc you need more RAW cpu to deal with this without bogging down the game.

I have a new i5 at 4ghz (bundle from here) and that with my old 4890 still occasionally bogs, thats not the hardware its WOW. Both CPU and GPU usage are less than 100% so neither is limiting the game, its the games dated programming.

Patch 4.0 interestingly seems to have boosted CPU usage, most people with Duals seem to be noticing close to 100% on both cores, that didn't used to happen (it was more like 1 at 100% and the other at 50%, or showing about 75% on both as it pinged usage backwards and forwards), so its possible they are working to make wow use the hardware its got available better, so for me I would buy a quad just in case they really start to use it.
 
No interest in building it? You could save a bit if you did.

Example:
qweasdad.png
 
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I was going to make a long post but I think RobSkinner said all I was going to say. :)

Note that with the Titan Decimator you're getting a better CPU, cooling fans and a Corsair H50 cooler, which is pretty decent for £120 more IMO. If you grabbed that with a 768GB 460 I'd say that it'll be quite good for your needs, but you may want to give Overclockers a call and see how much it would be for them to add a 1GB 460 of your choice instead.
 
If you are planning on playing WOW for a very long time, I think you really should get the i5 760 at 4.0GHz over the Phenom II X4 955 at 3.6GHz.

Let's pretend the Phenom II X4 955BE at stock speed 3.2GHz is as fast as a i5 750 at stock 2.66GHz in gaming (ignore the fact that the i5 is actally faster for now)...the 955BE overclock from 3.2GHz to 3.6GHz is only 12.5% overclock...now if we overclock the i5 750 by 12.5%, it would put it at 3.0GHz, so what this mean is that the Phenom II X4 at 3.6GHz is only around as fast as the i5 750 at 3.0GHz.

Also, if we take into the consideration of headroom for overclocking...the Phenom II X4 955BE would only be able to reach 4.0GHz at the very max, which is only a 25% overclock from the 3.2GHz, whereas a i5 760 overclocking from 2.8GHz to 4.0GHz is actually 43% overclock.

Phenom II is by no mean a poor performer, but while people talking about WOW 'support' or 'use' more than two cores, the reality is the the heaviest process and tasks that have the most impact on frame rate directly are still only done on 1 or 2 cores...so higher CPU speed would have greater impact on increase in performance than extra cores above two-cores. WOW is very CPU limited, because the game doesn't use Quad-core 'properly' (it doesn't spread the workload evenly across the cores).
 
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I was going to make a long post but I think RobSkinner said all I was going to say. :)

Note that with the Titan Decimator you're getting a better CPU, cooling fans and a Corsair H50 cooler, which is pretty decent for £120 more IMO. If you grabbed that with a 768GB 460 I'd say that it'll be quite good for your needs, but you may want to give Overclockers a call and see how much it would be for them to add a 1GB 460 of your choice instead.

think its roughly around £20-£40 extra for the 1gb, and people say its worth it :)
 
I play WoW and with a SSD it will reduce you loading times a lot , also with a fast CPU , u can almost get instant loads anywhere.
 
I'd try to squeeze in a SSD in there for improved loading times (£100 -> 60 gigs vertex 2E for WoW + OS), even dropping the i5 for a i3 if funds are a problem, since that game works equally well on dual cores. I'd keep the GTX 460, seems to perform better than even the latest 6850 (for now).
 
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Hey,

I might be able to help. First of all, it's true that WoW prefers INTEL and NVIDIA, AMD cards can actually give you a lot of problems due to poor graphics support, so I would stick with an nvidia card like the GTX 460 768Mb.

Now, on to the CPU's. First of all, WoW already uses 4 cores, the latest patch gave WoW this support without you having to tweak anything, and I'm guessing when cataclysm comes out, this will be even better.

Between those 3 systems, first of all, forget the i5. It's practically the same price as the Titan Decimator which has a hexacore, 1055t 95W edition, which is the second best CPU from AMD at the moment, only beat by the 1090t. The i5 has a Akasa Nero while the Decimator has a Corsair H50, no brainer there. The i5 has Corsair XMS3 ram while the decimator has Corsair Dominator, again, no brainer. The Decimator has an LG drive which is very good while the i5 will come with a random ocuk chosen drive which if it's a samsung then it sucks compared to it. The Decimator even comes with 2 xigmatek fans which will provide better cooling on the Antec 300, the i5 comes with no extra fans.

So we've ruled out the i5, cool yeah?

Now the real contest.

Decimator vs Krypt

CPU wise, the decimator wins. the krypt comes with only stock cooler so you'd have to get a better one separetely if you want, same MB, same PSU, decimator ram is a bit better as it's the dominator edition. Krypt comes with a better hardrive and you can add a GTX 460 1024MB for just £4 more then the 768MB that comes with the decimator so it's obviously a cracking deal.

The Krypt wins graphic wise, pricewise and better HDD. It's also £150 cheaper, you could spend half of that on a 60gb SSD and RAID 0 with the 1tb which would give you a massive improvement compared to what WoW would get from the hexacore.

Now it's up to you, you can save £150, or you can get a better graphics card and an SSD at the price of some CPU power. If I was you i'd get the krypt, it's a no brainer really, you could always sell the Athlon and then buy a 1055t if you really were that desperate for it. I very much doubt WoW will use even half the power of the 1055t and the Athlon 640 should be more then enough to max WoW. I used to Max WoW with a 8400, cheap unbranded ddr 2 ram and a 256mb (yes 256) old 8800gt. An Ahtlon 640 with 4gb DDR3, GTX 460 1024mb and 60gb SSD will probably sleep through it.

It's up to you my friend, unless you're one of those that likes to boast about having the most update hardware then get the decimator, otherwise the krypt will do almost as good of a job, for £150 cheaper or £75 pounds cheaper with an SSD (which anyone here will tell you is amazing).

Summary:

Forget the i5

Krypt + SSD + GTX 460 1024MB for £75 pounds cheaper or a Hexacore which will probably only be used 20 to 30% of it's capabilities.
 
I have a better option.
Stop playing WoW and keep the money !

Sooo much easier ;-) .
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What's your current spec?? I assume you have a PC and play WoW already?
 
I have a better option.
Stop playing WoW and keep the money !

Sooo much easier ;-) .
---------------------------------------------

What's your current spec?? I assume you have a PC and play WoW already?

Asking someone to stop playing WoW a month before a new expansion is like asking a crack head to put the pipe down :D
 
lol it's impossible to quit wow especially with cata around the corner. Anyway right now i have a fail setup not even worth mentioning the system it's not even dual core lol.
 
er...wow is a 6 year old game. any cpu is good enough since it doesn't even use two cores. with a 5850 oc'd a bit, i get 60fps in most situations at 1920x1200 on high/ultra.
 
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