Bare Minimum System to Run WoW?

R

RobertMacUser

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
186
whats the bare minimum i'll need to run wow? im looking to get too machines just for wow for my family memebers
 
The minimum system requirements for World of Warcraft are as follows:

* Your computer will need a 56K or higher modem with an Internet connection.
* You must have a valid e-mail address.

Windows® System/OS (98/ME, 2000, XP):

* 800 Mhz or higher CPU.
* 256 Megabytes or more of RAM.
* 32MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform/Lighting (such as a GeForce 2 or better).
* 4 Gigabytes or more of available hard drive space.
* DirectX® 9.0c or above.

Edit: And since your name has Mac User in it:

Mac® System/OS:

* 933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor.
* 512 Megabytes RAM or higher. DDR RAM recommended.
* ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more.
* 4 Gi gabytes or more of available hard drive space.
* MacOS X 10.3.5 or better.

I would look to at-least one-up that though. That will make it run like ass.
 
you should get a 1 gig of rAM and atleast a 6600gt and a 3000 64 amd

you can get this game running on slower systems but it wont be good trust me
 
id probably run on pc (im looking to get 2 stations that can play wow while spending as little as possible)

what would you do?
its gotta be pretty cheap, but if it cant get into Auction House or play and end game raid cause it sucks, than thats no good to me.

thanks soo much for the answer
 
RAM will help with load times, and help cut back on those AH woes. You can probably get away with buying cheaper pre built systems the just upgrading the RAM and put half way decent Vcards inside, it will help.

Perhaps ebay to help ?
 
3000+ @ 1.8
6800GTOC overclocked to Ultra
512mb Buffalo crap ram

How would that run it you think?
 
Probably best to wait until the requirements for the expansion pack are finalized before picking out an 'absolute minimum' system.
 
i can play it at the lowest possible quality setting at 1400x1050 resolution on my laptop: Pentium M 1.7 GHz, 512 mb ram, Radeon 9600 mobility (128mb mobile gpu). Not sure if that helps you gauge your performance or not. It only really slows down when there's a full group on the screen, other than that, soloing works like a champ at more than 30fps constantly.
 
it runs just fine on my backup computer

xp1800+
512 ram
fx5500 128

the only time it slows down is in the citys.....and thats from lack of ram..
 
I found the game reasonably playable on an AXP 1700+, 1GB, GF3 Ti200 with all settings on low at 1024x768. Big cities and the AH were a little sluggish, but combat was reasonable.

Currently I'm running on an A64 2800+, 1GB, 6800 at 1440x900 with all settings on high (I can't remember if I've got AA on or not) and don't have any performance issues other than the initial slowing when I first enter a big city.

If you're trying to do this on the cheap (but not absolute cheapest) I'd probably go with:
1GB RAM
6600/6600GT-ish card
low-end A64 or S754-based Sempron

Which would put you in the $400-450 range (before OS).
 
I got WoW to perform ok on my parents eMachines. I didn't raid or spend much time in IF though so I can't gauge how the performance there was.

The specs for the machine were
Sempron 3100+ (1.8GHz)
768 MB Ram
Radeon 9600Pro 256 MB vid card.

Resolution was 1280x1024 with most of the settings on low. Probably could have turned the settings up a little bit, but the limited amount of time I was going to be playing on the machine I didn't want to mess with settings.

Edit: I also didn't have CTRA or TS installed either. Both of which can chew into your cpu performance.
 
Sempron 3100+ : 80$
XFX 6600GT : 115$
1GB G.Skill RAM : 76$
EPoX EP-8NPA7I Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 : 76$
Antec Solution SLK1650B : 62$ + 18SH = 80$, Includes PSU
80GB WD Harddrive : 53$

Total : Under 500$

All you need then is a monitor, CDRom, and OS and you are good to go.
 
Fry's or outpost has an NF3 ECS/Sempron 3100 for 79$. That would work. Get a 1GB DC Value Ram, and a cheap 6600GT and your good to go. Also to skimp on a case, run them case-less and get a few 350Watt Sparkle PSU. Should be cheap.
 
if i were you i would go emachines, might be able to get two $350 desktops from emachines. then later if you want could upgrade them for cheap. I would get at least a gig of ram to play though.

i play on my laptop with a pentium M, 1gb of RAM and 64MB x300 to give you an idea - no choppyness when im plugged into a wall at all
 
Runs fine on my friends PC:
Athlon XP2500+
1GB ram
9500Pro


It 'runs' on another friends laptop:
2.4Ghz old P4
GF4 MX440 Go or whatever
512mb ram
 
I've run WOW with 512MB of ram. It lagged bad upon entering Ironforge, but elsewhere it ran ok. Upgrading to 1GB made it much better in the big cities.

I've run it with these CPUs; AMD Athlon 1900, 2500, 3000, AMD64 3000, and Intel 2.4GHz P4.
and on a variety of graphics cards;
ATI 8500 @ 800x600
nVidia GeForce4 (Ti 4600) @ 1024x768
ATI 9700 @ 1280x1024
ATI 9800 @ 1280x1024
nVidia 6800 @ 1280x1024
nVidia 6800GT @ 1600x1200
 
I'd for video card get one that came out in the last 2 years that has alright gaming performance. A 6600,6600gt, or the even cheaper 6600le would probably do it and for around $100 to $115. If you want to get cheaper for the video card you might be able to but I haven't really seen WoW play on any systems with cards below those. For RAM you should go for a gig or else during raids there will be lag and that isn't very fun. For CPU go for a 754 Sempron 2800+ the best cheap CPU out there has pretty good performance for the price with overclocking options if you want.
 
yeah you definatly want higher then thebare minimum once you get used to the game and start playing with custom UIs the game starts to lag quite a bit. weather this is poor coding on some of the user mods Im not sure.

I have a 5900xt and 1 gig of ram with an athlon2500+ and I soo desperatly need to upgrade. wow just lags to hell (off course I am playing in window mode with bittorrrent downloading and uploading from the same drive as wow is playing so that is probably PART of my problem)
 
Dude, you can go dumpster diving and find a computer that will run WoW.
 
Whilst WoW will run on pretty low end PC, I would still recommend 1 GB ram minimum. Get some cheap generic ram if necessary.
 
x-elf said:
yeah you definatly want higher then thebare minimum once you get used to the game and start playing with custom UIs the game starts to lag quite a bit. weather this is poor coding on some of the user mods Im not sure.

I have a 5900xt and 1 gig of ram with an athlon2500+ and I soo desperatly need to upgrade. wow just lags to hell (off course I am playing in window mode with bittorrrent downloading and uploading from the same drive as wow is playing so that is probably PART of my problem)
Click to expand...

Why is it that MMORPGers automatically equate anything that slows the game with lag? Lag is when you have network issues - you're still getting good framerates, but you've just fallen behind the world. If your computer doesn't have the balls to do what you're asking of it & drops down to 5FPS but you can still get 'immediate' responses from the server, that's not lag.

You can make your computer faster but there's not a lot that hardware can really do about lag.
 
it ran fine on my socket a xp+2800 with a gig of ram and a 5900xt and 6600gt . never seemed to lag much. although i was never in a huge battle or party of more than 3 or 4. but regular playing it was fine.

now for some other games it was a little lacking on fps. but ran everything but FEAR without lots of trouble.

ive upgraded since then.
 
WoW require that much until you start touching UI mods. Try to minimize the use of them, as on a weaker system (even mine at times), it will lag. Of course, some of the lag at least is server based so expect that too...

When you start doing end-game content, like Blackrock mountain, Scholomance (eww @ the lag there sometime), and then big 20/40 man raids like Zul'Gruub or Molten Core, 1gb of ram + a decent video card is important to have, esp as a healer/decursive class. I hear CPU is a factor, but i'm not sure.
 
The cheapest solution I have found to run wow is
Aspire X-QPack
Biostar 6100-M7
Sempron 2800+
512 MB Ram
Any 20+ gig HD

That solution will run wow no issues at 800x600. The onboard video is definately good enough.
 
my cousin ran it on a entry level dell with intel onboard graphics and 512 ram at 800x600 if your looking at that res. but i think its unplayable not really worth it. also his system choked on major cities like orgrimmar
 
You can have about anything, just make sure like posted have a 1gb of ram.
My 2500+ and 9800pro use to run wow like a champ after I slapped another 512 stick in there. It was doing 1280x1024 2xAA,8xAF with high settings and looked pretty nice.
 
I noticed a difference when i went to 2 gigs of ram from 1, dont skimp in the ram.
 
Like others have said: RAM and lots of it. 512 is definately not enough for this game especially in cities. My laptop with an x300 runs the game very nice at 1280x800, however, only after I put another 512mb of RAM into it. Lots of RAM + WoW = Good stuff.
 
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