Laughable card review

[Modred189]

I was perusing the web of my most-visited tech review websites today and I got a good laugh. First of all, I love ExtremeTech for their reviews of keyboards and mice, as they are one of the few sites to do decent ones any more. However they posted a video card review/ IQ/performance piece today that made me laugh.
Now, if this was PCMag, or some other basic computer site, I might be more forgiving, but why would you evaluate cards over $200 on World of Warcraft on a site called Extreme Tech?
Seems like a waste to me. Lo and behold, all the cards blew the game out of the water, averaging over 70fps!

 

[phide]

[H] evaluated cards with WoW for quite some time -- even the highest-end offerings. It's a popular game, so sites continue to evaluate performance with it.

 

[Jeffredo]

One thing they don't mention is that, especially since the last patch in October, WoW is a very CPU dependent game. Almost any $100+ GPU is capable of running it at max details at a moderate resolution "if" its paired with a stronger CPU - which the review has.

I have a year old AMD X2 6400+ paired with a GTX 260 and playing at 1680x1050. I can no longer run the game at max details in places like Shattrah City. It will drop down to the mid 20's if I do (in the central room). Out in the world I can get micro stuttering if I pan the camera too quickly (primarily in the new areas of Outland and Northrend). Its all related to the new video options - increased draw distance and dynamic shadow quality. And its all CPU related. I still get 60 FPS in many places, but the game has definitely changed with this new expansion.

 

[Dende]

WoTLK HURTS systems in northrend now with all the settings on as high as they will go. So yea I think that it could be used as a testing system but as Jeffredo said before me WoW is VERY much dependent on the CPU.

 

[Eradan]

Certain areas in Northrend bring the system in my sig down to into the neighborhood of 10FPS. I've had to turn off shadows and reduce multisampling to 4X to keep it mostly smooth. If there was a processor I could upgrade to that I knew for sure would allow me to crank everything and keep my frame rate above 40, I'd upgrade tomorrow.

It's annoying to continually read comments regarding WoW and video cards that suggest you need nothing more than an old ATi Rage128 card to max out the game as long as you have a good CPU. Simply not true unless maybe at resolutions that few people play at anymore.

E

 

[JimmiG]

Gotta love it how they first say:

You would probably have to move up to 8x anti-aliasing or higher resolutions like 2560x1600 to start to see real differences.

But then they don't show any benchmark results at that res

 

[Taikero]

I used to be able to max everything except multisampling out on a Go 7900 GS only two years ago and maintain 60 fps everywhere but certain raid encounters. BC dropped my frames by ~15, nothing too big. Then they doubled the draw distance, which my card couldn't handle, and now with Wotlk, even with ~medium settings, I don't break 30 fps often. Also, there are several console scripts you can use to increase draw distance further, grass/ground effect density, etc. if you so choose.

Yes, I know my card is four generations passed by now (and with WoW, just as importantly, my CPU), which is why I'm about to upgrade, but it's not as graphically simple as it was four years ago.