[Xmp]

Hey there, new user here. Hope to bring something to the community soon in the form of theorycrafting, custom UIs and instructional videos, but for now I have a question!

I've been playing since vanilla and my rigs always been a little lackluster, meaning 5 FPS in Dalaran if I'm lucky, 10 FPS in 25-mans, ~25-30 in 10-mans. I feel like I'm losing out on a chunk of DPS or TPS because of how choppy my gameplay is. My PC is so terrible that it doesn't even boot up anymore so I'm using my Macbook as a desktop, but I still get the same performance. I can tell you why though, it's because my monitor is huge. 27", 1920x1200 resolution.

I'm wondering what people's experiences are as far as getting smooth gameplay (I mean 100+ FPS at all times including AOE heavy fights and at max settings, without hiccups) on a 1920x1200 resolution. What kind of machine is needed? I don't mind dropping $2000 on a new computer, although I doubt I'll have to spend that much anymore.

I always have music on and a few tabs open in Safari/Firefox, along with Ventrilo. I need something that can handle these things simultaneously.

Any suggestions are welcome! I'm just looking for some barebone stats here (don't need to go into CAS timings if you really don't want to!), I'm fully capable of picking out some compatible parts on my own =]

Thanks!

[Reev]

I run a late 2008 MacBook Pro with an ATI Radeon 9600M (Though I've forgotten lately and I've been running WoW on the 9400M). I cap my FPS at 30 intentionally, because it doesn't really need to be any faster for a very smooth image. When I was originally having problems with FPS, I did 2 things. One, I recognized my biggest problem was in Dalaran. I upgraded from 2 GB of RAM to 4 GB. Instantly, Dalaran became playable. It was night and day.

The second thing, which I've since reverted, is that I reduced the resolution on my monitor. It made a huge difference in gameplay, but I didn't like the grainier look of the game, so I eventually switched back after I got the RAM upgrade. It actually plays reasonably well now at 1920x1200, even when using my weaker graphics card.

[Xmp]

Source: Reev I run a late 2008 MacBook Pro with an ATI Radeon 9600M (Though I've forgotten lately and I've been running WoW on the 9400M). I cap my FPS at 30 intentionally, because it doesn't really need to be any faster for a very smooth image. When I was originally having problems with FPS, I did 2 things. One, I recognized my biggest problem was in Dalaran. I upgraded from 2 GB of RAM to 4 GB. Instantly, Dalaran became playable. It was night and day. The second thing, which I've since reverted, is that I reduced the resolution on my monitor. It made a huge difference in gameplay, but I didn't like the grainier look of the game, so I eventually switched back after I got the RAM upgrade. It actually plays reasonably well now at 1920x1200, even when using my weaker graphics card.

Personally I find the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS to be like night and day, I can't deal with 30 FPS. I've played on a PC that pulls 90-100 FPS consistently and it's like a dream, but let's not get into FPS preference arguments =]

Should've mentioned, I can't upgrade my current rig, everything is too old. Mobo doesn't take anything above PC3200, socket 939 CPU, single PCI-E, etc.

[Bashal]

I believe the human eye isn't able to detect a difference beyond 60fps (or at the very least, the apparent difference is small enough that it typically escapes notice). If you can maintain at least 60fps then you probably won't notice that it isn't sitting at 100.

[Xmp]

Source: Bashal I believe the human eye isn't able to detect a difference beyond 60fps (or at the very least, the apparent difference is small enough that it typically escapes notice). If you can maintain at least 60fps then you probably won't notice that it isn't sitting at 100.

There's no real definitive research showing that the human eye can only see a certain framerate, and I know fully well that I can see the difference between 60 and 100 FPS. Anything you've heard about the human eye only being able to see so many frames per second is just someone spitting out some arbitrary number.

[Omok]

I don't think there is a computer in existence that can pull 100 FPS in Dalaran consistently. I have a pretty beefy computer, and Dalaran even pulls it down to about 50 FPS when playing with everything maxed. I have two radeon 4870s running concurrently, eight gigs of RAM, and a quad core processor. I have experienced the same issues on all flavors of Windows; XP, Vista, and 7. Pretty much any other area of the game I do not dip below 60, which is my limit as I keep V-Sync on. If you want to build my computer with current parts available and with reasonably beefy components, expect to spend pretty close to three grand.

[ttocs]

You likely won't find a PC to pull 90-100FPS consistently in WoW. With any relatively modern video card (just about any 512M+ video card), your CPU will be the limiting factor in your frame rate.

[Xmp]

Source: ttocs You likely won't find a PC to pull 90-100FPS consistently in WoW. With any relatively modern video card (just about any 512M+ video card), your CPU will be the limiting factor in your frame rate.

I should say that I'd like this FPS where possible. Obviously 60 FPS is still smooth and very playable. I don't need 100 FPS in Dal but in a normal raid setting (non AOE heavy encounters) it would be optimal.

I'm just looking for a spec outline here guys, I know what performance I'm shooting for, just need help getting there.

[Helgi]

Heh, everyone got carried away with the whole framerate argument. I never notice a difference when it is greater than 40fps. But, anyway...

Honestly, you can build a computer that gets 40-50 fps for around $900. This past summer I built one for $878 that gets about 40fps consistently, 30fps during peak times in Dalaran--unless a Mage decides to pop his Blizzard. Raids I usually get ~75fps unless it is a particularly caster-heavy group that night.

If you've never built a PC before, don't worry. There are plenty of people here that have built they're own, including me, that will help you.

Here is what you'll be lookin at for building a PC (bare minimum of course).

$30-$100 - Case: [your choice]
$30-$80 - Power Supply: > 500 watts
$80-$120 - CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo > 2.6ghz, AMD Phenom II X2 > 2.7ghz
$40-$60 - Memory: 4gb
$60-$160 - Video Card: Nvidia 8 series/ATI HD 4000 series with 512mb
$60-$120 - Motherboard: Depends on CPU
$40-$60 - Hard Drive: [your choice]
$10-$20 - DVD Drive: [your choice]
$0-$200 - Operating system (Windows)

Thats pretty much it. The CPU you choose is largely dependent on what else you'll be doing besides WoW. WoW can only run on a maximum of 2 cores, so really only a dual core processor is needed. If you only doing Vent/Firefox/Music and WoW it will probably be better to get a faster dual-core processor. If you plan on running two WoWs at the same time, then it will be better to get a quad core and have each WoW run on two different pairs of cores. Another option that might be a good route for you is to get AMD's tri-core chip (Phenom II X3). Setup WoW to run on core 1 & 2 and all of your other programs to run on core 0.

Of course, the faster/newer/better parts you get, the more performance you get. Personally, when I build a computer I don't worry so much as getting the best parts that are currently out, I worry about parts that will enable me to upgrade my machine for the longest amount of time without having to build a completely new machine.

Hope this helps a little bit. Keep in mind I was building a machine that would get around 30-50fps in an average 25-man raid setting. 40fps in Dalaran is a completely different story. If I were to guess you could probably build a machine with the parts I listed above for around $600 - $700, without Windows. I personally get all of my copies of Windows for free (I work for an IT department at the local university), so I never worry about that when building a machine. You might not be so fortunate, however.

[Helgi]

Just read the post again and realized you were looking for about 60fps in a raid setting, so I'll edit my list a little bit:

$30-$100 - Case: [your choice]
$30-$80 - Power Supply: > 550 watts
$110-$180 - CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo >= 2.8ghz, AMD Phenom II X3 >= 2.8ghz
$50-$120 - Memory: >= 4gb
$140-$200 - Video Card: >= Nvidia GTX 280 / >= ATI HD 4800 with 512mb
$100-$160 - Motherboard: Depends on CPU
$40-$60 - Hard Drive: [your choice]
$10-$20 - DVD Drive: [your choice]
$0-$200 - Operating system (Windows)

Bare minimum, of course.

[Xmp]

Been doing a bit of looking around at Newegg(.ca), here's what I have so far. Managed to keep it under $1400, although I wanted to opt for a GTX 295 but that's an extra $250 and I'm not sure what kind of performance increase I'll see in WoW, I don't play any high-end games like Crysis so I think this will do for now:

Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Case - $99.99 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 HDD - $89.99 EVGA GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $272.99 CORSAIR 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply - $169.99 CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory - $256.99 ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - $199.99 Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz Quad-Core CPU - $309.99

Subtotal: $1,399.93

Thoughts?

[Helgi]

You'll easily hit 60fps in WoW. In Dalaran you might even get up to 50fps, but that all depends on your internet speed. (Connection speed affects fps more than some people think, especially heavily populated areas).

My only worry is the ASRock motherboard. My experience with ASRock has been hit or miss. Either the board works flawlessly, or it won't even boot.

I personally would get a Gigabyte board, although I know many people that'll live and die by Asus boards. My experience with Asus boards have always been "meh," but then again I've never had any problems with them (or Gigabyte's boards) at all.

WoW's graphics engine is so... old... that you won't see much of an increase in performance if you get the GTX 295. To be honest you could get away with a card half that price and there will be less than a 5fps difference between the cards. WoW relies more on your CPU and system memory than any other component.

But yeah, looks great. To be honest I think you'll going a little over-kill for WoW. You could probably run 3 different instances of WoW on those specs and be fine. Hell, you could probably even run Crysis flawlessly on that machine.

[Xmp]

Source: Helgi You'll easily hit 60fps in WoW. In Dalaran you might even get up to 50fps, but that all depends on your internet speed. (Connection speed affects fps more than some people think, especially heavily populated areas). My only worry is the ASRock motherboard. My experience with ASRock has been hit or miss. Either the board works flawlessly, or it won't even boot. I personally would get a Gigabyte board, although I know many people that'll live and die by Asus boards. My experience with Asus boards have always been "meh," but then again I've never had any problems with them (or Gigabyte's boards) at all. WoW's graphics engine is so... old... that you won't see much of an increase in performance if you get the GTX 295. To be honest you could get away with a card half that price and there will be less than a 5fps difference between the cards. WoW relies more on your CPU and system memory than any other component. But yeah, looks great. To be honest I think you'll going a little over-kill for WoW. You could probably run 3 different instances of WoW on those specs and be fine. Hell, you could probably even run Crysis flawlessly on that machine.

Thankfully I do a ton of multi-tasking and graphic design work so it won't all go to waste

[Helgi]

Source: Xmp Thankfully I do a ton of multi-tasking and graphic design work so it won't all go to waste

True, and you won't have to worry about updating for awhile.

[hujakea]

I accept with cotst:

$30-$100 - Case: [your choice]
$30-$80 - Power Supply: > 500 watts
$80-$120 - CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo > 2.6ghz, AMD Phenom II X2 > 2.7ghz
$40-$60 - Memory: 4gb
$60-$160 - Video Card: Nvidia 8 series/ATI HD 4000 series with 512mb
$60-$120 - Motherboard: Depends on CPU
$40-$60 - Hard Drive: [your choice]
$10-$20 - DVD Drive: [your choice]
$0-$200 - Operating system (Windows)

[ttocs]

Source: Helgi You'll easily hit 60fps in WoW. In Dalaran you might even get up to 50fps, but that all depends on your internet speed. (Connection speed affects fps more than some people think, especially heavily populated areas).

In what regard? From my experience, ping/bandwidth typically has little to do with WoW's frame rate, and especially less so than other games.

[Kherberos]

the "especially in heavily populated areas" is just your memory being filled to the brim due to crazy amount of textures + io requests on your Hard drive for cache files and items seen ingame etc causing lower FPS.
That a slow machine responds slower to ping commands making it look like its "lag" is just a correlation and not the cause/effect you think it is