Required Specs

dragon wench · #1 (**permalink**) 08-24-2005, 10:19 AM

What in your opionion are the necessary specs to run this game? We are looking to get our son a new graphics card (an ATI 9600 or ATI 9550 with at least 128mb of V-RAM, or an nVidia FX 6200). We are also thinking of getting him additional RAM (right now he has 256 mg, and clearly this is not doing the job).

How much RAM, in your estimation would be ideal?
He has a P4, and I'm somewhat inclined to get him 1 G of RAM in the hope that it will keep him going until a total computer upgrade (though I'm running an old P3, so the child is *last* in line for a new machine

)

Xandax · #2 (**permalink**) 08-24-2005, 01:39 PM

Well - I'd not go under 512 for sure, but that goes for most anything today - especially with cheap RAM prices. 1 Gig. ram is what I'd recommend.

The graphic card isn't all that important, I used a GeForce 4 Ti4200 (128 MB) to run the game for a significant portion of time, and while loadsequences lagged and took some time, once loaded (into my 1gig RAM) it ran decent enough. Loading in MC and IF was a drag.
I then changed to an ATI 9800XT (256MB), and it seriously improved my load times, but again - once loaded the differences were marginal, although I now ran with more options enabled.

For WoW I'd say RAM is likely one of the most important ressources once the other specs are "average"

(nice and vauge, huh?)

dragon wench · #3 (**permalink**) 08-24-2005, 02:53 PM

lol! Thanks Xan

I was curious, because I know that with Morrowind, for example, increasing my RAM helped, but replacing the graphics card (which I did afterwards) made a really significant difference. My load times were greatly reduced, and I went from witnessing a slideshow in some areas to actually being able to move at a reasonable clip.

I think we will likely go with the 1 G of RAM, in addition to the card. If nothing else, it should significantly increase the lifespan of our son's computer *crosses fingers*

Damned gaming industry....

Brynn · #4 (**permalink**) 08-25-2005, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xandax

1 Gig. ram is what I'd recommend.

Yup, I have 512MB, and getting somwhere in a big city is a real pain... (GC is a 128MB Radeon something). I'm pretty sure doubling the memory would solve this problem. So yeah, go for 1G.

It wasn't like that a couple of months ago, though... It seems that the lag in Ironforge (=most crowded city on the Alliance side) has been worse and worse with each patch, I don't know why.