Will a video card upgrade let me run WoW max settings?

[badkiti88]

Hi My computer is currently an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.5Ghz with 4G Ram and a Geforce 240GT 1GB GDDR5 and I'm having to run the settings on a mix of mostly medium settings. Would upgrading my video card help at all or am I limited by my CPU?

If the answer is time to upgrade, second question is would an i3 560, 4G ram run max, and what kind of video card as a minimum?

As a side note, is my USB wireless card slowing down my connection and would I be better off with a PCI-E card?

Thanks,
Heather

 

[BobVosh]

I'm not sure, but word around here is that the CPU is more important than the GPU. If you pop over to the hardware forum they could help you overclock that processor and it should probably be enough. Especially if you can push 3.2 or so.

However I would definitely ask their help if you don't know how/haven't OC before. If you want to buy a new processor you have sufficient RAM and graphics so you don't need to buy anything other than a processor. I would recommend a i5 if you are going intel.

 

[mokomaki]

No a new GPU wouldnt help you at all. Your CPU is just limiting you too much. You need something at 2.8-3ghz with 3 cores for WoW.

 

[mokomaki]

If you could find out your motherboard for us we could suggest you a processor upgrade.

 

[BeefBravo]

A higher clocked CPU is better for playing WoW. If you are considering upgrades then a duel core CPU clocked at a minimum of 2.8GHZ is needed for playing on ultra. Contrary to popular belief you don't need a triple or quad core CPU to run WoW on ultra (a higher clocked duel core is best). Also I see that the GeForce GT 240 only has a 128bit memory bus. A video card with a 256 bit memory bus would be better, but might not necessarily be needed to run WoW on ultra. Start with the CPU first (either upgrade or try overclocking it), then if needed upgrade the graphics card (WoW is more CPU demanding).

 

[badkiti88]

Best answer selected by badkiti88.

 

[badkiti88]

Thank you. That's kinda what I was picking up off the searching I've been doing. Seems to be lots of opinions, but I was thinking a fast dual core looked like best bang for the buck. Here's an awesome link I found. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62

I'm thinking now of doing an i5 650/660. Is 4G Ram good? I've seen some ppl say high is good enough and no need for ultra. I mostly care about spell effects not lagging me in PvP and max view distance. Can my 240 pull that off?

 

[BeefBravo]

The fast i5 would definately allow you to bump your settings up. The i5 and 240 should allow you to run near ultra settings. 4GB of RAM is fine. I play on ultra, but "high" is fine. Most people prefer to turn some details like ground clusters down for PvP and some (like myself) even turn shadows back a notch to boost performance. In the ende it's up to personal preferance, but it looks better on higher settings (obviously). I play on ultra with a Core 2 Duo clocked at 2.88GHZ, 1GB GeForce GTX 260M and 6GB DDR2. I get 45FPS on full settings and 8xAA. With shadows turned down a notch I get a solid 60FPS (I play with VSync enabled). Hope this helps.

 

[BeefBravo]

Spell effects are effected by the "particle density" settings. You should be able to turn them to their highest settings without much trouble in PvP. The view distance should be fine at it's highest setting too. The shadows and ground clutter that really put a strain on the system, especially in PvP settings. Sorry for the seperate posts, lol, just want to help as much as I can.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey