Which card to run WoW on 22" LCD?

[TopGun]

Which card would be the minimum required to run WoW on a 22" LCD at 1600x???(not sure what rez yet, if you know what most people use please post) with all the bells and whistles?

Also, possibly unrelated question...which card provides the best Bang for Buck/Sweet Spot/Value?

A) HIS Hightech H487FN512P Radeon HD 4870 512MB @ $139.99

B) SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB @ $99.99

C) SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512 MB @ $99.99

D) HIS Hightech H483FN512P Radeon HD 4830 512MB @ $76.99
or
E) GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I Radeon HD 4670 512MB @ $49.99

Thanks,
-TG

 

[EAZY-E]

If your only gonna be playing wow than get the 4830, im sure it will max it out without trying (wow isnt exactly a graphically intense game ) and still get 100+fps.
Its probably the best "overall value" card out there.

P.S. Being a 22 monitor is probably 1680X1050.

 

[daship]

WoW is mostly dependant on CPU. I run WoW on both pcs I have.

PC 1:
Q6600@ 3.2, 4G DDR3, ATI 3650. Solid 40FPS in Dalaran, and 90 outside flying on epic flyer.
PC2:
i7 920 3.6, 6G DDR3, ATI 4870, 50FPS Dalaran, 109 outside on epic flyer.

Any of the cards you listed will work just fine but WoW loves multi cores.

 

[TopGun]

Would an E5200 be OK?...for the CPU?

 

[Dave K]

WoW is graphically ancient... not demanding at all... and a 22" monitor isn't going to be super-high resolution (1600x1050 or something like that)... I imagine a 5200 and any of those cards will run it maxed out no problem.

 

[shagmanjug]

How about running it on a 30" monitor at 2560x1600 res. Every since the latest patch I have been having a lot of artifact (graphic tearing) on my system. Tried updating video card driver but it didn't help. Also I could hear a small crackling noise as my system heated up in the past. but I haven't noticed overheating. Now I am at 10 fps in naxx and maybe 15 in dalaran. Think I would notice a difference If I through in a 8400 wolfdale and upgraded my memory from ddr2 800 to ddr2 1066 corsair 2x2gb? or should I just splurge on a new gtx 200 series card? I want to push the best graphics possible at 2560x1600 without burning up my video card.

e6400
corsair 4x 1gb ram
evga 8800gtx (1)
evga 680i motherboard
no overclocking

 

[Zenthar]

@TopGun
The 4830 would be OK, but I would go for the 4770 just to make sure the next big expansion doesn't send you performance down too much. Would also allow you to play other games decently.

@shagmanjug
Check your CPU load while playing and you will know if it's your bottleneck. If it is, you can always OC your CPU, but it might require 3rd party cooler. As for RAM, I doubt going from 4x1GB DDR2-800 to 2x2GB DDR2-1066 will change much. At that high a resolution (and with latest expansion) I think the 8800GTX might have met its match. For a worthwhile performance improvement, you can always look for a 4850X2, a GTX280 or a GTX285. However, I would suggest OCing the CPU first to make it worthwhile.

 

[Zenthar]

@shagmanjug
Oh, if you get a new video card, make sure you get one with 1GB VRAM/GPU (2GB total for dual-GPU models).

 

[shagmanjug]

Thanks Z I may try the OC. But I do have that 8400 processor in another pc I use just for burning videos. I may move it over and oc it.

 

[Zenthar]

If you want to see the CPU load while you are playing Wow, use perfmon (Start>Run...>perfmon). Might have to play a bit with it to get what you want, but it can give you tons of information. This could save you the trouble of swapping CPU back and forth. However, having a E8400 for gaming would be a good asset one way or another.

 

[shagmanjug]

I ran the taskman last night while I played wow to monitor cpu usage of both cores. One core was running at about 90% while the other was only running at 25%. May be ust how blizzard set up the game to use both cores.
but I didnt see either of the cores go higher than 95% and I was still stuck at 17 fps in Ulduar. However I did update my 8800gtx drivers which seemed to help a bit. If I just had the money Id go ahead and splurge on a gtx 295 but 500 dollars is hard to come by in the economy we are in now. ugh.

 

[Zenthar]

WoW is supposed to be "multicore enabled" since patch 2.0.1 so I'm a bit surprised at the difference. Was that with the E6400 or the E8400?

When I run Prime95, my E8400 never goes over 96-97% load so 95% is pretty much like 100%. Therefore the CPU might be a current bottleneck. You can also look at this thread to make sure WoW is really using 2 cores.

 

[dirtmountain]

For price/performance sweet spot the HD4770. The HD4830 is also a decent choice. More important are which video settings you pick, make sure that "Ultra" is not enabled. Pick custom settings , lower "shader effects" and "full screen glow effects" to the lowest levels as these have a big impact on FPS, raise/lower other effects until you're satisfied with performance. WoW is optimized for duo cores, tri or quad cores mostly help with various add ons. 2 add ons which have been noted to adversely effect performance are "gatherer" and "auctioneer".

 

[TopGun]

All of those deals in the OP have changed somewhat. Currently, the 4770 is on sale after MIR for $89.99. I think this pushes it over the edge as far as price/performance.

I have read about some driver issues with it though. has anyone else heard anything about this?

Also, which is the better brand...Sapphire or HIS?

Thanks,
-TG