What is a good graphics card to play WoW at a good graphics setting?

[jaymthespinoza]

Here are my specifications, I know my non-sandybridge system and Vertex 2 are ancient but should be good enough for a decent WoW graphics experience. The monitor, also ancient, is:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6052506&CatId=2775

so I might upgrade it at some point.

CPU Arch : 1 CPU - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
CPU PSN : Intel Core i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3, 3S, 4.1, 4.2), EM64T, VT-x
CPUID : 6.A.5 / Extended : 6.1A
CPU Cache : L1 : 4 x 32 / 4 x 32 KB - L2 : 4 x 256 KB
CPU Cache : L3 : 8192 KB
Core : Bloomfield (45 nm) / Stepping : D0
Freq : 1603.67 MHz (133.64 * 12)
MB Brand : Asus
MB Model : SABERTOOTH X58
NB : Intel X58 rev 13
SB : Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev 00
GPU Type : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
GPU Clocks : Core 830 MHz / RAM 2004 MHz
DirectX Version : 11.0
RAM : 12288 MB DDR3 Triple Channel
RAM Speed : 534.6 MHz (2:8) @ 8-8-8-20
Slot 1 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Corsair
Slot 2 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : Corsair
Slot 3 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 3 Manufacturer : Corsair

WoW should be a far better deal than the (technically) free 2D game (that forces the monitor to show 16-bit color) that is expensive as heck to upgrade equipment. It's a fairly good game, but after years it's time to move on to a real MMORPG. As an aside what race and class would you recommend? I'd love to be either an undead rogue or blood elf rogue but have real life friends in alliance so I think a worgen rogue looks good. As a male I'm definitely choosing a male character because I don't want to be one of "those" people (no offense meant to any males here who have female WoW characters, just isn't my style).

 

[elrui]

Here are my specifications, I know my non-sandybridge system and Vertex 2 are ancient but should be good enough for a decent WoW graphics experience. The monitor, also ancient, is:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6052506&CatId=2775

so I might upgrade it at some point.

CPU Arch : 1 CPU - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
CPU PSN : Intel Core i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3, 3S, 4.1, 4.2), EM64T, VT-x
CPUID : 6.A.5 / Extended : 6.1A
CPU Cache : L1 : 4 x 32 / 4 x 32 KB - L2 : 4 x 256 KB
CPU Cache : L3 : 8192 KB
Core : Bloomfield (45 nm) / Stepping : D0
Freq : 1603.67 MHz (133.64 * 12)
MB Brand : Asus
MB Model : SABERTOOTH X58
NB : Intel X58 rev 13
SB : Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev 00
GPU Type : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
GPU Clocks : Core 830 MHz / RAM 2004 MHz
DirectX Version : 11.0
RAM : 12288 MB DDR3 Triple Channel
RAM Speed : 534.6 MHz (2:8) @ 8-8-8-20
Slot 1 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Corsair
Slot 2 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : Corsair
Slot 3 : 4096MB (10700)
Slot 3 Manufacturer : Corsair

WoW should be a far better deal than the (technically) free 2D game (that forces the monitor to show 16-bit color) that is expensive as heck to upgrade equipment. It's a fairly good game, but after years it's time to move on to a real MMORPG. As an aside what race and class would you recommend? I'd love to be either an undead rogue or blood elf rogue but have real life friends in alliance so I think a worgen rogue looks good. As a male I'm definitely choosing a male character because I don't want to be one of "those" people (no offense meant to any males here who have female WoW characters, just isn't my style).

Hi Sir!

WoW is a unique bird, it has a lot of factors that affect it's fps other than graphics horsepower. Latency and CPU are just as important. However the simple answer to your question anything from the 6th or 7th row of this chart and up should be fine for WoW on Ultra settings. It doesn't matter what system you run, you will have fps dips (my system which is pretty strong still drops below 60 sometimes (into the 40's sometimes!) in 25 man firelands raids with a lot of AOE)

Click me for the chart.

 

[jaymthespinoza]

Best answer selected by jaymthespinoza.

 

[jaymthespinoza]

Thanks very much! I actually have no problem running the game even on Ultra but still experience hiccups and sometimes the camera turns very slowly (I even strategize around this by mentally timing so as to not walk off bridges or miss monsters when teleporting behind them), and setting it to "good" or "fair" doesn't help. Should I overclock? If so what could a Cooler Master v6 handle? I have Intel Extreme Tuner and don't want to destroy my CPU. The hottest I've ever seen was 61 C, so I'd prefer not overclocking if I could help it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey