Seeing Azeroth with the options turned up
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 28th 2006 at 1:48AM
Frostbolt went out and got himself one of those shiny new 20" iMacs, and he says wow, WoW looks good on it. One of my favorite things about WoW is how well it seems to run on almost any hardware, but I know what Frosty means-- there's a big difference between playing with all the options off and turning on the underwater, drunk, and glowy effects. Spells, buffs, and instances look so much better when you have a nice rig and all the effects turned on.Right now I'm running WoW on a PC I've had for a while-- it doesn't look too bad chugging along at 1.8ghz, 512mb of RAM and a GeForce 5200, but by the time Burning Crusade hits, I'll be done building my new monster: overclocked to 4ghz with a watercooled processor, 2gb of RAM (that's right, baby), and a GeForce 7900 GS in the PCI-e slot. All I need is to find a deal on a case and the RAM, and I'll be set to build my monster WoW machine.
But sometimes you don't even need a whole computer-- a few months ago I went ahead and invested in a sweet 24" Dell widescreen monitor, and that, as Robert Frost says, "has made all the difference." I couldn't imagine healing a 40 man raid with a 15" or even a 17" monitor-- all those meters would cloud up the place before long. Then again, I've seen screenshots around of people playing WoW at 800x600 resolution. I'd consider that unplayable, but maybe I'm being elitist. According to the latest Steam survey, 1024x768 is still the standard for Half-Life players-- Blizzard doesn't track the same info (or at least they don't release it), but I wonder if WoWers tend to skew their tech faster or slower than that. Thoughts? What kind of rig are you playing this game on?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Grunt Sep 28th 2006 2:32AM
Hi and Good Morning,
I play on a 64bit AMD3200+/2GB RAM/ GeForce 6600GT 256MB and it works like a charm @ 1024x768 (yeah you were right about the halflife thing). Though I have to mention that I recently found out something that brings a whole new feeling to WoW. It's not only about the graphics but using a 19" TFT instead of 17" CRT makes you feel you're REALLY inside the game. Makes me get the same impression my dwarf must have walking through Ironforge. A pity I just had this screen for testing purposes :(
What screens do you play on?
Regards,
Grunt
Jonathan Sep 28th 2006 3:02AM
Got a new souped-up 24" iMac coming next week and, sad to say, WoW was one of the reasons... ;-) (but don't tell the bank!)
Akutae Sep 28th 2006 3:37AM
I run AMD 64 X2 4200+ (mmm, dual core), 1GB RAM and GeForce 7900GT (PCIe), with a Samsung 17" LCD. 1280x1024 with everything set to full, I like it :)
I'd love a better monitor though, mine's a year or two old now... 24" widescreen LCD sounds about perfect ;)
Dan Sep 28th 2006 3:51AM
MacBook Pro dual-core 2.16, 2GB RAM, 256MB ATi X1600, 15.4' screen, 2.54kg :D WoW in bed, at work, on the train... o/
Screen isn't huge but it's better than the 12" PowerBook I used before :)
Tim Sep 28th 2006 3:57AM
Mike - Get yourself a Thermaltake armor case(the 8003 ones not the 8000). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133021. You won't be sorry let me tell you. The case is awesome for the system you are building. Way freakin huge!!, looks great!!, knockout precut holes in the back for external watercooled sytstems. This is by far one of the best cases I have ever owned. Not to mention newegg will have it at your door in about 2 days.
joe Sep 28th 2006 4:07AM
I run on a couple of machines, but always on a big ass screen.
Either on a Apple MacBook w/ 2GB memory on a 20" widescreen.
Or 3.6GHz P4, 1GB ram, 7950GT on 23" widescreen.
WoW is a whole different experience on a big widescreen. I just don't understand how the poor peeps can live without at least a high res 19".
=P
jonny Sep 28th 2006 4:52AM
mALX from Alienware, which as a laptop with a 19" screen and DUAL 7900GTX's isnt too shabby when being beaten in PVP. I might be crap at the game, but boy does it look good.
Kraki Sep 28th 2006 5:20AM
I'm playing on an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ with 2GB of RAM, an All-in-Wonder x800 and 2 19" Monitors.
I'm playing with a resolution of 2560x1024. Ever since i got a second monitor (3 years ago) I've never been able to function on a computer with only one. When playing WoW i've got my main monitor showing the environment, and my other monitor has everything like my group/raid bars, chat, bags, dps monitors and the like. Someday I'll upgrade to a couple of bigger widescreen monitors, but that's going to be an expensive upgrade.
oomu Sep 28th 2006 5:44AM
I'm playing wow on a powermac quad (nvidia geforce 7800) and a 30" apple cinema display.
(I would say it's totally marvelous with that display. widescreen is a must have)
Ely Sep 28th 2006 6:45AM
Play on a G4 Powerbook at the moment with everything turned down. Missus plays on a 2.66 P4 with a 19" CRT with medium settings and it looks good.
My 24" iMac should arrive either this Saturday or Monday. I am so excited I may have to change my underwear.
Quaddw Sep 28th 2006 6:52AM
1.8 ghz, 1g Ram, Geforce 5200....was also going to upgrade later in fall... and you pretty much said what I was going to do lol.
Tigraine Sep 28th 2006 7:03AM
The screen is the key
I play on a 3.5ghz AMD 64 with 2gigs of ram and a GF6600GT 265mb .. and .. I played for a long time on a 17" CRT Screen.
Then.. I bought my BenQ 19" LCD Screen.
Man.. that was awful.
I logged in and was occasionally standing around at the gates of Orgrimmar after some duels the other day.
Fuck.. That was an impressive look, after so many years of outwashed Colors and unsharp things.. MAN.. that looked so awfully great. Everything had changed color from gray to really great red and brown tones.. It looked so astonishing.. you should ask my guild mates about my gibbering on the g-chat.. I think I was riding through Durotar for almost half an hour writing every 3 feet .. "omfg.. " into the guild chat..
Screen > everything
greetings Tigraine
PodMonkeys Sep 28th 2006 8:42AM
I rock my WoW on a 1.1ghz ultraportable laptop with Intel integrated graphics on a 10.6inch screen for a whopping 8-16fps! w00t! Its not quite as good as my P4-2.0 desktop with gf6600 on a 19", but the pc3200 ram failed and is now running pc2100 ram :( . Not to mention the desktop's keyboard and mouse sit on a coffee table so its a bit hard to use comfortably.
The tiny laptop is a bit slow, and the 1280x768 10" screen is a bit small, but as I'm a casual player, its good enough for the most part. I do miss being able to see thorugh the surface of the water, tho.
Bur Sep 28th 2006 7:56AM
AMD 3.0
2G Ram
X850 XT
Audigy 2 Soundcard
Antec P180 Case - 100% The daddy of cases!
17" LCD Main monitor & 15" LCD Second Monitor
G15 Keyboard & N52 Keypad (Don't get one its shit)
G5 Mouse
I also could never live without two monitors since I got the second one. The main is for the game and the 2nd shows Ventrilo, winamp, and sometimes a movie when grinding..
Also upgrading early next year, going to get a new Intel Chip I think, Core2 ftw. Want to see whats happening with the physics cards b4 looking too deep into graphics. Its got to be an X-Fi sounds card, with another 2g of DDR2 800 and another 2 monitors at the same size this time (hopefully 19"s)..
Aaron Sep 28th 2006 8:02AM
While my setup isn't quite as souped up as some I get by as I use two systems sitting side by side. One runs WoW while the other runs all the other utilities.
Chris Sep 28th 2006 8:04AM
I'm using an AMD64 3500+, 2GB RAM, Geforce 6800 512MB graphics. Too bad it's nothing better than a descent 19" CRT... :/ Oh well, the game looks and runs great, but due to screen size, I don't use maximum resolution.
For some time though, I haven't been at home, so I've been using a 15" laptop which is over 4 years old. It's P4 1,7Ghz, 768MB RAM and a crappy 16MB graphics card. It does work (yeah, it actually starts, even though it doesn't meet minimum reqs!). I've even done several ZG and AQ20 runs, but you're down to 2-5 FPS in battle. Probably wouldn't work with a melee class, but I'm a mage - just need to tab-select and send out frost bolts and stuff and I still do more damage than everyone else! :)
Knottop Sep 28th 2006 9:21AM
I just co-incidently had a new barebones system delivered today.
Athlon 3800 64 bit, 1 gig of RAM, either a Radeon X700 or 9600 graph card, whichever of the two performs better when I test them later tonight.
I shamefully bought it with WoW in mind as I was getting sick of FPS drops on my old 1.8ghz sempron. Good job my girlfriend plays WoW too, means I was able to justify spending a bit of cash on it a lot easier... :)
Gill Sep 28th 2006 7:34PM
I play WoW on an 19" widescreen =)
Paulie Sep 28th 2006 9:53AM
Been playing on everything from a 12" Powerbook through a 20" iMac. Just got a Core2Duo PC with a 20" widescreen and an ATI X1900, because I was tired of everyone telling me WoW was better under Windows.
They were right :( Running WoW under Vista RC1 with the Windows video drivers, and I'm getting 100 fps + with EVERYTHING up to full (even distance!) at 1680x1050.
My poor Mac has now been relegated to doing everything except WoW, and the PC runs WoW as soon as it's turned on.
Afroloop Sep 28th 2006 10:35AM
I have an FX60 system with 2GB of RAM and 2 7800GTX video cards and a 30" Dell LCD. WoW looks amazing. I also have a 5.1 Logitech Z680 speaker setup so it sounds good too. Other games also look really good.