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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSystem requirements posted for WotLK
by Eliah Hecht 
Oct 7th 2008 at 2:30PM
Blizzard has been putting off posting system requirements for Wrath of the Lich King for a while, but they've finally made a commitment, posted on the official forums. As one might expect, they're fairly forgiving given modern hardware, but they are significantly bumped from the BC requirements (which were not updated from classic WoW, aside from nominally requiring a broadband connection). Here are the minimum and recommended requirements for Wrath:
- PC:
- Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1 (Windows 2000 no longer supported)
- Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz (up from 800 MHz Intel/AMD). Dual-core recommended.
- RAM: 512 MB/1 GB for Vista,
doubled fromsame as previous. 1 GB/2 GB recommended. - Video: GPU with hardware transform and lighting and 32 MB VRAM, same as before. Recommended 128 MB VRAM.
- Mac:
- Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.3 no longer supported)
- PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo. Big change here: G4s are no longer supported. This one actually affects me, since I do have some G4 machines hanging around the house. Intel 1.8 GHz recommended.
- RAM: 1 GB, up from 512 MB. 2 GB recommended.
- Video: Hardware transform and lighting, 64 MB VRAM. On the face of it, this rules out the integrated graphics found on MacBooks and Mac Minis, but there's been no official word on it yet. 128 MB VRAM recommended.
For those of you who don't meet these requirements (of whom there should be a lot more than there are now with the BC requirements), don't despair too much. The prevailing opinion is that these are more suggested minimums than actual enforced limits. If you don't have quite a fast enough processor or a proper video card, Wrath will probably still run, although your frame rates might not be very high. If you manage to find a computer that doesn't meet the BC requirements now and install WoW on it, it will still run, albeit probably not very well; there's no reason to think that will change in Wrath.
Anyway, here's hoping the updated requirements will let them put more prettiness in LK, although we know at this point there will not be a full graphical revamp.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Tseran Oct 7th 2008 3:41PM
I am running on one of the new iMacs, 24" with the 1 Ghz FSB, the 256 MB video card, not the sweet 512 MB. I can tell you that it runs like a dream, even in beta. I have some graphics not turned all the way up, and with old style shadows, fighting in the water with others around me, I was getting 80+ FPS. True, there is no Mac 'budget box' but an iMac will do almost everything you will need, and if it lacks anything, you can probably get an external device for it. Yes, it costs more then a Windows machine up front, but for me, it was worth it to dump the Windows machine and all the problems it had to save pain and money later.
Nizari Oct 7th 2008 5:56PM
You do realize that the Intel-based Macs have been able to run Windows for quite some time, and therefore can run Portal, right?
I hear this argument repeatedly from PC apologists, "just build your own, it's so much cheaper than blowing 2000+ on a Mac tower." What this leaves out is that when you buy a mac, you're not just buying a machine; it comes with a set of software, like iTunes, Garage band, iMovie, iDvD, an IDE (yes, it's included in the system software), etc. So stop pretending a Mac is just hardware and an OS.
But let's say you just want a machine to play Portal and nothing else. Sure, you could buy the components separately. But then you'd be dependent on getting someone to make it for you, and in my experience, people who build PC's from scratch usually come in 3 flavors: incompetent moron, unreliable teenager, or stoner. Of course, you can do it yourself, but unless you put in the time, energy, and space to learn how to do it properly, you'd be falling in the "incompetent moron" category. To top that all off, if a home-built machine breaks, there's no one you can take it to fix it while it's still under warranty.
Eternauta Oct 7th 2008 2:58PM
Anybody knows if I can play WotLK decently with these:
_Pentium 4 1.81 GHz Dual-Core;
_2gb Ram
_NVidia Geforce 7100 GS 256mb
Thank you very much.
Ametrine Oct 7th 2008 2:59PM
... oh well, I've been needing to upgrade my ram and vidcard for a while now anyway...
Hank Oct 7th 2008 3:01PM
I hope I won't need a new laptop to run this. I meet all the requirements, except my video may be a little low. At least it's not shared RAM...(ATI Mobility Radeon x300) No Vista support for my system, but I run it anyway.
gameleon Oct 7th 2008 3:04PM
Grahpic card and RAM are fine :)
But i worry about your processor. Pentium 4's wont run WoTLK that well at a 1,8GHz clock speed. But you're talking about a dual-core right? Are you sure your not talking about a Pentium Dual-core, Core Duo or Core 2 Duo?
Takii Oct 7th 2008 3:01PM
back for both vanilla wow and TBC, i had them running at a playable speed on a computer so crappy, that it didn't even have a graphic card listed. When I installed WoW, it warned me that I don't even meet the minimum requirements, let alone TBC. Yet, it worked. I'm sure Wrath will work fine for those with less then steller computers, so long as they're fine with lagging for a minute whenever the enter Shat / Ironforge. 15 fps isnt epic, but its more then playable.
William Oct 7th 2008 3:25PM
I know what you mean about lagging in shat on those "less than stellar computers"... I been lagging in Shat for as long as I can remember. When i get close to the flightmaster I frequently get DC'd (I'm guessing it has to do with all the traffic/processing going on). Anyway... yeah... my machine with a 1.05ghz processor is running wow fine... my video is less than standard probably as well... but we make do. :D
William Oct 7th 2008 3:27PM
Forgot to mention that I'm in the beta as well and was able to run that without too many problems... (actually there were a lot of problems, but they all got attributed to the fact that it was a beta... my mana didn't regen, there were holes in the graphics and I fell through and got stuck... etc. etc.)
rocketscientist Oct 7th 2008 3:01PM
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200810.ars
There's the link to the article I mentioned. The article is 5 days old, so the prices are still pretty good and the components are still what you should get. The total is $462.70, plus shipping. Assemble it yourself, or find a friend who can do it and buy 'em some beer and you're still under $500.
Hobbes Oct 7th 2008 6:04PM
The Arstechnica article actually recommends buying a name-brand PC if you need Windows.
Grrim Oct 7th 2008 3:02PM
Don't fret G4 owners....I play on a Mac G4 Laptop, been in Beta for awhile and it plays just fine. If anything..it's gotten better as the beta's gone on as they've tweaked things.
mihr Oct 8th 2008 2:21PM
PowerBook or iBook? My iBook G4 already struggles in Shatt and large fights; it wouldn't surprise me at all if Wrath made it just give up and kill the prog.
Rodrigo Oct 7th 2008 3:09PM
XP service pack 3???? WHY?
Everyone knows you need a 64bit OS to use 4GB of RAM. Now, sadly there is no service pack 3 for windows XP 64bit...
Dammit...
Harmun Oct 8th 2008 2:04PM
I couldn't get SP3 to install on any of my systems- I kept getting weird errors. I wonder if they will ask for sp3 but work with sp2...
sephirah Oct 7th 2008 3:10PM
NOOOOOOOO!!!
No win2k!!! :(
kw Oct 7th 2008 3:17PM
Calm down. That doesn't mean the game won't run on windows 2k. It just means that Blizzard isn't going to support it anymore. It's the same thing as Blizz saying that they do not support Linux, yet my husband and I run WoW in Linux all the time.
Basically they are absolving themselves of any issues that occur with non-supported hardware or OS platforms.
TurboGFF Oct 7th 2008 3:11PM
Service pack 3? What if I don't have it, and can't get it?
p3ngu11 Oct 7th 2008 3:17PM
Then you shouldn't pirate software?
Dunwich Oct 7th 2008 3:11PM
I recently replaced my cranky old Dell with a far snappier new HP affair, so I'm not too worried about the specs. I'm running TBC on top settings and it's a breeze. I can't see Northrend taxing it that much.
The old Dell would have probably burst into flames, screaming in pain. Much like it did every bloody time I walked into Shattrath.