The Queue: Entering the modern era

I have a horrible confession to make. Until late last week, I've been playing WoW with only 2 GB of RAM in my gaming PC. It didn't run well, but I managed to do everything with it, including the highest levels of raid content in Wrath of the Lich King. Sure, my FPS wasn't great, but I still managed to kick ass. Cataclysm ... no. Never. It was never going to happen. 2 GB is not nearly enough, especially if you run any mods. Let me tell you, fighting the Omnotron Defense System with 2 FPS is not a good time. So I've upgraded to 4 GB. It's much nicer.
As an added bonus, I can now actually keep a browser window open while I raid. I am standing over Magmaw's broken husk as I write this. Feels good, man. Feels good.
Zack asked:
Now that Sinestra is down, what is the "terrible secret" she was guarding? I can't find a link to it anywhere!
She is the terrible secret. Were it not for datamining, she would have been an unknown. Cho'gall was hiding/guarding Sinestra, Deathwing's consort and broodmother of the black/twilight dragonflight. See those horrible scars all over her model? That's what happens when you mate with Deathwing. Ow.
cloudhopper013 asked:
Will we ever be able to change our username? My username was by default set as my email address (minus the @fancyemailwebsite.com), which I created when I was 10. As a result, my name is pretty... stupid. And not at all an accurate description of my personality.
You can't change your username, but you can reregister fairly effortlessly. It won't attach your old comments to the new handle, but your personality shines much brighter than your comment history! Also, everybody will need to reregister when we inevitably switch over to Joystiq's commenting system.
Cloudhopper seems like a pretty slick name to me, though. Hopping on clouds sounds awesome. I bet cloudhoppers would be pretty cool people.
Randomize asked:
I have a question. Just what exactly is the point of the Trapped Eyeball Beast in Baradin Hold? Can't kill it, can't see any special tricks, etc.
Personally, I liked Eldoron's response so much that I'm just going to go with there. Yesterday, Eldoron responded, "Why is there a painting on your wall? Can't kill it, can't eat it ... It's decoration, dude."
magic.swordsman asked:
Where are the ret and prot pally articles? All I've seen are lame holy ones for the last several weeks, what gives?
Well, first of all, holy isn't lame! Holy is super-fun in Cataclysm, and I found healing terribly boring as a paladin previously. Healing as a holy paladin now is just so ... zen. Get into your groove and make things happen. It's wonderful.
Second, we're working on getting our protection and retribution columns going again. You should see it start up from Gregg Reece again in the next week or two. If that turns out to not be the case, I will most likely write a few retribution/protection pieces myself, as my main is a raiding paladin of that variety.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 10)
Eldoron Jan 24th 2011 12:03PM
They re-arranged the rooms but it still has paladin and first-aid trainers...
Elwoods Jan 24th 2011 12:29PM
All the little boys have grown up?
Aaron Jan 24th 2011 12:56PM
My pally uses it to pray for all the heathens in trade chat. lol
kobelayton Jan 24th 2011 1:39PM
Everyone got Confirmed and their parents quit making them go.
Edge Jan 24th 2011 4:04PM
I think it was just phased at that part of the quest you were on (where you had to get the twilight guy in the basement).
Talius-LH Jan 24th 2011 11:22AM
The funny thing is that she wasn't actually all data mining before the first Heroic Cho'gal kill. If you look at the Heroic Bastion of Twilight tab on the new WoW community site, her name shows up.
Artificial Jan 24th 2011 12:30PM
Yeah, but the same principle applies. What's being asked is essentially a lore question, and your character in the world would have no access to websites, or the achievement panel, or anything else that would spoil the secret ahead of time.
snowleopard233 Jan 24th 2011 11:22AM
I’m thinking of upgrading from 4GB to 8GB of RAM on my macbook. Does anyone know if it will even make a difference for WoW at this size? Or is it overkill? I have a 256mb nvidia card.
Sondre Jan 24th 2011 11:31AM
What about upgrading your video card instead?
Ozzard Jan 24th 2011 11:37AM
I'd expect it to be overkill. Start a shell and run "top" on the box while WoW's running, and see how much swap is in use. If it's not much, my guess is that more RAM won't buy you anything.
Sondre - can you upgrade graphics cards on a Macbook?
Alex Jan 24th 2011 11:38AM
Agree with sondre on this one,
Not a Mac-user myself but 8GB to play wow is overkill if u ask me.
Upgrading your 256mb gpu to something higher like 1GB should on the other hand increase your gaming experiance.
mtsadowski Jan 24th 2011 11:41AM
Can you even change the video card in a macbook?
Guttsu Jan 24th 2011 11:44AM
Well I have a Mac Pro I'm running and I just upgraded from the standard 3 gigs to 8 gigs and I have to tell you the difference is huge, I would recommended it and its really not that expensive these days. I'll probably jump up to 16 gigs in a month or so.
Drakkenfyre Jan 24th 2011 11:51AM
As WoW is a 32-bit program, it is constrained to a 2GB limit of memory. Adding more memory will not help the game, but it will give the rest of the system a bump as it will have more RAM to play with with background processes, meaning the system is running smoother overall.
Your video card, on the other hand, is severely in need of updating. Forget the RAM, get another video card. If your system is that old, to be sporting a 256MB card, adding RAM at all is unlikely to get you any performance gain.
Drakkenfyre Jan 24th 2011 11:54AM
Wait, Macbook, I seemed to have overlooked that, laptop, so no video card upgrade.
Joshua Ochs Jan 24th 2011 11:55AM
MacBook = laptop, folks. You can't upgrade the video card in a laptop - not even the overwhelming majority of PC laptops - if any. So yes, great advice - for someone else.
8GB for WoW alone is definitely overkill. However, if you're doing something else heavy-duty like running multiple VM's in the background then you might.
What do you mean no one does that? I'm doing it right now, and for *that* use case, 8GB is a godsend. For most anyone else - not so much.
MikeLive Jan 24th 2011 12:01PM
@Joshua I'll keep that in mind. My iMac has only 4 GB, and while I can play WoW on Ultra, but booting up a Win7 VM for voice chat (damn you Dolby for having no Mac version) putting WoW on Good is barely playable.
Daynthebold Jan 24th 2011 12:18PM
@Drakkenfyre
I thought Blizz had included options to run WoW at 64 bit for people with more advanced OS's?
snowleopard233 Jan 24th 2011 12:23PM
Thanks for the feedback everyone. The only thing I’m usually running in the background is skype or itunes. I have the graphics on good right now with some settings switched to ultra and it works pretty smoothly. Still, I end up getting some graphical lag when loading major cities or flying through complex areas. If RAM won't make that much a difference I guess I'll just put the money towards the next rig I get.
Drakkenfyre Jan 24th 2011 12:32PM
Daynthebold, that would require rewriting the game. No, the game cannot be run in 64-bit mode.