Back to Performance

To run World of Warcraft, Blizzard requires your system to have:

System Memory: 512MB of RAM; 1GB recommended (1GB for Vista and Mac users; 2GB recommended)
Graphics: ATI Radeon 7200 or better; 128MB VRAM recommended (Mac: ATI Radeon 9600 or better; NVIDIA or ATI 64MB VRAM recommended)
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.3GHZ / AMD Athlon XP 1500+; Dual-Core recommended (Mac: PowerPC G5 or Intel Processor; Intel recommended)


You must decide what type of performance you're aiming for.

For decent game performance (20-30FPS in raids and Dalaran, but 40+ elsewhere), go for:
System Memory: 2GB of RAM
Graphics: 128MB of VRAM
Processor: 2GHZ with dual-core

For excellent game performance (40-60FPS in raids and Dalaran, but 80+ elsewhere), go for:
System Memory: 4GB of RAM or better
Graphics: 1GB of VRAM or better
Processor: 2.4GHZ with dual-core or better


Tips:
- The most critical components that make up your game performance are (in order from most important to least):
1) Memory (Should be at least at 2GB of RAM all the time, since WoW can consume more than 1GB of RAM, not including your other system processes)
2) Graphics
3) Processor
4) Available Hard-Disk Space (Yes, this can make a difference, since your system may be capable of using Virtual Memory)

- Game addons use system memory, so upgrade RAM as you start using more and more addons

- If you multi-task (e.g. running WoW and looking at webpages, while listening to music), you should have a good amount of system memory

- Even if you upgrade your system with a 512MB VRAM GPU, and you still only have 512MB RAM memory, you will not see much improvement, so aim at upgrading memory before anything else

- As your computer is being upgraded, it may be necessary to upgrade its power supply so that it can handle the more powerful parts

For all parts, Newegg carries: http://www.newegg.com

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