7600GT - Sufficient for WoW @12x10?

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SeetheSeer

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
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Will it be enough? This is a gift purchase, and the person is currently using an MX440 or something -- WoW is a slideshow right now. He probably doesn't need significant AA or AF, just because hes used to it being so crappy.

Also, what other cards in the $150-$200 price range might suffice, or be an even better buy? I have looked at the x1600 XT, x1950 Pro, and 7900GS, but I'm not sure about the various levels of value / performance.
 
7600gt can do 16*12 with 4xaa and 16af in wow if you have at least 1gb of ram and a decent processor
 
Anything thats as good as a 6800GT/GS should suffice. My 9800 Pro did fairly well as well heh. WoW is NOT a video card intensive game.. I dont know why some people think it is though. An X1950Pro would be overkill, as my X1950Pro runs EQ2 on High/Very High (second to best, I cant remember.. theres also extreme, which if I had a 512mb X1950pro, I could probably run at as well) with playable rates. Now, I dont know what WoW is like as far as raids are concerned, but I know that in a raid on EQ2 I'll have to drop down to Balanced with an X1950pro, but again, EQ2 is more intensive than WoW will ever be heh.
 
The X1950Pro is such a good card, at that price range, you can't go wrong...

Honestly, if you play ANYTHING other than WOW, go for the X1950...
 
I'll second that comment. IMO, I got a retardedly good deal on my X1950Pro, and I really want a second. I just need a crossfire board >.<
 
I used to be an avid player. WoW ran fine with a 9600 Pro, you shouldn't have any problems with a 7600 GT.

WoW taxes more the CPU than GPU, especially in raids.
 
Okay, the person exclusively plays WoW and no other games. He has never even expressed an interest in other computer games. He might watch a video on youtube or type an english paper from time to time. Other than that? Only WoW.

Currently, I have the following priced out. I would like to reduce the price to ~$700 including shipping, if possible, and I'm not sure where it would be best to do this.

Lastly, the case choice is odd, I know, but it's for a 14 year old.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...tNumber=4865828&WishListTitle=Andrew+Computer

Please critique.

Edit: I should probably repost this in general or something, but if it gets enough views here Ill just leave it.
 
You should get him 2 512mb sticks rather than 1 1gb stick, for Dual Channel (not that it makes a huge difference, it's good in practice tho).

The 7600GT is better than that X800GTO...
 
Lower the processor to a 3200+, you can OC to make up the difference in speed.
 
I would say ditch the x800gto for the 7600gt. The 7600gt is faster with newer architechture & SM 3.0. I would also ditch the monitor. From what I've heard you should get an LCD monitor with a seek time of 5ms or less for gaming. Unless you are going to buy him another gig down the road get the 2 sticks of ram instead of 1 stick.
 
I game on an LCD with a 16ms time, and an 8ms time... And I can't see the difference between the two.

I've also had the pleasure of gaming on a 50" Plasma, and an (expensive as hell) LCD with 4ms (advertised) time. Niether were any better than mine with a 16ms refresh rate.

As for the monitor though, Acer makes some NICE 19" widescreens that run at about 200$ Canadian...
 
lodingi said:
I would say ditch the x800gto for the 7600gt. The 7600gt is faster with newer architechture & SM 3.0. I would also ditch the monitor. From what I've heard you should get an LCD monitor with a seek time of 5ms or less for gaming. Unless you are going to buy him another gig down the road get the 2 sticks of ram instead of 1 stick.
Click to expand...


I agree with this - drop the x800 and go with a 7600GT. I'd really consider going 2GB of ram if you can, though. It doesn't mean a whole lot right now, but 2GB will be the standard before long. If not, then yes, I'd go with 2 sticks for dual channel.
 
SeetheSeer said:
Okay, the person exclusively plays WoW and no other games. He has never even expressed an interest in other computer games. He might watch a video on youtube or type an english paper from time to time. Other than that? Only WoW.

Currently, I have the following priced out. I would like to reduce the price to ~$700 including shipping, if possible, and I'm not sure where it would be best to do this.

Lastly, the case choice is odd, I know, but it's for a 14 year old.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...tNumber=4865828&WishListTitle=Andrew+Computer

Please critique.

Edit: I should probably repost this in general or something, but if it gets enough views here Ill just leave it.
Click to expand...

If you would like to reduce the price to $700 or below, buy a Dell on special and stick the video card of your choice into it. That's honestly the only way you can really get the price lower than what you have listed right now.

I think you chose pretty good on parts. There's a couple issues, like the other folks mentioned. Here's my breakdown:

Case. The case is fine... whatever you like.

Motherboard. The motherboard is fine for what he needs it for. Asus is a good brand.

Video card. That video card you listed is pretty old. For $30 more you can get him a 7600GT like others have said and get better performance. And just FYI, but Powercolor is bottom of the line, so don't expect quality if you buy from them. But honestly, it'll probably do for what he needs, but for $30 difference I'd personally go with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121004. It'll also support higher resolutions better (see monitor suggestion below)

Power supply. Decent. I personally don't like Thermaltake. (in my experience their products are shoddy compared to competitors) For $5 more I think either this 500W Fortron or this 550W Mushkin are better choices. For $10 more this Seasonic 430W is an excellent choice even though in theory it provides less power than the Thermaltake, I'd trust it more.

Processor. That processor should do well with WoW. (I have 2 Athlon64s in my 2 computers and I mostly play WoW and I'm quite happy with them)

RAM. Like others have said, you want to buy 2 sticks of RAM to allow your computer to run "dual channel", which basically means your CPU can access both sticks of RAM simultaneously to provide a slight performance improvement. It's a free boost so you might as well take advantage of it. Try this RAM instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145568 . It's the same brand (good choice btw), but faster RAM as well 667MHz vs 533MHz, will allow you to run dual channel (faster) and only costs $4 more than your choice. (no brainer) You can always add 2 more 512MB sticks of RAM later if he wants 2GB.

Hard drive. That's a good drive. I'd recommend the 16MB cache version over the 8MB cache version you listed. $10 more, but much improved performance. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136062. Seagate would be other choice of drive in that price range.

Monitor. Here's my suggestion on monitor. This is coming from a guy (me) who's played World of Warcraft for 2 years and still plays it everyday. Get him a widescreen monitor. Yes I bolded that for a reason ;) I couldn't believe how much more I could "see" in the game when I upgraded to my widescreen monitor. It really improved my gaming experience. WoW supports widescreen fully and takes advantage on it. If I load up WoW on my 2nd computer with a standard 19" LCD I feel like I'm being squished and I can't see anything to the sides of my character. If nothing else, it WILL be the one thing he notices the most out off all the parts you buy for him (except maybe the speed boost from the video card). Even my non-technical girlfriend comments on how much better it is playing WoW on a widescreen monitor.

If you take my advice on this and decide it's worth the extra money, get a 20" (or 20.1") widescreen. Don't go with the 19". They're really small (shorter than a regular 17" monitor) and the resolution isn't very high. The 20" widescreen, on the other hand, is equal in height to a 17" monitor, but much wider, and has a higher resolution (1680x1050 vs 1280x1024) BenQ has an excellent 20.1" widescreen monitor. In fact, I have one! :) The Sceptre is also nice and not too expensive.

Just trust me on this. It improves your World of Warcraft playing experience more than anything else. (/soapbox)

DVD drive. Works for me.


Hope that helps.
 
Add me to the people who recommend widescreen for WoW. It is VERY much worth it.
 
Astral Abyss said:
Power supply. Decent. I personally don't like Thermaltake. (in my experience their products are shoddy compared to competitors) For $5 more I think either this 500W Fortron or this 550W Mushkin are better choices. For $10 more this Seasonic 430W is an excellent choice even though in theory it provides less power than the Thermaltake, I'd trust it more.
Click to expand...

AstralAbyss, you bring up an excellent point here. The power supply can be an easy thing to forget about, but it can also cause a tremendous amount of problems if dodgy. In fact, all of your suggestions are sound.
 
Thanks, I've taken all your suggestions into consideration. I'm not the one paying for it, just building it, so I narrowed it down into the following two, which I'll present to my friend's family. Since I haven't gotten any sort of price ceiling ("As cheap as possible" wtf does that mean? You want a pentium pro or something???), I'll explain the differences of both to them and let them choose. Tell me if yall think these two look good.



Cheaper build

Costlier Build
 
Bump for any possible last minute suggestions. They will be ordering this tonight.


Cheaper build

Costlier Build

Also, I will suggest to them spending a little extra cash on the cheaper build to get a 7600GT with it, as opposed to the x800 GTO. That would probably the best upgrade they could get.
 
SeetheSeer said:
Bump for any possible last minute suggestions. They will be ordering this tonight.


Cheaper build

Costlier Build

Also, I will suggest to them spending a little extra cash on the cheaper build to get a 7600GT with it, as opposed to the x800 GTO. That would probably the best upgrade they could get.
Click to expand...

I noticed you still didn't go with 2 sticks of RAM. You really should as it increases performance. Get 2 512MB sticks instead of 1 1GB. Also, that Viewsonic is expensive for a 20.1" widescreen. They might be more willing to buy one of the cheaper ones, like the BenQ, Secptre or Samsung.
 
I can run wow @ 2560x1024 (2 19" screens) with a 7600, without any lag. I may not get 200 fps but its playable just fine
 
One stick's okay, that way I can put in another 1 GB stick later. Memory performance is largely irrelevant unless you're cpu limited, which means you're already at a high enough fps anyways..

RE LCD: I'm just worried that if I go too cheap, the resolution increase will be weighed down by horrible picture quality. They have to cut costs somewhere. usually in the panel quality. Maybe he won't notice...

This one seems decent, though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001088
 
run capped at 1280x1024 8xaa 16xaf on system in my sig, usually from 30-60fps, capped at 73-75 outdoors (max refresh of monitor). Runs GREAT and looks awesome.
 
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