While it doesn’t take the beefiest gaming PC to run a modern MMORPG such as World of Warcraft on low settings, the right build can go a very long way towards improving your experience.
- Collect Storm Drake Scales from the Stormwing drakes in Hrydhsal. A level 10 Stormheim Quest. +150 reputation with Valarjar. Added in World of Warcraft: Legion.
- UI Scale is the frontend extension of that to the user. To demonstrate, let's assume we have a texture onscreen that is 256x256 pixels large. If the actual y-res matches the WoW y-res (e.g., 1024x768 = 768) then our texture will show as 256px (768/768 = 1.256 = 256).
Unlike single player games, MMORPGs have very large amounts of particles and objects to render which can cause a significant drop in frame rates. The best way to prepare yourself is to build a gaming PC that can handle your own unique play style. Since most MMORPGs can be played in many different ways and with varying groups of players, we’ve created three general gaming PC builds for World of Warcraft.
Mar 03, 2016 Quests: Built to Scale, Impalement Insurance, picking up Another Way. Watch live at http://www.twitch.tv/tirinei.
Although these recommendations are specific to the World of Warcraft engine, these gaming PC builds can be loosely applied to other MMORPGs as well.
Gaming PC Build #1 – Casual Gamer ($700)
Build To Scale
This gaming PC build is for the casual WoW player that doesn’t engage heavily in end game content. If you are a player that plays solo and likes to take his or her time leveling up multiple characters only participating in the occasional 5-man dungeon, a basic gaming PC build will suffice. While Blizzard’s recommended specs will do just fine, our casual gaming PC build will result in a much more enjoyable experience without a drastic increase in price. The extra headroom gives you much more freedom to tune your graphics settings to your liking. This will allow you to comfortably play the game on medium to high settings. If you decide to engage in large multiplayer content, you can always scale down the settings a bit.
- Case – NZXT S340 ($69.99)
- Processor – Intel Core i3-6100 ($129.99)
- Motherboard – ASUS Z170-A Motherboard ($156.99)
- Graphics Card – EVGA GeForce GTX 950 ($159.99)
- Memory – 8GB of G.Skill DDR4 2400 RAM ($43.99)
- Storage – Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD ($87.99)
- Power Supply – EVGA 600W 80Plus Bronze Power Supply ($49.99)
Total Cost – $698.93
Zone Scaling Wow
Gaming PC Build #2 – Dedicated Gamer ($1150)
This gaming PC build is for the dedicated WoW player that has at least one high level character engaging in end game content. Whether you enjoy playing PvP in large battlegrounds or PvE in 25-man raids, this build will allow you to take on everything WoW has to offer without any hiccups in performance hiccups and drops in frame rate. This build will allow you to comfortably play the game on high settings and sometimes even ultra settings with some tweaks to shadows and view distance.
- Case – NZXT S340 designed by Razer ($99.99)
- Processor – Intel Core i5-6600K ($259.99)
- CPU Cooler – NZXT Kraken X31 ($79.99)
- Motherboard – ASUS Z170-A Motherboard ($156.99)
- Graphics Card – Zotac GeForce GTX 970 ($299.99)
- Memory – 16GB of G.Skill DDR4 2400 RAM ($74.99)
- Storage – Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD ($87.99)
- Power Supply – EVGA 750W 80Plus Gold Power Supply ($119.99)
Total Cost – $1,149.92
Gaming PC Build #3 – Hardcore Gamer / Streamer ($2000)
This gaming PC build is for the hardcore gamers that want to enjoy WoW on maximum settings and very high resolutions up to 4K. Also capable of recording and streaming live gameplay, this is the ultimate gaming PC build for any MMORPG fanatics that would love to share their glorious achievements with the world. If you’re a guild leader that wants to record or stream raid content, this build will allow you to do so without any significant loss in frame rate that would otherwise affect your gameplay.
- Case – NZXT H440 ($119.99)
- Processor – Intel Core i7-6700K ($414.99)
- CPU Cooler – NZXT Kraken X61 ($139.99)
- Motherboard – ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Z170 Motherboard ($199.99)
- Graphics Card – Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti ($669.99)
- Memory – 32GB of G.Skill DDR4 2400 RAM ($169.99)
- Storage – Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD ($159.99)
- Power Supply – EVGA 850W 80Plus Gold Power Supply ($134.99)
Total Cost – $2,009.92
Build the Extraordinary
Although these recommended builds were created with specific models in mind, you can certainly expect the same level of performance from similarly spec’d products from other manufacturers. Of course, these suggested gaming PC builds are made entirely based on our own preferences and experiences and are not the only systems capable of having a great MMORPG experience. If you’d like to see what gaming PC builds we’d recommend for other games, let us know in the comments! And if you need help building a PC, be sure to download our free eBook!