Do I “need” a xx90-class (Nvidia) card or will a Radeon 7090XT(X) get the job done?
I know I’ll need a suitably capable monitor, but I can’t find WoW focussed advice anywhere else - many responders on other sites don’t seem to want to consider WoW worthy of hardware discussion.
Current PC spec’s:
Ryzen 7 5800X//MSI B550 Tomahawk//32GB DDR4 3600 CL16//Gigabyte Radeon 6800 Gaming OC; game stored on a WD 1GB SN550 NVMe drive.
Is it false economy to get a 4K gaming set-up, if all I play is WoW…?
I’m not sure how much benefit you get really. WoW won’t really use that much vram so having a £/€2k or over card might be overkill. And the game is still more CPU than GPU so maybe move to a X3D cpu first as you may need to go that route for the 5090 anyways.
Personally I would say it’s overkill. 2K (1440p) is good enough for me personally. But if you really want to go down that route and for faster fps/refresh rate with 4K
RTX5090 Founders Edition (Cheapest at £/€1,900
AM5 motherbaord, DDR5-6000+ ram (2x16gb kit for faster CL timings)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
And whatever you feel would be best for monitor? VA, IPS or W-OLED or QD-OLED.
Either way for that sort of system you’re looking at a fair bit of money.
You can get second hand RTX4090’s now for about £900 or so if you look about but they’re second hand.
For WoW though like other MMO, it’s more about what you can get out from your CPU anyways so I’d say upgrade to a X3D cpu on AM4 or move over to AM5 and get the newer chips. Then look for the GPU. Hopefully a 5080 will be enough combined with the 9800x3d to do 4K.
It’s my opinion/guess at least. Others may think differently.
The graphics card is the only thing I can’t get my head around.
Nvidia xx90 cards have never offered great gaming value, to me & the focus Nvidia seems to be making doesn’t show they are a company that gamers should take too seriously.
Having built every PC I have ever owned, I’m knowledgeable enough to build the platform.
Money won’t be a limiting factor by the time I get to DO the upgrade, but wasting money is a genuine fear.
“Are Radeon card ‘really’ of minimal consideration for WoW at 4K?” is what I’m asking, really… if they are, then - as you said - I’ll stick to 1440p… but, reluctantly.
That rig you are describing is more than adequate for WoW. Don’t spend $$ on it, unless you don’t mind donating $500-700 to the nVIDIA shareholders for a 4070 Super.
However, if you want to go to 4K, I’d say a 4070 Super would do the trick just fine. Please don’t invest in the 50x series (yet). The AI frame generation may turn out to be an unpleasant surprise.
I’m still on a 3090 myself and perfectly happy with the performance on my ultra-wide screen. (5120x1440). Full max/ultra with an average of 100fps (+/- 30fps).
Getting a 4090/5090 just for WoW is literally insane
I’m on a 4090 FE with a 5800X3D and my GPU is mostly at 50% or less load because i am heavily CPU-limited all the time.
If you want better performance the first thing you have to do is get a better CPU, an X3D one to be precise.
I would recommend a 9800X3D on AM5 with 6000Mhz RAM.
The CPU cannot be fast enough for WoW if you want triple digit FPS or just around 60 in a raid.
For 4K in WoW a 4070S would actually be fine, even though i would not recommend it for more demanding games in 4K due to its power and especially the 12GB VRAM buffer.
You would need a 16GB GPU for modern 4k gaming, like a 4080S/5080S/5070 TI.
Or wait for the AMD 9070XT, but that is a gamble ofc.
7800X3D or 9800X3D , on X670, B850 or X870 (undecided), w/ 32GB (or even 64GB) DDR5 6000, CL30.
The graphics card was the only major headache, to get 4K, 100+fps.
Most of my Raiding is solo, retro-raiding for 'mogs & Mounts.
I’ve got my head ready to drop £1,000 on a graphics card (& almost as much for a monitor, too), so… I still wonder in a RX7900 of some sort would be worth considering, but it does seem that Nvidia has the mindshare still, despite recent thoughts on 5080/90.
I’m happy to wait for RX9070 to go live, but medium to long-term, AM4 will need to go.
Thanks again, thus far… chime in again, if you want to.
If you dont really raid then maybe just get a 5700X3D, it wil give you a big boost for a fraction of the cost of a 9800X3D.
I’m getting around 80-90+ FPS on settings 7 in a full Dornogal with my 5800X3D and i’ve seen someone with a 9800X3D on 10 (no RT shadows) getting around 110-120 FPS.
