Hello everyone, I decided to get some gametime on my Bfa account fearing my old low grade pc wouldnt be able to handle it. I set all my graphics to low except view distance and detail which are set a little higher. And play at 1080p. My pc has a i3-7100 (3.9) cpu, with only Intel Graphics HD 630. And 8gb ram. I also play on an hdd since my ssd is too small. I was just curious if anyone else plays on a i3-7100 aswell. Even if you have a real gpu and more ram. I am willing to invest in those two, but do not really feel like buying another computer. My main question is, will I be able to quest and do mainly solo stuff in Shadowlands. Dont want to shoot myself in the foot by buying the expension, since I can atleast play now.
At the low graphics settings I get the following framerates, which are quite constant.
Stormwind (not auctionhouse square): 45-65 fps
General Questing: 45-60 fps
Place with a lot of animations/spells: 30 fps+
Escape from spider cave in introduction quest: 20-30 fps
Kul-Tiras questing: 40-60 fps
I am not looking for great graphics and am very willing to set everything to low if it give me atleast 30fps with questing.
If a GPU is really needed, what would be a good budget friendly option for me?
SSD is optional aswell.
Thank all of you for your feedback, and sorry for the long text.
@beerwolf thnx for the feedback. I didnt have a lot of money when I bought this system and so got what I could back in legion. It has done decently to good on low settings which is fine for me. I am not a real gamer and dont really give a lot about graphics. But somewhat smooth framerates are better for my eyes.
I will definetly look into a gpu, but for now. Do you think I could run Shadowlands comparably as I am above in BFA. Framerates were taken today.
Shadowlands run about the same as BfA excepting Ardenweald, which is a bit heavier on the GPU.
But I really strongly recommend getting a dedicated GPU.
Or an M1 Mac.
Or a newer CPU with Radeon graphics or Intel Xe (make sure it’s with Intel Xe otherwise it’s trash for gaming)
I have seen some gtx 1050 2gb cards. This is around my budget would it add a decent amount of fps for me? Again I dont need to run the game on high. Basically everything between 1 and 5 at 40fps+ is fine. Or would a gtx 1050 4gb make a huge difference? I dont want to spend much more, I just want to play the game relatively comfortably.
(I searched for these because they seem to have a very low Bottleneck with my i3 7100)
If possible I would try to find the budget for a 4gb card, its compatibility will last longer… the key thing is to be able to see all spell effects, especially when doing group content.
Sometimes larger capacity cards incur extra expense, for example they may require a Power supply upgrade…which is why I thought 4gb might be more appropriate than going larger, through the secondhand market.
To come back to my true original question.
If I can run the game with the above settings right now, can I expect the game, when I go to Shadowlands, to run somewhat similarly?
I will get the GPU upgrade later, but would like to get started when I reach level 50.
Having said that, I really appreciate all your time and advice! It has helped me greatly.
I have a similar computer to yours, i3 6100, 8 GB RAM, GTX 950. The biggest problem is loading times, and handling big groups, like world bosses and LFR. I’m used to having other things open on the computer, like an idler or Youtube, but to do group content I can’t have anything else running.
I also try to push my graphics as far as I can (including things like ground clutter, for the screenies ), it’s a trade off, I get worse loading times but like what I see on the screen better.
i3 proccesors are not problem in your story, they are actualy decent… there is even i3 processors who runs better than i7 (depend of model)
Main problem is that integrated graphic card Graphics HD 630 which sucks, so your question shoud be how game run on intel HD 630
Exactly, Graphic card market is kinda on freeze right now, I suggest you to buy used card for cca 100eurs, people seling old cards which can still run WoW on High-Ultra details, its cheap solution to your problem until you decide to buy new PC
The loading times will mainly be due to your storage device.
Do you run an HDD or an SSD ? I picked up a cheap Crucial 240gb SSD for WoW and Windows and the difference is absolutely crazy, best 39quid I’ve spent yet, would highly reccomend an SSD if you don’t already run one.
For OP, I sit in that sweet spot you’re looking for but have the fps locked to 60 and I run an old i5-3470 and a GTX 770 GPU (4gb oc version) I got off a friend when my laptop bit the dust. Only problems I ever have are world bosses or fan spin-up in graphically heavy areas and the odd second or two longer taking to load in places where lots and lots of players are and even then I think that’s more down to CPU power than anything. Get the SSD too, trust me, it used to take me sometimes 30/35 seconds to fully load into boralus during BfA on my old 1tb HDD and places like New Dalaran took forever to load in, with the SSD it’s literally almost instant…no waiting around for textures to load in or npcs to pop up
(If you have the money I would deffo reccomend a more high-end gpu than mine, as I get horrible fan spin-up sometimes when the screen is absolutely cluttered with moving textures, like the Sludgefist fight in Castle Nathria atm. It’s a personal thing but I hate the noise with a passion and I’m gona swap out soon to a slightly newer card if I can)
I’d say go for second hand GPU. A GTX970 still does well in Shadowlands they go for about 50/70€ these days. You’ll probably find the same deals on slightly newer AMD models. I just haven’t checked up on price since I was only curious as to what my GPU (970) was going for these days.
For loading times: A cheap SSD would do wonders already, but I’d prioritise a dedicated GPU if you are really strapped. You’d already have a decent and fast SSD at 30€. It does wonders on making a system feel faster though.
As to ram, you don’t really need more. So its better to not put money into that and rather save up for an overall upgrade with time.
Edit: As to shadowlands performance you’ll see a slight dip in performance. Ardenweald seems to be the worse.
Not sure if you need shadowlands or just a subscription… but you could try to run the PTR client, that should give you the answer how it will run on your system.
I was looking around for gpu’s yesterday and indeed noticed the pure lack of them new. Pretty much only 710’s are available. I will keep a lookout and also will look around my countries market place to see what I can find.
If I go second hand for now I have the below list to go of, which all seem around the minimum requirement and saves me some money to get a new system later on.
Gt 1050 (ti) (both only have a bottleneck of ~5% on my cpu)
GTX 770
GTX 950
GTX 970
Will see if I can open up space on my SSD, Thou I doubt it since it is only 120gb and windows is also on it.
I want to thank everyone for all the help, and am glad to here my i3-7100 is still fine for the game, and a gpu and ssd will make this experience what I expect of it. (Low graphics settings on a smooth fps, as seen from a none gamer)
If anyone is still curious in the future. A friend had a gt 1030 2gb in an old pc that he didnt use anymore. He was so kind to give it to me. And with that I went from 45 fps average at 1-2 graphic settings to 60 fps at graphic settings 4-5.
Did the intro quest to compare and had smooth fps throughout.
The old integrated card did the spider cave at mode 1 at 20 fps, and now I can do it at mode 4-5 at 55 fps. So a huge upgrade. To anyone that does not have a lot of money to spare, this low end gpu is a pretty decent option.
don’t worry even on my high end computer world bosses are unplayable because the servers of blizzard cannot handle them.
Good thing you can just spam 1 button for 2 mins and they still somehow die.
), it’s a trade off, I get worse loading times but like what I see on the screen better.
