World of Warcraft is one of the best MMORPG games of all time. It was released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment and currently, it is at its 7th extension Battle for Azeroth.
The system requirements from Vanilla to Battle for Azeroth expansion has changed a lot. Especially in 2018 when DirectX 12 support came into play. Blizzard constantly improves graphic elements such as textures, lighting, 3D models, particle effects, and so on. It demands a gaming PC with processor and graphics card powerful enough to run the game smoothly so the gameplay is the most enjoyable.
I compiled a list of 5 gaming desktop PCs to help you playing WoW without any stuttering and lagging. And also to make you “future proof” for at least a few expansions that are yet to come.
First, of course, it depends on the budget you are willing to spend on a new gaming machine. Second, a good starting point would be meeting at least the recommended system requirements. Why recommended and not minimum? Because minimum requirements are based on what developers define that games are playable at the lowest graphic settings values. Whereas the recommended requirements are what is needed to run a game with decent or highest graphical settings with a high enough frame rate for the best gaming experience.
ENTRY LEVEL
1. Skytech Archangel
MID-RANGE
2. CyberpowerPC Gamer Master
ENTHUSIAST
3. CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme
HIGH-END
4. iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming
ENTRY LEVEL
1. Skytech Archangel
MID-RANGE
2. CyberpowerPC Gamer Master
ENTHUSIAST
3. CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme
HIGH-END
4. iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming
Last update on 2023-09-29.
World of Warcraft – Battle for Azeroth System Requirements
Minimum
- OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows® 7 64-bit
- PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i5-760 or AMD FX™-8100 or better
- GRAPHICS: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 2GB or AMD™ Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB or Intel® HD Graphics 530 (45W TDP)
- MEMORY: 4 GB
- STORAGE: 70 GB available space
Recommended
- OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows® 10 64-bit
- PROCESSOR: AMD FX-9370/Ryzen 5 1600X or Intel Core i7-4770
- GRAPHICS: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB (Current available GPU RTX2060) or AMD equivalent
- MEMORY: 16GB
- STORAGE: 40 GB available space
Source: https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/76459
What computer parts are the most important for running World of Warcraft – BfA smoothly?
Graphics Card
A graphics card (or GPU, short of “Graphics Processing Unit”) is undoubtedly one of the most important hardware parts of a gaming PC. It handles all the processing and rendering of what you see on the display and directly affects the quality of the textures, anti-aliasing, frame rate, and such…
The more powerful it is, the more smoothly and realistically the game runs.
CPU
A processor or CPU (short for “Central Processing Unit”) also significantly impacts the overall gaming performance. It handles all the gameplay, instructions, loading different assets of the game, etc.
It basically calculates all the logic behind the scene.
Memory
Computer memory or RAM (short for “Random Access Memory”) stores all the short-term bits of information that are being accessed and used by the CPU constantly. It is a kind of temporary storage for all the calculated results coming from the CPU.
The more RAM you have the more information the processor can store in it simultaneously.
Storage
This is a piece of computer hardware that contains all the data that the PC can access and operate with. It includes everything, from the operating system to the games installed.
The most common consumer class types of SDDs are SATA SSD or NVMe. Although using different bus interfaces and having different connections, the main difference between them is read/write speed. Here’s a little speed comparison about average read/write speed of all the disk drives types mentioned:
-
- SATA 3 – up to 550MB/second
- NVMe – up to 3500MB/second
Traditional HDDs can be used for secondary storage drive only. They are just obsolete.
What is the Best Gaming Desktop PC for World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth?
There is no “the best one”. Each one of the machines listed here would run the game just fine, smoothly without any stuttering. But as mentioned previously, it also depends on how much you willing to go spend. You cannot expect the same performance form the lowest budget PC to the highest one. Obviously. 🙂
Regarding performance, it’s mainly all about how much frames per second a gaming pc can output to the monitor.
About FRAMES PER SECOND (FPS):
What is FPS? It is the number of consecutive images produced onto the monitor each second. (Note: In gaming FPS also stands for First Person Shooter but this is not the case here.)
How many FPS is needed? – It is not yet known for sure how many FPS the human eye and brain can process. But they predict it could be around 200. The number of frames per second that is acceptable for gaming though is far lower. From bare minimum 25 FPS up to the limit of your screen*. If the FPS drop below 25, you are likely to notice considerable stuttering.
*By screen limit I mean its refresh rate. Nowadays there are even 240Hz (frames per second) monitors in the gaming scene. That “high refresh” rate monitors give a feeling of a more responsive overall experience. The game type can also be a factor. If you play online competitive games you get an advantage over your opponents who have regular 60Hz displays. Basically, more frames, earlier and more you see than. 🙂
A great explanation here on this video from Nvidia:
Of course, a CPU & GPU must be able to maintain enough frames per second (possibly up to screen limit) to make it a difference.
How to compile a list of desktop gaming PCs, being able to run WoW?
All gaming PCs can be categorized into 4 types:
ENTRY LEVEL, MID-RANGE, ENHUSIAST, HIGH-END and SPECIAL.
- Within a price range of each type, I create a larger list of PCs, all meeting the game requirements.
Even if requirements seem relatively low, I always look for machines that have the latest hardware. Hell, when you’re buying new, go for new. This also means it would serve you for quite a few years. Or maybe you want to try some new game, that requires a more powerful machine.
- Check user reviews and gameplay videos.
I find this to be an invaluable piece of information, as it comes directly from actual owners of specific gaming PCs or similar, running the game.
- Check the benchmarks and price/performance ratio.
There’s one hell of a service called UserBenchmark. Those guys compute and analyze millions of benchmarks coming directly from gamers around the globe. At the type of writing, they are more than 120 million benchmarks with more than a million different components. This database is damn huge and it gives a rough estimate of how much FPS can a PC render the specific game, running at specific resolution and graphic quality.
Also, I check the benchmarks on the forums and other benchmarking websites.
- Handpick 5 of them.
I handpick the machines in each price range. With price/performance factor taking into consideration. No one wants to pay more than he gets.
ENTRY LEVEL
Key Components: CPU: i5-9400F, i7-9700F or Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: GTX 1660 Ti or Radeon RX 590 RAM: at least 16GB STORAGE: NVMe or SATA SSD
Gets you up and running with decent components.
Skytech Archangel Gaming Computer
Last update on 2023-09-29.
Technical Details:
| Ryzen 5 3600 | |
| GTX 1660 SUPER | |
| 16GB DDR4 | |
| 512GB SSD |
Gameplay Example:
As long as you run it on 1080p and keep the Garphics Quality on “recommended” it runs just fine.
MID-RANGE
Key Components: CPU: i7-9700K, i9-9900K or Ryzen 7 3700X GPU: RTX 2060 Super or Radeon RX 5700 XT RAM: at least 16GB STORAGE: SATA or NVMe SSD
The best price/performance components.
CyberpowerPC Gamer Master
Last update on 2023-09-29.
Technical Details:
| Ryzen 7 3700X | |
| RTX 2060 SUPER | |
| 16GB DDR4 | |
| 240GB SSD + 2TB HDD |
Gameplay Example:
Raiding on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super. Running great even on 4K resolution on recommended settings.
ENTHUSIAST
Key Components: CPU: i9-9700K, i9-9900K or Ryzen 7 3700X GPU: RTX 2070 Super or Radeon RX 5700 XT RAM: at least 16GB STORAGE: SATA or NVMe SSD
High-end components, focus on price/performance factor.
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme
Last update on 2023-09-29.
Technical Details:
| i7-9700K | |
| RTX 2070 SUPER | |
| 16GB DDR4 | |
| 1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD |
HIGH-END
Key Components: CPU: i7-9900K or Ryzen 9 3900X GPU: RTX 2080 SUPER RAM: at least 32GB STORAGE: SATA or NVMe SSD
High-end components for a maximum performance.
iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming
Last update on 2023-09-29.
Technical Details:
| Ryzen 9 3900X | |
| RTX 2080 SUPER | |
| 32GB DDR4 |
|
| 1TB SSD Drive |
Gameplay Example:
25 man raid on an RTX 2080 and i9-9900K. Handles the job even on 4K, ultra settings, and MSAA 8x anti-aliasing mode.
ULTRA
Key Components: CPU: Ryzen 9 3900XT or Ryzen 9 3950X GPU: RTX 2080 Ti (or 2x) RAM: 64GB+ STORAGE: NVMe SSD
Core components the fastest available, possibly fancy RGB lightning, water cooling, and all that jazz.
CUK Mantis Gaming PC
No products found.
Technical Details:
| Ryzen 9 3900XT | |
| RTX 2080 Ti | |
| 64GB DDR4 |
|
| 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD |
Conclusion
How the gaming PC will perform it depends also on the situation. There is quite a difference whether you are in some crowded zone or city, full of other players. Or when you run 5 man dungeons, raids or PvP arenas.
You can realistically expect a lower frame rate in crowded zones as the computer must render more graphical elements at the same time. And a higher frame rate lets say indoors, where there are not that many 3D elements to be shown on display.
To sum up: all these gaming PCs would run World for Warcraft – Battle for Azeroth just fine. Staying within the reasonable game settings for specific GPU you can enjoy playing the game smoothly. If you have a large budget to spend then go for HIGH-END (or even ULTRA) and crank the graphics settings up to the roof. Otherwise, the RECOMMENDED machine is a great deal and a compensation between price and performance.
Have fun playing the game!
Take care! 🙂