Anyone play WoW on their G4 iBook?

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WoW = World of Warcraft

I would have assumed it would run fairly well, but in another thread, from another forum, someone said the performance wasn't very good.

The requirements are:
Mac® System OS X 10.3.5 OS:
933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
4 GB or more of available hard drive space

Anyone play? Your thoughts?
 
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Phiber

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I have heard the same, but unfortunatly have not had the chance to play myself. To me it would seem it should work. However, you've only got the 'minimal' system requirements (as far as the video card goes) it will not be optimal.
 
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Well, those are the bare minimum requirements, I would assume that the game would run with that configuration - but only just.

As the current iBook only barely exceeds those specs, my guess is that performance will be sluggish.

Most games don't seem to be optimized very well on the macintosh platform, or maybe it is just the way the system handles 3D rendering, who knows...

Fact is that most games perform better on similar PC machines...
 
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Aptmunich said:
Fact is that most games perform better on similar PC machines...


The minimum requirements for the Windows version are lower than that of the Mac version. My current PC laptop plays it pretty well, I would hate to get an iBook and then not be able to play it. Since the iBook is similar in specs to the mac mini, I bet it wouldn't be very great also. I'll just have to save for a Powermac :robot:
 
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I would wait for a faster iBook then if you can...

The nexz rev. will have better graphics cards (hopefully) as well as faster cpu's - and then they should play WOW fairly decently..
 
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My experience, with PCs anyway, is to never, ever go by the minimum requirements. Every game I've been heavily involved with has had scores of posts on their forums, complaining about crappy performance with minimum requirement machines. I'm talking games like Tribes2, Planetside, Battlefield 1942, Morrowind, etc.

From what I keep reading, I'm leaving my gaming to my Gamecube when I purchase my iBook, anyway.

But good luck, cuz I hear WoW is amazing!
 
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Aptmunich said:
I would wait for a faster iBook then if you can...

The nexz rev. will have better graphics cards (hopefully) as well as faster cpu's - and then they should play WOW fairly decently..

Considering the iBook was recently revised, I doubt I will be still playing by the time the next generation comes out. I am already level 45, max level is 60.



Mahone said:
My experience, with PCs anyway, is to never, ever go by the minimum requirements.

The minimum requirements for WoW on the PC side is 800mhz and 256mb ram, I have 1.3ghz and 640mb, it does good, but I wouldn't want to run it with any less.
 
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flonejek

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Just a side note what realm are you guys playing on?, I'm in the Frostwolf realm in he guild 'True Heroes' as a lvl 35 Tauren Druid (Horde)
 
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flonejek said:
Just a side note what realm are you guys playing on?, I'm in the Frostwolf realm in he guild 'True Heroes' as a lvl 35 Tauren Druid (Horde)

Bleeding Hollow
 
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Mark

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I have the a Ibook 1.33GHz G4, but the graphics have some problems on mine....

I can see the background is being drawing then i play... On my old PC 1,8Ghz i have no problems? Maybe it is the settings on my Ibook in WOW.

What settings are you using?

Mark
 
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On my PC everything is maxed except AA, at 1600x1200. I don't expect the iBook to be able to keep up with that though.
 
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mynameis said:
On my PC everything is maxed except AA, at 1600x1200. I don't expect the iBook to be able to keep up with that though.


I've installed and played a bit, running in Orgrimmar for about 10 minutes. Haren't really tackled much, but found for some lite WOW gaming on the road, it should suffice.
I've been using a 12'iBook with an extra 512MB of memory (total = 768K) so that may be why I got a few more FPS out of it than some of the other fellas who have posted thus far.

I purchased this iBook for word processing, writing, itunes, surfing and DVD watching and already have a PC lappy that can run almost anything. Yet, I was very curious as to how WOW would perform.

When I get home, I'll try to run more extensive tests for you...
 
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PrimeRib

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mynameis said:
Ctrl + R will show you framerate.

Just ran it for a bit, with all settings low, at native resolution, full screen and no eye candy on.

lowest FPS in town of Xroads on a low populated server (Daggerspire) was 5FPS

once I got out of town and ran around, even free looking and scanning the countryside while running, FPS hit as high as 30FPS with intermittant drops to about high teens to low 20s.

In short : playable if you absolutely need to get your fix. In fact, I found with all settings low, it wasnt too bad at all - the game still looks really good. And as long as you can put up with the hella low FPS while in town, then you're set. I'd imagine with a full 1.2Gig of RAM your performance may increase a few FPS but I'm not sure...

Hope this info helps!

-PrimeRib
 
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McGuillicuddy

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Can you squeeze out a few more FPS if you run at 800 x 600? Also, you mentioned that the FPS dropped as low as 5 in town, was it consistently at 5 or just here and there?
 
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PrimeRib

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McGuillicuddy said:
Can you squeeze out a few more FPS if you run at 800 x 600? Also, you mentioned that the FPS dropped as low as 5 in town, was it consistently at 5 or just here and there?

I'll try to run another test for you later today. In theory, changing the resolution from native to 800x600 should boost a few more FPS but it may be the 32Meg card video RAM limitation on the iBook itself. I'll try a few more low-end tests to improve performance and post results later today.

As far as in town, the FPS was all over the place, running from 19FPS to 5FPS in some areas. IT was not consistent nor did it stabilize at any point in time.
Then, when running around out of town, the FPS improved greatly, though it would still jump as high as 30FPS and dip as low as 18FPS, again, not remaining constant at any time.

Although 5FPS sounds unplayable, because it was jumping all over the place (as high as 19FPS at times) it wasn't as bad as it would seem. I can say I would get annoyed if playing a long time, but for short bursts of WOW goodness, its fine for short periods of time.
 
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McGuillicuddy

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mynameis said:
I hate running at non-native resolutions on LCDs.

I've never played a game on an LCD other than my iBook, but I played Call of Duty and Jedi Outcast on here at both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 and really didn't find the non-native resolution bad at all.
 

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