Will Bootcamp Boost My Gaming Experience?

Hello,

I have a 2007 2GHz 1GB Macbook with a new 80GB hard drive. It's currently running Snow Leopard, and I also just ordered a 4GB RAM upgrade (which will technically give me 3GB).

I play World of Warcraft on it quite often, every day, and lately it's been severely laggy. I know this is also in part to Blizzard implementing its latest huge patch, but there are some new graphic settings that require 2GB of RAM or more. I know I should ideally be running on more than one GB. The computer itself has also been a bit slow as of late, especially when I open up Safari while WoW is running. It almost freezes the computer.

I am not yet sure if my new RAM upgrade with help with the lagginess, but my other question was about the integrated graphics card. I read online, WoWWiki I believe, that "running Windows on Bootcamp is a good idea for Mac users with an integrated graphics card." They didn't explain why it was a good idea.

I cannot afford to purchase a Macbook Pro (which is what I would ideally want to play WoW), or any other laptop for that matter. I can however, afford to put Windows on my computer through Bootcamp.

Can anyone tell me if this would be a good idea if I was going to play WoW on this machine? I'm really not knowledgeable in this area. My main goal is to make WoW run smoother, as well as my computer. I don't necessarily need to play at the highest settings on the game.

How are you playing WOW now? Is it a Windows disc and you're running Parallels or some other v.m.?

That aside, install your new RAM, try playing WOW and see if you're happy with the performance. If you're still not happy with how it performs and if it IS a Windows game, then YES Bootcamp will be a better option for you. Although, I still cannot guarantee an older machine can keep up with a graphics-intensive game even using 3GB RAM with a 2.0GHz processor.

Like I said, try the new RAM first and go from there.

Thanks! That's my plan. Right now I'm just running WoW on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6 I believe? )

Ok, so it's a Mac software disc you're using? Or is this some online gaming site? Just curious because it isn't going to improve with Bootcamp if it is an online gaming site. And you can't run it on Windows if it's a Mac software disc.

If you're using a Virtual Machine, you will (most-likely) notice an improvement if you use Bootcamp instead.

WoW runs on both.

its a PC/Mac disk

the lag is caused by the new graphics engine Blizzard switched to in patch 4.0.1.

i quit because of it, so did several friends. game sucks now anyway.