Wrath of the Lich King's gentle PC requirements

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 8th 2008 at 1:30PM }

There's no denying that World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is likely to have a ~~purple (epic)~~ orange (legendary) launch. The only thing standing in the way of the WoW faithful from getting their Northrend on is the new tech specs a meeting with Arthas will require.

PC:

Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1 (Windows 2000 no longer supported)
Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz (up from 800 MHz Intel/AMD). Dual-core recommended.
RAM: 512 MB/1 GB for Vista, same as before. 1 GB/2 GB recommended.
Video: GPU with hardware transform and lighting and 32 MB VRAM, same as before. Recommended 128 MB VRAM.

Mac:

Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.3 no longer supported)
PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo. G4s are no longer supported. Intel 1.8 GHz recommended.
RAM: 1 GB, up from 512 MB. 2 GB recommended.
Video: Hardware transform and lighting, 64 MB VRAM. 128 MB VRAM recommended.

Although it's a boost up from The Burning Crusade expansion, Wrath won't require most to get a new PC. Blizzard has already stated that it loves its money more than pushing the graphics envelope and will evolve WoW slowly over time not to lose customers.

[Via WoW Insider]

Tags: activision-blizzard, blizzard, requirements, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jack Spicer @ Oct 8th 2008 1:36PM

Also requires a DVD player. Which may be a problem if you're using a laptop or if WoW is the only game that requires a DVD player that could possibly run on your machine.

A Firetruck @ Oct 8th 2008 2:00PM

You can download the client if u dont have a dvd player

DemonGSides @ Oct 8th 2008 3:03PM

My laptop is over a year old and it has a DVD drive. And, its easily one of the shittiest, spec wise, computers I've ever had the misfortune to use.

I also play WoW on it, almost religiously.

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 8th 2008 4:16PM

Computers have had DVD drives as standard since about 2003.

Seriously, if you don't have a one, you need to upgrade.

Slayer @ Oct 8th 2008 5:42PM

I'm pretty sure that most modern laptops have DVD drives.

Nick @ Oct 13th 2008 2:54PM

DVD drives are alot cheaper than they used to be too. you'll easily spend more money on Lich King than you would a new drive.

Ryan @ Oct 8th 2008 1:48PM

Bring it on, I prefer a fair fight.

Mr. Nom Nom the Troll @ Oct 8th 2008 1:55PM

Progress is good.

Nate @ Oct 8th 2008 2:00PM

Service Pack 3? No thank you. I was considering closing my account and I guess I will be.

Shagittarius @ Oct 8th 2008 2:12PM

ARrrrrrr matey! There be legitimate OS requirements ahead!

Bigfoot @ Oct 8th 2008 2:16PM

What's so bad about SP3?

Jeepers Creepers 712 @ Oct 8th 2008 2:35PM

... you do know that SP3 is just SP2 with all the patches and security fixes rolled up into one neat little package, right?

Grow up, grow a pair, and stop living in some pseudo-cult where updates are a bad thing. It's just an OS, it's just a computer, and your life will NOT end if you get SP3. In fact, you probably won't even notice a difference.

ZaxCG2 @ Oct 8th 2008 2:36PM

Dude, SP3 doesn't change ... well... anything. Trust me, I know the pain between SP1 and SP2... that was horrible. To be honest I don't even know why they released SP3, just security upgrades I guess.

Thordon @ Oct 8th 2008 2:58PM

Lemmings believe every new service pack is better than the last because Microsoft says so:

http://www.scmagazineus.com/Blame-XP-SP3-problems-on-Microsoft-Symantec-says/article/110556/

http://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2008/05/14/windows-xp-sp3-has-problems/

Mr. Nom Nom the Troll @ Oct 8th 2008 3:04PM

No Offense Nate this is not "directed at you" but, i wish 4+ million people did the same, along with the "i heard the game is cool, so i bought it" newbies, trade-general chat nuisances.I understand the more customers the better for the game/company, but yeesh...

If i run into one more mage, that didnt know they have spells which grant INT or more AC...

Sunny @ Oct 8th 2008 3:58PM

@Thordon: Lemmings also belive everything they read that puts Microsoft in a bad light, and doesn't ever try anything themselves.

I've put SP3 on a lot of computers and none have had any problems yet. In fact, most of them seem quicker after applying the update.