Wrath of the Lich King's gentle PC requirements

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]

Reader Comments (26)

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.

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

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.

Computers have had DVD drives as standard since about 2003.

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

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

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.

Bring it on, I prefer a fair fight.

Progress is good.

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

ARrrrrrr matey! There be legitimate OS requirements ahead!

What's so bad about SP3?

... 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.

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.

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/

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...

@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.

It's a conspiracy man, Microsoft want to wreck your copy of their software so that you feel compelled to go buy a Mac!

It's true, I read it on the internet!

Can I have your gold?

If your computer fucks up after upgrading to Service Pack 3, your computer blows anyway.

Problem solved.

Does anyone else get the impression Arthus is about to air guitar Frostmourne in that picture?

wow even my 4 year old piece of junk could run that!

mine can't. :(

It's so you can run it on your new-fangled EeePC's and Netbooks...

With those requirements, that game will run on just about anything.

Are there any other games that require service pack 3? I've never seen any say so.

greedisgood(99999999999999)
is masked as customer care services?
way to go blizzard marketing and game dev!
I'm so proud of you ^_^d

Wrath of the Lich King's gentle PC requirements

Reader Comments (26)

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 1:36PM Jack Spicer said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:00PM Voltron said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 3:03PM Demon G Sides said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 4:16PM Haggard said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 5:42PM Mr Slayer said

Posted: Oct 13th 2008 2:54PM nbinney said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 1:48PM RyanS said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 1:55PM Negatron said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:00PM The Bodyguard said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:12PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:16PM The Last Metroid said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:35PM Punkrawk Bbob said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:36PM ZaxCG2 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 3:04PM Negatron said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 3:58PM geeksunny said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 4:18PM Haggard said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 6:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 6:28PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:00PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:33PM The Low King said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 4:45PM Psychoplasm said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 2:37PM ZaxCG2 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 5:45PM Mr Slayer said

Posted: Oct 8th 2008 7:16PM Mike Knew said

Posted: Oct 9th 2008 9:48AM (Unverified) said

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