So I am saving up for a new PC, and I was curious how feasible it is to play WoW at 4k? Like, I hear WoW isn’t the most optimized game there is, so I was just curious from people that have tried it… How much FPS do you get at 4k in large areas… cities, raids, etc.
Wow has a very old graphics engine and isn’t 4k. A high end machine would be over kill. My pc is 5 years old and I can play on max settings at a high frame rate.
This isn’t true. But ty for the useless information
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What about @Amon’s post “isn’t true?”
Like, you can watch an old, 1970s sitcom on an 8k TV … it doesn’t mean it won’t look like garbage. It doesn’t matter what your screen is, it matters what the native resolution is.
I have a feeling that’s what WoW’s problem is. You can have a 4k-capable monitor, but WoW doesn’t truly render at 4k. So… it’s a wasted effort.
Kinda like all the people that get dual-gfx cards and brag about “how it looks so much greater/ runs so much faster” … and WoW isn’t set up to run with dual cards. lol
You get a great CPU, get a decent gfx card (1 year old, nothing newer) … and that’s really all you need for WoW. That feels so boring to someone with 5k, etc burning a hole in their pocket but that’s the truth for WoW. It just doesn’t take much to run it. And throwing more at it doesn’t make it better.
Your welcome.
Thid……
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Im pretty sure I can set WoW resolution to 4k on my macbook.
You can but it’s not like all of a sudden there is this giant jump in quality. I have a 4k monitor.
Still better than Full HD right?
There is always someone who claims to play WoW at “very high” or even “max” settings on an old PC. I can only surmise they’re either fine with sub-60 fps all the time or they are actually running it on much lower settings and are just making a subtle dig at WoW’s “2004 graphics lol”.
The best part about 4k in WoW is you can get away without anti-aliasing if you wish as the details are fine enough to (mostly) not need it. The other advantage to me is how crisp the UI fonts are.
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The visuals aren’t all that much different. Things are more crisp, especially font. On of the bigger differences with hiring a powerful rig is you can crank up the distance so you can see things very far away.
I use a 75” 4k tv. No issues here. Looks awesome
Have you been to the eye dr recently?
Not sure why people always say this. I was on an older machine/graphics card and monitor. Upgraded to a 4090 and a 34" Alienware UHD screen with HDR and the difference is jaw dropping. ESPECIALLY SL and DF zones. BFA also. You can absolutely 100% see a massive difference as well as gameplay got better because everything was boosted.
The biggest problem with the 4K resolution is getting a pixel perfect UI display, because you need to have a monitor at a size based sweet spot. On a 27" monitor, 0.71 UI scale is way too big to take much advantage, and 0.333 scale is way too small and most objects you can’t resize are unreadable. However, on a 42" monitor, it wasn’t so bad.
Does it look better? Of course it does. The advanced video card features for anti aliasing and other modern niceties do pay off.
Is it the sweet spot? No, probably 1440p, but 4k is not bad, it’s just something you have to put some extra work into to provide a lot of benefit.
Worth it? Not for WoW, but presumably you’re running something else.
Edit: FPS? No complaints. I only share because you asked I’m running a 4090 with 120Hz monitor, and I can keep 100 FPS in Valdrakken around graphics level 8. Open world 300. Basically, at 4K, FPS is no problem.
The game can still be taxing especially with dragon riding, ray tracing and spell density. I run a 4090 and 7800x3d and get over 400 fps 400 fps in some zones and in modern ones over 200 but i lock to 144 on a 4k monitor at max settings. I have played wow since BC and appreciate being able to fully experience how far the game has come visually. looks gorgeous. especially spell effects. BFA- Dragonflight zones are pretty amazing at that res and native ray tracing. Is it worth it? up to you. i don’t think it’s worth it but i still did it and im happy i did. i don’t think you will be disappointed if you love wow and are planning on playing indefinitely. the experience does feel pretty premium with a high quality hdr monitor
4k OLED LG C1, 4090, 12900k. Wow looks pretty good at 4k maxed. It feels great at 100+ FPS. I turn contrast up to 75. WoW is completely capable of rendering at 4k.
The engine is old in regards to how it processes other players. Since it only uses 2 CPU cores FPS will tank to 60 in town.
**A 4090 is not necessary.
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60 fps in town
“Valdrakken Quality” 
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Truthfully, I haven’t really noticed a difference with mine going from 1080 to 2k UHD a while ago, though except for in Valdrakken, but everyone in my guild experience frame drops in Valdrakken too.
i like having more screen real estate because i can still have full ui but looks so much less cluttered at 4k res . actually get to see the world and still have my pvp ui settings
forget 4k gameplay in wow, get a setup to play at 2k and you will thank me later.