[Oct 13] Main Thread - Shadowlands Pre-Patch: 3D Accelerator Card Not Supported

[Glezzy-alleria]

welcome to the age of activision r.i.p retail we had a good run

[Aopa-azralon]

same here

[Ardrakume-stormrage]

If your desperate and need to login to cancel auction house stuff like me, make a shortcut of your wow.exe and add command line argument:
-allowSoftwareRenderer
this allowed me to still login but with 3fps lol

[Harlanhunter-area-52]

It’s been stated numerous times here…most of the systems listed here do NOT meet the minimum specs. I understand not everyone has disposable money to spend on gaming systems, so here’s a few recommendations:

1. Don’t buy a laptop for gaming. Most laptops cannot be upgraded and tend to become obsolete much more quickly.

2. Buy a desktop gaming system. There are many refurbished or entry level gaming systems that are available for between USD$300 and USD$800. Yes, these are entry-level systems, but they will allow you to still play WoW and many of the new games. Look for a system with at least 8GB of memory and either a Radeon or Nvidia 10-series or better video card. Don’t buy a system with less than these. Desktop systems have the advantage of being able to upgrade components and will save you money over the long term. Again, don’t game with a laptop if you can’t afford to buy a new one when it becomes obsolete.

3. Trade up. There are many resellers that will give credit on a trade-in system.

For those who may just need a video card upgrade, here is a listing of the most popular video cards that still meet the minimum requirements: https://bit.ly/3nZyNOn

Good luck!

[Abuee-malganis]

I’m really hoping most of this is just an oversight from the devs. I understand the game doesn’t cater to low specs but, quite frankly, after seeing what you can do just from macros from a couple reddit threads… it makes no sense… Heck my main computers 390x is not listed under minimum required video cards and guess what I can get 100fps+ in this game… No idea what they decided to do with these new changes “ray tracing” big weoow

[Jambrix]

Hello everyone,

We have a bit of an update to share. Please check out the link below of a post from Kaivax, one of our WoW Community Managers.

Issues with Older GPUs

For the last few expansions, World of Warcraft minimum specs have required a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that is shader-model-5 compatible (DirectX 11.0 or higher). With the newer graphical features included in the Shadowlands Pre-patch, the game has ceased supporting all GPUs that are not compatible with shader-model-5. We’ve discovered that a very small number of players are attempting to run World of Warcraft on older hardware that cannot play the game after patching. At this time, we’re…

[Akhus-azralon]

Thanks for giving us an update. While I know that for now it is just a possibility, I hope you guys succeed in this endeavor.

If there will be need for testing or additional information, please let us know if we can help.

[Padian-exodar]

hey guys fyi till they fix you guys up i am running a intel 4000 hd card inside a toshiba …about 7 years old…spent a few hours today with toshiba support…i ended up having to go with their latest drivers for the hd 4000 as intels were newer however they did not allow the game window to display…may not help most of yah but hope it can help one… and my fps went up 15

[Harlanhunter-area-52]

For those who may just need a video card upgrade, here is a listing of the most popular video cards that still meet the minimum requirements: https://bit.ly/3nZyNOn

[Raghnara-lightninghoof]

Right click WoW in Lutris, then select configure. Select the “runner options” tab, and look at the “Wine version” setting. You should be able to select any installed version, or the one included in Lutris.

[Amaranaki-dalaran]

I was playing perfectly yesterday and today I get this !! * [ 3D Accelerator Card Not Supported] wtf…

[Sergoeu-bleeding-hollow]

Thanks for the update and praises for trying to keep 10 y.o junk afloat.
i wish you all the best. Even though i am fortunate enough to have other options, some people don’t. In this dire times one must hold to every glimmer of good there is indeed.

May your efforts be swift and efficient and the force be with you.

[Abuee-malganis]

It’s funny you say this but after testing quite a bit, you can actually run the game in software renderer mode for those of you interested in just logging on and doing minor things with extremely low fps make a shortcut and add : -allowSoftwareRenderer

With enough tweaking I managed to get my fps to around 20 in open world and around 8-10 in ogrimmar, which is more than playable. You might have to reduce the window size of your game and lower the resolution scale. This is not THE experience but, if you have no other choice for the time being, it’s worthwhile while you’re on old hardware.

Credit to [Ardrakume] who gave the command to test thanks!

[Houtenklaas-silvermoon]

Thanks for this workaround!

Made me able to login, do auction stuff. Highly pixelated though Reminded me of the first Warcraft games

[Krio-garrosh]

As i know nothing as far as technology goes… Would you be able to explain how to do that??? You’re correct. I am very desperate. Lol

[Illidøng-azralon]

Go to the Retail folder, right click and create a shortcut on desktop (if you don’t have one already). Right click this shortcut (works even on the shortcut on the ‘taskbar’) and choose ‘Properties’.
At the ‘Target’ section, after a ‘space’ add the -allowSoftwareRenderer.

Apply, and open the game. Beofre that, make sure to lower settings. Game might open, but will be very laggy.

[Krio-garrosh]

Yeah that worked lol but if i want to run it at like 6 fps instead of 1, then it looks like im playing zelda on an NES lol! But for now, it’s better than nothing Thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it

[Abuee-malganis]

Go to the Graphics Settings tab in WoW once you’re in, lower everything to lowest, lower the resolution scale to about 60%, run the game in windowed mode and reduce the size of the window, this should significantly impact FPS. Also in the advanced graphics tab, make sure to disable Triliinear filtering, and anisotropic filtering (defaults to 16 right now, change it to lowest), I can’t recall any other thing that might impact performance, but since the CPU is rendering everything with the software renderer, any other setting that would be related to graphics just lower it

[Orckyboy-illidan]

LET PEOPLE PLAY BLIZZARD, if they want to play on 10-15fps is their problem! Now i cant play with my bro…

[Dæde-thunderfury]

www dell com /en-us/shop/dell-laptops/dell-g3-15-gaming-laptop/spd/g-series-15-3500-laptop/gn3500eineh

Is what I would get if I were you.

The laptop I currently game on is a G7 7790. It has a 9750H CPU, (came with) 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM, a 256GB NVMe SSD, a 5400RPM 1TB HDD, a 17.3" 60Hz 1080p display (this is where they saved the most money) and an RTX2060. I have since upgraded the ram to 32GB, the SSD to a 1TB 970 Evo and the HDD has been replaced with a SanDisk Ultra II SATA-III SSD.

The G-Series tends to skimp a little on storage and a bit more on screen in order to bring you a competitive price on relatively current hardware, otherwise it’s pretty much the exact same creature as the Alienware systems you listed.

The one I linked here should last you a bare minimum of 3 years playing triple AAA titles on reasonable settings.