This month’s most Popular WoW Guide
World of Warcraft has yet another expansion pack and this time the vast world of Azeroth is split asunder. The well known landscapes have changed, two new races are playable and flying has become possible in old Azeroth. With every game expansion, Blizzard updates the graphics in World of Warcraft and the Cataclysm expansion is no exception. Cataclysm may bring freshness to a game which is experiencing record breaking popularity and longevity, but it also requires more of the computer and there are tweaked WoW Cataclysm requirements for systems.
The new minimum system requirements may be beyond the abilities of some older machines. Computers which ran the old Wrath of the Lich King expansion but only barely, may not be able to keep up with the increased demands. In addition Blizzard has stated that there may be further changes in minimum requirements for computers as they continue to improve graphics. What that means is that if a computer barely makes the minimum requirements to play Cataclysm, later changes could render it too slow or not powerful enough to run it.
Mac Minimum System Requirements
World of Warcraft has versions that support both Mac and PC operating systems. The WoW Cataclysm requirements state that Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.4 or newer releases should run with Cataclysm. Although OS 10.4.11 might run WoW Cataclysm, it is not supported. It is also possible that unsupported MAC OS versions might run for a while and suddenly stop working.
The requirements for MAC memory have increased as well and 2GB is the minimum recommended for Cataclysm and even then, busy cities may cause the user with minimum requirements some problems. 25 GB available hard drive space and a 4X DVD drive. An Intel processor is required for Cataclysm. There are no video card minimums because all MAC video cards for systems with an Intel processor work fine according to Blizzard support.
Cataclysm Minimums for the PC
Cataclysm requires a PC running the latest expansion packs and Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. 1GB of RAM is the minimum stated requirement for PCs. Processor types can be Intel Pentium 4 with 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500 or more. Graphics cards for PC Users can be NVIDIA, FX, GeForce, ATI, Radeon 9500 or greater, some other video cards are also supported.
A DVD player is required to install Cataclysm from a disk though the upgrade can be downloaded. Installation of Cataclysm requires 25GB of hard drive space free. Additionally game play for Cataclysm requires a broadband internet connection.
While a machine may run Cataclysm with just the bare minimums game performance can be less unsatisfactory with these minimums. The player who desires better game play may want to refer to the published recommended system requirements for Cataclysm. Additionally the support team for WoW indicates that during game play system requirements may be upgraded to improve the player experience and that means system minimums can sometimes be increased.
WoW Cataclysm is an upgrade to the World of Warcraft game. That means that it is not a standalone game purchase, an account which is WOLTK enabled is required. Even if the player account is not upgraded to Cataclysm the Cataclysm minimums but be met because the Cataclysm graphic changes affect all players.
I tested wow cataclysm on my mac mini with windows 7 32bit = Run Sweetly !
I tested wow cataclysm with snow leopard on the same machine! = fps=1->3 = Pathetic ! I can't play wow now cause it is so slow that can't be played anymore. Extremely slow fps that make playing impossible !!!!
Why is that ? Does mac osx sucks so much in 3d games ? And if sucks so much in graphics then in what @#$@#$ is good?????
Sorry