64-bit or 32-bit?

[devius]

The i7-720QM can turbo-boost to 2.8GHz which it probably does since WoW is also probably single-threaded or at most uses 2 threads. The i7 is not the problem here. The graphics card is also not the problem. Wine is known to suck hard, especially with ATI graphics cards. Wine is also only 32-bit so it doesn't matter if your operating system is 32 or 64bit.
A Core2Duo SU7300 1.3GHz with a Geforce G105M runs WoW at 29,3FPS (1280x1024 high settings no AA and AF) on windoze for comparision.

[droidhacker]

Really. I challenge you to take your old machine from 2004 and your "i7", set them to the SAME FREQUENCY and run some single threaded, say, video encoder, compiled for a GENERIC 32BIT 2004 CPU (that means i686-generic). Encode the SAME VIDEO on both with the SAME PARAMETERS running all the SAME BINARIES (including libraries), and TIME IT.

If you think that your "i7" is 10x faster, you're in for a REAL SHOCK.

[droidhacker]

Assuming it's a 1.6GHz mobile i7, I believe that's about 50% faster than my mobile i5, which is itself about 4x faster than my old Core Duo. So that probably makes it close to 10x faster than the typical CPU when WoW was released.

If WoW is CPU-limited on a system like that, then they've done something very wrong.

Not even close.
FAR FAR FAR from it.
It *MIGHT* be ****AT MOST**** 5% faster than a typical mobile CPU of the same frequency from that time (running the same generic code), probably 15-20% faster running optimized code (which it is NOT).

[droidhacker]

"Wow. Its an "i7". Is that supposed to mean something?"

in germany wow means somtheing like: OMG OMG its an i7... or HELL its an i7 wow ;-)

It means the same thing here (Canada), and I was applying it sarcastically (i.e. meaning the opposite of what I actually said).

[movieman]

Wow. Its an "i7". Is that supposed to mean something? That chip is mediocre at best (in the grand scheme of things), and it certainly isn't an incredible speed monster.

Assuming it's a 1.6GHz mobile i7, I believe that's about 50% faster than my mobile i5, which is itself about 4x faster than my old Core Duo. So that probably makes it close to 10x faster than the typical CPU when WoW was released.

If WoW is CPU-limited on a system like that, then they've done something very wrong.

[cb88]

Sure it may be cpu bound.. I really can't see calling it cpu bottlenecked as that implies a slower than normal cpu whereas this is a faster than average cpu.

[squirrl]

There were graphics updates to the latest revision of World of Warcraft. Generally you can't expect to turn the resolution to it's peak and enable all the advanced options for graphics.

Wine may not be an emulator according to its' authors but it's still translating calls to Direct3D into OpenGL calls farther passing them on to the OpenGL driver mechanisms.

http://www.notebookreview.com/price/product.asp?productFamilyID=1326&pid=252186

LCD's look best at their highest resolution but the games have never played good at this values. That is one of the perks to having a monitor. 800x600 still looked as superb as 1680x1050. Refresh rates over 80hz were excellent. Another scam to make you buy a better video card. Even the xbox 360 can't seem to play gaves over 720p .. 1280x720 and it's a radeon with a 3-core Xenon.


So with all that said you really only have 2 options.

Linux: lowest settings and resolution
Windows: Highest settings.

Respect

[Panix]

I just witnessed it running what I thought was okay on older machines, that's all.

But, this page seems to imply the frames aren't going to be all that impressive.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,693737/WoW-Wrath-of-the-Lich-King-CPU-benchmarks-with-Phenom-II-and-Core-i5/Practice/

I guess I'm done contributing to the thread. Hopefully, the OP finds the links I posted, useful.

[Panix]

I can't believe that an i7 cpu is the bottleneck. That makes no sense. WOW is not an intensive game. I have seen a Gentoo user with no more powerful than a standard Core 2 Duo machine run it fine. Also, Windows users running it with Pentium 4 systems. The OP might want to try lowering resolution or other settings but to say his i7 cpu is bottlenecking sounds crazy to me.

[droidhacker]

Wow. Its an "i7". Is that supposed to mean something? That chip is mediocre at best (in the grand scheme of things), and it certainly isn't an incredible speed monster. On top of that, in order to achieve its potential, code needs to be compiled to take advantage of ITS characteristics -- not a first-generation K8. You're throwing a generic-compiled 32bit wine and windoze application at it! Its NOT going to be fast!