geforce 8400 - could it run WOW?

[PaulC]

Basically as the title says. I am looking to get one of the new dell laptops which now come with a geforce 8400m gs 128mb. So I am wondering if it is enough grunt to play WOW on.

I'm guessing it should be. Looking at reviews etc it seems to achieve a similar level of performance in DX9 as a 7600 GS. Given that I currently play WOW on a 6600 GS with full settings, full AA and full AF with no slow down what so ever I'd be bemused if the 8400 couldn't handle it the same.

The only thing that has me worried is memory as the bandwidth on the 8400 GS is only 64 bit. Unfortunately Dell don't offer the GT version, the only upgrade is to a 8600 GT for just under £50. I know most people would just say spend the extra £50 and get the better card but if the 8400 will run fine anyway I'd rather not as it would be a waste of money. I don't really have plans to play anything else on it as that's what my 360 is for. :cool:

So over to the forum. What are peoples opinions of the card for WOW? Does anyone play WOW on a 8400 GS already and if so, whats it like? :ponder:

[Kalos]

I can't say how WoW will take to having a 8400, it's pretty weak as modern cards go. Obviously more powerful in some respects like encoding/decoding, it wasn't really targetted at the gaming market. The 64 bit memory interface is crippling, and has a huge downturn in 3D gaming performance, which has a huge reliance on the speed of the G-card's memory interface. But, all things considered with WoW's age, it should run. Expect to see some lag with the higher settings however, the bus limitiation will also bite in high texture environments like raids or the busy player cities. As long as you don't shoot for maximum graphical effects and high resolutions, it should go at a decent level of playable performance.

[IRID1UM]

WoW runs on a Geforce 4. That is 4 generations older than any Geforce 8 card. So without knowing any specs of the 8400 I can safely assume that this card will be faster than a Geforce 4 (would be really really sad for nVidia if not)

[Kalos]

WoW runs on a Geforce 4. That is 4 generations older than any Geforce 8 card. So without knowing any specs of the 8400 I can safely assume that this card will be faster than a Geforce 4 (would be really really sad for nVidia if not)
Don't assume on generation, it's a useless market that the marketeers hope you go for. For instance, a Geforce FX 5700 sends a Geforce 7300 down in flames, no contest. A Geforce 6800 sends a 7600 GS begging for mercy. Newer doesn't mean it is automatically better, that's only what the companies are pretty much hoping for, it's the only way they would shift the newer but lower tier hardware. Last year's high end outruns this year's middle and lower range. Only this year's high end outruns last year's high end.

[PaulC]

Thanks for the feedback. Aye it was the memory bus I was concerned about myself. However a 64bit bus doesn't necessarily make a card useless, it just means it won't perform as well as a 128bit bus. While this is a major consideration if planning to play modern games I think the thing to remember is WOW ain't a modern game.

The thing I can't get my head around is that although it seems in benchmarks the 8400gs just pips a 7600gs (which can play WOW on full settings), that doesn't indicate how it would perform in certain circumstances such as all the spell effects in a raid. There no one out there playing on a 8400gs that can let me know? :ponder:

[Kalos]

WoW isn't top of the range, but it still came out in an era when 64 bit memory buses were religated to nothing but the lowest of quality products on the market. The newness of the core boosts performance back up, but it's going to be a major drag factor. Even five years ago, 64 bit buses were antiquated and backward, and WoW is just coming up to it's third year. The 7600 GS, which the 8400 is supposidly just able to overtake, is a more common card which serveral on this forum use. It does the job.

[tamriilin]

Uhhhh. I have a 6600gt and it runs with everything on high at around 45-60fps. So to answer your question, I'm 97% positive it would run, unless I'm missing something here.

EDIT: I just read your last post, and on retail WoW, I raid 30-40 hours a week - and even with 30+ other people casting/attacking, I still get around 40 frames a second.

[Tunga]

8400 hasn't been benchmarked much, I think it's generally only used in laptop cards. Still, there's nothing to say that just because a 6600GT (which have always been quite nice cards for the money) runs it at a certain level then an 8400 will be the same. And since this is a laptop card it's even more likely to be missing things that your desktop 6600GT has (see previous discussion on bus width). So no, you can't really compare them like that.

[Wintrow]

My company is upgrading me from an onboard Intel GME855 thing to a Mobility Radeon 9300... Curious what the result will be on WoW. Old laptop pulled 3 to 7 fps...

[undeadgnome]

Ok, listen. I run WoW with this:

250 ATI Radeon xpress 2000 250 GB

512 RAM

3 Gig. CPU


And I play it with a decent amount of settings on max with barely no lag.

[Tunga]

My company is upgrading me from an onboard Intel GME855 thing to a Mobility Radeon 9300... Curious what the result will be on WoW. Old laptop pulled 3 to 7 fps...Shame you can't get a 9700 Mobility out of them, that was a decent mobile chip. 9300 should run playable it but don't expect much of a frame rate especially in town/raids.