World of Warcraft's PC system requirements are getting a big uplift with Dragonflight
Is your PC ready for Dragonflight?
Published: 3rd October 2022 | Source: Blizzard |
DirectX 12 and SSD storage are now minimum requirements for World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft released back in 2004, and over time the game's visuals have become more impressive and the game's systems have become increasingly complex. With the release of the game's latest expansion, Dragonflight, World of Warcraft's PC system requirements are going to rise significantly, making DirectX 12 support and SSD storage minimum requirements for the game.
World of Warcraft appears to be abandoning legacy graphics APIs, focusing firmly on DirectX 12 and the performance increases that that codepath brings on modern PCs. World of Warcraft will remains as one of the few applications that supports DirectX 12 on Windows 7, though it is worth noting that advanced features like ray tracing will only be available on Windows 10 or newer PCs.
In terms of CPU and memory requirements, Dragonflight demands higher-end CPUs and memory configurations than Shadowlands. Memory requirements have doubled, with Dragonflight demanding a minimum of 8GB of system memory while recommending 16GB. On the CPU side, Intel 4th generation 4-core i5 processors and AMD Zen processors are the game's minimum processors, with 6-core Zen 2 and Intel 8th Generation Coffee Lake processors being recommended.
On the GPU side, gamers need a system with at least 3GB of VRAM and graphics cards from Nvidia's GTX 900 series, AMD GCN 4th Gen series (RX 400 series), or integrated graphics from Intel's Iris Xe series.
All recommended graphics cards for World of Warcraft Dragonflight support ray tracing, with Blizzard recommending 8GB+ DirectX 12 graphics cards from Nvidia's RTX 20/30 series, AMD's RDNA 2 lineup, and Intel's new ARC 7 series.
Storage requirements are also increasing with World of Warcraft Dragonflight, with Shadowlands' 100GB requirement being replaced by a 128GB SSD storage requirement.
You can join the discussion on World of Warcraft's updated PC system requirements on the OC3D Forums.
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