Low FPS during games.

[velocityg4]

Im considering building a $400 pc just for playing WoW and other games.

My system: Dual-core 2ghz PowerMac, 2gb ram, Geforce 600 LE (128mb) video. (latest Tiger release)
WoW setting: Everything on medium or lower. Ant-aliasing off, etc.
FPS: 17-26 while *outside*

My bro's inexpensive system: Single-core AMD 3500, 1gb of ram, onboard video. (WinXP)
WoW settings: Everything on high, Ant-aliasing on, etc.
FPS: 30-40 while oustide.

The low performance of my system on WoW makes me sick.

Josh,
If you build an el cheapo PC. You would be much better off with an AMD 3000 and El Cheapo video card like Radeon 9600 Pro/XT 256mb than AMD 3500 and integrated video. Or if you drop a little extra get a refurbished X800 Pro 256mb off newegg. I have never had any problems using refurbished video cards I bought off newegg. I don't know what my framerates would be in WOW since I don't like MMORPG's but I get great performance in DOOM 3 on my Athlon system in my sig (cost about $550 on newegg). 60 FPS at 1024x768 2x AA everything turned on.

 

[Josh]

That's odd. WoW up to date? Have you got any background programs running (or lots of widgets)?

WoW's up to date (wouldn't be able to play if it wasn't )

No background apps, and I never have any widgets open.

There was just the most tiniest difference between going from 512mb to 2gb of ram. I was able to move the terrain distance up from the lowest setting, and some others up a little...but I expected a lot more.

I might take the advice above and build a cheap PC; besides, I'd like to run linux for some programming practice (I'd rather not put linux on the Mac).