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:( World of Warcraft - Cataclysm won't support PowerPC Macs

There are only a very few PPCs that could have run it at all, dual core G5s with non-stock graphics. (A G5 with Geforce 5200 can't run WoW properly)
Instead of spending time in keeping those still compatible they are better off using the time to improve intel performance.

The stock mini with 320M will run circles around the beefiest G5 ever made.
 
Based on this link I am surprised. WoW up to Cataclysm runs well enough on my 1.8 G5. I'm surprised they are cutting off PPC people who want to play the game pre-Cataclysm. Of course maybe there are not many of them left?

August 31, 2010 6:00 AMIn a post on the official forums Blizzard Entertainment has announced it will soon no longer support the PowerPC processor in its popular MMO, World of Warcraft. The change will occur in an upcoming patch scheduled for release before the debut of the Cataclysm expansion.Shortly before the release of Cataclysm a patch will be released in which PowerPC processor based Macs will no longer be supported. This update indicates the removal of PowerPC support from World of Warcraft. Attempting to run the game after the update will bring up a message stating the hardware is no longer supported, and the game will not run.For more information follow the link below.Blizzard Forums: PPC Support DroppedBlizzard EntertainmentWorld of Warcraft
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From Blizzard:

PPC stop receiving any updates at all with the death of Leopard a year ago. In reality, Apple has been focusing on Intel Macs since the end of 2005. So since 5 years, PPC systems has received very few bug fixes. It is now too hard to deal with all the bugs and the lack of features to support the few PPC users that we have left.
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I remember playing WoW off of my iPod, connected to my G4 mini with 256 megs of RAM.

Get off my front lawn! Stupid kids and their shiny new toys :mad::D
 
WoW has changed a lot.

I played WoW occasionally on my PowerMac G4 450 mhz with GeForce 4MX and 768MB RAM, it ran pretty well in Elwynn Forrest and the other early zones.

I tried Wotlk on my iMac G5 half a year ago and it was horrible! With everything on lowest it couldn't keep 20 FPS outdoor in Northrend. Crossing from one bank to another in Dalaran took minutes, like watching a slideshow..

I remember when I got the iMac how fast it ran WoW compared to the PowerMac G4...

WoW '04 ain't the same as WoW '10.

WoW '04 system reqs: 900 mhz G4 or higher, 512 MB RAM and 64MB graphics.
Wotlk reqs: G5 or Intel CPU (this means 1.6GHz +), 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600 (stock G5s had nvidia 5200, which is slower than the 9600)
 
The tide started going out on PPC a long time ago, when Leopard 10.5.8 marked the last graphics driver update (and basically the last set of non security bugfixes AFAICT). Since WoW is an evolving product, as its feature set changes it could be (is) very difficult to maintain testing / debugging / workaround efforts on a non-evolving platform. (Hand raised; been there done that)

Thread is mis titled, it should read "WoW PPC support winding down completely" since it is not specific to people running the next expansion.
 
My old G5 with Radeon 9600 was really challenged with 25-man raiding and hot spots such as Daleran. It was barely playable, at some times completely unplayable (and I have pretty low standards-- I will play even at 10fps). Leveling and 5-man raids were okay, not great, at low settings. If the changes coming with Cataclysm raise the bar at all, it is really time to put G5 support to bed.
 
Im glad, for once blizzard isn't catering to the casual gamers every want. Its time for the game to be significantly updated, and I can only imagine how difficult it would be to support current machines AND 6-7 year old machines.
 
Good. I'm glad Blizzard is stepping up to not waste resources on such legacy equipment. It should step up the possibilities also without having to make everything compatible with ppl who insist on keeping their old computers...and although it may sound harsh, but also laggards who are poor or simply cheap. The world has to move on and slow pokes are better left behind than stunting the group migration.
 
rasmasyean said:
Good. I'm glad Blizzard is stepping up to not waste resources on such legacy equipment. It should step up the possibilities also without having to make everything compatible with ppl who insist on keeping their old computers...and although it may sound harsh, but also laggards who are poor or simply cheap. The world has to move on and slow pokes are better left behind than stunting the group migration.
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This. And good metaphor too. Anyone still using an old PPC should upgrade, they must be unbearably slow anyway.
 
If you get into computer gaming you should understand that it will require constant upgrading of components (or in Apple's case usually entire systems) in order to stay up to par. For those not willing to do so should look into console gaming. It has always been this way, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Blizzard is notorious for trying to cater to such a wide group. I really think it hindered SC... if you go to forums you will see all of the issues they are having.
 
hippo206 said:
If you get into computer gaming you should understand that it will require constant upgrading of components (or in Apple's case usually entire systems) in order to stay up to par. For those not willing to do so should look into console gaming. It has always been this way, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Blizzard is notorious for trying to cater to such a wide group. I really think it hindered SC... if you go to forums you will see all of the issues they are having.
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Electronics in general are not really "durable goods". They are more like "perishables". They are only good for so long. The problem is that some people don't think of it this way because it's a physical object that doesn't nomally degrade. And it will still "work" by some basic definition of the word for a long time.

I always thought of buying a computer is really "renting" a computer. And the more you pay for it up front, the longer you can use it for. After a while, it's really just garbage...or in some cases you can give it to grandma to look at pictures or something.

And unless it's a corner email machine for "convenience", you're much better off buying a new one if you want to get even a small part of what the computing industry offers.
 
rasmasyean said:
I always thought of buying a computer is really "renting" a computer. And the more you pay for it up front, the longer you can use it for. After a while, it's really just garbage...or in some cases you can give it to grandma to look at pictures or something.
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Well, you can re-purpose old computers to do all kinds of things. Torrent slave, NAS box/media tank, firewall, switch, wifi repeater, webcam brain (no need for IP-based cams).
 
It had to happen sooner or later and Power is a dead platform for personal computing despite being a powerhouse in high end stuff. I'm glad I just bought my Mini.

I have to say though, in contrary to what I've heard from some fellow MR posters, my experience has shown the new Mini to be marginally faster than my hopped-up old PowerMac. The Mini's lack of ample ram and especially the hdd where my old raid 0 setup punks the Mini are a couple areas where Apple should really have equipped the Mini a bit better. Instead they leave it up to the consumer to add more ram and swap out the steaming turd hdd to make it usable.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Mini and feel I made a good choice. The design is way cool and it looks great on my desk. It is a good successor to my old PowerMac.
:)
 
lannister80 said:
Well, you can re-purpose old computers to do all kinds of things. Torrent slave, NAS box/media tank, firewall, switch, wifi repeater, webcam brain (no need for IP-based cams).
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That's kind of escapes the concept of a personal computer. That's more like an application specific computer-based device. Most of these cases you can actually buy a much lower power and smaller product that can do the same thing. And usually better, without the need to "go geek" on a project that often is not even worth the time for most people, even those who are professional IT ppl.
 
Huntn said:
...And the Xbox360. :)
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Where'd you get that info from? The last time I heard, the Xbox 360 is the leading platform in terms of game sales per unit. And they are sceduled to have a newer smaller version comming out for the holidays and a new motion capture attachment with new games where you use your body to control it.
 
rasmasyean said:
Where'd you get that info from? The last time I heard, the Xbox 360 is the leading platform in terms of game sales per unit. And they are sceduled to have a newer smaller version comming out for the holidays and a new motion capture attachment with new games where you use your body to control it.
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He's not meaning the xbox is dying, but that the xbox is based on the Power platform.
The xbox uses an IBM 3.2GHz 3-core PowerPC CPU
 
rasmasyean said:
Where'd you get that info from? The last time I heard, the Xbox 360 is the leading platform in terms of game sales per unit. And they are sceduled to have a newer smaller version comming out for the holidays and a new motion capture attachment with new games where you use your body to control it.
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It was supposed to read like this: "despite being a powerhouse in high end stuff...and the Xbox 360." :)
 
lannister80 said:
Well, you can re-purpose old computers to do all kinds of things. Torrent slave, NAS box/media tank, firewall, switch, wifi repeater, webcam brain (no need for IP-based cams).
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rasmasyean said:
That's kind of escapes the concept of a personal computer. That's more like an application specific computer-based device. Most of these cases you can actually buy a much lower power and smaller product that can do the same thing. And usually better, without the need to "go geek" on a project that often is not even worth the time for most people, even those who are professional IT ppl.
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I agree with Ras. You CAN re-purpose a old box, but you are often sacrificing reliabiltiy, size and function. The NAS box is the perfect example of that.
 
hippo206 said:
I agree with Ras. You CAN re-purpose a old box, but you are often sacrificing reliabiltiy, size and function. The NAS box is the perfect example of that.
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:)
My Dell Optiplex Sx280 (USFF, ultra small form factor) is a good example, it's small, use no power at all and it does have space for a SATA drive, so I popped in a 1.5TB disk and had a nice storage server. It's inside my closet with no screen or keyboard and I just mount it thru my network :D
 
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