WoW CPU Performance

A fast CPU is just as important to WoW as a fast GPU, which is generally the case in any modern day 3D game.  We looked at performance across 18 CPUs on a X800 XT at 1024 x 768, using the same settings as our GPU comparison.

Intel is remarkably competitive here; while they normally get completely demolished by AMD in gaming performance, the margins are much closer this time around.  At higher resolutions, the AMD-Intel gap would effectively disappear between most competitors.  Our recommendation here is to focus on getting a good video card and picking the platform that is more affordable and better suited to your needs. 

The Athlon XP is clearly behind the times here, but given its age, it is not too surprising to see it at the bottom of the charts.  Athlon XP owners will probably want to upgrade to an Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 before seeking out a faster video card in order to maximize their upgrade dollars. 

There is one interesting phenomenon that we noticed when looking at Intel's WoW performance - the Pentium 4 600 series first performs poorer, clock for clock, than the 500 series, but at higher clock speeds, it actually outperforms the 500 series.  Given that the Pentium 4 600 has a 17% higher latency L2 cache, that added cache latency is more pronounced at lower clock speeds.  Once again, the difference in performance (clock for clock) isn't large enough to sway our recommendation either way. We'd still suggest the 600 series over the 500 simply because of the added features. 

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7orrAp5utnZOde6S7zGiKoaenZJavsMSxZmpuZG6MpJzAoJx2bFaWua2JpZqjrJ1WqLyzwJxpXamZl5qKdnLSpaygdQ%3D%3D