Blizzard just dropped the official GPU requirements for World of Warcraft: Forever and honestly, you probably don't need to stress about it.

They're requiring cards built on tech from around 2012–2015 or newer, specifically needing support for RGBA16F UAV in compute shaders to handle the game's updated visual style.

Here's the baseline cutoff for what you'll need:

• AMD: Graphics Core Next 1 or newer (think Radeon HD 7850 and up)
• NVIDIA: Maxwell architecture or newer (like the GTX 750/750 Ti, 9xx series, and up)
• Intel: Skylake or newer (like Intel HD Graphics 530 and up)

Cards older than that—like an old GTX 760 or Radeon HD 6950—won’t cut it anymore. But Blizzard mentioned that the vast majority of players are already way past these specs anyway, so unless you're gaming on an absolute relic, you should be totally fine.

If you want to double-check what you're running, just head into your Windows Display settings or check the Device Manager under "Display adapters".

 Blizzard Entertainment

---

With the launch of World of Warcraft: Forever, GPUs based on certain older graphics architectures that fall well below the game's minimum hardware requirements will no longer be supported. Players will be required to use a GPU based on one of the following microarchitectures or newer:

AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (2012)
NVIDIA Maxwell (2014)
Intel Skylake (2015)
In general, this requirement means that your graphics card needs to be from a newer generation. If your system uses an older card, you’ll need to upgrade your GPU before playing World of Warcraft: Forever.

The vast majority of World of Warcraft players are already using compatible hardware. If you’re not sure which GPU is in your computer, you can check in Windows using either of these options:

Open Settings, select System, then Display, and choose Advanced display to view your GPU’s make and model.
Open Device Manager and expand Display adapters to see the graphics hardware installed on your system.
As a general reference:

Example compatible cards: AMD Radeon HD 7850 (2012), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9xx and 750/750 Ti (2014), Intel HD Graphics 530 (2015)
It’s important to note that these GPUs are still well below the minimum requirements for the game.

Example unsupported cards: AMD Radeon HD 6950 (2010), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760/770/780 and GTX 8xxM (2014), Intel HD Graphics 6000 (2015).
Players using a GPU based on older microarchitectures will need to upgrade your hardware before playing World of Warcraft: Forever.

Why We’re Requiring These Features
World of Warcraft: Forever introduces a new visual look to the game. To support that visual update, we rely on a feature introduced to GPUs around 2012: RGBA16F UAV support in compute shaders.

This change helps support the updated visual look of World of Warcraft: Forever and provides a more consistent experience for players.

You can view the full minimum system requirements on the Battle.net Shop.

This is great. I have a buddy with an old-ass laptop who was worried he wouldn't be able to get in. Now we know for sure it's a go.

Val Hull wrote: ↑

1 week ago

This is great. I have a buddy with an old-ass laptop who was worried he wouldn't be able to get in. Now we know for sure it's a go.

That's awesome! It would be pretty interesting to know how much of the player base doesn't have a 750 Ti or newer or Radeon HD 7850 or newer.

Oh man and here I was thinking I was out of luck!! wohoo!!

These specs are completely reasonable, but damn, my poor old little work laptop that I bought for $200 refurbished probably might not cut it :(

Has integrated graphics. I'll have to wait till release, but I am tempted to see if I can tweak the graphic settings down enough that my laptop can get 45+ fps. Will report back if I get it stable on my machine. I'm able to run Classic Era, although I did have to still turn graphics down quite heavily to manage it. Weirdly enough private servers using the original game files actually run noticeably smoother than the "Classic" counterparts.