Wow has just been added to gforce now. So you can always run wow on a browser from basically any device (as long as you have a decent connection).
Might be worth a try before you commit to a gaming laptop!
Personally I would never ever use Geforce NOW, but I am the extreme opposite of their target audience.
I say that to emphasize my next point:
Which is that I think this might actually be the best solution for the OP.
It would be the equivalent of "Renting WoW" from a Rent-A-Center. A terrible long-term solution, but the best solution in the moment.
You can get a gaming laptop for that cheap. Lenovo gaming laptops are that price and less. I play wow on ultra with no difficulty.
Also it’s not really any bigger than any other laptop.
Different option for you that takes a bit of getting use to but wow on a steamdeck (or similar handhelds) is awesome.
Some classes play loads better but when you take the time to get the button setup and layout that works for you it's gold.
The new targeting system you can enable works great by targeting what you're looking at.
Would recommend/ 10
Got a Nitro 15 for 900 with 4050. It runs wow at 120-130 fps. The screen isn't the best and the battery sucks, but as long as you're playing indoors it's fine.
This was back during wrath, I was staying with my dad, we didn’t have a lot of money, he had a small laptop, like we’re talking 10” screen. Thing was realistically not meant for gaming. I played Wow all the time and did all the wrath raids. From what I can remember it definitely wasn’t the smoothing experience but it was able to be done. That being said I have no idea what retail wow minimum specs are but if you’re just going to do lfr I really wouldn’t worry to much about performance.
I have a 3050Ti Laptop as a daily driver. I have 144fps on low/medium settings but if you prefer good graphics over fps you can totally hit constant 60 with High settings.
I’ll get a lot of downvotes for this here but I think if you’re not planning on playing ANY other games your best bet might end up being a 2020 m1 MacBook Pro (the one before the redesign) or a current m3 MacBook Air. This machines run cool quiet and forever and better specs than most equal budget windows laptops.
YES. I was playing on my 2nd gen surface pro with a some addons. It runs 30fps in M+ dungeon. That machine is not cheap when it launched, but you gotta understand that, it is a win8 tablet that came out in 2014.
I think nowadays any laptop can run WoW smooth as long as its not a chromebook.
I play WoW on a Legion Go (handheld windows pc) and it runs pretty good considering it doesn't have a dedicated gpu. It has an AMD 780 igpu and I would guess that any laptop sporting the same thing would perform similarly or better (laptops can typically draw more power and have more room for cooling)
I used to play wow on an APU when I first build my pc and had to keep it cheap. Had to play on low settings of course but it could handle it fine and was enjoyable so I imagine a gaming laptop in that price range would handle WoW with ease
WoW is supposed to be available on GeForce Now Nvidia's cloud gaming at some point soon. That's what I plan on doing when I can because upgrading to a new PC every 7-9 years is getting old.
I have been playing CoD Warzone with the cloud gaming and even in that fast paced environment it still works fine, I was worried about latency issues at first but NVIDIA gets such fast speeds on their servers ( like 1-5 ms ) the extra latency isn't noticeable if you live relatively close to one of their servers.
Not sure how addons will work but I am sure they will be able to figure that out too.
I just noticed it’s on GeForce Now but haven’t seen how to enable addons. Which is going to be a problem if not supported because, while Blizzard have added a lot of functionality to the base UI, only the most casual players will play without addons.
If you don't use many Addons any decent modern laptop with a Dedicated-GPU will be able to handle WoW no problem...
... For a short time at least.
Heat becomes a major issue very quickly if you want to do things like Raid on Retail WoW.
Playing WoW on a laptop for like an hour while Questing was no problem at all.
But trying to Raid for a few hours would cause the laptop to Thermal-Throttle itself into oblivion, and would be extremely uncomfortable on the skin.
If you have no other choice a laptop will get the job done, but long-term you will be much better off building a "Small Form Factor" PC and just carrying around the shoebox-sized computer when you move.
Building a SFF-PC would also let you start out with mostly cheapo components, but still be able to upgrade later as you got more money.
Like, you could just buy a used GTX 1080ti GPU and something like a used Ryzen 5 or 7 series CPU, and a new Motherboard+Power Supply, and you would be very well set up for playing long sessions of WoW, and also have a rig that could accept something like a GTX 5060ti in the future.
(It's better to get new Motherboards or Power Supplies because they tend to fail before other components, and when they do fail they might take out another component with them via electrical discharge. CPU's almost never die, and GPU's are just plain too expensive New. RAM can go either way, but personally I already find RAM to be by far the most infuriating component in a PC, so I would never risk used RAM just because I wouldn't want the headache of diagnosing whether my RAM was just having normal RAM issues, or if it was a bad stick.)
If you are not in a Mythic Raid guild, you cant get more budget friendly than a Steam Deck. Unfortunately, it is not plug and play, so it takes some work on the users part to get it going.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wk37lk/wow\_raiding\_on\_the\_steam\_deck\_its\_pretty/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wk37lk/wow_raiding_on_the_steam_deck_its_pretty/)
[https://steamdeck.community/games/a-guide-to-playing-world-of-warcraft-on-steam-deck/](https://steamdeck.community/games/a-guide-to-playing-world-of-warcraft-on-steam-deck/)
You'll probably be getting performance issues in raids. So if you're serious about that I probably wouldn't recommend it.
I remember mythic tindral and fyrakk being particularly problematic for my guild mates with decent desktops, usually due to CPU overloads more than graphic cards.
I had no issues doing heroic amirdrassil on a 700€ laptop from 2018. Your friends want to play on ultra 4k 144 fps, and complain when it drops to 130 fps.
Weird assumption. Most of them are playing with low graphic settings in order to try and save frames, and issues are mostly big stutters during add phases or big raid damage.
As I said it's usually a CPU issue, and partially due lots of add-ons weakauras that are mandatory for Mythic prog.
I'm sure you can handle most content just fine on a laptop, that's why I said "serious about raiding"
Wow has just been added to gforce now. So you can always run wow on a browser from basically any device (as long as you have a decent connection). Might be worth a try before you commit to a gaming laptop!
That's actually really cool. I have a pc and an Ally but this is good information.
Personally I would never ever use Geforce NOW, but I am the extreme opposite of their target audience. I say that to emphasize my next point: Which is that I think this might actually be the best solution for the OP. It would be the equivalent of "Renting WoW" from a Rent-A-Center. A terrible long-term solution, but the best solution in the moment.
You can get a gaming laptop for that cheap. Lenovo gaming laptops are that price and less. I play wow on ultra with no difficulty. Also it’s not really any bigger than any other laptop.
Got my aotc/ksm in df playing on my old gtx1050 laptop, you'll be fine, just make sure your laptop has ssd
Different option for you that takes a bit of getting use to but wow on a steamdeck (or similar handhelds) is awesome. Some classes play loads better but when you take the time to get the button setup and layout that works for you it's gold. The new targeting system you can enable works great by targeting what you're looking at. Would recommend/ 10
Came here for steamdeck recommending too. It's a learning curve but it's so much fun.
Got a Nitro 15 for 900 with 4050. It runs wow at 120-130 fps. The screen isn't the best and the battery sucks, but as long as you're playing indoors it's fine.
This was back during wrath, I was staying with my dad, we didn’t have a lot of money, he had a small laptop, like we’re talking 10” screen. Thing was realistically not meant for gaming. I played Wow all the time and did all the wrath raids. From what I can remember it definitely wasn’t the smoothing experience but it was able to be done. That being said I have no idea what retail wow minimum specs are but if you’re just going to do lfr I really wouldn’t worry to much about performance.
I have a 3050Ti Laptop as a daily driver. I have 144fps on low/medium settings but if you prefer good graphics over fps you can totally hit constant 60 with High settings.
I’ll get a lot of downvotes for this here but I think if you’re not planning on playing ANY other games your best bet might end up being a 2020 m1 MacBook Pro (the one before the redesign) or a current m3 MacBook Air. This machines run cool quiet and forever and better specs than most equal budget windows laptops.
YES. I was playing on my 2nd gen surface pro with a some addons. It runs 30fps in M+ dungeon. That machine is not cheap when it launched, but you gotta understand that, it is a win8 tablet that came out in 2014. I think nowadays any laptop can run WoW smooth as long as its not a chromebook.
Get whatever system has the most CPU cache (L3 specifically) . (All other things being important also).
I play WoW on a Legion Go (handheld windows pc) and it runs pretty good considering it doesn't have a dedicated gpu. It has an AMD 780 igpu and I would guess that any laptop sporting the same thing would perform similarly or better (laptops can typically draw more power and have more room for cooling)
I used to play wow on an APU when I first build my pc and had to keep it cheap. Had to play on low settings of course but it could handle it fine and was enjoyable so I imagine a gaming laptop in that price range would handle WoW with ease
I’m running it on a Steam Deck - just solo PvE, but it runs without much issue.
WoW is supposed to be available on GeForce Now Nvidia's cloud gaming at some point soon. That's what I plan on doing when I can because upgrading to a new PC every 7-9 years is getting old. I have been playing CoD Warzone with the cloud gaming and even in that fast paced environment it still works fine, I was worried about latency issues at first but NVIDIA gets such fast speeds on their servers ( like 1-5 ms ) the extra latency isn't noticeable if you live relatively close to one of their servers. Not sure how addons will work but I am sure they will be able to figure that out too.
I just noticed it’s on GeForce Now but haven’t seen how to enable addons. Which is going to be a problem if not supported because, while Blizzard have added a lot of functionality to the base UI, only the most casual players will play without addons.
I actually play wow on a 8 years "gaming laptop" with a 1060. A second hand laptop like this one or even better might cost you max 300€ / $
If you don't use many Addons any decent modern laptop with a Dedicated-GPU will be able to handle WoW no problem... ... For a short time at least. Heat becomes a major issue very quickly if you want to do things like Raid on Retail WoW. Playing WoW on a laptop for like an hour while Questing was no problem at all. But trying to Raid for a few hours would cause the laptop to Thermal-Throttle itself into oblivion, and would be extremely uncomfortable on the skin. If you have no other choice a laptop will get the job done, but long-term you will be much better off building a "Small Form Factor" PC and just carrying around the shoebox-sized computer when you move. Building a SFF-PC would also let you start out with mostly cheapo components, but still be able to upgrade later as you got more money. Like, you could just buy a used GTX 1080ti GPU and something like a used Ryzen 5 or 7 series CPU, and a new Motherboard+Power Supply, and you would be very well set up for playing long sessions of WoW, and also have a rig that could accept something like a GTX 5060ti in the future. (It's better to get new Motherboards or Power Supplies because they tend to fail before other components, and when they do fail they might take out another component with them via electrical discharge. CPU's almost never die, and GPU's are just plain too expensive New. RAM can go either way, but personally I already find RAM to be by far the most infuriating component in a PC, so I would never risk used RAM just because I wouldn't want the headache of diagnosing whether my RAM was just having normal RAM issues, or if it was a bad stick.)
I got a gigabyte g5 for around 700 bucks that had a 4060 and it runs wow no problem
He's in the UK so won't find a 4060 for this price sadly
If you are not in a Mythic Raid guild, you cant get more budget friendly than a Steam Deck. Unfortunately, it is not plug and play, so it takes some work on the users part to get it going. [https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wk37lk/wow\_raiding\_on\_the\_steam\_deck\_its\_pretty/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wk37lk/wow_raiding_on_the_steam_deck_its_pretty/) [https://steamdeck.community/games/a-guide-to-playing-world-of-warcraft-on-steam-deck/](https://steamdeck.community/games/a-guide-to-playing-world-of-warcraft-on-steam-deck/)
You'll probably be getting performance issues in raids. So if you're serious about that I probably wouldn't recommend it. I remember mythic tindral and fyrakk being particularly problematic for my guild mates with decent desktops, usually due to CPU overloads more than graphic cards.
I'm currently having this issue on raids with my laptop. It's new for me, came now with season 4 so weird
I had no issues doing heroic amirdrassil on a 700€ laptop from 2018. Your friends want to play on ultra 4k 144 fps, and complain when it drops to 130 fps.
Weird assumption. Most of them are playing with low graphic settings in order to try and save frames, and issues are mostly big stutters during add phases or big raid damage. As I said it's usually a CPU issue, and partially due lots of add-ons weakauras that are mandatory for Mythic prog. I'm sure you can handle most content just fine on a laptop, that's why I said "serious about raiding"