World of Warcraft complete specs and system requirements (2023)

World of Warcraft system requirements have certainly changed since its launch, thanks to its long journey. Whether you’re playing on the retail or classic servers, you need to have a certain level of PC to dive into the game. While WoW is still a very friendly game for PC users, when it comes to forgivable specs, the need for better hardware has become apparent over the years.

World of Warcraft can still run on Windows 7. However, just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. If you want the best experience, you’ll need to have specific gear in your PC or better.

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What are Retail World of Warcraft’s minimum and recommended system requirements?

As you can see in the list below, it doesn’t take much to run World of Warcraft, even with the Dragonflight expansion being live. If you have a weaker GPU/CPU, you can still run the game. However, some things remain consistent - you need the minimum 128GB space.

WoW's graphical output has improved (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

World of Warcraft is a massive MMO, and with each update and expansion, the game slowly grows in size. Make sure you clear some space on your SSD if you’re going to reinstall WoW in 2023.

Minimum requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Processor: 4 Cores, 3.0 GHz processor (4th Generation Intel Core Haswell/AMD Ryzen Zen)
• Video: DirectX 12 capable 3 GB GPU (Nvidia GeForce GTX 900 Series/AMD GCN 4th gen/Intel Iris Xe Graphics)
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: Solid State Drive (SSD) 128GB available space
• Internet: Broadband internet connection
• Input: Keyboard and mouse required
• Resolution: 1280x720 minimum display resolution

Recommended Specifications

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: 6 Cores, 3.5 GHz processor (8th Generation Intel Core Coffee Lake/AMD Ryzen Zen 2)
• Video: DirectX 12 capable 8 GB GPU (NVidia GeForce RTX/AMD RDNA 2/Intel Arc 7 Graphics)
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Storage: Solid State Drive (SSD) 128 GB available space
• Internet: Broadband internet connection
• Input: Multi-button mouse with scroll wheel
• Resolution: 1280x720 minimum display resolution

Having a higher-end PC will let you group and play with others with less lag/slowdown (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Interestingly enough, it now recommends a multi-button mouse, which makes sense. Players have many buttons they need to press in a short span in World of Warcraft. So having a specific mouse type in the system requirements makes sense. For my money, the Razer Naga Pro is the best pick.

You don’t need a powerful PC to run the game, even on the recommended specifications. Rest assured though, if you have a powerful PC like the Starforge Voyager Creator Pro, it can run everything.

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World of Warcraft Classic system requirements for PC

The World of Warcraft Classic system requirements have remained steady for the past two years. Even with that, you might not know what you need to run it on your PCs. WoW Classic, thankfully, takes less effort to run than Retail WoW.

Thankfully, WoW Classic is easier to run (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Now that WoW Classic Hardcore is coming, you may want to make sure your PC is up to snuff, and ready to go. Here are the latest recommended system requirements for the classic servers.

Minimum requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5-760 or AMD FX 8100 or better
• Video: Nvidia GeForce GT 440 1GB or AMD Radeon HD 5670 1GB or Intel HD Graphics 4000
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Storage: 15GB available space
• Internet: Broadband connection
• Input: Keyboard and mouse required. Other input devices are not supported.
• Resolution: 1024x768 minimum display resolution

Recommended specifications

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD FX 8310 or better
• Video: NVidia GeForce GTX 960 4GB or AMD Radeon R9 280 or better
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Storage: 70 GB available space Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Input: Multi-button mouse with scroll wheel
• Resolution: 1024x768 minimum display resolution

World of Warcraft Classic, as you can see, is much easier to run. Even the recommended settings are pretty forgiving. However, if you want to play Hardcore, you will want as powerful a PC as possible. Nobody wants the game to stall, and that cause a death.