Video Card and/or Monitor

I play GW from my Dell Latitude D820 laptop, my wife plays from her Dell Dimension 8400 desktop. Her desktop has an upgraded 1GB memory card, but I don't recall the exact specs. It also has what was the standard Dell LCD monitor shipping at the time.

I hate reading CHAT in GW. It takes me a lot of effort so I basically don't do it.
However, during the Canthan New Year. I ran my wife's characters thru the holiday quests to obtain lunar tokens. I discovered I love reading CHAT on her computer. The letters were crisp, bright and easy to read.

Crappy video hardware/monitor/drivers on the laptop versus better video hardware/monitor/drivers on her desktop.

I hate minimum required vs recommended specs vs practical specs. It somewhat bothers me that GW is going on 5 years old, so it probably has less robust specs that newer games.

As I consider looking at purchasing a new system, what should I look for in terms of video card and monitor in order to be able to play the newer games?

Thanks.

If you are looking for a laptop, you should be looking at ones that have a discrete video chip (as opposed to integrated - stay away from any Intel graphics); and, with it's own dedicated video RAM.

In a desktop, you ideally want, at least a system with a mid-range (or better) cpu, a mid-range or better video card, and a wide screen monitor 1680x1050 or better.

This can give you an idea of relative performance - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...70,2491-7.html

It's all in the resolution. Compare your wife's laptop's to your own and go from there to see what you'd be comfortable with.

go to newegg and get a kickass 1920x1080 monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=&srchInDesc=

for gaming on a laptop, stay away from anything with intagrated graphics.

for gaming on a laptop, stay away from anything with integrated graphics.

I'll address the OP's questions first ...

I suspect one of the problems for reading chat is the "gui size" - it's a lot harder to read the GW chat at "small" or "normal" than at "large", and on 1280x800 it's pretty much necessary to be running at "normal". However, that laptop came with several different resolutions for its screen. Experiment in the graphics options (F11) with the 4 different "gui size" values and see what works best.

In terms of a new computer - are you looking for a laptop or desktop machine now? If a laptop, do you want to run an external monitor (I'd suggest that for playing GW it's a very good idea). Do you intend to play anything other than GW on it (GW2 is coming up ...) - how future-proof do you want it. And most of all - what is the budget?

In terms of a desktop, these are the types of things you should be looking for (if you're buying a full system, make sure it's around these specs):

Low-end CPU: (Intel) Pentium Dual-core/Core 2. (AMD) Athlon 2 X2. Basically any current $50-100 CPU will play GW very well.

Mid-range CPU: (Intel) Core i3-530 (~$130). Has integrated graphics (if you get an H55 or H57 motherboard) that should play GW reasonably (don't know if it does anti-aliasing) but I would be getting a separate video card anyway.

High-end CPU: (Intel) Core i5-750 (~$220). Blazingly fast 4-core CPU that should last you for a number of years.

Low-end video: (AMD) 4670 is the minimum I'd recommend for GW at current prices, though it's starting to be hard to find them. Should play GW at 1680x1050 with at 2-4x anti-aliasing very well. Lower-end cards will play well at lower resolutions, but I don't think they're worth the money anymore. A 5570 would be similar performance, but I haven't seen any yet - just check prices.

Mid-range video: (AMD) 5670 (~$125) will give you an excellent playing experience. If the highest-end game you'll be playing right now is GW, stick with this and upgrade later for GW2 (if you need to).

High-end video: Don't bother.

Low-end monitor: Any 18-19" 1366x768 (~$100).

Mid-range monitor: 22" Samsung 2243BW+ 1680x1050 (~$200). BTW, Samsung has the best defective pixel policy out there (at least here in Australia). Alternatively, get a 21-23" 1920x1080 monitor for around the same price.

High-end monitor: I'd say don't bother.

For a laptop, you're going to be much more limited. I just bought two laptops on special for around $650 - they had the AMD M320 CPU and AMD 3200 integrated graphics (I think). I tried out GW and they were pretty good.

Regarding integrated graphics ... for GW the X3100 and 4500MHD graphics are actually quite playable. With the X3100 I usually stay around 25-30FPS with medium settings at 1280x800. With the 4500MHD it's rarely below 60FPS at medium settings at 1280x800. However, you don't have access to anti-aliasing. The recentish integrated nVidia and AMD/ATI graphics can do all of the above with AA as well.