WoW Forever system requirements: minimum and recommended specs on PC and Mac

What are the WoW Forever system requirements on Windows?

Blizzard Support lists the WoW Forever minimum on Windows as Windows 10 64-bit, a 4-core 3.0 GHz processor, a DirectX 12 graphics card with 4 GB, 8 GB of RAM and an SSD with 128 GB free. The recommended specs are Windows 11, 8 performance cores with a 5.2 GHz boost, a DirectX 12 card with 8 GB and 16 GB of RAM. Blizzard warns the requirements "may change over time".

Blizzard's New Player's Starter Guide of October 28, 2026 sends you to this same page before you install: "You can play on Windows or Mac with a keyboard and mouse." For the rest of the launch steps, see our launch checklist and our launch day guide.

What are the WoW Forever requirements on Mac?

On Mac, Blizzard Support asks WoW Forever players for macOS 12 and an Apple M2 or a 9th generation Intel Core (Coffee Lake), a Metal graphics chip with 4 GB, 8 GB of RAM and an SSD with 128 GB free. The recommended specs are macOS 15, an Apple M4 and 16 GB of RAM. Blizzard's article of October 29, 2026 installs the game through the Battle.net app for Windows or Mac.

One Mac note from the beta: a Blizzard developer wrote on October 8, 2026 that MSAA had been disabled in that build because of its bugs, not specific to Mac, adding: "I'm not sure if MSAA will get fixed before Forever ships or not". Blizzard has not said since whether it came back.

Is your graphics card compatible with WoW Forever?

WoW Forever needs a graphics card built on one of three microarchitectures or newer: AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (2012), NVIDIA Maxwell (2014) or Intel Skylake (2015), Blizzard said on September 17, 2026. The new visual look relies on "RGBA16F UAV support in compute shaders". A GeForce GTX 760 is not supported. A GTX 750 Ti or GTX 9xx is, but Blizzard says such cards stay "well below the minimum requirements".

• Find your card on Windows, first way: open Settings, select System, then Display, and choose Advanced display (Blizzard, September 17, 2026).
• Second way: open Device Manager and expand Display adapters.
• The year is not enough: Blizzard's unsupported list holds cards from 2014 and 2015. Check the examples or the architecture, then compare with the minimum in Blizzard Support's table.

How much disk space does WoW Forever need?

WoW Forever asks for 128 GB available on an SSD, in the minimum and the recommended specs, on Windows and on Mac, Blizzard Support says. Blizzard has not published the size of the final install: a beta known issue of October 1, 2026 said the total installation was "larger than intended" and that work was under way to reduce it, with no figure. A hard disk drive is not in Blizzard's lists.

We give no estimate of the download. Keep the full 128 GB free on an SSD until Blizzard or the Battle.net app says otherwise; the app's progress bar tells you when the game is ready, Blizzard wrote on October 29, 2026.

How do you prepare your PC before installing WoW Forever?

Blizzard's article of October 29, 2026 gives one instruction for WoW Forever: "Before installing, update your operating system and graphics drivers, then review the official system requirements." You then install from the Battle.net desktop app. Blizzard Support's article on error BLZ51901016, about being stuck at the realm list, names the same checks: the requirements, then your drivers and operating system.

1. Update your operating system and your graphics drivers.
2. Download the Battle.net desktop app for Windows or Mac and log in.
3. Select WoW: Forever in the app's menu, then in the Game Version menu. With several World of Warcraft accounts, a second menu asks which active account to play on.
4. Click Install, then Play when the installation is complete.

Playing needs a subscription or game time (our price guide). Support's other steps for BLZ51901016 are to reset your user interface and your network devices and to close other applications; the other error codes are in our server status guide.

Do Classic, Enhanced, HD or SD change performance in WoW Forever?

Blizzard has published no performance figure for the WoW Forever presets or for HD and SD models as of November 1, 2026. Its article of October 29 says the HD or SD choice "affects only appearance", not abilities or progression. The Classic preset starts with standard definition models and Enhanced with high definition ones. We don't claim that either one runs faster, because no source says so.

Both settings change later: the preset in the Options menu, under System, then Preset, and HD or SD in the Options menu or at a Barbershop. Our Classic or Enhanced guide lists the six starting settings, and our interface guide the tools built into the client.

Can you play WoW Forever with a controller?

Yes. Blizzard's notes of November 2, 2026, as edited, read on November 4, say WoW Forever's "Gamepad Support has entered a functional Beta state": movement, spells, interactions and menus all work with a controller, set up in Edit Mode and the Options. The starter guide of October 28 already called it "available in a beta state", and the requirements, read on November 1, still say "Keyboard and mouse required".

• November 2: a functional Beta state (Blizzard's wording as read on November 4); a Focus target (LB + RB + Face Down), friendly corpses and critters you can target, leaving a flight path early (you dismount at the next flight point), the Pet Move command, skipping cinematics, the ruleset selection screens, a reworked gamepad bag view with bag space and ammo counts, and fewer conflicts with addons (Blizzard's notes).
• September 24: class flyouts on the action bar, a compact action bar and fixed party targeting (beta notes).
• October 1: pet stable and raid frame managers updated; a known issue resets your Edit Mode layout when you switch to or from the Gamepad UI (beta notes).
• October 8: the gamepad action bar joins Edit Mode, and layouts are saved per interface type (beta notes).
• October 15: a swing timer on the center reticle, and Trade, Guild, Chat Channels and Transmog windows usable with a gamepad (beta notes).

Does WoW Forever run on Linux, Steam Deck or GeForce Now?

Blizzard has published nothing on it as of November 1, 2026. Its requirements cover Windows and Mac only, and its starter guide of October 28 says "You can play on Windows or Mac". We found no Blizzard statement on Linux, Steam Deck or GeForce Now for WoW Forever, so we can't say that any of them works, or that any is blocked.

On consoles, Blizzard has no version to announce, developers said at PAX Aus according to JudgeHype (October 13, 2026). This page will add an answer if Blizzard publishes one.