Guild Wars 2

Hello guys, i’m wondering which is the most important piece in our pc to run GuildWars 2 in HIGH (not ULTRA) setting with a decent FPS rate.

I’m wondering this because i should have more than enough ram, cpu, and video card potential to run this game at a good quality but sadly for some reason it’s not working well and i’d like to know what should i change first, which is the worst component of that ones listed below.. i’m looking to change just one of them at the moment, so i need your opinion to know which is the most important


OS: Windows 8.1 Pro Professional 64bit
Video Card: AMD Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Core 800MHz GDDR5 5000MHz (2GB)
RAM: DDR 3 Corsair Dominator 1600MHz (4×2GB) (8GB total)
Hard Disk: Internal HD 7200rpm 64b SATA3
CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1090T 3200GHz AM3

I’d like to know where could be the problem, in my honest opinion this should be a good
(not new nor the best but “good”) pc for Gw2..

I’m currently running MEDIUM/HIGH settings at 15-35 fps (max) when in town
or in combat, 8fps when in wvw zergs, and 45fps when at rest in peaceful zone (55fps when looking at the sky).

thanks

pdavis.8031:

Windows 8. Thats your main problem right there. Too bad GW2 doesn’t run natively on linux. I have gotten it to run, but theres an interesting “fog of war” type graphical effect that makes it look wierd.

Windows 8 is fine.

OP, the CPU is what is causing you issues. Get an i5-4670k, Hyper 212 evo, and a new mobo and you’ll be good to go. Your GPU/HDD are fine.

I’d look into your CPU, probably disable reflections and reduce the shadows in the game options.

I’d say that’s about right for that setup, believe it or not. It also really depends on your Motherboard too. Is the video card in a 16x pci-e slot? What chipset is the motherboard? Are all your drivers up to date? Is your system (inside the case) clean and running cool. One of the worst things that will cause your machine to run slow is the temps are too high.

munkiman.3068:

I’d say that’s about right for that setup, believe it or not. It also really depends on your Motherboard too. Is the video card in a 16x pci-e slot? What chipset is the motherboard? Are all your drivers up to date? Is your system (inside the case) clean and running cool. One of the worst things that will cause your machine to run slow is the temps are too high.

I can’t answer all your question, but i can tell you that bf4 and many other games run perfectly, i think here it’s a problem of memory (?) because fps goes down when at event and zergs (not even that big…)
atm the game works, but i’d like to improve the performance as far as i have the possibility to i just don’t know what to change to really upgrade it..

Someone tald me that even kitten HardDisk makes the difference, especially in loading screens time and other little things..

Windows 8. Thats your main problem right there. Too bad GW2 doesn’t run natively on linux. I have gotten it to run, but theres an interesting “fog of war” type graphical effect that makes it look wierd.

Just go for the easiest part. Get a GTX 780, its about triple the raw performance of the HD6950. Just keep in mind to look for one with custom cooler such as the Asus DirectCU and Gigabyte Windforce solutions etc… They are much, much better than stock.

Then of course, the CPU is absolute crap. AMD hasnt done anything good for gaming in years now. Cheap and efficient yes, but never powerful. You want at least an unlocked i5 with a big fat cooling tower slapped on it (dont go for fancy “water cooling” package such as Corsair, its crap. A good with Noctua 120mm fans – whisper quiet and good OC capabilities).

And lastly, get an SSD. You dont have a gaming computer today without an SSD. Or two. Or three for that matter if you want to get fancy.

That’ll get you running GW2 at minimum acceptable quality at least.

Vespero.6180:

I can’t answer all your question, but i can tell you that bf4 and many other games run perfectly, i think here it’s a problem of memory (?) because fps goes down when at event and zergs (not even that big…)
atm the game works, but i’d like to improve the performance as far as i have the possibility to i just don’t know what to change to really upgrade it..

Someone tald me that even kitten HardDisk makes the difference, especially in loading screens time and other little things..

Nevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernever
nevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernevernever use other games as a comparison. For starters, it’s a REALLY bad idea because each game is coded differently to take advantage of different resources in different amounts of efficiency.

GW2 requires extremely high CPU performance, particularly on the single core level (which Intel beats AMD on) even if it’s a multi-core cpu. Your biggest bottleneck will always be the CPU, and this can be seen in zergs or fights with high particle effects.

ooookay, thanks all for the answer and the attecntion, it’s not the first time i ask this and i always get replied that it’s all about my kitten AMD cpu.. so i think i’ts time for it to be replaced with an intel…
just a last question – which CPU could be good with this game? i don’t want to spend 674028365082$$$ on it XD

Get an i5-4670k, or at least some form of i5. If you go for a lower end one, you can probably get it+the mobo for like $220-230 US.

Good luck to op, I’m still trying to figure out why mine crashes randomly.

I have an i7-4770k and it runs perfectly fine. That’s why I told you it was probably your CPU. I have a GTX 780 too, and I thought that everything would run perfectly fine on high. However I got quite a lot of stutter/lag. That’s when I found out that reflections pretty much kill your FPS. Reduce or outright disable them and that should help a lot. Also, keep in mind shadows demand a lot of computation, which at the moment, seem to be performed by the CPU and not the GPU.

Vespero.6180:

ooookay, thanks all for the answer and the attecntion, it’s not the first time i ask this and i always get replied that it’s all about my kitten AMD cpu.. so i think i’ts time for it to be replaced with an intel…
just a last question – which CPU could be good with this game? i don’t want to spend 674028365082$$$ on it XD

Don’t forget that you need an intel supported motherboard as well. You might as well just build/buy a new computer if you are planning on switching CPUs. Which is essentially what you are doing.

Don’t forget that you need an intel supported motherboard as well. You might as well just build/buy a new computer if you are planning on switching CPUs. Which is essentially what you are doing.

He only needs a new mobo+CPU and maybe a new heatsink, not a whole new computer.

pdavis.8031:

Vespero.6180:

ooookay, thanks all for the answer and the attecntion, it’s not the first time i ask this and i always get replied that it’s all about my kitten AMD cpu.. so i think i’ts time for it to be replaced with an intel…
just a last question – which CPU could be good with this game? i don’t want to spend 674028365082$$$ on it XD

Don’t forget that you need an intel supported motherboard as well. You might as well just build/buy a new computer if you are planning on switching CPUs. Which is essentially what you are doing.

At the moment i can’t change the entire computer, and i think i will not play mmos till the end of my days… i just want to close my gaming era with gw2, and i want to be able to play well with it. (that’s why i don’t want to change everything)

I just have 200€ to spend on this piece and that will be the last purchase Hope it will work with my Crosshair IV formula Motherboard.. that seems to work with AMD only… or am i failing in reading the details?

As other people have stated here, GW2 requires a beast CPU.

Personally I have:
i5-3570k, 3.40GHz
GTX 660, 2gb (Slightly better than yours)
8gb 1666mhz DDR3

It was really good for the price range a while back when I bought it, GW2 runs really smooth on highest settings between 40-60 fps most of the time, only place I’m having trouble is in WvW if 2-3 huge zergs are in an area, but could possibly reach around 20 fps which is quite acceptable under these rare situations, if I wasn’t so lazy and bought some better cooling and overclocked the cpu.

I was about to buy one of the cheap AMD’s at first, but after seeing all reviews, tests and comparisons to intel. Intel is the real deal when it comes to gaming, while AMD seems to aim more for being a price efficient office/work cpu, but it can do games fairly well too.

Buy an i5-4670k or i5-4770k and a new mobo, this is worth every penny and will perform good in games for years, especially if you overclock.

Your setup is very similar to mine. Blame anet for the appalling lack of optimisation for amd cpus. The quoted system requirements are bullkitten.

An ssd drive will help with loading times for everything that is bottlenecked by hard disk drive access times. Gw2 load times will be much faster but fps will still suck. A gpu upgrade will not be of much help.

Your cpu/mb budget will not get you much from intel they are more expensive than amd.

Play another mmo created by a company that provides better support for it’s products. Everquest next and archeage arriving later this year.

Vespero.6180:

Hope it will work with my Crosshair IV formula Motherboard.. that seems to work with AMD only… or am i failing in reading the details?

Your mobo will only work with AMD CPUs, you’ll need a new one. I’d make specific recommendations, but I’m not really sure how much things cost in euros/your country (I’m from the US).

G3220 + R7 260x + 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (2×4GB) and on high settings that system gets 80-90fps on average. In zergs the FPS will float between 30-45fps, Lows being 15-21.

The only settings that arent high;

FXAA – disabled
Reflections – Sky or off (I run off now, the difference really doesnt bother me anymore)
Sampling – native
Shadows – Low (for Blob, not a huge fan of character shadows)
Post Processing Effects – Low
Character Limit – Medium or Low (this is a CPU killer)
Disable High res textures

There are 2 reasons I have a G3220, 1. I got it for $39bucks on amazon, 2. its a place holder till I can put my 4670K in that system (waiting for my 4790K). But, I am seriously impressed with the performance of that budget CPU, its near/same as my i3-2120.

So if you ONLY have 200 to spend, I would suggest getting a z97 Motherboard and a G3220 (or a i3/i5 if you have the funds), to upgrade that aging PhenomII.

Why z97? You’ll have 2.5 generations of CPUs to choose from (when Broadwell releases). So that will set you up for a while with out breaking the bank.

the HD6950 sits between the HD7790 and HD7870. So, while it lacks in current day features and such, its not going to hold you back all that much. A logical upgrade would be a GTX760 or R7 280/280×.

So I would work on upgrading your CPU/MB then worry about graphics.