Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I am currently playing with a

Pentium G3258
GIGABYTE GTX 1060 6GB WINDFORCE OC
8GB 1600 MHZ RAM

I am quite aware that my CPU is a huge bottleneck for my system but I would like to know if a xeon 1231v3 (which is basically an i7 4770 with no iGPU) would give me really good FPS especially on events with something like 20+ people? Currently with about 15 or so people I get 40-50 FPS, by myself or 5 to 10 people I get around 60 and in a world boss event like 13 fps. I’m also playing on a mixture of high and medium settings. Because events are fun but sometimes it sucks when I’m trying to move my character in a slideshow.

P.S. I’m playing in a 1080p monitor.

Thank you.

I can’t give any concrete answer on whether the CPU would give significantly better fps, but I found that using the settings to show only a small amount of other players and turning off auto show names goes a long way in helping FPS in large events.

There’s really no need to see that many players all on top of each other anyway. All it does is cause visual clutter and make it harder to see what you are actually doing, and it has no benefits. And you can manually show names on screen simply by holding a key in if you want to see where other people are, or who they are.

Hey,

last month i bought my new pc with i7, Geforce 1070, 16gb ram..

Its perfect.
Gw2 uses mainly single core on processors, which means: BUY NO AMD !
for good graphics and dynamic nvidia graphiccards are my favour.

Difference between 8 and 16 gb is not thaaaaat much

Well… IMHO using a server processor would be unadvantageous, as they have fully fixed clockspeeds allowing little to no OC whatsoever. Also sometimes the potential need for ECC and/or REG RAM tends to cause problems/more costs… if you need to replace stuff…

As the GW2 engine is still locked behind CPU capability nd not GPU capability (so if you have 3-4 usable FAST (preferably intel) cores and a halfdecent graphics you should be able to run 30-40 FPS in cities and 45-??? (high sixties to hundred I’d gamble) in the world mostly depending on the amount of ppl you are playing with (standing at jormag or other world bosses will crush your FPS and will zerg vs zerg (vs zerg?) in WvW

My i7 3930K OC-ed to ~4.1 ghz runs ~40 in mid LA to 150+ in the world bottlenecking only at huge crowds. My system supports PCI-E v3.0 @ 16x (for both my GTX 780’s) I play windowed (reducing performance a little)

At stock (3.2 Ghz) I will get approx 80% of those framerates. eg 32-35 in LA and 120+ in the world.

Raids and dungeons are in the 70s-100s for me.

In both cases my Sli-ed GTX 780’s have 35-40% load. (while running a second screen.)
res 1920*1200 (game screen) & 1920*1080 (alternate screen for video/ internet voice or whatever.

having a CPU at 5.0 Ghz would obviously be better, but I have no need to change my setup at this time.

I run a huge amount of ram, but it isn’t that important 8,12 or 16 should be roughly the same provided you do no other things beside playing gw2, when you DO use a second screen and utilities 16 would be beneficial. I have 32 Gb, but I tend to leave many applications running and i do not consider my behaviour a good guuide to normal computer usage (the fact I have 12 threads with my i7-3930K makes multitasking a bit easier.

TL;DR:
So
- OC-ing my CPU 20% gives me 20% added FPS.
- my GPUS are never at 100% load, or transfer
- Ram above 8 Gb is mostly usefull for multitasking

Tip: make sure you have an SSD to reduce loading time.
Tip 2: make sure your GPU is set to maximum performance, else it tends to downthrottle and stay at low transfer, destroying FPS
Tip 3: lowering character limit can go a long way to improving your FPS ingame. I have a capable system, and I had problems when the character limit wasn’t capped. I use high instead of highest though, which is only a minimal loss in details. I had game crashes on tequatl and TT, on triple zerg fights in t1 servers and in rare cases on daily world bosses. Which are the most extreme loads ingame. Updates have relieved some of these problems.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Well… IMHO using a server processor would be unadvantageous, as they have fully fixed clockspeeds allowing little to no OC whatsoever. Also sometimes the potential need for ECC and/or REG RAM tends to cause problems/more costs… if you need to replace stuff…

As the GW2 engine is still locked behind CPU capability nd not GPU capability (so if you have 3-4 usable FAST (preferably intel) cores and a halfdecent graphics you should be able to run 30-40 FPS in cities and 45-??? (high sixties to hundred I’d gamble) in the world mostly depending on the amount of ppl you are playing with (standing at jormag or other world bosses will crush your FPS and will zerg vs zerg (vs zerg?) in WvW

My i7 3930K OC-ed to ~4.1 ghz runs ~40 in mid LA to 150+ in the world bottlenecking only at huge crowds. My system supports PCI-E v3.0 @ 16x (for both my GTX 780’s) I play windowed (reducing performance a little)

At stock (3.2 Ghz) I will get approx 80% of those framerates. eg 32-35 in LA and 120+ in the world.

Raids and dungeons are in the 70s-100s for me.

In both cases my Sli-ed GTX 780’s have 35-40% load. (while running a second screen.)
res 1920*1200 (game screen) & 1920*1080 (alternate screen for video/ internet voice or whatever.

having a CPU at 5.0 Ghz would obviously be better, but I have no need to change my setup at this time.

I run a huge amount of ram, but it isn’t that important 8,12 or 16 should be roughly the same provided you do no other things beside playing gw2, when you DO use a second screen and utilities 16 would be beneficial. I have 32 Gb, but I tend to leave many applications running and i do not consider my behaviour a good guuide to normal computer usage (the fact I have 12 threads with my i7-3930K makes multitasking a bit easier.

TL;DR:
So
- OC-ing my CPU 20% gives me 20% added FPS.
- my GPUS are never at 100% load, or transfer
- Ram above 8 Gb is mostly usefull for multitasking

Tip: make sure you have an SSD to reduce loading time.
Tip 2: make sure your GPU is set to maximum performance, else it tends to downthrottle and stay at low transfer, destroying FPS
Tip 3: lowering character limit can go a long way to improving your FPS ingame. I have a capable system, and I had problems when the character limit wasn’t capped. I use high instead of highest though, which is only a minimal loss in details. I had game crashes on tequatl and TT, on triple zerg fights in t1 servers and in rare cases on daily world bosses. Which are the most extreme loads ingame. Updates have relieved some of these problems.

I understand your point but I never over clock my CPU’s and even with my current pentium (especially since it’s unlocked and easily overclockable). Also when seeing a LinusTechTips video, he showed benchmarks where the xeon and i7 have the same score for games and other stuff. I’m also not going to use any ECC and Buffered memory because it’s slower than Unregistered and buffered ones.

marwan.9016:

I understand your point but I never over clock my CPU’s and even with my current pentium (especially since it’s unlocked and easily overclockable). Also when seeing a LinusTechTips video, he showed benchmarks where the xeon and i7 have the same score for games and other stuff. I’m also not going to use any ECC and Buffered memory because it’s slower than Unregistered and buffered ones.

If you do not OC your CPU and you will not use ECC/REG you could place a e3 1231v3 in your PC instead of a i7 4770(K)

Advantages would be having exactly the same CPU for less money, both would run on a 1150- mainboard. With the E3-1231v3 having same cores, same amount of lanes and same capabilities.
I’d wonder why a i5 4690K at the same speed wouldn’t be enough (for Gw2) and use the same mainboard and be OC-able
Or a i5 4690 at 235 euro, which would be the non OC version at same clock speeds still the same TDP/ lanes, except no multithreading for the i5’s.

e3 1231 v3 , 4 core/8 threads 3.4Ghz, 3.8 turbo, no OC, allows eec/reg DRAM (80W)
@ ~305 euro
i7 4770, 4 core/8 threads. 3.4Ghz, 3.9 turbo, no OC (84W)
@ ~320 euro
i7 4470K , 4 core/8 threads. 3.5 Ghz 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~375 euro
i5 4690 , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo non OC (84W)
@ ~235 euro
i5 4690K , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~260 euro

All socket 1150, all DDR 3, all 16 PCI lanes. the i5’s will lose 2 MB L3 cache. then again they have 6 MB for 4 threads vs 8 Mb for 8 threads so they have 1.5 times the amount / thread.

I’d however run the 4770k as I could clock the CPU to the turbo limit without real worries (3.9 Ghz) instead of the stock value with little or no risk and gain 15% speed at all times. This said, -if- you run a decent cooling solution you should be able to maintain the 3.8 or 3.9 on the other 2 as well Ghz without real problems, while not forcing the CPU to do so.

If you want to get above 3.9 …. well… tough luck with e3 or 4770, in that case 4770K would be a LOT easier. OC-ing isn’t that dangerous. Provided you can keep your ambient temps in tome and make sure you have decent cooling for your box.

The i7s are generally faster in multitask environments due to the fact the cpu is better used due to the 2 threads/ CPUcore, But you will need to do stuff above 4 threads to notice anything, and have the ram to make sure everything stays smooth.
But in all cases if you need an i7 for work/ applications multitasking make sure you get one. The i5 is more for -PURE- gaming IMHO.

Oh and I noticed the E3 being a server CPU uses 4 watt less power so your CPU will use 4% less energy compared to the other CPU’s, but the GPU, peripherals and mainboard will make the difference very small in the end.

Any OC-ing will raise the TDP and will reduce the efficiency of the CPU. (Only valid for the K’s)

In the end I guess there is nothing bad about choosing a server CPU and the 4770 was a very good CPU. PLS Post if you had succes. Check if your BIOS if your BIOS version supports the 4770K and the e3 1231 (which should be the case I guess, unless it’s a really, really old MoBo)

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

marwan.9016:

I understand your point but I never over clock my CPU’s and even with my current pentium (especially since it’s unlocked and easily overclockable). Also when seeing a LinusTechTips video, he showed benchmarks where the xeon and i7 have the same score for games and other stuff. I’m also not going to use any ECC and Buffered memory because it’s slower than Unregistered and buffered ones.

If you do not OC your CPU and you will not use ECC/REG you could place a e3 1231v3 in your PC instead of a i7 4770(K)

Advantages would be having exactly the same CPU for less money, both would run on a 1150- mainboard. With the E3-1231v3 having same cores, same amount of lanes and same capabilities.
I’d wonder why a i5 4690K at the same speed wouldn’t be enough (for Gw2) and use the same mainboard and be OC-able
Or a i5 4690 at 235 euro, which would be the non OC version at same clock speeds still the same TDP/ lanes, except no multithreading for the i5’s.

e3 1231 v3 , 4 core/8 threads 3.4Ghz, 3.8 turbo, no OC, allows eec/reg DRAM (80W)
@ ~305 euro
i7 4770, 4 core/8 threads. 3.4Ghz, 3.9 turbo, no OC (84W)
@ ~320 euro
i7 4470K , 4 core/8 threads. 3.5 Ghz 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~375 euro
i5 4690 , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo non OC (84W)
@ ~235 euro
i5 4690K , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~260 euro

All socket 1150, all DDR 3, all 16 PCI lanes. the i5’s will lose 2 MB L3 cache. then again they have 6 MB for 4 threads vs 8 Mb for 8 threads so they have 1.5 times the amount / thread.

I’d however run the 4770k as I could clock the CPU to the turbo limit without real worries (3.9 Ghz) instead of the stock value with little or no risk and gain 15% speed at all times. This said, -if- you run a decent cooling solution you should be able to maintain the 3.8 or 3.9 on the other 2 as well Ghz without real problems, while not forcing the CPU to do so.

If you want to get above 3.9 …. well… tough luck with e3 or 4770, in that case 4770K would be a LOT easier. OC-ing isn’t that dangerous. Provided you can keep your ambient temps in tome and make sure you have decent cooling for your box.

The i7s are generally faster in multitask environments due to the fact the cpu is better used due to the 2 threads/ CPUcore, But you will need to do stuff above 4 threads to notice anything, and have the ram to make sure everything stays smooth.
But in all cases if you need an i7 for work/ applications multitasking make sure you get one. The i5 is more for -PURE- gaming IMHO.

Oh and I noticed the E3 being a server CPU uses 4 watt less power so your CPU will use 4% less energy compared to the other CPU’s, but the GPU, peripherals and mainboard will make the difference very small in the end.

Any OC-ing will raise the TDP and will reduce the efficiency of the CPU. (Only valid for the K’s)

In the end I guess there is nothing bad about choosing a server CPU and the 4770 was a very good CPU. PLS Post if you had succes. Check if your BIOS if your BIOS version supports the 4770K and the e3 1231 (which should be the case I guess, unless it’s a really, really old MoBo)

The reason I went with the xeon and not an i5 or i7 is because 4 cores/8 threads will become a standard for gaming and such while 4 core/4 threads are still really good but they are starting to lack behind. Especially with the AMD RayZen cpu’s around the corner with the least expensive one being a 4 cores/ 8 SMT. Also the prices are different from where I live. The i5 4690k is 319.75 (for the i5- 4690 the price is 295.25 so about 30$ less than the xeon) vs the xeon e3 1231v3 being 334.99$ more for 8 threads. Meanwhile, the i7 4770 is (non-K) is 432.41$ and for the lowest i7 I can see is the i7 4790 for 400$. I know it’s safe to overclock and all, but I’ve just never done it and don’t like the idea to to increases the electricity bill and shorten the lifespan of my components and also I’m mostly not gonna take advantage of the extra speed so I’d have to turn off in BIOS then putting it back in, etc. Also as you mentioned it does indeed use 4W less, but that’s because it has no iGPU in it. And yes I have checked the mobo, it does support the xeon I’m about to buy. So for my case, I believe, the best balance between performance and cost would be to go with the xeon.

But again, you’re right about OC, but it’s simply not gonna happen lol. Even my GPU comes with a software that allows me to just push a button on the screen to overclock it but I’m not doing it. It’s not a fear or anything, it’s just that it’s not an option to me. I don’t want to overclock anything. I prefer to keep everything stock.

P.S. if you wanna check out yourself (if you’re using pcpartpicker) I am Canadian and using CAD currency.

Thanks for the info though.

Gw2 is highly dependable on single core performance since it lacks scalability.

You can check https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html for benchmark about single thread performance.

Also, on the note of multi core supports, many games these days still lack proper scalability support so having numerous cores don’t really matters much for gaming. It will still takes a couple of years until the different game studios finally move towards to better multi cores support to unlock more performance potential.