Guild Wars 2

Hey, I have been playing this game for a year with a pretty old computer. WvW is basically a slideshow for me during large fights so I feel it is finally time to upgrade. I want to be able to fight those huge world bosses and fight in giant WvW battles with a smooth framerate on the highest settings.

Is is possible to buy a gaming PC to handle these moments easily with a budget of $1000?
(I have done alot of researching but building a PC is very difficult for me to do)
I also want this new PC to be upgradable (Dunno if all desktops can do that).

Do any of you have a PC that cost $1000 or less that runs this game easily on the highest setting during the most intense moments? I would really like to buy one ASAP.

Before you settle on everything, adjust your expectations. Even a PC that costs twice that budget is going to struggle in massive WvW/Boss battles because GW2 won’t take full advantage of all your CPU cores. For that price, you will be able to run the game on max settings with a smooth FPS most of the time, but in the situations you cite, there is almost no hope without alot of overclocking top end equipment. And even then…

dace.8019:

Before you settle on everything, adjust your expectations. Even a PC that costs twice that budget is going to struggle in massive WvW/Boss battles because GW2 won’t take full advantage of all your CPU cores. For that price, you will be able to run the game on max settings with a smooth FPS most of the time, but in the situations you cite, there is almost no hope without alot of overclocking top end equipment. And even then…

Sounds like it is not even worth the effort then. I was hoping I would get lucky and be able to find something easily but after hearing this, maybe I am just not meant to get a gaming computer until I am able to drop a few thousands dollars

I built my PC myself, which cost about 750€ (ca. $1026). I can play this game on highest setting nearly all of the time. When it comes to content with many people around, I usually tone down the Character Model Limit slightly. Your overall graphics stay the same, but less characters get displayed. This not only keeps the framerate at a reasonable level, but also prevents skilllag. Many people with better computers do the same.
So whether it is worth the effort totally depends on your situtation, i. e. if you are not content with the power of your computer. My old one did not meet the specifications at all, so this was worth the effort.

Yeah I just wanted to get a gaming pc that could run the latest games on high settings well with my budget of $1000 or maybe even $1100. This stuff is just so confusing to me so I am trying to find the easiest way to get the best bang for my buck. I guess the having so many players in WvW and things will normally hurt most computers anyways. I didn’t know that so I just assumed a good computer would be able to handle that with no problem.

For $1,000, almost. I’m running a Core i5-4570 with a Nividia GTX 760 (total system cost about $1,200) and it handles massive zergs on max settings with about 20-30 FPS. It’s not choppy but I wouldn’t call it smooth either. So no, that price range will do max settings but you’re not going to have a smooth framerate in large zergs, particularly not WvW. However, you should be able to run at almost max without much trouble.

Remember also that this game is processor heavy and very poorly optimized. Until they fix both of those problems, even high-end comps are going to slog a bit.

It’s not the computer. A gaming computer at 1000$ is a well able computer. But when you have 100’s of players in one place, it quickly becomes a server issue not pc.
Even an extremely top spec comp will struggle, not because the computer itself is struggling, but because the servers are. (broadband is only so fast,)

Or a bad engine that was rushed out the gate, remember anet designed wvwvw. should of built an engine more capable or reduced the max numbers, teso is doing the same but they claim there engine/characters were made to have hundreds on screen I’ll wait for reviews to see if true though after this hype won’t sell me a game again

Okay, so would my budget still allow me a good enough computer to where in giant zergs it would still be playable? Like 20-30 fps?

On Max settings.

Gizmo.9178:

Okay, so would my budget still allow me a good enough computer to where in giant zergs it would still be playable? Like 20-30 fps?

On Max settings.

Unless there are lots of AoE fields on the ground and everyone is spamming skills like crazy, it should work out. As far as I’m concerned Anet is also taking steps to make the game run more smoothly and put less stress on the servers. The 30 minute cooldown on summoning items was a first step in this direction.

not in zergs, ..playable possibly… but as the posts have said, even top range computers are lagging on the zergs. (high settings or low) (anywhere with + 100 players)

Hmm, okay I see. So huge zergs are going to be an issue regardless but will still be playable at least.

But it would still be able to handle any of todays games though right? I would like to begin to start playing some of the new games coming out this year.

Someone recommended these parts to me:

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage:
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case:
NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply:
XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:
LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer
OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Gizmo.9178:

Hmm, okay I see. So huge zergs are going to be an issue regardless but will still be playable at least.

But it would still be able to handle any of todays games though right? I would like to begin to start playing some of the new games coming out this year.

Someone recommended these parts to me:

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage:
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case:
NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply:
XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:
LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer
OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Feck the I5 and go for an I7 (if you have to save a little while longer to do so, do. ..the I5 are a little disappointing in the gaming market despite being advertised as suitable.)

The rest is grand, a very similar build to my own.
Yes it’ll play other games no bother, and graphics are good. Make sure to choose your heat sink and fans well if you want to play on high settings.

If you want more info, I suggest asking about this spec on a computer orientated forum instead.

btw, if there’s a cheaper RAM brand (same gigs) go for it, the faster ram speed is negligible in comparison to the rest of the comp.

Taygus.4571:

Gizmo.9178:

Hmm, okay I see. So huge zergs are going to be an issue regardless but will still be playable at least.

But it would still be able to handle any of todays games though right? I would like to begin to start playing some of the new games coming out this year.

Someone recommended these parts to me:

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage:
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case:
NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply:
XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:
LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer
OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Feck the I5 and go for an I7 (if you have to save a little while longer to do so, do. ..the I5 are a little disappointing in the gaming market despite being advertised as suitable.)

The rest is grand, a very similar build to my own.
Yes it’ll play other games no bother, and graphics are good. Make sure to choose your heat sink and fans well if you want to play on high settings.

If you want more info, I suggest asking about this spec on a computer orientated forum instead.

btw, if there’s a cheaper RAM brand (same gigs) go for it, the faster ram speed is negligible in comparison to the rest of the comp.

I5 same performance than i7 most cases ht is useless for most apps unless he’s into editing.

Hmm I will look into that more. I actually got this information from somebody after I asked in a tech website. They even linked me to this neat little chart that shows how the graphics card on this list works on BF3 on different settings. I watched a youtube video also where they say it will run well on BF4 also. (dunno if i am allowed to link things)

I am guess that if it can run BF3 and soon, BF4 good then it MUST work well for GW2 on the highest settings.

Anyways, my last question is….. Can I upgrade this computer in the future? So if I need more “power” for games in the coming years.

Gizmo.9178:

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage:
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case:
NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply:
XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:
LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer
OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

I would substitute the processor for an Intel Core i5-4670K or some other Haswell processor. These use another socket (LGA 1150) so you need a different motherboard as well. The reason for this is, that the next generation of Intel processors is going to use this socket as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1150). So if you want to switch to a newer processor at some time in the future, you don’t have to ditch your motherboard, too. What comes after this, though, who knows?
Also think about buying an extra CPU cooler as well. The one that comes with the processor can sound like a landing helicopter from time to time.

New grx cards in 2 years Intels next chips will probably be a different socket aswell. The new grx cards should still be PCI e though. Don’t assume if bf3 works gw2 will, can max bf3 in 64 players can’t Zerg or boss battle in gw2

Thx for the help. Hopefully this setup will be good for a while.

I mean I can always upgrade it I think… I hope.