Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! So I didn’t really see a section this would fit in, so I just placed it here. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone knows a good desktop or something that would be able to run guild wars 2 (especially WvW large group fights) and decent fps so there isn’t lag. Right now my current laptop is shot, so it overheats after playing for maybe 10 mins..

I’m willing to spend about 600 dollars to build one also, but I don’t know what parts to get entirely since I know some parts have to match up…

$600? If that’s all the cash you have to throw around you’re pretty much sunk. Assuming your laptop was your only available computer.

I’m operating under the expectation that you’re looking to get a desktop since that is something you would actually get parts for. I am also assuming you need a monitor since you were using a laptop. Even getting a fairly crap monitor it’s going to drop you 100-150, that will not leave you with enough to get anything great, unless you go for a refurb. Refurbs can be fine, they can also be questionable with quirky warrantees. If you do find a good refurb just put whatever you have left into a video card.

Check a computer building site like ibuypower, take note of the components used to put together a desktop that can handle modern games, then do some research as to what parts work together within your budget (and what they all do!)

I dont know anything off the top of my head as far as pre-built within that budget that’s good for WVW.

Oh, nah. I meant around 600 for the parts of the desktop aside from things like the monitor and operating system.. I’ve heard it’s possible to make decent ones around that price but maybe not for GW2? This game is pretty intensive on graphics.. I’m dying not being able to play it lol :/

To run GW2, I wouldn’t go less than $1000 in parts. I’ve had experience with sub-$1k desktops and GW2 specifically. I just wouldn’t want you to be disappointed…

At least 1k O_O Oh lawd. I have that much… But since I’m in college without a job thats practically all of my money.. Hmm. To game or not..

Justin.5231:

Oh, nah. I meant around 600 for the parts of the desktop aside from things like the monitor and operating system.. I’ve heard it’s possible to make decent ones around that price but maybe not for GW2? This game is pretty intensive on graphics.. I’m dying not being able to play it lol :/

If you’ve already got the monitor and OS, you should be able to build something that can run GW2 decently on your $600. This game isn’t really that demanding.

For $1k, you’ll be able to run everything on max.

Do a little research into how to build a computer, there’s a ton of resources out there.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/33-computer-buying-building/ was also very helpful to me when I built mine. You can post up builds there and get feedback from people who know both computers and GW2. There’s a user goes by Quaker who is especially helpful.

Also, pcpartpicker.com is hugely useful, as it’ll check parts for compatibility as well as dynamically update pricing on them from sites around the web.

Additionally, an SSD is essential…

“Essential”? I have to disagree, Carabidus. Yes, decreasing load times is great, but I wouldn’t go so far as “essential”, especially on a budget.

While an ssd is nice, it is not required for 40+fps in game. If the game actually utilized the gpu more, it would run 40fps+ in any game situation on a medium + $$ computer build with a quick, solid internet connection.

600 is cutting it close, 800 is more reasonable for all new parts
if you want 40+ in WvW:

get the latest i5 or i7 haswell k series cpu with a z97 mobo
then get a decent air/aio water cooler for 70-100 (important)
and overclock as much as possible.

get a gpu based on the resolution of your monitor
GW2 has easy to run graphics so gpu isnt as important
mainly depends on your resolution

1080p: $150 – 200 range
1440p: $250-$330

Dont cheap out on psu. 500W bronze+ cert from a good company
buy ram (2 dimms for dual channel) + hard drive(7200 rpm)
pricing will change so use pcpartpicker

GW2 is processor-heavy. As long as you have an intel i5 or i7 processor from 2001 (sandy bridge) onwards and an okay graphics card, it should run fine.

You don’t need to overclock unless you want to play with everything (character model limit/quality etc) maxed

You might think this is affordable for $600 but if you buy a cheap PSU you may regret it

Agreed. An i5 is fine, and no need to overclock (or go to extraordinary cooling measures).

i5’s are fine but a stock sandy bridge i5 will not get sustained 40 fps in large WvW zerg fights which is what op is asking about. Especially with high/highest character model counts and ultra viewing distances (which is important for discerning enemy positions,numbers,reinforcements,tactics)

Sandy bridge is very marginal and OC is necessary even with the newest Haswells for large scale WvW. Which necessitates the need for a decent cooler, as the stock one will throttle at even a moderate voltage bump.

dodgycookies.4562:

i5’s are fine but a stock sandy bridge i5 will not get sustained 40 fps in large WvW zerg fights which is what op is asking about. Especially with high/highest character model counts and ultra viewing distances (which is important for discerning enemy positions,numbers,reinforcements,tactics)

Sandy bridge is very marginal and OC is necessary even with the newest Haswells for large scale WvW. Which necessitates the need for a decent cooler, as the stock one will throttle at even a moderate voltage bump.

Nobody needs character model quality on highest though. With no HQ model, no supersample and shadows turned down, the game still looks great and runs smooth. You are overstating the requirements a bit.

not model quality, model limit. You want that on highest in WvW along with viewing distance. Which drives up cpu requirements a lot.

When you have model limit set on highest, and viewing distance on ultra, the models load quite a bit before the name plates show up. So when you are engaging enemy guild A and then enemy guild B’s group shows up, you have more time to respond and be in a better position. If you have the model limit too low you may get blind sided or you may misjudge the size of the additional enemy force before the nameplates load. Even if you do notice a few seconds later with the name plates, it may be too late and you are stuck completely out of position. Those few seconds of heads up can be critical.

In T1 we have been playing the same people for so long that we know each other by character model, so setting character quality to highest allows us to know who the incoming force is, who is driving, and sometimes snipe the driver as well.

dodgycookies.4562:

not model quality, model limit. You want that on highest in WvW along with viewing distance. Which drives up cpu requirements a lot.

When you have model limit set on highest, and viewing distance on ultra, the models load quite a bit before the name plates show up. So when you are engaging enemy guild A and then enemy guild B’s group shows up, you have more time to respond and be in a better position. If you have the model limit too low you may get blind sided or you may misjudge the size of the additional enemy force before the nameplates load. Even if you do notice a few seconds later with the name plates, it may be too late and you are stuck completely out of position. Those few seconds of heads up can be critical.

In T1 we have been playing the same people for so long that we know each other by character model, so setting character quality to highest allows us to know who the incoming force is, who is driving, and sometimes snipe the driver as well.

And stock i5 is perfectly fine for running on highest model limit unless you’re in something completely ridiculous like 60v60v60 in the middle of stonemist castle. It’s way, way, way above playing on a laptop. Number of high quality models maxed is not needed. If you can recognise opponents by their models then fine, but it’s hardly a key part of playing WvW. You still have guild tags and ranks anyway.

As for view distance, there’s no explicit option for that. There’s LOD distance, but that affects the shift in texture quality, and is one of the options that hits the graphics card more than the cpu. You can max all that anyway, if you have a half-decent system.

I play WvW on a computer that cost ~$1000 to build, and I have 20-30 fps in WvW at max settings, and hardly ever notice the framerate. at minimal settings, I may be able to achieve 40fps. However, I would never want to run the game at minimal settings when I have no problems with 25fps, and I can seek out people by character model.

@ Justin

If your computer is shutting down after 10 minutes it just means your fan isn’t working properly due to being clogged or it’s just worn out. The computer shutting down is a safety feature that most modern OS have to prevent core overheating. If the computer won’t boot up at all then you’ve fried the core(s).
You can try cleaning it with a can of air (most fans can be accessed by removing the keyboard which just lifts off, but be careful about the keyboard connection strip as it can be very difficult to reinsert if disconnected).
The other option is to simply replace the cpu fan (same fan) which is a pretty cheap fix.
tigerdirect.com has pretty much everything you need parts wise and if you decide to build your own desktop, you can buy a barebones kit (cpu, ram, harddrive, power supply for pretty cheap). A 1 GB-2GB video card won’t set you back much.

Gibson.4036:

“Essential”? I have to disagree, Carabidus. Yes, decreasing load times is great, but I wouldn’t go so far as “essential”, especially on a budget.

SSDs are not expensive, brother…

Eulolia.2467:

dodgycookies.4562:

not model quality, model limit. You want that on highest in WvW along with viewing distance. Which drives up cpu requirements a lot.

When you have model limit set on highest, and viewing distance on ultra, the models load quite a bit before the name plates show up. So when you are engaging enemy guild A and then enemy guild B’s group shows up, you have more time to respond and be in a better position. If you have the model limit too low you may get blind sided or you may misjudge the size of the additional enemy force before the nameplates load. Even if you do notice a few seconds later with the name plates, it may be too late and you are stuck completely out of position. Those few seconds of heads up can be critical.

In T1 we have been playing the same people for so long that we know each other by character model, so setting character quality to highest allows us to know who the incoming force is, who is driving, and sometimes snipe the driver as well.

And stock i5 is perfectly fine for running on highest model limit unless you’re in something completely ridiculous like 60v60v60 in the middle of stonemist castle. It’s way, way, way above playing on a laptop. Number of high quality models maxed is not needed. If you can recognise opponents by their models then fine, but it’s hardly a key part of playing WvW. You still have guild tags and ranks anyway.

As for view distance, there’s no explicit option for that. There’s LOD distance, but that affects the shift in texture quality, and is one of the options that hits the graphics card more than the cpu. You can max all that anyway, if you have a half-decent system.

Yes I mean LOD setting to ultra is important.

60 (20+20) vs 60 (30+30) vs 60(40+20) is pretty common in T1 (as OPis from JQ) especially garri fights, though most engagements are open field 40 v 40 in various groups with a third 40 joining in later (drivers chase ojs). A stock clock 2500k would find it very hard to sustain a playable 30-40 fps min. Maybe a stock 4690k haswell, though i doubt it without a mild OC to at least 4 ghz.

You sometimes needs max quality because half the people you want to pick out play char guards and are often similar ranks. its harder to find the silver legend in the group of silver footmen/invaders, than it is to find the char with the right blue hair red t3 armor and juggernaut/bifrost.

Thanks for all the input everyone, really! It has been helpful so far… I may try to just clean my laptop fan then for now until I can really get a nice desktop. And I don’t have to play on max settings at all. I NEVER have (bc of my crap laptop), so I’m already used to the low settings My laptop just lagged terribly and then the overheating problem started after I binge played WoW and GW2 last summer.
It’s weird though, because my friend has an identical laptop and it runs great on his O_O

I run an old " Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz"
with a “NVIDIA GeForce GT 430” and 8192MB RAM on board. With the right settings I almost ever have more then 25 fps. Ok it’s not max but I can play the game easy. The only time I lag is when I do pve worldbosses like fire elemental or maw.
BTW I have an internet highspeed conecction with 200 Mbit/s download and 20 Mbit upload.

http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/Ccbtt6/entry-level-gaming-build

Within budget, uses 280x for gpu, i3 cpu.

http://newbcomputerbuild.com/newb-computer-build-home/march-2015-gaming-pc-builds-month/

This site offer suggestions of a build for $600 (monitor not included). Hope this help.

I think the better question is what kind of computer can you get for $600, than what do I need for 40fps.

That said IF you take full advantage of deals to be had, you CAN get a really nice setup for $600.

If you live anywhere close to a Microcenter, they offer combo cpu/mobo deals that are very hard to beat (i5 4690k+z97 for <$250). Also use deal sites to find the best prices on the rest of your components. Quality 500w+ brand name psu’s can easily be had for <$50, 1600mhz 8gb dual channel ram <$60, 1tb hdd <$50, case <$50, and ofc a gpu (r9 280 for $160). That comes to $620, which can easily be brought under $600 depending on psu, case, hdd, and ram choices. Ofc I’d go for a cpu cooler so $20-30 (212 or the like), but room can be made for that as well.

So I’d say if you’re willing to put in a little effort, YES $600 can get you a pretty nice rig.