Guild Wars 2

So I am trying to build a PC that will play GW2 well. I don’t need ultra-high settings or anything, but I’d like to try to keep it around 60fps at 1080, on mid-high settings if possible.

I’m thinking about the r9 380 for the GPU, and either the i5-6400 or the i5-6500. Anyone familiar enough with these processors to know how well they will handle Guild Wars 2? Is the 6500 worth the extra $50 or so? I don’t see a huge increase when looking at benchmarks but I’m pretty new to this. I haven’t seen anyone talk about playing GW2 with either of these so that has me kind of nervous.

I built new PC about 6 months ago using i5-6400 and GTX 750 Ti. Running GW2 fullscreen at 1920×1080 with some graphics options just below max settings (reflections, character model limit, shadows). It works really well and I had no lags even in large WvW battles. I very much doubt you see any improvements by using i5-6500 or even i7 and honestly think r9 380 is overkill too for GW2.

Oh wow, really? That’s good to hear! I’ll probably just go with the 6400 then! I’m still considering the r9 just because I also would like to play some Dark Souls, and I’m hoping it’ll be able to run the new one when it comes out, but it might not.

Both CPUs are DDR4 and DDR4 is pretty "meh"optimized at this point of time, the only “real” advantage is it cost 50% more( MoBos and CPUs as well) than DDR3. Unless you already have DDR4 MoBo i wouldn’t suggest you to go for neither of them. Im currently running at max(excluding shadows – they are mid) at 60 fps(raids and SM fights – 55, shadows get cut to low to bring it back to 60) at 2560×1080(33% more pixels(laggy) that 1920×1080) with just i5 4460 and gtx 960 2GB( 960 performance is quite the same as 380, and gw2 is CPU bound, so ignore it). Thats just a suggestion – its up to you after all

Where are you seeing kitten difference between an i5-6400 and an i5-6500? I’m seeing like $15. The only difference between the two CPUs is the clockspeed; a 6500 should be ~15-20% better then a 6400 because it’s clocked ~18.5% higher.

Either should handle GW2 fine, although you’ll have to lower some settings to maintain a good framerate (just like with any other CPU on the market)

My job specializes in building gaming PCs. i would give a big explanation but it comes down to this. Processor about an i5 will be fine so would an amd FX cpu. The cpu will make next to no difference having an i7 over and i5 dont waste the money put that towards your gpu.
Id recomend
I5 6400/6500 or AMD FX
Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 370
16GB ram
Any SSD or HDD
750W psu
Remember you can always OC

slyr.4528:

Processor about an i5 will be fine so would an amd FX cpu.

AMD CPUs are awful choices for GW2. The game requires strong single core performance, which AMD sorely lacks.

slyr.4528:

Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 370

Those are two cards on grossly different tiers… A 960 would be the way to go out of those two. If you want to spend 370 money, be smart and get a 950 instead. Or just go used and get a $130 280x

slyr.4528:

16GB ram

Waste of money, 8 GB is more then enough.

slyr.4528:

750W psu

Waste of money, a CX430 is more then enough for an i5+single GPU system without overclocking.

slyr.4528:

Remember you can always OC

Not with a 6400/6500

slyr.4528:

My job specializes in building gaming PCs. i would give a big explanation but it comes down to this. Processor about an i5 will be fine so would an amd FX cpu. The cpu will make next to no difference having an i7 over and i5 dont waste the money put that towards your gpu.
Id recomend
I5 6400/6500 or AMD FX
Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 370
16GB ram
Any SSD or HDD
750W psu
Remember you can always OC

Whatever you do , get an intel quad core from Core i5-2xxx onwards.

Don’t get an AMD CPU with inferior single thread performance for a MMO.

You also don’t need 750W unless you’re running a high end GPU with overclocks on both GPU+CPU. An i5 is 95W, a typical midrange GPU is 150-200W. A good PSU (Seasonic X series, Seasonic G series, EVGA Supernova G2, EVGA Supernova P2, XFX Xtr series, Corsair AX series) with 550 or 650W is plenty.

see : http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html for PSU reviews.

The GTX 960’s competition is the AMD R9 380 / 380X

The GTX 900 series is generally better value due to overclock-ability, power use, and new architecture (Maxwell)

The R9 series save for the R9 Fury / Fury Nano with HBM (high bandwidth memory) are rehashes of 2012 technology circa HD7900 and HD7800 series. Those are still poor value due to the price tag. R9 390 series is Hawaii (R9 290) with cooler refinements and more VRAM . R9 380 is the same as R9 285.

Budget / ITX : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9R82gs
Overclockable / ATX: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KdYKCJ
^ GTX 970 , GTX 980 TI, or R9 Fury if you can stretch the money

Back in 2012 the typical setup was i5 with GTX 660 /GTX 650 ti boost / GTX 560 Ti or HD7850 / HD7870 / HD6950.

still relevant: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

My system, in my sig eats the game for fun, with everything on full. You will not get 60fps all the time everywhere, no system on earth can, the game will just not do it.

Both AMD and nvidia will be releasing new gpus later this year, so if you can wait, you’ll either get a more modern one or the current generation at a cheaper price.

i play 1080p on kitten inch tv at 60hz (so i wont see above 60fps). spend more on the CPU, and dont kill yourself on the GPU…. i run an i7-4790k on an asus z97a mobo set to performance (no manual overclocking) which puts me at 4.6ghz… 16gb ram

MY GPU IS A RADEON SAPPHIRE 1GB HD 7850….. card is old as dirt…

(anything above 30 while just lounging about in a map you wont notice a diff) with fraps loaded and the options in game showing FPS i get 40-50ish in LA, 40-50ish in mists waiting for pvp.. 120+FPS everywhere else roaming PVE and story etc.. except huge world boss events and i run Dragon stand daily and everything is smooth as butter even when it dips to 30-40…. all settings med-high… the settings i did turn down, i turned down just a smidge since visually it was minimal on the game, like shadows… i think the biggest culprit was reflections which i set to terrain and sky…

for whatever reason when i take a screenshot it does not show the fraps in upper corner…. it is basically same as FPS shown in options..

i dunno why fifty five inch tv was replaced with kitten with the word filter..

I got:
- i5 6500
8 gb ram Ddr4
Asus Strix GTX 950
SSD 240

I run everything on max all the time at 1080 p
It drops to 28-35fps at zergs (tequatl) but i get 60-120fps in every other map/situation.

Infusion.7149:

The GTX 900 series is generally better value due to overclock-ability, power use, and new architecture (Maxwell)

The R9 series save for the R9 Fury / Fury Nano with HBM (high bandwidth memory) are rehashes of 2012 technology circa HD7900 and HD7800 series. Those are still poor value due to the price tag.

What? The GTX 900 series is better value in some cases and the R9 series is better value in others. It depends on the tier of the card and/or the sales going on. You can get a 4GB 380 right now for $140 or a 2GB 960 for $170- the 380 is way better value. A 390 is a better buy then a 970 in general, especially if you’re playing at higher resolutions.

Neither is better value across the board; in general you should just be setting your GPU budget, checking what’s available at that price point, checking the benchmarks to see what’s the best at the price, and buying that.

my take on great pc for gw2

gtx 960 4gb (go for gigabyte/msi/evga, asus strix does not have the heatsink attached to vrm so it heats up like a toaster)
i5 6500 is the best bang for the buck imo
8 gb DDR4 ram ( get a single stick and if u need add a second one in the future)
450w psu get seasonic/corsair/cooler master
lga 1151 with ddr4 support
850 evo 250 gb ssd

pc case is up to your taste, mobo as well, depends on what feature u need on it

^ You need 2 sticks of RAM for dual channel

Infusion.7149:

^ You need 2 sticks of RAM for dual channel

dual channel ram does not impact gaming performance

Dual Channel will not effect dynamic performance – much – but can effect graphic quality as you’re essentially doubling the bandwidth between the CPU and GPU cores. Most graphic cards over the last few years will consume all the bandwidth the processor can supply, so it’s best to go with dual for 3D games as there is little difference in initial cost.

I would also recommend going from 4GB to 8GB RAM for fps performance improvements of around 20 to 30%. Reason appears to be within the GW2 coding.

Finally it is worth remembering that GW2 is perfectly playable at 20 to 30 fps on low settings with a AMD A4 + 4GB set up. I have about a dozens PCs of various specs and upping the spec definitely yield better graphic quality but really the dynamic improvement is poor for the cost.

Those on a low budget should definitely consider the AMD A4/A6/A8/A10 series as best value for the money preferably with 8GB of RAM – the higher frequency the better, although don’t knock yourself out. Intel remain poorer value for the money in this range, imo.

Also note that Anet appear to be driving the game towards pure PvP where graphic quality is of low concern. For what it’s worth I haven’t found any difference in MY game results between a i7 or A8 processor, but that could just be me, however I suspect it’s the nature of the PvP game.

go with last gen tech as far as prossesers . because any i7 or sandy lake is too much.

FogLeg.9354:

I built new PC about 6 months ago using i5-6400 and GTX 750 Ti. Running GW2 fullscreen at 1920×1080 with some graphics options just below max settings (reflections, character model limit, shadows). It works really well and I had no lags even in large WvW battles. I very much doubt you see any improvements by using i5-6500 or even i7 and honestly think r9 380 is overkill too for GW2.

Duly noted. The prices of both are a pleasant surprise! I dream of someday building a cheap-ish GW2 PC to replace my $300 laptop which I affectionally call “the little toaster that could.”

KestrelGirl.9267:

FogLeg.9354:

I built new PC about 6 months ago using i5-6400 and GTX 750 Ti. Running GW2 fullscreen at 1920×1080 with some graphics options just below max settings (reflections, character model limit, shadows). It works really well and I had no lags even in large WvW battles. I very much doubt you see any improvements by using i5-6500 or even i7 and honestly think r9 380 is overkill too for GW2.

Duly noted. The prices of both are a pleasant surprise! I dream of someday building a cheap-ish GW2 PC to replace my $300 laptop which I affectionally call “the little toaster that could.”

When I built mine, I was going to go for the 750ti, but the 960 was £20 at the time. So I want with that. Its always worth checking the prices.