Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

GW2 requires over 200 MB of Dedicated Video RAM, and I only have 64, but I can still run the game. I feel that if I had a higher amount of Dedicated Video RAM I could run the game better. How do I increase Dedicated Video RAM internally or externally?

Dedicated means minimum it borrows from system memory. I assume you are using a rig with an embedded GPU, likely a low end desktop or laptop. On rare occasions if the GPU is part of a motherboard chipset, there may actually be a dedicate bit of physical memory wired to the chipset.

Vista and beyond can manage additional system memory for video card use. The dedicated area is nominally used for the various frame and z-buffers.

What does GPU-Z says about your GPU?

mrauls.6519:

How do I increase Dedicated Video RAM internally or externally?

To add more VRAM, you would need to buy a newer video card. VRAM doesn’t plug in independently.

If it’s a laptop, the best you could probably do is make sure you have plenty of system RAM (~4GB), and use an SSD hard drive so windows can manage virtual memory faster (if it can handle SSD).

256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better
I don’t see where it says “dedicated”. Likely you are using shared ram to play at all if only 64mb of vram… which my laptop over 10yrs ago had more But if you are on a desktop computer, you’re in luck, easily upgradable from 64MB vram.

I do not have a video card at all right now. I have onboard memory. I use an ASUS motherboard. I will buy a video card this friday most likely.

Here is what a site says about my ability to run GW2. Currently vram is what is not up to par

Behellagh.1468:

Dedicated means minimum it borrows from system memory. I assume you are using a rig with an embedded GPU, likely a low end desktop or laptop. On rare occasions if the GPU is part of a motherboard chipset, there may actually be a dedicate bit of physical memory wired to the chipset.

Vista and beyond can manage additional system memory for video card use. The dedicated area is nominally used for the various frame and z-buffers.

What does GPU-Z says about your GPU?

Yep, integrated GPU. Intel HD Graphics 4600.

Behellagh.1468:

Yep, integrated GPU. Intel HD Graphics 4600.

Any video card recommendations on a budget of maybe 50 bucks

prolly geforce gt 720 2gb ddr3

The GT 720 is just marginally better than the Intel HD 4600. GT 740 is more of a kick but for a “good” one with GDDR5 memory, you are in the $65-75 range with $20 rebate and the slippery slope starts.

The game will run with the Intel HD 4600 which is built into the CPU. The dedicated memory is dynamically allocated/stolen from system memory as needed. I assume when you did the check you simply had a browser/windows desktop running so 64MB was all that was needed at the time so that’s what the test saw.

If you’re shopping in the $50 range, go to $60 and buy a used 2 GB 6950 or something. Nothing new for $50 is really going to be worth it.

Behellagh.1468:

The GT 720 is just marginally better than the Intel HD 4600.

Double the core speed. The GPU is significantly better on all marks, double, and GW2 relies heavily on GPU. He said $50, sooo… But can maybe find a deal someplace, even off one of those manufacturers that just license the core for their own cards. I’d never buy a used card, often the fans have a limited life span, and may have been abused you don’t know.

Almost triple the shader processing units (2.5x). 4x the amount of texture mapping units. 8x the texture rate. 4x the amount of rendering output units. 0.8 vs 6.4 pixel rate per sec. Then it manages it’s own internal ddr3. Minimum double the performance, and likely closer to 3x under this application.

Likely you could turn up the resolution to high and it’ll play well. If in zergs, you would probably need to turn it all down to medium or so.

Core speed means nothing because they are two entirely different GPU architectures. You can’t compare clockspeed between nVidia and AMD so why do you expect to be able to do so here.

Video Card Passmark lists the Intel HD 4600 as 722 and the GT 720 as 778. A 7.8% difference isn’t worth $50 IMO.

Also on the Intel i5-4590, the HD 4600’s clock speed is 1150 MHz, 350 MHz when in minimum load.

Oh yeah, that site. The one lots of people complain about regarding the inaccuracy of their linear testing. I have a card close to the one I listed here, on one of my computers, I run GW2 at high settings in most cases. I chose it due to the specific specs it targets, I work with 3D modeling apps, animation software and I program shaders, so apply stuff like this for work. If I were just working with photoshop then it probably wouldn’t matter, an app they probably took into account on their benchmarks. But for a specific application as this, you’ll likely see better performance in comparison to something like that.

I do have a system with Intel HD, but a few years older, so can’t really compare them. But at the time I got it, it was a bit lacking in comparison to other equal or greater value models in regards to performance in such an environment as this. I knew that before I got it though, it was a decision regarding portability and something to just plug my wacom bamboo into for a few select apps. But seriously, you don’t want to take a general test and apply it to everything, it’s always better to target the specific app/environment and test it from there, then you will see what those multipliers I mentioned do.

I say go for it, get something like that, you’ll likely see an increase, especially from dedicated vram. Beh seems to leave no option but to spend more or nothing at all(?), which mrauls didn’t say he was interested in doing in regards to spending more. He’d be better off spending more, yes, but some people gotta eat or whatever, ya know? Some people just put priorities on spending over impulse shopping, then try to be the wise shoppers when time to hold the budget.

You might be better off asking on specific cards in your budget, and seeing if anyone has that card and can give you some idea on how it handles FPS in certain situations (e.g. settings + fps while fighting Svanir Shaaman etc).

You might be better off asking on specific cards in your budget, and seeing if anyone has that card and can give you some idea on how it handles FPS in certain situations (e.g. settings + fps while fighting Svanir Shaaman etc

Like I said above, used 2 GB 6950s go for $60 all day long. kitten GT720 is just a way to throw away $50 in my eyes, it’s not worth it at all. Especially since a 6950 can run this game on high/max pretty easily.

Thank you for all of the input so far, everyone! I’m so appreciative of playing a game with such a wonderful community

New question

I plan on buying a 1 GB video card. I’ve seen brand name companies sell those types between $30-$37. Here’s a link of one example: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=01g-p3-1312-lr.

Say I am playing a game that requires 1.5 GB of vram, will the video card handle 1 GB of the vram required, and my onboard memory handle the other 500 MB?

If the video card I linked is “bad” can someone let me know why? Thanks

That card is an absolute piece of garbage. Don’t buy it. It’s just an incredibly low-end card, your integrated GPU is most likely more powerful then it.

You’re getting too caught up in terms of Vram. Like normal RAM, it only really matters if you don’t have enough. Find a decent card, then pick the version with enough vram (probably 2 GB these days). Don’t say “I need 2 GB of vram” then go buy something with that because you’ll end up throwing away money.

Can you go into detail as to why that video card is garbage? I don’t doubt you, I just don’t know how to differentiate between the good and the bad. How do I tell? What’s the giveaway? What do I look for?

Oh God no! That card was from an era when something like that was a solution to get DVD playback running smoothly and that it. The HD 4600 in your CPU would eat that for lunch.

Don’t fall into the memory trap. With such a low end GPU you wouldn’t/shouldn’t be playing it at settings that use up a lot of video memory. 1 GB is more than enough with a low end GPU and anyways the game doesn’t use much beyond 1 GB on any card.

There are two point on the performance/price curve where you never want to be and that is at the extreme low end and extreme high end. A $100 video card is many times faster than a fifty dollar (kitten filter) one. A much bigger jump in relative performance than going from a $350 to $600 card or a $600 to a $1000 card.

Suffer for now and save your dollars for this for $70-75. Anything you can get cheaper, unless it’s a refurbish card, is likely not to be that noticeably faster than the integrated one in your i5-4590 and if you are going to spend money, you should want noticeably faster.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-01gp33731kr

mrauls.6519:

Can you go into detail as to why that video card is garbage? I don’t doubt you, I just don’t know how to differentiate between the good and the bad. How do I tell? What’s the giveaway? What do I look for?

It’s an nVidia GT210. You need to look at the model number. The first number denotes the series, and the 2nd number is where the card falls within that series. So, a GT210 is from the 200 series (we’re currently on the 900 series, although the 300 and 800 series were skipped), and it’s the worst card within that series.

AMD’s numbering system is slightly different. Up through the 7000 series, the first number is the series and the middle 2 numbers are the level within the series. So, a 6950 is in the 6000 series (2 series old), and it’s the 2nd best card within the series (it goes 6850<6870<6950<6970). Their new series, the R9 2xx series, is numbered similar to nVidia’s cards except they have Xs. So, a 270x is a better card then a 270, but a 280 will beat the 270×.

You’ll want at least like an nVidia 560ti or an AMD 6850 for GW2. A 570 or 6950 is all you’ll need to run at high/max settings.

Behellagh.1468:

Suffer for now and save your dollars for this for $70-75. Anything you can get cheaper, unless it’s a refurbish card, is likely not to be that noticeably faster than the integrated one in your i5-4590 and if you are going to spend money, you should want noticeably faster.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-01gp33731kr

Honestly, I still need to recommend going used at that price point. $75 is 7850 2 GB range, and even a 6950 would be a better buy then that.

Fermi.2409:

mrauls.6519:

Can you go into detail as to why that video card is garbage? I don’t doubt you, I just don’t know how to differentiate between the good and the bad. How do I tell? What’s the giveaway? What do I look for?

It’s an nVidia GT210. You need to look at the model number. The first number denotes the series, and the 2nd number is where the card falls within that series. So, a GT210 is from the 200 series (we’re currently on the 900 series, although the 300 and 800 series were skipped), and it’s the worst card within that series.

AMD’s numbering system is slightly different. Up through the 7000 series, the first number is the series and the middle 2 numbers are the level within the series. So, a 6950 is in the 6000 series (2 series old), and it’s the 2nd best card within the series (it goes 6850<6870<6950<6970). Their new series, the R9 2xx series, is numbered similar to nVidia’s cards except they have Xs. So, a 270x is a better card then a 270, but a 280 will beat the 270×.

You’ll want at least like an nVidia 560ti or an AMD 6850 for GW2. A 570 or 6950 is all you’ll need to run at high/max settings.

Behellagh.1468:

Suffer for now and save your dollars for this for $70-75. Anything you can get cheaper, unless it’s a refurbish card, is likely not to be that noticeably faster than the integrated one in your i5-4590 and if you are going to spend money, you should want noticeably faster.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-01gp33731kr

Honestly, I still need to recommend going used at that price point. $75 is 7850 2 GB range, and even a 6950 would be a better buy then that.

But then we have the problem of not knowing if his current power supply could handle something as old but high end at the time as the HD 6950.

Valid point, actually. I didn’t think of that at all. I just can’t really recommend a $60 GT730 in good faith…

This is my power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

Thank you for taking the time to explain things to me

I’m not sure how the TX line is, but 650W is more then enough for pretty much any GPU on the market, so that should be a nonissue.