Guild Wars 2

I can currently run Guildwars 2 on lowest/low settings even then the FPS isn’t that high and in populated zones it drops. The configuration is i7-3770, 4GB RAM, and intel HD 4000. I understand guildwars 2 is CPU intensive, but it seems tue cpu is fine but graphics card lacking. so I’m looking for a graphics card what isn’t too much in For what game needs with that setup and im not looking to spend more than £100

Would a RAM upgrade fit in your budget? 4GB seems rather low for systems nowadays.

Others will chime in on graphics I’m sure, but the question gets asked often so if you simply scroll down you’ll find recent posts on it.

Being in Arizona, I’m not sure how much your budget translates into US dollars.

if you have a desktop i would suggest either Nvidia Geforce GT 730 or Same but low profile for compact computers each will run you about 60-70£. i have a GT 640 and i run everything on high except reflections(off), character model limit(low), and character model quality(medium), i play with my framerate capped at 30 and v-sync off, rarely does it go lower

Jimmon.6421:

if you have a desktop i would suggest either Nvidia Geforce GT 730 or Same but low profile for compact computers each will run you about 60-70£. i have a GT 640 and i run everything on high except reflections(off), character model limit(low), and character model quality(medium), i play with my framerate capped at 30 and v-sync off, rarely does it go lower

Dear lord what a horrid suggestion. The GT730 is about as slow as that HD4000! Do not get a sub £100 card just because you want to be smart and save money. It is not worth it. I have had this discussion with friends more times than I can count and everytime they come crying back to me the only thing I can say is… I told you so.

If you really want to get something around £100, you got for example the RX460. Add a tiny bit more and you can get the 4gb version (for example, https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-radeon-rx-460-directcu-iii-strix-gaming-aura-rgb-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-40k-as.html ) at £120.

On the Nvidia side its GTX1050 (faster than the RX by a smaller margin) or the 1050Ti but its gonna be about £150 instead (I think that pricetag also matches the performance increase vs RX460).

I would personally say 1050Ti as a budget card.

As a sidenote if you can stand waiting a month on a new card, do it. AMD is coming with their refresh which should drive down prices on the older RX series. I know I couldnt in your position (yes I have tried gaming on a Surface Pro 2 when my 980Ti broke and I nearly vomited and had to run out and buy a 1060 just to survive it during warranty) but each to their own.

Dawdler.8521:

On the Nvidia side its GTX1050 (faster than the RX by a smaller margin) or the 1050Ti but its gonna be about £150 instead (I think that pricetag also matches the performance increase vs RX460).

I would personally say 1050Ti as a budget card.

What’s the price difference between a 470 and a 1050ti? Here in the US the 470 is only a little bit more so it’s generally not worth getting a 1050ti (unless you absolutely need a card with no power connectors)

Otherwise, yeah. A 460/470 or 1050/1050ti would all do fine

Well looking at overclockers, RX470 is £170 and up I think, but I would not consider it worth it – in that range you might as well get an RX480 8gb for around £200. Some of the RX480 cards are even at around £180.

Given the OPs budget, I guessed that £200 would just be too much. Still I would advice stretching it to £120 at least, if £150 is too much too.

DeanBB.4268:

Would a RAM upgrade fit in your budget? 4GB seems rather low for systems nowadays.

Others will chime in on graphics I’m sure, but the question gets asked often so if you simply scroll down you’ll find recent posts on it.

Being in Arizona, I’m not sure how much your budget translates into US dollars.

Winner!

I think if you’re on a budget, upgrading to 8gb of RAM is going to provide the biggest boost in things, including outside of Gw2, especially if you have anything open. Even with Gw2+Chrome and a few tabs open, I reach 6 gb of usage on Windows 10.

Jimmon.6421:

if you have a desktop i would suggest either Nvidia Geforce GT 730 or Same but low profile for compact computers each will run you about 60-70£. i have a GT 640 and i run everything on high except reflections(off), character model limit(low), and character model quality(medium), i play with my framerate capped at 30 and v-sync off, rarely does it go lower

The GT 730 is a terrible card— it struggles to beat newer integrated CPUs and gets thrashed by cards $30 more expensive than it.

Check these out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sph6cjJeRdI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp6ltBCMDCE (gt 730 which is worse than the card in the first video!)

If you’re going to recommend a cheapo card, then at least recommend something like the r7 250. Cheaper and better:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-Radeon-GDDR3-Graphics-Card/dp/B00H5DJDL2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1491328703&sr=1-1&keywords=r7+250

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computer-Components/XFX-R7-250A-2NF4-RADEON-250-2GB-GRAPHICS-CARD/B01LXZGRHR/ref=sr_1_11?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1491329163&sr=1-11&keywords=Radeon+R7+250
(Claims to only be temporarily unavailable)

For those in the US:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129283&cm_re=r7_250-_-14-129-283-_-Product

Still wouldn’t recommend it unless someone was broke and in the US, but it’ll still pull some weight.

Anyhow to OP, as stated above a RX 460 or GTX 1050 will be a good purchase. In the US, there’s really no point in getting a 1050ti since the 470 is so cheap here (Also, a great choice.) Though it seems different in Europe.

Here’s a video on a friend’s budget build for a relative. (Obviously not intended for gaming). It uses an I3 and an old hd 7850 that was lying around. That card is about as good as a rx 460 I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKkzPqI608

(Yea, they should really get a new monitor, but alas. And yes, the Svanir Chef’s main attack is to murder all FPS, but that seems inevitable.)

In any case, your setup will look much better since your processor is way stronger.

One thing, is your computer a branded build (ie Dell, Acer, etc) or a custom build? If it is branded, you need to check your Power Supply to make sure it has 6 or 8 pin connectors and is around 500 watts minimum. Also, you need to take into account the case size and motherboard’s x16 slot’s capability.

If you do not have the connectors on the PSU, enough wattage, a case that is too small, or a board that is unable to handle the card it would be a waste of money.

500W minimum is a bit much. I could be fine with a decent 500W PSU. Hell, I measured my power draw at the wall while gaming and it was 400-420W for my tower+2 monitors. 400W would be excessive as well but is probably what I’d look for, especially since 400/430W PSUs are the minimum value you can find for a decent one

I guess it really depends on what PSU OP currently has. If it’s a prebuilt comp’s PSU, I wouldn’t trust it with any new hardware. Though fortunately the budget cards recommended here don’t eat power much.

It’s definitely more about an issue with quality than quantity— a good brand helps and you shouldn’t buy a no-name 700w just because it seems powerful. Seems like EVGA would be a good idea. It’s only a few more dollars difference from 450w to 500w though, not really anything that matters though here.

ArchonWing.9480:

Here’s a video on a friend’s budget build for a relative. (Obviously not intended for gaming). It uses an I3 and an old hd 7850 that was lying around. That card is about as good as a rx 460 I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKkzPqI608

Well used cards is a whole different ballpark of course. There is a ton of choices. I ran GW2 on a GTX670 fine, you could probably find that dirt cheap used today. But good luck finding the old cards in normal stores. The only HD7850 I could find was not in stock and twice the price of the RX460, lol.

Sidenote to above: of course case and PSU matter, but it’s budget cards we’re talking about here. They arent very big and they sip power. Unless he has a kittenty Dell or HP or something that shouldnt be an issue.

Doing a quick power calculation test on a random page, I loaded up a Ryzen 1800X@4ghz, 64gb ram, 2 SSDs, a 1080Ti and 10 140mm fans (hey need to cool that kitten!) and land at 570W recommended. Replace that card with an RX460 and it drop to 400W. Of course, I’d still recommend a pretty beefy PSU anyway due lower noise levels when running at ~50-70% effeciency rather than heavy load.

Dawdler.8521:

ArchonWing.9480:

Here’s a video on a friend’s budget build for a relative. (Obviously not intended for gaming). It uses an I3 and an old hd 7850 that was lying around. That card is about as good as a rx 460 I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKkzPqI608

Well used cards is a whole different ballpark of course. There is a ton of choices. I ran GW2 on a GTX670 fine, you could probably find that dirt cheap used today. But good luck finding the old cards in normal stores. The only HD7850 I could find was not in stock and twice the price of the RX460, lol.

Oh. The 7850 was literally lying around, It was part of the friend’s main rig until they replaced it with a rx 470. Had that not happened, I’d be recording that with an iGPU and that wouldn’t be as good. :p

Definitely wouldn’t buy that card now. I used it as an example here because it’s about as good as the 1050/rx 460 that we’re talking about, so OP will definitely see better performance.

And yea, it’s really annoying how cards seem to stay just as expensive. I remember getting rekt long ago because of that, because I thought buying a card for $70 was a good idea… and then it was already like 2 years old. And then I also got a CX 600 because lol 600w. :S

ArchonWing.9480:

CX 600 because lol 600w. :S

Well look at the bright side, at least you didnt get an AX760i and promptly ignored all the features it brought because the kittening fans of the H80i was grindy banshees that had to be replaced by Noctuas as soon as they could be thrown out the window, thus not working properly with Corsair Link.

/random rant

:p

Dawdler.8521:

ArchonWing.9480:

CX 600 because lol 600w. :S

Well look at the bright side, at least you didnt get an AX760i and promptly ignored all the features it brought because the kittening fans of the H80i was grindy banshees that had to be replaced by Noctuas as soon as they could be thrown out the window, thus not working properly with Corsair Link.

/random rant

:p

Oh, so basically it turned into a regular PSU as a result. That’s definitely not one of the things that can be forseen easily.

Well, I didn’t list my biggest fail though! Buying a 1 tb hard drive (was huge at the time) but the salesguy said it’d be fast enough (5400 RPM). I hate him forever. :p

Oh yea, that CX lasted 4 years before it popped. It’s okay, nothing of value was lost.

My brother had an OC’d 290 and a 4.7GHz G3258 running on a CX430. Possibly not his wisest moment. He also had a microatx tower at the time with an H100i, so he just took the side panel off and sat the radiator on the ground since it wouldn’t fit in the case at all

In general PSU quality is more important, though. It just seems like a lot of people get fixated on wattage and grossly overestimate how much they need whic is why I brought it up. My 750W is complete and total overkill, it was just the best deal on a decent PSU at the time (and then I didn’t do the MIR so it wasn’t even a good deal. Oh well.)

Fermi.2409:

My brother had an OC’d 290 and a 4.7GHz G3258 running on a CX430. Possibly not his wisest moment. He also had a microatx tower at the time with an H100i, so he just took the side panel off and sat the radiator on the ground since it wouldn’t fit in the case at all

Lol, I have quite a few friends with open cases. For some reason that amuses me

In general PSU quality is more important, though. It just seems like a lot of people get fixated on wattage and grossly overestimate how much they need whic is why I brought it up. My 750W is complete and total overkill, it was just the best deal on a decent PSU at the time (and then I didn’t do the MIR so it wasn’t even a good deal. Oh well.)

Definitely. I had bought that CX 600 which was too much for what I needed, and clearly not high enough quality of what I needed. And I spent more money when there were better things to get.

So yea, it’s not just the W. But wattage or not, you got a quality PSU, so there’s that.