Guild Wars 2

Well, I bought GW2 about three months ago, and it’s never run very well. I just want to know if this is how my system should behave, or if something is going loopy.

AMD Athlon X2 7550, ~2.5GHz (dual-core)
3GB of DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 610, 3GB VRAM

I’ll attach a DxDiag file, for you techies.

Now, my game is set to auto-detect the settings for the game, and so I’m at the absolute minimum settings. I’m running at ~15-20 FPS average, and I drop to about 5 FPS whenever there’s a big scene to load, or more than about 20 people on the screen (WvW). Is this how my rig would be expected to run? Is there anything I can do to boost performance, even a little bit? Thank you for your help.

I don`t think there`s anything you can do to boost performance

your video card should be fine in a new system but everything else is outdated for new games

The standard nowadays is 4GB RAM with 8GB preferred. RAM is very cheap by the way.

Your CPU is awful. GW2 is a very cpu-intensive game.

Well, your system ram is quite low if you, and I think it’s a typo, really do have a video card with 3gb of ram on it. The addressing space for your graphics card goes into system ram so your system probably is only getting to use about 2gb of that ram.
From a quick google search the gt610 is a budget model with lower than expected performance.
From what you say about big scene loads, it is clear to me that you simply don’t have enough ram in the first place as it has to swap out a lot of things to the system cache instead of keeping it in memory.

In conclusion and for your future gaming enjoyment, I would suggest investing in a new computer. If that isn’t an option, go in this order:
System ram (8gb + 64bit operating system)
Graphics card (invest in something non-budget, it’ll last longer)
Processor (2.8ghz dual core is recommended for this game, might have to upgrade your motherboard for this one though)
SSD (after all those have been taken care of.)

Disregard the above, just looked at the dxdiag and found your system on the net.
After looking at the dxdiag, you have an under-performing system. Your graphics card has 2gb of ram with an additional gb of shared (meaning it is using system ram for that extra gb)
With that 32bit OS you only get to use 3gb of ram so you’ll have to buy a 64bit version to go any higher.

Since it is also a compaq you don’t have any upgrade options other than to buy a new computer.

With the limited amount of ram you have and since you only have one drive, you are swapping out assets frequently enough that it is causing a bottleneck to develop on your hard drive, thus reducing performance to a noticeable level.

It also looks like you slightly upgraded it to a new hard drive and windows 7 and added the gt610.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883109032

From the specs of the computer, you can’t really upgrade it any further (1gb of ram that you can’t really use with a 32bit OS).

Save up some money and get yourself a new computer.

Small performance increases can be had by reducing the amount of things that start up with your computer (all those icons near the system tray are useless in most cases and wasting resources), and just using one application at a time. Defrag. If you don’t already have a good one, http://www.piriform.com/products has a free one that’s decent, grab ccleaner too and search for ccenhancer. Those will clean and defrag your system unless you already do that like a good gamer should.

Oh I clean my drive, I defrag every other week, I don’t run anything other than GW2. I didn’t know my computer was that bad, haha. Money is not an option though. I don’t have a job at the moment, and anything that would run a game properly is going to be $800 or higher. :/ Thank you for the information though.

Also it seems that the supersampling can but a cap on your fps for some reason. If it’s not already having it on normal sampling (whatever the medium setting is) will for some reason stop capping.

ah lol should have looked at GT 610 specs, 64-bit is awful

yep, everything is bad, just buy all new when u can

I`m actually surprised the game even runs on what u have, I`m guessing you never went to a big WvW fight or late game Orr events, pretty sure you won`t get more than 1-2 FPS there

Or did the Karka event.

@OP

The 610 graphics card is a low end(but new) media card ..deffinatly not for gaming. At minimum in the 600 series you would need a 650ti, even that isnt a gaming card but it is atleast the highest media card and can ‘handle’ most games with medium settings.

Your CPU , like many other people i might add, is just to weak for GW2, GW2 requirs atleast a i3 3240 for pve/smal levents with ‘playable framerates. If you then want to do WvW and/or large pve events then your looking at a i5 OC’d to 4.3ghz+ for playable frame rates. When you hear about people saying WvW is a slide show, you can pritty much garuntee its becouse their cpu is not up to the task. This is unfortunate but it is also fact
RAM minimum you want is 4gb, most new computers these days have 8gb however.

So finaly, yes the performance you are getting is expected ..nothing is going loopy. You just dont have the rig capable of handle GW2 im afraid.

There isa big jump in performance between a Media PC and Gaming PC.. so if your ever trying to decide whether to spend that extra $300 on a PC to go from somthing thats media bassed to gaming bassed….do go for the gaming one..just make sure that the parts in it are infact gaming spec and not just advertised as such.

Your CPU is actually pretty bad. And im surprised you aren’t getting out of memory crashes with only 3GB of ram.

Your graphics card is not too bad. It will run medium settings, even with hi-res textures enabled, pretty reliably. Unfortunately it’s getting choked by your CPU.

My brother had a A4-3400, which is only just marginally better than your processor and a GTX 660. The game looked like he was playing on a Nintendo 64. He upgraded to a A8-5600K and now it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Fortunately AM3 CPUs work in AM2+ motherboards. So you could get another year or two out of your PC with something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

and a little ram if you are using a 64bit OS.

The difference you will notice is beyond night and day.

Think i should point this out about the 610 gpu. It is NOT gunna be enough for GW2.

Take a look at these links. Even an old 8800 GTX will run GW2 better than a 610. So saying his GPU is good enough is just wrong. Please dont advice people incorrect information.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpukittenml
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/mid_range_gpukittenml

The 1st link shows ‘high end cards’ however these are ‘high’ end from years ago aswell so do keep in mind that most of the bottom half are no where near good enough nowerdays. You want atleast a score of 2500 or higher for medium settings with good fps. You can get away with a score of maybe 800 for low settings.

The second link are ALL media cards and NONE of them are any good for gaming. The highest score on there is 363 and the Nvidia 610 scores 349.

Somes specs for comparison.

8800GTX
Texture Fill rate : 36.8 Bil/Sec
memory bandwidth: 86.4 GB/Sec
CUDA cores: 128

GT 610
Texture Fill rate : 6.5 bil/sec
memory bandwidth: 14.4 GB/sec
CUDA cores: 48

need i say more ?

SolarNova.1052:

need i say more ?

He could have a GTX 680 and it wont make the slightest difference paired with that processor. You are putting the buggy before the horse.

If you want to test your computer’s hardware to see how compatible it is with GW2 (as well as many other games) and get an easy to read graphic, try this tool:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/

It wont tell you what you need, but will tell you if it is your hardware or if you should be looking at another reason.

There’s christmas up ahead; no chance you could get your family to collect the means to buy you a new CPU? Or see if you can get a used one?

i paid not quite 800€ for a system that can run GW2 comfortably on high-max settings, so you should be able to something that can play it with 25+fps at least on medium for 600 tops

AcidicVision.5498:

SolarNova.1052:

need i say more ?

He could have a GTX 680 and it wont make the slightest difference paired with that processor. You are putting the buggy before the horse.

Read my earlier posts i already explained the CPU bit. And i’ve done so many times to other people in other threads, feel free to look at my post history . The reason i was consentrating on the GPU was becouse you said it was fine ..when it isnt.

m8 its realy bad this is CPU demanding game and u got dual core from amd whic are extreamly bad :P and u got new generation gpu but its the lowest rating at least u to have 640 gt or something

SolarNova.1052:

The reason i was consentrating on the GPU was becouse you said it was fine ..when it isnt.

Ok, lets elaborate, the game will be playable with the GPU he has with a steady frame rate in the low 30s, on mostly medium settings with shadows and reflections disabled.

Right now the CPU and ram make the game unplayable. So if he/she, just wants to play the game and money is an object (it is for most people), then the graphics cards is fine (especially since has some weird beefy after market OC version of it with 3GB DDR2 that I was unable to find) but the CPU needs to be upgraded and a bit more ram would certainly help.

Make it function, then make it pretty.

Ok i dont mean to keep bantering on but.

If your going post opinions on what you think somthing can do performance wise it would be benifical for you to learn more of the technical apsects of PC components like graphics cards, and know how to read atleast the simple stuff inside a DxDiag.

The DxDiag he posted shows that the card has 2GB of dedicated memory . The system will say he has over 3gb total but that is inscluding shared memory. More so however, the 610 comes as standard with 1gb. The reason he has 2gb is becouse he bought a specific model that was released with 2gb (Nvidia do this alot, releasing cards with double the normal memory) and its unlikely is OC’d becouse there rly is no point in OC’ing a media card, if it is it wont make much difference.
The problem is with such a low end card like that, is that 2gb or memory is completly wasted.. the resolutions and AA required to use anything close to 2gb of graphics memory also requir much much more brute force processing power than that GPU can ever produce.
It will run GW2 as the OP has already stated but the FPS he is getitng is likely not going to increase much if he only upgrades his CPU. I mean he can find out just how hard his GPU is running by installing a monitoring program to let us know what % of usuage his GPU is running at, i suspect if it isnt running full bore ..its close.

I totaly agree he needs an new cpu and more ram like u also say ..but his gpu will need upgrading at the same time becouse it just isnt good enough.

At work. Cant open the Dxdiag. I just took the OP for his word that the card had 3GB of DDR2. Rather than assuming he was wrong I gave him the benefit of the doubt that maybe a third party such as PNY, MSI or the like manufactured a beefier version with more ram and OCd as they are often want to do.

And at a cursory glance at Passmark, his 610 out-performs the 7800 by nearly 100 marks. The 7800 hundred is the minimum system requirements.

Once again, running smoothly on low/med settings is better than barely running at all. I’m pretty sure this thread has served it’s purpose.

The general consensus is the change the CPU and add ram if you can. If/when you can afford to make the game look better, a video card is next on the list.

I honestly think that if he’s going to continue to play games in the future then he’d be better off getting an entire new system.

We don’t know the full specs of his system including the condition of the hardware. You don’t know what his power supply is so adding a newer CPU may not work. I don’t think his motherboard was even mentioned but I could be wrong. If he got his computer from Dell then the CPU could actually be soldered on. Compaq does solder theirs to motherboards a lot of the times too.

People who are saying that you need at least a 650 GT… Wow… Seriously? My travel laptop is a 13 in ASUS with 2nd gen i5, 520M GT, 4GB RAM and it runs the game just fine at 1366×768 medium-low settings… I get roughly around 30 fps give or take most places… LA runs a bit slower, yea karka event lagged… But honestly its definitely playable… Stop acting like an elitist snob that needs top of the line equipment to enjoy the game…

I would recommend turning down the resolution to get your frame rates up… Clean install of windows and updated drivers also helps… All those things are free… Hope this helps you man… Your video card is indeed low, but it should run at minimum settings at least at 30 fps…

Also, that processor is not all THAT BAD… Yes its not top of the line but saying that its a bottleneck and not that video card is just ignorant… Rtfm

PS and I do have a gaming setup as well, thats not what I game on…

A few of the posters mentioned things that I should have added. The motherboard on this computer is the default motherboard that came with the rig, I’m not sure what it is. The PSU is the stock version that comes with the rig as well. The graphics card is an after-market version, done by Galaxy. It’s a gaming company, and they did all sorts of things to the card, as I understand. As someone mentioned, the CPU is in fact soldered onto the motherboard, and I wouldn’t be able to remove it without damaging the motherboard. How much would it cost to buy a motherboard, CPU and RAM that would run the game at medium quality? Just enough to see post-effects and all that pretty stuff. I don’t need to feel like I’m looking out a window into Tyria, just enough that I can enjoy the scenery without looking like I’m playing on the N64. :P

Kunshu.5281:

Is my computer really this bad?

AMD Athlon X2 7550, ~2.5GHz (dual-core)
3GB of DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 610, 3GB VRAM

It sure is.

Kunshu.5281:

How much would it cost to buy a motherboard, CPU and RAM that would run the game at medium quality?

For anyone to accurately help with that we need more details on what you have. You may be able save some money by recycling components.

First of all whats your budget?

What type of RAM do you have? (to possibly get a matching motherboard and DIMMS)

What size is the case? (to make sure people find motherboards and a gfx card that will fit)

How many fans and what size are you using?

What wattage is the power supply? (minimum CPU/GPU requirement + fans and USB devices)

Is your hard-drive IDE or sata? Do you have more than one? If IDE, does it have a sata connection? (again to make sure we find a compatible motherboard)

Are you using a 32 or 64 bit version of windows? (no point in buying more ram than system will recognize if you are on 32bit)

I built my girlfriends computer last year and kept the price under $400 and performance respectable by recycling an old case, power supply, DDR3 ram, hard-drive and CD rom. So we ended up only needing a CPU, mobo and graphics card.

My brothers computer was build from scratch with no existing parts for right around $600 because I got lucky and found a really good gaming bare-bones special on newegg.

Your CPU is definitely not good enough. The other components look fine, although your graphics card is way out of line with your other specs unless that’s a typo.

GW2 doesn’t have a subscription, so waiting until you have enough money for a new computer isn’t a problem at least. I think you basically need to get a new motherboard + CPU, and more RAM wouldn’t hurt.

eXs.6210:

People who are saying that you need at least a 650 GT… Wow… Seriously? My travel laptop is a 13 in ASUS with 2nd gen i5, 520M GT, 4GB RAM and it runs the game just fine at 1366×768 medium-low settings… I get roughly around 30 fps give or take most places……

Yes i did recommend a 650ti as a recommended gpu for medium/high settings with good fps . meaning 45 fps+ in PVE.

Minimum i did say you could get away with anything that scored low in the 800’s. That would be like an old 8800 GTX, i beleve your 520m GT scores around 385. But as you stated ur only getting around 30 fps, and i bet that fluctuates wildy depending on what pve evironment your in..some are more demanding that others ..like undead swamp areas.
WvW is even more demanding and so are dynamic events once you get all the spell effects going so i dread to think what ur fps drops to then.
Minimum and Recommened hardware must allow fully playable FPS ..even if it means going to lowest settings possible ..aslong as its fully playable it passes as minimum. A playable FPS should not drop lower than 30fps.. this is the gaming standard and what most benchmarks use, therefor an average fps of 45 is a good aim becouse it gives room for random dips and for intensive scenes to drop in fps but not below 30. Recommened would be the same but with higher settings.
Now this all changes when you get into truly competitave gameplay (like FPS games and in offical tournaments) ..the minimum then becomes 60

Hence my advice on a 650ti. It should be able to handle a mixture of medium and high settings and not drop below 30 fps in the majority of PVE environments asuming the CPU doesnt bottleneck.

Kunshu.5281:

How much would it cost to buy a motherboard, CPU and RAM that would run the game at medium quality?

Im afraid i dont live in the US so i cant help with prices however if your not interested in WvW and can put up with the slow down in BIG dynamic events like the Claw of Jourmag and the Shatterer ..then look for somthing like this.

Intel i3 3240 CPU (same chipset as a 2nd/3rd gen i5 so you can upgrade in the future)
GIGABYTE GA-Z77P-D3 motherboard
G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB (2×4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

It shouldnt cost to much. However i still highly advise you look for a new GPU along wiht that. Somthing like nvidia 460, 550ti , 650ti. Or a AMD equivalent will run alot better than your current 610.

650Ti isnt bad at all and I think it seen a recent price drop. The 550ti will also run the game on all med settings at a steady 45 FPS. Dips to about 35-38 in WvW. It’s about $50 cheaper than the 650.

Here is a direct comparison of the two:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=647&card2=682

There is a lot of give and take. The 650 has some higher clock speeds, but when it comes to the bells and whistles they trade off here and there.

Those are really the best options for that price range. Going up to the 660 or 580 is a pretty big leap.

edit: His budget and the cost of all of the pieces together would really determine which one over the other, but both are solid. The woman is running around in Queensdale as we speak locked at 48 FPS on a 550 (all med, hi-res textures, max draw distance).

My budget is nearly non-existent, so I’d have to buy the cheapest I can find. My computer, as is, will run at about 40 FPS if I’m in a cave or something, and about 30 everywhere else. It’s just places that have a lot of detail where I drop to 15-20, and I drop to 1-5 in WvW and other big zergs like that. :P

Budget: As cheap as possible, but functional.

RAM: 3 GB of DDR2:

Case Size: Very roomy case, could add in plenty.

Fan Size, Number: Got three fans; an external case fan, a CPU fan and an exhaust. I’d say 2-3 inches in diameter.

PSU Wattage: I have no idea, honestly, how would I check?

HDD: SATA drive, the drive is new itself, a 1TB drive.

Windows Version: 32-bit.

Hope that answers all your questions, Acidic.

Yeah I figured it was soldered onto the motherboard. It seemed like your computer may be one of those pre built ones. I’m not at my computer so I can’t easily research accurate prices for you but ill give my opinion on what I believe them to be.

A new motherboard will run you at least $100. It all depends on what you want from it and what type of CPU that you want to use. This is also limited by what your PSU is. You can normally check by opening your case since the wattage is normally labeled. The size of your case may also be an issue with a new motherboard since most pre built computers have a custom case that will fit only those components.

The CPU price depends on what you go for. It can range from $200 to $700. RAM is usually less than $100. I think I got 16GB for like $79 which is way more than you’ll ever need.

If you can give us the model of the pc that you have then we can likely figure out what motherboard you have as we’ll as PSU. It’s likely included in the attachment you uploaded. A quick look appears that you have a 300W PSU.

Ayrilana, the make of my computer is the “COMPAQ CQ5110F PC”.

Kunshu.5281:

Ayrilana, the make of my computer is the “COMPAQ CQ5110F PC”.

Yes. I did a quick search and saw that in the DxDiag file and was able to do a search online for the stats. Based on the motherboard I saw for it, I’m going to guess that you got the PC around 2008?

Based on what I’m seeing, you’re probably better off in the long run on getting a new computer. The motherboard is old and the fastest CPU that it can support probably will not give you what you need to run the game properly. If you’re going to buy a motherboard and CPU then you’re almost better off just buying an entire new PC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1146370
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130840
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820103007

Total: $351.96

Alternatively….

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130838
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

Total: $358.97.

You can shave off close to $50 from either configuration by going with a 550ti instead and not lose a whole lot in the way of performance, but you only have a 300w power supply and 550 is a little hungrier.(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130744)

I prefer the second configuration personally. I am a bigger fan of a straight Phenom than the APUs. Even for a $20 bump. The mobo also has more features and comes with 8GB G.skill memory to offset that cost. It also supports SLI/Crossfire, up to 32 GB ram and is socket AM3+, so you will have room to grow.

I disagree with buying a whole new PC if you don’t have the money laying around. Most of the time you pay more for less, and there’s no sense in paying for a new case, dvd burner, and hard-drive when you have perfectly good ones laying around. That’s if you are comfortable putting it all together. But building PCs has been simplified to the point its pretty much grown up legos.

I have a 560ti and can handle GW2 at max settings (with the help of a quad-core and 4GB of RAM)

The main deficiencies of your system are:

1) The graphics card, it may be the latest generation (600 series) but it’s basically the lowest-end card (10 series) you can get of the latest generation. Low end cards tend to be REALLY underpowered for gaming. My card on the other hand while of the previous generation is still more powerful because it’s medium tier with stats that are close-ish to the high-tier (expensive) cards. New generations are a slight iterative improvement on the previous generations not usually very game changing. I’d much rather have a 560 than a 630 (low-mid level) card, and DEFINITELY much rather have it than a 610. I would advise getting a 650 or higher (GTX series) if you can afford it.

2) Your RAM, if you’re sharing RAM with your videocard that means that the RAM that would be used for storing game data (like the positions of players/monsters, caching and preloading objects, etc) is now diverted to storing models and especially textures that are rendered in the world. You don’t need 3GB of VRAM. It helps, obviously, but only if your system RAM doesnt suffer as a result.

3) Your dual-core machine isnt bad per-se. I mean it depends on the specific model and generation of your CPU and newer CPUs always help but it’s not the weak point on your machine. I would say if you update your graphics card then you’ll be able to run at low or medium setting easily but your CPU will become the barrier at being able to run at high or maximum settings.

There’s some good info and bad info here. Here’s the good news: your video card is fine. Here are the computers I play on:

1) Athlon II x4 w/ nVidia GT 430 – plays just fine on medium settings (30-40 fps @ 1920×1080)

2) Laptop with Core i5 3317U with Intel HD4000 graphics (redundant to mention I know) – plays just fine at medium settings (30-40 fps @ 1366×768)

3) Desktop with Core i5 2400S and Intel HD2000 graphics. Runs just fine at lowest settings (25-40 fps @ 1024×768)

4) Laptop with AMD E-450. Unplayable at any resolution even at lowest settings (3-13 fps).

OP, there are 3 problems with your computer in the order of importance as I see it:

1) You’re running a 32-bit OS. Video memory is mapped into system RAM space. So the amount of usable RAM is going to be much less than what you have. Install a 64-bit OS to mitigate this problem since the address space is so much larger.

2) GW2 is more CPU bound than GPU bound. Your CPU is decent. But if money is tight and you want a cheap upgrade, you should upgrade the CPU. Any quad-core AM3 CPU will do since they will work in AM2+ sockets such as your computer. The only issue is that you might need a BIOS update before you swap CPUs.

3) RAM is low, but if you don’t have a 64-bit OS, there’s not much else you can do because adding more won’t do anything. Also your system probably has DDR2 memory, which is very expensive nowadays. Getting 8GB is going to cost about $130, and for that amount of money you can get a new AM3+ motherboard + 8 GB RAM for less!

Easily and Quickly.2187:

/snip…Any quad-core AM3 CPU will do since they will work in AM2+ sockets such as your computer. The only issue is that you might need a BIOS update before you swap CPUs.

/snip…Getting 8GB is going to cost about $130, and for that amount of money you can get a new AM3+ motherboard + 8 GB RAM for less!

We have already been through these motions ^.^. Turns out his processor is soldered to the Mobo. Between that and the DDR2 memory, it’s just time for a upgrade. Now we are recommending upgrade packages of mobo/cpu/gpu/ram. For budget/performance.

I put up two, but the cheapest builds I could come up with are between $301 and $360.

Edit: I didn’t look at anything below quad core or under 3.0Ghz, I only looked at socket AM3 and FM2. I only considered AMD and Nvidia. I feel anything less wouldn’t give gains worth the cost and trouble, anything more just got too pricey, and it all meets the OP’s needs. Opinions may well vary, but that’s the angle I was coming from.

I’ll just reitterate what i posted above.

Intel i3 3240 CPU (same chipset as a 2nd/3rd gen i5 so you can upgrade in the future)
GIGABYTE GA-Z77P-D3 motherboard
G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB (2×4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU ether a 550ti or a AMD 7770

Price wise i leave to you to find best deals but dont go AMD ..specialy if ur on a budget. Budget AMD cpu’s will tank fps in WvW/LA/ busy areas. The only AMD cpu you should even consider for GW2 is the FX 8350 which is likely to expensive for you.

Intel i3 3240 is 257th ranked among processors currently, Phenom II 965 is 243rd. As tested by Passmark.

Updated today (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+965&id=370).

That is really close performance wise. 4,141 marks vs. 4,329. But the intel is $40 more expensive for a processor that under-performs (even if it is only marginally). I am specifically talking about the ones mentioned, not brands or product lines in general. If you are looking at most of their dual cores or triple core APU buffoonery, then Solar is absolutely right.

Yea as close as they are. I would imagin that the Intel would just run GW2 betetr since Intel latest 2 generations of CPU’s have strong single thread performance compared to AMD. I’ll admit though i havnt done enough research to say that the i3 3240 would be better in GW2 than the P II 965. it just makes sense that it would be.

The i3-3240 will run GW2 better than the Phenom II x4 965 due to superior single thread performance.

However, the ideal CPU from both AMD and intel for GW2 would be the FX-8350 from AMD and the i5-3570K from intel. I have tested the game on sandy i3, ivy i5, Phenom II X6, and FX 83xx. In all tests the i5 and FX performed better due to quad core and in the case of the FX having 4 extra cores to dedicate to the game while having 4 additional cores for other tasks.

For some reason the game doesn’t run that well on duel or hex core configurations the exception being the 2011 socket cpus.

Aye agreed ..i only mentioned the i3 to save money I usualy recommend a i5 2550k ..which is comparable to the 3570k ..i just prefer sandybridge for OC’ing

And yes i can confirm the exception of Intels 2011 cpu’s .. my 3930k runs beautifully

Im running a 6gb DDR3 , i3 quad core, but with a shocking integrated intel HD GPU. i run 20-25fps everywhere solid on medium-high graphics, just proves the game is more dependant on a good CPU rather than GPU, which is what i like as i cant play any other games tbh…

I suggested that he may as well get a new computer since he would have to get a new motherboard and processor. His GPU is on the low end and would likely need a new PSU to handle the new components. There’s also the issue whether his case is large enough for the new motherboard.

A lot of the suggestions people are making are not considering the compatibility with his current system configuration. Some of the motherboard/CPU suggestions will require a new PSU which is likely too big for the custom Compaq case. There’s also the possibility that the motherboards suggested are too big for the case as well.

While building a PC is rather simple nowadays, there’s still a lot that you need to consider rather than throwing together random components.

Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-kittenml.

Yes, in general I recommend an entirely new computer in order to run this game on high settings @ 1080p.

Based on that list, the Athlon X2 7550 is in the 4th tier from the bottom of the list for gaming cpus.

Note: There are 12 tiers. The top tier has the Sandy/Ivy i5/i7 cpus. The 2nd from the top tier includes the FX-8350 and the Core i7-980.

Bottom line is a new computer is the best option.

Ayrilana.1396:

I suggested that he may as well get a new computer since he would have to get a new motherboard and processor. His GPU is on the low end and would likely need a new PSU to handle the new components. There’s also the issue whether his case is large enough for the new motherboard.

A lot of the suggestions people are making are not considering the compatibility with his current system configuration. Some of the motherboard/CPU suggestions will require a new PSU which is likely too big for the custom Compaq case. There’s also the possibility that the motherboards suggested are too big for the case as well.

While building a PC is rather simple nowadays, there’s still a lot that you need to consider rather than throwing together random components.

The motherboards and CPUs I recommended will fit a Mid ATX case. Which is what his case is. I looked at that while “throwing together random parts”. Also, it is within the limits of his 300w power supply but going with a 550 may push it over. Which I also mentioned.

So yes, I did consider those things. I appreciate you considered enough to check for yourself before assuming people were just throwing things out there.

@Shuyin, he mentioned not having a lot of money. If buying a new computer was an option, we wouldn’t have been talking about upgrades. The idea was to cannibalize as much of what he has as we can and see if the cost of the parts he has to buy are reasonable. So throwing around the idea to buy a new pc to run at 1080 and the best CPU would be an i7 isn’t really helpful, or on topic.

AcidicVision.5498:

The motherboards and CPUs I recommended will fit a Mid ATX case. Which is what his case is. I looked at that while “throwing together random parts”. Also, it is within the limits of his 300w power supply but going with a 550 may push it over. Which I also mentioned.

So yes, I did consider those things. I appreciate you considered enough to check for yourself before assuming people were just throwing things out there.

I was referring to everyone in general and not you specifically. I saw a combination that I knew wasn’t going to work off 300W so I stated it to everyone so not to single someone out. If he upgrades his GPU then he’d be pushing it.

If the AM2+ motherboard supports AM3 cpus, then I recommend upgrading the CPU to a Phenom II x4 965 BE. That change alone will take the game from a 20fps average to a 45fps average.

The 965 BE has an unlocked multiplier, but I wouldn’t suggest doing any overclocking because the PSU is only 300W.

Any change to the GPU would most likely require a new PSU. So the best recommendation I can give for improvement on the current hardware is to upgrade the CPU to a compatible AM3 if applicable.