Guild Wars 2

Hi, i travel a lot so a Laptop is essential, but i also want to play GW2 at a decent framerate in WvWvW (My current Laptop is ok but gets to almost a slide show in large battles)

Anyone have any recommendations?
(I am not after the latest super laptop costing thousanda of pounds/dollars)

I just bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop for around $500 Australian and it runs GW2 fine. Gets a bit hot after a few hours but works as well as my desktop. Nothing special about the laptop so you should be OK.

Yeah, I have a Toshiba Satellite L670 with 2.4GHz i5 CPU with 4GB RAM and this thing overheats unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It shuts off after 5 minutes of gameplay because it gets too hot. With an underneath fan, however, it works perfectly (still gets fairly hot though).

You really need a good internet connection too, and I mean good.

But for WvWvW this does exactly what you’re saying, it gets very choppy during large battles. So judging from how my laptop runs, I would recommend getting above 4GB RAM, with Intel Core i5 or better.

Hope this helps! Good luck finding the laptop!

I just checked, and you can customize Toshiba laptops with i7 processors and 6GB RAM for less than $800 USD. I don’t know if this is in your price range, but it’s something worth looking into.

To answer your question:
You will want a mid tier or higher dedicated video card in your laptop if you want to play GW2 at any kind of decent frame rate in wvwvw. Chances are you have an integrated video card. An integrated video card is adequate for your average facebook/youtube/non-serious gamer (Win 98 Pinball, or facebook games comes to mind.) but struggles with games that are taxing on the video card. While GW2 puts a lot of pressure on the processor, it puts enough pressure on the video card that if you’re running GW2 with an integrated card. Your game will “come to a slide show” when there is a lot for it to render. Here is a benchmark list of laptop integrated and dedicated video cards while running GW2. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Guild-Wars-2-Benchmarked.81604.0.html

My kids play GW2 with me (I have five boys) and I had to look for inexpensive options. I found that reconditioned graphics workstations such as the Dell Precision M6300 run GW2 at medium settings very well – they have Quadro FX mobile cards designed for 3D design applications but will handle gaming 3D, and at present you can pick these up on eBay for about $200-$300 depending on the spec. A good option if you want computers for kids – the screens are true 1900×1200 WUXGA as well and the machines are built like brick outhouses…

I you prefer to get a new or more modern computer then probably best looking for and actual ‘gaming’ laptop but at the budget end of the range. At least if marketed for gaming it should have a suitable graphics card, which is going to make all the difference to the performance.

I play on a Lenovo Y580. I never drop below 30 FPS in Lions Arch with almost max settings (shaders and shadows toned down, and anti-aliasing off). It has a dedicated nvidia gtx 660m, a quad core i7, and 6gb of ram and I have no problems. However, I don’t wvw so i can’t really give you any info about my fps there. The cost of this laptop was $800 USD, which is cheap for the specs you get with it in my opinion. My laptop gets warm, but not hot which is actually great, since I don’t need to buy an external fan.

Ok u wont get a laptop that can stay above 30 fpsin big WvW battles but u can atleats get one that stays ‘managble’.

Looks for one wiht atleast one of the following CPU’s
3840Qm
3820QM
3740QM
3720QM
3630QM

GPU wise, its not as important as GW2 takes most of its performance fomr the CPU, but u still need atleast one of the following.
560m,
570m,
580m,
660m,
670m,
680m,
7970m

This combination of CPU & GPU will likely be atleast $1000 and up. its expensive but thats what u need ot spend on a laptop capable of running GW2 more specificaly the WvW portion.

Note that to stay above 30 fps in heavy wvw battles u need a Desktop Intel 2nd/3rd Gen i5 or i7 with around 4.5ghz OC. No laptop can come close to this so u will get sub 30 fps in those types of WvW battle no matter what laptop u get.

Try reposting in the Tech support forum to get more advised responses.
A common misconception is that GW2 needs a good GPU, it doenst ..it needs a very good CPU. You will find more people such as myself in the tech forums who help out alot and know this type of info.

GL with ur purchase.

I play on a sony viao – max graphics, it works

Laptops can run WvW just fine one max settings without any noticeable drop on frame rate. However this will be a better that average laptop with associated pricing. I have an i7 mobile quad core with a ATI 7970.
If you want to play WvW at a cheaper model make sure you don’t cheap up on the CPU as stated before CPU is most important for proper play. You can trade of some of the graphics quality without really losing the experience.

Well ‘fine’ and ‘noticable’ mean different things from person to person. But as i said a good CPu in a laptop can atleats keep it ‘managable’ what ever ur views on FPS are.

I personaly cant stand less than 30 fps in MMO’s and less than 60 fps in First person shooters.

All I will say is…

Alienware m17x

Let us know your budget and then we can give you an idea of what you could get. In general though, the following are good brand laptops: Alienware, ASUS, Toshiba, Sony (barely). I would stay away from HP, IBM, Acer, Dell.

P.S. Dell boughtAlienware, however, it is just the official reseller in Australia.

I too game on the Lenovo Y580 and I thoroughly recommend it. They range anywhere from $800-$1,100 depending. I wanted something nice that could be used for years and not feel like it was immediately outdated. It serves that purposes for me. Check em out online for specs at newegg or wherever you prefer.

Those using laptops, I highly suggest running a temp monitoring program while playing.

WvW actually can be brought to justice with a processor that’s even better than the QMs listed above. However, due to how powerful it is, it’s a bit… expensive, to say the least, and not many places carry it for laptop configurations. The Intel Core i7-3920XM is what I’m talking about. But only get it if you really, REALLY want to get 45~50+ fps in wvw, as it scores a 2031 in single-thread performance: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

The only one out of the others that scores closest is way down at 1,857, the Intel Core i7-3720QM. You’re not going to be overclocking these very easily, so it’s up to you how you want to play it out. NVIDIA mobile chips don’t perform as well as they should. For instance, a GTX 690 is about as powerful as a, let’s say, 590 in terms of desktop power, maybe a little better. NVIDIA’s laptop platform isn’t as good as AMD, that’s for sure.

The lowest price you’re going to get for a 3920XM is probably with Lenovo, at about 2200 USD.

OP

I’ve been using laptops for gaming for 15 years. I’ve always gotten a better price to performance ratio out of AMDs. Both processors and graphics cards. Right now I run an i7 but that’s only because I was willing to pay the extra cash for it. It is better.

But you want to get the most out of your budget, and you will get that from an AMD CPU and GPU. If you do decide to go intel, get the slowest i7 because the actual performance boost from upgrading is nominal considering the cost. You’re much better off spending extra money somewhere else. Another great way to save money is, to upgrade your own RAM using the lowest speed memory you can get. Usually it will cost half as much and the difference in RAM speeds is negligible. (I got 32GB of RAM for Photoshop for the same price as 8GB of slightly higher speed RAM.) My other suggestion is, if you can afford it, shoot for a solid state drive.

Right now, I feel like my build is way overkill for GW2 and most other games but here it is as a reference. I run GW2 maxxed out at all times including WvW with zero performance hit.

Alienware M17xR4
i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.3GHZ (8 CPUs)
32768MB RAM (note 8GB is plenty for gaming)
AMD Radeon HD 7970M
2x OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSDs in Raid 0
Windows 7 Ultimate 64

Windows experience index
Processor speed — 7.6
RAM speed — 7.6
Graphics (Aero) — 7.9
Gaming graphics — 7.9
Primary hard disk speed — 7.9

A 7.9 is currently a perfect score on the Windows experience index. A 5.0 is probably good enough.

You’re going to have to have a good high-end mobile FX processor (probably the highest end) for a laptop if you go AMD on a processor.

Zonzai.2341:

Alienware M17xR4
i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.3GHZ (8 CPUs)
32768MB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7970M
2x OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSDs in Raid 0
Windows 7 Ultimate 64

“8 CPUs” Nope, totally wrong:

http://ark.intel.com/products/64899/Intel-Core-i7-3610QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

4 Processor cores, 8 threads. Only the cores count as physical CPU parts.

Impossible to have a laptop for WvW on decent framerates. On the other hand, anything with a modern intel CPU with integrated GPU will at least have you play the game on lowest.

Laptops aren’t meant for gaming. Most laptop videocards are a scam. Nvidia and Ati will overheat, you can bet on that. The only ones that I found work at least half of the time, are modern intel videocards, as stupid as that may sound.

@lyeru: cores aren’t physical CPUs either. 1 CPU with 4 hyperthreaded cores will show up as 8 CPUs in windows. It’s still only a single CPU.

I run GW2 on a samsung R590: i5 450m, gt330m, 4gig ram on medium settings. Not done much pvp so i have not been in any big battles (by big I mean DAoC big, 100+) but Lions Arch even during the xmas stuff ran smooth. It plays for hours without too much heat as a good side. So anything that tops this should run GW2 like a dream.

marnick.4305:

Impossible to have a laptop for WvW on decent framerates. On the other hand, anything with a modern intel CPU with integrated GPU will at least have you play the game on lowest.

Laptops aren’t meant for gaming. Most laptop videocards are a scam. Nvidia and Ati will overheat, you can bet on that. The only ones that I found work at least half of the time, are modern intel videocards, as stupid as that may sound.

@lyeru: cores aren’t physical CPUs either. 1 CPU with 4 hyperthreaded cores will show up as 8 CPUs in windows. It’s still only a single CPU.

i) FPS is affected by the settings mind you; Resolution, AA, texture detail etc. As for you saying that laptops are not meant for gaming – as of a year or two ago, that statement is completely false.

ii) The one and biggest issue with laptops+gaming has been overheating; which has been drastically improved. All laptop GPUs are hardwired to the motherboard and the reason for having the ATI/Nvidia based GPU is that it will run on its dedicated RAM. Yes, all GPU’s heatup, however, the previous reason makes intel based GPUs inferior to ATI/Nvidia.

iii) Multicore processors contain multiple independat CPUs computng as a single unit. Intel based CPUs allow for Hyper-threading. Without going into too much detail, it basically means the operating system can see two virtual/physical cores. Therefore a Quad-core CPU has 4 physical CPUs, and due to hyperthreading you actually get 8 threads in totla. The more threads the more multitasking you can do, however, some applications do not like it when information is being moved between different cores, therefore one can set Processor (core) Affinity to one particular CPU.

Now going back to the topic

Browsing at the Alienware/Dell site I can get the following:

- Core i7- 3840QM (8M Cache, 2.8Ghz with turbo boost to 3.8 GHz)
- 32 GB Ram
- 512GB SSD + 1TB (5400RPM) HDD
- 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
- Windows 7 Pro

All for $5800 AUS lol. I could always save about $1500 and opt for the cheapesd HDD configuration and instead install an SSD and extra 16GB RAM myself. All in all prepare to fork out $4000-5000 for this top end beast.

Hey I’m using a 2012 macbook pro and it works awesome with GW2. Granted if you put it on max settings it’s a bit stutttery but I play with like medium/some high settings and it runs really smooth.

I got Lenovo Y580. I don’t remember exact spec for this laptop, but it has Core i7 (quad core), 8 GB ram, and GTX660M. It’s not as fast as my desktop (i7 2600K @ 4.4 GHz, Radeon 7770), but more than enough to play WvW. It get as low as around 16 FPS in big fights in WvW which isn’t great but still playable.

Iyeru.5240:

You’re going to have to have a good high-end mobile FX processor (probably the highest end) for a laptop if you go AMD on a processor.

Zonzai.2341:

Alienware M17xR4
i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.3GHZ (8 CPUs)
32768MB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7970M
2x OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSDs in Raid 0
Windows 7 Ultimate 64

“8 CPUs” Nope, totally wrong:

http://ark.intel.com/products/64899/Intel-Core-i7-3610QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

4 Processor cores, 8 threads. Only the cores count as physical CPU parts.

You may be right. That’s just what it shows up as in DXdiag.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Now going back to the topic

Browsing at the Alienware/Dell site I can get the following:

- Core i7- 3840QM (8M Cache, 2.8Ghz with turbo boost to 3.8 GHz)
- 32 GB Ram
- 512GB SSD + 1TB (5400RPM) HDD
- 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
- Windows 7 Pro

All for $5800 AUS lol. I could always save about $1500 and opt for the cheapesd HDD configuration and instead install an SSD and extra 16GB RAM myself. All in all prepare to fork out $4000-5000 for this top end beast.

I built mine for under $3000. I just had to shop around for the most stripped down M17xR4 with a 7970M I could find ($1700 on Amazon) and then installed my own hard drives, RAM and operating system. And that includes a 2TB HDD that I put in my disk drive bay.

You just have to be willing to learn how to upgrade a laptop. There’s plenty of youtube videos and other tutorials online. People just get scared because they think it’s too hard when it really isn’t.

marnick.4305:

Impossible to have a laptop for WvW on decent framerates. On the other hand, anything with a modern intel CPU with integrated GPU will at least have you play the game on lowest.

Laptops aren’t meant for gaming. Most laptop videocards are a scam. Nvidia and Ati will overheat, you can bet on that. The only ones that I found work at least half of the time, are modern intel videocards, as stupid as that may sound.

In normal play I have over 60FPS and in WvW it drops down to about 45 FPS. I run Skyrim max settings, heavily modded, with the high rez texture pack above 30 FPS at all times. I put my laptop on a coolermaster cooler and it never overheats. Also, the new Alienwware laptops have the best internal laptop cooling I’ve ever seen. Still, I would never recommend anybody but the most tech savvy and wealthy buyer get an SLI laptop. That’s asking for trouble.

In terms of performance, the 7970M is comparable to an upper mid range desktop card. Also, the 680M costs twice as much as the 7970M while the difference in performance is negligible. Here are the best of the best by rank.

GeForce GTX 590 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 680 (desktop)
Radeon HD 7970 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 660 Ti (desktop)
GeForce GTX 680MX
Radeon HD 7870 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 580 (desktop)
Radeon HD 6970 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 680M
Radeon HD 7970M
Quadro K5000M
GeForce GTX 570 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 480 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 675MX
Radeon HD 7950M *
GeForce GTX 560 Ti (desktop)
Radeon HD 6870 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 470 (desktop)
Quadro K4000M
Radeon HD 5850 (desktop)
GeForce GTX 675M
GeForce GTX 580M
Radeon HD 6990M
Radeon HD 7770 (desktop)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970M.72675.0.html

A 3610Qm CPU will bottleneck and drop below 30 fps in Big WvW battles as with all laptop and Desktop cpu’s at stock, whether u have noticed or been in a big enough battle is uncertain but if a Desktop CPU that is stronger cant manage to stay above 30 fps in said battles without a OC, then a laptop sure as hell cant.*

Again this just comes down to having been put in the situation to test it. if u havnt been in the right battles u wont truly no how far down the fps will drop. A ‘average’ fps of 45 in WvW is totaly possible though

Remember as much as u may feel the need to ‘talk up’ a component or a computer u own, its always best to be conservative when advising others. If the positions were reversed the last thing u would want is to be told “u will get 60 fps all the time in X game” then find out u actually get 50 fps all the time. (just an example)

-* Note: Not my ‘opinion’

@Zonzai.2341
Yeah, if you know how to upgrade components then it saves lots of money. That rig that I posted before was taken from the Dell website. Buying a base model, like you said, could nearly halve that cost if you were to upgrade it yourself – I would too

The only thing I don’t agree with you on is GeForce GTX 590 (desktop)
being better than GeForce GTX 680 (desktop). The power consumption of the 680 is roughly 70-100W lets then its counterpart. This is important because both have very similar performance results, however, due to the lower power consumption I would put the 680 above the 590. Also you’re missing the GTX 690

@SolarNova.1052
Being conservative is definitely important, especially with laptop overheating issue, I agree. I run low-mid with HD resolution and the game looks fine to me. These are my specs (ASUS N53SV):

- i7-2670QM (2.2GhZ, boots to 3.1GHz)
- Nvidia GT540M (2GB)
- 8 GB RAM
- Windows 7 Home Premium

I keep it cool by running ‘Coolermaster Notepal U3’. It allows me to place the fans on the heat dissipators.

In W3 zerg fights FPS can go down to 30-40FPS, however overall I have set it to midrange and it works fine.

You might have figured out already from the multiple mentions, but the Lenovo Y580 is widely regarded as the best bang for the buck gaming laptop right now. Quad core and nVidia 660m with 1080p screen for $800-$900 is tough to beat. Occasionally you can pick up refurbs from the Lenovo outlet store for around $600. (They tend to restock Thursday afternoon/evening if you want to camp it.)

You can get something with a better CPU and/or GPU, but you’ll pay out the nose for it.

My advice is: take the best info from this thread, then go to (or ring)) PC Specialist (www.pcspecialist.co.uk), and have them build it for you. They have components to suit all budgets, and are quite friendly over the phone. If you give them the GW2 requirements they could help you come up with a spec within your budget that could run the game at low to mid or mid to high, depending on what you choose. Build time is usually 2 to three weeks.

SolarNova.1052:

A 3610Qm CPU will bottleneck and drop below 30 fps in Big WvW battles as with all laptop and Desktop cpu’s at stock, whether u have noticed or been in a big enough battle is uncertain but if a Desktop CPU that is stronger cant manage to stay above 30 fps in said battles without a OC, then a laptop sure as hell cant.*

I sometimes run FRAPS for the FPS overlay. I’ve never actually seen it drop below 30ish. It ranges from around 30 to upwards of 100 but is most often at around 45. There are two reasons why I get such great FPS:

1.) In those rare instances where a lot of people are on screen at once, that 32GB of RAM and ultra fast RAID 0 SSDs make a huge difference in performance.

2.) The max screen resolution for the Alienware M17xR4 is 1600×900.

Between the high speed, high capacity memory and storage and the screen size, my GPU and CPU don’t have to work nearly as hard as yours do. That’s all.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

The only thing I don’t agree with you on is GeForce GTX 590 (desktop) being better than GeForce GTX 680 (desktop). The power consumption of the 680 is roughly 70-100W lets then its counterpart. This is important because both have very similar performance results, however, due to the lower power consumption I would put the 680 above the 590. Also you’re missing the GTX 690

That’s just the list from notebookcheck.net. It isn’t my list. You’re right though.

Solandri.9640:

You might have figured out already from the multiple mentions, but the Lenovo Y580 is widely regarded as the best bang for the buck gaming laptop right now. Quad core and nVidia 660m with 1080p screen for $800-$900 is tough to beat. Occasionally you can pick up refurbs from the Lenovo outlet store for around $600. (They tend to restock Thursday afternoon/evening if you want to camp it.)

You can get something with a better CPU and/or GPU, but you’ll pay out the nose for it.

Can the GPU be upgraded or is it built in to the mobo? Sounds like a good deal.

@Zonzai.2341

General speaking laptop GPUs are hardwired (soldered) onto the motherboard – the GPU chip is. Although, some high end laptops may have their own separate GPU attached – which makes is simpler, like chaning over RAM slots.

A lot of laptops nowdays have interchangeable graphics cards. All Alienware and almost all Dell laptops for example. It doesn’t matter though I can find out for myself.

As a few others here, I’m using the Lenovo Y580 when I play on a laptop – you can play up to max settings with decent FPS (even in WvW).

Usually I play on medium settings though, and have been having no problems so far.