Guild Wars 2

So I’ve currently got an AMD Radeon HD 6700. I’ve had this crashing problem forever and been back and forth with gw support with no resolution. It only happens in guild wars 2, nothing else. Anyway, I installed a new power supply (700w) thinking maybe my 450w wasn’t big enough. I just froze and crashed again. I guess I need a new video card. I can’t think of what else might be doing it. Any recommendations? I literally only use my computer for gw2 and checking my email. I’m willing to spend up to $200 and like I said, I only run gw2 on basically the lowest settings. I just want something that will stop crashing so I can really play.

Reference 480, 380x, probably a 970 on a good sale

I would aim for a RX 470 or a reference RX 480 at $200. The 470 should be ~$180-ish, the performance delta is fairly small.

So would you recommend something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/XFX-1226MHz-Detachable-Graphics-RX-470P4LFB6/dp/B01JHQXGEE/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1472100765&sr=1-3&keywords=rx+470

If that link doesn’t work, its an xfx radeon rx470. Only 2 reviews there but both gave it 5 stars.

seems like a memory clock problem to me..
did you try in lower clock speed?

bansheehanover.9503:

So would you recommend something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/XFX-1226MHz-Detachable-Graphics-RX-470P4LFB6/dp/B01JHQXGEE/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1472100765&sr=1-3&keywords=rx+470

If that link doesn’t work, its an xfx radeon rx470. Only 2 reviews there but both gave it 5 stars.

You can get the considerably faster GTX 1060 (or similar in DX12, but GW2 is far from that tech) for around $220 or so.

Sub-budget <$200 cards are generally crippled kitten. If you want sub $200 and a decent card, only a used card is a decent option.

Is it GW2 that crashes, or does your windows crash too?

If you have an integrated GPU on your processor, try use that and see if the crashes still happen.

You were right to try a new PSU, its a fairly common cause of random crashes. Another source of random crashes is dying RAM. You can still boot, but anytime to stress it out, it freaks. For that, if you have 2 sticks, you can remove one at a time and see if it is stable. It’ll be incredibly unlucky for both sticks to go bad at once.

Look at the GTX 950 2GD5, gw2 is cpu bound and is based of off DX9, this pcb from Asus is a gr8 1080p card that doesn’t require a 6 pin if u buy the GTX 950 2G.

XFX is a good brand. You won’t go wrong with the 470 you linked.

I recommend going with a 1060 though. I’ve owned both Radeon and NVidia GPUs, and I like NVidia a lot more due to its performance and Shadow Play ^~^

So you would recommend something like this

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GeForce-GTX-1060/dp/B01KIJ7XQG/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1472186776&sr=1-8&keywords=gtx+1060+nvidia

For reference, the problem is that only during guild wars, my computer will freeze and restart completely. Usually the screen will either go black or will go to alternating lines (light blue/dark blue, or yellow/dark yellow) Sometimes it will flicker to this screen then back to gw, and if I’m quick I can tab out of gw and it won’t restart, but as soon as I tab back in it likely will restart. I replaced the power supply, thinking that was maybe it but it still seems to be doing it. And it’s totally random when it happens, although it seems to happen in pvp a lot more than pve. Sometimes once a day, sometimes 5-8 times a day. Very annoying.

What are the other specs of your computer? And which model of psu did you buy?

Relating to the gpu, a 1060 is absurdly an overkill for gw2. It might be better to get a rx 460, gtx 950 and upgrade the cpu or take an ssd.

Ok, I think I’ve narrowed it down to either that last card I linked (which does seem like crazy overkill) or this card

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013WQC9Z2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=182N65KKCON10&coliid=I240160WHYQ5TV&psc=1

which is a gtx 950. Lots of good reviews. It is like $60 cheaper. my cpu is an amd phenom II X6 1045T 2.7 Ghz and the ps I got was an evga. Not sure that matters. What do you guys think? I’m pretty much going to buy whichever you say lol. And soon, cause I can’t even pvp without freezing and restarting. Although today when I came back my team was at a 200 point deficit and we came back and won, so yay us.

Would go for a RX-460. You should get >50fps on near max settings at considerably lower power costs. I cant see the worth of a RX-470 if your only playing GW2. You will see a significant bump in performance with the 460 over your current card.

A more powerful GPU will probably only shine with a more powerful CPU.

No idea on Nvida cards.

Ansau.7326:

What are the other specs of your computer? And which model of psu did you buy?

Relating to the gpu, a 1060 is absurdly an overkill for gw2. It might be better to get a rx 460, gtx 950 and upgrade the cpu or take an ssd.

There is no such thing as absurd overkill when it comes to hardware. Everything becomes obsolete with time. Its all about value. If someone say “well my budget $200” then I will always recommend a $250 card that’ll last maybe 3 years in terms of performance vs a $150 card that’ll last maybe 1 year. This is especially important if the person already got a kittenty CPU that need to be replaced within the year.

But of course that value is up to each person, its the OPs choice. If he just want a toaster that run GW2 then even a 460 is “overkill” as well, a used card thats 4 years old should do the trick.

You might be able to find a $200 GTX 1060 3GB card which would run rings around that 950. But the OP really wanted a card closer to $150 than $200 and sadly that’s where there’s a major leap in performance.

if you havent made the purchase yet and if in the U.S http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487263&cm_re=GTX_1060-_-14-487-263-_-Product theres a 1060 for under 200 ,
I’ve shopped newegg for parts for a long time in case you concerned about not knowing the site , Most people who buy PC parts usually shop there at one time or another if not religiously

Well the 3GB GTX 1060 is not quite a full GTX 1060. nVidia disabled 10% of the CUDA cores a 6GB GTX 1060 has (1152 vs 1280). It’s still considerably faster than the GTX 950. Heck it still beats out the 970 in most 1080p benchmarks.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-3gb-vs-6gb-review

Bubbagump.4158:

if you havent made the purchase yet and if in the U.S http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487263&cm_re=GTX_1060-_-14-487-263-_-Product theres a 1060 for under 200 ,
I’ve shopped newegg for parts for a long time in case you concerned about not knowing the site , Most people who buy PC parts usually shop there at one time or another if not religiously

Thanks for all the help guys. I went ahead and ordered this card so we’ll see how it goes. I realize my computer isn’t top of the line anymore, but geez. I have a mortgage you know.

Progressively upgrade your components :-) I recommend getting an 6th gen Intel i3 or i5 CPU next

Obviously an SSD and video card are stuff you can carry over to a newer platform later. Even an upgraded power supply can be reused.

As it is the major “organs” of a PC are usually upgraded together due to shifting standards of type of RAM that the CPU needs. Right now it’s DDR4 which is a 6th gen Intel and motherboard. AMD’s next CPU will also use DDR4, it’s just not out yet. So type of RAM dictates CPU and type of RAM and CPU socket dictates motherboard.

It’s just that a “heart/lung” transplant will cost you between $250-800 or thereabouts. You could always reduce that price by going for a compatible low end CPU to start with and upgrade that later as well as going for more economical motherboard and sanely priced RAM.