Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone! I spent about $500 on my PC over the summer so I could run GW2, and it does a nice job, but I’m looking to upgrade some pieces to get both better GW2 performance and future game performance.

Here is my info:

Motherboard:
Manufacturer = ASUSTek Company INC
Model = M5A78L-M LX PLUS
Version = Rev X.0x
Serial # = MF70 BCG01200828

Windows 7 64x

AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 Processor, 3400 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

8GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

I don’t remembr what my PSU is and I can’t take the side panel off atm, but I believe it was somewhere between 500-800.

My price range is a total of 400 dollars, and I’d like to upgrade multiple things instead of one really expensive thing.

I also think I’d like an SSD so if you could recommend one of those as well?

If you need any more information needed, let me know

*Also, should I change from an AMD to an Intel CPU? And I absolutely want to stick with NVIDIA cards.

let me start with the last question one First – AMD or INTEL

U are already using AMD your budget doesn’t allow for you to go INTEL cpu.
This mean u need to change your motherboard and Ram and in some cases
a reinstall of windows.

Stay with nvidia ( for AMD (ATI ) people stay with yours ))
After all we only have two choices and both are equally good
( secret – they copy each others tech and price fix the market too )

400 bucks u have. Let’s see if i can save you some money.

PC run faster if you have a fast CPU and lots of RAM to prevent swapping to the hard drive ( swap file or fake ram i call it ). That’s it – no big secret there.

8gb of ram is more then enough. Way more ram then what the regular joe needs.
You know the type – the guy of girl that has tons of ram an only uses the PC to surf the web, facebook, email and watch youtube videos.

You only need tons of ram if your running a server ( FTP, application, terminal server, web , email ( fill in blank server ) etc. )) OR you keep launching 20 application at the SAME time. So if you just have GW2 running 8 is good. too good

SSDs are ok. Overkill in my i think. Save it for you Next system in 2 years.

My take on what i think you should do:
Going SLI ( 2 video cards ) with your existing video card OR get a really good single card. In SLI you will be able to crank up the graphics BIG time.
That will cost you under 200 bucks ( an you will have change left over )

You can even try getting a faster hard drive and install the game on that.
My HD spin at 7200rpm. they have 10,000rpm hard drives out there. But, i wouldn’t do it and you shouldn’t either.

Finally – save that other 200 bucks and put that aside for your future PC.
Keep it simple and get the SAME Video card ( make and model ) already in your system.

Final answer: SLI

What’s your motherboard?

I edited the information of my motherboard into my OP

You don’t need to buy a new motherboard.

Here’s your CPU compatibility list:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A78LM_LX_PLUS/#CPUS

And it looks like you already have a good CPU anyway.

So what would you recommend? I only pull about 30 FPS on max settings and I’d like to boost that up to 60-ish

Someone mentioned doing SLI but I don’t think you can because you only have one PCI slot that it large enough for the graphics card. I suggest that you upgrade your graphics card to one of the higher end ones.

I use a GeForce GTX 670 FTW but that’s like $400.

Ok. So upgrade the graphics card. Any SSD reccomendations?

I noticed in the other thread you recommended some kind of cooling. Should I get some kind of cooling device?

I have 4 fans atm

EVGA 02G-P4-2670-KR GeForce GTX 670 2GB — 369.99 – Free Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782

OR
Plenty to chose from here:
I buy EVGA cards – everyone has there favorites.

http://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Graphics-Cards/SubCategory/ID-48

For SSD see this video, this might help:
http://www.newegg.com/SSD/Category/ID-119

GAMER SSDs
http://promotions.newegg.com/best-ssd/index.html#gamer
Samsung , Corsair , OCZ and Kingston

Click on each image and read the customer reviews.

Go here and on the website Look for the drop down – select Best Ratings
http://www.newegg.com/Internal-SSD/SubCategory/ID-636?Order=RATING

Don’t worry about tag’s like “Gamer” on SSD’s. Any SSD will be buckets loads faster than an old fashioned platter based hard drive. Much more than you need for this game. It would be more important to get a small swap space sized one for caching but, that’s overkill for just playing this game too

Video card and ram are the big items to play this game.

LithePanther.5027

Check in on the tech support forums, people with good experiance and knowledge prowl there. Myself included.

I have to say that if you have $400 , you can move to Intel if you look for sales.
And i highly sugest you do. Those saying stay AMD and upgrade ur gpu honestly, and i dont like sounding insulting but, dont know what their talking about. We all appreciate people helping others out but seriosly, AMD cpu’s cant run GW2 very well aside from the FX 8350, but even that wont handle WvW well.

Your getting 30 fps on average with ur current gpu becouse your cpu is holding u back. So upgrading ur gpu wont do anything. A 550ti though low end ..is more than capable on a mixture of High & medium settings of giving u 60 fps.

If you can find a Motherboard + Intel i5 K bundle ..get it ..even if it uses up all $400 ..get it. You Will notice a huge performance boost and be able to play WvW without resulting in a slide show.

If you can find a deal in ur area for a Asus or Gigabyte motherboard + a Intel i5 3570k or 2550k/2500k. get it.

SSD’s are the last thing u add to increase performance on ur rig. When u dont have much money to spend and have other things sub-Gaming level ignor SSD.

Again i advice checking in on the tech support forums ..browsing some threads. You will get the same advice most the time there.

EDIT : Here take a gander. The motherboard even comes with some nice High quality RAM for free .even though u probably dont need it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
With
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543

Total price : $340 / $345

Yor remain $60 could get u a nice cooler.
Ether
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
or spend a bit above your budget and get the best
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018