Guild Wars 2

Hi community, i have issues with my PC in WvW especially in relatively huge fights.

I will share some info about my Upgrade after GW2 release and will share my experience after this Upgrade:

“1st System” before and on GW2 release. ~August 2012

- AMD Phenom X4 9950 @2.6ghz
- Gigabyte MA-790x UD3P Motherboard
- 2×2gb(4gb) DDR2 800mhz Ram
- Nvidia GTX 250 512mb GPU

“2nd System” 1 week after GW2 release. ~September 2012

- AMD 6850 1gb GPU (i bought this first)
- AMD Phenom 2 X4 965 @3.4ghz (next day bought CPU)
- Gigabyte MA-790x UD3P Motherboard (didnt change)
- 2×2gb(4gb) DDR2 800mhz Ram (didnt change)

I paid ~300$ for that upgrades.

So i didnt gain any FPS in WvW thats why i bought CPU after GPU upgrade but still didnt gain FPS in huge fights. After upgrade i can smootly play in Best apperance settings ~45FPS in PvE before upgrade ~35FPS at medium/low settings. But again no gain in WvW huge fights.

I’m dipping 6-10FPS in huge zerg fights on Best apperance, 15-20FPS on Best performance, 11-17FPS Medium/low settings. A same as my old system maybe 1 FPS more.

So i’m looking upgrade but i’m also scared, because i paid 300$ and gain nothing in WvW.

“My Friend System” His old system was same with my upgraded system then moved this:

- AMD FX8350 @4.0ghz
- AMD 7850 1gb
- 8gb DDR3 Ram (from old system)
- He was already using SSD

He paid ~500$

Now he has 8-13 FPS on best apperance in huge zerg fights.
I have 6-10 FPS on best apperance in huge zerg fights.
It’s still bad.

So i’m sure i will not upgrade to AMD even their best CPU. But i’m not sure if i upgrade to intel new haswell i3 or i5 3rd gen. Do i really gain FPS in WvW? Because he paid 500 and i paid 300 and he gain very little FPS gain and i gain nothing.

I dont want 15-20 FPS in WvW i need at least 25FPS in WvW huge zerg fights. I will not OC that CPU. Looking good performance on stock CPU. And have 400$ budget. I’m sure its about CPU so will not upgrade my GPU.

On single Thread Performance i3 looks perfect price/performance but whats on real experiences? Hows is i3s in WvW? I’m looking Haswell i3s btw. But if you have 3rd gen i3 can you post your WvW FPS in huge zergs?

And @Arenanet why i cant gain FPS even with upgrade? Did you test your game with i3 CPUs can you share your experience with me? You are keep saying you will utilize game for more Threads but if i buy i3 do i get hit on future optimization fixes? Because i3’s 2core but their power lies on Single Thread performance.

• Currencies based on my country.

Your 6850 is more than adequate. Your problem is the AMD CPU. Upgrade to a 1150 socket motherboard and get a 4670k and a hyper 212 evo to cool it and overclock it to 4.5 ghz and it’ll be smooth sailing for you.

Set Character Model Limit to Lowest or Low and everything is fine.
You won’t get much more FPS by upgrading, i don’t know anyone where it is running fine in Zerg vs Zerg.

Sorry to say that but your CPU Upgrade is crap.
Phenom (I) to Phenom II is not an upgrade, the Phenom was always bad.
I had a Phenom II X4 945 before i upgraded to i5 3570k, WvW was unplayable with my old Phenom.
I’m running an Intel Core i5-3570K and it’s totally fine, huge Zergs drop FPS to 10-15 but thats only the case when casting lag is so huge that you can’t play at all.
Upgrading from Phenom 2 945 to i5-3570k was totally worth it, Haswell may be slightly better but i don’t know if it is worth the extra money.
Don’t buy a Dual Core, you won’t get happy with that.

Your Graphiccard is ok, i got a HD6950 2GB and get ~30FPS in Lions Arch at best appearrance.
I had a HD7970 for 2 Weeks until it died… and i had 60FPS in Lions Arch.
In huge Zergs it made not a real difference which card i used…
Better graphiccards make PvE better but don’t change much in WvW.

In Guild Wars 2 the CPU is the real bottleneck.
Intel is just the best for Gaming atm and the ‘K’ models are really good for overclocking.
My 3570k Stock 3.6 is running ordinarily @4.4GHZ and even Higher when it’s cold outside :P

My Suggestion is buy a Core i5-4570 it has a nice price/performance ratio , you will need a new motherboard and take a CPU that you are ok with for more than 2-3 Years because Intel likes to change their socket every time, i was able to use my AM3+ for years but unfortunately their CPUs aren’t good for gaming.
There is no need to upgrade your graphiccard atm, i’m waiting for AMD’s Volcanic Isles, price of HD7000 Series should get a nice drop

I have a rig in my house that runs a 4770k, in most WvW zergs it can stay above 25FPS.

In the truly monsterous zergs it will drop lower. BUT the big thing to know is that this 4770k(4th gen) is still running at stock settings despite having a NH-D14 cooler on it. So it could easily handle a OC to around 4.4ghz, and gain some FPS imporvments in WvW.

My own CPU is a 3930k which is a 2nd generation i7e on the LGA 2011 socket. it runs at 4.6ghz OC and can stay above 25 FPS in WvW in 95% of situations.

The WvW culling settings have to be set according to the zerg size. All zergs excluding those really massive ones in EB can handle the below settings.
Charatcer limit : Highest
Texture Limit : Medium.

When u get to the biggest zergs u need to set Texture Limit to Low.

So what im saying is, get a i5 or i7 ether 2nd, 3rd or 4th gen.
Buy a top end air cooler like a NH-D14 or Silver Arrow,
Then OC as high as u can whilst keeping under 80c at full load with the cooler of ur choice.
2nd gen will OC further than 3rd gen and 3rd gen will OC higher than 4th gen.
4th Gen is faster clock for clock vs 3rd gen and 3rd is faster clock for clock vs 2nd gen.
The difference in ur end OC will negate any difference between the clock for clock performance so dont worry about that.

If u dont want to OC then buy a 4th Gen as they are the fastest at their stock clocks.

You WILL notice a performance difference going form a AMD cpu to a Intel one with ur rig.