Guild Wars 2

Can anyone please help me choose the better GPU for Guild Wars 2. I’ve read a couple of reviews on different websites, and I got the following impression:

Nvidia GPUs generally keep more consistent FPS, with AMD GPUs, fps tend to vary a bit more, whatever that means. Also, Nvidia seem to have better drivers, where AMD’s aren’t as satisfying as Nvidia’s.

But then again, referring to 660ti and 7950, the 7950 seems to have better performance, more vram, bigger memory bus (384bit, vs 192bit for the 660ti), and last but not least, it’s roughly the same price, even cheaper.

I didn’t find any advantages of the 660ti, except the better drivers (which is somewhat debatable), the typical Nvidia features like PhysX and CUDA, which I’ll most likely never use, since I don’t play any other games except Guild Wars 2. And lastly it seems it’s a tad better in the tessellation department.

So which one should I go for? Lately I’ve been leaning towards the 7950, I just hope that AMD will release new drivers which will have a positive impact on GW2. I’ve been reading about some texture issues with the AMD 7000 series on this very forum..

The rest of my setup is 3570K, 16GB RAM, SSD @ 1680×1050 resolution.

A viable opinion will be appreciated! I’m likely getting one of those tomorrow or something like that.

Thanks in advance!

You just opened the possibility of an AMD vs. NVIDIA flame by fanboys on both sides.

In all honesty, I do have some favoritism for NVIDIA, especially their drivers. But I would opt for the newer card with the newer tech, which is the GTX 660 Ti. I run a GTX 680 and absolutely love it along with the new drivers for the 600 series with adaptive vsync (works on older gen NVIDIA cards as well).

The 7000 series from AMD is a great run, but it’s aging. It offers better value for your money, but it’s not always the best performer unless you plan to use your GPU for general processing (ie: CAD, Adobe products, Folding, etc.) in addition to gaming. AMD runs circles around NVIDIA for general processing in those sort of applications. Both companies also have other lines of video cards specifically designed for that though.

So again, I’d go with the 660 Ti if you mostly use it for gaming. Newer tech, very good drivers, and competitive with AMD’s offerings. If you went to the 670 (one step up) or the 650 (one step down), then the comparison of AMD vs. NVIDIA starts to favor AMD cards in my book.

And remember, specs are meaningless when it comes to comparing AMD and NVIDIA. It’s like comparing Apples and Oranges. The two companies utilize performance of their GPUs in different ways to achieve a similar price to performance point of their products.

If u currently are running a half good Nvidia card (200 series gaming card better)u can still keep PhysX even when using a AMD card as ur primary GPU by using a Hybrid PhysX driver mod.

As for the choice between the 660ti and 7950 ..performance wise 7950 wins with the latest drivers, however the Nvidia cards are still smoother in terms of frame rate as u mentioned.
As to what this means ..bassicaly Nvidia cards FPS doesnt fluctuate much so u see a relativly constant smooth image.
The AMD cards although having higher top end FPS, have more fluctuation, the FPS goes up and down more often giving a less smooth feel.
Price wise they r both the same, atleast in the UK, so its up to you whether u personaly prefer one make over the other, or if u need the more constant smooth fps ..or the higher top end fps.
Also as u mentioned the AMD cards tend to have more GDDR5 memory and so can handle higher resolution above 1080p along with high amounts of AA alot better.
Since ur running below 1080p i dont see that as an issue.

Also depends on what version of the 660ti or 7950 ur looking at i.e Factory OC’d ones. The 7950 Boost edition is as good as a 670 for example.

If u were deciding between the 670 and 7950 the choice wuld be a little harder imo .. But a 660ti vs 7950 ..i would go with the 7950, specialy the boost edition.

Please note i dont own ether a 600 series nvidia or a 7000 series AMD ..so im going by reviews, benchmarks, and feeback from people, more specificaly those on Overclock.net

im personaly going to wait for the 700 series and 8000 series cards b4 i upgrade, they ‘should’ be coming out some time in Q2 of this year, though there is rumors of end of Q1 ‘fingers crossed’

EDIT. take a look at the 7870 tahlti LE cards.. bassicaly AMD has re released a new 7870 which is bassicaly a 7950 with less stream processors ..BUT the Club3D Joker model is actually BETTER than a 7950 even the 7970 in some games and is cheap ..around £170 apparently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiM10G7UyOg&feature=share&list=UU_SN80_V2GymyCWM2oTYTeg
Food for thought.

Thank you guys for the thorough replies. Maybe my question is something like, will my performance be hurt at such a resolution – 1680×1050 if I go with the 660Ti?
And the second question is – Will I notice fluctuation in the frames, if I go with the 7950.

If I have to be honest I want to go for the smoother, more consistent fps. But at my resolution, will this consistent FPS be as high as if I were with the 7950, for example?

Thanks again.

Simply put, theoretically I’d prefer playing with 58-60, than with 50-65..

I recently built a computer just for GW2. I have a Core i5 3470 with Radeon 7850 2gb. I can run everything on max in 1080p with no issues, even WvW zergs. Your major bottleneck for this game will be the CPU if you’re doing WvW. What CPU do you have? 7850 is more than enough to run this game. it overclocks easily depending on which model you get (make sure to get one with two fans, like the MSI. Stay away from XFX as I got two bad cards in a row from them). I don’t need to OC the 7850 at all though, but the option is nice in case I need to in the future. When i did OC the 7850 and ran benchmarks, it was on par with the 7870, so the 7850 is probably the best bang for your buck right now.

Also, I would stay away from Nvidia cards right now. They are way overpriced compared to Radeon. Whoever said that 7xxx series is old tech has no clue what they are talking about. My 7850 is PCI-E 3.0 which is the latest technology only supported by the new intel ivy bridge. The latest drivers improved performance by a huge margin, so these are great cards.

And btw you will not notice any difference between 58-60 and 50-65. Anything above 45fps is completely indistinguishable.

Asuming ur in area’s that CPU bottlenecking doesnt occure, the 660ti, 7950, and 7870 Tahlti LE will all manage 60 fps with little fluctuation imo. You only really see the fluctuations and smoothness issues when ur running near the limits of what the card can handle becouse thats when fps drops ocure.
However
Only if u dont go silly with the graphics options.

Keep sampling at native.
Keep relfections on Terrain and sky
and maybe even Shadows on High not ultra.

TBH i would recommend the 7870 Tahiti LE becouse its MUCH cheaper (~£180) than a factory OC’d 660ti or HD 7950, has good OC’ing potential, and is trading blows with the 660ti performance wise.
If u really wanna spend around £250 then i would recommened the HD7950 Boost edtion.

The decider isnt really ‘which of 2 cards should u get’ ..its more ‘what aftermarket models of all GPU’s current available can you get for X amount of money’.

EDIT: Sim, dont bring arguments about what people can and can not distinguish between in FPS ..becouse each person can find out themselves what they can see. I know for a fact that i can tell a difference bettween 45 and 60.

i have had amd and nvidia cards and i do own a 660 ti atm.

it works fine for me.

personally i choosed it, because i saw a benchmark where GW2 was also part of (and there was a good price for it + a nvidia tshirt and AC3 for 250€/330$
benchmark: http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited/4
(very hard to find <.< )

i’d say, just take the one you can get for the cheapest price / best price to money ratio

I can’t buy the 7870 joker, it is not available in my country. I think I’m going to go with the 7950 boost edition (vapor x to be exact).. I won’t use super-sampling because I don’t see any difference. I will probably go with the settings that you mentioned. I will clock my CPU a bit higher (3570k@4ghz atm). I hope that this will be enough for 50+ fps in most situations.

You would need 4.5ghz roughly to stay above 30fps in Massive WvW battles (nothing can manage 50 as a minimum fps in said WvW battles) .. But for PvE you should be fine.

I was talking about PvE, yes. Thank you!

I have an i7 (3770K@4.2GHz – so not running at the highest possible stable OC which is around 4.7GHz), 16GB RAM with an AMD 7870 (HIS 7870 IceQ X Turbo X), running the game at 1920×1080, all options on highest possible setting and my fps doesn’t drop below 60 in PvE at all. Neither in SPvP. The only time I see drops is in WvW.

As my slightly oc’d 7870 is as fast as a 7950 in benchmarks, you shouldn’t have any problems when going with the 7950. I mean, hey, that card also plays BF3 on ultra@1080 with no problems, so GW2 shouldn’t give you a headache.

The hd 7950 Oced to 1ghz GPU core is as fast as the GTX680, it is a overclocking jewel, the Gtx 660ti is no match to the radeon overclocked and using the 12.11 dirvers.