Guild Wars 2

‘kay, so while I’m not 100% lost in this, I’m not near the best when it comes to hardware knowledge.

After recently buying a new laptop, which GPU isn’t as good as my desktop computer’s (Nvidia GT630M vs Nvidia GTX680), I didn’t expect it to be much better in anything despite its obviously better CPU (Intel Core i7 vs. AMD Phenom II X4).

But to my own surprise, while most games still run better on my desktop computer, Guild Wars 2 runs INFINITELY better on my laptop – so much better I’ve completely chosen to not play it on my desktop anymore. I’m generally a patient person and could live with the low framerate I got on my desktop (~20’ish, regardless of settings) but it’s now become rather obvious to me how much the CPU means for the game.

Therefore, I’m out hunting for a CPU that can compare to my laptops, but my motherboard doesn’t want me to get one of Intels, apparently..
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A79T_Deluxe/#specifications
So I’m asking if anyone out there can find a CPU that would fit with my current motherboard, and compare to my laptop’s CPU, or at very least allow me to run GW2 with a higher fps.

crosses fingers that I won’t need a new motherboard..

If you have a Phenom II x4 965 I think the best thing you could probably do is overclock if you have a decent CPU cooler. Your motherboard supports AM3 CPU’s and most of the newest processors from AMD run on AM3+ sockets. There are a few 6 core processors in the Phenom II line but I don’t think it would net much of an improvement over the quad core. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition are the 6 core ones if you want to check them out. Overclocking will certainly yield a better experience if you haven’t already.

If I were you I would get a nice AM3+ board and a FX 8350 (AMD) or wait a few weeks and grab an socket 1150 board with a i5 4670K or i7 4770K (Intel). Then, overclock the processors to 4.5Ghz and you’ll be loving the game with a GTX 680 and a very solid processor. The AMD solution is probably cheaper, but the performance of the Intel processors are better for GW2. However, the only difference will be around 5 frames per second.

If you already have an AMD Phenom II X4 965, that’s the best CPU you can get for your motherboard (socket AM3). You can try overclocking it. As long as your case has decent cooling, this CPU is easily overclocked, even with the stock CPU fan.

Be sure you have at least 6gb of RAM too.

Dam’, seems I don’t have so much of an option. I do have 16GB RAM but I had problems with my fan in the past, and while my new GPU came with three fans, I’m still not much for causing it to overheat.

Thanks for your replies, everyone.

Your only options are to either go for AM3+, Overclock you current cpu (which you doesn’t seem to want^^), or switch to intel.
You can see a short video of a quite similar system (if you would upgrade to a AM3+ with a FX8350) in some zerg situations here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7k8EoyS4ak&feature=youtu.be

Seems to me quite decent if we keep in mind ( that ) it is recording and compressing the video data at the same time @ 2k resolution (but the fps counter in the menu seems somewhat wrong; it looks a lot smoother).

Nonetheless a i7 is more expensive but should perform better in the same situation, while a i5 (ivy bridge; haswell should be out of question better) should be quite similar or slightly better at stock clock rates.
As always it only depends on the inside of your wallet.

Do you know which phenom you have? use cpu-z if not, it’ll let you know.