Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone

I am new to GW2 and coming from a WoW background I have learned that either the CPU or the GFX card will make quite a difference in performance.

So I am curious, what makes the biggest impact on the performance of GW2? A high end CPU or a GFX card?

Thanks in advance

Hi, CPU byfar has the biggest impact.Make sure to avoid AMD CPU’s by all means if you want best performance.Intel 3570k/3770k models your best bang for your buck paired with a z68/z77 chipsets.Then any entry “gaming” video card well work max settings with those CPU’s

I have 2 computers that I use for guild wars 2. One has an AMD FX-8350, the other uses the famous Intel i5-3570k. Both use the same GPU the Radeon 7850 2gb. The i5 averages about 12-20fps higher than the FX and has much better frame latency due to the game scaling very well with intel processors for some reason.

FX averages 54 fps.
i5 averages 66 fps.

Both tested with Vsync off.

Upgrading the bottleneck is most important. It’s no use driving a Ferrari down a mud road, but driving a tractor on German autobahns won’t get you anywhere either.

For GW2, after a threshold, the GPU isn’t important anymore. That goes for all MMO games basically.
- GPU until you can run on highest. My 2 years old graphics card manages this just fine
- CPU for rendering the world. LA requires a big CPU because it is a layered town and you can see far away.
- RAM for players. Most people don’t realize this, but the amount of people you can show on your screen is directly proportional to the amount of RAM you have. As such it’s the most cost-efficient way to improve MMO performance. In WoW, doubling my RAM made all the difference in Ironforge between 3fps and solid 40fps.

I recommend at least 4gb RAM and any decent modern CPU for having a playable experience, with a graphics card up to taste.

SHUYIN.8940:

I have 2 computers that I use for guild wars 2. One has an AMD FX-8350, the other uses the famous Intel i5-3570k. Both use the same GPU the Radeon 7850 2gb. The i5 averages about 12-20fps higher than the FX and has much better frame latency due to the game scaling very well with intel processors for some reason.

FX averages 54 fps.
i5 averages 66 fps.

Both tested with Vsync off.

Im using an FX8120 with gigabyte GA-970A-D3,16GB ram and GTX660 Nvidia,with overclocked cpu to 4.3Ghz average fps that i have is 70-75 max fps 110-120,no problem at all,doesnt have any problems with my cpu and if you have FX8350 try to overclock him to 5Ghz,if you have good mobo,and then tell me if its good or not,for the money that i gave for my FX8120,makes more of its value for me,you could say “but intel is gaming cpu”yeah i will not tell no but it lacks in multitasking and if you notice GW2 is multitasking game,battlefield3 is multitasking,even the new counter strike is multitasking,there is an option to enable multitasking into every game exept gw2,its ebabled and cant be disabled.
M8 if you want to build a pc for GW2 only you have to choose the parts to fit perfectly,at my build gtx660 sucks,because every 2-3 hours,drivers are crashing x-/ ,if you have the money for intel build make intel build,its very good build,if you dont want to give e.g up to 300-350 then you cant make an intel build like 3570K,anyway its up to you and your pocket,read opinions and take it decision.
Have have m8

CPu is most important.

So long as you have (for Nvidia) a X50ti or above the grpahics should run on medium/high setitngs wihtout trouble. I recommend a 560ti. I’ve seen posts with the 600 series gpu’s have software issues. Problems i’ve seen with people using a 500 series has always ended up being a cpu weakness. Ofcourse i run a 560ti so i admit there may be a little bias view in there :P

Anyway CPU wise

I also agree that its best to stay away form AMD…. HOWEVER..so long as you do enough research there are a few AMD cpu’s that will run GW2 ‘acceptably’. But for best performance you need a Intel. This is due to Intel’s faster single thread performance which GW2 is dependant on.
More specificaly a Intel 2nd gen i5 k series or higher.

I sugest :

i5 2550k + Motherboard + 8gb DDR3 1600mhz ram + Evo 212 cooler ( OC as close to 4.5ghz as you can)

If you go 3rd gen (which isnt much of a performance increase tbh) then:

i5 3570k + Motherboard + 8gb DDR3 1600mhz Ram + Noctua NH-D14/Corsair H100 (oc to 4.5ghz)

Note the better cooling required on the 3rd gen ivybridge cpu. It needs it due to the higher heat it generates at the same OC’s. But it will run the equivalanet to 100mhz faster than a 2nd gen Sandybrridge. So a 3570k at 4.5ghz is equiv to a 2550k running at 4.6ghz