Guild Wars 2

So here’s my specs

CPU: i5-750 2.66 GHz
GPU: HD 6870 x2
RAM: 8 GB
Native res: 1920×1080

I kind of go back and forth on CrossfireX ON vs CrossfireX OFF. I can run Supersampling with CFX on which is kind of nice, but I don’t seem to notice much of an increase past that. Is this because of a CPU bottleneck or an issue with CFX support?

Is anyone out there running CFX with better results?

About a year ago I remember hearing that GW2 had an issue with OCed CPUs where it would actually run better at stock speeds. Is this true?

I get about 15-60 FPS, but it’s the 15 part I don’t like. For an MMO I could tolerate maybe 25 from time to time, but I like my games smooth as butter otherwise. I have to run my culling settings on Lowest/Low to keep the best balance between performance and appearance.

What do y’all think I should do?

1. Maybe there’s a CFX trick I don’t know about?
2. Should I get a beastin’ single card instead like an R9 280X?
3. Would OCing my CPU help?
4. Should I just go ham and get an i5-4670k + motherboard?

go for 3, if it doesnt help, go for 4.

GW2 isnt THAT kitten GPU’s, ur minimum FPS figures are caused by ur CPU in all likelyhood.

Even with a 2nd gen or newer intel OC’d rig u will see FPS in the low 30’s in LA, but thats with culling on Highiest/Medium and all other settings except Reflection on MAX including SuperSampling and at 3200×1800 resolution.
WvW will still dip down to the low 20’s, but again thats with culling on highest/Mediu, so if u run them both on low u should easily stay above 30 with a OC’ 2nd gen or newer intel rig.

Here are some screenshots of my i5-4670K (Stock Clocks) In WvW and LA.

LA wasn’t to busy when I took the capture, but in WvW I was in the middle of a 30~ Player Zerg.

So, if you were to go with #4 (Buy an i5-4670K+Z87 Motherboard) I would say do it if you had the cash. its the only thing that really ‘smoothed’ this game out for me.

You know I’m sure his first generation i5 is fine. It probably performs better than my AMD FX-8350 in this game. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. If that i5 can overclock and the system can handle it, then go for it in my opinion.

Guild Wars 2 hates crossfire. Turning off crossfire will yield slightly better frame rates if that 6870 is around the power of say… a Radeon HD 7790 which honestly I’m not sure. disable CFX and then put a overclock on it with msi afterburner or something.

In my opinion, you don’t need the new i5 4670K if you’re able to overclock it to something better and get better frames. You don’t need new GPU either but if you want to I would recommend the R9 280X (it is the Radeon HD 7970 rebrand).
But yea disable crossfire. It should give your fps an increase if your 6870s won’t hold anything back.
Overclock of course will help. kitten… the only way to get amazing frames is brute forcing with raw CPU power… I very much hate that.

Also yes I have played with crossfire on both of my 7970s in this game and performance was slightly better with them off.

My concern with the 6870 was that it was a mid-range released before GW2. So there is still (maybe) the slight possibility of a minor GPU bottleneck on GW2. However, the 7970 is a more recent high-end card where that isn’t even a question. That thing won’t slow down GW2 on its own, so there’s no reason to run two for this game.

Simply monitor ur GPU usuage when playing GW2 to see if ur maxing it out. No need to guess, there is software available to tell u.

Places like Orr and Southsun push the GPU usage to 100% and run close to 60 FPS.

LA only pushes the GPU usage to 60-70% and runs at about 40 FPS.

So I’m guessing this means a GPU upgrade will give me a conditional boost and a CPU upgrade will give me a thorough boost?

Yeah that’s what would happen

DarkWasp.7291:

Places like Orr and Southsun push the GPU usage to 100% and run close to 60 FPS.

LA only pushes the GPU usage to 60-70% and runs at about 40 FPS.

So I’m guessing this means a GPU upgrade will give me a conditional boost and a CPU upgrade will give me a thorough boost?

Affirmative.

Well doesn’t look like I’ll get away with the easier option then :P

Sadly Intel CPUs seem to have a maximum sale discount threshold of $20