Guild Wars 2

Hello there fellow Tyrians. I’ve tried to use the search thingie and although I’m aware that Intel i3/5/7s rule the world I find it strange that there are no mentions about AMD CPUs I’m thinking about buying new PC and for quite some time I was torn between i3 and i5. I looked on different hardware forums for some guidance and have found soooo many different advices that I’m in super dark corner right now. Here’s the deal what I’d like to know:

GW2 prefers rather fast CPU cores (i3/5/7) then more slower ones (FX-6300/8320). I know that OCed i5-3570k can run GW2 on almost maxed settings even in quite large WvWvW battles. What are you experiences with AMD CPUs?

I’d like to try some streaming from time to time and on most HW forums people tend to advise for AMD CPUs since streaming/encoding really pairs well with more CPU cores. People usually ask about streaming FPS or MOBA games and MMOs like GW2 are kinda different since they are more CPU based.

My current setup is Phenom X3 920 with ATI 4850 and it is not enough for WvWvW. I’m quite sure I want new R9 270 card but those CPUs won’t let me sleep at night … .

PS: Here in Slovakia, i3 costs around 100€, i5 200€, FX-8320 is 140€ and FX-6300 is 100€ and every € counts

Look at my Sig, that is a good config to get the best performance out of this game.

its not that i5/i7 rules the world, its that GW2 was built around a single threaded process. And AMD does not do well with single thread performance when compared to Intel. This is a Anet/NCsoft/GW2 specific related issue, since their Code is Flawed.

Even with the best Intel CPU’s ppl are not getting more then 25FPS in a full on 80vs80vs80 zerg. Its just not possible to get better performance at this time.

I would buy a K series i5/i7. team that with either a HD7790, GTX650, or R7-260×. Whichever you can get cheaper. As those cards are the BEST bang for the buck when talking specifically GW2.

Then Overclock the CPU to 4.6Ghz, your GPU to 1200Core, 1600/1800 Memory, then Profit in GW2’s Absolute Best Performance.

For the CPU, AMD loses when it comes to GW2. Plain and simple.

OP, there are a few things you should understand:

Intels DO beat AMDs in single core performance by a hefty margin. The new i5 4670K is ~57% faster per core than both 6300 and 8320 based on PassMarks performance test.

Also CPU usage is exponential in relation to the amount of players on screen. Going from 1 to 10 to 20 players is not the same amount of torque needed, it’s maybe twice or even more. As you can see it adds up pretty quickly.

That being said having that huge amount of players on screen is pretty “rare” instance, at least pretty exclusive. That would be WvW and second to it some boss events in crowded hours. If you prefer dungeons and sPvP and something else you might be able to get away with AMD.

Lastly, your current GPU isn’t gonna cut it no matter what CPU you can see my specs in my sig and it currently does ok, including WvW smaller fights. Upgrade that first to whatever sirsquishy suggested and I guarantee you’ll see more benefit than from CPU upgrade.

Thanks for your feedback guys. Not exactly what I was looking for but still kinda helps I know that if I get 4670K and OC it it will run pretty much all the content in GW2 but it is quite pricey and also I’m not really a big fan of over clocking. I know that the boost is huge, my two friends both have i5-3xxxK, one OCed it to 4.5GHz and second has it on stock settings and the difference is quite big.

What I wanted to know is that if maybe FX-6300 or 8320 can run WvWvW on High (not Ultra High) with 15-25FPS during larger zerg vs zerg (I’m on Piken Square). Right now with my already mentioned PC it is obviously quite impossible at lowest of lowest settings with 5 FPS I also mentioned that I have my eyes on R9 270 card, you guys stated that even R7-260x is enough for GW2 but even though I play MMOs most of the time (2013 was 100% MMO for me), I do hop into BF3/4 from time to time with my friends and who knows what will come later. I think 260x won’t be enough in the longer run since I usually upgrade my PC every 4 years.

I’m trying to get my new setup for under 600€. Case, PSU, RAM and VGA are 360€. If I buy 260x which I really really don’t want it would be 320€. With 260x I can easily get i5-4670K with some 70-80€ MBoard but I’d rather have better VGA and some lower FPS here and there I’ve played GW2 on low for last 15 months so I think that if I can get Ultra in dungeons and medium/high in WvWvW I’d be OK with that.

Well I kind of gave you the answer but I forgot to put a conclusion on it (I’m a math student, I tend to get a little theoretical at times) So if an Overclocked i5 can get 20-25 fps, I’m guessing a non-overclocked AMD will get maybe 10-15 fps. Graphic settings don’t matter that much since they’re mostly for GPU. keep AA, reflections, shadows and postprocessing low as well as character model quality and limit and I believe you’re good to go.

Yes, too much of processing power is never a bad thing (excluding power consumption maybe) so if you can afford, go for a higher video card. The problem just is that price increases more than the performance after that point. a GTX 780 Ti is, what 600 dollars, but it sure ain’t 6 times more powerful than HD 7790

Thanks again. I think I could live with 15 FPS, I guess. I know that price differences are not that huge but it is like that with everything, first you add 10€ and you can get this better, then another 15€ and you get also this and then you look at the bill 150€ higher as was the plan Thanks again for nice feedback.

PS: Electrical engineer here so I did have my share of Math in my old days and completely understand that conclusion part

Yeah, that was how it went with my CPU, I was looking at the cheapest Haswell i5, then I saw the second one was only few euros more, the one after that also, and the K version happened to be for sale… And I was sold

Yeah I’m leaning towards into thinking that if you can’t get acceptable framerate even with Intel, why pay more to be still unhappy? If they change their code to utilize more cores or use CPU less completely I believe AMD will be just as much back in game as Intel.

Hehe I see, that’s the problem with the internet, you never know who you’re talking to

Hehe, I was also looking at the cheapest i5, it is 160€ so only about 20€ more than FX-8320. But I’ve found that unOCed it isn’t really that great, cheapest vs best without K is 30€ and then another 10€ for K version … . Then some good cooling and it goes on and on. But I will see, I still have like 2 months since I’m planning to move my current PC into my office and maybe AMD/Intel will announce something new or maybe will reduce pricing

About the whole CPU discussion you don’t really need to throw a whole lot of money in there as you can read from HERE the old Intels are still near on par with each other when it comes to OC power. Ofc the 2500K being old tech by todays standards.

Get an i5 k. Find the i5 that can support the highest overclock frequency and overclock it, like the i5-4670K or the i5-3570k. i7s will perform worse on games unless you bind the threads or disable the HTing, which means there’s no point in buying an i7. I have an i5-3570k @ 4.5Ghz and i generally get 40fps in LA on max + 4x SSAA @ 1920×1080 on a GTX 580.

Eyvindr.9327:

Thanks for your feedback guys. Not exactly what I was looking for but still kinda helps I know that if I get 4670K and OC it it will run pretty much all the content in GW2 but it is quite pricey and also I’m not really a big fan of over clocking. I know that the boost is huge, my two friends both have i5-3xxxK, one OCed it to 4.5GHz and second has it on stock settings and the difference is quite big.

What I wanted to know is that if maybe FX-6300 or 8320 can run WvWvW on High (not Ultra High) with 15-25FPS during larger zerg vs zerg (I’m on Piken Square). Right now with my already mentioned PC it is obviously quite impossible at lowest of lowest settings with 5 FPS I also mentioned that I have my eyes on R9 270 card, you guys stated that even R7-260x is enough for GW2 but even though I play MMOs most of the time (2013 was 100% MMO for me), I do hop into BF3/4 from time to time with my friends and who knows what will come later. I think 260x won’t be enough in the longer run since I usually upgrade my PC every 4 years.

I’m trying to get my new setup for under 600€. Case, PSU, RAM and VGA are 360€. If I buy 260x which I really really don’t want it would be 320€. With 260x I can easily get i5-4670K with some 70-80€ MBoard but I’d rather have better VGA and some lower FPS here and there I’ve played GW2 on low for last 15 months so I think that if I can get Ultra in dungeons and medium/high in WvWvW I’d be OK with that.

Unless you get a top rated CPU that R9 270 isn’t going to be any better for GW2 then a HD7790/R7-260X, or a Nvidia GTX 650.

For example, My Wife’s system has a FX8350 (Not OC’d due to PSU restrictions). Upgraded her from a HD5770 to a R9-270 and her FPS went from 25-28 to 30-35 in LA on Max Settings. In WvWvW she will drop down to 7FPS, STILL. Because the FX8350 SUCKS for this game. Where as I will only drop down to 15FPS. And Ill tell ya, HUGE HUGE HUGE difference between a Low 7FPS and a Low 15FPS. Also Affects Skill Lag too (i have none, she gets 1-2seconds).

So yea, an i5/i7-K (OC to 4.5-4.6) is the ONLY way to go if you are building for this game. teamed with a Cheaper GPU like what I run, or something in the same class. Because even with the top end CPUs, its not enough to power the games demands.

HD7790 – 119
R7-260X – 129 (Newegg Special)
Edit GTX 650 is NOT as good as the ATI Cards above. Nothing in Nvidia’s Line is as good for the price Currently!

http://www.hwcompare.com/15494/geforce-gtx-650-vs-radeon-r7-260x/
http://www.hwcompare.com/14290/geforce-gtx-650-vs-radeon-hd-7790/
http://www.hwcompare.com/15489/radeon-hd-7790-vs-radeon-r7-260x/

Anything better is going to cost 20-40++bucks more, and anything less isn’t a bargain.
Put the Cash into the CPU and Motherboard. Skimp on the rest (Except PSU, since you ARE going to overclock to get the performance you are after).

That is all.

Eyvindr.9327:

Hello there fellow Tyrians. Here’s the deal what I’d like to know:

What are you experiences with AMD CPUs?

I used to game on an AMD FX-8350. It was decent for what it did but it was not quite enough. I bought an Intel Core i7 4770K and Asus Maximus VI Formula Z87 motherboard because of this game. The game plays so much better. I plan on overclocking it too. Might not. I have it under a Corsair H100 anyway.

Planning to re-use the 8350 as well.