Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody! I was thinking about changing my graphic card because i’m experiencing crashes since GW2 came out in summer 2012; with graphic settings from mid to high, the game always resulted unplayable to me for the crashes frequency, but with graphic settings lowered to the ground crashes wasn’t so frequent, so i’ve been able to play GW2 for the last 3 years… until HoT came out and crashes turned to be so many more (even with the lowest settings) to re-make the game unplayable once again, like it is happening for many of us

So far, my specifics are:
i3 530, 2.9 MHz, dual core, 4 thread
nvidia 9800 gt
4 GB RAM (32 bit, win 7)
500W PSU (with one 6-pin connector)

Reading around the web, i realized that a gtx 960 would be too much for my CPU, bottlenecking it; so, do you think an Asus gtx 750 ti OC 2GB (requiring one 6-pin connector) would be a fair choice?
Most important… playing with middle settings with the 750 ti and my CPU, do you think i would still experience crashes?
Thank you all in advance for your feedback and suggestions!

I notice you are using 4GB of ram on 32 bit windows? You may have issues with newer cards that have more onboard memory – you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.

I suggest installing 64 bit windows when you get a new card, to use all the available RAM.

For what it’s worth, I have this gtx 960 card:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5507

Have you considered a gtx 950 card instead?

Yes, i ment 4GB, not 4MB i’ll edit it, ty. What do you mean with “you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.”?

Why are you using 32-bit Windows?

I’d advise you to get a copy of Windows that isn’t 32-bit.

The i3-530 is fully capable of 64-bit Windows. (see http://ark.intel.com/products/46472/Intel-Core-i3-530-Processor-4M-Cache-2_93-GHz , Instruction Set 64-bit)

If you have a 6-pin you can run a R7 370 (~$120 ASUS on Newegg) or GTX 960. However, since the CPU would be the limiting factor a MSI GTX 750 Ti for $105 on Newegg would be a good choice. I think a ~$150 GTX 950 would be overkill , and the R7 360 / R7 260X / R7 260 would be weaker cards plus you would need to plug in the power connector.

I would not buy a low-mid range AMD GPU at this time unless it is dirt cheap and 15-20% faster than a comparable Nvidia GTX 900 series card (<$100 , though that Sapphire R7 265 comes close there’s a very large rebate involved). While the Nvidia GTX 900 series are all new cards (Maxwell) , all AMD GPUs are tweaked rehashes save for the Fury X , Fury and Fury Nano. The minor power savings alone would make me go for Nvidia if it’s the same price as a comparable AMD GPU. This minor power savings also allows you to effortlessly overclock the Nvidia Maxwell GPUs without runaway power usage.

TL; DR:
Get Windows 7 , 8 , 8.1 or 10 as long as it is 64-bit —→ depends on hardware compatability
Lower power heat/noise ---> MSI GTX 750 Ti TwinFrozr for $115 , $10 MIR = $105 shipped
AMD loyalty , slightly faster card—-> Sapphire R7 265 100370L for $110 , $20 MIR = $94 shipped OR the ASUS R7 370 STRIX for $124 ($20 MIR)

Thorniss.2301:

What do you mean with “you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.”?

Under 32bit windows the amount of Video Ram(vRAM) on your graphics card must be mapped to your system RAM. So if you have 4GB of RAM and a 1GB vRAM graphics card,you’re down to only 3GB of usable system RAM. Ontop of that, DX9.0c and earlier games the vRAM must also be duplicated onto System RAM.

You’re in for a world of hurt if you upgrade to a +1GB GPU with 32bit Windows.

MrFayth.3546:

Thorniss.2301:

What do you mean with “you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.”?

Under 32bit windows the amount of Video Ram(vRAM) on your graphics card must be mapped to your system RAM. So if you have 4GB of RAM and a 1GB vRAM graphics card,you’re down to only 3GB of usable system RAM. Ontop of that, DX9.0c and earlier games the vRAM must also be duplicated onto System RAM.

You’re in for a world of hurt if you upgrade to a +1GB GPU with 32bit Windows.

Oh, this is a bad new i didn’t have idea of.
About win-32bit, i have this because when i bought my pc it came with original win 7 32 bit, and i never thought about an upgrade to win 64 bit.
So, if i well understood, i actually play GW2 with my GPU (9800 gt) using 1 GB and my processor having access to 2 GB (4 physically installed, -1 because of 32 bit, -1 because of GPU); if i upgrade to 64 bit and get a new GPU using 2 GB (for example, gtx 750), my processor will still have access to 2 GB (4 physically installed, -2 from new GPU, no penality from 64 bit system).
Is it right?

Thank you all again for your support guys, very appreciated!

EDIT: or maybe in a 64 bit environment the GPU doesn’t get away RAM from CPU?