Guild Wars 2

Hey Guys,

As an avid poster in this section of the forums a few years ago before I left I was hoping some of you guys could let me know what your system runs at FPS wise with the settings I have posted in the attached picture. I plan on making a return to the game and with my aging system the expansion finally might make me upgrade.

If you guys would let me know what hardware you are running on (CPU/GPU is all I really care about) and let me know what FPS you guys get when looking over the grove from the vista you can see in front of me looking towards the center of the grove at a slight downward angle, I would appreciate the help.

If you guys are curious at what I am getting my whopping 15FPS with, all my relevant hardware is found on my second screen if you pan over.

TLDR: I have a ***king old system and I’m contemplating worst case scenarios for haswell and skylake processors on whether I should upgrade.

Thanks,

Ilithis

Not what you asked for, but a little newer. For science!

Why would you want to Limit LOD, though?

I cannot get any ingame info as I cannot play the game anymore. But system is i7 4790k and gtx 980 ti Strix with 16gb 1333 ram.

I can guarantee I have a high amount of FPS there though.

In terms of upgrade get a i7 4790 or i7 sky lake processor.

4670k (stock) HD 7850 (also stock)

for THIS game there are only 2 Choices for CPU, 6700K or 4790K because they are the FASTEST single threaded CPUs on the market. The 6700K is ONLY 5% faster then the 4790k at the same clocks. And the 4790K overclocks higher then the 6700K on average. So If you are going to OC, depending on your Binning Luck there maybe no IPC performance difference between the two.

The question you need to ask yourself is DDR3 or DDR4 and ITX or not. Memory wise there is NO performance difference between DDR3 and DDR4 with these chips due to them both using dual channel controllers.

IMHO, the main difference is going to be memory capacity. ITX has 2 slots, so DDR3 yeilds a max of 16GB while DDR4 yeilds a max of 32GB.

Both CPUs have the same limitation of 4x lanes going to DMI for the chipset. The 4790K is version2 bandwidth, while 6700K is version3 bandwidth. But if you use NVMe on either you will saturate the DMI links anyway. Both have 16x lanes from the CPU, the z97 and z170 both have motherboard options with PCIE multiplexers to give more PCIE lanes at the chipset (below the DMI) so you can run 4way SLI/CF. I would not push dual GPUs in that setup however, as you will again saturate the 4x DMI bandwidth to the CPU.

Currently If i was going to build a system I would probably take the 4790K on a Z97 for microATX, and a 6700K okitten70 on ITX or Full ATX due to some of the board designs and the version3 link speed of the DMI.

There are really no other options, IMHO.

(NOTE the i7-5775c is a good choice IF you are going to overclock it. With the L4 Cache it does outperform BOTH the 4790K and 6700K at the same Clock speeds. But your locked into a Z97 and DDR3 with this choice, and the 5775c is very hard to find.)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/16

The Z170 board I would choose, due to the 40 PCIE Lanes at the Chipset for 4way SLI and 3way CF support. http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=151-SS-E179-KR

@Brazen
Thanks for the detailed feedback! I’m confused by your comment on limiting the LOD, where in options have I accidentally limited it?

@Riku
Bummer that you can’t play but at least you can still enjoy the forums! Thanks for your input.

@No One
Interesting that overclocking helps that much compared to your stock vs Brazen’s overclock. Good to know that I will have to overclock to get what I want out of the 4670k (or 4690k for that matter) if I go for it.

@sirsquishy
Does hyper threading make a difference for GW2 at all? I am contemplating an i5 because my i7 nehalem far outlived its usefulness before games used many threads. With DX12 on the horizon for some games that might change so games use more threads. However, for GW2 use, isn’t the IPC the same between say the 6600k and 6700k because they run on the same architecture?

I appreciate all your guys input, some interesting data for sure.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

@Brazen
Thanks for the detailed feedback! I’m confused by your comment on limiting the LOD, where in options have I accidentally limited it?

By ticking Effect LOD. Hover over the options to see what they do.

I’m surprised not more people have posted a screenshot. This is the first post I see that does it right: provide a spot and specific settings. Would like to see more people post. Its value is up for debate, but at least it’s something.

E: See also this post on Reddit.

sirsquishy.8531:

[…] and a 6700K okitten70 on ITX or Full ATX […]

Wow, Anet. Seriously …

sirsquishy.8531:

for THIS game there are only 2 Choices for CPU, 6700K or 4790K because they are the FASTEST single threaded CPUs on the market. The 6700K is ONLY 5% faster then the 4790k at the same clocks. And the 4790K overclocks higher then the 6700K on average. So If you are going to OC, depending on your Binning Luck there maybe no IPC performance difference between the two.

What? You get literally nothing from the multithreading i7s offer for GW2. Sure an i7 might beat an i5 by a couple of percentage points in terms of single threaded performance but it isn’t worth the additional money in the slightest. We’re talking like 5% difference for $100; that money would be much better spent on an H100i or a Noctua DH-15 so you can push a higher overclock.

For this game, an i7 is a waste of money TC. Grab a 6600k+mobo and a good cooler and OC the balls off it and you’ll be in the best place possible for this game.

The rest of the ramble about ITX vs ATX didn’t make any sense to me either; that’s a matter of form factor and what size PC you want.

An i7 is going to be faster then an i5 due to clock speed differences alone. When I still had my 4670K, I had it clocked the same as my 4790K and the 4790K was still 20-25FPS higher then the 4670K using the same RAM/GPU. So yes, HT does yeild more FPS.

the IPC is going to be the same for the same generation of CPU. a i5-4440 is going to have the same IPC as a i7-4790k. But the faster clocked CPU is going to win in performance over all.

You are getting way more then 5% performance between an i5 and i7. You gain HT, you gain more L3 Cache and you have a higher base clock and higher Turbo.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/88195,88191

Fermi.2409:

The rest of the ramble about ITX vs ATX didn’t make any sense to me either; that’s a matter of form factor and what size PC you want.

ITX has a limit of 2 DIMMs. Using DDR3 you have a system max of 16GB of ram. using DDR4 you have a system max of 32GB of ram. Thats what that was about.

For ATX, Skylake has faster DMI links to the CPU from the Chipset. It handles multiplexing better then Haswell’s DMI. So when running Quad SLI/CF a Z170 system makes more sense here.

sorry if i was too vague.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

@sirsquishy
Does hyper threading make a difference for GW2 at all? I am contemplating an i5 because my i7 nehalem far outlived its usefulness before games used many threads. With DX12 on the horizon for some games that might change so games use more threads. However, for GW2 use, isn’t the IPC the same between say the 6600k and 6700k because they run on the same architecture?

In my experience yes, because GW2 will spawn 50+ worker threads. While the core of the game rides on a single management thread for the entire engine, the rest of the game is split into tons of other threads.

A fresh load of GW2 sitting in my ‘banking area’ it has 35 threads spawned, and its using the resources of 5.25 Cores.

sirsquishy.8531:

An i7 is going to be faster then an i5 due to clock speed differences alone. When I still had my 4670K, I had it clocked the same as my 4790K and the 4790K was still 20-25FPS higher then the 4670K using the same RAM/GPU. So yes, HT does yeild more FPS.

In what, GW2? I’m calling bull kittening kitten on that right now. Sure, you might see improvements in the 2 multithreaded games in existence, but an i5’s not going to struggle in those anyways. You were either streaming or running some other incredibly intensive programs for that to happen.

And calling it clockspeed differences? I literally just said to spend the extra money on a better cooler. You’ll easily be able to push a higher clockrate (and as such pull higher framerates) much easier with a DH-15 over a 212 Evo or some such thing. Even if you clock the i7 to the same speed you’re either running hotter or you’re an extra $100 in for a marginal performance, if any.

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1261?vs=1260

sirsquishy.8531:

You are getting way more then 5% performance between an i5 and i7. You gain HT, you gain more L3 Cache and you have a higher base clock and higher Turbo.

HT doesn’t matter if you can’t take advantage of it, like you can’t in almost every single game on the planet. So, you’ll be seeing the slightly higher single threaded performance gain instead of the larger increase from hyperthreading; in the benchmark posted the i7’s a little bit ahead in single threaded performance even after accounting for clockspeed.

Outside of video/picture editing or streaming there’s pretty much no reason to buy an i7.

sirsquishy.8531:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/88195,88191

Comparing CPUs on anything but (relevant) benchmarks is ridiculous. The only thing that’s going to matter is real world performance.

sirsquishy.8531:

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

@sirsquishy
Does hyper threading make a difference for GW2 at all? I am contemplating an i5 because my i7 nehalem far outlived its usefulness before games used many threads. With DX12 on the horizon for some games that might change so games use more threads. However, for GW2 use, isn’t the IPC the same between say the 6600k and 6700k because they run on the same architecture?

In my experience yes, because GW2 will spawn 50+ worker threads. While the core of the game rides on a single management thread for the entire engine, the rest of the game is split into tons of other threads.

A fresh load of GW2 sitting in my ‘banking area’ it has 35 threads spawned, and its using the resources of 5.25 Cores.

On a laptop CPU clocked at 2.2 GHz…. Really? Seriously, really?? Come on, your screenshot proves nothing about GW2 performance on desktop CPU’s and you know it. For starters both the i5 and i7 would be running at around double the clockspeed alone…Your assumption about gaining more then 5% performance is funny, you list the stuff that gives that extra 5% performance like they are seperate benefits. You get HT, you get a little more L3 Cache, the base clock and higher turbo are meaningless since you will OC either model to a nice stable speed and keep it there anyway, and as a result you maybe get 5% more out of the i7. Fermi offers a valid point, if your on a budget, you are better of getting the i5 and a good cooling solution then getting the i7. Simply because that i7 with the boxed cooler won’t even be able to use it’s stock single core turbo on all cores for extended periods of time, let alone an OC. If you got the budget and the 5% extra performance is worth the…well not sure what the price difference is in the US, here in the Netherlands it’s a price difference of about 30%. So yeah, if you got the money and it’s worth it to you, by all means get an i7. If you’re on a budget or just care about bang for buck, an i5 will serve your needs just fine. Because even with that expensive i7, or an even better and more expensive X99 i7 thats overclocked to the max, you will still have poor FPS in WvW or worldbosses. But yeah, next time you want to prove an i7 is worth using, don’t send a screenshot of a laptop i7 okay? Like seriously…

In fact, if you even own the i7 system in your sig (idiotic for gaming, guessing by the storage I suppose you do video editting with it? That would explain the ram and huge amount of storage), how about you post some results with that i7+ 295X2 and the i5 + 295×2 from your sig, and add some FPS shots from ingame as well. I wonder if there would even be a 5% difference in actual gaming.

sirsquishy.8531:

In my experience yes, because GW2 will spawn 50+ worker threads. While the core of the game rides on a single management thread for the entire engine, the rest of the game is split into tons of other threads.

A fresh load of GW2 sitting in my ‘banking area’ it has 35 threads spawned, and its using the resources of 5.25 Cores.

Oh, I didn’t see this. You realize that that i7 is worse then/equal to my old i3, correct? It’s an awful example when we’re talking about desktop parts. My i5 sits at like 70% or a bit lower usage at the bank in LA. I’m actually curious as to where your “banker area” is.

When you’re not running a laptop CPU of all things at a super low clockrate you’ll see much more reasonable usage percents. You’re trying to cherrypick things to prove your argument; all it does it make you look a bit ridiculous.

Fermi – You just lost ANY respect I had for you.

Your points just prove you didn’t really read anything that I posted.

For one my CPU on my laptop was not my topic point, and while running the game it clocks to 2.9ghz not 2.2ghz(again, you didn’t really look at the screenshots. You only saw what you wanted to see). I posted that screenshot cause its the system I was on while posting and I wanted to show the OP that the game spawns many threads even though the bottleneck is a single management thread.

My 295×2 is being RMA’d as the 2nd GPU on the board Died and wont CF anymore. I am currently running my main desktop off my old 280×. I gave my 4670K build to my brother a couple weeks ago as my wife moved to a laptop.,so dont have that one anymore either. Why am I even explaining any of this to you anyway….

BUT Here are a couple screenshots since you had to call me out saying ‘if you had the build in your sig’.

My build is for 40% gaming 60% work. The ram and storage is cause of the VMware work I do being VCDX certified. But I doubt you would know ANYTHING about that with the douchary comments you have made.