Guild Wars 2

I have an old laptop at home its specs are:

Nvidia 310m 1gb memory
6gb ddr3 ram
Intel i3 U330

So this laptop is able to run the game on low – medium detail at a steady 25-35fps (depends on the action).
I read that the socket for my laptops processor is a G1 socket meaning I can replace the processor.

Would I see significant gains if I replace the Intel i3 U330 with a Intel i7 740QM?
I found the i7 for $70 on eBay and I know enough to opening hardware to where I would be able install it with ease. Plus I read the i7 740QM is a real quad core as apposed to this i3 which is a weak dual core.

-Thanks!

You might see some improvement, but I don’t think it’d be 70 bucks worth of improvement.

The 310M isn’t exactly a new GPU, so I’m sure that is hindering your system a lot.

The 740QM is better than your i3, but its still first gen i3/i5/i7 and has faded out whereas sandy bridge and ivy bridge are still out and about. That and it’s only giving you about a half a Ghz improvement over your i3 with a couple extra cores.

If you do upgrade your CPU I can’t say how much it would help, but if it does, I can’t see a half a Ghz helping a tremendous amount, especially since GW2 loves fast single thread CPU’s (high Ghz, like 3.5Ghz+), especially in WvWvW.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

You might see some improvement, but I don’t think it’d be 70 bucks worth of improvement.

The 310M isn’t exactly a new GPU, so I’m sure that is hindering your system a lot.

The 740QM is better than your i3, but its still first gen i3/i5/i7 and has faded out whereas sandy bridge and ivy bridge are still out and about. That and it’s only giving you about a half a Ghz improvement over your i3 with a couple extra cores.

If you do upgrade your CPU I can’t say how much it would help, but if it does, I can’t see a half a Ghz helping a tremendous amount, especially since GW2 loves fast single thread CPU’s (high Ghz, like 3.5Ghz+), especially in WvWvW.

Ahh its just as I feared.
Well I did find an i5 for about 40 dollars and its running @ 2.3ghz where as my current i3 runs at 1.3ghz think that 1ghz would make any significant difference in the game? Or would I be better off just thinking of buying a whole new system? Thanks again for the quick reply.

Hi rickyp.5240

The Intel i3 330u is a 1.2GHz processor with no Turbo boost.
The Intel i7 740QM is a 1.73GHz processor with Turbo upto 2.93GHz

I would expect to see a difference, However I would not recommend this as an upgrade. These processors are not in the same thermal group so you could end up facing more problems then when you started.

The i3 330U is an Ultra Low-Voltage processor and is designed for small form factors with little thermal dissipation (18w thermal design power), you would expect to see this processor is a larger netbook or ultra thin notebook.

The i7 740QM is not an Ultra Low-Voltage processor and is designed for large portable form factors with sufficient thermal dissipation (45w thermal design power). You would expect to see this processor is something like 17’’ gaming laptops were there is usually larger heatsinks and bigger fans involved.

With that in mind you could potentially have an overheating issue on your hands, with more than double the thermal design power the i7 would probably overheat fast. And that is just the start, with processors the thermal design power is linked to the voltage they use, so not only could you have problems with the processor overheating, you could also be looking at having to find a power supply cappable of handling a higher wattage and with the right adapter to work with your laptop.

For these reasons alone you are usually better off just replacing the laptop with one capable of handling the tasks you want it to, rather than upgrading.

Good luck with whichever choice you make.

Download a GPU usuage monitoring program . Find out how much work your gpu is doing to run at ur current FPS on low settings.

if its not maxing out, then u can safely say a CPU upgrade WOULD increase ur performance.

use this link to decide on which CPU u upgrade to. Higher the better

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Just make sure which ever cpu u get that it has atleast 4 threads ..it can be 2core 4 thread if u like ,,but would be better if its 4 core 4 thread. Also if it hasa turbo feature ..take that clock speed as its highest.
So say ur comparing 2 cpu’s both 4core 4 thread.
(A) is 2ghz
(B) is1.9ghz ..
BUT (A) does NOT have turbo (B) DOES and goes to 2.8ghz.
(B) is the better of the 2.

Nitro.4732:

Hi rickyp.5240

The Intel i3 330u is a 1.2GHz processor with no Turbo boost.
The Intel i7 740QM is a 1.73GHz processor with Turbo upto 2.93GHz

I would expect to see a difference, However I would not recommend this as an upgrade. These processors are not in the same thermal group so you could end up facing more problems then when you started.

The i3 330U is an Ultra Low-Voltage processor and is designed for small form factors with little thermal dissipation (18w thermal design power), you would expect to see this processor is a larger netbook or ultra thin notebook.

The i7 740QM is not an Ultra Low-Voltage processor and is designed for large portable form factors with sufficient thermal dissipation (45w thermal design power). You would expect to see this processor is something like 17’’ gaming laptops were there is usually larger heatsinks and bigger fans involved.

With that in mind you could potentially have an overheating issue on your hands, with more than double the thermal design power the i7 would probably overheat fast. And that is just the start, with processors the thermal design power is linked to the voltage they use, so not only could you have problems with the processor overheating, you could also be looking at having to find a power supply cappable of handling a higher wattage and with the right adapter to work with your laptop.

For these reasons alone you are usually better off just replacing the laptop with one capable of handling the tasks you want it to, rather than upgrading.

Good luck with whichever choice you make.

That is a great point! Thank you the laptop is less than an inch thick when closed so you’re right I didn’t even think of the heating problems that could arise. It would probably be best if I just thought about buying a new system.
Thanks again!!

If you do buy a new laptop, your looking at between $1200 and £2000 for one that could handle GW2, even then it would likely drop below 30 fps in heavy areas like Lions Arch and WvW.

A desktop on the other hand can be made roughly $1000 and could play Gw2 to the best current tech can do atm.(30 fps minimum everywhere)