Guild Wars 2

Heya, I know theres hundreds of these FPS related threads, Im not going to sit here and whine about the FPS problems I just need some advice.

I bought the game a couple of days ago, I’d been saving up for it as I’ve been looking forward to it for months! I was so excited I finally installed it and started playing I chose the settings that It gave me for my computer which where mostly high a few mediums, however as soon as I started playing I noticed the FPS wasnt quite what I wanted, It was averaging 20/25 And as soon as there where a few players around it would drop down instantly. World v World v World was below 10FPS when it was busy, I changed the settings to as low as they could be, It was slightly better but still I’d preffer not to have to play at the lowest settings as It’s not half as enjoyable!

My stats for my PC are as follows.

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Processor Q9550 (2.83Ghz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB cache)

4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4×1024]

Hard Drive 1TB NCQ SATA (2×500GB) 7200Rpm Dual HDD Config Raid 0 Stripe

Single 1GB DDR3 nVidia® GeForce™ GTX285 graphics card

PCI Card Ageia PhysX 128MB

Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

I’ve attached pictures of my results from CPU Z, Im not sure If you need them but they might make it a bit easier to understand

I’ve got a Dell XPS 630 which I bought about 3 years ago, I’d love to be able to play this game on High Graphics with no issues regarding my FPS, I was wondering is this possible with my current system or do I need to upgrade the system, If so what would you suggest I try and upgrade, I dont have a huge budget!

Thanks allot, Louis.

Whats your budget?

An upgrade would definitely help. Here’s some rough numbers from my upgrade that might help you decide.

I used to have the same CPU (Q9550) as you, but more RAM (8GB) and a substantially faster GPU (nVidia GTX 670) – though due to problems with my motherboard it was running in a 4x PCI-E slot. At max graphics settings in 1920×1200, I was getting around 40FPS, dipping to 25-30FPS. It was okay but not as smooth as I wanted. I knew my GPU should be able to do better than that, and I heard the game is very CPU-bound, so I upgraded my CPU to an Intel i7 3770, with 16GB 1866Mhz DDR3. Now I rarely get below 100FPS. (I did also upgrade from Windows 7 64-bit to Windows 8 64-bit but I doubt it’s a substantial factor)

So basically, it looks like your limiting factor right now is the GPU. A quick fix would be for example a GTX 550 ($120) or GTX 560 ($150), which should get you 40FPS if my experience is any guide.

But I suspect that any GPU faster than that would be wasted on GW2 (though probably not many other games) unless you also upgrade the CPU. And you already have pretty much the fastest consumer socket 775 chip there is, so you’d need a motherboard and RAM too.

If you can stretch to $600, you can upgrade to a current-gen medium-high end system – one of Micro Center’s hidden bundle deals will get you an i5 3570K, a Z77 motherboard, and 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 for $290. And $300 anywhere will get you a GTX 660 Ti (with a free copy or Borderlands 2 worth $60). You could hit 60FPS with something a bit cheaper but IMO these are the best bang for your buck right now and will last a while.

I agree. Go for an upgrade. As a bonus with upgrading, its an upgrade – Everyone loves buying new stuff for their gaming needs, even if they can’t afford it

Ok cool! I posted this same question on another forum and I got roughly the same answer that I should upgrade my GPU. That’s deffinatly something I can do, do you think my processor/ram is fine for most games It’s just my GPU holding me back?

Also how hard is upgrading a GPU with a Dell XPS 630 and the motherboard that comes with it?

I’d say my budget is probably £200 so about $300

Grandma.8316:

Ok cool! I posted this same question on another forum and I got roughly the same answer that I should upgrade my GPU. That’s deffinatly something I can do, do you think my processor/ram is fine for most games It’s just my GPU holding me back?

Also how hard is upgrading a GPU with a Dell XPS 630 and the motherboard that comes with it?

I’d say my budget is probably £200 so about $300

Hi,

I have the same system (XPS 630) and had a similar issue around a year ago. I upgraded from a GT 9800 GPU to a GTX 560 ti and i got a great FPS boost in most games.

Currently with GW2 though i’m getting massive slowdown in populated areas (around 25 fps) but 60 FPS in unpopulated areas. My CPU was the Dual Core E8500 which i think was a step down from yours though.

To answer your question about upgrading the GPU in your XPS 630 it’s not that hard. It’s a 750w PSU and will probably take anything you can put in there. The GTX 560ti is a great card and has worked fine in mine for nearly a year now although it’s bottle-necked a bit with my current CPU, which is why i’m upgrading to a new rig this week

Try the card first, if you don’t get the boost you need with that then upgrade your motherboard and CPU (probably a new rig) then put the new card in there.