Guild Wars 2

How much should I expect to put aside for a new computer to be able to run GW2 on it’s best appearance settings at an ideal FPS rate?

I need to know so that I can start putting down a certain percentage aside from my earnings.

Any insight would be appreciated.

A thousand dollars or so? You should wait for april or may for next gen cpus and gpus.

Hi Ulysses.4765

You should list your current specs to help people give you an idea, also are you building from scratch or salvaging parts from your current PC?

Will you need things like a monitor, speakers, keyboard, or mouse?

You may find that that a lot can be salvaged and you may only need to buy a few things to give your PC a big boost.

ok so:

Minimum to have constant 30 FPS ( and some low dips in HUGE wvw battles ) is:
A 4 core i5/i7 CPU version K.
4/8GB of DDR3
Good motherboard (prefered extreme/pro series so it can handle CPU oc)
GPU – here If u can find I would Strongly ADVICE getting a gtx 470 In SLI mode or single 480(or SLI) – why ? because thiers performance is still very good (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ – go to high end video card chart.) and price is very low. You can get single 470/480 depending on store( u can also try e-bays etc. – mostly found in web stores – as they have some spares in stock that didn’t sell ) for 120-170$. thats price much lower then most of new GPUs.
According to score and benchmarks a gtx 480 is good as new 570. and 570 is close to 660 ( lower by 3-4% in performance).
So gtx 480 ( will have more bandwith – due to higher version then 660 ) while being only “slower” is games by 5-7%.
While for new 660 u need to dip 250-300$(price for EU countires with TAX added. – I don’t look for US prices as they don’t apply to me ;/) u can get 2x 480 for that price.

so yes with power supply, casing, cpu cooler and new parts that would be around 1000-1200$

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095383

Read through Part 2.2 – 2.3, should give you a very good feel of what to get. Price will vary depending on where and when you buy. $500-$1000 should be the range.

Price wise your looking at ~$1000/~£1000

Spec wise you should deffinatly get atleast:
A Intel i5 2550k/3570k
You then Need a good Motherboard. I sugest ether a Asus or Gigabyte one.
RAM wise 8GB is enough, but u can go 16gb if u wish. Just make sure its 1600mhz. Good brands are G.Skill and Corsair.
You will need a good aftermarket cooler so you can OC the CPU. So a Coolmaster Evo 212 would be a good budget cooler, if u want to go top end then the Noctua NH-D14 is the best u can get.
A high quality PSU would be needed, atleast a 600W, Corsair recommended.
GPU is up to how high u want to go on the grpahics settings. But i would recommened a Nvidia 560ti or AMD 7850 for High settings and good FPS.

Main thing for GW2 is that yor Overclock your CPU to around 4.5ghz, that way u can stay above 30fps in even the most intensive WvW battles.

Step 1. Watch a few videos on youtube, to learn how to put a motherboard in a case and how to install the cpu in the socket. If you aren’t building your own gaming machine you are doing it wrong. A monkey could do it. It is like playing lego’s. Past mounting the motherboard and installing the CPU/fan, everything else is just plugging crap in. The LED’s on the case will probably give you the most trouble and that just takes some patience and reading the MB manual.

Step 2. Hardware. CPU/mboard. Get a Intel 2550k/3570k and pair it with a decent board. Again see tom’s hardware articles and see how well the board overclock’s. Gigabyte’s are good and affordable, Asus is not much better and much pricier. If you have a microcenter near you? BINGO. You hit the jackpot. They have insane deals on mb’s/chips. Ram/case/video card? Not so much, but it might be worth it to you to buy it from their for returns/rma. Since the budget you have is a 1000 dollars (and we will probably come in under that), I would go for the higher cores. The “K” means it is unlocked and meant to be overclocked. Read forums. Tom’s Hardware is a decent one. If you visited the site beforehand? You already know your ideal OC settings/goal and paired the chip with the right board.

Video Card. Anything past something like a GTX 560 Ti on a SINGLE monitor is a complete waste. Only get SLI if you are going to be using multiple monitors. If you get cards that cost 300 and up and are using a single monitor? All you are doing is creating a better spaceheater…

Ram. Whatever is on sale/has best reviews on newegg or tigerdirect. 1600 mhz ram is fine. More expensive higher mhz ram will see minimal performance gains for money invested. Read the reviews. Choose one with high marks, as these go bad less often.

Case/powersupply. I prefer Antec’s (seasonic PS, though not all are Seasonic’s). Affordable and very high quality.

Monitor. Whatever fits the budget. LG seems to make some decent low priced monitors if you are buying locally. Asus monitors have high reviews. You want the Hz to be as high as possible withing your budget. If you get or have a junky old 60 hz monitor and you pair it with a high end video card? You are again creating a better spaceheater. That old monitor can’t display past a certain FPS. You can go VERY expensive on a monitor, but doing so is useless unless you are a graphic designer (IMO).

HD. Highest cache/RPM affordable drive you can find. SSD’s are becoming more affordable but they are far from reliable.

Software. Win 7 64 bit. CCleaner, malwarebytes, and windows security essentials will keep that OS good for years to come. All are free and can be downloaded at ninite.com. I also prefer skype 4.2.0.155 over the new resource hungry skype that sucks. You have to change some stuff so that it doesn’t autoupdate. Win 7 tweaks such as turning off aero can also net better gaming performance. Nothing should be running in ram except security essentials.

Mouse. Logitech G500. Why? Cus they actually last. All my razor’s break, and add to that tiltwheel keybindings rock. Keyboard? The cheapest once you can stand. I prefer mechanical keyboards. Software can emulate anything a programmable keyboard can do. They are a waste imo.

Step 3. Laugh at people who bought alienwares.

Just to give you a ballpark price this is a good system.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/uOSn
You could add a SSD but get a good one I have never had a failure using Sansung SSD’s

~350$ – i7 2700K CPU
~150$ – Modern Z77 ATX motherboard
~50-100$ 8-16GB DDR3
~100$ 650W PSU
~220-550$ GTX560ti or GTX680-4GB (2x for SLI)
~290$ Intel 240G SSD
~110$ CoolerMaster HAF 922 case
~90$ Blueray Optical R/W
~125$ Windows7-64bit
———————————————
~1475$

+1 what Death said.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f255/tsf-hardware-teams-recommended-new-builds-2012-a-668661.html
$1000 and up intel builds.
Also a helpful forum for building, troubleshooting, OC’sing etc.