Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am upgrading my wifes pc for her since she suffers so much lag and low fps in WvW.

The fastest quad core available for the motherboard she has (Abit in9-32x max) is the QX9650 at 3ghz… (circa £60 used)

The fastest Dual core available I can find is also 3ghz, she will be upgrading from a E6600 2.4gz.

My first question is…will the quad make a big difference over the duo? And will this upgrade be worth doing, or will the difference be small at best?

Her GPU is is a gtx 680 so no problems there though she only has 4×1gb RAM so my second question is- Is the RAM worth upgrading to 4x 2gb also..or more?

If we are not looking at a decent boost (IE make the game playable) I’ll just build her a new PC, thx in advance to all you techies that can advise.

Sorry if I aven’t included any relevant info pc’s knowledge isn’t really my thing I know how to put one together but thats about it…

Regards

Crumps

I think the first thing you need to understand is NO ONE is getting over 30 fps in a zerg vs zerg situation.

having said that, what kind of fps is she experiencing in wvw?

that QX9650 wont do a heck of alot in wvw. But the catch 22 is its hard to justify a decent upgrade just for wvw.

currently the best upgrade for the $ is a z87 motherboard with a haswell i5 k-series.

Not worth changing an Old CPU for another Old CPU.
The C2D and C2Q series are dead and buried, the ‘i’ series is current and is on its 4th itteration/generation now. You want at least a 2nd generation or newer ‘i’ series. 1st to 2nd generation was a siginificant change, however 2 to 3 to 4 hasnt been much change at all so any of those will do.
That means a Z77 (LGA 1155) motherboard with a i5 2500K/2550K or 3570k.
or Z87 (LGA 1150) motherboard with a i5 4670k.
If ur using DDR2 RAM ull need new DDR3 RAM for the new motherboard, at which point u mightswell get 8 GB(2×4), as 4GB is starting to not be enough nowerdays.

Unfortunatly ur at the point where upgrades for ur core system are not really an option anymore.

For the price, that cpu is worth it in my opinion. Find another stick of RAM too. Get better performance for less money without having to buy almost a whole new machine.

You’d probably be further ahead overclocking that core2duo until you can afford a newer generation of CPU and motherboard.

Guys, thanks very much for your input, lots to consider.

I think what I will do is pick up a used quad X9650 and see what difference, if any, it makes going from 2.4ghz duo to 3ghz quad. If it makes no difference I’ll sell it again and respec the whole thing.

She runs with our guild of 18ish in WvW but when we fight against enemy guild teams and zergs, whatever, the lag is just silly, usual fps isn’t tooooo bad apart from that. Shes at work so i can’t ask her what fps shes getting exactly and I haven’t looked at it. Mines reasonable though so connection is fine.

Another consideration, at this time we both just spent all our gold and laurels on ascended celestial sets with Divinity / Traveler runes and apparently celestial is now being nerfed (Why??? Kitten knows!) -now we have made them- so we might drop the game and respec when the next RvR / WvW game comes out if we aren’t given the choice to swap stats. We wouldn’t have built the sets last week had we known, they are not that great to begin with but Im guessing they didn’t think about the negative effect the change to zerker would have on other sets. Im too tired of farming boring PvE to start again we just want to play WvW but now Im off topic grrrr…

Thanks again for your input, Nice specs there NeedCoffee and SolarNova – I am considering your specs as upgrades for her, and me now lol…

Regards

Crumps

I currently have Q6600 at 2.9 GHz, X9650 is on paper about 15-20% faster than my OC’d chip. when there’s a zerg, not even too huge, but well over what’s causing orange swords on map I rarely get over 10 fps, maybe 14 with absolutely lowest gfx settings. That’d mean only around 8-13 fps with decent gfx settings. You could test that out yourself if you have the money and tie to buy and resell, but I promise you, the result won’t be spectacular.

I would not put any money into a dead/aged socket. Even at 60 bucks. To upgrade to a newer (1155/1150) socket you are going to spend 250-300, if not more. But the over all performance gains will be very clear and apparent.

Core2, while it was a good chip for its age, is end of life. IMHO EoL equipment shouldn’t be upgraded to, unless there are no other options.

Now that being said, my Rig (specs in Sig) the lowest FPS i get is 15 (that’s in a fully queued map), while the highest is 129 (in dungs, open world content with 12 or less players on the screen). Your mileage will vary but the cost is worth it IMHO to jump Sockets.

I can understand the want to get the X9650 and play with it. I am just as much a tech nerd as I am a gamer nerd. But what everyone is saying is true. It may only be 60$ but that 60$ could be spent on a really good heatsink on your upgrade.

I didnt’t read the patch notes but i think i remember reading a while ago celestial sets weren’t working properly. so maybe its less of a nerf and more of a “they work as intended now”…?

If you 2 really enjoy this game and wvw, there isn’t much out there that compares to GW2 (imho). Having said that when i get frustrated/board with GW2 I switch to smite for a while. Give smite a try its a really great game. But make sure you came back to GW2.

Agreed, just do an i5 upgrade (4670k). The vid card obviously you can still use as that will handle all current games on the market.

While i love my rig, i would never recommend to some one to buy a 3930k (~$570) or even the newer 4930k(~$580) for pure gaming unless u have the money to go crazy and want a little extra ‘future resistance’ within ur rig. The highest CPU i sugest u get is a i7 4770k(~$340), however in ‘most’ casses a i5 4670k(~$240) would be fine.

As for GPU, the 780 classified (~$600) i got is, again, waaaay overkill for GW2, u would do fine on max settings with half as much power, somthing like a 660ti/760 (~$280).
I have to downsample at 3200×1800 with supersampling on just to get into the 90% usuage range… its a monster GPU. Its more suited to a game like Crysis 3 were it easily maxes out its usuage to manage ~45fps on Max settings 4xAA and could use a second 780 for help to keep FPS at 60, rather than a game like GW2 where wihtout downsampling, i.e running at 1920×1080, it would barely break 70% usuage at the most.
*All prices based on a quick newegg search

If ur positive u could sell on the X9650 quikly and without loosing anything, then yes ok go for it, u should see an imporvment going from 2 to 4 cores, however it wont be anywhere near the improvment a new i5 or i7 would give u.

Thanks for all your feedback guys it’s awesome, and sorry for the delayed response I have been working late

I will take your advice and respec a new rig. I’ll see what’s available in the next day or two and check out the chips you have recommended and see what I can put together. I’ll run it by you when I get it specced.

Thanks again

Crumps

i5 third gen, still close to death when a lot of people are around (PvE world bosses / WvW blobs).

I doubt this issue will ever improve.

rogerwilko.6895:

i5 third gen, still close to death when a lot of people are around (PvE world bosses / WvW blobs).

I doubt this issue will ever improve.

What do you mean close to death? No, the fps wont be great, but it will be light years ahead of that of E6600.

Edit: Noticed you mentioned pounds as your currency, so you won’t live near a Microcenter :/

Post deleted, sorry.

Unless your doing a lot of overclocking I wouldn’t spend 60 in a heatsink the stock is more then enough at stock speeds as long as you have a hood airflow case

For around £25 u can get a good aftermarket one for stock & small OC’s. I.E the Coolermaster 212 Evo. IMO for the price, even if ur not going to OC, its worth it, as the stock coolers are crap on the hot running Haswell CPU’s.