Guild Wars 2

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz
8GB DDR2 800 (400Mhz)
Dell Mobo PCIe 2.0×16
ATI HD 5770 (old)128bit memory interface
ATI 7850 (new) 256bit memory interface
3 Serial ATA HD’s
1 Serial ATA DVD RW

Uninstalled ATI cat drivers swapped video cards and reloaded ATI latest cat drivers.
Exact same FPS like 29 in Lions Arch. Any tips pointers or knowledge please drop it on me im shocked it didnt increase performace at all. The new card is rated PCIe 3.0 is that the bottleneck as my mobo is PCIe 2.0×16

Help!!

Being an MMO with hundreds of characters on-screen, it tends to be harder on the CPU and yours isn’t exactly brand new. It does really sounds like you’re experiencing a CPU bottleneck. Perhaps an overclock would increase performance significantly.

i am worried about mobo/ram/cpu/… I know its old but its still a quad? I was just looking at bundles… trying to not spend a fortune.. (sad)

Unfortunately, cores don’t matter as much in games as arcitecture/frequency/cache. Still, getting a decent cooler and overclocking would be quite cheap and possibly yield good results.

TBH u shoulda asked on these forums for advice on a computer upgrade for Gw2 if u were not certain.

You would have been advised that just getting a new GPU would do little.
Your CPU is to old and weak, u need a more up to date one. Unfortunatly that means a new motherboard and RAM also..bassicaly an entire new computer.

Take a look at this list.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
You want the highest CPU u can afford (ignoring the Xeons), preferably sticking with ones that are OverClockable. You can see how far down the old Core 2 Quads are.

GW2 is poorly optimised for multi thread usuage, and draws most it performance from the single thread performance of CPU’s, this is why u are getting such poor FPS. The new CPU’s currently available have much faster single thread performance. The best (whilst still be affordable) being the intel i5 3570k and Intle i7 3770k. both of which are OverClockable.

Thanks guys that is good to know. I didnt realize that my cpu was the main bottleneck. I thought it was my videocard. I didnt realzie GW2 had such hi CPU demands. I was only looking to get a few more fps out of the game with a new video card not replace my entire computer…. Well frig now what.

Best thing to do when checking what is causing low fps is to run some monitoring software to show FPS- GPU usuage – CPU usuage.
In the case of GW2 ur unlikely to ever see 100% cpu usuage unless u on a dual core, on quads and above the CPU will bottleneck on the per thread bassis so it wont show 100% overall (tis a long story to explain why)
The GPU on the other hand is easy..if its less than100% usuage when u see low fps .then its NOT the GPU causing it. Another little test is to lower or increase the grpahcis settings, if the FPS doesnt go up/down significantly ..then again it shows that its not the GPU.

how does this build sound. hoping to oc with the water cooler close to 4ghz. will this give me 60+ fps ?

thanks

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM3 3.4GHZ
Corsair Vengeance Black CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 16GB 2X8GB DDR3-1600 CL10 1.5V Dual Channel Memory Kit
Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5in SATA3 SandForce SF-2281 SSD Solid State Disk Flash Drive
-HIS HD 7850 1gb gddr5 256bt mem interface.
-corsair carbide 200r case
-antec hcg-400m PSU
asrock 970 extreme edition saocket am3+ mobo
corsair hydro H70 core – water cooler for cpu
couple extra fans
asus dvd writer

i am going to build this myself and it will cost around $750 top of my budget. so i want to get it right. what do you think will i achieve great performance 1680 × 1050.

Any cooling thats sub H100 water cooling i wouldstick with top end air cooling, just as good if not better for the same if not less cost.

PvE u should see 60fps, asuming u set the graphics settings accordingly. But no cpu currently out can keep WvW at 60fps.. the best u can hope for is 30 fps(minimum fps in MASSIVE battles) 45fps+ (medium sized battles) and thats with a 4.5ghz+ OC intel 3570k or 3770k ..or higher.

For AMD i wouldnt get anything less than a FX 6300, well actualy i wouldnt go lower than a FX8350 but its just higher clocked with a few extra cores, if ur OC’ing if wont make much difference if u get a FX 8350 or a 8120 or a 6300 so long as the OC is the same (~4.4ghz). It wont be as good as the intel ones above but it would be cheaper.

That rig has a 240gb SSD, thats a good chunk of cash their. Its better to not get a SSD and invest in a intel rig. Atleast when it comes ot GW2. An SSD is the last thing u add to rig since its mainly for convieniance with very very slight ingame performance effects.

EDIT:
-Intel i5 3570k CPU
-Coolermaster Evo 212 CPU cooler (should manage ~4.4ghz OC)
-Asus P8Z77 motherboard
-Corsair/G.Skill/Mushkin 1600mhz RAM 8gb or 16gb CL9
-AMD 7870 Tahiti Graphics card (Sapphire XT or Club3d Joker)
-Corsair/Seasonic 600W PowerSupply
-Coolermaster HAF 912 or Storm Case
-HDD & Optical Drive from old rig (asuming they r Sata)

That should come to around $750 depending on where u get it all from and what sales r on.

I would recomend the fx 6300 processor is way faster, cuz of the new architecture, has a modern memory controller which is nice and can be overclocked to 5ghz, it cost is arround 120$ which is probably as cheap as the phenom, also for the memory i would recomend 8gb 2×4gb Gskill 1866mhz instead 16gb 1600mghz, the faster the memory the better, some games can be affected by memory speeds, not GW2 but some others do.

Hi – thanks for the input there are so many options im hitting ncix. tigerdirect. newegg and the local shops website trying to price and pair components and its mind dazzling.
i know amd isnt as good as i5 or i7 but it is cheaper if i OC like we mentioned. You think that water kit is really no better than air? hrm.. good point about the ssd i think i got carried away there..lol.

im going back to the drawing board will report back.
thanks

Water is silent, but performance wise the 212 cooloer is about the same than the h70, but it is a little loud to me personally, i mean is 30$ can’t be perfect, but still, i would go for one of those and get 2 custom fans, may be the coolermasters 12" turbine fans those are silent and performs great.

SSD is also great for some games, i would definitelly get an SSD, also systems boots up and loads very very fast. An SSD is like the best part of my PC, once u go SSD u don’t go back!

of the shelf water coolers can be just as loud as aair cooler.. they still use fan afterall. A SSD is great no doubt. .but for som1 on a budget, its really not a top priority.

BTW use.
http://pcpartpicker.com/
Select United States in the top right corner and start building ..should help u find the good deals.

Here is one i slaped together ..includes hard drive and optical drive.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yLLh

I have an h80 and a 212 on another pc I KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING WHEN I SAY THE 212 I’S A BIT LOUD, it is actually annoying enough to bother me when i try to sleep with that PC on, it is not like a zalman or noctua quality fans, but again is cheap u can just replace the fan for 2 quality fans which will perform batter and if noise is a problem to u those will solve that issue aswell.

AMD actually has a lot advantage over intell tbh, they offer a upgradeable platform, which means u will be able to put chips in that motherboard from 2014 and 2015 generation, so it dosn’t actually make any sense to go for a 130$+ processor for gaming, all their procesors are overclockable.
With intel u get a bit more or raw core performance but if u want to upgrade to the new 2013 line u will have to get a new mobo, then in 2014 if u want to get the new gen a new mobo, and again and again, same story. Also every single cheap processor intel offers is locked so u cannot overclock them.
Just think if u had a 4y old AMD mobo right now instead ur intel mobo u could just upgrade your CPU without need to upgrade the rest of the components.
U can never go wrong when buying AMD for gaming, just get the highest en Mobo u can afford and u will be set up for 3 or 4 CPU generations.

Rampage.7145:

I would recomend the fx 6300 processor is way faster, cuz of the new architecture, has a modern memory controller which is nice and can be overclocked to 5ghz, it cost is arround 120$ which is probably as cheap as the phenom, also for the memory i would recomend 8gb 2×4gb Gskill 1866mhz instead 16gb 1600mghz, the faster the memory the better, some games can be affected by memory speeds, not GW2 but some others do.

actually, ram speeds been shown to do little for game and app perf on am3+, for fm1 and fm2 it shows a massive gain if you use the APU video, if not it dosnt matter.

As somebody whos got 8-16-32gb memory kits that will all do over 2000mhz, I can tell you, theres no point in buying expencive ram kits and also, if you can afford it get 16gb over 8, and 32gb over 16, with 32gb@1666 or 2000 I see no perf dif in any game I play, where the 32gb shows its golden side is when I grab fancycache and give my games drive a 24gb cache……once fancycache figures out what files are being accessed load times drop like a rock, loading from map to map is MUCH faster, loads between levels in sp/coop games is faster……

for other games the same is true, fancycache (or a ram drive) really can boost game perf, its better then having an ssd, but could be used in conjunction with an ssd to maximize perf.

and yes, amd always tends to offer the longer upgrade path the few times thats not been true its been due to things like motherboard makers not putting large enough eeprom chips on the boards to hold the bios updates needed to support phenom I chips…..(those that did use large enough chips put out simple bios updates to support newer chips)

AMD wont be the best choice for this game but, this is far from the only game or app in the world……..

I would suggest an 8320 and xigmatek aegir, you acn easily hit 4.4-4.5 at very good temps with that combo….the asrock extreme 4 990fx board is very good for the price.

7870 1536 shader is the best bang for the buck you can get at the moment, but if you can find the older 7870 model for around 200 or less, its a great buy.