Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I want GW2 to be prettier and have decided to upgrade my computer. However, I’m not sure what the priority list is (like which things are most important).

I’m assuming that graphics card & ram upgrades will help. Upgrading ram will also help with making music, as some software related to that requires very large amounts of ram.

But what about CPU and motherboard? Is it possible that upgrading other components will be a waste of time if these are letting the new parts down?

Also, how do I find out what type of ram I have?

The game is heavily CPU intensive. I suggest you get a powerful CPU above all else.

Ok, thank you. But are other games less CPU intensive? Would this be an upgrade that is GW2 specific?

I suggest to base the computer around an i5 3470 and a 660Ti. That is the bang for the buck segment of the market. Anything else just begs the question: how much do you want to spend and what do you have to work with?

GW2 is CPU heavy, you should prioritize the CPU, if you do not replace everything.

The more multiplayer you have, the more CPU heavy things get. Best example being Battlefield 3 which is totally GPU limited in Single Player to the point where you cannot measure the difference between CPUs in benchmarktests. However, Battlefield 3 multiplayer puts a lot of strain on your CPU which is not there in single player. GW2 is no exception to that rule either.

Intel is usually ahead of AMD. A 4-core Ivy bridge usually has not problem outperforming an AMD 8-core. GW2 is no exception to that rule, no surprise.

FourthVariety.5463:

I suggest to base the computer around an i5 3470 and a 660Ti.

Agreed. There is no need to get an i7 as the only real difference in the two is the actual size of the chip. I run an i5 3570 and GTX 680 (GW2 is a beautiful world!) and have been extremely happy save one thing. In WvW large battles, the sound can be odd. But I’ve seen in the forums that it appears to be a GW2 issue and not a hardware problem.

Best of luck with your choices and cheers.

But it’s also important to know what you have now. Because if it’s a older motherboard you might also need to replace that. And with that maybe even the power supply.

You didn’t mention your current hardware however.

ok, thank you very much. I’ve looked into those and bookmarked links to purchase them locally (New Zealand).

I’m not entirely sure, but I think I will have to upgrade my motherboard too. I currently have an i3 540. By the time we are upgrading this many things, is it better to simply get a new computer?

One of the reasons I am concerned about doing this is because some of my expensive music software has installs that are specific to a certain computer, though it seems that they are more specific to a certain hard-drive. What are the chances of compatibility between my motherboard and the chips you recommend? And if getting a new motherboard, what are the chances of compatibility between my hard drive and the new mother board?

The other game that I am concerned about is ESO. I plan on playing it and want a system that will also be able to run that well.

Cheers

SandraSolace.7682:

But it’s also important to know what you have now. Because if it’s a older motherboard you might also need to replace that. And with that maybe even the power supply.

You didn’t mention your current hardware however.

I’m using as many tools to find these things out as I can, but I cannot work out:

-My motherboard
-Type of ram

Hrm this will sound really stupid but I just realised that if I got an entirely new system, then I could just delete all games from this one and use it exclusively for music XD

I’ve been considering compatibility for so long that I didn’t even think of that lol…

Is it a store bought pc? As in it came this way? Then you can find the name and number on the back of the pc and that you can use to find the components through the internet.

Or in run type dxdiag and it should show the components as well

But a new system would work too

It was made for me by a computer store. So it didn’t come with an official information sheet or anything. I’ve been using dxdiag and it explained a lot, but I still can’t work out some things.

atm I’m just looking at components etc and trying to decide what the price advantage is of putting it together yourself.

Any recommendation for other components?

And is which case I got for important?

And how important are cooling systems, anyway?

Cooling is very important, if the pc gets to hot it will shorten it’s lifespan and cause shut downs.

Building a pc yourself will be cheaper and will get you what you want the first time around. I’m not really up to date with components right now so will leave that to others.
But a power supply is very important to and don’t ever go for a cheap one! You will need an A label one like ocz, chieftec, zalman, and so on.

ok, thank you. I’m not sure what cooling this computer has. like it has fans & stuff, but all the gaming systems rave about their sweet cooling systems and I’m just wondering how important that actually is.

I was just looking into power supply. So confusing trying to work out what is compatible with what lol…

Isn’t there like a website that can help with that? Like here we have Alternate.nl and it will tell you if something won’t work with something else.

How hot is the room you computer is standing in during the summer? Anything below 30 degrees means you probably do not need to bother about extra cooling. Above means, extra fans for your casing.

The current Intel Socket is called 1155, your old triple digit i3 is incompatible to that because it is a 1156 socket (don’t ask).

Here is my pick of cheap but fully functional gear.

Board: ASUS P8B75-M LX PLUS
Two memory slots for 16GB, as if you ever going to need more.
Accepts all the Ivy Bridge CPUs out of the box
USB3, Lan, Sound.

RAM: 8 GB 1333 MHZ
Make sure it is ONE 8GB Ram and not 2x 4GB. So you can keep the illusion of upgrading to 16GB open.

CPU: Intel i5 3470
100 Mhz more cost $30 more, 100 less cost $5 less. Either way, you won’t notice.

GPU Option 1: GIGABYTE Geforce GTX 660 Ti OC
Can’t say anything bad about it. The AMD 7850 is the basis for the Playstation 4, so other games will support the AMD line of GPUs as well and rather well. AMD 7870 is the bigger brother. There is a lot of cards in this price range which will have good speeds. Personally, I find the color black look “blacker” an AMD cards. nvidia can have that slight pastel look.

You might want to check your power supply unit. You need something in the range of 550W to 650W. You old one probably has all the connector it needs, otherwise there is not much to look out for, except the bronze efficiency seal. I’m not sure what they sell where you live, buy an OCZ or something. But you just keep the rest and reuse it. You have a slight chance of salvaging our old windows installation, inf you install the mainboard drivers beforehand. Then just boot the old HDD with the new hardware. If that fails use the “Collax migration Tool”. Make a backup before continuing. Make sure you got your data safe.

Collax Migration Tool
http://www.collax.com/produkte/Collax-VCube-Server-Virtualisierung
click on language upper right
click on documents/download
download the collax iso
burn it
boot the cd on your i3
follow the directions of the CD to kill all the drivers on your i3 install
instert HD into new machine
95% chance your old install will now boot with absolutely no drivers
insert driver cd, done.
go into the windows hardware monitor and check for the correct number of CPUs
if you only see two then “uninstall” them both
yes, this sounds crazy, yes windows will need a restart, but it works.

If your sound software does not like all that, then bug their support. You own that software, you are allowed to install it again if you replace the comptuter.

To be honest you might want to consider waiting a month until the latest Intel processors debut. Haswell is expected to perform about 10% better than Ivy Bridge clock for clock due to the new architecture. If you bought today and got an Ivy Bridge, there would be no upgrade path to the latest architecture because the CPU slot changes from Ivy Bridge to Haswell. If I were you that is what I would do, wait it out just a little bit longer.

However, if you have ants in your pants and need something now. I recommend the i5 3570K if you WvW with 100+ man battles or do large dynamic events like dragons often. The ‘K’ signifies that the processor can be overclocked much easier than its non-‘K’ bretheren. The common place people overclock to get 30 frames in WvW battles with 100+ people is 4.5Ghz which I have heard is not hard to reach on Ivy Bridge assuming you have decent cooling for the processor.

I prefer my enclosed water loop solutions like the Corsair H50 to cool my processor. It’s the cheap man’s water cooling.

As for RAM, grab at least 8GB of DDR3 at 1600Mhz or more.

The best performance per dollar for a graphics card is AMD’s 7870XT, however I am a superfan of Nvidia and would suggest a similar option that FourthVariety has suggested above. A GTX 660Ti is plenty to run GW2 at highest settings if you’re playing on a single monitor at 1080p or less. If you’re running a multiple monitor setup, step it up to at least a GTX 670. Also note that Nvidia is releasing their 700 series cards soon, but there is no definite date for that as far as I know so I wouldn’t wait around for them. However, Haswell is for sure launching early June.

As for a power supply, get at least a 650W as to have enough power to supply the system after overclocking, if you choose to ever do so, and have enough power after the power supply starts to degrade because of use. As for brands, I use to buy whatever brand was cheapest and it was always the weakest link in my computer and would have to replace it every year and a half to two years it seemed. Now I have a Corsair power supply and its never given me problems in the four years I have had it.

I was never good at choosing motherboards, so I would go ahead with the ASUS board above. ASUS and Gigabyte make great motherboards, ASUS in particular I have had an awesome experience with because the board for my ancient P4 went through computer ‘hell’ and still survived with leaking capacitors.

I’m assuming you can yank the hard drive(s) and other peripherals from your old computer to use for this new one.

ok, thanks for all the responses peeps. I’ll keep this thread bookmarked for reference while I shop around.

no, I don’t have ants in my pants and can wait for the release of the new chips. the game runs fine on my computer and I don’t often experience lag issues. however, a couple of days ago I watched angry joe’s review of the game and it was so amazing looking on his settings. so its a desire rather than a need.

@SandraSolace

I’m not sure if there is a website to help with that for our locality, but I googled it and can’t find anything. I’ll prob just keep googling each part when unsure

OP.

If u are now thinking of building a seperate rig for gaming then wait till June , infact wait till June anyway, thats when Intel releases their new CPU’s and in May Nvidia release (hopefully) their new 700 series GPU’s.

Now untill then i cant use my usual online resource to put together a build for u, but if u still need help with a list of parts i can do so once the new gear is released. Until lthen i recommend u budget for around the $850/£750 mark for a whole new computer system designed for gaming.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

To be honest you might want to consider waiting a month until the latest Intel processors debut. Haswell is expected to perform about 10% better than Ivy Bridge clock for clock due to the new architecture.

Haswell should* also run a lot cooler than Ivy bridge, and heat can be an issue with GW2.

(*unless Intel hasn’t learnt their lesson and cheap out and use thermal paste instead of solder on the IHS again)

Also, do yourself a favor and buy an SSD if you’re putting a new rig together.