Guild Wars 2

Hi,
Like in topic i would like to upgrade some of my PC parts to get better performence in game. ATM I get max 25FPS – outside cities. In cities i get around 15 – 20, in Lions Arch i get less then 15. So i decide to upgrade some parts. I cant afford to upgrade all cuz i have low budget. Only parts i think i can change are procesor or graphic card.
Now i have GF9600GT 512MB and Dual-Core E5200 (socket 775LGA).

Now the question is – what to change and to change for what to get some extra FPS.
To lower resolution and graphic options is not a solution cuz game will look crappy. On screen settings with game runs now.

Thx for help.

The good news is that from a system that old there are lots of upgrade paths.
The bad news is to really get the most from a cpu upgrade would require a new motherboard and RAM as well.
If it were me and budget were tight, I would toss in a reasonably current gpu (gtx 750, 750ti maybe) and aftermarket cpu cooler and overclock the cpu while saving for a current cpu/mobo/ram combo that you could use the same graphics card in down the road.

You cannot do a CPU upgrade, the 775 socket it along time retired, unless you can pick up someone who has an intel chip on maybe ebay or something for that socket, but from any major retailer you are going to be really really hard pushed, that in itself brings another host of issues,

You are going to be very limited on any GFX upgrade also, espically the newer cards on the PCI-E x16 cards, the RAM has all moved forward since the 775 socket too,

My best advice here would be, if your current system can play the game, keep it at that, until you can save enough to completely replace the entire thing, as upgrading or trying to find the parts to upgrade now will end up costing you more in the future.

we have almost the same kind of system specs. my advice, save your money. when you get enough, buy a new system. you do not have alot of upgrade paths presented to you as you will really need to touch that processor as priority. your mobo is old. most likely ddr 2. and even if your slot’s compatible with some upgraded models that are still most likely old, issues will arise such as the last updated compatibility allowed by the motherboard. is there such a thing? tada. surprise. there is. it tends to be forgotten in today’s age of mainstream but the 90s boiz should remember it well. in other words, you’ll be most likely forced to change this as well.
you’ll probably have no problems with graphic card changes as long as your power supply can handle it as systems as yours was already in the age of pci-e x16 (double check or it’ll be forced for backwards compatibility), which is still ok by today’s standards but i doubt you’d see much of an effect since…you know, that processor.

There are some options but you will have to buy used CPUs from your local computer recycle store or eBay. You also have to figure out what CPUs your motherboard will recognize since CPUs that fit you MB but were released afterwards may not be recognized. Ideally you would be looking for a quad core, the game works better with more than two cores, with a clock speed higher than your current CPU. Like I said you need to know what’s compatible with your MB. Right now the Q9650 used on eBay is in the $80 range.

Graphics, yea, you could swap in something more modern. PCIe bus negotiates for compatible data rates so even today’s cards should word in them. The 9600 GT was a 96 watt card according to nVidia so something like the GTX 750Ti should work fine and blow away, on paper the 9600 GT. It’s currently around $120-140 for a 2GB card.

But as everyone has already pointed out, this, well not the graphics card, is throwing money at a deadend. The current modern dual core Pentium for socket 1150 is twice as fast as yours and the price and performance of the CPU is similar to a used Q9650.

^^^^^^^^^

The 750Ti even if the OP could get it and get it working, it would bottleneck that older CPU, so its a waste, and as GW2 is heavier on the CPU than GPU, they may be spending money now that they will have to spend again later when a full upgrade comes around.

His current CPU was discontinued in 2010,

The only saving grace here is that CPU is a great overclocker if you are comfortable with doing that, if not I strongly advise you do not waste money.

His CPU is still faster than the Athlon 64 X2’s that is still listed as minimal requirements and keeping the more CPU intense settings on low (shadows, reflection, character model limit) it’s not as much of an issue.

However The GTX 750Ti is such a marked improvement in graphics performance it would allow a higher frame rate with more of the pretty turned on. Plus they can still use it when they do jump to a more recent mb/cpu/ram configuration.

Ultimately the best way to help would be to know what your budget actually is. I don’t have a low spec rig to make comparisons to personally, so my advice will be mostly guesswork.

Cheaper/easy upgrade – graphics card. The boost will be limited, Guild Wars 2 tends to tax CPU more than GPU. Look at getting a gtx750 or gtx950.
950 would be better, but both are good.

More expensive and compicated – CPU. You would probably get more boost from upgrading this (though not guaranteed). Depending on how far you’re prepared to upgrade the cost will vary. I would advise a minimum of 8GB RAM. In the UK you can get a dual-core intel CPU, Mobo and RAM for about £150 or so (Somewhere around $200?)
Ideally you’d probably want a quad core (i5) which would add another $100-$150.

Thx all for lot of sugestions.
I know that i can upgrade CPU up to some quad core (probabli some used parts from ebay) – found some Q8200 and Q6600 or Q9300 in my budget but dont know whats better.
Another option is some Xeon CPU cuz you can do some work with it and you can change it from socket 771 to 775 – but not sure if i will decide to do this.

About GPU – both gtx750 and gtx950 it too much for me. Maybe some sugestion with 75% cheper ?

I dont play other games on PC (for that i have ps4) – just guild wars 2, even guild wars 2 i play few hours a week So i dont need to mega upgrade just a little bit.

If you’re going to swap your motherboard for a 775, just jump to a socket 1150 and get a G3258 or an i5-4440 and be done with it.

that will yeild higher return on performance then ANYTHING you can throw at 771/775. And it will end up costing near the same.

As for the GTX750 being too much…. Buy the GPU 2nd hand and plan on spending about 90` bucks for a used R9 270. Thats really the best you can do IMHO.

He just implied he’s looking for something in the $30-40 range for a video card.

Behellagh.1468:

He just implied he’s looking for something in the $30-40 range for a video card.

Very well R7 250 (HD7770) – $60

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00H5DJDL2/ref=sr_1_5_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1440623463&sr=8-5&keywords=AMD+R7+250&condition=used

I see that i cant afford any upgrade that will have any sens
Tougt that for about max 50EU (and no even 1 cent more) i could do something :[