Guild Wars 2

I bought a new computer about 7 months ago and while it is a very fast and great computer it did come with a flaw, which is the video card.

It came with a ATI Radeon HD 4200 which I learned is pretty standard for computers to have coming right out of the factory for the year I got my computer.

Right now I’m playing Guild Wars 2 on all low graphics with minimum sound quality and I still only run 10-18 FPS depending on location and player density.

This is unacceptable and I’m looking to get a new video card.

Price is a factor here. I was wondering if anyone here can tell me what type of video card I should be looking for if I would like to play the game smoothly with a good FPS at around ~medium’ish graphics.

Hope you guys can help!

Thanks,
Chris S.

EDIT: Would this video card found on newegg.com get the job done as I described?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130827&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pe-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814130827&gclid=CKGgxY-pgrUCFQkFnQodfwwAQA

It’s price is very very affordable and something I could probably get done tomorrow whereas something double or triple its price would take another week of saving.

EDIT: This is my processor AMD Athlon™ II X2 250 Processor (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz and I’m not sure if that would also have to be replaced along side the new graphics card. Help needed!

Look at Part 2.2 GPU chart. Go down the list till you find your price range.

Remember FPS = CPU + GPU, most people only look at the GPU side. See Part 4.2 for details.

I’m sorry I’m poor with computers and don’t really understand what that is telling me..

Could anyone give me a more direct answer?

in short for 1080p you want at least a 5770/6770 from AMD for video, higher then that a 7770 or 7870 would be your next step up( i would go 7770 or 7850/7870 if you want 1920×1080 game honestly) depends on what your system can take, 7770 is as low as I personally would go though.

its not dirt cheap but, the 7770 is quite powerful for its price(better buy then a 6870 infact…..)

on the nvidia side you will have to ask somebody else, I wont own anything fromnvidia below a *60 (460/560/660) range….so i couldnt tell you how the 550/650 run for example.

Cspence.6921:

I’m sorry I’m poor with computers and don’t really understand what that is telling me..

Could anyone give me a more direct answer?

Shouldn’t be that hard to understand. The GPU list has a list of cards ranked by their score. I listed what score to expect for certain in-game graphic setting.

kirito.4138:

Cspence.6921:

I’m sorry I’m poor with computers and don’t really understand what that is telling me..

Could anyone give me a more direct answer?

Shouldn’t be that hard to understand. The GPU list has a list of cards ranked by their score. I listed what score to expect for certain in-game graphic setting.

Sorry but the entire post confuses me completely.

I would go for some kind of used 660 or auction one. Just stay away from amd 7xxx series they are buged like hell and dont work well with guild wars

I would not go with that card you picked. Unfortunately for you this game is very GPU & CPU dependent. If you changed out your CPU you wouldn’t gain much since the AM3 sockets are pretty limited as far as gains go, it would probably be a waste of money.

The GPU you listed is really for budget gaming and wouldn’t be a good choice. I have my doubts it would even run on mid settings well, its much slower than my GTX 275 and that only gets about 50-60FPS on mid/lower.

I would pick this card up instead:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00966IREK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00966IREK&linkCode=as2&tag=price-reduced-20

Just be sure you have a PSU that can provide enough power to it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MYFODI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004MYFODI&linkCode=as2&tag=price-reduced-20

^would be a good choice. Your current PSU might be fine though.

I have to diagree with Guy Sintrail. The cards he listed are a complete waste on your CPU….

A graphics card is only as good as the CPU its on. Think about it, if you have a very powerful graphics card that can max out any game, but a CPU that can’t take in all the data from that graphics card, whats the use? The AMD Athlon X2 is a dated CPU, and its not very powerful (compared to todays standards). The card Guy Sintrail recommended you is a decently powerful card that needs a decently powerful CPU to feed its data to.

Unfortunately, the bottleneck in your computer is your CPU. FORTUNATELY you are realistic and know you can’t max the game out.

For your CPU I would recommend an AMD 6670. Any card more powerful than a 6670 is a waste on your computer simply because the CPU cannot processes as fast as the graphics card is processing it. I can tell you this with real world experience as I ran a AMD 6670 on an Intel Xeon Dual Core at 3.2Ghz AND THE CPU WAS STILL A BOTTLENECK.

You don’t (and shouldn’t) spend $200 on a graphics card when your only going to put it on a $70 processor..

Get this $50 (after mail in rebate) card (which if you want a comparison, will fully max out Skyrim) and play GW2 better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102988

You don’t need an extra PSU, you just drop in the card and your good to go

If you want a serious boost, I can build you a $400 computer with the same graphics card I run in my $1200 computer that’ll max out any game today

I hope this was helpful

I’ve been building computers for 15 years, from gaming rigs to hosting farms. My advice was spot on, that CPU is not going to limit the GPU, I don’t even know where you would get that idea from. In order to make even better use of the system he would have to upgrade his MB, PSU, RAM, & Video. There’s no other cheaper choice than the video card I listed and it WILL run all your games much better even if your CPU is dated.

Do not listen to SaadBaig, you would be completely wasting your money on that POS card.

depending on your system you may wana upgrade that cpu, it is pretty old and slow by todays standards, most likely you can toss in a quadcore or 6 core chip (would need to know more about your rig to tellyou what it can take)

I would get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011 or similar, Its better then the 650 you linked and it destroys the 6670( i have 2 6670’s and, ddr3 and ddr5 versions, the ddr3 versions are pretty horrible for gaming, the ddr5 are passable at low res but….if your gonna spend the money get a 7770 or 7850/7870, then upgrade that cpu….im pretty sure your system could at the very least take an am3/am3+ quad core athlon chip.

Single thread performance is the key issue and any upgrade on the AM3 socket is going to net maybe 20% increase with something like an fx 4100, that’s another $100 to add. I would start off with the GPU I posted, it will future proof you for a few years. If it’s not enough then upgrade the CPU afterwards. If money is important to you, don’t waste it on low end stuff, save another week if you have to.

Guy Sintrail.8352:

Single thread performance is the key issue and any upgrade on the AM3 socket is going to net maybe 20% increase with something like an fx 4100, that’s another $100 to add. I would start off with the GPU I posted, it will future proof you for a few years. If it’s not enough then upgrade the CPU afterwards. If money is important to you, don’t waste it on low end stuff, save another week if you have to.

those superclocked cards have a bad rep here man, read back pages and you will see alot of people with nvidia superclocked cards with crashing and lockups in gw2, some of them are fine but some of those cards still have VRM issues, its best to avoid nvidia factory oc cards, even if evga is a good company with good support.

the card I linked will be overkill for most people on gw2, it gets about the same perf as my 6870(1 of the 2 i was running) and 1 of those cards was WAY overkill for this game at 1080p, but your correct about upgrading his cpu BUT i think he would be better off with the older athlon II core chips then the fx4100 or even 4300

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-Core-3-0GHz-Processor/dp/B0072PRPP4/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1359139777&sr=1-7&keywords=athlon+II+x4

this chip has better single core performance and will work in any am3/am3+ board, no worries where the FX line he may need to update bios(100% sure he would for a 4300 or better cpu)

another option is
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6630967&CatId=4919
thats a 3.1 quad.

honestly, as a pc tech, I do not recommend upgrading OEM boxes with FX line chips unless your 100% sure the bios will support it, seen to many cases where the board didnt have bios to support anything higher then athlon II or Phenom II chips.

Guy Sintrail.8352:

I’ve been building computers for 15 years, from gaming rigs to hosting farms. My advice was spot on, that CPU is not going to limit the GPU, I don’t even know where you would get that idea from. In order to make even better use of the system he would have to upgrade his MB, PSU, RAM, & Video. There’s no other cheaper choice than the video card I listed and it WILL run all your games much better even if your CPU is dated.

Do not listen to SaadBaig, you would be completely wasting your money on that POS card.

This is so wrong, I’m not even going to bother responding to this

OP, I would suggest you get a 650 7770, or 6670

All these cards will not perform at their fullest due to your CPU being over 4 years old, but they should increase FPS performance a little bit

Hope this helps

@OP
Depending on where play in the game both Saadbaig and guy Sintrail will be correct.

places where u bottleneck via ur CPu like WvW will make the 660 irrelivant, and tbh it would do the same to a 650 also.

However in most PvE areas a 660 or higher would be much better for for a mixture of medium and high settings. A 650 or lower would likely manage better on all medium to keep FPS high.

take a gander at this list and find one within ur budget, dont spend to much becouse you honestly should upgrade ur entire rig to a 2nd/3rd gen Intel i5/i7 K series CPU for best performance. (it isnt THAT expensive to do tbh)
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
(navigate to ‘High End Video Card Chart’)

If all this is to confusing i sugest u get a real life friend versed in computers to help u out personaly. make sure he/she understands the rquirments of GW2 (powerfull CPU – mid range GPU)

SaadBaig.8560:

A graphics card is only as good as the CPU its on. Think about it, if you have a very powerful graphics card that can max out any game, but a CPU that can’t take in all the data from that graphics card, whats the use?

This is a huuuge oversimplification, CPU bottlenecking occurs circumstancially. Yes, GW2’s WvW is going to be unplayable with the OP’s processor no matter what he gets for video—but the rest of the game doesn’t really put such a massive workload on the processor. In ordinary PvE, most video cards should be beneficial.

I don’t think a GTX 660 would be a complete waste for this system if he’s got a 1080p monitor (does anyone really think he does?), but considering that he’s probably got a bargain basement power supply and a smaller monitor, I think an HD 7750 or 7770 is a more reasonable choice and already several orders of magnitude faster than what he’s got.

I still highly recommend avoiding superclocked/factory overclocked nvidia cards you never know if you will get one that will be stable or if you will get one thats unreliable and will crash in some games like gw2…..problems far more common then you would think.