Guild Wars 2

sup guys, my PC setup is now exactly 2y old, i have the following specs:
mainboard: ASRock Z68 Pro3
cpu: i5-2500k
ram: 8gb
current videocard: HD 6950

with this setup i can run gw2 on max graphics…as long as things stay calm (towns, regular dungeons etc).

but when i do stuff like tequatl or wurm (50-100 ppl on screen) where kittentons of spells fly around i can’t afford max graphics, so i usually change to lowest.

what i want to do: play these encounters on max graphics + record with fraps + have good fps.

anyone able to do that and can tell me what setup they have ?
any suggestions on how much power the video card would need ?

If you’re just talking for Guild Wars 2, an upgrade to your graphics card will have little to no noticeable effect. This game is bound by the power of your processor. Overclock your i5 2500K, get more FPS.

Tips to increase your FPS would be to turn off shadows and reflections.

However if you want to update your graphics for other games, a GTX 760/770 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 / R9 2280X (same card different name) or R9 270X (step below 7970 but faster than 6970)

Impossibrruu on GW2
I have a 4770k CPU and a AMD R9 280X and if I max out all graphics places like LA and large encounters still drop down to ~30FPS
Turning off Shadows and reflections keeps things around 50 FPS in a busy place…

Outside of busy areas everything is always above 60FPS fully maxed out with supersampling, but busy places will bring even the mightiest rig to its knees on GW2.

Now the punchline: The above figures are also true when running on my older rig (i5 2500k & HD 6870)

Advice? General gaming: I’d go for a AMD R9 280X, it’s one model down from the flagship 290X but half the price… Big things will be happening with graphics this year so you don’t want to fork out like £500+ on a silly GPU right now, you can pick up a 280X for just over £200 and it will last you a couple of years and put up a good fight against all of the expected advancements without breaking the bank too much.

As far as GW2 goes… Just sit and sulk

Overclock the 2500k to 4.5ghz-5ghz ( pritty easy to hit 5ghz with the 2500k) so long as u have a good cooler.
That will net you more FPS than getting a new GPU. UNLESS u specificaly see your GPU usuage max out.

guys many thanks for the quick responses ! i hadnt thought of overclocking and actually i just want gw2 to be better so a new video card would be overkill.

i only noticed all the fps problems yesterday when i tried to do some fraps recording.
i just now figoured out that having shadows and reflexions set to OFF (thx avelos)+ character model limit to lowest… does a HUGE difference (i didnt think it would be that big)
gives me like good fps during wurm and tequatl. its very nice like this, i guess when i do overclocking it will end up perfect. no videocard needed.

thx for the hints guys, great community, great game

Just make sure to get a decent CPU cooler if you are gonna overclock.. them 2500k’s are beasts for overclocking! Something fairly pricey like a Corsair H80 will get you up towards 5ghz no problems… but it’s generally thought that anthing above 4.3Ghz stops having much of an impact on gaming, so you can always get a cheaper cooler.. just don’t use the stock one for OCing!

On a Sandybridge , above 4.3ghz will stll give improvments. A 2500k at 4.7ghz is roughly a 4670k at 4.5ghz.

I would guestimate closer to 4.9/5 for a 2500k to 4670k’s 4.5, but close enough anyway that Sandy is still a great platform.

I say be careful and just watch the overclocks, the 4 + 2 power phase on the Pro3 is a bit limited and even stock clocks can be unstable with it, it is a very iffy board despite the good build quality offered on it. ( 4.5GHz should be easily attainable)

well you could get 150+ on ebay for your old card but if buying new ati card prices have shot up lots in last 2 months due to mining craze going on atm 7950 was 180 2 months ago now 300+

Immortal.3647:

no videocard needed.

Vandamsel.6254:

SNIP

Advice? General gaming: I’d go for a AMD R9 280X, it’s one model down from the flagship 290X but half the price..

@OP

Don’t bother with a 280x, there are major manufacturing flaws with those cards in circulation atm. It will take at least 6 months for those “bad” cards to be taken off the market and replaced. If you are going to get a card, either buy a 270x (which doesnt have the manufacturing flaw) or buy an Nvidia card. Either way 280x atm are an extremely bad choice.

Lexandro.1456:

Vandamsel.6254:

SNIP

Advice? General gaming: I’d go for a AMD R9 280X, it’s one model down from the flagship 290X but half the price..

@OP

Don’t bother with a 280x, there are major manufacturing flaws with those cards in circulation atm. It will take at least 6 months for those “bad” cards to be taken off the market and replaced. If you are going to get a card, either buy a 270x (which doesnt have the manufacturing flaw) or buy an Nvidia card. Either way 280x atm are an extremely bad choice.

Going to back that with a source? We have 20 280x units running perfectly and happily alongside the 290x unit boxes.

The OP established he doesn’t need a new card.

Various vendor support forums with numerous failed 280x gpu’s. Several vendors have problem cores, its believed to be an issue with fabbing process on the early units shipped. Oh Gigabyte has also stopped production on windforce 290x cards due to a manufacturing defect.

Don’t know where you get your info from, but to help you…

The initial press-samples had a bit of an issue with an improper heatsink, not bringing enough cooling performance to the product. This story got uncovered at Tom’s Hardware and got a bit out of hand. Basically the surface area of the GPU block needs more surface area and needed to be a hint thicker, Gigabyte ordered these cooler but simply received the version that diverted from the specifications. The second this was discovered Gigabyte halted the production line and replaced the coolers. From what we have learned, the pre-production run that was send out to some partners and media that where defective was merely a batch of 30 cards, the production board with improper cooling never made it into retail. So if you want to purchase this card, rest assured that you will purchase the version with the proper cooling solution.

Production is in full swing with the revised coolers.

Good to know, had not got that updated news yet on Gigabyte. To be clear here, the 280x is a good card when it working. Sent out 2 working ones myself, but had 3 failed ones from 3 vendors (MSI/Sapphire/VTX) within a month. Plumped for a 270x myself though, just because it was cheaper. 290x are nice but are very loud when pushed, and the Nvidia lineup in the same price range is the better option, particularly with GTX Titan black and 790 ready to drop, causing price slashes.

20x 280 you must be getting good hashrates on them just sucks most retailers price gouging on ati now

We pass the units off as a long term test project for the lab taken out of university budget for possible bitcoin market levity. We are comparing several NV cards as well but obviously the AMD cards are the superior.