Guild Wars 2

My Rig is pretty old about 5 years, and GW2 made me realize I need some upgrades.

The one thing I need most is a good MOBO/CPU combo. I recently bought a Geforce GTX 550 TI. and I can run GW in Pve Mode on high graphics with little to no lag with my Pentium 4 , running with 4 gigs of DDR2. Again my machine is older lol.

However WvW is a nightmare, I can run through the zone until any pvp action starts, then my frame rate plummets and I dont even see the enemy lol.

Budget is not a problem. So those of you who have Rigs that perform well , please let me know what your using. I am going to NewEgg more than likely to start shopping soon.

Thanks for any advice.

Cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157296

You will need a good psu to feed the system if you are going to overclock it and a after-market cooler for the cpu ofc. Also you can change the mobo brand to one that you like just make sure its z77 chipset.

If you aren’t worried about money, get a 3930k , the asus p9x79 deluxe or pro, (the basic model doesn’t have a usb 3.0 internal plug for your case. Get either two 7970s or a gtx690.. or powercolor has released the devil 13 (7990) I believe or it will be out soon.
I would get a corsair h100 to cool it, for no hassle water cooling. and at least a 850 watt power supply, although I went way over and got a 1200 watt power supply (corsair power supplies are awesome). I got 32 gb of ram but sometimes that much ram can complicate overclocking, so id go with 8 or 16 gb of quad channel ram. I rarely dip below 60 fps anywhere except WvW I can go dowm to 35fps in huge zergs but still very playable. Just make sure your case can fit an h100 but any good gaming case should.

I also hit the same problem, updating your GPU is “nearly” useless for WvW, since WvW atm is heavy CPU limited. The solution atm is to get as much raw CPU power as possible, which favors the i5 “k” series cpu’s and over-clock it as high as u feel “comfortable” with.
Hence for GW2 it might even be usefully to get a “old” sandy-bridge over a “ivy”, since with decent cooling u can get higher over-clocking results.

The cpu/mobo “muslumgurseks.4951” listed are a good combo, alternatively this mobo might get better over-clocking results: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

Except the i5-2500ks and i5-3570ks at 5 ghz still dont match the SB-E 2011 sockets at 4 ghz

“Budget is not a problem” that statement is usualy said by those who, in all honesty, dont know how expensive computers can become, Ether that or your loaded :P

Ill asume you not loaded becouse you can spend £5000 easy on a rig, ..thats roughly $8000 i beleve.

So a high quality gaming rig for a reasonable price.

i7 2600k + Mothebroard + 8 or 16gb 1866mhz RAM
Noctua NH-D14 cooler (best air cooler) then OC the hell out of the CPU
OC’d GTX 680
750W or above Corsair Powersupply
128gb or more SSD

That there will cost you a fair chunk.

If you want more perfomance then you could go SB-E (2011 socket) and get a 3930k. (ignore the 3960X its a total waste of money)
But it is harder to OC due to the extra cores… so you might want to get a good water cooler. Somthing better than a Corsair H100.
then ontop of that you could ether go SLI 680 or single 690.

I havnt mentioned ivyBridge CPU’s becouse if you have the money, you go Sandybridge for the better OC’s.

Another note on graphics cards. You have 3 choices. 500 series.. 600 series ..or wait till the REAL 600 series is released (as the 700 series) early next year. Nvidia renamed their orignal 660ti to the 680 (what is available now) the original 680 will come out as a 700 series with the GK110 chip. This was due to lack of competition from AMD, Nvidia had no need to release their best GPU’s when they could sell their lesser ones for the same price.

Thanks for all the great replies, and yes I know you can technically spend thousands on hardware, I basically was looking for answers from people who upgraded their own CPU recently and has success in WvW. I am not rich, but I can easily spend more than a 1000 as I will be upgrading for the next few years, I do this about every 3 years, and even with all the reading about the MOBO/CPU and chipset, its nice to have real feedback from User that have bought and tested it in a gaming environment.

Thanks again for some of the tips

Well if you do intend on OC’ing properly, then i sugest getting a sandybridge bassed CPU, they OC much better than Ivybridge.
But only get one if your going over 4.3ghz OC’s, since ivybridges r ever so slightly faster clock for clock, but can only reach on average around 4.3ghz on top range air cooling. Sandybridge however can easily reach 4.5ghz and even go as high as 4.7ghz on air cooling if your lucky. So bassicaly your choices then would be (cost lowest to highest)a i5 2500k, i7 2600k, or i7 3930k

Buying a new i5 or i7 and immediately having to overclock the processor to play GW2 shows how POORLY this game is optimized.

Get your act together ANET and start fixing performance issues.

I agree, I want to do WvW badly but my pc as it stands right now can only handle PVE.

In my case the my CPU and Mobo are fairly old for this type of game. I was able to play Diablo 3 with no problems no lag at all but it was mostly single player.

I have a great video card, graphics look great, I just want to be able to WvW at more than a frame per second, half the time right now it take a few minutes before I even see the opponents lol.

You dont HAVE to OC an i5 or i7 .. its just what you do though. Buying one and not OC’ing it is a waste, they have so much potential power being unused when they are not OC’ed.

it just so happens that games that are cpu bound.. like GW2. .also end up running faster.

A decent rig for this game will probably run around $800USD before combo deals and rebates.

I would recommend getting a video card with at least 4GB of VRAM, it’s about $70USD more and well worth it.

CPU: X79 chip series (LGA2011)
Mobo: X79 series
Video: GTX 670 4GB (remember the 690 is DUAL CORE so that’s only 2GB per core)
PSU: at least 800W
*UPS: never get APC, that company is no longer what it once was…cheap plastic and crap for consumers :\ I personally, like CyberPower UPSs(es?)

*Why spend money then have a power surge/outtage ruin it all?

A key for you in chipsets is:
X = Gaming Enthusiast
H = Home Theater
P = Minor gaming

Even stock i5 and i7 are still having performance issues. They need to start optimizing their engine.

Stop telling people to purchase i5 processors for heaving gaming!

Seriously folks, know what you’re buying. I would NEVER touch an i5 for a gaming system, ever.

Cheaper? Yes, better? No.

I look at it this way:

i5: Great for companies/businesses
i7: Great for companies/businesses — but built for gamers

Sitting here at work, what’s this? Another PC with an i5, because it’s affordable for huge companies (even with a discount) to purchase thousands of. Why cheaper? Less L2/L3 cache!

But it’s the same Ghz speed as an i7! Don’t care, L2/L3 cache for gaming is better performance for larger loads on the CPU!

But it’s not that big of a difference! Yes it is.

Nuff said

*Edit: Oh, and if you go out and purchase an Alienware PC, don’t ever post in these forums again. Real geeks will come haunt you for Halloween in the game! *

ByEEeeEE!

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287
I don’t see a difference between the SB i5-2500k vs SB i7-2600k.

Based on anecdotal evidence from the 2500k/2600k overclocking threads, I don’t even think their higher binned either.

the difference between i5 and i7 is physical, they are completely different chips.

uhmm…. I game no problem on core 2 based processors… Not only is an i5 “good” for gaming… you could actually game on an i3 which is the same as or faster then my q6600.

I’m looking into either an i5 3570K/Asus P8Z77-V plus or A10 5800K/Asus F2A85-M Pro with 8GB DDR3 1866 ram, the CPU+mobo+ram combo at my local store is about $100 difference between the two, but I’m waiting to see how the rest of the Piledrivers are.

I7’s are slightly overkill for gaming, most games don’t take advantage of hyperthreading yet… don’t mind Crawford.

Crawford.4135:

Stop telling people to purchase i5 processors for heaving gaming!

Seriously folks, know what you’re buying. I would NEVER touch an i5 for a gaming system, ever.

Cheaper? Yes, better? No.

Than pls also stop presenting people “anecdotal” evidence or hearsay!
I’m really glad that we have so many gaming benchmark sites, which simply blow your crazy assumption out of the water. Seems u have no real clue how gaming code and pipelines work, the larger caches mainly help programs which more rigid code paths and data access like databases, 3d modeling, photoshop.

So actually the i7 is for special professional niche programs, that will benefit from the larger cache and even than i would run a benchmark and see if they actually perform better, since larger cache and performance is a quite complex field and not a simple 1:1 relation.

Just one example of dozen test’s u can find:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20

Just to-be clear if u think the 1-5% performance increase is worth the higher price, go for it. I just want to make the point that any “reasonable” person would go for a i5 over a i7, since u take the saved money and simply buy a better GPU. Hence for most PC games going with a i3 or Pentium will yield more FPS, if u can get the next higher GPU for the saved money. Unlike GW2 most PC games are actually GPU bound.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

the difference between i5 and i7 is physical, they are completely different chips.

What a bunch of Bollocks :p Where do u people get this stuff from? At least do some minimal research before u post on something. A i5 and i7 of the same line, have the exact same architecture (sandy-bridge, ivy…). The differences are by removing and shifting some features around, those features mainly are targeted towards servers or professional applications. If u check the i3->i5->i7 features u clearly see this.

The funny part is that a quad core i3 or pentium would be the new gaming CPU, since u get 90% of the performance of a i7. Intel choose to cut turbo-boost and only offers dual core versions for a reason, they don’t want to cannibalize the more expansive i5/i7 market.
Anyone remember the “old” celeron debacle?

AndyPandy.3471:

What a bunch of Bollocks :p Where do u people get this stuff from? At least do some minimal research before u post on something. A i5 and i7 of the same line, have the exact same architecture (sandy-bridge, ivy…).

good job at comboing that looking foolish and validating my post in the same instance :thumbs:

The differences are by removing and shifting some features around, those features mainly are targeted towards servers or professional applications. If u check the i3->i5->i7 features u clearly see this.

Which -
1. Makes the difference PHYSICAL
2. MAKES THEM COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHIPS

Squall Leonhart.2075:

oh wow, way to make yourself look foolish and validate my post in the same instance :thumbs:

I have no problem “looking foolish” in your eye’s, since u do the same in mine :p

Just had to commend on simply overblown and out of context statements. U might want to check the difference between CPU features, architecture and how those impact game FPS. Only because a i7 has better virtualisation or AES encryption support, don’t mean “they are completely different chips.”.
I also already gave a testable example by linking the game benchmarks, which indicate that those chips are -3-5% “different” regarding gaming performance. If a 5% difference makes a chip “complete different” than we simply have a different understanding of “complete different”.

“2. MAKES THEM COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHIPS”

Yeah CAPS will make my statement even more valid!

Seems u like to “ride” on semantics, instead of the actual discussion. So just for the sake of argument, yes a i5 and a i7 is “different”. Does those differences matter for most games? No they only effect FPS in the range of 0-5% and the GPU is what still matters for most PC games.

U are happy?

Squall Leonhart.2075:

the difference between i5 and i7 is physical, they are completely different chips.

No they’re not, they’re still the same architecture. The only difference between the two are L2/L3 cache size and hyperthreading feature on the i7, otherwise Sandy Bridge i5 and i7 or Ivy Bridge i5 and i7 are the same.

You could be saying the same thing about the Porsche 996 GT3 and the 996 GT3 RS, both same cars but different features. The i7 traded the IGP for the hyperthreading. :P

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2011/01/intel-sandy-bridge-review/sandy-bridge-die-map.jpg

If the i5 and i7 are different chips (different silicon layout), which one is this, and find me the other.

Because as far as I know, one of those LLC circuits is etched away and HT is disabed at the microcode level.

SolarNova.1052:

You dont HAVE to OC an i5 or i7 .. its just what you do though. Buying one and not OC’ing it is a waste, they have so much potential power being unused when they are not OC’ed.

it just so happens that games that are cpu bound.. like GW2. .also end up running faster.

and if you do oc it and gain nothing what then?

chances are if you are overclocking you need to, or your pushing the boundaries of your hardware on purpose.

gw2 is not reason to overclock a stock i7…not by a long way it’s a tough game sure, but it’s not hard enough on an i7 to warrant or need to overclock.

get the k series that’s a given but overclocking is not required for guild wars 2, you won’t see any benifits from it as the game can not utilise all 8 cores of the i7 and can not tax an i7 to 100% load or anywhere near it.

If you want to do extremely detailed rendering and really heavy duty video editing and i really mean full on proffesional work loads then by all means seek to overclock your i7 because chances are you would have more money than sence and you wouldn’t be worried about hardware costs in the slightest and probably be employed by pixar or some massive movie studio doing special effects for a living.

oc…more often than not is a waste of time, given the right environment oc has it’s place but it’s not required with the top end cpu range and a game.

if it helps i could list off the game’s that would actually tax an i7 to max load.

here it is

and here is where it ends

that was difficult, now mmo’s do use more of the cpu but are not proffesional software so will not utilise them effectivly compared to adobe master suite cs6 64bit…which frankly you’d need to spend 10’s of thousands to fully realise as it supports higher ram than is capable from home operating system versions.

as to ram, more is better up to a point, 16gb which is the max on windows 7 home premium 64 bit, is more than enough for any game in existance apart from one crysis which has no ram limit on 64 bit, apparently it will use 96gb to render the final map zone if available.

windows 7 pro will raise your ram limit to 32gb likewise with ultimate.

to go beyond the 32gb cap you would need to invest in the enterprise versions of windows operating systems which support up to 256gb of ram over pci cards.

to put things in perspective

a friend of mine with more money than sence has
32gb corsair dominator ram at 2200 mhz air cooled
triple sli’d 690 gtx
gigabyte motherboard with 6 pci-e 3.0 slots allowing full use at max threads across all 3
an ocz revo drive, that’s a pci-e ssd for the rest of us, 1000mbs read and write, the avg mech drive is under 200 and the avg ssd is 4-550 mbs.
1200 watt psu
and an i7 something..can’t remember which

all that is water cooled

his pc is an absolute monster and i’m really jelous i don’t hide it myself

yet for all that hardware he gets comparable fps and game performance to myself in guild wars 2

in other games it’s a completly different story however.

common factors
guild wars 2
and both have i7’s

apparently just as bad on a system that cost £3k+ as it is on a system that cost me £2k

if the i7 is the factor at fault it’s only present in guild wars 2 which is also a dx 9 game which is no where near optimised for 8 core cpu’s either.

in short

arena net need to update the dx version to actually utilise the threading protocals of modern computers.

Rygar.7165:

My Rig is pretty old about 5 years, and GW2 made me realize I need some upgrades.

The one thing I need most is a good MOBO/CPU combo. I recently bought a Geforce GTX 550 TI. and I can run GW in Pve Mode on high graphics with little to no lag with my Pentium 4 , running with 4 gigs of DDR2. Again my machine is older lol.

However WvW is a nightmare, I can run through the zone until any pvp action starts, then my frame rate plummets and I dont even see the enemy lol.

Budget is not a problem. So those of you who have Rigs that perform well , please let me know what your using. I am going to NewEgg more than likely to start shopping soon.

Thanks for any advice.

First thing I would do is try WvW again but this time cut all your graphics to low and off EVERYTHING if it has the option to turn it off use it. That 550ti is a really week card.

The 550ti is hardly a weak card.

robber.4613:

The 550ti is hardly a weak card.

it would be considered the minimum for any type of gaming, it’s in line with the bottom end amd 6770 which is hardly great but mearly sufficent.

and then the gap between those cards and the top end of their line is just colossal.

so yes they technically are weak but by no means bad, you just wouldn’t take anything of a lower spec.

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