Guild Wars 2

Currently running this and upgrading to this.

Trying to run high quality in at least most normal PvE situations and medium in towns.

Decent GPU upgrade, but Guildwars2 Isn’t very dependent on the Graphics card.

what is your current CPU and Motherboard (PCI-E slot also matters in that upgrade)

Thats will show significant improvments in many games. And even in GW2, BUT if ur orignal GPU is somthign as old and low end as a 5450, i worry that ur CPU is equaly as old/low end. GW2 takes ALOT more from the CPU than it does GPU.

Thats not to say u shouldnt upgrade ur GPU ..u deffinatly should, the 5450 is doing u no favors..BUT if ur CPu is equal underpowered u should know that the 660 will be held back to the limits of what ur CPU can handle.

Also make sure your power supply can handle the additional load. If your system came with an HD 5450 it’s usually coupled with a small, in terms of wattage, power supply.

SolarNova.1052:

Thats will show significant improvments in many games. And even in GW2, BUT if ur orignal GPU is somthign as old and low end as a 5450, i worry that ur CPU is equaly as old/low end. GW2 takes ALOT more from the CPP than it does GPU.

Thats not to say u shouldnt upgrade ur GPU ..u deffinatly should, the 5450 is doing u no favors..BUT if ur CPu is equal underpowered u should know that the 660 will be held back to the limits of what ur CPU can handle.

^ This

Post your full system specs and we can determine from there

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406

You wont go for this one? Its almost the same, maybe even better.

And you get 2 free games

I built the rig on 2012, and even though it isn’t that old, I just realized that the PCI slot isn’t compatible so moving on to this instead.
Since I am saving some on the price, use it to upgrade RAM from 4 to 8.

Hold on a sec, the GTX 660 will use the same slot as the $50 card you just posted…. It IS compatible as it uses the SAME slot.

PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0, there honestly isn’t a huge difference in performance with using a 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot. So I say stick with the GTX 660.

HOWEVER, considering that it used such a budget card to begin with, along with 4GB of RAM and you said it was purchased in 2012, what processor is currently in it? An ideal budget setup for you will use 8GB and a that GTX 660 you posted or a similar 7850 such as Mag posted above.

A Biostar MB with AMD A6 Quad Core APU.
With the board having the PCI-2.0, I would hope in makes more sense to get a card that meets the criteria.

Not quite ready to completely upgrade this rig yet.

I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t upgrade any specific part of that… I would start from scratch. I know it’s not what you may want to hear, but it’s not worth upgrading IMO.

As far as PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0, there is no big difference in the 2 aside from 3.0 doubling the amount of bandwidth. Meaning 2.0 and 3.0 CARDS, are fully compatible with both 2.0 and 3.0 slots and interchangeable.

sobe.4157:

I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t upgrade any specific part of that… I would start from scratch. I know it’s not what you may want to hear, but it’s not worth upgrading IMO.

As far as PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0, there is no big difference in the 2 aside from 3.0 doubling the amount of bandwidth. Meaning 2.0 and 3.0 CARDS, are fully compatible with both 2.0 and 3.0 slots and interchangeable.

That is what I was hopping.
And yes, I didn’t want to upgrade the whole thing from scratch yet. Hope to get at least 5 years service total out of it.

There’s still some life to be had from it, no worries. Just grab the 7870 or GTX 660 and go from there. Would DEFINITELY look at 8GB regardless though

What you want to upgrade to will depend on what power supply wattage you have of course so check that and if you can drop in a new GPU without hassle then go for it. If you can’t, do some research and find which one won’t cost you a fortune I guess. Radeon HD 7790 or 7770 will go pretty far in this game too. Bit of money saved and can be used to upgrade the PSU if you need to.

^ Didn’t even think about the PSU, be sure it can handle the new vid card