Guild Wars 2

Alright guys, I built a system that I feel is pretty freakin awesome without getting carried a way. Please no OC comments for I feel that over clocking drastically reduces the lifespan of your equipment.

Below you will find my specs, what I am trying to find out is if I add another identical graphics card and SLI them, will I benefit much in game ?

- Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core

- ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 MoBo

- G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866

- EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16

- ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms Full HD Widescreen LCD

What do you guys think ?

In basically every game other than guild wars 2.

Is it wrong to hope for a more consistent 60FPS frame rate ? Or even a more detailed look or feel to the world ?

i wouldn’t say its wrong to hope, just don’t be unprepared for disappointment.

U wont get constant 60 fps in Gw2, becouse the CPU will bottleneck.. even one as good as the 3770k.

next thing im going to say is . .OC

OC’ing if done correctly will NOT reduce the lifespan of the CPU siginificantly , atleast not enough for u to worry about. CPU’s last many many many years at stock ..ages ..way longer than u will ever keep using it.. and only OC’ing to the extreme would reduce its lifespan enough to be noticed ..Normal OC will reduce life span slightly .v.ery slightly…but no where near low enough for u to worry about… u would replace it long b4 it goes pop.
Also the Intel K series chips are designed to be OCed, if ur not going to OC ..dont spend the extra money to get a K series.

Finaly ..GW2 cannot stay above 30 fps in WvW without a OC .. u need around 4.5ghz OC on the Intel CPU’s (2nd 3rd gen i5,i7’s) to keep heavy WvW battles above 30 fps.

Note 30 fps is the absolute lowest frame rate ..so u could see on average 45 fps in big battles ..but every now and then u will see dips.. with said OC that dip will NEVER go below 30.

A Single 670 will be fine for GW2. Ifu got the money for 2x 670’s then i would just get a single 680 (dont get a 690).

Graphics cards don’t mean a lot in Guild Wars 2. It’s all about the processor.

I guess I am going to have to learn how to over clock then. I am not familiar with how to do it at all

There is a myriad of sites on the internet that can help you with overclocking your cpu. My biggest recommendation is to invest on a very good cooler and make sure your case has great airflow.

Check out the forums at Overclock.net

has some good guides and people will be able to help u 1 to 1 if u ask nicley.

I was out of the OC’ing scene for a good many years b4 my current rig ..so i went there used some guides ..then got 1 to 1 help to tweek my CPU to run on even lower voltages to save heat

Squall Leonhart.2075:

In basically every game other than guild wars 2.

lol love it

Not for Gw2… if u plan to buy crysis3, in the other hand, (which i don´t) SLI will be usefull. Btw the 670 is a fast as the 680 :P only noob would buy a 680 anyway (or a rich guy ofc)

Just purchased a Corsair H100 water cooler, hoping it will suffice for a solid over clock.

Can anyone provide any information on what this particular game utilizes as far as system resources. I was considering getting an SSD to install it to in hope of faster load times, but can not find any information showing that I would benefit from it.

SSD will speed up map load times, but won’t do much in-terms of gaming fps.

Tested on my i5-3570K system.
From desktop launch to Lion’s Arch map load.

Samsung 830 SSD = 12s
Seagate 3TB (defragged) = 35s

awgardner.9634:

Alright guys, I built a system that I feel is pretty freakin awesome without getting carried a way. Please no OC comments for I feel that over clocking drastically reduces the lifespan of your equipment.

Below you will find my specs, what I am trying to find out is if I add another identical graphics card and SLI them, will I benefit much in game ?

- Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core

- ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 MoBo

- G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866

- EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16

- ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms Full HD Widescreen LCD

What do you guys think ?

Hello:

I pretty much have this exact same setup except for the memory(Corsair Vengance) and the video card(560ti)

Nothing is oc’d and the game runs great!

SSD wise u can expect faster load times and a few small perks ingame such as faster access and loads times for certain things.

For example.
Large map icons : Standard HDD may have a delay in icons showing/loading.
SSD: Instant load

HDD:
FPS: Will have stutter and fps drops when first loading an environment whislt moving camera.
SSD:
FPS: Will have less stutter and FPS drops shouldnt drop as low or last as long thanks to faster access times for textures and models etc.

The difference will only be slight performance wise, it will dependon the person whether u notice it or not, but it wll be there. IMO if u have the spare money after upgrading more inportant parts, then do get a SSD.

A fast SSD will get you faster boot times (I went from minutes to ~30sec dead off to desktop) but you’ll likely not notice any in game improvements outside of possible map loading.

I’m going to give you all the information you need in this one post. I broke my hand 1 month ago, so I hope you appreciate the time I put into this

Some of the posts people made are very misinformative. Therefore I am going to touch on everything in this one post.

You wanna know whats the most graphically demanding game currently out? Crysis 2 (if you think this, I’m VERY sorry)? Battlefield 3? Crysis 1 (If you thought this over Crysis 2, atleast you know a LITTLE :P) No son. Its Guild wars 2.
This game isn’t optimized by ANY means. But its also drivers that are to blame. With time manufacurers will mature their drivers to games, but this takes time. SLI will not give you the performance you need. I just read about a guy that has 2 SLI GTX 680’s which hover around 50% each, and he still experiences lag for one major reason. SLI needs a game that has compatibility for SLI. Guild Wars 2 does not have SLI compatibility. Strapping another 670 will get you a performance increase, but you will be getting under 60 FPS. staying above 60FPS is currently impossible in GW2.

Another thing. Your card is boss. Your SPECIFIC card is only 4.5% slower than a stock 680. Overclock your graphics card, and you’ll trounce a 680 ANY day. I can safely say you run one of thee most powerful graphics card you can buy today. With this in your brain, buying a 680 is pointless. COMPLETELY pointless. Anybody saying drop $1000 for a 690 has no idea what they are talking about because a 690 is 2 680’s in SLI, and what did we just learn about SLI?

Unfortunately, your probably only 10% away from getting the best possible performance you can get out of Guild Wars 2 at this point…

If we forget about the games optimization and your cards drivers (both of which you can’t control) extracting that last 10% is going to come from overclocking BOTH your graphics card and CPU.

Your CPU is good. Its not the bottleneck of your system, by ANY means.I (specifically for this post) went to Lions Arch after I downclocked back to the stock 3.4Ghz on my i5 3570k, and ran around. I have a Logitech G510 keyboard, which has a screen so I was able to monitor my CPU usage the entire time without leaving the game, and you know what happened? I NEVER went above 70% CPU usage AND thats on top of having 9 programs running, AND 8 tabs open in Chrome. The HIGHEST I saw an individual core go up to was 80%. In comparison, my overclocked Gigabyte 7850 2GB graphics card? Was NEVER below 95% usage when I was walking around Lions Arch (I was logging its usage through GPU-Z). Guild Wars 2 does rely on CPU, but it is FAR more GPU intensive than CPU. Your CPU is not your bottleneck. However, Guild Wars 2 is not designed to take advantage of all 4 cores you have. Since it only uses 2 cores, those 2 cores need to be powerful. overclocking a CPU WILL give you a boost in your FPS. Your perception that overclocking a CPU will degrade the CPU is correct and incorrect at the same time. Overclocking a CPU requires 2 things. Increasing the amount of instructions a CPU does (your GHz rating) and increasing the voltage to give more power to increase the amount of instructions your CPU can do. If your on the stock Intel cooler, you can safely overclock to around 3.8-4.0 without having to really worry about temperatures. For example, on my i5 3570k on the stock cooler @ 3.4ghz, I would actually reach the highest recommended temp of 85c during a Prime95 test bench, which is designed to take your CPU to 100% usage on all cores. Once I installed a MUCH better cooler, I was able to overclock to a hefty 4.6Ghz and reach 86c tops during a stress test. Will this CPU last 6 years if I kept this overclock? No doubt. The point I am trying to make here is that overclocking does NOT kill your CPU, the temperatures you attain DOES!!

Posts are limited to 5001 words, so I have to split this up into 2 posts

Temps temps temps. If you keep your temps down overclocking is a GREAT reward. Temperatures is the game and if you keep that down your good to go. Overclocking WILL get you a FPS boost, this is none debatable. Overclocking is really THEE only way to get the only performance you can really get..

Spend $40 on a Hyper 212+ and PK1 and you’ll be able to hit 4.5Ghz ATLEAST and get atleast 5-8 FPS more.

Overclocking your graphics card is the same concept. Keep your temps down and you’ll be perfectly safe.

These 2 things will give you a minor boost..

I would invest in an SSD. I would go into why, but honestly, its kind of common sense if you’ve built your own rig.

If your a little hesitant about overclocking, I am MORE than willing to help you. Computers are my passion. I just turned 20 and work a degree based position at IBM, even though I do not have a degree. I know what I am talking about, and I actually get EXCITED when I can help a person with their computer issues. Thats why even with my currently healing hand I was able to bust out this post…

Seriously, give me a PM and I can help you overclock very safely without EVER having to worry about your CPU/GPU dying.

(To give you an Idea, I’ve hit 4.7Ghz stable safetly on this i5 3570k using a $30 cooler and $10 thermal paste and good knowledge about overclocking AND attaining a STABLE 50% overclock on my 7850 graphics card on the stock cooler that came with my card. Yes 50%!! I was actually neck and neck with stock 670’s at almost half the price. I know what I’m doing, and I can help you know what your doing

PM me bruh

Take a look at this thread here, if you can understand the information posted and the 2 graphs posted throughout the thread, then it has all the information you need. Basically your bottleneck would be your pcie lanes with both video cards running at x8/x8. If you could run both cards at x16/16 you would see much better increase due to pcie 3.0, but not so much at your resolution of 1920×1080. If you we’re running nvidia surround or 2560×1440 or something it would unleash both cards. It seems like everyone has their own issues with this game, but i have gtx 670 in sli and 3770k @ 4.8ghz get over 60fps at 5900×1080.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?&m=1537816&print=true&mpage=1

SaadBaig

I appreciate ur new to forums by the looks of ur post history, and that ur post took a while to tye, but just coming in and saying people r giving miss information .specialy when there r a few people who posted here with many hundreads of posts in the tech forums and know how GW2 runs and what works and doesnt ..is a bit cheeky imo, specialy wihtout any solid proof.

GW2 doesnt need a super top end GPU to run on high settings. .so long as u dont go using the ‘arguably’ bugged graphics settings like Reflections ‘All’ and the inefficent SuperSampling option, then u can run the game with everythign else maxed with a older/lower end cards like a 460,560,650 etc.There are other games that push the GPU’s harder ..like Sleeping Dogs.
The CPU on the other hand…, well theres plenty of posts about issues, and replies after said issue was sorted, confirming that a strong single thread performing OC’d CPU like a Intel 3570k or 3770k will let u run GW2 to best that is currently possible.

Some people just get unlucky and end up having weired performance problems even though their rigs r perfectly capable. but most people can and do run the game fine. The reason u see more people complaining than u do not complaining is simply becouse this forum is for the people complaining to get help. :P Along with a few people like myself and Kirito who like to help out since Anet rarely replies here.

Raijinn.9065:

i have gtx 670 in sli and 3770k @ 4.8ghz get over 60fps at 5900×1080.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?&m=1537816&print=true&mpage=1

Thats godly, i was thinking of the 3770k upgrade over my 2600 , a while back but was waiting for next gen chips to bench some numbers of a totally massive power gain.

how does the rig go with the following games in surround, im wanting to buy surround but im a quality nut and i hate turning things down and was wondering could it be done with the settings i use now?

I usually play on 2560×1600 for campaign mode in games for eye candy, 120hz in multiplayer mode for competitiveness(if thats a word), then use 3D Vision on the hardest difficulty mode if it supports it at 1920×1080 & If I totally love the game.

• Batman arkham city ~ 32x CSAA, MVSS & HBAO, high DX11 tessellation, extreme detail level, Physx High

• Crysis ~ AA 16xQ , very high settings.

• Metro 2033 ~ MSAAx4, DX11 on, Very High Quality Level. Advanced DOF, Physx ON

• Sleeping Dogs ~ Max settings (Great game) but if any computer can run that above 1920 × 1080 has a NASA machine.

• Far Cry 3 ~ DX11, MSAAx8, Advanced coverage, HDAO, Ultra preset

• Max Payne 3 ~ DX11, Very High settings, FXAA very high, MSAA x8, AF x16, HDAO, tessallation very high

• Hitman Absolution ~ MSAA x8, ultra settings, fxaa ON, global ON, tess ON

….hummm.. admittedly it has been a while since I’ve shopped for a GPU setup however last I recall Metro2033 still holds the “gpu killer” record. (try running it in Stereoscopic 3D with a SLI/CF setup if you really want a space heater!)

To derive any benefit from a multi-GPU setup you ether need to be A: GPU bound (not enough GPU processing power for your resolution/acceptable FPS) or B: are in a quiet environment and don’t like the fan noise from attempting to keep your %90-100 utilized GPU from over heating.

All the industry press, experienced GW2 users and even Anet agree that after meeting the recommended system specifications and at normal resolutions that most people use this game is CPU bound.

Agreed after benchmarking/playing majority of the graphic intensive games on the market, I would still crown Metro 2033 & Crysis 1 & Batman AC the kings of giving graphic cards the hardest workout, but even last christmas games are getting there too.

I just finished Metro 2033 in 3D a couple of months ago, when it was something i had packed a way for a long time until it had some tweaking done to it, its spectacular in 3D and yes my computer acted as my heater for the winter time. I love Physx , bring more physx games out !! cant wait for Last light, crossing fingers for march

Im not a NVIDIA fanboy or anything but i have had my fair share of ATI cards.
so stacking the pros & cons , I only came up with PHYSX as the difference other than ATI is a hell of a lot cheaper, but Nvidia has almost launch day support with drivers

Almost like playing borderlands 2 without physx , pew pew !!
(so im guessing ATI get higher benchmarks cause they dont render things they cant?)
mind you theres only a handful of physx enabled games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

haha yea 75% ~ 100% fan noise can be loud depends on room temperature too, i notice my 580 gtx sli setup was louder than my 680 gtx sli setup , but that kinda becomes a small background sound, when the Logitech 5.1 Surround sound 5500 THX Certified is pumping

(Watercooling is a must for my next gaming rig build)
But Air to Air aint that bad considering my case is the NZXT phantom 820
4 × 20cm , 4 × 14 cm she does the job well

I guess you learn alot from building comps overtime, on what works what doesnt, what limits you etc etc.

But we are all gamers, we love to game. So just like the graphics menu in game and building a computer you either spend more money to max it out or OC it or we turn things down and spend money to a budget to squeeze the performance out.

My personal preference , if your staring at a screen playing & doing the things you love, wouldnt you want it looking its best and performing at its best?

Next on the playlists “ALIENS COLONIAL MARINES” if gearbox can bring, the feeling of Fear & Suspense from Music and the lighting and gameplay , this should be worth it for the die hard fans of ALIENS series , minus the predator of course.. Please be 3D Vision enabled too that would rock !!

Frostbite 2, Crytek, Crystal Dynamics, Rockstar, Blizzard Entertainment hasnt let me down yet

Rampage.7145:

Not for Gw2… if u plan to buy crysis3, in the other hand, (which i don´t) SLI will be usefull. Btw the 670 is a fast as the 680 :P only noob would buy a 680 anyway (or a rich guy ofc)

and at this guy , We are both on the same side lol , I agree with you 670 is just as fast as a 680 which i was disappointed at the results from NVIDIA last year for doing that, but my graphic cards has custom LEDs that match my lighting system. Only difference is +3 -5 frames difference possibly, then peeps can argue you can overclock the 670s to equal the 680 or better than it , what you cant over clock 680s?

Then peeps would futher argue are you catering to your display monitor, are you using generic 1920 x1080 60hz or were you different and separate yourself from that crowd and wanted more. (screens or resolution) or are you playing games that require the power of SLI that required more VRAM usage

again personal preference , whatever floats your boat and it is totally fun being rich

@ the original poster, gosh i always forget to read the first, should be more than adequate for that resolution. however tech moves quickly and games engines are not far behind these days, so eventually as games progress through the year somethings in graphics menus would need to be turned down.

SLI is just your buffer for a while, nothing is future proof, i suggest buying the first card then SLI later down the track if you feel the need.(but by then you probably start seeing the 7 Series). But cater to that monitor which from memory is 75hz, so to utilise full usage of it you require 75fps + but anything over 60 should be awesome anyways.

Theres NO point having 180fps if your screen cant produce it eg 60hz monitor with 180 fps would be a waste. but if you have say 90fps max on a 120hz monitor you will still notice the fluency. Since i got 120hz monitor , i have not seen screen tearing at all and thats with vsync off, but jumping back onto a 60hz monitor feels terrible

The Downside ~ expect the electricity bill to go up on a SLI setup
and dont expect too much from gw2 in SLI unless you have OC the CPU

BTW for those Fans out there

STARCRAFT II ~ HEART OF SWARM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbeoSPqRs4

CRYSIS 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qFLtnSqS6Y