Guild Wars 2

Hi GW2 community!

I am looking for advise on upgrading my PC. I am unable to participate in large WvW battles and large-scale events with +20 players. The FPS drops to 10 if there is alot going on. I have tried lowering the settings but this does not do much for me so I think its a processer problem. Unfortunately, I am a poor student and my budget is limited.

I am running:
Intel Core i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93 Ghz (quad processor)
6GB RAM
Geforce GTS250 videocard
Windows 7.

I have not tried to overclock yet because I am a bit scared of that, I am affraid to damage my PC (I dont know much about it though)

Does anyone have some advise of what I can do? Should I upgrade my pc? Should I tweak some settings?

Thanks in advance!

Your Motherboard?
Yep OC that CPu to 4.0Ghz should be great, but dont expect great FPS.

Upgrading to
i5 4670 should get you better performance
or
i5 4670k 4.6Ghz + OC MB + Watercooling – very expensive

Even if you upgrade your pc,dont expect massive results in wvw,its not gonna happen.You can get a max of 15- 20 fps increase perhaps thats..with spending Alot of money like FlyingBee said, thats not worth it solely for this reason imo.Overclocking can be dangerous if you dont know what youre doing.If you want to start doing that,i’d suggest to go here http://www.overclock.net/ and search thorugh the forums for an oc guide for your cpu,or to get some proper help in ocing your system.

For one, the i3 is NOT a quad core CPU, its a dual core with HT enabled.

Another, what resolution are you playing the game at? That will impact the performance more then alot of other things.

with my setup, running at 1600×900, I bottom out at 25FPS when I OC my 4670K to 4.6Ghz. I run the game on moderate light settings for WvW though. All CPU based settings are either Medium, Low, or Off completely.

I would say, start by specing out your hardware to find out where your weakest, then upgrade that component.

CPU-Z, GPU-Z, and CoreTemp will tell you what you need to know in those regards.

On my i3-2120 that has an R7-260X, the low end FPS in WVW is 18-19FPS on the same In game settings I use on my system (in Signature). I know your i3 is 1st gen, but it shouldnt be THAT bad

One thing to consider, there are a rising number of people with “high end” machines reporting the same problems as those with “Low end” systems. I’d wait it out, I don’t think spending money unwisely and being disappointed is a smart move.

GW2 scale 3 threads
- Change GPU
- OC CPU to 4.0Ghz
first tell which motherboard your are using.

i3 does not overclock easily like an i5 K or i7 K, bee. He’d be lucky to make 3.2 GHz on that thing if the board can even overclock.

i5 530 is great overclocker
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2921/5
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/03/overclocking-intel-core-i3-530/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-530-overclock-lga-1156,2626.html

My friend is running this CPu at 4.0Ghz on stock cooler (T are fine in gaming)

Now you see why there is no more i3 (K)

There was never an unlocked i3 to begin with.

Avelos.6798:

There was never an unlocked i3 to begin with.

http://ark.intel.com/products/48750/Intel-Core-i5-655K-Processor-4M-Cache-3_20-GHz

here is i3 K model
Also i3 530 can be overclocked to 4.5ghz
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i3_540_530/12.html

That’s an i5 -_-;;;

and I know the i3 can be overclocked but it’s difficult. I have a guild mate with an ivy i3 at 4.2 GHz with a Radeon HD 6990.

Avelos.6798:

That’s an i5 -_-;;;

and I know the i3 can be overclocked but it’s difficult. I have a guild mate with an ivy i3 at 4.2 GHz with a Radeon HD 6990.

very nice! But thats so hard to do, since you mess with the FSB you need to adjuste your NB, PCI-E, and Memory clocks to. So much easier to just OC with a K/BE CPU. Puts less stress on the rest of the system too!

no it is i3
look at specs
2C/4T – thats i3

i dont know why intel named it i5

XFlyingBeeX.2836:

no it is i3
look at specs
2C/4T – thats i3

i dont know why intel named it i5

Because it is an i5. Not all i5’s are 4core CPUS.

Here is a list, please learn it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#Nehalem_microarchitecture

Okey, you have your point…
As far as i know i5 should be true quad core

XFlyingBeeX.2836:

Okey, you have your point…
As far as i know i5 should be true quad core

No. Not at all. You cannot lump CPUs in like that. You MUST do research before making statements like that.

That is EXACTLY why I now disregard anything you have to say. You spout BS and rarely have the proper facts to back it up.

Please shut up, or do your research before you try and make a point.

Avelos.6798:

That’s an i5 -_-;;;

and I know the i3 can be overclocked but it’s difficult. I have a guild mate with an ivy i3 at 4.2 GHz with a Radeon HD 6990.

Please tell me he got some sort of amazing deal on that GPU >_>

As for you, TC, really your best bet will be a new CPU. Overclocking yours will help some, but you pretty much need an i5 for good zerg performance.

Before this thread gets messy, I’d like to add my $0.02.

Upgrading your CPU inside the generation (meaning motherboard swap is not necessary) is maybe the most hassle-free solution you can come up with. Looks like the best option that fits in your board is an i5 680. It’s still 2 cores with HT like your i3, but single threaded performance is almost 50% better. Look like it goes for ~$150 on ebay while a new one is $250+.

Now upgrading to a true quad core CPU requires a mobo change as well. an overclockable CPU+board combo (the newest 4670K for example) is gonna cost you about $300-350 while non-OC’able combo is gonna be $150-300 depending on which parts you choose, so you have to think is the increase in performance worth the money. On the other hand, stock 4670K is almost twice as fast per core as i3 530 AND it’s a quad core. Plus you can overclock it to add another 30% or so.

Last point, like many people has said, the best CPU isn’t gonna be enough. There’s something that needs to be about the game itself on ANet side (some newer API or something else, doesn’t really matter for that matter, but please let’s keep Mantle away from this thread) and we cannot know if it will be here in a week or in 5 years, if then. That’s all we can do for now anyway, make the best out of our situation. Twice the performance increase is surely a nice bump no matter what though.

Couldn’t he upgrade to a i7 on the 1156 socket?

I found a few i7-860’s for 130~ on ebay. the i7-880 goes for 225(might as well jump to a 4760K for that price).

But that $130 might be worth the upgrade since thats all he would need to do.

Other then that, unless the i5 can be got for 50-80 bucks it wouldn’t be worth an upgrade IMHO. Esp since its only 50% faster then his i3 and still has 2c/4t.

Hmm, I didn’t even notice those. I was only looking at Clarkdale (32nm) which is only i3 and i5, Lynnfield (45nm) i7’s could be an option if they go with his mobo.

Nonetheless, i7-860 seems to have lower single threaded performance than i5-680 but double the cores and threads. Whether 2c/4t is enough is beyond me, but if it is the i5 would make more sense. I think this calls for some research.

OC that i3 530 to 4.0 – 4.2Ghz = haswell i3 3.4-3.5Ghz.
The best option

XFlyingBeeX.2836:

OC that i3 530 to 4.0 – 4.2Ghz = haswell i3 3.4-3.5Ghz.
The best option

You do realize the amount of skill needed to overclock a locked multiplier processor, right? Especially to that high of frequency?

It’s sometimes easy but most times it’s not.

like i said i3 530 is great overclocker

You cannot compare i3 2***/3***/4*** OC vs i3 530 – totally different

i3s are not great overclockers at all. Try overclocking by just increasing the base frequency. You’ll probably get as much as 200 MHz out of it before a crash. Then use the multipleter. Maybe 600 Mhz before a crash.

Locked processors are almost always not good for overclocking. I mean this in the sense that the multipliers are locked and requires exact numbers for everything to be able to still perform safely. Start learning please.

you dont know right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDEw-0MhA0

see it yourself

You’re using a video of ONE i3 530 at 4.5 GHz as proof that all of them are good. For all you know, that was just a lucky draw. Sure it works, but not for everyone.

one more chance
look at multiplier
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588-3.html
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=636072

Yes, on the i3 530, the multiplier is 22 which is the stock setting. As with the i3 540 (wrong processor by the way,) it’s 23. The only direction those can go is down.

Some processors, decreasing the multiplier can make it more stable to push the base frequency further. Example being my AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ from 2.4 GHz to 2.75 GHz after I decreased the multiplier and upped the base frequency (that’s a huge overclock for that processor on air by the way, so far as I researched)

Once again, both i3 530 and 540 overclocsk you’ve presented are the same as the youtube video. They have probably put a lot of time and research into overclocking through base frequency over multiplier (see ‘skilled’) to reach those numbers.

Yes I know that some locked processors can reach absolutely insane frequencies without being easy to overclock (locked multi) such as one of my guild mates having an Ivybridge i3 at 4.2 GHz (stable) 24/7.

I don’t think it can be done easily unless the board accompanying it has tools made for that purpose.

I still think OP would be better off finding a pre-owned unlocked i5 if he didn’t want to change boards or anything and going from there.

You dont get it right – start learning
These chips are made to OC by BCLK.

did you see anyone OC-ing i5 655K to raise multiplier?

while haswell/ivy/SB nobody is pushing bclk

Those chips were not made to OC at all. They just so happen to OC because at the time, those users bought an overclocking motherboard. Now Intel’s probably going to work on a way to kill overclocking on any processor but an Unlocked K-marked unit.

Plus if you’re gonna put it like that, then my AMD Athlon X2 4600+ is a Black Edition (even though it is CLEARLY NOT) and is TOTALLY made for overclocking, again, which it is TOTALLY NOT, because the AMD Athlon 6400+ is the BLACK EDITION.

The AMD Athlon I’m raising here is the exact same as this i3 530 situation. Overclocking via BCLK. It takes quite a bit of experience to get over 1 GHz of frequency boost STABLE from just using BCLK. You just can’t thorw some half-kitten settings together and just expect it to work. In fact, last I was told, BCLK overclocking is more harmful if it’s not stable than multiplier overclocking.

And not to mention, the BCLK frequency changing tool on a motherboard BIOS is available on any mainboard that is capable of overclocking. It’s not something that is just for processors without an unlocked multiplier. It can be used on ANY compatible processor for that socket.

timmetjek,
I actually recommend investing in a new board/CPU combo if you’re able. A Haswell i3 would make circles around the first generation i3 by now so I think you’d see a considerable jump in performance. However the difference in wvw would maybe be as much as 4-5 FPS at the worst points. I’d actually have to maybe recommend something more along the lines of like a Haswell i5 4430 or 4570 if you’re not interested in overclocking. But after your CPU is upgraded if you choose this route, your GPU may become the bottlenecking bit of hardware.

Before even considering overclocking the i3, you’d have to find out what your board is to begin with and see if it even has any overclocking features.

Without overclocking though, a good pair of parts would probably be any MSI or Gigabyte board paired with an i5 4570. Not too expensive and not too cheap (or underperforming for that matter.)

Further along looking at GPU if you wanted to go further on upgrading, the best price for performance point right now I’d have to say is the GTX 750. It can be run on any machine wih a 300-350 watt power supply. Or almost any. Maybe not a system running a 2 TB HDD, 16 GB DDR3 and an i7 4770. But that is not the case here, however. GTX 750 does not have any external power connectors and it should be as much as plug-and-play.

Avelos – stop it!!!
this is insane OC not 4.0Ghz or 4.2Ghz
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?241328-Intel-Core-i3-530-4-82Ghz-AIR-5-35GHZ-SS

i3 haswell 4330 3.5Ghz = i3 530 4.2Ghz ( or even less)
OC this CPU and wait for skylake or broadwell …

OP, I would consider upgrading the GPU. The GTS250 was a mid range GPU 5 years ago. The GTXs were the gaming versions, for example the GTX250 with 216 cores and 896 MiB memory. I recently upgraded to a GTX 650 1GiB for $110. The lowest frame rate I have seen is about 20 FPS, except when a zerg enters the map and even skill activation slows way down. Given the price, I would consider the GTX 650 the minimum GPU to upgrade to. Wikipedia has a comparison of Nvidia GeForce GPUs and you can compare the cores/memory of the GTS250 with more modern GPUs. I can’t comment on your CPU since I use an AMD FX4300 quad core at 3.8 GHz and 8GB DDR3 1600 memory running Win 7 64 Pro.

XFlyingBeeX.2836:

Avelos – stop it!!!

No. You stop it. Do some research before declaring a locked CPU a special kind of overclocking CPU.

Oh and for the record, Intel Celeron single core at 8.5 GHz. That’s not a 24/7 Oc anyway. It’s just an OC to prove you’re the most skilled OCer ever.

More at http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php.

All of these super high CPU frequencies? None of them run 24/7. All of them are meant for proving points. They make the OC, boot windows, screenshot and shut it down.

None of these ‘extreme overclocks’ even count when you bring it up in this discussion.

Overclocking a locked CPU requires a few things.

1. user skill
2. STABLE and STRONG Mofsets on your Motherboard, a really high quality voltage regulator that your Memory and FSB sit on, And a stable BIOS (not all BIOS’s can push a base FSB OC that well)
3. Really stable Ram
4. Good Cooling and a very good PSU (EVERY Component gets OC’d in a Locked CPU OC).

A good example;

My PhenomII 830, stock is 2.8Ghz 4 Cores, 200Mhz FSB, 2000Mhz HT and 2000Mhz NB Stock.

Multiplier is locked at 14.

I can push the NB/HT to 2300, up the FSB to 233 and get a solid 3.2~ Ghz OC out of it with out much work. And Temps werent all that bad.

But, I then decided, what is the max I can get out of this chip (This was shortly before I Dumped AMD and moved to my i5-4670K) and this is what I had to do for a serious stable OC.

Drop the HT and NB down to 1300Mhz
Up the vCore by 1.5v (it was 1.725 at this point, 2.0 is death if you DONT have extremely good Cooling!)
Down clock the ram to 333mhz and reduce their timings to cl8/19t
then Disable 2 Cores
Then push the FSB up to 414mhz to get a 5.8Ghz OC on the chip.

This also pushed my HT and NB to 1800mhz, and my Ram to 1500mhz (Stock the ram is 1600Mhz).

And with that OC I got a 60% performance increase for multi core tasks and an 80% increase with single core tasks. But it was just still not enough for this game. Hey, it was a first gen PhenomII x4!

And Prime95 tests ran for 7days straight on that OC with out a single lock.

However, I got really lucky on the die lottery on that chip. I doubt many, if any others, are able to OC like that. And now that Chip sits in my work PC OC’d with x4 cores enabled at 4.6ghz :-)

Man , you are extreme overclocker!
I3 530 is easy to oc – i had one. All you need to do is raise voltage and BCLK. With stock cooling i had 3.5Ghz with cheap air cooler i had 4.2ghz i could go even higher but it wasnt worth it

avelos every one says that i3 530 is easy to OC

I have a decent gaming laptop: Alienware m17x R3 (AMD 6990m(2GB), i7-2820QM, 8GB ram, 17" screen at 1920×1080) and I get lag in large WvW zergs as well. If you are on a server with a high population, then everyone will get lag in WvW zergs. The lag will sometimes get so bad that you can’t even fire any of your skills off any more, and you realise it isn’t just you when map chat is populated with people saying the same thing. Also when that happens I don’t get killed, meaning the other side can’t fire their skills either.

I think to get a good impression of the real performance improvements you will get from any upgrade is to turn down your graphics settings and then play WvW. This will give you a realistic impression of any real gain you are likely to get, that is independent of any inherent WvW lag. Also use a broadband speed tester like speedtest.net. I had a problem with my broadband speed dropping from 14 Mbps to 2-3 Mbps a while ago and this had a big effect on zerg lag.

Looking at your pc specs though it would be hard to see how you wouldn’t make any real gains, but don’t expect it to start playing super fluid, because it usually won’t in a very heavy zerg. Also worthy of note is you didn’t note your screen resolution; the higher you screen resolution the more taxing it is on your GPU. Although it appears as if your CPU is the immediate bottle neck at the moment. Though if you upped your CPU, it is likely that your GPU will then become the bottleneck for performance (depending on your graphics settings).

CPU is bottlenecking youR GPU special in large WvW zergs. The game is not optimized…