Guild Wars 2

System 2 will run the game better but both systems will see quite a bit of fps drops in large battles/events.

Quad core AMD is similar to Duel core Intel but with lower per core performance which is why I would say System 2 would average higher frame rates.

Ok, AMD can be chosen for this game, but unfortunately as SolarNova pointed out subpar single core performance causes fps drops in areas with several people on screen; though that does happen with all cpus to some extent due to this game’s poor optimization.

The only AMD cpu that can play this game in the ideal 60fps range is the FX8350. (This does not include WvW)

Now, Intel on the other hand has the Sandy and Ivy chips that can run the game just fine.

Tom’s Hardware recently came out with a chart showing the gaming cpu hierarchy. i5/i7 Sandy/Ivy are top tier and FX8350 is the lone AMD cpu that’s in the 2nd tier.

The A10 can play the game at 30-45fps @ 1080p when paired with a 6600-series Radeon GPU and RAM that is running at 2133Mhz. I cannot comment on WvW performance for this hardware. Remember for APUs you must pair them with 2133 speed ram since they scale in performance together.

The ideal cpus for this game from both manufacturers would be the following:

AMD: FX-8350
intel: i5-3570K

I even have a video showing the general game performance (i.e. PVE and City) fps featuring both of these cpus at stock speeds.

If you look in the task manager while GW2 runs it uses 4 cores. Any i7 and the FX-8350 will show this behavior. One thing I have found though is that on the i7 cpus when in WvW there is a 5th core that gets activated but it’s utilization never goes up that high. Also 1 or 2 cores go way up in utilization in WvW.

For some reason during those same scenarios the FX-8350 doesn’t activate any more threads keeping the game strictly to 4 cores. Though I could be wrong in assuming that GW2 is using that 5th core on the i7. Perhaps there really could be some optimization done for the AMD cpus.

If the AM2+ motherboard supports AM3 cpus, then I recommend upgrading the CPU to a Phenom II x4 965 BE. That change alone will take the game from a 20fps average to a 45fps average.

The 965 BE has an unlocked multiplier, but I wouldn’t suggest doing any overclocking because the PSU is only 300W.

Any change to the GPU would most likely require a new PSU. So the best recommendation I can give for improvement on the current hardware is to upgrade the CPU to a compatible AM3 if applicable.

Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-kittenml.

Yes, in general I recommend an entirely new computer in order to run this game on high settings @ 1080p.

Based on that list, the Athlon X2 7550 is in the 4th tier from the bottom of the list for gaming cpus.

Note: There are 12 tiers. The top tier has the Sandy/Ivy i5/i7 cpus. The 2nd from the top tier includes the FX-8350 and the Core i7-980.

Bottom line is a new computer is the best option.

The i3-3240 will run GW2 better than the Phenom II x4 965 due to superior single thread performance.

However, the ideal CPU from both AMD and intel for GW2 would be the FX-8350 from AMD and the i5-3570K from intel. I have tested the game on sandy i3, ivy i5, Phenom II X6, and FX 83xx. In all tests the i5 and FX performed better due to quad core and in the case of the FX having 4 extra cores to dedicate to the game while having 4 additional cores for other tasks.

For some reason the game doesn’t run that well on duel or hex core configurations the exception being the 2011 socket cpus.

Changing the CPU is not required based on the one you have right now. The 1st generation i7 can still manage decent frame rates which is why on low settings you get 60 fps.

In your case, I would upgrade the GPU first to one of the ones mentioned (i.e. 7850 or 660).

With the newer i5/i7 you can break the 60fps limit in open world and average more around 70fps @ 1080p.

Unfortunately, there is no way to improve the game’s performance on that laptop since the hardware is not strong enough to run the game at a playable frame rate.

In order to run the game at 60fps @ 1080p in open world averaging in the 50-70fps range here is my recommendation:

CPU: i5-3570k
GPU: 7850

If you want to go nVidia then 660 or 570 would be the equivalent.
If you want to go full AMD then your system would include the following:

CPU: FX-8350
GPU: 7850

Yes, the 7850 is probably the best GPU for price/performance in terms of being able to play GW2 on High settings @ 60fps. Paired with an i5 cpu, the 7850 is the best gpu w/ performance for the price being able to max out the graphics settings @ 1080p.

I will clear up all the confusion about which AMD cpu is good for this game and which intel one is good.

For AMD, FX-8350 is the only viable option for running the game @ 60fps in open world and being able to play pvp without any issues. For WvW no cpu at stock speeds can run the game at 60fps due to poor optimization.

For intel, i5-3570K is the most cost effective option for running the game @ 60fps. It averages more like 70fps in open world.

I have a video proving this for both of these cpus.

For AMD, SuperNova is correct in that you do need to run at ~4.0Ghz. For intel it is optional as the gains will only be seen in WvW and from my testing on an i5 the gains are anywhere from 1-8fps.

I have a video that shows pretty much what hardware is required to run the pve/pvp (excluding WvW) at 60fps (50-70fps range). It is in a couple of these sort of threads now.

This demos both AMD and intel cpus in the ~$200 price range.

From my experience, overclocking does not yield a significant fps gain in WvW. As Rampage said, after the ~3.6Ghz there are only marginal gains which IMO aren’t worth the extra power consumption, heat build up, and cooling involved.

The main point of the video is to show that the new FX-8350 is able to hold up against the i5. The 8350 is the only AMD cpu I would recommend for being able to play the game @ 60fps (excluding WvW obviously).

Furthermore, when Game Sourcing on Xsplit for streaming @ 720p both the i5 and 8350 drop to ~30fps so both are in the same class of gaming performance with the i5 having the advantage.

Based on my testing of AMD’s recent cpus and intel’s Ivy Bridge the “baseline” for being able to run the game on High Settings @ 1080p with decent frame rates (50-70fps) in open world as shown in the video below would be the FX-8350 and/or i5-3570k.

If you are going AMD you must get the FX-8350. If you are overclocking don’t bother it doesn’t make much of a difference in this game. Same goes for intel.

I have a video comparing the FX-8350 with i5-3570k in Guild Wars 2 frame rate performance. It shows open world fps and LA fps for both systems.

I have a video that compares the game’s open world fps and the fps in LA on both an FX-8350 and the i5-3570K. The above poster is correct. All processors choke in the busy areas as shown in the video.

Note: Both are running in stock configurations (8350 @ 4.0Ghz | 3570k @ 3.4Ghz)

I made a video about the Ivy Bridge and Vishera cpus running the game in Lion’s Arch and open world. I didn’t have time to show WvW but generally WvW is about 10-15 fps worse than Lion’s Arch depending on the battle activity.

From the video I show that the i5-3570k generally averages about 12-15fps higher than the FX8350.

&

7870 is overkill for this game. 7850 yields the same performance since the game is CPU bound.

i5-3570k with Radeon 7850 2gb is ideal.
PVE – 66-72 fps
PVP – 53-64 fps
WvW- 20-45 fps
Cities – 40-70 fps

FX-8350 w/ Radeon 7850 2gb
PVE – 45-60 fps
PVP – 40-55 fps
WvW – 15-45 fps
Cities – 35-60 fps

Most likely this is expected in areas where there is a large amount of players moving about. The CPU is being bottlenecked. There isn’t much that can be done to improve performance as with WvW the fps varies from 15-45 depending on CPU.

I have 2 computers that I use for guild wars 2. One has an AMD FX-8350, the other uses the famous Intel i5-3570k. Both use the same GPU the Radeon 7850 2gb. The i5 averages about 12-20fps higher than the FX and has much better frame latency due to the game scaling very well with intel processors for some reason.

FX averages 54 fps.
i5 averages 66 fps.

Both tested with Vsync off.

Hardware Spec:
-CPU & Clock speed – AMD FX-8350 – 4.0Ghz
-GPU & Driver version – Sapphire Radeon 7850 2gb oc – Driver 12.10
-Motherboard model – Asus M5A99FX (990FX chipset)
-RAM – 16gb DDR3 1600Mhz
-OS – Windows 7 64 Ultimate
-HDD – 2TB Seagate 7200rpm 64mb cache

Game setting
Display Resolution – 1920×1080
Graphic Settings – High Settings (Best Appearance w/ Reflections OFF)

FPS Value:
PVE – 40-70 (Vsync off)
Cities – 30-60
PVP – 40-60
WvWvW – 20-45

I am running the game on an FX-8350 @ stock 4Ghz. I did a short 2 minute Fraps test in open world and the average frame rate is 53fps. In open world on FX-8350 @ 1080p or 1200p frame rate varies from 40-70fps. Compared to my older computer running a i5-3570k it seems the only time the AMD cpu dips in frame rate is when lots of npcs and player characters are on screen.

I’ve also found that going into the taverns and buildings that have npcs drops frames to ~47fps on the AMD. This does not happen on the intel i5. I’m not sure why this happens but I think the game could be better optimized so that these sort of frame drops on AMD systems doesn’t occur.

Overclocking the 8350 to 4.3Ghz yields negligible fps increases since it seems that in the same locations where the frames drop there isn’t much anything that can be done hardware tweekingwise.

Refresh-rate is set to default since the game is running in Windowed Fullscreen mode. The refresh rate is 60Hz.

Shouldn’t it be capped to 60fps instead of 50fps? Vsync on makes it go to 60fps. Vsync off makes it drop to 50?

Recently when logging into the game I have found that the frame rate at the character select screen is capped at 50fps. If I enable Vsync it then corrects itself to 60fps. Disabling Vsync returns it to 50fps. Frame Limiter is set to Unlimited. I know this is not caused by the CPU/GPU because in game fps averages higher than 50 (55-75fps) and sometimes when logging in or returning to the character select screen the frame rate is the expected 60-63fps.

This has been noticed on a computer w/ AMD FX-8350 paired with Sapphire Radeon 7850 2GB. I have also seen this 50fps cap, though on much rarer occasion, on an Intel i5-3570k paired with XFX Radeon 7850 2GB.

Note: CPU/GPU/RAM are all running stock.