Guild Wars 2

1) make sure ur intake isnt obstructed by any material on the under side, like ur trousers, or what ever u have the laptop on.

2) Check to see if u need to clean the heat sink. If u have never cleaned it befor and other hosue hold fans tend to get rather dusty/dirty then i highley recommend taking the laptop apart and cleaning the fan/heatsink. You can also change the TIM whilst ur at it to somthing of high quality like Gelid GC Extreme.

3) Get a laptop cooling pad. It will come with its own desktop sized fan that will push air up into the bottom of the laptop that should find its way into the intake and thus lower temps.

You WILL have to take the laptop apart to clean the heat sink at some point in its lifetime, so dont avoid it if ur not keen on the idea of taking it apart. You have to get around to doing it at some point.

Try a GTX 780. The 780ti made the 780’s drop in price considerably, they now cost around $500.

Whilst EVGA are great with RMA’s and their Step-up program, and their coolers work great at keeping temps down. I have noticed that their ACX cooler’s have a high tendancy to suffer from fan whine and i have personaly noticed that their heatsinks can rattle due to the way the fins are secured, however both issues are down to luck of the draw. So if u after a super quiet air cooled system then tbh i would not consider an EVGA ACX cooled card.

If u want a quiet cooler aswell as high performance cooling them u may want to look at a Asus DCII, Gigabyte Windforce, or MSI TwinFrozr.

A 780 is totaly overkill for 1080p GW2 gaming, however its great for other games that requir more power. I.E Crysis 3 Fully Max settings + 4x MSAA and play single player with 45+FPS . Turn MSAA down and FPS will shoot up.

Oh and if the 780 is out of ur budget then do let us know what ur budget is.

Make sure ur laptops fan and heatsink is clean. Take it apart and give it a good clean, u may even want to change the TIM to some high quality stuff like Gelid GC Extreme.

After that i would also recomend a cooling pad. However, only get a cooling pad if ur laptops air intakes are at the bottom, no point blowing air at solid bit of plastic if the laptops air intakes are at the front or sides.

Each game utilizes each piece of hardware differently, even if the overall utilization is different. It may be that the overclock your GPU has is just slightly to unstable for GW2.
That is the thing about overclocking, u can find what seems to be a perfectly stable overclock, then find that 1 or 2 games just dont like it, and u need to lower it.
I’ve got games that will run my 780 at 1300mhz on the core without a problem, and 1 that needs it to be at 1224mhz to stop the odd artifact from apearing. I personaly prefer to have a 100% stable clock so i keep my GPU at 1224mhz.

If lowering ur GPU lock stops GW2 from crashing then it is likely the OC that was causing it, u have 2 choices then, ether have 2 profiles and switch between them depending on what game ur using, or simple use the lower clock all the time.

If your OC was a factory OC and ur within warranty u may wish to get an RMA as the clock u payed for is unstable. But be sure it is indeed the OC and not somthing else.

As for Wildstar, i played it during its Beta stage, its not got that large a gap in its GPU requirments UNLESS u set the “target render scale” higher than 1×.
Anything higher than 1x and ur effectivly rendering the internal resolution higher than ur set resoultion. I,E 1,5x at 1920×1080 would effectivly be 2880×1620. Thus a much higher load is put on ur GPU.
The Wildstar devs only put such an option available to help future proof the game visualy for when much more powerfull GPU’s become more mainstream. Even a GTX 780 will have issues running WildStar at 2x render scale at 1080p as thats effectivly 4kHD.
BTW have they optimised he game engine yet ? when i played it would hammer the GPU if u looked in certain locations, for no apparent reason even on low settings (it was a known issue at the time).

Dependson how big.
World events as big as Tequatl will have very low fps, especialy with a CPU like urs.

Performance is still woefull for what it is. YMMV depending on ur system. Lets face it if your running at 20-40 FPS OUTSIDE of major events means inside them, like in WvW, its a slide show. Even top end systems will frequently drop below 25 in WvW.

Not to mention the latency lag caused by zergs currently. Fighting a npc in ur zerg, next thing u all experience a huge lag spike stoping all actions for a few seconds, straight away you know there is an oposing zerg very close by, a few seconds later they appear ontop of you.

in a word …..no.
gw2 hasnt really changed all that much performance wise. infact the addition of client side culling options lowered performance. though u should probably just test it urself to be sure.

Sent via PSP

As above, i sugest u wait for the new CPU’s. BUT if u have to buy now then i would ask some important questions to whome ever ur buying from.

Specifics are important so..

WHAT motherboard exactly ? ( a good Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI board would be preferable)
WHAT GTX 760 exactly ? (hopefuly a Asus DCII, MSI Twin Frozer, Gigabyte Windforce, or EVGA ACX)
WHAT 620w PSU exactly ? (really important u get a good one like a corsair or seasonic unit)
WHAT RAM exactly ? (at 1600mhz u want atleast CL9, and physicaly its preferable to have some kind of heatsink, not some OEM crap. Corsair or G.Skill are good choices for example)
WHAT HDD exactly ?
Does it come with a aftermarket CPU cooler or is it coming with a stock intel one ?
The addition of a 128gb SSD (no smaller) would be good for your OS + main programs or games.

Larger retailers and very small shop front buisnesses purposley neglect to mention specifics so they can put in cheaper parts to increase profit margins.

I havnt used a AMD GPU for many years, i got nothing against AMD, i just find Nvidia cards a tad better when u consider the whole package. Not just performance, but quietness, coolness, and build quality (in the case of refference designs).

Current generation GPU’s i would choose Nvidia, which i have, becouse the AMD cards run hot and require more cooling, which usualy means more noise.
A 280x or 770 will be more than enough for GW2 and should handle other games fairly well on high settings, just dont expect to max out games like Crysis 3 with ether of them, even a 780 ti cant manage to run Crysis 3 maxed out with MSAA even at 1080p without dropping below 60 fps.

Also consider your resoultion, if ur going above 1080p then u will want atleast 3gb Vram.

As for CCC vs NCP, i do know CCC does not have downscaling available (NCP does), which might be somthing u would want if a game does not have good AA inbuilt and also cant be forced via the drivers, its especialy usefull for much older games where even high AA cant help with low res models. I personaly used to run GW2 at 3200×1800 downsampled to 1920×1080 WITH the GW2 SuperSampling on, it removed all allasing and i could turn of the crappy FXAA that GW2 uses by default.

Which ever u decide, i would recommend a EVGA, MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte branded card with their cooler design as they are all far better than the stock refference coolers.

Save ur money. Now is not the time to be upgrading from a system such as that.

Wait for top end Nvidia 800 series GPU’s to come out then get 1 of those (or AMD’s offering if its competitive). Expected release between Q4 of this year and Q2 of next year depending on delays and/or competition from AMD.

Wait for Skylake CPU’s from Intel (Not Broadwell, which is the next series to come out). Expected release date Q4 2015 – Q2 2016.

Unless other new games that come out suddenly start significantly using more than 4 threads on a CPU, and I5 is perfectly fine for gaming.
Ontop of that, there has not been any change in CPU performance since Generation 2 of Intel’s I series (Sandybridge- i.e i5 2500k), through 3rd generation (Ivybridge i.e i5 3570k), and the current 4th generation (Haswell i.e i5 4670k) when Overclocking is taken into consideration. A 2500k and a 4670k will perform the same when Overclocked to their respected thermal limit using the same cooler. I.e a 2500k at 5.0ghz vs a 4670k at 4.6ghz.

All that said however, since ur running at 1440p, u may want to consider changing to a 3-4gb GPU. But tbh I would not do that unless u specifically see your VRAM maxing out and causing performance drops.

Core unparking generally only helps CPU’s that are lacking in power anyway. For example my 3930k when I tried it months ago didn’t show any noticeable change in performance with cores unparked. that said I have left them unparked just in case.

Mantle looks good, but DX12 is also apparently just as good if not better in some cases than Mantle, and its open for all GPU’s that currently support DX11. Mantle may be ‘open’ for Nvidia to adopt, but its made by AMD, Nvidia’s rival, meaning they are unlikely to want to support it.

Ofc DX12 is only going to be open for development in Q4 this year and the 1st games that support DX12 will likely release in Q3 of next year. Unless the GW2 devs are waiting on that, it is highly unlikely they will change the current APi to fix GW2’s issues.
Remember they have ur money already, they have no financial incentive to update their game engine.

If u lower all settings, u can increase ur FPS but WvW and other player busy areas will still have crap FPS as it is not bound to the graphics settings.

Don’t expect consistent 45+ FPS.

GW2 has the worst optimisation for an MMO iv seen, FPS WILL drop below 20 in WvWvW, large Dynamic events, and FPS in busy cities will be around 30.

PVE and 5 man group content will be 60+.

That said, u cant do much better than the specs u have listed. So ull get as good as can be got.

Welcome to GW2.

That is all.

DX12 is also an option as it has been demonstrated to be as good as mantle, which if it is when its released, will likely to be the most common API over Mantle as it can be used by all modern DX11 capable GPU’s, not just AMD. Mantle is open for Nvidia to use but Nvidia will not use it.

However, GW2 is HIGHLEY unlikely to be recoded in DX11,12, or Mantle as it requires a lot of work and Anet have no monetary incentive to do so as they already have the players money from the 1 time purchase required to play GW2.

A game patch could make a piece of hardware work harder but it still should not overheat. That’s a hardware fault plain and simple.

Take a look at ur GPU while playing, make sure the fans are spinning. If they are, turn ur rig off, take the card out, remove the plastic shroud, then remove the Heatsink entirely. Clean the heatsink fully, clean of the old TIM and replace it with new stuff. Put it all back together and u should be fine. If u have a blower style cooler n the GPU (AMD and Nvidia stock coolers) then u will NEED to remove the plastic shroud to be able to fully clean the heatsink, an area is usually conceal where a thick layer of dust can easily completely block airflow.
You could also check how fast ur fans ramp up to by installing some fan control software like EVGA precision. If the fans can go faster than what they are going now, then try that. but if u have never fully cleaned out ur GPU heatsink before then I would definitely do that.

That would be a hardware issue plain and simple.

As suggested, check ur heatsink mounting and fan. Whilst ur at it u could also change ur TIM since ur likely going to have to remove and re attach the heatsink to make sure its on properly anyway.

The only other thing it would be is a faulty CPU itself, the speed in which the temperature is going up doesn’t sound like it would be a case airflow issue, as that would take longer.

If it turns out to be a fault with the CPU itself, Intel has a 3 year limit warranty on all their CPU’s, so u should be able to get it replaced so long as ur within that time period.

Yes u can.

I used to run at 3200×1800 which is a custom res and had no problems.

MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus are all good manufactures, but the question is, what type of board are you budgeting for?
For the future upgrade path squishy mentioned, u would need a ‘Z87’ motherboard, not a B85, H81, H87, or Q87.
Which Z87 board u get is likely going to be down to ur budget, as it doesn’t seem like u will be wanting for more Sata, PCI, or PCi-E space.

Another deciding factor maybe aesthetics, if ur case as a side window u may want to choose a board that looks nice and matches the colour scheme of the parts u by.

Performance in towns will likely be anywhere as low as 20, up to ur max set FPS, likely maxed by V-Sync that being 60 unless u have a 120hz or 144hz monitor. In LA u’ll likely be around 20-30ish, whilst in other cities that are less populated u could easily sit at 45+.

To answer your question OP. No, it will not give u good performance in Gw2.

FYI the 337..5 ‘miracle’ driver has been defunct. The massive gains advertised were made by making games that didn’t work with SLI, work with SLI, thus the huge gains. The actual gains for this driver over the previous will be around 0-10% depending on the game on single GPU systems.

Crafty PR/marketing by Nvidia.

It wont be W8 only.
Microsoft have stated that they estimate that at least 50% of all gamers will have access to DX12.
That’s taking into account that a gamer would require a Fermi GPU or newer card (Nvidia side), basically anything DX11 capable.
With that although Microsoft hasn’t directly come out to say its W7 compatible, the fact they expect 50% of gamers to be able to use Dx12, and the fact that they also say %50+ of gamers are using W7 now + ~%20 using W8 or 8.1, means that yea, W7 compatibility is most likely.

I find this hard to explain, its easy to understand in my head lol. But basically MS’s expectations match up with current W7 vs W8 usage amongst gamers. So yes it will be W7 compatible.

This link explains most of what u need to know about performance of DX 12 and what MS expects.
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/178904-directx-12-detailed-backwards-compatible-with-all-recent-nvidia-gpus-will-deliver-mantle-like-capabilities

The attached image (taken from the MS DX12 announcement) shows why GW2 would benefit, the top half is whats happening now to players in GW2 (and that’s in DX11!! so DX9 is even worse).

If the motherboard is capable, get a FX8350 + aftermarket cooler so u can OC it.

They wont.

Going form Dx9 to DX11 is no easy task, going from Dx9 to Dx12 would be very similar as Dx12 is just a backend update to Dx11, hence why we wont need new hardware to run DX12. If ur hardware can run Dx11, u can run Dx12 without having to upgrade ur GPU.

But Anet have made it abundantly clear they have no intention of updating and improving their game engine. The performance Gw2 has now is there to stay. If they were to change, they would have told us by now to repair their reputation with this game.

AIex.4105:

thanx u all guys, anyway now igot the idea, i need an am3+ddr3 mob and some 1600ddr first, and ive been looking and I got this in my mind.

1º this am3+ ddr3 mob
http://www.pccomponentes.com/asrock_960gm_vgs3_fx.html
2º this 1600 ddr3
http://www.pccomponentes.com/kingston_hyperx_blu_ddr3_1600_pc3_12800_4gb_cl9.html
3º and this gpu
http://www.pccomponentes.com/evga_geforce_gtx_750_ti_2gb_gddr5.html

total 206€, is this any good? if ill get it ill get a fx cpu and other memory stick next mounth

Yes that would work.

I personally use a 780 classified, and whilst im very happy with it, if I were JUST playing GW2, or at least playing it as my main game for the foreseeable future, I would NOT recommend a 780. I got my one when they were the top card out so it cost the same as a 780ti does now, but even though the 780 is now cheaper I still wouldn’t recommend spending that much on a GPU for GW2.
So get a 760 or 770.

760 would be fine for 1080p + supersampling, and a 770 would be good for 1440p + SuperSampling.
I run 3200×1800 (down sampled to 1080p) + SuperSampling in GW2 just for the hell of it (helps reduce Aliasing as well) and a 780 can handle that with about 70-85% usage to achieve 60 FPS in graphically intensive area’s like LA when its not busy (and thus not causing CPU bottlenecks) . So that should give u an idea of how relatively easy GW2 is on the GPU.
A Single 780 or more likely a single 780ti/Titan Black would be fine for 4k for GW2.

I take it ur from UK if ur using £’s so newegg is out of the question.

£400 is a good enough amount for an upgrade, but not a whole new system.

You got DDR3 RAM, so that’s good. U need to let us know if ur Case is ATX compatable, if so u got a case u can re-use so that’s good. Next, the PSU, chance are its a piece ofcrap but better safe to ask. Find out its make/model & wattage.
Does it have an optical drive (probably), What HDD’s is it using ? IDE (if its really old) or Sata? and how big are they 500GB ? 1 TB ?.

Once we know what u have that’s re usuable we can sugest upgrade paths. £400 isn’t enough for a whole rig, but should be enough for a Motherboard + CPU + GPU + PSU.
i.e
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3lwng

If u need a case and other components then we would have to lower the CPU and/or GPU.

With respect BazeDragon, an AMD CPU like yours would drop into the low teens 10-15 FPS in proper WvW Zergs. By all means, drop us an SS including CPU-Z to show us ur FPS and in what situations ur talking about, but for those of us that have been here for ..to long.. we know that even Intel CPU’s will run at 15-25 FPS in serious zergs, and AMD CPU’s are inherently worse.

Yes AMD are cheaper, but considering the OP would need a new motherboard with DDR3 RAM anyway, he might as well switch to Intel when he has the required cash for a CPU+Motherboard+ RAM purchase (~300€) . Until then, a new GPU would likely suit him better with the budget he currently has.
or he can wait a little longer until he has ~450€ and get new GPU at the same time.
For GW2 specifically, buying another AMD CPU when u need to change motherboards as well, is a bad idea. And buying another AMD CPU which is already old and behind the FX line, is also a bad idea as performance wont increase.
Now if h had DDR3 and was running a AM3+ motherboard capable of taking a FX6 or FX8 series CPU, then yes, on a budget that would be a good choice.

Yea released that as i was editing post :P

If u can scrap together another ~30€ then get this combination of new motherboard and CPU.
http://www.pccomponentes.com/gigabyte_ga_z77_ds3h.html
http://www.pccomponentes.com/intel_core_i5_3330_3_0ghz_box.html

Keep the GTX 9800 as is unless u know for a fact its maxing out all the time. In which case get a better GPU like the following.

http://www.pccomponentes.com/sapphire_r9_270x_dual_x_2gb_gddr5_reacondicionado.html
Though that’s a reconditioned unit if im not mistaken ..so maybe go lower and get a
http://www.pccomponentes.com/sapphire_r7_265_dual_x_2gb_gddr5.html

EDIT: forget the CPU & Motherboard, forgot u would need DDR 3 memory ontop of that aswell, would put the price up even more.

Up u budget to $600 and u should get what ur after.
As others have suggested, build it ur self.

Somthing like this
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j51r
+ any salvaged parts from ur old rig like ur HDD and Optical Drive, maybe even the case if its compatible (ATX)

A setup like the one linked would give u the ability to upgrade ur CPU and GPU at a later date if u wished as the motherboard is compatible with all Haswell CPU’s up to the i7 4770k, and the PSU has plenty of power to handle a bigger GPU along with the bigger CPU.

Do note the i3 4330 is a 2 core with HyperThreading, so it will act like a 4 core.

Its a bit late now, but in the future OP… Never NEVER take advise from a sales person ..ever. Doesn’t matter the subject, be it computers, cars, houses, what ever, NEVER listen to advise from som1 in sales. Always go online, ask trusted friends and family members in the know.

Yes the internet can lie, but if u go to forums and ask the questions, u will likely get a bunch of responses and u can take the most common and/or best backed up and proven advice and have a much higher chance of it being correct.

In the case of the PC build, u had the list, u shouldn’t have budged from it. If u bought it recently, go get ur money back, I don’t know the law where ur from, but here in the UK if something like that happened, u would have a solid case to get ur money back or the system replaced for what u originally wanted.

The reason ur seeing performance issue’s is because of the CPU. AMD CPU’s don’t have the single thread power to handle GW2’s optimised mess of a game engine.
Technically nether does Intel’s CPU’s, but they do a better job than AMD at least.

To be clear, AMD CPU’s are NOT crap, they just are not great for programs that require fast single cores/threads, GW2 is one of those programs.

Going by ur lack of PC knowledge ill try keep things simple.

1st off, forget PCworld, they suck. (I live in the UK, very close by to a large PCWorld and they know jack s*it about computers)
Check out these websites for PC parts and or prebuilt rigs.
Dabs.com
Scan.co.uk
Aria.co.uk
Overclockers.co.uk
Ebuyer.com (though pray u don’t ever have to RMA through them)
Amazon.co.uk

If u want prebuilt I highly suggest Aria.co.uk as they have the best prices and fully list all components used, they don’t cut corners with shabby PSU’s for example. Which PCworld and other places like Dell/Alienware WILL.

Next off, you need to realistically look at ur budget, £300, just wont cut it. You looking at £700 at least for a Intel based pre spec and built system. £550 if u build it ur self can just about squeeze a i5 and good enough GPU.

For example I literally just been on another forum helping som1 build a rig at a really tight budget. This is the system http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3eqeZ
Even that doesn’t include the cost of a Operating System (Windows 7 or 8 ) so u have to add that on if u don’t got a copy u can transfer over.

Every GPU will have coil whine, its whether or not u ever get FPS high enough to get it. For example my GPU is dead silent now its on a water block, BUT if I run Ice Storm bench test I get over 1000 FPS easy and the coil whine kicks in at roughly 500 FPS +. If the OP’s 660ti is producing coil whine and VSync is OFF in GW2, just turn it on and it should go away. If its got coil whine at low fps, say anything under 100 FPS, then if its getting annoying ether RMA if its still under warranty, or just sell it on to somebody who doesn’t care about noise and buy a replacement like a 760.

Indeed, laptop cooling can be a kitten.

Many high end laptops fall into the same trap of having wicked (for a laptop) hardware but the chassis has poor airflow.

IF your laptop has a*bottom* intake, then a cooling pad will help. If its a side or front intake then a cooling pad wont do anything.

Replacing the TIM can sometimes reduce temps by 2-10 c depending on how crappy the original TIM is. GC-Extreme is one of the joint top non conductive type TIM’s out there, only things that are better are liquid metal compounds.

As for fan speeds, as already stated by others, 99% of laptops have OEM restricted motherboards which means fan control can be locked off.

OP just know that what ever rig u decide on, u wont maintain a constant 60 FPS in GW2. GW2 is incapable of running at a good solid FPS in all situations. WvW, large events, Cities, will all crawl around below 30 FPS, how low that figure goes depends on ur rig. Old Core2Q system will see 5 FPS, low end I series like the i3’s and even stock clocked i5’s may see as low as 10. Top end system will still regularly see low 20’s.

So be sure you want to upgrade/rebuild a rig for GW2 specifically, because the performance u get no matter what u spend isn’t really that great.

The only time you really should OC RAM for gaming purposes is if ur using a AMD APU based system, where OCing the RAM also OC’s the on board GPU and can result in significant FPS gains.

I have run GW2 on a C2Q Q6600, and also a C2E QX6850.
Both ran very slow when involved in large events and WvW dispite being great CPU’s for their time.

I would not recommend buying an old Core2 series CPU for GW2.

What u want is a 2nd generation or newer Intel i5 or i7 with their respective correct Socket motherboard. So any of the following would be great choices.

i5’s:
2nd gen: 2500, 2500k, 2550k,
3rd gen: 3550, 3570, 3570k
4th gen: 4570, 4670, 4670k
i7’s
2nd gen: 2600, 2600k, 2700k, 3820, 3930k, 3960X, 3970X
3rd gen: 3770, 3770k, 4820k, 4930k, 4960X
4th gen: 4770, 4770k

In short. You need a whole new rig. You can maybe re use your HDD’s if they are Sata, your optical drives, if u still use them..but that’s about it, everything else inside the case and likely including the case, will have to be replaced at the same time.

Up to $1000 / £1000 for a good rig for all games. ~800 if u just want it for GW2, as you don’t need a expensive GPU for Gw2. For a basic modern system ~600 but it wont have a top notch CPU so GW2 wont run as good as it would with say a i5 4670k CPU.

If u have the budget to get a i7 that will add a couple FPS in CPU heavy situations. More and more people are finding that their i5’s are maxing out in a lot of the large events nowadays in GW2, so If u can afford a i7 like the 4770k or a 3770k then go for it.

If u have an SSD in ur build list already with the i5, then I would suggest removing the SSD from the list and going for a standard HDD and use the saved cash for an i7.

Load times in GW2 are not SSD fast even with an SSD now, and an SSD will only help with load times in other games and ur OS so its not something u get ahead of something like a better CPU. You get an SSD last.

Make sure u choose a good case, it will affect air cooling more than u think. Try find one that allows the front fans to blow directly into the CPU air cooler (once a HDD cage is removed most likely) and that will easily reduce CPU temps by 5c.
Also, if u end up getting a case that does not have great air flow, for what ever reason, be it size constraints or wanting a silent designed case with sound deadening, then make sure the graphics card u get is a blower style and not an open air one like the Gigabyte windforce.

One final bit of advice, don’t skimp on the PSU, get a good quality unit from a manufacture like Seasonic or Corsair.

That CPU should be ale to OC higher whilst still running on air, though it depends on how good an air cooler you have, and the silicon lottery. But you should manage 4.5ghz or there abouts. That may give you a few more FPS.

whilst running GW2 on its lowest settings to get those FPS figures is good for FPS, not being able to see the people in the Zerg kinda defeats the purpose. That why I personally used to run the model/population limit on Highest, with only the model texture limit set to Low. That netted 25+ FPS.
Unfortunately last time I played in a WvW zerg a couple months ago I was forced to lower the model limit to High or Medium (depending how low FPs got) as its just got to the point where its a necessity, even then I would dip to low 20’s. The rest of the settings I leave maxed out except reflection

If I were still playing GW2 now, I have no doubt I would have to run Model limit on Medium or Low now along with Low on the Texture limit, and probably some of the other graphical options to squeeze out those few more FPS just to stay above 20. Its one of the reasons I no longer play GW2

For 800-900, IF you built it yourself, you would get more or less everything GW2 has to offer.

800×600 ..that brings back memories

only reason I can see running it that low is …ancient CRT screen ..but even my old CRT’s went higher than that ….game streaming to a mobile platform …‘shrugs’

TBH I wouldn’t know if its possible, its an old rarely used/phased out resolution.

What GPU do u have ?
Have u run GPU-Z to find out how its being utilized, if its running In the correct PCI-E slot etc …if not ..try it.

or better yet ..go desktop :P.

Though tbh GW2 isn’t worth upgrading for IMO.

Do note that any upgrade will still only net u ~25 fps in big zergs.

Well if it were for other games it would easily be possible, you simply build around a AMD core, but since he wants it for GW2, then Intel is pretty much a requirement, and as such ur spend a premium on the CPU and motherboard, leaving little for the rest of the rig.
And since he wants a prebuilt, u again pay a premium….. on top of, sometimes, (if u buy the wrong rig) substandard components, usually the PSU or motherboard. PC gaming isn’t cheap, u pay for the advantages over consoles, but IMO at least ..its worth it. I guess it depends on how much of a gamer he is.

My advice in the end is for him to save up more money, don’t worry about the time it takes, there will always be something better on the horizon for PC components.
Maxwell is coming in regards to Nvidia GPU’s, which ‘should’ be a great GPU performance wise, though it is uncertain if the entire 800 series cards will be Maxwell or if only the top end ones are. If it is only the top end ones then its likely out of budget for ur friend, but even so ..the lower end 800 series will still be equivalent to mid to high end current 700 series but cheaper.
Ontop of that u have Broadwell Intel CPU’s coming which wont be a huge improvement tbh, maybe 5% ..just like Haswel was over Ivy, and Ivy was over Sandy ..so its nether a good or bad thing for som1 who is waiting on money to build a rig.

If he simply hasn’t got a PC or his current one is just that bad that he cant wait, then all I can advise is that he gets a Intel based rig with the best CPU he can find and a GPU that is at least a 650ti or AMD 7790.

Find something like the below link within the US and ull be golden. Where ever u buy a prebuilt rig from u need to know EXACTLY what each and every component inside it is. A lot of business skimp out on the PSU and/or motherboard and wont actuall tell u what ur getting, they will just say “500w PSU” and “LGA 1155 motherboard” ..which doesn’t tell u anything.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Award-winning+Gaming+PCs/Gladiator+Punisher+7870+LE+i5-3570K+4.30GHz+LAN+OC+Gaming+PC+?productId=55342