Guild Wars 2

Your best bet for GW2 will be a 4690k or a 6600k overclocked as high as you can push it.

30 and below? Where, everywhere? What settings are you running?

You get stutter because sub-60 FPS is stutter. If you’re talking about inconsistent stutter it’s because you’re not running at a multiple of the monitor’s refresh rate so every other frame or so needs to be held for 2 refreshes.

To run GW2 well at higher settings you’ll need an upper-midrange GPU and a highly clocked i5, ideally in the 4.4+ GHz range. Since you want to keep the budget below $1k, I aimed for ~$750 for the tower; I didn’t include an optical drive or a wireless card, but those would be like $20 total if you needed both.

If you have a copy of windows you can reuse, don’t purchase it here and opt for either a Noctua DH-15 or a Corsair H100i (GTX) cooler instead of the Hyper 212 Evo. Both should lead to a decent temperature decrease, well worth it imo; I’m running a 212 Evo atm and I’ve been thinking about getting an H100i because my PC runs a bit hotter then I’d like.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yQ3vMp

I went with windows 8.1 because it’s the cheapest option and you can upgrade it to 10 for free anyways. You would also see some nice gains by getting an SSD (in that it lowers loading times quite a bit), although it would bump up the price a bit:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/q2Qxzy

The SSD I chose has come controversy around it, but these days it’s just your average Sandforce SSD that’ll still be a nice step up over a conventional HDD. Realistically it’ll be as good as anything else in that price range without a sale. With a sale you should be able to get an 850 Evo for $70-75, though.

Max out the FoV and disable screen shaking and you should see a big improvement.

Personally I’ve only become motion sick when driving a fanboat in HL2/Gmod a lot

If you’re going to get a 970 save a couple dollars and get a 390 instead. The same/better performance, more vram, and it pulls way ahead at higher resolutions.

$200 will get you a decent used 290, though; my brother has an XFX DD he got for that much a couple months back. Hell, a 280x will only run you ~$130 used and will beat both of the cards you were originally after.

In general, find the cards in your price range, look up the benchmarks to see what performs better, and buy whatever that is regardless of what brand the card is.

Edit: Looking into 960 vs 380 benchmarks shows the 380 pulling ahead across the board by between 5-15% or so. I personally would want at least 3 GB of vram on any decently high-end card these days, so I’d go with the 4 GB MSI one for $180 after MIR=; it offers the best price:performance. If you wanted 2 GB of vram nVidia’s going to be like $5-7 cheaper, so it’s up to you if the slight performance increase is worth the price.

Argon.1563:

Or you could just play the game as it’s meant to be played, instead of relying on 3rd party software.

“As it’s meant to be played”? Dear lord come off the high horse. The game isn’t “meant to be played” without voice chat. It also isn’t meant to be played with voice chat. Voice chat is just another form of communication that’s much, much more convenient to use, especially in things like PvP.

Argon.1563:

I dislike listening as well, because its just a one-sided conversation. People talk down to you, knowing you won’t talk back if you make a wrong move, and when in voice-chats, people are always more aggressive than they are in chats, because they know its unmoderated, and guild officers are normally, if not always, less inclined to step in if somebody is being aggressive, because somebody being abusive using their voice is a lot more powerful than somebody typing a few salty comments.

It sounds like you’ve been voice chatting with kittens, then. I’ve used voice chat quite a lot over my years of MMO playing, in many different settings and it’s almost always a good time; I can talk without having to type a book in the middle of a boss fight or whatever.

Behellagh.1468:

It’s the same in my book as topics like …

Except it’s not. Those are much more involved fixes which would required huge portions of the game to be recoded (except the GPU one, that’s never really going to be an issue) while adding more UI scaling options is much easier.

Behellagh.1468:

This is just like the threads on Dx11/12/Mantle/Vulkan/VR Headset, just because it’s the latest tech doesn’t mean it automatically becomes a priority to adopt and/or support.

There’s a huge difference between UI scaling and asking for all of that much more complicated crap.

I’m curious, does the guild hall area expand? There’s some stuff blocked off by rocks that a guildy of mine didn’t see on his screen and was able to run through that led to some other areas.

This is good imo. 250 is enough that it it will take a while to do but it’s low enough that you don’t need to 100% complete all of the maps to get (or go back and do a ton of world completion in the old maps first).

Just turn on action combat and wrap a rubber band around your left mouse button

The new zones (at least VB) is a bit more demanding then previous ones, so you may have more performance issues, honestly. I personally had to knock shadows from ultra to high to maintain 60 FPS in the open world and it still dips in the boss events. It’s fine outside of that.

So basically, it’s about the same as it was, honestly. If having settings knocked down is a dealbreaker you’re not going to be happy and it still might not live up to your expectations anyways.

You’re probably not going to manage 30 FPS in super heavy areas; I can’t even do that/barely do that with character density at medium. That being said, you already own the game, so log in, go to Teq/Wurm/Maw and set your settings how you like. Then you can see what your actual framerate is going to be

I’m using Sweetfx and, after a slight bit of modification to my preset, it’s awesome. I can’t stand the game without it, it’s so washed out and blurry.

Why not overclock? You lose out on so much performance by not doing so.

Zerk is fine in the jungle. I haven’t had any issues with it and I’m a pretty average-skilled player.

They can be chosen as a glider skin if you buy them. However, you can only use a glider in HoT areas; they are expansion only

Change the HP challenges to be soloable when you’re the only person around and remove (some of) the mastery gating. Reduce the number of points needed for the elite spec (200 maybe? 150? Just less) and make the skins/etc from the track be the highest rewards requiring 400 points.

This is one of my biggest gripes with the system, honestly. Otherwise it’s all right

$675-700, really pretty reasonable (Edit: Including Windows. Had I been smart and reused the copy from my laptop, it would’ve been $575-600). I get 60 FPS everywhere except LA/huge situations with these settings and Sweetfx providing some other visual enhancements (AA, some saturation boosts, etc). It goes to like 25-30 at the lowest.

I was running Ultra shadows but it caused my framerate to tank in Verdant Brink so I dropped it down to High.

You’re barely even going to be able to build a PC for $200, alone get one running at medium-high settings at 30 FPS. You might be able to cobble something together with a C2Q of some sort, decent 5xxx or 4xx series GPU, whatever case it will all fit in, etc but you’d need to have Windows already or acquire a copy somehow.

Your computer is done besides the GPU, get a 280x/960 or better and you’ll be fine. My specs are in my sig.

I’d like to be able to pay a fee of like 100-150g on a new character to unlock all of the WPs for that character, only if you’ve already done world completion. It gives you the important bit which is the biggest hindrance to me using characters that aren’t my Ranger in the open world.

Linken.6345:

do a /age
in game to find out how many days fermi

Yeah, I know. I was just not at the computer (still not) . It’s somewhere in the high 800s.

1720 hours. No idea how many days.

Go to windowed fullscreen, that will fix it.

Just move all of the combat keys to something you find comfortable within easy reach. What I did was move most of the skills to 1-5 and F1-F4, with the 4 extras on my mouse. It means that I can reach every skill without needing to let go of movement buttons but I also keep the standard movement keybinds/action used in pretty much every game.

I was in New Hampshire, so no, I didn’t pay any tax

So I’ve got a spare PC at home that I use for short breaks. Currently it’s got a Q6600@3 GHz and 8 GB DDR3 1066, which is a decent base, but it needs a GPU better then my 5450 1 GB. I don’t really want to dump money into this thing, so I’m setting a $20 limit on a new GPU.

I’m thinking a GTX 260 or 5770 might be doable at my price point. It’s there anything else I should keep my eye out for?

No, the way the dodge currently works is good. There’s no good reason to change it.

Captain Inzane.4756:

To me the biggest difference in AMD and Nvidia is heat. Nvidia cards typically run cooler

That 100% depends on the specific model you get. For example, reference 290xs run hot as kitten while a Tri-X one will only get to the mid 70’s or so under load.

Captain Inzane.4756:

and most people will argue that they have better performance. It’s been a battle since both companies have been making GPU’s.

That all depends on the price point, really. See what you can get in your price range, look at the benchmarks, buy what gives you higher framerates. A 960 vs a 380 will basically trade blows, so I’d personally grab a 4 GB 380; 2 GB of vram in this day in age isn’t quite enough imo and it’ll run you $180 or so vs $170 for a 960/2 GB 380.

Captain Inzane.4756:

If you’re having performance issues I’d definitely look to upgrade cpu, mobo, ram as those three will increase performance (obviously depending on what you have).

Definitely this, though upgrading your ram won’t be worth it unless you’ve got super kitten RAM (Like the 1066 MHz stuff in the computer I’m on atm; if you’ve got 1600 mhz stuff you’re not going to get much from upgrading).

I’d use a hardware scanner and see how hard you’re actually pushing your machine and see where you can improve it.[/quote]

Higher clocked ram only helps to a point. You’ll see maybe 1-2 FPS more going from 1600 MHz to 2400. Not really worth the price increase imo

If you’re looking at upgrading the GPU look at a 290x/390, they’ll generally give better price to performance then a 970.

How is a subscription pay to win? And the game doesn’t even have a subscription. You can just play the game for free now, with some limitations

That ram is expensive for what it is, you should be able to get 16 GB of CL9 1600MHz ram for like $65-70 and 16 GB is overkill anyways. Besides that it looks fine

Reseat your GPU and make sure it’s in the closest PCI slot to your CPU.

Behellagh.1468:

The 8 core CPU in the XBone and PS4 has a similar overall performance as the “four” core FX-4130 or the 2 core with HT i3-4130T.

Yep, because it’s basically a tablet CPU. And that’s similar performance when all cores are fully utilized; GW2 is far from being able to take advantage of 8 cores.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

You’re not a trader, you’re a Market Manipulator.

So far the TP works fine for those that are playing Guild Wars 2.

Lel

Forum bug ftwwwwww

Substance E.4852:

The GTX 960 GPU costs ~$200 right now and an i7 is roughly the same depending on the exact model.

You’re not finding an i7 for $200, especially if you want to get a k model (which you should). $220 will get you an i5, though. Less if you don’t get a k model.

Edit: Or you can go used, which will net you an i5+mobo for like $200, no idea how much an i7 will run you. They’re not worth it for gaming, though.

BrotherBelial.3094:

I meant historically console games look better at the age of the console grows, as the devs get better at knowing what the api can do.

Historically, consoles had- for the time- high end hardware and strange architectures that needed to be learned, but the equivalent PC hardware would always hold up pretty equally. This generation, both consoles are basically midrange PCs from a couple of years ago, so things are different; the hardware is lower-end AND there isn’t as much for the devs to learn.

BrotherBelial.3094:

PC games are different. If you want to keep games looking there best, you might need to upgrade your graphics card often, depending on how much money you have to spend on one at any given time.

Yeah, which is because PC games generally have graphics that can stress the newer hardware. If you want the games to look as good as they look on the consoles, you only need equivalent hardware; if you want the games to look as good as they can, you need high-end hardware.

Look at the new Battlefront game as an example. Does it look all right on consoles? Yeah, although not having games be 1080P in this day and age is absolutely laughable. But, you can get them looking that good (settingswise) on an equivalent PC easily, especially when you knock down the resolution. Then, once you count the cost of playing online, you can absolutely blow either console out of the water for the same amount of cash.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Also we all know 90% of the time PC games have better graphics that the console version of the same game.

Which is what necessitates upgrading, if you want to stay ahead of the curve graphicswise. If you’re just wanting to match the consoles, you don’t need to upgrade.

BrotherBelial.3094:

2) To keep the best level of graphics, for the same length of time as a console we have to spend the price of a console on just a card.
3)Depending on what sec PC you have to start with, you could end up buying a new graphics cars every 3 years or so, just to keep your games looking as good or better than the console.

To match console level graphics you don’t need to upgrade your GPU every 3 years, you need to get a console-level GPU at the start of the generation and call it a day. Right now that means that you need a 7850 to match a PS4 (the more powerful of the two consoles), which is like $65-70. You can upgrade to the latest and greatest every 2-3 years if you so desire, but if you start with something better then the consoles you’ll be ahead of them for the lifetime of the system anyways.

Cyninja.2954:

Who gets themselves an Xbone? PS4 all the way!

Meh. Both are miles behind PC in terms of performance for your dollar and overall performance, especially since you have to pay to play online. Unless you really like an exclusive there’s no reason to get either.

As for this topic, Anet really shouldn’t try to develop the game for any other systems. It wouldn’t even run well on either console because of their garbage CPUs. If you really want the authentic xbox one experience, set the game to 720P, 30 FPS, medium settings, plug in an Xbox controller and plug your computer into your TV. Or just plug the computer into the TV and a controller into the computer, your call.

GhostNeko.5037:

Oh, and for the record one last time, an R9 290x is NOT on par with a GTX 970 the 970 has a MUCH better price to performance ratio, and yes I am NOT an Nvidia/intel fanboy, quite the disappointing opposite in fact.

What? A 290s is a much better price:performance card because you can generally get them way cheaper then 970s. They’re basically the same in terms of performance, with the 290x being better at some games and the 970 better at some games, but the gap is never that big in either direction.

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355

You can just whisper them to yourself. That’s what I do

I’m from the US and have never heard it as key. That just sounds strange

I actually like having my thumb on my mousepad. It’s actually why I haven’t picked up a G502 even though I like it otherwise

I’ve got an Asus VS-239. I wanted the better picture of an IPS panel and didn’t (still really don’t) have the hardware to run at 144 Hz so I figured it was the way to go.

Depending on your specs and what you want out of a monitor either go for the best IPS or 144Hz monitor you can swing in your budget.

Except moving the servers to the west coast would produce a noticeable degradation in performance for players on the east coast; the huge difference in latency between east coast and west coast players actually just caused Riot to relocate their LoL servers to Chicago to balance things between the coasts.

icewyrm.5038:

I don’t think it hurts to ask for oceanic servers. A number of big game companies have set up server farms in australia in recent years, including some companies that most aussie folk thought never would.

Maybe it’s worth re-evaluating the business case for aussie servers.

I’m all for giving the Australians their own servers, but gimping the US servers for people in the US doesn’t quite seem right to me.