Guild Wars 2

Try find a laptop with a LGA 2011 cpu in it, they are desktop CPU’s and will run at their max frequency even wiht all cores running.

Those laptop CPU’s do not ru nat their max frequency when running on all cores like GW2 will make it do.

In the end if u HAVE to chose, go for the faster one, u wont be running at the max turbo frequency that it advertises, but what u do run at will be higher than the lower end one.

The quieting is people leaving.

I havnt been in game for a while now, i ofcourse keep updated and pop in now and then and keep an eye on the tech forums to help ppl out. But as for actually playign the game fully, nah.

There is no ultra exactly, but if ur looking for max on every setitngs then im afraid its no.
SuperSampling requirs a top of the line GPU.
And if u want to max the WvW culling settings then well, if u ever find a system capable of doing it , do share it with us, Becouse even a system such as mine cant completly turn of culling WvW. And tbh that isnt down to the system, GW2’s game engine is just so horribly optimised for the job its being asked to do that it cant fully use a CPU to its maximum potential, and what it does use it cripples.

As above, its a shame u didnt get the k verison of the 3570, as it owuld be easyer to OC, but even the normal version can OC somwhat, and i sugest u do so if u want some more performance in GW2.

How old is the laptop and how regularly do u use it ?
It ‘might’ be that ur battry has run its course. That is, if ur runing the laptop form the battry.
If your running it form the mains and it isnt temp related then it may well be a driver issue.

Requirment for GW2 on a laptop ?

Hope u have deep pockets.

CPU: 3630QM/4700MQ or higher Mobile CPU, or LGA 2011 desktop CPU
GPU:660m/7970m or better
RAM 8GB
OS: Window 7 or 8 64bit

Example: Sager NP9570 / Clevo P570WM

GW2 hammers laptop CPU’s hard. and becouse laptop CPU’s cant run at max turbo on all cores u end up running at a slower turbo than is advertised. Say for example it say a CPU will turbo up to 3.7ghz, hat they actually mean is it will turbo up tothat on 1 core, but when all 4 cores are in use u will likely get 3.3ghz or some such.
You also tend ot run into heat issues on cheap laptops, so u need to ake sure the laptop u get is designed to stay cool when under high load.

Most cheaper laptops have heat issues when stressed. GW2 can stress a Laptop,specialy the CPU. So this is no suprise.

Best advice i can give is to make sure ur intake and exhast vents are totaly un impeeded. The heatsink fins are clean, the fan(s) are working and clean. And then you can try replacing the TIM thats currently being used, its likely crappy stock TIM.
If after al lthat fails then its just down to the laptop design, the CPU heatsink is likely not good enough to handle heavy loads, and the laptop casing likely wount allow a custom heatsink as they are usualy made to fit.

You may hear this alot but cheap laptops are not really made for gaming, even some expensive ones are badly designed. Depending on where u look for a good gaming experiance without issue a laptop will cost u *£*1200+ from a proper manfacturer with a properly vented performance design.

Tis normal.

Certain views depending on where u are in LA will cause heavy load, even on a 12 thread CPU like mine i can see 50% usuage. Thats equivalanet to 6 threads. Your CPU has 4.

Go to http://www.overclock.net/

They have great guides. I infact used them and got advice from some of the more seasoned OC’ers their myself a while back. The guides and advice is solid, i done my 1st ‘proper’ OC on a £500 CPU and done so successfuly thanks to the guides and advice given there. I would never recommend som1 goes and a tries OC’ing for the 1st time on a CPU that expensive but still :P

First though, make sure you have a good mid to upper range aftermarket CPU cooler. At the very least get a CoolerMaster Evo 212, its cheap and will get you a solid OC.
If you want to go further then look into the Nocuta NH-D14 (its a old CPU cooler but its still king of the Air coolers in performance and noise)
After that point ur into top end AIO water coolers like the Corsair H100, u wouldnt want to go lower than a H100 if u look at AIO coolers, as at that point u might aswell get a NH-D14 air cooler, same performance better price.

Anyway good luck and make sure to properly stress test your OC when ur done. I personaly done a 16hour Prime95 test when i finished with my OC.

A single ‘good fan’ isnt going to result in great temps, it will certainly help, but the main thing is a good heatsink, be it a direct air cooled heatsink, or a water cooled radiator. What CPU cooler do u have ? is it stock that came with the CPU, or is it aftermarket? if its aftermarket which one is it ?

PSU’s are not chossen bassed on software, they are chosen bassed on hardware and total powerdraw.

Check ur temps during GW2 gameplay using some monitoring software.
It would help also if you could measure you power draw at the same time, BUT it isnt required. Just tell us ur curent PSU as i stated in my last post, and the PC specs, then we should be able to work out whether ur PSU will be a suspect.

Full PC specs would help here.
Make sure to include specific about models.
I.E
PSU: Name-Brand- Series/model – Wattage.

As others have said, its likely ether Heat, or PSU overload.

Depending on ur budget.

GTX 650ti
AMD 7870LE
GTX 770
GTX 780

CPU wise if u coming from a pre ‘i’ series CPU, get a Haswell i5 4670k or i7 4770k.

not going to happen :P

A HD 7470 u say ?
Well theres your problem.

Thats not a gaming card, so your computer is by no means a “really decent computer”
Your old computer with a 6570 isnt much better tbh but is roughly on the same level, hence the FPS simularities.

I can only asume thats a prebuilt computer becouse no1 in their right mind would pair a 3770 cpu with a 7470 gpu for a gaming rig. If said prebuilt was advertised as a gaming machine then im affraid u have fallen for the sale pitch. To many PC’s are sold with ‘gaming’ in the title or description nowerdays whislt falling far short of actually being gaming rigs.

Yea np feel free.

Im not very knowledgable with the lower end casses tbh with you. I just tried to stick with the manufacturers i know. CoolerMaster(CM), Corsaire, NZXT. Thermaltake

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc430kwn1
Go for that, airflow ise its bassicaly the same as the NZXT one. It just looks different and is cheaper. And pcpartpicker has a good number of people that have rated it which is always nice(4/5).

No .. DVI is fine.

VGA is limited on resolution so u wouldnt want to run that.

Yes its better than the AMD build. Even though its a locked i5 in the 1st list it can still OverClock slightly, to 4ghz i beleve. So i sugest u do that as its bassicaly free performance.

And yes that monitor is compatable, use the DVI connection.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/11TWx

Above link is the same as the AMD build except it has a different CPU and Motherboard.

For a little extra you can get the top i5 (which can OC) and a slightly better mothebroard.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/11U01

EDIT: oh and u dont need to get that exact case, just get one with good airflow and looks ot suit ur tastes.

A intel rig within ur price range is next to impossible.
You would be looking at £700+ for self built and Custom prebuilt rigs, and £900+ for no customisation prebuilds in most casses.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/11SVq
Add on about £50 for a keyboard and mouse.

So that includes a new OS also. It costs ~£70. Tbh u can ether transfer ur current version of Windows 7/8 to it, make sure its 64bit. Or u can always ‘aquire’ it elsewhere.

So thats about £650 all together, and u need to build it urself ofc.
Its £100 over ur budget but its already using a AMD CPU and a 650ti, both of which cant really be downgraded much further without having a big impact on gaming performance.
A rig like above should manage a mixture of medium and high settings in GW2, but the CPU will hold it back in WvW, the cooler listed will allow a mild OC which would help.
Also note its physical size is bigger than the Aira Prebuilt computer, u actually pay more for a smaller rig since u have to shrink everything whilst retaining performance.

The Aira perbuilt rig for ~£350 more would give u much better experiance andl ats longer. But whetheri ts worth it wil ldepend on how easy and how long it owuld take u to save up the extra cash.

For £550, although u could build a desktop to play GW2, it wouldnt last very long.

Also does that £550 include a monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers ? Becouse if it does its deffinatly not enough.

Ok so iv taken a look online for prices. Used PCpartpicker as its nice and easy and i can show u the list.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/11RzO

As you can see, if u include Windows 8 in the purchase, building it urself saves u barely £30, and that will likely be taken up by the variose delivery charges not shown on PCpartpicker.
So including delivery the Aria prebuilt PC costs £1017 , that includes identical parts as in the link above, and pre Overclocked and setup.
Building urself means u need to build it, set it up, and OverClock it which can take a couple days to a week depending on far u go and how u test its stability.

IMO for less than an additional £30 i would get the rig from Aria prebuilt.

Like i said, this particular rig is VERY well priced. in fact i would go so far to say its the best priced prebuilt rig iv seen , specialy when u take into consideration no corners have been cut. (like cheap PSU’s which is common in prebuilds)

Well that LAN rig from Aria is actually rather competitavly priced. Each component inside it is of a good quality and its pre OverClocked. You could maybe save ~£100 to build the exact same spec urself and u would have to OverClock it urself, but u would have to check prices online. I would normaly check myself now, but i just came of my Desktop since my last post ankitten ow in bed on my laptop lol, going sleep in a few :P

Just remember u need to buy a monitor(£50-£100), mouse and keyboard ontop of that as it doesnt come with them, and if u do not get a monitor with speakers inbuilt(u can easily find ones with them inbuilt) u would want stand alone speakers also.

In a word.

No.

The GPU is VERY slow.
Ontop of that GW2 requirs a good CPU and the I5 3210m only turbos to 3.1ghz and thats only when 1 core is used, when 2 cores are used its turbo is 2.9ghz. It has 2 physical cores and 4 threads. meaning its weak for GW2.

It will ‘run’ the game, but ur likely looking at light PvE only, and low settings.

You need to look at £1000+ laptops to game , and for GW2 specificaly if u even think about doing WvW u will be looking more along the lines of £2000 as u will want a top of the line mobile CPU, or a hard to find LGA2011 desktop CPU bassed laptop.
Like for example:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/omega-supreme/

That laptop only allows for SLI graphics which is over the top for GW2, but i bet you could get in contact with them and ask for a single GPU solution to save some money.
Ofcourse this is only if ur seriose about gaming on a laptop. Laptop gaming is more expensive and much less upgradable (so even more expensive in the long run) than desktop rigs.

Now another option u may not know about is, if u dont need to use the laptop when say, ur sitting at a cafe, on a plane, or some such, and only need it when ur say in a hotel, or office. Then u can always build a LAN gaming Desktop.
They are small and can be carried in a wheeled luggage type bag. Smal lenough to fit ina boot of a car or keep with u on a bus etc.
For example. This plus a small monitor,keyboard and mouse.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/LAN+Gaming+PCs/Gladiator+Punisher+7870+LE+i5-3570K+4.30GHz+LAN+OC+Gaming+PC+?productId=55342
Will destroy any current laptop for the same price.

Why cant u get a different aftermarket CPU cooler ?
Have u tried re-applying the TIM, maybe u put to much on (its a common mistake).

FYI the FX 8120 can easily be OC’d past 4ghz, infact many people aim for a moderate OC of 4.2 to 4.5ghz. Get a half good CPU cooler and ull be sorted, Stock coolers suck.

The only other thing u can do is undervolt it on its stock setitngs or try get a lower voltage OC.

Your rig is getting rather dated now and $65 isnt enough for a modern gaming grpahcis card graphics card.

My advice is to save up for a new self built rig. Aim to save $800 and see how things go.

Dont upgrade now. Wait till June 2nd when Intel releases haswell. Then get a 4670k (4core 4 thread) or a 4770k (4 core 8 thread) along wiht the appropriate motherboard. I sugest a Gigabyte board as the new Asus ones ‘look’ horrible from a visual standpoint.

Also as has been mentioned, get a K verison for overclockability and make sure ot get a aftermarket cooler that fits Haswell (LGA 1150).

16Gb is fine though 8Gb is more than enough if ur on a budget.
Make sure ur getting the correct type of ram. Modern PC’s use DDR3, 1600mhz being the standard.
Older platforms use DDR2 around 600mhz to 800mhz.

Newer ram comes in the following.
1333mhz
1600mhz
1866mhz
2133mhz
2400mhz
The higher the number the faster it is. Also timings like 9-9-9-24 should also be stated in the description/name. The LOWER those numbers the better idealy u want C9 RAM (1st number = 9) These figures are bassicaly how fast it responds.

Again like the mhz it wont matter much in gaming unless u get really horrible ram like 1333mhz Cl11 or somthing. and then compare it to really good ram like 2400mhz CL10.

Anyway, so long as its DDR3 ram u need and ur CPU is dual channel. 2x 8gb 1600MHZ CL9 ram is perfectly fine. Infact 2×4gb 1600mhz CL9 ram will do just as well.

Some good places to shop in the UK online.

In no particular order.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/
http://www.dabs.com/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk
http://www.scan.co.uk/
http://www.aria.co.uk/
http://www.ebuyer.com/

I have not used Aria before but they r sugested by a very well known review and overclock forum (overclock3d).
Ebuyer i havnt used ether but im thinking of using them in the future for a particular PC upgrade purchase, they seem legit enough, big aswell. I’ve got a family firend who has used them without trouble also.
The others i have used in the past and they are all good.

Yea whislt GW2 is technicaly multithreaded, its not multi thread optimized. If it were u would see much more balanced loads per thread and thus much better performance.

The 770 is a 680 bassicaly, dont expect it to be close to a 780. It will likely be ~5% faster than a current 680.

The 780 is the only one of the 700 series to use a Gk110 chip.

Nether do i. People need to stop thinking that 1080p can be maxed out on all games with ease. It cant, not wiht a single GPU atleast.

Even the 780, and the Titan, cant keep Crysis 3 at max setting at 1080 wihtout droping down to 30 fps in areas. When a single GPU card comes out that never drops below 60 fps in Crysis 3 at max settings at 1080pTHEN u can say 1080p is done and dusted.

Granted at 1440p the Titan and 780 show a more significant advantage BUT they are still the best at 1080p, and worth it if you want the performance.

The 770 and 760ti are gunna be rehashed 680’s and 670’s, they wont be running GK110 chips so performance will still be significantly less than a 780 or Titan.

Greetings all.

This is for all you people looking at a GPU upgrade.

So its the 23rd and the NDA’s have ended, reviews are out and the 780 is released.
Time for every1’s jaws to drop. Take a look..more importantly ..look at the Gigabyte Windforce reveiw ..a taste of things to come with other OC’d models.
780 Price: £550 – £630 (Stock and OC’d models)
Titan price: £825+

Stock Nvidia 780:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/nvidia_gtx780_review/1

Gigabyte 780 Windforce:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/gigabyte_gtx780_windforce_review/1

Raise the flood gates people, GTX Titan owners tears are gunna cause a flood :P

And ofcourse now its the 23rd u can always go balls deep and get the monster that is the GTX 780, its been reviewed and benched, You thought the GXT Titan was good ..ha take a look at the Overclocked vrsions of the GTX 780 >:)

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/gigabyte_gtx780_windforce_review/1

Stock versions come in at £550, so yes its over budget but its the best GPU out by a big margin 20%+ over the 7970ghz and GTX 680.

The Oc’d one is so good, im gunna get one .. hehe ..then i can laugh at all those who watsed money on the Titan :P ..well ok maybe i wont laugh at them, im not that obnoxious ..but ill have a giggle :P

AION is ..ok, i used ot play it when it 1st arrived, got the collectors edition and all, however i quit after the carebare patch was brought through, and to my knowledge its still present, one of AION’s great apeals to people at the start was open world pvp, that no longer exists at levels below 40.
imo Tera is a much better. If ur ok with AION’s art style then Tera should suite u fine. The only main difference is the combat style. Tera is all manual targeting semi action combat, its not tab targeting. So if ur looking for another relaxing skilless tab target mmo like WoW, GW2, AION etc.. Tera wont be for u.
However If u like the sound of it, well Tera is now F2P, so go try it out. Make sure if u try out Tera to keep a character going till ur atleast level 30, the 1st 18 or so levels can seem rather lackluster but once u start facing BAM’s (big a*s monsters) and get into dungeons, things take of.

Since that looks like a prebuilt computer you will need to check your PSU, findo ut what wattage , make and model.
A good GPu to get is the 650ti, its cheap and is capable of handle GW on medium to high settings at native resolutions. But since ur rig is built with the IGP in mind, its likely not got any wattage left to power a dedicated card so u will likely need a new PSU aswell.

Where in game are u getting these low FPS figures ?

Depending on where u r in game it ‘might’ be the CPU holding u back as it wont being running at 3.7ghz playing GW2, it will be running around 3.4ghz. Mobile CPU’s cant run at their max turbo clock when using all cores.
IIRC the 2960XM runs at its max of 3.7ghz on 1 core use, 3.6ghz on 2 core use, 3.5ghz on 3 core use, and 3.4ghz on 4 core use.

This theory will only work if ur in a part of GW2 that has relativly high CPU usuage, if ur in PvE (not in a city) and u still get low FPS then its indeed somthing esle.

The cheapest and best value option to play any game including GW2 at good FPS (when not CPU bound) and at around medium settings is a 650ti which u can get for around only ~£100/~$130.

A 530 is not a gaming card, it barely meets minimum requirments on most games, and falls far short of recommended specs on nearly all current and past current games. So FPS will be poor.

Note: Minimum requirment = It will ‘run’ (not it will ‘play’)

no.

FXAA is the most performance cheap solution. And GW2 has enough issues with performance as is, so i highly highly doubt anything beter will be implimented. Like MSAA.

As above. These are not gaming laptops.

I suspect from the 3 u have listed, u wont have enough money to afford a gaming laptop. Gaming laptops easily cost $/£1200+. They are alot more expensive than desktops of the same performance.

The Graphics card needs to be dedicated, and for proper gaming atleast a 660m.

For games like GW2 that use alot of CPU, then a high end CPU like atleast a 3630QM, preferably a 3740qm, or a Desktop 3820 CPU.

Sorry, im ether having brain fart or somthing or ur just not being clear. Clear this up for me and ill see if i can help.

Op u first talk about Lag, then Low FPS, then ur ISP/Lag again. What exactly do u have an issue with? Do you have ‘Lag’(lag= Internet/network latency issues causing delayed responses) ..or do u have low FPS ?

Indeed. whilst i symapthize with the OP, even my system has bad performance compared ot what im used to. Now obviosly for some they would be happy with 25 FPS in the massive zergs of WvW, specialy since most drop down to <10 fps. But having to spend thousands on a rig and then OC just to get 25 fps its insane.

OP, Anet WILL NOT respond to this in any meaningfull way, if at all. The chances of any significant improvment to the performance of GW2 is highly unlikely as it would requir a complete change of game engine and/or a massive rework of the current one. and thats somthing they will not do.

Bassicaly i could just repeat what llithis said ..but im not ..becouse its been said :P

Computer components generaly only retain their edge on performance for so long. Up to 4 years at the outset for high end stuff, 3 years for mid range stuff, and 2 or under for low end gear.

Your computer is past its usefull life, OC’ing wont help u much. even if u get 10% more performance out of ur CPU its like saying whats 10% of 1 (0.1) vs 10% of 100 (10)..urs is the former.

The Geforce 8200 isnt even a gaming card back when it was new, its a very very very slow card. You could play PvE much better if u had a better GPU.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/index.php
This link wil ltake u to a page for bench scores.

The kind of card u need nowerdays is in the top half of the ‘high end’ list (ignor what the name of the list is called, they aint all high end, only the top 15 or so are actually high end, below that they r mid range and lower). Your GPU isnt on that last at all, and thats syaing somthing. Even worse is ..its not even on the Mid – high range graph !, its sooo slow that its at the bottom of the ‘Low – mid range’ list.
At the very least u need a card that score 2000 or more.. urs scores 81.

As llithis said..

bassicaly the minimum requirment and most (non benchmarked) system testers are totaly irrelivant.

They are simple ‘will the computer RUN then game’
They are NOT ‘Will the computer PLAY the game’

As with alot of things in buisness its all about the wording. RUN simply means to launch the game without crahsing or some such. PLAY means its actually playable by any1’s realistic standards 30FPS+ for most gamers but depending on the type of game playability can be as low as 20FPS.

Anyway the only system requirment u should look at is ‘reccommended’ as that will give u the specs that should ‘play’ the game, they may still be incorrecto n the settings it says u can use but atleats u know it will be playable at some kind of settings.

GW2 doesnt have reccommended system specs last itmei checked becouse there is no system out than can keep WvW playable above 30 FPS. That and anythign that comes close has to be OC’d no game developer will recommend systems spec that are OC’d.

As for your system.
If dont know anythign about comptuer specs then the best corseo f action is to say to urself, how old are the individual parts (look up online when they were released (not when u bought them)). Then find out whther they were low end, mid end or high end parts when released.
For desktops
if they were high end: Rule of thumb, 4 years is their expected useful llifetime.
if they were mid end: Rule of thumb, 3 years is their expected usefull lifetime
if they were low end: Rule of thumb, 2 years is their expected usefull lifetime.
For laptops tops : -1 year on all.

After these periods expect newly released games to run like crap.

Specifics. Your system:
Your CPU is from 2010, has the performance of a Desktop CPU from 2009. Its age desktop performance wise is therefor 4.5 years.
Your GPU is of a simular age.
Both are relativly low end on release from what i can tell.

bassicaly ur laptop is past the end of its usfull life when it comes to up to date gaming gaming.

The more Vcore u use, the more watts it pulls from the PSu at full load.

let me put it this way, at the OC i have it can ‘peak’ 300W just from the CPU, like i said in my last post.
At stock it should only pull at ‘peak’ around 200w with a typical consumption of around 170w.

Remember the 3930k is a 6 core 12 thread Sandybridge CPU, they are power hogs.

GW2 has major optimisation issues, the game engine is crap, and runs crap on all machines.

You only chance of getting better FPS is to OC further.

FYI: I run a 750w PSU atm and have no issue with power. The 3930k at the OC i have can ‘spike’ up to 300w draw at 100% usuage but usualy runs stable 100% load at about 250w. At the usuage levels GW2 requirs u wont be drawing anywhere near that much. But obviosly for stability testing u would need to be able to allow for the higher watts.
That said i am planing on upgrading my PSU to 850/860w to gain some head room for future SLI.

Wattage measured using AIDA64.

Out of those GPU’s the 7870 Joker Xt is the best choie. Though im pritty sure u could find it for less than 250 euro’s. Ether way the 7870 Joker XT is as good as a 660ti and fomr that list its 80 euros cheaper.

No problem.

Enjoy

A FX8350 should give u low 20’s in WvW if u set culling accordingly.
So high or highest on character limit and low on texture culling.

I know this isnt the first hand experiance u want but im just getting this from my experiance on these forums

Its not always Christmas, There’s generaly a 6 to 12 month gap between major releases.

Think of how long ago the 600 series came out, and how long ago Ivybridge came out. The good thing this time around is that both CPU and GPU are coming out within a month of each other.

That said, u dont want to fall into the waiting game, a general rule of thumb i use is that if somthing new is coming out in within 3 or 4 months, Wait. If its gunna come out more than 4 months later, dont bother waiting.
I originaly statrted putting together my current rig in Oct/Nov last year, with the generaly accepted opinion that Nvidia would have new GPU’s out in jan or feb, march at the latest…ofc that turned out to be wrong, only the GTX Titan was released (and since it was sooo overpriced I decided even though i could afford it, that i wouldnt let myself get ripped of) and so my plans were unfortunatly skuttled. Even so, since i had waited so long i then had to do the “is somthing new coming out within the next 3 months” again, from what was now March.
So im STILL waiting on the 700 series lol (gunna get a 780..or 2). Atleast this time the news and expected release dates are much more solid although still not official(on the Nvidia side). I’ve waited this long, i might aswell keep waiting bassicaly lol.