Guild Wars 2

Acodyne obviosly i dont know what the inside of ur case looks like or what space problem u have specificaly but if by any chance ur having space issues due to a stand alone soundcard, u will likely find that the PCI-E x1 sound cards (the ones with the really small PCI-E slot) can actually fit in the larger PCI-E x8 lanes also.

I for one know that when i get my Asus Xonar D2X i will have to use a PCI-E x8 slot and not one of the 2 native PCI-E x1’s becouse if i do i wont be able to SLI, which i plan to do at the same time when i upgrade.(hoping to get 2x GTX 780’s (not Titans)) The sound card would be to close to the X16 slots to allow for a double slot card to be there.

Its pritty much garunteed that the soundcard and network adapter are onboard unless specificaly noted otherwise. Al lthe specs mean is that the onboard sound chip is 7.1 capable and the network is 60gb wifi capable, i wouldnt worry about it tbh, all good motherboards have perfectly acceptable onboard network and sound capabilities.

If u want a Intel rig then…

Ether a 3570k (4 core 4 thread) or a 3770k (4 core 8 thread) will be ur best choices.

Motherboard wise u can get one of the ones you stated b4 hand. The Asus P8Z77 V LK is a good choice.

HOWEVER.
Since ur now looking at intel, your best course of action is to wait, hold off buying for a month or 2. Intel ,as i said b4, has new CPU’s coming out in June, and Nvida has the new 700 series GPUs coming out this month (suposedly) therefor if u wait, u can get a much more up to date rig built

Forgot to mention also that MSi for the moment atleats ..should be avoided with their Motherboards, like muslumgurseks.4951 said, their VRM’s and other components just cant handle OCs very well.

Those 3 motherboards are all for Intel Ivybridge CPU’s ..not AMD AM3+ CPU’s.

You want to look at

Asus:
SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 (~$180)
M5A99FX PRO R2.0 (~$130)

Gigabyte:
GA-990FXA-UD5 (~$135)
GA-990FXA-UD3 (~$125)

Both brands are top notch and both the boards on each are of a good level with plenty of Sata ports and SLI capability, aswell as being fit for OC’ing.

if after ur al lset and rdy to buy, u find urself sit lhaving $100-$200 short of ur top end budget, it might be an idea to look at goign with a Intel build instead, more costly but better performance. And/or going up on ur GPU.

Do remember though, Intel has new CPU’s coming out in June, and Nvida has their new 700 series GPU ‘suposedly’ coming out this month. Might be worth waiting.

Nether.

You would do well if you waited till June. nvidia ‘should’ be releasing their 700 series GPU’s this month and Intel has their Haswell (4th gen i5/i7’s) coming out in June.

Also, build the rig urself, its like a jigsaw puzzle, its hard to go wrong. You will likely save a bit of money and/or be able to match the parts more evenly.
i.e a 3770k instead of a 3770,
a 120gb Samsung 840 PRO instead of a non PRO,
1600mhz RAM instead of 1333mhz,
a High end better perfoming air cooler (noctua NH-D14 or simalar) over a mid range water cooler (H60) that performas worse (H60 =~£60, D14 = ~£60)

Indeed it is highly likely to be a PCI-E lane issue. You may have unintentionaly put your Graphics card in a PCE-E slot that is not X16/ or your primary slot, and thus its limited.

CPU-Z is the common tool to use to check this, make sure to run GW2 at the same time otherwise u may just be reading the idle state.

If u upgrade the standard CPU cooler to a moderate aftermarket one, maybe a Coolermaster Evo 212 (~£/$25), u can OC that CPU to around 4.3 to 4.5ghz which will help out alot in WvW. With that u should see WvW FPS in the 20’s so long as u keep the Culling settings set to : Character limit ‘Highest’, and: Texture Detail ‘Low’. This wil allwo u to see al lthe people but will render ‘most’ of them except those very close to you, as the bog standard green models.
You ‘might’ need to cull some on the character limit if u drop below 20 FPS (go from highest to High).

The 660GPU is OK (the 660ti would have been better), it wont run absolute MAX, but u can get high settings. You wont be running supersampling for instance.

Ok check to see if ur PCI-E lane is running at atleast 2.0 at X16.

if u got a new mothebroard and/or took out the grpahics card and put it into a different PCI-E slot, u may be running at 2.0 @1x speed or 4x Speed which will allow the GPU to run at 100% but severely hamper its performance.

Wait ..so u ‘upgrade’ ..to a “Athlon64 Quad Core @ 3.0Ghz” ?

…

Ok, erm i think u set aside to much for your GPU. You would have done better halfing ur GPU budget down to ~£100 so u could get a 650ti. and then get a better CPU/motherboard..

But since u’ve already got the Athalon. Get a ‘Sapphire 7870XT’ ..they are still readily available here in the UK and for between £170-£210 depending on where u get it from. They are as good as a 660ti performance wise and thankfully still cheaper than them , atleast here in the UK.

oh and chances are u will still see CPU bottlenecking… sorry

I cant check myself as my CPU doesnt have a IGP, but see if u can force it to be disabled in the BIOS, other than that i have heared that a simple 5% OC on ur GPU can force it to kick in earlier allowing ‘some’ games to stop using the IGP.

Use some monitoring software to check that ur GPU usuage is and if its being utilized.

Holy necro batman, this was back b4 i even entred WvW lol..how things have changed :P

Anyhoo, i wouldnt worry till u hit the 90c mark. Granted 80-90c is rather warm but its still within safety. As above, check those things 1st. Software will never cause this type of issue, it will only show up a already present hardware issue (gone of TIM, faulty cooler, poor airflow, faulty GPU etc).

Check make sure ur IGP is not being used instead of ur 6850.

If that article had used CPU intensive games the results although the same, would have shown a greater difference and thus could have affected the conclusion. The games they used ment they could conclude that if u had a single or dual GPU system, u could get away with a AMD cpu or a lower mid range Intel one, which is all fine and dandy aslong as u stick to the majority of single player games.

But, as soon as u go multiplayer and MMO’s ..then that conclusion is just plain incorrect. (in the context of what they tested though, their conlusion is correct)

Wait.

If ur close to a release ..always wait. Buying new tech at the start of its life may be more expensive, but u get the performance and can use it for longer b4 u need to upgrade again.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VSUk

This would be better than the one linked in ur 1st post.

notable differences.

Intel CPU. Faster for gaming Slower for multitaksing as it is a i5 (4cores 4 threads vs the AMD FX8350 8 Threads) not a i7

Motherboard. High quality great brand. The one in ur OP will likely have a low end bog standard one.

8gb RAM not 16Gb ram. Wont affect gaming at all, So doesnt matter. BUT its 8gb of 1600mhz ..faster than the 1333mhz in ur OP

2x 1TB Sata 3 6gb/sec HDD instead of 1 Single Sata 2 3Gb/sec. Set them up in raid0 for faster performance whilst keeping high capacity.

GPU. AMD 7870XT instead of Nvida 660 non Ti. Alot better performance. Alternativly for roughly the same price and performance you could get a Nvidia 660ti (which ever u fancy/can get ahold of).

CPU Cooler. A proper good mid range aftermarket air cooler. The one u linked didnt mention the CPU cooler so i would asume its a crappy stock one.

PSU. Sturdy high quality Corsair 650W PSu, more than enough for what u need and very reliable. Prebuilds or ones that dont mention the PSu usaly come with cheap unreliable ones that are just barely enough for whats in the system.

Its about $10 more expensive and does NOT include a Mouse and Keyboard BUT i wuold asume u have those already ..if not, a cheap mouse and keybaord dont cost much.

A 4770k will DEFFINATLY be a worth while upgrade. The 1st Gen i5’s and i7’s are a far cry away form the single thread performance of 2nd,3rd, and the up coming 4th gen series.

That said, the perfect ideal cpu for WvW (though it doesnt exist) would be a 8thread CPU or higher, 6ghz+ Clocked with better more efficient cores than current Ivy bridge CPU’s. With that hopefully 0 bottlenecks would occure. Unfortuantly that is unlikely to happen any time in the next 10 years, unless a major new tech comes into circulation.

The 4770k still wont run GW2 a 60 fps in WvW even with a 4.5ghz OC but it will be a tad better than a 3770k OC’d to 4.5ghz ..maybe in the region of 5% better. but we wont know till they r out and benchmarked.

Short answere . yes.

Though if i were u, build a rig urself. You will get better quality parts and/or save money.

if u want a more detailed answere, just ask. its late right now and i cba to type a couple paragraphs if its not needed :P

There wont be a 4ghz CPU available to buy as stock, most will run at 3.6ghz ot 3.8ghz. however a 4ghz OC is easily obtainable without much fuss.

In resposne ot above.
‘most’ games wont gain much from a i7 over an i5, but GW2 will, and so will some other high end games like Crysis 3. All in all if u can afford one, or are willing to save for one, get a an i7 over an i5.

The 750m (DDR5 version) should be as good as a 660m possibly even so far as a 670mx so ether is fine imo.

If ur thinking of SLI 750m, choose a single 750m and try get a Desktop 3820CPU Laptop, they are far superior to a laptop/mobile CPu like the 3630QM.

he wanted WvW zerg fps figures not openworld pve.

The GPU requirment is unneccery.

i have a 3930k its OC’d to 4.6ghz HT enabled (12 threads). In WvW zergs GPU usuage drops liek a stone and CPU becomes the bottleneck. This means it would not matter if i had 2x 660ti’s or more.

Anyway WvW (Culling settings: Texture: Low, CharacterLimit: highest) FPS: Massive zergs 20-25. Normal sized zergs ~30

CPU usuage around 35-50%.

GPU usuage when not bottlenecked is usualy 80% to max (LA, Pve, Light WvW). I am GPU bottlenecked atm, but thats becouse i was waiting on the 780, which should be out this month

GW2 does benefit from a i7 CPU. The i5’s as u have found can hit the 100% usuage mark. But the benefit is small, performance is stil lhorrible thanks to the usless game engine, it just doesnt utilize ALL of what a i7 has to offer.

As i said, wait till June and then get ether a Intel i5 4670K + a corresponding motherboard, or a i7 4770k.

Indeed, it is ur CPU not ur GPU.

Wait till June and get a Intel i5 4670K or i7 4770K + Motherboard.

TBH, i know its a bit late but….You should have held of till June. Intel has new CPU’s coming out then, and Nvidia has new GPU’s coming out this month (suposedly)

But still ..that would have only mattered if u had enough money for a Intel & Nvidia rig.

OP.

If u are now thinking of building a seperate rig for gaming then wait till June , infact wait till June anyway, thats when Intel releases their new CPU’s and in May Nvidia release (hopefully) their new 700 series GPU’s.

Now untill then i cant use my usual online resource to put together a build for u, but if u still need help with a list of parts i can do so once the new gear is released. Until lthen i recommend u budget for around the $850/£750 mark for a whole new computer system designed for gaming.

In a word ..no. it will improve perfornce no doubt but its highly unlikely GW2 wil lshow any as the CPU is just to low on peformance. Its like adding 10% to 1 ..its only 1.1 , where as a modern day CPU is a 10.

Gw2 needs atleast a quad core, it should also be modern. So a AMD FX 4k series or higher atleast, preferably a Intel 2nd gen i5 or better i.e a 2500k(2nd gen) or a 3570k(3rd gen).

That said, Intel is releasing their 4th generation i5’s and i7’s in June (Haswell architecture). Wait untill then to upgrade. If u can afford it, get one the i5 4670k’s or a i7 4770k.

With such an upgrade u will need a new motherboard, RAM, and maybe even a new PSU.

As above. also ..u dont need to buy an entire new computer for a HDD failure, just replace the HDD.

Swtich to intel yes.

Wait for June though. Intel has their new haswell CPU’s releasing around that time, they will be replacing the Ivybridge 3570k and 3770k, it also uses a different socket type. Performance difference should be around the 5% to 10% mark over Ivy.. but time will tell as always.

Once they release depending on prices and performance u will ether want a i5 4670k or i7 4770k.

It is highly likely though they will still need overclocking hence why i sugest the K versions, they r designed for it. But since Ivy’s can manage 20+ fps in WvW with a ~4.5ghz OC ..a new haswell shouldnt have a problem doign the same.

Yesu can ‘run’ the game.

Playability however ..well no matter ur own figures for what is playable …ur still gunna strugle.

You will want to avoid WvW and large dynamic events. Settings wise u will be running on Low if u want to keep fps figures up, medium if ur ok with sub 30 fps.

If u get a laptop and want to play WvW, u will need a laptop with a desktop CPU. Like the Sagre/Lenvo laptops with the LGA 2011 3820 (non QM).

The QM and XM cpus are intel laptop/mobil CPU’s they do not run as fast as desktop CPU’s AND do not run at their max turbo when al lthe cores are in use. if its advertised as 3.6ghx for example, it will likely only run at 3.4ghz when playng GW2.

Even with desktop 3820 cpu though, dont expect more than about 20 FPS in WvW as u wont be able to OC much. Some people have had some success at running them at 4ghz OC’s but only for short periods of gaming.

Wait till June. Intel has new CPU’s coming out (Haswell), they will be replacing the CPU’s ur looking and will be using a different socket, meaning u wont be able to simply upgrade to them using the same motherboard u would have if u bought the PC ur configuring.

A 680 will be fine at 1440p in GW2

You dont really need advice just fomr those who use said res, though ofc it is helpfull, all we really need to know is what GPU ur using.
FYI
1920×1080 = 2,073,600 Pixels
2560×1440 = 3,686,400 Pixels
2560×1600 = 4,096,000 Pixels
3840x 2160 = 8,294,400 Pixels (4kHD/UltraHD)

There are more important things to look at than how much graphics ram u have.

For a laptop i would sugets the following specs.

CPU: Intel 3630QM
GPU: Nvidia 660m

Those to main specs shuld allow GW to run mainly on medium settings. WvW will still slow though. You shouldnt go lower on the CPU, but u can get away with a slower GPU like a 560m or 650m, u would have to run GW2 on Low settings though with maybe a few setitngso n medium.

Your rig is fine, dunno why som1 would say u need a new GPU, u dont . The 670 is more than capable. And the 2500k is a great OC’er. if u need more CPU performance and u havnt OC’d, get a good aftermarket cooler and OC the CPU 4.5ghz, that will improve ur performance in CPU intensive situations like GW2 WvW.

Titan Ultra .lol ..the price for the original Titan was criminal lol ..now they r bringing somthing out faster and no doubt even more expensive. What kind of apocalyptic moron would u have to be to let urself be ripped off that much.

meh what ever. £700 is the max ill spend on a single GPU from a moral standpoint ..so whether it be a Titan or a 780 ..ill be getting a great upgrade :P

The Titan LE is apparently just the codename for the 780 ..which will have a release name of 780. that is if the latest news about the may release date is true.
the 780 (codename Titan LE) is a cut down GTX Titan.

Well i would normal advise people to wait for the 700 series, the 760ti will likely be out of the OP’s price bracket, hence my sugestion.

I am personaly waiting on the 780 aswell ether that or if the Titan comes down in price to say £700 (its currently £800) i may get a Titan..but i doubt it wil ldorp in price that much after the 780 comes out. I can afford a Titan now, but i hate being ripped off, so i refuse to buy one for that price.

You will need a new PSU, around the 500 to 600W mark.

GPU wise ether a 7870XT/LE or a 660ti would be a good choice.

Nothing unusual here.

GW2 uses the CPU more heavily is all.

Software will not be the route problem of any overheating, so if at any point ur temps go higher than what is the safe max for ur specific CPU, its going to be down to hardware. Be it issues with: TIM, loose heatsink, cheap low quality heatsink/fan, poor case airflow, incorrect voltag settings, or a bad chip.

I would also recommend a better cooler. The NH-D14 is a monster air cooler, its very quiet(infact its silent), easy to install, and has top of the line cooling performance, it also comes with some very good thermal paste (NH-T1) in the package.

however i would also advise that u wait.

Intel Haswell will be coming out in June, which isnt far off, and it may well only perform 5-10% faster, but ever little bit helps and its always best to upgrade just after new tech is released rather than at the end of the life of current tech.
The 3770k is LGA 1155 which is a dead end socket. The Haswell chips will be on a new socket.

I would never say SLI is overkill for single monitor setups.

There are a few, not many, but a few games out that even at 1080p with all the bells and whistles on like AA, will not stay above 60 FPS even with 2 SLI’d Titans. The most obviose game being Crysis 3 which minimum FPS drops can be in the 40’s still, though the average is above 60.

So overkill ..no. More than whats ‘normaly’ need, yes.

7950 for sure.

IMO if i was considering a 660ti. the AMD equivalent would be a 7870XT/LE.

As above, think of the 670 as the 7950 equivalent.

I dunno how thigns r now but last i checked Nvida card still had ‘smoother’ FPS visualy over AMD, but AMD had high FPS. I think it was to do with microstuter or some such, cnt recall of hand.

Nvidia’s 700 series ‘should’ be coming out around July, though nothing officaly announced, might be an idea to hold on a bit..i know i am.

What CPU do u have?

It may well be that the answere to ur question be irrelivant depending on ur CPU.

Make sure said TV is proper native 120hz, and not just a fancy ‘addon’ for lack of a better word.
For example, my 42" Plasma TV has ,i think ,100hz double scan or motion plus or some such, cant recall fo the top of my head, but its only 60hz native meaning it wont display a PC input above 60hz.

Also remember, the bigger the screen at 1080p ..the lower the PPI, meaning u ill want more AA in games to get rid of jagged edges.
For example my 42" 1080P has a PPi of somthing like 52, a 22" 1080p has a PPI of 100.
A 1440p 27" 100hz+ (Overclocked) Overlord Tempest has a PPi of 109.

Bassicaly, try stay as close ot or above 100PPI, that what im aiming for in the future.

Im personaly waiting on 4kHD before i change my VDU, and hopefully ill be able to get one with 70hz+ native, though i doubt it. 42" at 3840×2160 (4khd) is 105 PPI

Also keep in mind the type of display, some displays have better reposne times and input response, others have one or the other better. For exmaple a Plasma has instant 0.001ms reposne time meaning u get absolutly 0 shadowing/ghosting/haloing. LCD’s on the otherh and have usualy around 5 or 6ms resposne time and depending on the type of LCD and the make/model u can get ghosting and such…whether usee it depends on how sensative ur eyes are.

Software will not burn out ur hardware.

If u have a problem that persists after replacing a certain part it points to an issue with what ever part its plugeded into. I.e a faulty motherboard can cause dmg to any plugged into it, a faulty powersupply can damage the motherboard etc.

GW2 is not to blame when low performance and or old hardware wears out or overheats, becouse it is not desgined to be used in such a way.
Your ‘new’ GPU is a 630 ..that is NOT meant for gaming, yes u can play games on it, but if ur constantly pushing to its limits, specialy if it hasnt got adequate cooling, its going to degrade. As for the clicking sounds, u best make sure its not a short becouse continud use will cause damage. By the sounds of it (using a IDE hdd for example), the core of ur rig is overdue replacment.

Indeed get w7.

A laptop for GW2 should have these 2 main things.

CPU: 3630Qm at MINIMUM, preferably a 3740QM or a Desktop 3820 (not the laptop 3820QM).

GPU: 660m or higher.

The 7670m will likely get around the 20’s in FPS at high settings, and around the 50’s at Low. (PvE) A 660m would likely get u around the 70’s at low and around the 40’s at High.

I guess it depends on where exactly ingame he is getting his FPS from.

LA 10 fps sounds fine depending on where exactly, certain areas in LA can be taxing. Out PvE’ing he could get more. WvW, deffiantly below 10.

AOLCraig.2409:

My specs are as followed

Intel Core Duo 2.6GHZ
Nvidia 9600GT
4Gigs of ram
Windows 7 home premium 32 bit

I know alot of people will probably say your hardware isn’t powerfull enough. It should give more than 10FPS

No ..it shouldnt.

Your rig is around 5 years old, pushing on 6. Whether u bought it 5/6 years ago or not is irrelivant, the parts are that old.
You cant expect PC components that were never even top end at release, to still be viable 5 years later. Only the extreme/top end gear can last 5 years and still be somewhat effective in ‘some’ games.

You would still have to have texture culling on low (not very low), so people near u would have full textures , but those further of will be green. But u can have character cull on highest so u see every1.
You would also need a OC on the CPU , around 4.5ghz.

FPS would be in the 20’s.

660m is a good choice, it will run Gw2 ok probably medium/high settings if u want to keep fps steady at 60 in PvE.

However laptops have their problems with GW2 in the fact that mobile CPU’s dont run at full turbo on all cores. So u have to really go high end to make up for that.
A 3630QM is the lowest CPU u want to go, since that will run at about 3.2ghz with GW2, not the advertised 3.4ghz(which only runs that fast with 1 core in use).

If u can, find a laptop with a Desktop CPU, like the 3820 which will run at 3.8ghz on all cores. These laptop will be fairly heavy (for a laptop) and chunky ~2" or 2.5", these laptops will run GW2 much better than any mobile CPU laptop, even on with a higher end mobile CPU like a 3740Qm (3.5ghz at 4 cores active).