Guild Wars 2

As said above, your at the poitn where any 1 upgrade would require other upgrades to work and/or would become heavily bottlenecked by the rest of the older system.

You got $200, i sugest u save another $600 and build a proper gaming rig for around $800. Some time in the June/July period Intel will be releasing their new CPU’s and hopefully Nvidia will be release their new GPU’s, that will likely be the best time to build ur new rig.

GW2 can be very picky. try differnet grpahics drivers but make sure u fully clean all traces of old drivers each time. Check ur NCP settings and make sure its all on performance or application controlled, check ur windows performance settings.

The 640 isnt a gaming card. Your CPU is slow.
Check CPU and GPU usuage when u have said bad performance.

You wont get good performance.

Indeed, i didnt mention the CPU becouse its fine, infact its ‘almost’ the best u can ask for from AMD, as much as i always recommend Intel CPU’s like the 3570k or 3770k, if som1 has chosen atleast a FX8k series AMD, i wont try change there mind, becouse the FX8k series, specialy the FX8320 and FX8350 are close enough to the 3570k in single thread performance when OC’d that, so long as ur not after the best of the best, will be fine.

Chowie. Im from the UK .. i usualy state things in $‘s becouse most people who ask on here have been from the US, so i was ’asuming’ there, my apologies.

However, u cant go by exchange rates (at this time $1 = £0.66). Let me explain.

If u look up a part cost in the US, then convert to GBP, then add on 20% VAT + a little extra for other duties and vendor profit, u end up with a figure above that of a straight up exchange rate swap, in some casses its lower than a direct 1:1, other times it is almost exactly 1:1. So… when i said $800 to $1000, u might aswell asume £700to £900.

An example.
US : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RjRq
UK : http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/RjRq

Going by exchange rates that would be £564 ..but its actually £714

Those links also happen to be a build that i would sugest as a suitable GW2 running machine, its a little low on the GPU side, it would likely be good ot run GW2 on a mixture of medium and high settings for constant 60fps in PvE, and it would likely only OC the CPU to about 4.2 or 4.3ghz with that cooler which is under what i would recommend for best WvW performance (4.5ghz atleast), so WvW battles would likely be in the region of 15(worst case) to 25 FPS.

Low end laptops will almost always have heat issues when pushed to their limits. And GW2 will push them.

The only things u can do is use a cooling pad, and maybe ,if ur brave enough, replace the stock TIM on the heatsink, that could net you enough degree’s extra cooling efficiency to stop u from overheating ..but tbh, i wouldnt coutn on it.

For future laptop purchases, make sure ,if u intend to game on it regularly, that u spend enough money on one that has been designed to run games and to run at high usuage. They cost alot but are the only types of laptops that will have a higher chance of not overheating.

That GPU wont do, the lowest u want to go Nvida side is a 650ti.

I recommend the AMD Sapphire 7870XT…that is ..if u can find one, iv been told they r mostly out of stock in the US. If ur from the UK though, they r still around the most noteble online vendors.

Yea u need a 64bit OS.

Asus P8Z77-V-LK would be a good choice.

The Samsung 840 Pro 128gb SSD is top notch.

Nether,

They are not gaming machines, they are basic work stations. They wont play GW2 very well if atall.

Sugest u advise ur freind on the proper costs of being a PC gamer. It aint cheap..but its well worth it over consoles.

Just tell him that $250 is the average cost of a good GPU, or a Intel CPU..and that there are 8 other basic componentes within a PC case (inc the case)..then u have the monitor, keyboard ando ther perifiarels ontop. A Proper budget would be $1000, for eveything, or $800 for just the PC itself.

Depending how far u OC the CPU, and asuming u have the Culling options set to Character Limit : highest, and Texture Culling : Low, then u should see WvW staying above 25FPS.

PvE and any other low population area should see High FPS 60+ without much trouble.

Word of warning with the 3930k, make sure u have really good cooling. Sandybridge may OC better than Ivybridge, but 6c ores and 12 threads produces more heat than a normal 4core 8 thread CPU. You will be in the region of 1.35v to 1.45v (Air coolers tend to top out at 1.4v (80c+) on the 6core CPU’s) on the core depnding on how high u want to push the clocks and how lucky u r with the silicon lottery.

Also make sure ur 8gb of RAM is Quad channel i.e 4×2GB, IMO u should really get 4×4Gb for 16gb as its a much better use, specialy if ur Motherboard has 8 RAM slots, it will allow u to upgrade to 32GB 8×4gb in the future if u so wish.

Fuzzion ..is that one of their laptops that runs a desktop CPU ? ..if so then yea, they r good for gaming , the CPU’s dont down clock with more corse in use, unlike mobile/laptop CPU’s which will only run at their max turbo frequency with 1 core, as more corse are used that frequency drops. Hence why ‘most’ laptops wont be good for GW2 WvW.

Im not going to shop around for people. I’ll give them the advice on the best component to get thats current. If said persons turns around and says they cant find one and ask for another recommendation, i shall ofc respond appropreatly.
Remember im from the UK and its still readily availble over here from the main places i and many other use. I know of only a handlfull of places to look for parts in the US, i would asume there are more places to look that i do not know about.

That cooler, dunno about same perfomance, from what iv seen the D14 will still beat it. The 812 is a step up form the 212evo, but isnt at the top of the air cooler league. Guess it depends on how much u want to spend. For 4.5ghz+ OC’s on a Ivy i think it would be wise to go for top end Air cooling rather than mid.

I suspect ur gunna be bottlenecked by ur CPU, its likely a 1st Gen i7, and without a OC it will strugle in populated areas. The 260 is enough for medium settings, but to lower CPU load i recommend running on Low to gain those precious few extra fps.

WvW FPS <20
PvE 20-60

If ur on a tight budget it will be tough. It would help if u gave us a figure.

But to give u an idea. For GW2 WvW, ur looking at a budget around $700 to $1000 depending on the parts u need. i.e HDD, optical drive, monitor , keyboard ,mouse . Over the core components like the Mothebroard CPU GPU RAM cooler PSUetc.

So what parts do u have that u can use ? Monitor ? case ? PSU ? ..what ?

This is a core components list of what i would recommend.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QVUI

Personaly i would think of getting the 3770k as GW2 is starting to use up all 4 threads on the 3570k in certain situations so im told, and iv seen evidence of that on my own CPU as it can reach up to 50% overal utilisation in some casses (equal to 6 of my 12 threads used) that would add another $100 on though.

Low settings for any meaningfull FPS ..but dont count on being able to play WvW or large Dynamic Events.

My recommendation to people looking for a gaming laptop…be prepaird to spend a fair amount. If u can find one, get one with a desktop CPU, failing that get atleast a 3630QM (laptop CPU) or better. GPU wise try for a 650m at the minimum, preferably a 660m. Chances are however. .looking at the specs of that laptop ..ur price range is likely not in the region of gaming laptops.

I would go for the Asus mothebroard over ASRock, Asus are of better quality.

The Asus P8Z77 V LK should be fine.

If ur thinking of getting the AMD 7970 then the Nvidia equivalent would be the 680, which is substantialy more expensive, if u want to save money ..get the 7970. Try get a Asus or EVGA one as they tend to have very good cooling and high quality factory OC’s.
For RAM 8gb is enough, but it might be an idea to go for 16gb if u dont mind spending a tad more. You wil ldeffinatly want 1600mhz or higher, and deffinatly CL9 or lower. Since ur after a 3770k , make sure u get dual channel RAM (2x DIMMS i.e 2×8GB)

If u want a SSD the only proper choice is the Samsung 840 Pro 128gb ..or same series just bigger storage if u want somthing bigger.

EDIT: If ur planing on 4.5ghz to 4.8ghz OC i hope u ether have:
a top of the line air cooling (which will likely get 4.5 or 4.6ghz),
or a good AIO water cooler (4.7ghz will likely be as high as u would get if ur lucky),
or a custom full water loop (4.8ghz should obtainable)
or any of those along with replacing the TIM under the IHS of the CPU (should drop temps by between 5c and 15c).

Pics would help.

A new CPU would requir a new Motherboard ..which would require new DDR3 RAM.

Those 3 things ‘could’ require a new PSU and/or Case, and/or HDD, and/or Optical drives.

If ur current HDD and Optical drives are Sata ..then ur fine. If ur PSU is atleast 500W and of a good brand ..ur fine. If ur case is ATX compatable ur fine.

If ur not good with computers i highly sugest u read up on basic hardware tech and maybe watch some youtube video’s of how to put a computer together , things will become much clearer. It realy isnt as hard as it looks. Some simple basic knowledge of each of the main parts inside a PC, and then the know hot to put them together and ur sorted for life.
A basic computer has 9 components.
The Case
The PowerSupply (PSU)
The Motherboard
The CPU
The CPU Cooler (fan&heatsink or Waterblock, radiator & fan)
The RAM
The GPU
The Hard Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD)
The Optical Drive (DVD player or some such)

The Soundcard is usualy onboard the motherboard nowerdays.

Anyway basic knowledge on them will be helpfull, after which u can then ether research more deeply when buying a part, or ask for advice..but basic knowledge is very helpfull.

Nothing u do will improve ur FPS to a playable level, ur CPU is just to weak.

Its a good reasonable boost in performance so long as ur not used to skiping more than 1 generation. i.e if ur last upgrade was from say a 9800 GT to a 560ti (which iirc is somthing like a 250% to 300% boost).. then you wont see the same jump in performance going from a 560ti to a 7950.
But its still significant enough, somthing around the 50% to 100% mark.

IMO a 560ti is still a worthy card specialy if OC’d, im used to bigger jumps in performance though, hence why i still have mine and am waiting on the next gen of cards, the Nvidia 780 to be exact or even a GTX Titan if the price comes down. I wouldnt fault any1 for upgrading a 560ti to a current gen card though as it does struggle to play games at high and max settings now.

Bassicaly for ur rig u would almost need a whole new computer. When an upgrade means a new cpu motherboard and RAM ..that bassicaly a new rig.

I sugest u get atleast a 3570k CPU, a Asus or Gigabyte Z77 LGA1155 motherboard, A Coolermaster Evo 212 CPU Cooler, and 8gb of dual channel DDR31600mhz cl9 RAM.

You will also have to make sure ur current case is ATX compatable for the motherboard u get, has a good enough PSU, and that ur HDD, and Optical drives r Sata and not IDE.

SSD is only a consideration when u have the spare cash.

no point spending £100 or more on a 128gb SSD, when that £100 can go towards making a 3570k a 3770k or a 7870 a 7970.

As for raid.

I have a 128gb SSD for my OS + frequently played games.

I also have 2 500gb 10k RPM drives that i usei n Raid0 for less frequently played games and programs aswel las storage. Raid0 improves the performance, so its always a consideration imo.

if ur after a 7870 ..get the sapphire 7870XT (ita tahiti bassed card ..faster than the old 7870)

PSU wise u can get away with a 500w, but if i were u i would get a 600w or higher just for the extra head room that allows the PSU to run at a lower % utilization and thus be more efficient, quiter, and last longer.

Motherboards u just go for what connections u need, if ur going to OC, and their reliabilty/rep.

For good OC’ing a mid range Asus or Gigabyte board is ur best bet, they r also top fo thel ine in reliability and have good options for more or less PCIe x16 slots ..or more Sata 6 connections etc.

You can build urself a good high quality Intel 3570k rig, or even a 3770k rig depending on the GPU choice.

IMO you would do much better building it urself.

Buying prebuilt for ur budget u will be limiting urself to ‘mainly’ AMD rigs, which are by no means bad, they just r not as good as a intel rig for GW2 and other CPU intensive games.

Asuming u have a keyboard, mouse, Optical Drive, HDD,and a OS. This would be a good choice for a self built rig.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QcB2

Im not to knowledgable about what a good price/perf monitor is atm so i left some room for one in the budget.

Aye a Corsair PSu would be a good choice…but.

To be blunt …ur rig ..shouldnt be ‘upgraded’ ..its need ‘replacing’.

‘most’ of my posts are in response to performance issues. Click my name on the left and go to my post history it will take u to different performance topics most of which have some advice on computer specs.

GPU wise fine ..but their CPU’s r out of whack. CPU is more important nowerdays especialy for GW2. If ur looking at Very good / Great for everything else, then make sure u get a CPU in the Excellente or above bracket at minimum.

Grey to Grey response time. (lower is better)
Input respons time (lower is better)
Brightness and Contrast (higher is better)
Color Gamut % (higher is better)
PPI (Resolution ( HxW ) / Screen size) (100+ is good.)
Refresh Rate (60hz or 120hz usualy)
Finish – Matt vs Glossy (personal preferance)

Probably more stuff that i havnt thought of the top of my head, but for quality those are things that come to mind first..after that its just down to extra features and such.

Software does not overheat hardware.

If ur hardware overheats, theres a fault.

Be it manufacturing fault, user fault ..or degredation.

Cheak ur fans, make sure ur intakes r clean and unobstrcuted etc.

From the spec of ur ‘Laptop’ it doesnt look like it was built for gaming in mind, so its not surprising its getting toasting when under heavy load.

Indeed 80FPS is not possible in certain areas, infact ull be lucky to get 30 even with a OC’d CPU.

Sugest u get a 3570k at minimum + OC, or a 3770k + OC. (LGA 1155 socket ends at the 3770k)
Another choice is a 3820, which is LGA 2011, You can then upgrade in the future to a 3930k, 3960X, 3970X, or a Ivybridge -E if/when they r ever released (suposedly Q3 2013).

Or..
You can wait till Haswell CPU’s are releaed whivh are LGA 1150, which apparently is in June.

Which ever side u choose to go on with Nvida vs AMD, try to keep ur afterkmarket card option limited to Asus, Gigabyte, and EVGA in most casses. Palit for example dont tend to be very good.
If u decide to go down to 660ti level performance u would want to also look at the AMD Sapphire 7870XT as it is cheaper and has simular performance. Its not a Asus, Gigabyte, or EVGA, but since there is only mainly 2 choices of Tahiti 7870XT/LE cards, Sapphire is the best choice and usualy widely available. It is only 2gbGRAM though, so it wont do well with high resolutions above 1080p + High AA.

Also ur PSU, if i were u i would go for a Corsair unit, a TX650 would be a good choice, they have better quality. The specific one u mention in ur OP isnt of a very high quality.

To be blunt, that rig is to old to upgrade.

I understand the whole budget thing, but computers (specialy prebuilt ones) only last so long before upgrading is not plausable and replacment is the only option.

Your at that point. Any singular upgrade would simply be held back by the rest of the rig.

Save up and build urself a modern up to date gaming rig. Remember a brand new mid to high end (not super high end) rig with components of the generation it is built in, will last roughly 5 years with the occasional upgrade before a completly new on would need to be built. If a rig is built with already old and/or low end parts , that number will decrease.

The Pentium 4 630 was released in Q4 2005, so at it oldest ur rig is already 7 .5 years old, even if u bought it when it was already old, say in 2007, its still 6 to 7 years old.

60hz vs 120hz is easily noticable. But its a individual thing, each persons eyes are different , some can see the difference, other cant. Its nothing to be ashamed about if u cant see it, nor is it somthing to brag about if u can.
You can not ‘see’ a difference between 60fps and 100 fps on a 60hz monitor, but u can ‘feel’ the difference. On a 120hz monitor however u can both see and feel it. The arguments over 25 FPS vs 60 FPS are all void if u ask me, each person can easily test that out themselves using frame limiters on a standard 60hz screen, so saying ‘u cant see it’ when u can test it urself is …well…..u get the point :P

The thing is, 120hz monitors r only usfull if u can sustain minimum of 60FPS and above, and those kind of framerates are only ‘usefull’ in highly competative games, mainly FPS games. However if u dont care for usfullness and just want somthing that ‘feels’ better in all games whether u ‘need’ it or not, then yea go for 120hz.

BUT

120hz is only currently available on 1080P screens, unless u get lucky and find a 1440p screen that can OverClock. 1440p, 1600p, and 4kHD(3840×2160) are all ether out of coming out in the next couple years. IMO for games like MMO’s and other non competative games, i would vote for a higher picture quality, over higher than 60FPS.

So theres ur choices.

If u have a steady hand and want to take a gamble, Delid the 3770k and u can easily hit 4.5ghz on air, possibly further. If u leave it be though, i think 4.5ghz will be a realistic target on air cooling.

The cooler itself, well since ur ok on budget u mightaswell go big and get the best. Nocuta NH-D14, it comes with good thermal paste aswell so u dont need to buy more of that. make sure ur case is wide enough, becouse its a monster. Oh and its super quiet. Noctua are known for making very good quiet fans.

RAM wise, get G.Skill, they r low profile which is what u need if u get the above CPU cooler. 2×6gb or 2×8gb 1600mhz or higher at CL9.
Bassicaly CL9 has a faster response than CL10. If u have a choice of CL11 2000mhz, CL 10 1866mhz, and CL9 1600mhz. Get the CL9 1600mhz. Thankfully today u can get high Mhz and low CL together. Like for example the ones i use are 1866mhz CL9.

Intel, AMD/ATI, Nvidia ..u can mix and match nowerdays without issue, so no worries there.

Motherboard. the P8Z77 V is great for the 3770k, which u want depends on what ur future plans r for ur rig, do u need more PCIe x16 slots, more Sata connections, etc. Just look up the specs and choose.

Price/Performance, the AMD Sapphire 7870XT is the best.
Pure performance though, well if u want to get silly then ur looking at the Nvidia GTX Titan (~$1000/£800) for a single GPU card, or if u can find one, the Ares II which is a dual GPU card (the best dual GPU card). Then again if u go that insane on price u might aswell get a 3930k CPU instead of a 3770k :P
If u want somthing inbetween the 2, well ur best bet would probably be the AMD 7970ghz, though im more partial to the Nvidia 680 even though its slightly slower, as it has ‘proper’ PhysX, and a visualy smoother framerate.

Other than that u might want to look into getting a good SSD, maybe a 128gb Samsung 840 Pro.

Also make sure ur PSU is up to scratch. You should probably look for somthing around 650w mark, possibly higher if ur thinking of SLI in the future, and deffinatly higher (750w+) if u get a Sandybridge CPU (2700k/3820/3930k).
Some top end makes are the Corsair TX – HX – AX -AXi series, The Seasonic PSU’s, and the NZXT Hale90 series.

I tend to go for logitech for headsets. Nothing fancy, just some that work, secificaly the H390.

For pure headphones though atm i use a pair of over ear clossed back DJ(for the long lead) Sennheiser’s (HD 202-II) alot of bass which is why i like them , and for inner ear when outside i got a pair of high quality AKG K330 Wasp’s.

Personaly i would get a 600/650W. its a good mid range Wattage for a PC specialy when OC’ing and thinking ahead for future parts like possible SLI, also it makes sure the PSU is never under any strain.

That said if u cant afford a good brand 650W PSU like a Corsair TX,HX, AX, or Seasonic series, then drop down to a 500W and u will still be perfectly fine. Most PSU’s have peak efficiency at 50% load.

Another brand that is good is the NZXT hale90 series(they come in WHITE !). Lowest wattage in the series is 650W.

CPU Cooler wise i think the CM Evo 212 will be fine for u. its very widely used and is great value for money. if u want betetr air cooling over that then u might aswell go straight to the top and get somthing like the Noctua NH-D14..after that ur looking at AIO water cooling units like the Corsair H100i.

Just thought i would point out that they didnt ‘fix’ culling. They simply turned it off and put the culling options client side. They went around the problem, they didnt fix it(the problem being performance). Culling was there to stop performance getting any worse. They couldnt fix the performance so they turned culling off and acted like it was their fix and can now say that any performance issues r client side becouse ur settings r to high.

If u have culling off completly ur FPS will tank, but its ur choice ..so Anet can wash their hands of the crappy performance issues. They just say “change culling options to increase ur performance”., which brings u back to how things were b4 the patch lol.

OP you should look into the MadCatz R.A.T 7 MMO.

Its pritty much the most customizable mouse out. It doesnt have the number buttons for the thunb set out like a calculator like most, which imo is a good thing, its main perks are its physical size adjustments. U can made the mouse physicaly longer, adjust the thumb area out or in, can even have a small pinky rest attached to the side.

Ill be getitng one myself soon to replace my old Logitech g5 which is on its last legs.

However the RAT 7 MMO is rather pricey ..ull see what i mean when u look at it :P

PSU’s will always get warm. PSU’s can take care of themselves asuming their intake and output vents r not obstructed, they r designed to run full loads without issue.

The only temps u need worry about are GPU and CPU temps, also maybe VRM temps if ur OC’ing.

If ur running ur CPU on stock heatsink and fan u may want to keep an eye on the temps as the stock stuff is crap and GW2 can push the CPU hard.

The GPU u have is of a good make so i doubt u will have any problems, EVGA cards tend to vent air out the back instead of into the case like most GPU’s do, so do make sure u keep it clean, the downside to venting out the back is u get slightly higher temps as there is less room for ventalation, however it doesnt heat up the inside of ur case so it can equal out. EVGA cards tend ot be godo for SLI setups for that very reason. 2 cards inside a case pushing air out onto each other can cause temperature problems, however rear venting cards dont have that problem. The only problem they have is the intake of air form within the case if they r tight up against each other.

u can upgrade from 32bit to 64bit for free for the OS u have. Just go to the microsoft website and download the 64bit version using the validation code u have for ur current version.

Or just ‘aquire’ windows 7 64bit.

Sapphire 7870XT will max GW2 out.

As others have said, no CPU out no matter the OC can keep WvW at 60 fps. If ur lucky with ur OC u can get 30FPS as a minimum but u cant have the new cull settings on highest..u have to have texture culling (player model quality) on low.

Check ur temps, u could be throttling.

GPU wise – AMD 7870XT
CPU wise – FX 8350 (asuming ur motherboard accepts it) + good cooler, then learn to OC.

Nothing unusual about that OP.

Bassicaly the faster ur CPU the better ur FPS in those situations. U could try setting texture culling to low (whilst keeping character limit at highest).
Though tbh if u getting that kind of performance with character limit on low, it will likely make matters worse with the settings i sugest.

PCI-e 3.0 vs 2.0 doesnt affect performance till ur right at the top end of rigs and using insane resolutions and AA.

U should be able to get a AMD 7770 ghz edition for around £80 -£90.

£160 is a good budget for a overall mid range card (low end gaming card), however there is a jump in prices. Bassicaly u can get a card for around £70-£120, then u go up to the £200 mark, there really isnt anything worth getting inbetween.
I mean after the 7770 ur looking at a 650ti boost for around £110-130, after that is a 660ti or 7870XT, both of which are £200+.

IMO upgrading ur GPU wont give u much of a performance boost unless ur using a really old media class card. Chances r ur CPU will be holding u back.

That said, if u r using a old media card then the highest i would go would be a AMD 7770.

if i were u, i would save up for a whole new self built system. You can only upgrade a computer so far before the core of it (motherboard & CPU) needs changing.

Remember when looking atlaptop CPU’s…they dont run all 4 cores at the max turbo frequency that is usualy advertised.

for example the 3630QM says ‘2.4ghz to 3.4ghz turbo’ .. BUT it actually runs at 3.2ghz for 4 active cores, 3.3 GHz for 2 active cores and 3.4 GHz for 1 active core. meaning for GW you would likely be running at only 3.2ghz.

What does this mean when chosing a laptop CPU? ..aim for only the top end QM series CPU’s. I.e 3840QM,3820QM,3740QM and 3720QM…or go for the XM series (very very expensive) when looking ot buy one for GW2 gameplay.
However above all them are the laptops that allow the use of desktop CPU’s like the Intel LGA 2011 i7 3820 which can run at its max stock turbo of 3.8ghz on all 4 active cores.
One such laptop is the SAGER NP9570 which is apprently bassed on the Clevo P570WM.

GPU wise, try get atleast a nvidia 660m

The reason i lean towards the 3770k for high performance like the OP is requesting is becouse for GW2, and a few other rare CPu intensive games, u can use up all 4 threads on a 3570k.

For example my own CPU has 12 threads yet in GW2 it can hit 50% overall usuage in extreme situations, and 40% in heavy WvW. Thats equal to 6 and 5 threads used.

Its just somthing to think about anyway….
A 3570k will be great for the majority of games out though