Guild Wars 2

U can get 80 FPS in GW2 pve, but not WvW (no matter how much u put into a rig).
And to be honest, for 1000 euro’s ur not gunna be able to afford a SLI/Xfire rig capable of handle all other games at ultra settings at 60+ fps.

You would be spending 1000 euro’s alone on 2 graphics cards.

With GW2’s new culling options its IMPOSSIBLE to get above 30 fps in even mid sized WvW battles with settings on max. If u drop the culling settings then u can get 30+fps.
For 50+ FPS in 50 man battles.. that ambitous, u could probabyl do it if u lower the culling settings, but again ..no chanceo n max.

Just to give u an idea, my rig (in sig) can manage roughly 30fps minimums in large WvW battles ONLY if i lower the culling settings. I keep character limit on max so i can see every1, but lower the texture culling to low or very low. This just about keeps FPS at 30. If i max the texture culling options so i dont cull the textures at all, i drop down to around 15-20 fps in large battles, which is rediculus.
FPS for my rig: Zerg size 30 to 100 = FPS 50 down to 25/30 (depends on my texture cull settings)

For 1000 euro’s ur looking at somthign like this.
http://fr.pcpartpicker.com/p/NWtJ
But it wont do what u want.

FPS beyond 60 can be ‘felt’ on a 60hz screen but not seen for obviose reasons, on a 120hz screen however it can be ‘seen’ and ‘felt’.
Arguments over what can and cant be seen are really kind of mute imo, each person can decide for themselves what they see and dont. each persons eyes are different, some are more sensetive than others.

As for spending that much for 1 extra fps, thats an extreme, lets be honest :P ..but ur point stands.
As for spending lots in the 1st place. Well i spent loads, infact im still building my rig u see in my sig, i still need a new GPU, gunna be spending around £600 on one when they release, totaling around the £1800 mark when all is done.
But for me, i build a rig within a 4 to 5 year plan, Spend loads in one go on a rig that will last 4 to 5 years with little to no upgrades. It ends up being as cheap as spending alot less (~£700) on a rig that will only last around 2 years.*
It also means for the 1st year or 2 my rig can handle pritty much every game out at max settings and have wicked performance (exceptions being those games with crap engines that cant take advantage of said rig).

My last rig cost around £2000 (it was my 1 and only prebuilt so it cost more than it should have) and it lasted 4 years b4 i changed the GPU which extended its usfullness another 8 or so months.

-* how long a rig lasts, for me, is decided by how long it can play ‘average’ up to date games at high (not neccerilly max) settings and stay above about 30fps for non competative games, and 60fps for competative games.

Indeed wow isnt particularly demanding tbh.

And guessing on GW2 performance without specs and only that bench to go on is next to impossible.

Yes its the CPU.

Personaly i only advise people go for the FX8350 if they can already fit it, otherwise i say go for a intel build.

That said there is an exception, that be when som1 is on a VERY tight budget and currently has a really old system.

For you, i think ur kinda on the edge really. If u have the money u should deffinatly try get a 3570k rig, or better yet a 3770k. If u cant afford a intel build u will want nothing less than AMD’s best, the FX8350.
Both builds i recommend u get a after market cooler like the CoolerMaster Evo 212 (or better if u can), and then OC the CPU to around 4.5ghz. Remember if u change ur CPU and mothebroard, ur likely gunan need new RAM, if ur on DDR2 u will need ot replace it with DDR3, thankfully RAM isnt all that expensive.

Your GPU is fine imo, if ur ok with current settings (im guessing medium) from a visual standpoint, then u can stick with those settings and just get rid of ur current CPU bottleneck.

No rig out their can play GW2 WvW and stay above 30 FPS when the culling is completly turned off. However with the CPU’s i stated above u can ‘potentialy’ get around the 30fps mark as a minimum FPS if you keep the texture culling on low or very low, u can keep character limit set ot highest so u can see every1 all the time. The rest fo the normal graphics settingsu can just set to what ever ur GPU can handle which will likely be medium.

IMO for around £200 i would get the AMD 7870XT ..ether the Sapphire 7870XT or the Club3d 7870XT Joker. I think the Sapphire is a better option.
Its a very good bang for buck card and is mroe than enough for GW2 to play on High.

Though in WvW and busy areas ur CPU is going to hold u back, so be prepaired for that.

Change to 64bit OS and u should be sorted.

I personaly use 306.97.

I dont change drivers unless a significant performance increase is proven for newer drivers and/or a new game has issues with current old drivers. All to often i have had, or heared of people having, problems with the newest drivers due ot bugs and what not, so i tend to stay a step or 2 behind the latest drivers.

TBH . With the latest culling changes, unless u have culling active, u wont get 30+FPS in WvW no matter what system u get.

Even my system (in sig) can drop below 20FPS in big Zergs if all settings are on max (i.e no culling what so ever).

However, u can keep ~30 in massive zergs if u set texture culling to low/very low. This will keep players visable but with the lowest texture settings ( all green for ‘very low’, or all but those near you green for ‘low’ ).
That is, if u have the CPU to manage it, that would requir a 3770k With OC. A 3570k with OC would be good but will max out the threads as it only has 4, so u wil see better performance with a 3770k.

You may not like theidea of overclocking but for GW2 wvw its a neccessity if u want better FPS.

No.

The 650ti , specialy a OC’d version, will be as fast as a stock 560ti. But a OC’d vs OC’d the 560ti will be better performance wise.

Also the 650ti requirs ALOT less power when compared to a 560ti. I think its somthing like 90w vs 200w at high loads.

You could look into getting the new 650ti Boost edition.

For WvW the GPU isnt really that important, it ur CPU that matters. But with the latest patch to GW2, the new culling options pritty much make it imposible to build any rig that can keep frame rates above 30 in zergs on max settings. Its possible to get it to 30+ with the culling options on (so u cull textures and/or character models) but then u start having the issue of invisible players.

Makes perfect sense. Your HD 6450 is likely maxing out. Its not a very fast card at all, its akin to a Nvidia 9500GS.
Infact i think its roughly the same as both the Intel HD 3000 and HD 4000 integrated GPU. You might find switching to ur 3770’s onboard grpahics may help. its alteats worth a try.

I just did some benches in eternal battlegrounds (massive zerg going on atm).

And like i said, all max settings its just no longer possible for 30FPS, since culling is gone u now see everything and i actually got into a battle big enough to see my FPS drop around 15-20 FPS.

Changing texture cull to low however kept me around 30. If i turned the overall game quality settings down also that will also free up some CPU power and could potential give another 5 FPS or more.
So again its just barely possible oot stay above 30 FPS now, but not only do u have to turn down the overall game settings to free up ur CPU , u also need to have the new cull setings ( the textures specifical) set to low.

The new patch certainly helped the view distance, but did make WvW even more a PITA to keep above 30 FPS in MAJOR battles.

Depends on how far u OC it.

let me put it this way.

A 3770k Ivybridge ,per core, is faster than my own 3930k Sandybridge.

I OC to 4.6ghz, so a 4.5ghz OC on a 3770k should be able to match, maybe even beat, my performance so long as it doesnt run out of threads, which at 8 threads, it shouldnt (the highest i ever see on my rig is ~50% total usuage in GW2 thats equal to 6 full threads, though spread over 12 in my case.)

The new culling options need to be set correctly however. If u have the new option All on max even my CPU cant keep it above 30 anymore.

Character Limit can be at Highest. Which meansu get max view range

Texture Level however needs to be set at medium or Low depending on the size of the Zerg. REALLY big zergs u want it set to low (not lowest) and u should keep above 30FPS, if u try anyhigher and FPS will drop into the 20’s.

i genraly run WvW with Medium on the texture cull setings till i see FPS getitng to close to 30, then i change it to Low. TBH u dont really notice what it does unless u specificaly look for it.

WvW large fights..for 30 fps minimums u need a really powerfull CPU.

For exmple the one i have in my sig, even with that and its OC my FPS can and will drop to 30 in WvW. Though my average is usualy 45+.
Still if those are the figures ur after, ur gunna want a 3770k system with a OC.

best thing u can do is turn al lsettings down to low/medium to reduce the stress on ur CPU as much as possible. Most grpahics settingso nly affect the GPU, but some will have a slight impact on ur CPU load , and with GW2, any reduced load on the CPU in WvW, even the slightest will help ur FPS.

IMO OP.
Since ur running at old school resolutions i would drop the 7870XT (as good a GPU as it is, specialy for the money).
U can easily save between £40and £80 if u went down to a 650ti boost or 650ti respectivly and ether will run GW2 perfectly fine at ur resolution. Infact u could likely go down even further to a AMD 7770 saving an additional ~£15.

That saving could then go into changing from an AMD FX6 series to a Intel build with a 3570k.

Ontop of that some other thigns u might want to change.

PSU get at the very least 500W.
RAM, get the correct number of sticks for the CPU u get, in most casses they r Dual Channel so u want 2×4 or 2×8gb.
Finaly , what CPU cooler u gunna get ? Stock r realyl crap so u want to spend some money on atleast a mid range aftermarket cooler. Like the CoolerMaster Evo 212 which is usualy around ~£30.

Anyway Somthing along the lines of this.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/N6jN

@ Flatley.

At stock settings, no.

OP.

Are u in the US or EU ? (or other?)

Which ever ur in u can likely find much betetr and cheaper laptops than Alienware, they tend to be rather overpriced for what they have in them when comapred to other makes like MSI, Asus, Clevo/Sagre, Lenovo, Razer, etc.

A good US site i tend to look at is:
http://www.xoticpc.com/index.html

And for herei n the UK:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

Though u can also also go the the individual brands websites for the respective country and go through them directly. Most allow some customization options.

Another 300 or 400mhz on his CPU would likely help to atleast keep fps above 30. But ofcourse being a Ivybridge that would likely require ether a top of the line Air Cooler (if ur lucky with the silicon lottery) or good AIO water cooler.
A cheaper though mroe risky option would be poping of the IHS and replacmeng the TIM, then u could get away with just an Air cooler since replacing the IHS TIM can give about 10c or more better temps.

I’ve just come back online after being away about a month to test out the new culling options.

I like the better view distance for sure. The performance, well i cant really tell if its better or the same becouse i’ve been away for so long, but i still keep above 30FPS at all times even in zergs, and thats with culling turned of, so thats good.

I have however decided to change the cull texture quality from highest to medium as it allows small zergs to retain most of the high quality texture models, and then starts culling the high quality ones to lower quality ones for the truly large zergs which by then u wont notice the changes as there is simply to much on screen going on to spot it.
Even on highest i stay above 30, but only barely, so on medium it just helps give that buffer. Ill still drop 30 FPS eventually but not untill the zergs reach truly massive sizes.

All in all the new settings have made WvW look alot better as i can see all the characters now.

Still, there performance woefull for the system im playing on. Anet really shoulda used a better Game Engine.

Greetings all.

First of, if im blind and have failed misserably at searching the forum please do tell me if there is a thread about the new culling feature.

Ok so .. on to it.

I just want peoples experiances with the new culling options in WvW zergs.

I personaly have the settings maxed out so bassicaly culling is off and textures r maxed.

Obviosly culling does help with FPS still if u turn it on, but i also found that turning the textures down helped with the FPS even when u have GPU headroom. Now obviosly this is becouse the CPU still has to do some of the work and any extra head room u give it in WvW will help with the FPS, but i found that at the most it only added maybe 10FPS going from Low to Highest on the texture setting.

10fps is ofc alot for some, but tbh for Gw2 alsong as i stay above 30fps at al ltimes i dont mind. And my average is usualy 45+.
That said i really couldnt tell the difference between highest and low texture settings when in the thick of battle, so i may end up droping it to medium or low just to gain an extra 5-10 FPS in those intensive situations.

At max settings i still kept my minimum FPS above 30, and gained, thanks to this patch, a much better view distance.

All in all it seems good. I honestly havnt been on GW2 much in the last month so i cant recall very well if the performance has improved along with this change, so more feedback would be helpfull.

Greetings all.

First of, if im blind and have failed misserably at searching the forum please do tell me if there is a thread about the new culling feature.

Ok so .. on to it.

I just want peoples experiances with the new culling options in WvW zergs.

I personaly have the settings maxed out so bassicaly culling is off and textures r maxed.

Obviosly culling does help with FPS still if u turn it on, but i also found that turning the textures down helped with the FPS even when u have GPU headroom. Now obviosly this is becouse the CPU still has to do some of the work and any extra head room u give it in WvW will help with the FPS, but i found that at the most it only added maybe 10FPS going from Low to Highest on the texture setting.

10fps is ofc alot for some, but tbh for Gw2 alsong as i stay above 30fps at al ltimes i dont mind. And my average is usualy 45+.
That said i really couldnt tell the difference between highest and low texture settings when in the thick of battle, so i may end up droping it to medium or low just to gain an extra 5-10 FPS in those intensive situations.

At max settings i still kept my minimum FPS above 30, and gained, thanks to this patch, a much better view distance.

All in all it seems good. I honestly havnt been on GW2 much in the last month so i cant recall very well if the performance has improved along with this change, so more feedback would be helpfull.

Asuming the CPU gets OC’d to atleast 4.6ghz then yea. Infact the ‘average’ WvW FPS would be higher than mine due to the better GPU, my one does tend to max out alot and contribute to FPS drops…hence why im waiting on the 780 or for the GTX Titan to drop in price.
However the lowest FPS would be the same since thats caused by the CPU.

Well u didnt mention a budget so.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Mp0q

To be honest it could easily go further but thats a pritty tight system right there. Nice mid tower case, top of the range components, and enough power to play almost any game at max setting and 60 fps.

GW2 WvW will never get 60 FPS due to its game engine and how it uses the CPU, and games like Crysis 3, sleeping dogs, and such will still drop below 60fps on max settings (yes even at 1080p), u’d need SLI for that.

Ok well…. where to start

Your rig if its not OC’d (or even if it is) it should be able to handle running at full pelt 100% usuage 24/7 . If it cant, u have a problem.

Check ur CPU cooler (heatsink and fans), clean it if neccessery, reseat the heatsink (clean of the old TIM and replace it with new stuff, dont put to much nor to little on). Check the fan speeds, Are they static ? if so are they on 6v or 12v (half speed vs max speed) If they r not static and r controlled by heat, try changing the thresholds to make the fans run faster.
Make sure ur case has adequate air space (i.e not locked away in a cuboard).

If all these things fail then u may need to check the CPU core voltage to make sure ur not accidently running at to high a voltage.
Im no expert on AMD cpu’s so i cant tell u of the top of my head the expected voltage and temps ur one should be running. But from my experiance, Intel CPU’s as of late tend to run hotter than AMD. Intel Sandy and Ivy CPU’s can run in the from 60c to mid 80c’s depending on OC’s and cooling solution when at full load.

Remember software isnt to blame when it comes to core temps. hardware is designed to, and should be able to, run at full oad without overheating.

As for options to ofload CPU load to GPU. That isnt going to happen any time soon. DX11 would help with that but currently there is no sign of Anet doing so, GW2 is likely to stay on DX9. They are however tryign to make the game use CPU’s more efficiently, and this may be why ur seeing higher temps, the game is using more of ur CPU and thus causing a higher load. But again, ur temps aren ot the fault of the game.

Quad physical cores is a neccesity imo.

So i would get the i7 if thats ur only two choices. Though i wouldnt be surprised to see 10-20 FPS in big battles. For that CPU each core offers a base speed of 2.2 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.1 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 3.2 GHz (for 1 active core) meaning for GW2 ur likely to be running at 2.9ghz. This is why i say get a faster CPU, even the more expensive ones like the 3740QM that clocks to 3.8ghz will only run at 3.5ghz when 4 cores r in use, but thats alot better than than 2.9ghz.

Now taking into account a desktop 3770k at 4.5ghz OverClock can only just keep WvW above 30fps, u can see what i saying about the CPU.
4.5gh vs 2.9ghz (ur current choice) or even 3.5ghz (3740Qm) is a big difference.

Indeed
If u can get a Desktop CPU powered laptop that would be better since the desktop CPU’s will run all its cores at its max clock, unlike laptop cpu’s that only run max clocks on 1 or 2 cores, when all cores r in use they generaly downclock so they dont overheat.

But as i said, they r a PITA to find, and can cost alot.

While its true GW2 can have high load in more than 3 threads, for example my CPU can get up to 50% total utilisation in some extreme GW2 situations which works out to 6 full threads (though spread out over 12 ofcourse), In less intensive situations u can still bottleneck on just those 3 ‘main’ threads. And those 3 main threads are still usualy the 1st to bottleneck even in extreme situations. The rest of the threads simple ‘fill up’ as the situation escalates.

So yea, ur both right. its tricored to a degree, but can and will use substantialy more threads in heavy situations. Thats why even though a 3570k with a OC can do well in WvW, it will still hit a wall faster than a 3770k becouse the 3570k only has 4 threads vs the 3770k 8 threads.

Short answere. No.

WvW cant be played without low FPS on laptop, no matter how much u spend. mainly becouse laptop CPU’s cant be OC’d unless ur ready to do major customisations to it urself.

The best u can do is get the fastest clocked Intel i7 u can find. Usualy the choices r between a 3720QM – 3740QM – 3820QM -3840QM – 3920XM – 3940XM. In a few rare casses laptops can come with desktop CPU’s like the i7 3820 (non QM), desktop CPU’s would be faster, but generaly its hard to find a laptop with them in.
GPU wise u want DDR5 gpu’s. Sugest atleast a 660m.

Graphics settings in GW2 are not the problem so u can get away with a lower teir GPU, WvW however requirs a strong CPU and it wont matter what setting u run it at. If u dont want ‘low fps’ in WvW and u need a laptop then u best be prepaired to pay throug hthe nose, even then u will still get sub 30 FPS in large battles.

Change ‘lag’ to ‘low FPS’. Its missleading.

Anyway setup wise there are only 2 main things u need to look for and 1 main thing to do.

CPU: Lowest to Highest:
FX 8350 / i5 3570k / i7 3820/ i7 3770k – i7 3930k.

GPU: Lowest to highest:
HD7770 / 650ti / 7870XT – 660ti – 7950 / 670 / 680 / 7970 / Titan / 690 / Ares II

Overclock:
The CPU needs OC’ing no matter which u get. Aim for 4.5ghz, if u can go higher then do so. This is what helps the most in WvW.

yes…bassicaly.

For one, its only got 4 threads. Now although thats enough for most of GW2, in really heavy situations like special events (karka invasion) and heavy WvW battles, it does help to have those extra threads, my CPU can hit 50% overall usuage in some rare heavy situations, thats the equivalnet to 6 full threads.
Secondly, 4.3ghz isnt enough, u need atleast 4.6ghz on a sandy, and atleast 4.4ghz on an ivy. I generaly just say aim for 4.5ghz.

Reformating is a good idea. Trying to get aruond it can cause a host of problems. it doesnt take long to reformat and reinstall stuff onto a computer. Specialy if u have ur data organised.

You can update from 32 to 64 for free using the microsft website, just use ur current 32bit code and choose to downlaod and install the 64bit version. But u will need to reformat or use a dual OS boot option.

However i advise u ‘aquire’ windows 7. Vista isnt the best OS, even with all its updates, Windows 7 is still better. Get ahold of W7 64bit.

Well me personaly, i cant run max settings ..technicaly i cant even run all high, my GPU just cant handle it when in those extreme situations, it is the next big upgrade on my list of things to do., ill ether be buying a GTX Titan (if it comes down in price just a tad) or waiting for the 780 to release.
However i do run shadows on high ..reflections on terrain and sky, and all other settings on max (sampling on native) even in WvW. By the time their is enough people on screen to cause my GPU to max out, its also usualy at the point my FPS would start dipping due to CPU bottlenecking.

If i set all settings to medium in a very large battle i may get 45fps, if i set them to the settings as staded above it may go down to 35. But on both settings the lowest FPS is the same, 30, as at that point the CPU bottleneck surpasses the GPU bottleneck.

So it is possible to run at near max/ or totally max settings in WvW, u just need a very good GPU and a heavily OC’ed CPU.

Aye a Sapphire 7870XT would be a good choice. Also CPU wise, spend the extra 10-20$ for the K version. 3770K, so u can OC .

A 3770k would be the best choice, but u will need a new motherboard for it.

If in the end u cant afford both the 3770k and a new motherboard, then the FX 8350 would be the next best thing. that said, ur current motherboard wouldnt support it so u would be looking at the FX 6300. IMO if u cant go up to a FX 8350 with ur current board, u might aswell switch to a Intel setup.

The only time its really worth upgrading one amd to another for GW2, is when u can go to a FX 8350, if u cant ..then change motherboard and go Intel.

What ever u choose u will need a good aftermarket cooler aswell so u can OC ur chosen CPU.

Lag or Low FPS ?

They r not the same.

OP

In a word …no.

If u really want to keep FPS at a good enough level in WvW u will need a 3570k,3770k 3820, 3930k, or FX 8350. Which ever u get u will have to have it OC’d to 4.5ghz or higher. Any of those should keep you more or less above 30 FPS in big WvW battles.The AMD will likely go as low as 25fps and the 3570k may also possibly drop below 30fps also at 4.5ghz as it only has 4 threads.

For the graphics i would recommened a 7870XT, its a really good bang for buck card. Look for the Sapphire 7870XT, or the Club3d 7870XT Joker. With that card u can run at pritty much max details except reflections, possibly shadows, and sampling. If u want those at proper max settings aswell u will need a top end card, possibly even SLI.

Remember if u have a low budget , dont aim for top level graphics and performance in demanding area’s of games. its a bit like asking to play crysis 3 on ultra setting with a budget of £/$1000. You need to spend more than that on just the graphics cards to get Crysis 3 running smooth. Same thing kinda goes for GW2, u want smooth WvW perf, ull be spending $/£500, possible more on just the CPU and motherboard.

Simplest way to find out if its the GPU is to run some monitoring software to giveu the GPU load.

TBH Jandus, looking at that link of urs if u bring up the individual game results, they r pritty much identical. Personaly i try to avoid websites with such a wide varity of sources for test results. But even so, the performance is very close which ever way it may go. I just feel that at 1080p both the 650m and 560m wouldnt be good enough to keep smooth frame rates. By that i mean the FPS doesnt jump all over the place. Tis why i always advise atleast a 670m.

There’s only 1 type of LAG. Thats the type caused by high network latency which in turn can be caused by the servers or by somthing else between ur computer and the servers.

This whole notion of LAG = Low FPS has come up from those who have mistakenly called it LAG, and there have been so many people do it, that alot of people actually think its called LAG. I guess u cant really complain, new terms come along all the time, but in this case it just down to too many online players ,who are ignorant of even basic computer terms and knowledge, talking online in games and forums using the term incorrectly and others have just followed suit.
People will disagree with this, thats fine, but for me, som1 who has been around gaming long before the majority of current online gamers who started playing in the 00’s, LAG never reffered to frame rates.

LAG =/= low FPS
LAG = High network Latency

As for spell effects and such, tbh that isnt a problem, just turn the settings down, get a better graphics card, go SLI/xfire. The problem is CPU bottlenecking in MMO’s ..u cant xfire or SLI CPU’s ..not gaming grade ones anyway, and u can only OC so far. And u cant turn the things that are causing said bottlenck down.
The stuff being processed causing the issue is a core part to the games in question. The work around for GW2 is culling. .Make it so said ‘core component’ (the players) dont get processed till they r within X distance of ur character, and set a limit to how many u can process. Thats cutting out stuff ..not turning it down, and it impacts on gameplay.

Actually the 560m is still slightly better than the 650m.

The first number isnt the most important. Its the seond number.

1st number = series/generation
2nd number = model (higher = better)
3rd number = It almost always 0, but there is a 675m bassicaly between a 670m and 680m.

Now if it were a 360m or 260m, then u could say the 650m is better, by a big margin. But not a 560m. The 560m is still slightly better than a 650m.

Beside for the sake of argument in this day in age i asume 1920×1080 atleast, and aiming for 60FPS in PvE.

a 650m wont do.

Even for a desktop a 650ti is the minimum for medium settings. A 650m is slower than a 650ti so i wouldnt get that if i were u.

The 3610Qm is ok, but again i wouldnt go any lower than a 3630QM.

All laptop CPU’s and even stock Desktop CPU’s will have trouble in WvW, sub 20 FPS. So u want the best u can get from a 3630QM or above.

‘heavy’ threads.

GW2 has around 50 threads alltogether but only 3 of them are ‘heavy’. Of those 3 there is 1 in particular that easily ‘caps out’ the single thread performance of CPU’s. And in extreme casses it can happen to all 3 ‘heavy’ threads, the rest fo the threads share themselves amongst other availabel cores giving u the overall usuage u see in the performance manager.

rickswarrior.3240:

the cure to get the ram to run at 1866mhz for 2×8gb sticks usualy is a slight volt bump on ram if you are after 4 sticks very few can get that stable but for starters bump voltage to around 1.6v if it is oem 1.5 then set the ram timing delay from 1t to 2t then try again if no go repeat and loosen timings a bit.

There are tonns of RAM kits out there than can do 1866mhz at 1.5v, even 2133mhz.
Corsair do their Dominator Platinum 16gb quad channel 2666mhz RAM at 1.5v.

Known issue. I dont recall any fix for it. Just restart the game ASAP. I’ve had it happen, though it doesnt crash on me .it just has that sound looping.

OP

No.

bassicaly.

You cant get those frame rates u want with a laptop ..hel leven with a desktop. WvW crushes CPU’s due to its limited multithreading.

The best u can ask for in a laptop within a reaosnable laptop budget is.

3740QM CPU
670m GPU
8Gb 1600mhz RAM

Anything above this is a bonus and helpfull but not neceserily cost efficient or needed.

That should allow Max settings aside from a few. .like shadows reflections and sampling. And should give good PvE FPS, WvW will still strugle though in big zergs.

The only way to get playable fps in WvW zergs is to migrate to a desktop and get a OC’d system. Somthing like a 3570k, 3770k, FX8350 @ 4.5ghz+

Sad but true.

Havnt played much in the last month myself. Not only becouse of the performance mind u, it was mainly due to lack of content for me.

I’m one of the lucky ones that has the ability to just through my computers muscle at the problem and have it pump out playable, but still woefull performance (30FPS at the minimum in crowed WvW). However those that cant do that are suffering with sub 30 FPS in such events and i know what that is like, my old rig, which is now in use by a family member , regularly gets sub 10 FPS in WvW zergs, its horrendous.

I for one wont be returning to GW2 till it gets far more content and hopefully better performance. Though i still pop ingame every week to check on the technical side of things so i can still help out in these Tech support forums.

Yea for Ultra even desktops have issues with. For example Reflections on all requirs a top of the line 670/680 or 7970 or even SLI/Xfire, SuperSampling even more so.

The ‘playable’ Ultra settings (which is bassicaly max on all settings accept: Refletions(T&S), Shadows(High) and Sampling(native)) could be achievable on a laptop for PvE environments. You would be looking at a 670m atleast. Thats bassicaly the only must for PvE.
For Populated area’s its mainly down to the CPU, since its a laptop u cant really look at overclocking, so u want to get the fastest CPU u can afford, in your case that would be the 3740QM, u could go higher and go for the 3840QM or even a XM series CPU, but its alot more expensive. The Sagre/Clevo laptops actually charge less for the CPU, though i suspect they probably skimp on other things to do so..probably the chassis, i wouldnt know though tbh, maybe they dont skimp at all.

Try for atleats 8Gb of 1600mhz RAM,. CL9 if they r that specfic. Remember that the CPU is dual channel so u want to get the RAM in Pairs. 2x 4gb ..or 2x 6gb ..or 2x 8gb for optimal performance.

Screen wise i prefer glossy screens rather than matt, they have better color contrast, but do suffer from relfections/glare more so its up to u on that.

Do try get the optional Thermal pastes added, will help with temps which is always a pain for laptops and saves u pulling it apart and doing it urself in the future.

If u already have a copy of Windows 7 64bit (or 32bit as u can upgrade for free) u wont need to get a OS installed. You can do that urself with ur current copy.

Had Drives/ Solid Sates Drives. Well a SSD is a nice bonus but ur gunna be tight on money so only get one if u can afford it. The GPU and CPU should be priority.

Erm …..if u have any other ‘specific’ questions do feel free to ask.

EDIT: Oh i think some of the higher end Sagre/Clevo Laptops actually have Desktop CPU’s in them. They r more powerfull than equivalanet clocked laptop CPU’s and keep there top clock goign even when all cores r being used, unlike most mobile CPU’s which only run at max clock when only 1 or 2 cores are being used, meanign for GW2 the laptop CPU’s will likely not run at their maximum displayed clock speed. The SAGER NP9570 has the Sandybridge LGA 2011 CPU’s, might be somthing worth looking at.

Go here.
http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118_96_98.html

That Alienware is hugly overpriced. U can get a Asus or Sagre for about $400 less wiht better specs.

For example, go to the link above find the
ASUS G75VW-TH72
Compare against the
ALIENWARE M17X

Stock vs stock the asus is better and cheaper. The website has loads of base models to chosse form and customize.

I sugest a MSi/Asus/Sagre with a 3740Qm, a 670m or 7970m, and 8 or 16gb RAM, and a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive at the least. U can choose better thermal pasts cooling options, screen options etc etc.
Ofcourse better yet would be to build a desktop computer for the same price that would blow it away.

Unfortunatly for a laptop since u cant really OC the CPU it means ur gunna have to pay through the teeth for a top of the line laptop CPU like a 3740QM or 3820QM, to get even playable FPS in areas such as WvW, FPS will still drop below 30 but its the best u can do before going into the Extreme series of CPU (3920/40XM)

Alternativly u can go for a more common 3630QM which is slower.

GPU wise i recommend at the very least, a 660m. It might struggle a bit with all High settings, depends on how high u want the FPS to stay. Prerably a 670m/7970m would be a good bet.

BTW im asuming here u know how much this is going to cost. Since all the above recommendations mean the laptop will end up being rather expensive.

Its a CPU bottleneck. You can get better FPS by OC’ing further, most mid range aftermarket CPU coolers can handle a 4.5ghz OC so try for that. Just remember to keep an eye on temps (as u already know since u OC already)

So long as those temps dont trip any throtlling then yes those temps are fine.

Gaming on laptops CAN shorten their life span but ONLY if ur overheating them, or constantly running hot (not necceserily a overheat but its not good).

Choose a laptop wisely. If its for gaming, be prepaired to spend alot. And make sure that not only are the internal specs good, but make sure the chassis/case has good airflow.

As others have said, if u ever have it on ur lap or on a material surface like a quilt or pillow..make sure u have a board of some kind under the laptop otherwise the material will stifle the air vents.

My laptop used to overheat and throttle just browsing complex websites, even ones such as TPB, (its a old laptop) when i used it when in bed. I soon started using my small platic chopping board ,that i normaly use to sit my mouse mat on when using my desktop, to put under the laptop. it no longer gets that hot and throttles.