Guild Wars 2

Since its already on its way its not much point saying get the 3570k. And tbh a 3770K is just fine if u have the cash for it

You will need to OC that cpu to around 4.5ghz, do that and u can expect to never drop below 30 fps even in the biggest of WvW battles…asuming u use the correct grpahics settings for the GPU u have. (so no reflections on all or supersampling). Most the game should see 60fps all the time except for said WvW battles

of the shelf water coolers can be just as loud as aair cooler.. they still use fan afterall. A SSD is great no doubt. .but for som1 on a budget, its really not a top priority.

BTW use.
http://pcpartpicker.com/
Select United States in the top right corner and start building ..should help u find the good deals.

Here is one i slaped together ..includes hard drive and optical drive.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yLLh

Any cooling thats sub H100 water cooling i wouldstick with top end air cooling, just as good if not better for the same if not less cost.

PvE u should see 60fps, asuming u set the graphics settings accordingly. But no cpu currently out can keep WvW at 60fps.. the best u can hope for is 30 fps(minimum fps in MASSIVE battles) 45fps+ (medium sized battles) and thats with a 4.5ghz+ OC intel 3570k or 3770k ..or higher.

For AMD i wouldnt get anything less than a FX 6300, well actualy i wouldnt go lower than a FX8350 but its just higher clocked with a few extra cores, if ur OC’ing if wont make much difference if u get a FX 8350 or a 8120 or a 6300 so long as the OC is the same (~4.4ghz). It wont be as good as the intel ones above but it would be cheaper.

That rig has a 240gb SSD, thats a good chunk of cash their. Its better to not get a SSD and invest in a intel rig. Atleast when it comes ot GW2. An SSD is the last thing u add to rig since its mainly for convieniance with very very slight ingame performance effects.

EDIT:
-Intel i5 3570k CPU
-Coolermaster Evo 212 CPU cooler (should manage ~4.4ghz OC)
-Asus P8Z77 motherboard
-Corsair/G.Skill/Mushkin 1600mhz RAM 8gb or 16gb CL9
-AMD 7870 Tahiti Graphics card (Sapphire XT or Club3d Joker)
-Corsair/Seasonic 600W PowerSupply
-Coolermaster HAF 912 or Storm Case
-HDD & Optical Drive from old rig (asuming they r Sata)

That should come to around $750 depending on where u get it all from and what sales r on.

Im from the UK so im not always up to date with costs in the US. last time i checked(couple weeks ago) i could put together a system using pcpartpicker (US site not the UK one) and could build that rig for around $700 depending sales,rebates, models and makes of components. Newegg wasnt always the cheapest so u would have to shop around. $700-$800 is the general range though.

And yea most ppl dont need a top of the range gaming rig but i do still try to recommend rigs that are cheaper in the long run.
Buying cheap and thinking in the short term usualy ends up being more expensive in the long run as u have to upgrade more often.
I dont expect every1 to do what i do, which is do a major overhaul every 4 years spending around £/$1700, but building a rig that could last say 3 years for around £/$800 is still cheaper than spending £/$500 and upgrading within 2 years.
Not to mention long term builds like my own or even a $800 build will allow games for the first year or 2 to be played at,or almost, max settings with great fps ..that performance would then drop of as the years go by. A cheap $500 build would likely not run max with high fps even when new(games in general not GW2 specificaly).

‘Not disagreeing with anything ya said btw Jazhara, just explaing my POV.’

So what exactly is ur problem ?
Is Gw2 starting up but running poorly ? (Low fps ? or Lag (latency/ping issues))
Is it not starting ?
Is it not connecting ?

Add more specific information in ur posts without all the drama :P

You desktop has a really crappy graphics card, its not designed for gaming (for the 500 series the 510 is the lowest media card, the 520 the next one up, u dont get into gaming cards till u hit the 550ti, after that u have the 560/ti, 570, and580 those last 3 r the main gaming cards, the same goes for the 600 series. So dont expect good quality or high fps from the 520. The CPU is ok for PvE but dont expect great fps when u get into WvW battles.

The game advisor isnt very accurate to be honest. Its more a ‘u can run the game’ not a ‘u can play the game’ i.e fps being playable.

Yes true but i did say ‘average quality example’

If u got ‘lucky’ with an ivy and just ‘standard’ or ‘unlucky’ with a sandy ..then u would be correct’.

An ‘average’ Ivy vs an ‘average’ Sandy on the same cooling will show the sandy reaching a higher clock, is just a fact that Ivy get hotter quiker at lower voltages and thus lower clocks, they max out the coolers quiker.
Im not saying a Ivy cant go as high as a sandy. Given the correct cooling they can ..but by then ur talking custom water loops and reaching 5ghz, but u need to spend a good chunk of change on the cooling systems which the average OC’er wont be doing..most go air cooling or of the shelf water cooling.

Anyway getting oftopic now lol.

Those ones that Rampage linked are all good choices.
At minimum u want a Intel 3630QM processor. Preferably a 3740QM/3820QM for the higher clocks.
GPU wise atleast a 660m

UnSpec: FYI . Ivy at 4.4ghz is equal to a Sandy at 4.5ghz. there is ‘roughly’ a 100mhz performance difference Which is mitigated by OC’s when using the same cooler*, since sandy can go higher. So overall they r the same.

*By that i mean if u got a 3570k and a 2550k (same base clocks) both of which were a good average quality example of the chips (so no ‘gold’ chips or ‘sub par’ chips) using say a Evo212 cooler, the 2550k would be able to get ‘atleast’ 100mhz higher clock and thus equal out the performance

I second tera as a good MMO to try if u really want to BUT.

Your CPu is ur problem atm. As the above poster said, even people such as myself get , what we consider, bad fps in WvW. I personaly go as low as 30 fps in HUGE battles and only average 45fps in the medium sized battles. PVE and Dungeons are usaly 60fps.
But considering the rig i have i should be getitng MUCH more.

So u can get ‘playable’ FPS in GW2 but u really need a beafy rig. Somthing like a 3570k CPU with 4.5ghz OC and a 560ti or 650ti or AMD 7870 to run on High settings. A complete self built rig with those kinda specs along with all other parts would come to around $750 more or less depending on sales and what u can salvage from ur current rig.

Ok update time.

The graphics card that comes with it as standard will struglle with GW2. Nvidia X10 cards are their bottom of the line cards meant for media ..not gaming.

The AMD cpu’s dont have very strong single thread performance BUT the FX 4100 can be OC’d and if u really want to save money with a AMD CPU and board then i highly sugest u get a good top end aftermarket air cooler and OC that thing as far as u can. Over 4ghz..closer to 4.5ghz if possible. Otherwise u will get horrible performance in WvW and likely even in some PvE areas and Lions Arch.

I take it ur on a roughly $500 budget which tbh ..when buying or upgrading a computer with Gw2 in mind ..isnt enough. $700 is a good budget for a self built computer for GW2, prebuilt ur likely looking at $800 if ur lucky enough to find one with both a good CPU and good GPU.

Gw2 isnt a cheap game to build a rig for ..its so badly optimized for multithread CPU’s that u really need to spend a fair chunk of change on a good CPU that has strong single thread performance.

i wouldnt get a cheap Asrock mothebroard, their higher specs ones r not to bad but their cheaper MicroATX boards can be very limiting.

The CPU is a non K version so OC’ign is very limited. That said u should still get good FPS in GW2 in PvE. Only in WvW wil lthat particular CPU start to struggle in the bigger battles.
The 660 graphcis card will be fine for those resolutions also, so long as u keep the Gw2 grpahics options within its capabilities.

In all honesty your computer is to out of date to upgrade just one part.

What u need to do is save up around $700 and build a new rig. You said u can put in and swap out parts so u shouldnt have a problem building ur own rig.

Parts wise u shold be able to find the following for around $700

-Intel i5 3570k CPU
-Coolermaster Evo 212 CPU cooler
-Asus P8Z77 motherboard (DONT get MSI they have bad component reliability)
-Corsair/G.Skill/Mushkin 1600mhz RAM 8gb or 16gb CL9
-AMD 7870 Tahiti Graphics card (Sapphire XT or Club3d Joker)
-Corsair/Seasonic 600W PowerSupply
-Coolermaster HAF 912 or Storm Case

You currnet HDD and Optical drives can be re used so long as they are Sata and not IDE.

With that u can play GW2 with great fps, even more so if you OverClock the CPU.

Best thing to do when checking what is causing low fps is to run some monitoring software to show FPS- GPU usuage – CPU usuage.
In the case of GW2 ur unlikely to ever see 100% cpu usuage unless u on a dual core, on quads and above the CPU will bottleneck on the per thread bassis so it wont show 100% overall (tis a long story to explain why)
The GPU on the other hand is easy..if its less than100% usuage when u see low fps .then its NOT the GPU causing it. Another little test is to lower or increase the grpahcis settings, if the FPS doesnt go up/down significantly ..then again it shows that its not the GPU.

Fix the links ..they r both linking to the same graphics card.
The card itself is a good minimum for overall high settings. But u stillwont be able to use supersampling or relfections on all, and it will likely max out in some areas and situations. The 650ti is more or less like a 560ti, and i can tell u from experiance that even when OverClocked a 560ti will max out at All high settings in some areas and drop below 60 fps (when the CPU isnt bottlenecking).

The computer itself will run fine so long as it has a good CPU like a Intel i5 3570k or i5 2500k/2550k or better. Anything less than that and u could potentialy see FPS drops in areas outside WvW. In WvW u will still get FPS drops below 30 if u dont OC.
You can check this link for CPU hierachy (ignor the Xeon cpu’s)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

GW2 takes more performance from the CPU than it does the GPU so dont make the mistake of skimping on a good CPU and just getting a good GPU instead.

TBH u shoulda asked on these forums for advice on a computer upgrade for Gw2 if u were not certain.

You would have been advised that just getting a new GPU would do little.
Your CPU is to old and weak, u need a more up to date one. Unfortunatly that means a new motherboard and RAM also..bassicaly an entire new computer.

Take a look at this list.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
You want the highest CPU u can afford (ignoring the Xeons), preferably sticking with ones that are OverClockable. You can see how far down the old Core 2 Quads are.

GW2 is poorly optimised for multi thread usuage, and draws most it performance from the single thread performance of CPU’s, this is why u are getting such poor FPS. The new CPU’s currently available have much faster single thread performance. The best (whilst still be affordable) being the intel i5 3570k and Intle i7 3770k. both of which are OverClockable.

The 7870 Tahiti card (thats the 1536 core one)is a great bang for buck card. I’ve usualy used Nvidia except for many years ago. However if i was still running my old 8800GTX cards i had prior to my 560ti ..i would have bought a 7870 tahiti card by now as they r great value.

For around $700 depending on what u can salvage form ur current rig (like HDD’s and Optical drives) and sales. You can build urself a rig that would blitz any of the prebuilt ones u have looked at. Building a computer is like putting lego together, its rather simple once u start. Computer building looks more complicated than it actually is.

You could get:
CPU: Intel 3570k
Cooler: Coolermaster Evo 212
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77
RAM: Corsair/Gskill/Muchskin 1600mhz 8 or 16gb
PSU: Corsair/ Seasonic 600W
GPU: AMD 7870 Tahiti LE (Sapphire XT or Club3D Joker)
Case: Coolermaster HAF 912 / Storm

That would be a very sorted rig.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

navigiate to ‘high end video cards’

550ti to 7770 is a lateral move (sidegrade) rather than an upgrade.

CPU wise if u do alot of WvW and drop below 15 fps often then i recommend upgrading ur computer. Even if its still just for 1 game (GW2), being below 15 fps does tend to show that what ever cpu u do currently have has a weak single thread performance. Not that it will matter in most games, but it will likely start showing up in other online titles as time goes by. MechWarriorOnline for example.

That said it is obviose to every1 that GW2 is not very well optimised for multi thread. So its by no means ur computers fault in that respect..but the inefficient use of multi threads means GW2 will show up weak single thread performing CPU’s, and WvW FPS is the indicator.
All AMD CPU’s except the FX 8350 (barely), And Intel generation 1 i3/5/7/7E and older CPU’s all have relativly weak single thread performance and as such all have poor GW2 performance in WvW.
That really only leaves the following CPU’s as viable upgrades(asuing u have no other underling performance issues):

AMD FX 8350 (only worth it if ur current motherboard is compatable)
Intel i5: 2500K,2550K,3570K
Intel i7: 2600K,2700K,3770K, 3820, 3930K
Intel i7-E: 3960X,3970X

All of which requir an OC of around 4.5ghz to keep GW2 from EVER dropping below 30fps in the most extreme situations.

Ill get straight to the point. You want a new CPU and Motherboard ot increase ur performancein those Big WvW battles.

A Intel i5 3570k or i7 3770k with a 4.5ghz OC (on top end air cooling) will make sure u never drop below 30 fps due to CPU bottlnecks and u can expect 45fps+ in Mid sized battles and 60 fps in LA.
So long as u keep ur graphics settings set so ur GPU doesnt max out.

Ofc Intel r more expensive than AMD so be prepaired for the cost (it aint much imo but still)

The 550ti can handle those framerates but u need to make sure u dont try pushing the graphics settings. .For example.. Keep Rellections on terrain and sky or Off, and shadows on Low or medium. And ofc sampling to native.

GPU needs to be at minium a X50ti (for Nvidia), or a X7XX or higher for AMD. personaly i would recommend a 7870 Tahiti LE as its a really nicely priced card and has great performance on par with a 660ti.

The CPU ‘will do’ but dont expect much in WvW , it WILL drop below 30 fps in big zergs even if u OC it. There are betetr choices out there but they cost more, if u went with one of the other choice u could expect WvW to stay above 30 fps in big battles and average 45 in mid sized battles, again though it comes at a cost.

2gb for 1080p & mild AA.
3gb for 1080p & HD textures (usualy from mods) and high AA
3gb for 1440p/1600p & mild AA
4gb+ for 1440p/1600p & High AA

CPU upgrade to a good Intel(2500k/2550k/3570k) would be ur best bet. A 550ti on a mixture of medium and high settings is fine for Gw2.

Yea i know about those CPU’s (i use one myself -.- ) ..i dont mention the 3930k, 3960x or 3970X becouse most people wont buy them for pure gaming since a 3770k would do just as well for ALOT less cost

As for the old 7870 vs new 7870 ..i only say dont get the old one simple becouse the new one is out now and only costs around £170 ..no real reason to get an old 7870 when u can get a better performing new 7870 Tahiti.

Indeed if ur FPS in WvW for example is between 15 and 25 fps i would probably put up with it instead of upgrading becouse even though u may see the average WvW FPS hover around 45fps in mid sized battles after an upgrade, u will still drop to around 30fps in the largest of battles.
If however ur constantly running sub 15 fps in WvW then u would see a significant gain upgrading so long as u upgrade correctly and take the time to OC. But again ..dont expect solid 60 fps…nothing can do that for GW2 atm ..not untill GW2 splits its main thread up across more cpu threads.

I sugest a i5 3570k with OC for pure gaming BUT there a few ..not many ..but a few games that r out and coming out that will benefit from a i7 3770k.
In the end its up to u. So long as u OC which ever u get, u will be happy with the performance.
If u do anything else other than gaming ..like video encoding for example ..then the i7 3770k would be a good choice. Just make sure u got enough spare cash to get a good top end air cooler and a mid range Asus or Gigabyte Motherboard.

I would get a single 7870 tahiti LE ..only a few makes out atm so any1 will do, they r a great choice for the price.

If u go for a 660ti or a 7950 i sugest a Asus or EVGA as they have the better coolers for their clock speeds, even at full load and top fan speeds they r super quiet ..unlike Gigabyte which can get noisy. Gigabyte r great, i have one myself, they keep cool and have great clocks ..but if u like ur computers quiet its a good idea to stear clear of Gigabyte graphics cards unless u find one that has been reviewed and actually does have a quiet cooler..most iv seen tend to be more noisy than Asus and EVGA cards.

OP

Yes it will bottleneck. LGA 115 board + 3570k or 2550k will be a good choice specialy if u OC. All CPU’s out currently wil lbottleneck, but how low ur FPS drops wil ldepend on just how much of a bottleneck occurs. The current best GW2 performing CPU’s are the 3570k and 3770k with OC’s.
A good GPU would be ether the 7950 or the 7870Tahiti LE version (not the old 7870) The 660ti has comparable performance but usualy costs more.

Hey sry for the delayed response iv been beta testing some new online games so been away fomr GW2.

Anyway Motherboard wise the one u stated is a good board. Asus and Gigabyte boards, even their lowest, r respectable. Bu their mid range boards, which usualy cost around $120 or above, are really good. I use a mid range LGA 2011 board myself and it Overclocks briliantly, granted ull be getitng a LGA 1155 but point still stands
You dont really wanan start goign after the $180+ boards becouse they really are dsigned for the really high end Overclcoks and have features for manual voltage monitoring and other tweeks, aswel las extra slots and space for Quad SLI.

Make sure u have the money to get a good cooler. I recommend top end air cooling (~$80) unless u have enough money to get a H100 water cooler (~$110) or better (like custom loops (many $$$’s)

If u’v done everythin u can software wise including the monitoring of CPU and GPU temps and usuage then its highly likely to be a CPU bottleneck. DO check ur ingame settings though and make sure ur do NOT have reflections set to ‘all’ ..its a killer.

Since it seems like ur ready to upgrade take a look at the following and get the best u can on that list(ignore Xeon chips). Try to get a CPU thats OC’able whether it be AMD or Intel since GW2 does see significant performance gains from CPU overclocks. You will ocourse need a corresponding motherboard for the chipset ..i sugest Asus or Gigabyte.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

GPU wise u should be ok to keep the 650 if ur ok with running on medium settings.
HDD and SSD wise i sugest if ur tight on cash u dont get a SSD and instead sink that saved money into the CPU.

For GW2 the best CPU’s to get for performance r the 3570k (4cores 4 threads) and 3770k (4cores 8 threads), which one u should get will depend on if u need/want hyperthreading for the extra virtual cores (threads). For GW2 though there is only a slight difference in performance. You would then need to OverClock to around 4.5ghz (will requir a good aftermarket air cooler). That will keep GW2 above 30fps even in the most dire situations asuming ur graphcis card doesnt max out, and should average 60 fps in most areas ..again asuming ur graphics card keeps up with what ever settings u decide on.

The 980X is generation 1. They have just as ‘bad’ single thread performance as most AMD’s and only slightly better than Core 2 Quads. The performance increase from the Core 2 Quads to the 1st Gen i series was from hyperthreading mainly (there were other techs added ofc).

The big performance boost was with 2nd gen (sandybridge) and 3rd gen (Ivybridge)

1st gen vs 2nd gen is like night and day performance wise.
Take a gander.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

That be why ur friend’s X series are havinf simalar performance to AMD cpu’s.

Btw ..not a fanboy :P ..i work on facts, figures, and benchmarks, only

u can mix and match cards with the CPU. Just remember that although u may e running fine with X CPU ..if u havnt been in intense BIG WvW fights. .u wont know how hard GW2 can push a cpu. If ur friend gets into or is into WvW ..u will most deffinatly need a beafy CPU (Intel + OC) ..if he will mainly PvE u can get away with a top end AMD or Stock Intel.

It shows the weakness of the single thread performance.
I did mention AMD r perfectly fine for optimised multi thread apps and games
But their single thread performance is lacking and wiht the way GW2 works ..it shows up this weakness.
I agree GW2 could do more if its main performance threads were split up among more than just 1 main one and 2 secondaries with 47 ish minors. It would run much better if that 1 main threads was split into say 4 threads along with those 2 secondaries and 47 others. .then u would see MUCH better performance from both AMD’s and intel. Alass ..its easier said than done..so u need astorng single thread performing CPU ..hence Intel.

Ofcourse if u dont WvW or have never been in a truly BIG battle ..u may not see how badly GW2 can hammer CPU’s. ‘BIG’ is subjective ..so lets say ~100 man battles is BIG. Get into one of them and i garuntee all AMD cpu’s out whether OC’d or not ..will drop below 30 fps. And if u claim otherwise .. Vid’s pls ..becouse we would all love to see it and find out how u managed it

Your old 460 will run GW on a mixture of medium and high settings most likely.
But if u want somthing better look at the Nvidia 660ti, AMD 7870 Tahiti LE, and AMD 7950.

Depends on ur budget, but the best u can get for gaming would be the 3570k. If u go a generation older ur looking at the 2550k or 2500k. All are i5’s. If you wanted u coudl go i7 with the 3770k but it wouldnt help much in msot games.

If ur going for a $300 already plus a SSD i recommend forgeting about a SSD and spending extra to get a 3570k + Motherboard.

The reason is pritty much all other games dont come close to how much the CPU influences the performance than GW2 does. A First person shooter wont touch the CPU compared to GW2 for example.

GW2 shows up the weakensses of CPU’s very harshly ..specialy AMD cpu’s. Reason being is although AMD cpu’s r great budget CPU’s for ‘efficient’ multi threaded apps and games ..for apps and games that mainly take single thread performance ..they suck.
Intel on the other hand has strong single thread performance.

Point is .. Your CPU is ur problem. Most games tale performance form ur GPU ..not GW2 ..its one of a handfull of modern games that defies normal logic. You need a good CPU ..not a good GPU.

Note if u get a FX 8350 u will NEED to OC it without a doubt. Even intel CPU’s requir a OC for best performance in GW2 but can get away with being stock if u dont WvW much. The FX 8350 though will NEED OC’ing regardless, becouse the performance shortcomings will show up in cities and larger PvE events.

In all honesty if ur chaning motherboard aswell .. go intel.
If u have a motherboard that can fit a FX 8350 already ..get the FX 8350 to save money,

Make sure u get a good single thread performaing CPU ..means u NEED Intel.

Get a flexable socket type (LGA1155) and go for a cheap chip.. then u can upgrade in the future with a OC’able chip.

AMD r great budget CPU’s for ‘efficient’ multi threaded apps/games. BUT GW2 is not efficent ..it mainly runs from single thread performance ..therefor Intel is the way to go.

For a non OC’d system 450w is enough. You would want 600-750w for a OC’d system depending on the CPU and GPU used. Note that i have a OC’ed 6core 12 thread sandybridge CPU and a OC’d 560ti and im running a 750W and still have watts to spare. A Ivybridge CPU uses substantialy less wattage, so do the newer GPU’s.

In a word…. No.

They did add fractals but its still just another 5 man dungeon. Its just it gets harder each time u complete it. Your ‘fractal level’ goes up on each completion. 1 to 10 r easy 10-20 introduce a new attack type ‘agony’ which hits like a truck, and it goes on from there. But the content of the fractals doesnt change so imo it gets boring.

GW2 will take a while to mature ..it’ll need atleast 1 ‘proper’ content update maybe 2 before end game is more filled out. but by that time i suspect other MMO’s will have released which might suit people better.

If ur looking for a MMO to tise u over till then ..Tera Online has just gone free to play (not pay to win) and does have endgame aswell as a much better combat system. Its just u gotta get used to the ‘korean feel’ of it as it was originaly a korean game..it just gets a once over by a US group to make it more western freindly.

Look for where it says

Adjust Voltage
Test
Monitoring.

Click monitoring

The list – Click on GPU usuage, Fan Speed, GPU temperature, Frame rate. On each one look to the bottom and check show in on screen display.

Download a program called EVGA PrecisionX or even MSI AfterBurner, then use its OSD tool and select the GPU usuage, GPu temperature, GPU fan Speed, and FPS monitor. (i use EVGA PrecisionX) it should then come up in the corner of the screen when u run GW2 with the selcted information.

‘Aquire’ AIDA 64 and use it to monitor all ur other Computer aspects like CPU temperature and fan speeds etc.

Monitor ur CPU, GPU , and RAM usuage. Also monitor ur GPU temperature ontop of ur already monitor CPU temps.

For advice and more advised comments on ur rig i sugest u ask in the tech forums.

However since i usualy help out there ill give u my knowledge here.

Depending on which i7 u have will depend on how well ur game runs.
Since its 2.3ghz i suspect its a 3610QM which turbo’s to 3.3ghz. Personaly i stick the lowest recommend laptop CPU to the 3630QM which is 100mhz faster and the highest being the 3840QM being 500mhz faster, but even so i think u should be fine in PvE environments.
Just note that in WvW and maybe even in LionsArch (city) you will find ur FPS droping even though ur graphics card isnt fully utilized. This is becouse GW2 is heavily dependant on single thread CPU performance ..even OC’d top of the lIne desktop CPU’s can not keep GW2 at 60 FPS in WvW, most strugle to keep it above 30 in the REALLY big battles (~100people). So if u ever get into WvW battle expect low fps. Running at sub 1080p resolutions will help reduce this is ever so slightly, so if ur Laptops native res is say 1440 × 900 then hopefully u wont have as severe performance drops.

Graphics wise u should manage a combination of Medium and High settings. Make sure u keep Relfections on ‘Off’ or ‘Terrain and Sky’.

Remember that Laptops are always a notch or two down from desktops so u pay thru the nose for performance that would otherwise not cost near as much on a desktop. Be prepared.

Game wise u should know that the endgame of GW2 is nothing like regular MMO’s ..there is no stat farming, its al just skins. Dungeons are only 5 man ..there are no raids. The PvE events are not as ‘dynamic’ as may have been madeo ut to u. The game is good , but its a love/hate type of MMO. i personaly think its lacking but atm its one of only a few MMO’s out with the backing that makes it worth playing.

You wouldnt be able to run SuperSampling or Relfecitons on All (since SS is rather inefficient and Reflections on All is kinda bugged) but if u got a 660ti or a 7950 you could run GW2 with the rest of the settings on max. You might even want to look at the 7870 tahiti LE edition since its as powerful las a 7950. The Club3D 7870 Joker Edition (which is a Tahiti LE) should be cheaper than a good 7950 but it may be hard to find.

First of all run a GPU usuage monitoring program and check see if ur GPU is maxing out.

Its pritty much a certanty that the 7770 will be bottlenecking at max settings BUT the AMD cpu wont be helping ether. TBH even if u got a top of the line GPU u wont be seeing the FPS its capable of producing in some areas of the game due to CPU bottlenecking. This happens with Intel CPU’s aswell but no where near as bad as AMD.

What is ur budget ?

@OP
Depending on where play in the game both Saadbaig and guy Sintrail will be correct.

places where u bottleneck via ur CPu like WvW will make the 660 irrelivant, and tbh it would do the same to a 650 also.

However in most PvE areas a 660 or higher would be much better for for a mixture of medium and high settings. A 650 or lower would likely manage better on all medium to keep FPS high.

take a gander at this list and find one within ur budget, dont spend to much becouse you honestly should upgrade ur entire rig to a 2nd/3rd gen Intel i5/i7 K series CPU for best performance. (it isnt THAT expensive to do tbh)
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
(navigate to ‘High End Video Card Chart’)

If all this is to confusing i sugest u get a real life friend versed in computers to help u out personaly. make sure he/she understands the rquirments of GW2 (powerfull CPU – mid range GPU)

SaadBaig.8560:

. I don’t know if your willing to turn it on and always have 30 FPS locked.

30fps ? u mean 60.

Turn on Vsync ingame.

If it stil does it then turn it on also in ur Catalyst Control Centre.

TBH my reasons r less ‘goody goody’.

I just get fed up with false or bad information/sugestions being spread around. I’ve seen alot of changes in the computing and gaming scene in my time and im only 26 lol. Granted i started young but still the changes r not to the better.

I help people out and do my best to make sure people understand the facts instead of listening to hearsay and fanboy arguments.
For GW2 the biggest part of the tech support forum has in my ‘opinion’ been the ‘bad performance’ posts. I do what i can try inform people what GW2 requirs hardware wise, and if they have the hardware then i help them out with getting it to work correctly. Ofcourse ,when i can, i help out in other tech aspects to.

I generaly check the forum when i 1st jump on my computer, spend an hour or so helping out, then jump on me games. After another couple hours i check up on forums. Its just somthing to do to change up the pace of things. I dont find GW2 terribly engaging atm so i’m more inclined to pop onto the forums more often then i usualy do in other games.

SaadBaig

I appreciate ur new to forums by the looks of ur post history, and that ur post took a while to tye, but just coming in and saying people r giving miss information .specialy when there r a few people who posted here with many hundreads of posts in the tech forums and know how GW2 runs and what works and doesnt ..is a bit cheeky imo, specialy wihtout any solid proof.

GW2 doesnt need a super top end GPU to run on high settings. .so long as u dont go using the ‘arguably’ bugged graphics settings like Reflections ‘All’ and the inefficent SuperSampling option, then u can run the game with everythign else maxed with a older/lower end cards like a 460,560,650 etc.There are other games that push the GPU’s harder ..like Sleeping Dogs.
The CPU on the other hand…, well theres plenty of posts about issues, and replies after said issue was sorted, confirming that a strong single thread performing OC’d CPU like a Intel 3570k or 3770k will let u run GW2 to best that is currently possible.

Some people just get unlucky and end up having weired performance problems even though their rigs r perfectly capable. but most people can and do run the game fine. The reason u see more people complaining than u do not complaining is simply becouse this forum is for the people complaining to get help. :P Along with a few people like myself and Kirito who like to help out since Anet rarely replies here.

I was more advising on what to buy in addition to a new cpu/rig.
I wouldnt recommend getting a $150 GPU for his current rig ether ..becouse it wont utilize it all.
But i also dont think upgrading just 1 part of his current rig is worth it. he really needs a new rig. that one is to outdated.

If u have a cheap PSU it could easily be a bad one. What make u got ?

i wouldnt disable the surge protection in the bios ..unless ur OC ofcourse.

U can test see what is causing the surge by running ether a CPU benchmark or a GPu benchmark. Which ever one causes a shutdown is the one thats causing the PSu to surge. It might be that u have al lthe power connectors trying to run of the same internal PSU rail. try switching to a different power connector wire coming from the PSU to the GPU or motherboard.

It means ur CPu isnt stable. Prime95 needs ot run for atleast 6 hours to be fairly sure of 100% stability . 12hours for deffinative answere.

Your CPU’s volltages are likely a tad on the low side. But since its a 124 BSOD it could also mean they r to high or that the VTT settings r off like the above posters said.

Get into the bios and start tweeking. be sure not to go mad with the voltage tweeks ..do them in small increments like 0.010v.

if the laptop is still new then i sugest going back to the manufacturer or retailer and get them to sort it out.