Guild Wars 2

If anything, turn reflectin to Terrian and Sky, that should give u and additional 5-10 fps in LA.

I never recommend ppl to have reflection on all no matter the system they run. Even i dont run with reflection on ‘All’ its just so badley implimented considering it renders reflections underground/under the map.

Welcome to GW2, this is what u can expect.

Doesnt matter how much u spend on ur rig, in certain palces in GW2 u will get crpa FPS. LA (city), WvW, large Dynamic events. will all have crappy FPS.

Totaly normal.

Just keep an eye on ur temperaures, prebuilt rigs can ‘somtimes’ have cooling issues.

TIM aka Thermal Paste: Your cooler may come with its own inbox / pre applied TIM, if it doesnt then u will need to buy some, it isnt expensive at all unless u go for liquid metal TIM’s which i would not recommened for the inexperianced.

System fans: Most good casses have atleast 3 or 4 fans with 2 in 1 out or 2 in 2 out, which is fine for a single GPU build.

Keyboards: You have 2 main types. Mechanical, and Membrane.
Mechanical: Generaly more expensive, more durable, good for gaming and prolific typists, diferent ‘switch’ types for more sensative or less sensative setups and different ‘feel’ to the key presses. Generaly Mechanical keyboards are very neat and tidy looking with just the basic keyboard layout, some can however come with LED backlights to give a little flare to an otherwise dull apperence.

Membrane: Cheaper at the bottom end but can get more expensive than mechanical. Have more features to choose from, are usualy bigger in size and cna be more flashy, but may feel less well made. They can come with mini LCD screens used for multiple purposes within games and monitoring software. Most can be bought with LCD backlight, and many can come with macro keys and other functions. However being membrane means they are not well suited for very high usuage as they wear out quiker than mechanical keyboards. Like prolific StarCraft 2 players who have high APM and will put heavy usuage on the keyboard.

I personaly would like a mechanical keyboard myself, however iv been so used to my Logiech G15 that i could not do without my mini LCD screen thats built into my keyboard, as i use it for more monitoring software. People with multiple monitors ofc wont have this issue, and many feel that mini LCD screens on the keyboard is a gimmick, but i find it very helpfull. IF i ever saw a mechanical keybaord with a built in LCD screen i would jump at it, untill then ill stick with membrane.

Example of a VERY expensive membrane keyboard:
http://www.madcatz.com/strike7/
~£220
Example of LCD Membran keyboard
http://gaming.logitech.com/en-gb/gaming-keyboards

Mechanical Keyboard example
http://www.qpad.com/products/keyboards/mk-80/

TN:
Pro: Fast respons times (low/no imput lag) good for gaming. Cheap, so alot of monitor use this panel and so u have alot to choose from.
Con:Bad viewing angles & color accuracy

VA:
Pro: Better color,brightness,and viewing angles than TN
Con: Slightly slower respons than TN, still not great viewing angles and color reproduction compared to IPS and PLS.

IPS:
Pro: Brilliant color,brightness, and viewing angles, almost perfect color accuracy.
Cons: Slow respons, not the greatest for gamers who like no imput lag and/or ghosting/shadowing/bluring

PLS: A slighter better version of IPS.

IMO i would get a VA panel. If u want a 75hz or faster screen or just need a ver cheap screen.. get a TN, if not, u might aswell go for VA for the better image. Infact iirc Asus’s 4k 39" monitor thats coming out next year will be using a VA panel and im likely going to be getting that.

1 other option that im mentioning just becouse i use one atm.

Plasma:
Pro: Awsome contrast, color and brightness. 0 ghosting/shadowing due to instant grey to grey response times.
Cons: BIG, minimum size of 42" iirc. Its a TV so expect some input lag. low PPI due to size at 1080p.

For a GTX 780 70c at load is cool.
The GPU doesnt even start to ‘soft throttle’ till 80c and then doesnt ‘hard throttle’ till it hits the user defined temperature that can be as high as 95c.

Soft throttle: Lowering of core clock slightly.
Hard throttle: Lowering of Voltage & Core Clock.

As for coil whine, u should only hear coil whine when ur FPS is super higher 500fps + usualy caused by not having vsync enabled.
If its making noise at low fps its likely whine from the fans and not the card itself.
Ether way its not really an issue unless its particularly loud.

It may ‘run’, but how playable it will be is down the user’s expectations of ‘playability’.
Large events like WvW and the dragons will be a deffinate no go. But general PvE may be playable.

Ok so that rig linked is perfectly capable, you could save some money here and there, but if ur ok with the budget of that rig then keep it as is. It would only be a small amount of saving and tbh i would stick with whats listed just for the ease of mind that u have high quality parts.
That said unless u NEED a wireless network/internet connection, stick with the onboard device and save urself the cost of a wireless card or dongle.

As for W7 v 8. I say stick with windows 7. How long its supported for is a non issue considering by the time its no longer supported there will likely be 2 other verison over W8 to choose form anyway.

WVW performance wont be great, this is NOT the fault of the listed rig, GW2 just isnt optimised to handle the amount of people that WvW is intended to maintain. Even my own rig struggles, and it cost …way more than i care to admit :P

While u may not be tech savy, building ur own computer is much more beneficial and cheaper/higher quality.
The price and specs of the one u linked are pritty good, BUT i beleve its openbox(hence the price) and it doesnt give details on the motherboard or PSU.
Check out some online videos such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUghCx9iso
and see if ur willing to build it urself.
There will be other videos available ofc, but this is just the 1st one i found on google.

If ur not going ot build it urself then do try find somewhere that gives u options within the computer ur buying. The fully prebuilt models like the one u listed generaly have corners cut somehwere to reduce build cost whislt still charging a premium. Common cuts are the the motherboard and PSU, 2 things that can usualy be slipped by the less tech savy customer, but are very important components.

EDIT: one final thing, the sweetspot for price:performance is around the $1000 mark for self built computers.

GW2 should work fine.

As for the monitor, wait for Dells 34" 21:9 3440 × 1440p Ultra widescreen monitor.
1080p imo is on its way out, if ur getting a new monitor (no matter the size or ratio) go atleast 1440p.

Character culling on Low will result in significant FPS gains for all systems. Put atleast Character Limit to High or Highest and texture to Medium to truly see how it performs.

That will depend on who u ask tbh. Those who play WvW but never see actual big zergs (though they may call them big) could say yes, becouse thats their experiance, they have nothign esle to go by.

However, in actual big zergs the only CPU’s that even have a chance in keeping close to 30 FPS are Intel 2nd generation or newer i5’s and i7’s with OC’s.

Yes BUT, dont expect high FPS in busy areas. GW2 is poorly optimised for CPU’s and no matter what rig u have, FPS will tank down to the 30’s in LA (city) and below in WvW battles.

Yes, which is the 4670k or other high clocked haswell CPU.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

What ur asking for is bassicaly the best that is currently possible on GW2.

So more or less u want a i5 4670k + ~4.5ghz OC with somthing like a AMD 7870XT or GTX 760 GPU.
This should allow for High destail settings and as good as can be expected WvW performance.
So somthing like this.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2kFU9
With a case and storage drive.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Post-your-FPS-System-spec-here/page/2#post3222330

Add urs to this thread.

Now othat others have pointedo ut the PSU, yes dffiantly change brands, OCZ is indeed likely to go under soon. Corsair and Seasonic are the best but they come at a premium so u may have to go down on the wattage, which is fine, u dont need alot with a haswell based rig. You could even get away with a 400W PSU, though i would sugest a 500W.

If u do want to save more money then indeed go down on the RAM, get some G.Skill 1866mhz RAM at the most.

IMO when ur budget is limited, kitten is a bad choice. YES its a very handy addition, and those of us who use them would hate to be without one… BUT they are expensive for what they are and the dont actually increase FPS, they just make things more convieniant.
If i were u, i would ditch the SSD or at the very least lower it to a 128gb one and put more money into the CPU cooler and/or GPU.
If u keep the SSD then note also that, unless u have space issues inside ur case, u would be better of spending that same amount of money u currently have in the H60, for a aircooler instead. A $65 aircooler will perform better than the H60 and be quieter, i.e the Noctua NH-U12S.

well u can ..kinda. Im not really comparing the clock speed exactly, rather the per core performance. A haswell i3 vs a haswell i5 at the same clock ..per core ..will be roughly the same.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Ofc when HT cores vs real cores comes into play its kinda hard to judge, so while the i3 in question may have a faster clock, the i5 in question has ‘real’ cores to make up for it. Like i said, hard to judge without a proper benchmark with GW2, but overall i would recommend the i5.

I think in the long run, and if u took other applications into consideration aswell, the i5 4440 would be the better choice.

While that is true, i have had casses in major ‘patch’ events, like the old Karka invasion, where my CPU has hit over 50% total usuage, thats effectivly 6 cores of load. These are the times where a few people have come onto these forums askign why their i5 is pegged at 100% load, and its these very rare circumstances where the i7’s show a little of their power, being that they are 4core 8 thread CPU’s.

(not argueing for or against anything, just stating somthing )

Without any dedicated benchmarks i couldnt really say which out of a i3 like the 4330 or the i5 4440 would be better for GW2 specificaly.
The i3 doesnt have 4 ‘real’ cores, so it would loss some performance there, but its at 3.5ghz, where as the i5 4440 has 4 real cores but runs between 3.1ghz and 3.3ghz (meaning in Gw2 it would run at 3.1ghz)

if u could get a i5 4670 (not the k version) then it would be a easy choice for the i5.

HT works somthing like this.

1)If u have 2 cores + HT then u effectivly have 2 isle open in a superstore with each person at the till able to handle 2 items at once.

2)If u have 4 cores without HT, u have 4 isle open with each person at the till able to handle 1 item at once.

no.1 will not be ale to put through those 2 items as fast as 2 seperate people doing 1 at a time, BUT having HT is better than not having it at all.

So say for example. A single item takes 1 second and u have 4 items to deal with.
The 2 people (Cores) in no.1 are able to do 4 (2 each) items in 1.5 seconds. (slightly slower becouse they are handle 2 things at once)
The 4 people (cores) in no.2 are able to do 4 (1 each) items in 1 second.

IF no.1 did not have HT then it would take those 2 people 2 seconds to put through all 4 things.

This is totaly over simplified and exagerated but i hope it helps.

Now GW2 has 1 main thread, 2 smaller threads, and about 47ish really small threads. Meaning u need fast single thread performance to keep that1 main thread going, that said, u still need to keep those 2 smaller threads going aswell.
If u had an i3 with HT turned off GW2 would not do very well becouse the 2 cores would be overwhelmed by all the threads being packed into 2 cores, HT would ofc help this but as explained a HT Thread isnt as powerfull as a full on core. So long as the clock rates are simular, a i5 should do better than a HT’ed i3.

If u get silly and compare a i3 4330 vs a i5 4430S (3.5ghz vs 2.7-3.2) then yes the i3 could well be better.

Not possible.
GW2 isnt optimised enough to allow 50v50 zergs at 60fps no matter what computer u have currently.

The G45 board is a fine motherboard, no worries there.
The CPu however is a littleo n the low end tbh, if i were u i would lok for a i5, preferably the 4670k since the motherboard is a Z series allowing for OC’ing and the K series CPU’s are OC’able.
If u never want to OC then i would get a B85 or H87 motherboard (or the cheapest Z87 board u can find) + non K series i5.

Usualy just putting on new TIM, making sure case has good airflow, and settings a custom fan profile is enough to keep things cool.
if not, and the card is still within warenty, i would RMA it for running to hot.

Otherwise for aftermarket coolers, look into the Arctic Accelero range, they have dual fan, triple fan, and hybrid water/fan coolers available.

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/products/cooling/vga.html

Do remember that these types of semi universal aftermarket GPU coolers usualy include heatsinks for the VRM’s and VRAM, which are stuck on with thermal adhesive, meaning they are perminant.

No doubt the 7790 is a great budget card, but i still think somthign is off with those temperatures being that high. The reviews iv seen of the Diamond 7790 (am i correct in saying this is ur one?) shows load temps should be around the 75c mark at most.

http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/diamond-radeon-hd-7790/11/
http://www.bjorn3d.com/2013/05/diamond-hd7790-graphics-card/3/

Yea ..what he said

Was getting tired last night, i ran out of oomph when i got the FX modules and such lol. Nicely explained.

Wow Sirsquishy ….those GPU temps …not good.
If those are correct reading i would highly advise u sort it out, regular usuage at those temps can diminish the longevity of that card.

Ok so every program nowerdays can send commands/data to the CPU through multiple …lanes….
Think of it like a checkout in a superstore.

Old CPU’s used to be 1 Core (1 thread). Which meant 1 checkout. Any program had to use just that 1 check out doing 1 thing at a time.

GW2 has around 50 threads. So A single core/thread CPu would have to run all those threads 1 after the other.
On a multi core/thread CPU thigns can happen at the same time. And remember we are talking very small periods of time less than 1/10 of a second for loads of commands/threads to go through. But even so ..the more ur CPu can handle at once the better.

Problem is it requires the program (Gw2) to be made in a such a way that it can seperate what it wants to do into multiple smaller threads that can be processed quikly and efficiently instead of 1 or 2 big threads that use up all the CPU’s ‘single thread performance’ and leave its other threads doing almost nothing,. This is hard to do without causing a variety of problems ..which i wont get into ..technical :P.
Anyway end result is most games are not very well optimised for this and have only a couple of ‘main’ threads with a load of really small ones, and thus only efficiently use a couple of a CPU’s cores/threads.
In GW2 there are 2-3 main thread and about 47ish really small ones, when those big ones hit the peak performance a CPU can handle per thread, alll the other GW2 threads have to slow down to keep pace with those big ones. This is why u will see overall CPU utilisation sitting at say 70% or 50% ..and ur GPu suage at 50% ..yet ur FPS is only 30..becouse 1 Thread is maxed out and everythign else has had to slow down with it.

So whilst an AMD FX8 or 9 series has 8 cores, and an Intel i5 only has 4, GW2 can only effectly run up to 4 of those core/threads anyway.

Then ofc Intel i7’s have ‘hyperthreading’ ..which is bassicaly making each of the 4 ‘checkouts’ (cores) handle 2 items (threads) at once instead of 1. Its not as effective as adding another 4 checkouts (cores) ..but its better than just handling 1 thing at once.

AMD’s 8 core CPU’s are actually not ‘true’ 8 cores ether, as every 2 cores uses 1 set of resources……but .. tbh i cant really explain this part very easily so ill just stop here :P

Anyway the types of programs that actually use all threads, and are multithread optimised are things like compilers, rendering programs, and other such programs.

Also.. im Dyslexic so im probably not the best person to try explain this kinda stuff, i know it ..its just a PITA for me to put it in writing for other people to understand :P

Those clock numbers are just that ..numbers. They dont actualy mean one is better than the other. A 10 year old cpu at 5ghz say ..wont beat a new cpu at 3ghz.

The simplest way i can currently think to explain it is like this…

Think of it like car engines.
A 2.0 highly tuned racing engine vs an American 4.0 v8.

The V8 is bigger, and likely has more torque, but the 2.0 racing spec engine would annihillate it. Think Fomula 1 engine.

AMD has bigger clock figures at stock, has more cores, but Intel’s cpu’s do more with less. The only time an AMD will beat an intel is in truly multithreaded applications, at which point AMD will start showing its power. Problem is games are very rarely truly optimised to run in such a way, most games take their performance from single thread grunt, of which Intel is king at the moment.

These are numbers that u should look atm.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
BUT do take into consideration if the CPU overclocks or not. No point getting a Xeon cpu for example, not only becouse they dont OC..but also becouse the ones that score near the top on that list cost a bucket load of cash.

I have a GTX 780 Classifed, and run at 3200×1800 (downscalled), its slightly less total res than 5760×1080, and a good lot more than 2560×1440. I rarely see my GPU max out, it can somtimes get to around 90% – 95% usuage in certain places in LA and only when its not restricted by CPU/game engine performance, even then the FPS is 55-60.
Thats with max settings except Reflections (terrain & Sky) WITH Supersampling.

In 90% of situations u will hit a FPS wall caused by the way the game uses the CPU, ratehr than ur 780 maxing out.

Heres a screen shot from the halloween event in the worst place possible for FPS in LA -the Gpu was NOT maxed, the sub 60 FPS is due to the CPU/Engine.

I know its more expensive Meep but do try get a Intel CPU, specialy if ur aiming to play GW2 alot. They just perform better.

Really not worth spending that much on one of those pre-overclocked AMD cpu’s.(iirc they are just 8320’s with a overclock) Also those overclcoked FX 9 series CPU’s only work on certain motherboards that are ratted for the insane TDP those CPU’s have.

If ur gunna spend around that much money you would be better of getting a 3570k or 4670k + Motherboard. It would perform much better in GW2, specialy if OC’d.

In LA with max settings (except reflections becouse bugged) you could get around 35 FPS in the worst case with a OC’d Intel CPU. And AMD FX series cpu like the 8350 or that OC’d one, would get around 15 FPS less.

imo u should save ur money and till u can afford a motherboard aswell.

This is precisly why im sticking with Windows 7 “if it works, dont fix it”

TBH anywhere u can use a super thin laptop..u can use a big bulky gaming laptop. Weight isnt even an issue becouse even the biggest most bulky laptop isnt exactly heavy.
So dont limit urself to thin ones ,specialy if u intend ot game on them ..thin laptops = poor cooling = overheat during gaming.

GW2 has enough issues with performance on top end Desktops, and u want to run it on a tablet? o.0
GL…no really ..GL ..ull need it

Indeed, as stated already, change the RAM to 1600mhz CL9 2×4gb, rest is fine.

This is what u can get from a second gen Intel + OC.

Not the best comparison tbh since the scene below is more intensive(wider view + more people) than the one above, but its still almost double non the less.

Even so, as stated in the above post, their is a price difference to take into consideration.

Upgrading for GW2 ..get an intel i5 or i7 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gen K version, with a Z series board for overclocking. Also be a good idea to get an aftermarket CPU cooler.

MadCatz R.A.T 7 MMO

Some of the i3’s can be overclocked rather well via the base clock + limited multiplier.
Its not really somthing u can do with most of the latest K i5’s and i7’s becouse they just dont like base clock OC’s that much, not big ones atleast.

However there are always a few that do. The i7 3820 for example is not a k model but can hit 4.5ghz+ via base clock changes and maxing out the limited multiplier, simularly to what u would do with an i3.

Dell own AlienWare, u may still be able to get a discount.

When it comes to temperature problem in PC’s ..a little TLC is all thats ‘usualy’ needed

@Keats.9125
Do what shawn.1298 did and see if it fixes the issue.

I will say one thing, that video ..not the best to use as reference. The guy is obviosly not well versed in what he’s doing. I mean cotton wool, not the best thing to be using as it leaves bits behind. A pillow case as a work surface ..nooo. And doesnt seem to be using the right sized screwdriver to start with, and he takes the screws out in and puts them in in a circle and not in oposites(like u would a car wheel, or a Engine cyclinder head to the block). He uses waaaaay to much thermal paste, and by looks of it, unscrewed the VRM or VRAM heatsinks which didnt look like it was neccesery.
I dont mean to rip into the guy, cudos for him doing it for his 1st time, but yea, not a good reference :P

What u need to upgrade is the CPU.
Problem is if u do upgrade to a worthwhile CPU, u will need a new motherboard …and new RAM.
Once a rig reaches a certain age, upgrading in small incriments becomes hard. You need to change the core of the system, which in tern requirs other changes.
A Q6600 though deffinatly an upgrade, will not give u worthwhile performance in WvW, it will suck big time. (~5fps) I know, my old mans latest computer (4770k rig) replaced a Q6600 rig, and that was playing GW2 in WvW with truley catastrophic FPS.

Save ur money for a new CPU, Motherboard, & RAM.
I recommend a 3570k or 4670k with a Z77 or Z87 motherboard respectivly, and 8GB of Dual channel 1600mhz or 1866mhz CL9 RAM.

Well all laptops are prebuilt, some places allow u to choose the spec…but yea ..bassicaly gaming laptops are alot more common from £1000 up, at £600 ur really really pushing it.
The one I linked is pritty much the best i could find but even that had a drawback, and that was virtual storage, being that it only had a 64gb SSD as standard without adding in a HDD for extra cost.

TBH the Lenevo Z500 isnt a gaming laptop by todays standards. WIth a 635m , its just a strong multimedia laptop. The gaming grade GPU’s dont start till ‘arguably’ the 660m/750m. However GW2 isnt particularly GPU heavy so it doesnt really matter as much.

Bitfenix Prodigy mAtx edition or Bitfenix Phenom mAtx

EDIT: on further inspection, the Prodigy is to tall for what u want, but the Phenom is fine and has the same insides as the Prodigy. The Prodigy handles and feet make up the extra height vs the Phenom.

Ok so both the 635m and the 3632Qm cpu are better than ur current GT740, asuming ur current GT740 has a 250m GPU and a 720Qm CPU.
So it ‘should’ run better than ur current laptop. So if ur happy wiht ur current laptop then the Lenevo Z500 shuld be ok.

In what spec is the Z500 ? There are different configurations.