Guild Wars 2

What cpu ? ..one that isnt available to normal people thats for sure.
I’ve got a 3930K ..2nd best CPU out there after the 3960X once OC’ing is taken int oacount.
And even this OC’d to 4.6ghz(even if it was 5ghz) cant handle it. And its down to GW2 using between 1 to 3 main threads for its performance processes. Meaning most of those awsome 12 threads in a 6Core hyperthread cpu are wasted with GW2. Hell even a 4core 8 thread cpu is wasted.
You would need an insanely fast 4 thread cpu. somthing like 6ghz or more to run WvWvW at a good framerate with its current game engine coded the way it is. Which is impossible.
GW2 needs better coding ..it needs to be a ‘proper’ multithreaded application, it needs to use everything modern cpu’s have to offer. But atm, that is highly unlikely to happen becouse GW2 is bassed on (though highly modified) the GW1 game engine.

You can get ‘playable’ frame rates in WvWvW ..but you need a highly OC’d modern Intel cpu to do it. (4.5ghz+)

Nothing to do with GPU.

This is a MMORPG, historicly these types of games pull mroe performance form your CPU.

GW2 is an extreme case. Noone, even someone with a 3960X OC’d to 5ghz with 2x 690 GPU’s can run GW2 at 60 fps in a WvWvW battle. The game engine just cant handle the information good enough in those situations.

Chances are you have a ‘average’ or lower CPU ..which is why your seeing such bad bottlenecks even though your GPU is more than capable. Check your GPU usuage, i bet its under 20% usuage in WvWvW when you have like 20 fps.

When you aks for help on the tech forums anywhere. .make sure ot post your FULL PC specsheet.

Yes, BUT Anet would have to change how the game engine works. And that is not somthign that can be done in a short amount of time.

So short answere ..yes but dont hold your breath.

In all honesty your computer is around 4-5 years old tech wise, and that time frame has generaly been the limit from past experiance.
Its time for an upgrade.(and not just 1 component)

You have to understand OP.

A MMORPG is CPU bassed. Even the best MMORPG’s that are coded to be more GPU bassed , strain the CPU more than single player and Multi player games.

That said, you using a computer using tech that is 5+ years old. Some individual parts may be 4 or 3 years old but the tech its using is easily 5 years old. You cant expect to play ‘ALL’ modern games with good fps.

Any upgrade to modern tech for your rig will requir pritty much an entire new computer.
If you got a new GPU, you would need a new motherboard for the correct PCE-e V2.0 slots (x8 or x16). Even without that issue, a new GPU would be bottlenecked by your current CPU and RAM speeds.
A New CPU would requir a new motherboard chipset and thus new RAM, and likely a new Powersupply and Case (if your case is BTX for example, you would need a ATX case)

So upgrading ether of those 2 core components would requir all other components to be upgraded to match.

Theres a general rule of thumb with computer upgrades for a ‘gaming rig’.

1) Spend around £600-£800 every 1 or 2 years to keep up to date.
or
2) Spend around £1200-£1600 every 3 to 4 years to keep up to date.

Prices change depending on tech changes, i.e chipset changes which requir extra parts to upgrade
If you go with option 1, you end up building a rig that is ‘adequate’ for that years games and maybe the next years games. So you looking at medium to high settings..possible ultra/max depending on the game… for that years games and the next years games. After that its likely you would have to drop detail level and/or see FPS droping to undesired levels.
Option 2 would give you a computer that is more than good enough for that years games and liekly the next years games also..so ultra/max settings giving great FPS. After that going to the 3rd and 4th years it will likely handle games for thos years at medium/high settings with acceptable frame rates. After that tough frames drop and quality levels drop.

For example, roughly 4 years ago i bought a Dell XPS 720 H2C (my 1st and last prebuilt computer). It lasted me untill a couple months ago. I spent around £2000 when i bought that computer, the computer itself was around £1200 the extra money went into upgrading my sound system and VDU.
This year i spent £1000 but only on the computer since my sound system is still top range and my VDU is fine untill i can find a 120mhz 1440p 40" screen for an acceptable price. I will be upgrading my GPU to a 700 series when they are released. So my total spend for this upgrade rig will be around £1400.

To a certain degree loading player textures can be imporved by a SSD, Your computer still has to load said textures from your hard drive. The faster your computer .. the better. Once yo get to a certain point ..normal HDD’s can become the bottleneck.

ofcourse if your computer is waiting on theg ame engine to tell it which textures to load ..your stuffed. Still a SSD will help.

Have you 2 tried runing GW2 of a SSD instead of a standard HDD ? Load times should easyily be cut in half. Atleats it was for me.

If you dont have GW2 on a SSD ..try doing so. I found that things loaded faster ingame and reduced stuttering when i moved my GW2 from my Raid0 HDD to my SSD.

I would make a guestimate that a 4 to 4.3ghz OC would get your around 20fps fps during LARGE pvp battles (60+ people). Average(say 30 to 50 people) pvp battles would probably net you 30-40 fps.

Again these a are guestimates.

Just to give you an idea. .my cpu with its OC (check sig) managed to get me 50 fps in a battle with 30 people, roughly, bashing at a gate.

4.3ghz is probably on the edge of being what could be considered as the ‘safe’ OC for the 3770k. once you get to 4.3ghz you might find temps start to get a little toasty on Air cooling… then again you might get lucky and be able to get to 4.4ghz before temps start peaking. its all down to the’ silicone lottery’.

.

Personaly i would go with Intel.

The 1155 chipset includes the i5’s so you could potentialy upgrade in the future to intel chip that is MUCH better at OC’ing.

Where as if you go AMD …well even if you upgrade later chances are it will still be behind Intel. i feel for AMD tbh ..they havnt been doing very well for the past few years.

I sugest you get a sandybridge cpu if you want to try get the most out of OC’ing.

Bassicaly the sandybridge equivalent to the 3770k is the 2700k which you can get for around £215(OEM) to £275(Retail).

Clock for clock the 3770k is better but once you reach about 4.3ghz onAir cooling the 3770k will start running into problems with OCing..it will requir more and more cooling and will likely top out around 4.5ghz on average. You could get lucky and go a few hundread mhz more.
The 2700k however can easily reach 4.5ghz on Air cooling and will likely top out at 5ghz on water cooling.

The grpahics card is on form with a 560ti which i can tell you form experiance can run PVE with max settings 1920×1080 native sampling managing 45 to 60 fps. When it comes to WvWvW it matters even less becouse focus is shifted to the CPU.

The SSD you chose ..i personaly wouldnt go OCZ v3 ..the Coraisr Performance Pro series is a good solid SSD with the Marvel controller which is much more reliable than the sandforce controller.. so maybe you should look into that.

other than that ..dont forget to buy a good CPU cooler. I sugest the noctua NH-D14 for which ever CPU u decide on.. its the top air cooler out. (but mak sure it will fit your PC case and that your RAM isnt too tall ..i beleve the corsair vengence ram is to tall so you should proabably switch to G.Skill)

I sugest you get a sandybridge cpu if you want to try get the most out of OC’ing.

Bassicaly the sandybridge equivalent to the 3770k is the 2700k which you can get for around £215(OEM) to £275(Retail).

Clock for clock the 3770k is better but once you reach about 4.3ghz onAir cooling the 3770k will start running into problems with OCing..it will requir more and more cooling and will likely top out around 4.5ghz on average. You could get lucky and go a few hundread mhz more.
The 2700k however can easily reach 4.5ghz on Air cooling and will likely top out at 5ghz on water cooling.

The grpahics card is on form with a 560ti which i can tell you form experiance can run PVE with max settings 1920×1080 native sampling managing 45 to 60 fps. When it comes to WvWvW it matters even less becouse focus is shifted to the CPU.

The SSD you chose ..i personaly wouldnt go OCZ v3 ..the Coraisr Performance Pro series is a good solid SSD with the Marvel controller which is much more reliable than the sandforce controller.. so maybe you should look into that.

other than that ..dont forget to buy a good CPU cooler. I sugest the noctua NH-D14 for which ever CPU u decide on.. its the top air cooler out. (but mak sure it will fit your PC case and that your RAM isnt too tall ..i beleve the corsair vengence ram is to tall so you should proabably switch to G.Skill)

Where do you live?

In the Uk Novatech.co.uk is a good place to shop for PC parts and it has the 2550k in stock for £173 with free delivery.

Got to the ‘onboard devices’ tab in the BIOS and set the graphics to off.

If you dont see any differencei n fps then thats the diffinitive answere that your CPU is not the bottleneck.

That leaves your GPU and/or PCI-e x4 1.1 mothebroard.
Chances are its a bit of both. The x4 1.1 wont be taking to much of the 9800gtx’s performance away (maybe 10% probaby not even that). So even with a new motherboard you will likely see little improvment.

If you decide on the GPU ..which tbh is what i would go for since your cpu is already relativly up to date ..though maybe a bit low on the core clock (cant be helped ..its an i3) then you will need a x60 or above if you go nvidia. So a 560ti (or ati equivalent)would be the lowest you would want to go. the 550 isnt a gaming gpu.

If you go for CPU then i advise you to save up for a 2550k (not the 2500k). The difference being under £10 in cost .ether more or less.
The cpu itself is 100mhz faster than a 2500k ..and it does NOT have the inbuilt GPU which will help with OC and remove any possibility of it clashing with future hardware.
You other option is the get the Ivybridge equivalent which is the 3570k ..but that will not OC as well. It is every so slightly faster than a 2550k when the clock rates r the same ..but since the 2550k can OC further. .it then becomes the faster of the 2.

Its generaly a CPU thing ..not GPU.

My 560ti for example manages 45-60 fps (60 most the time) in Pve with resolution at 1920×1080 and settings set to max/ultra except sampling ..which is native.

if a 560ti can do that a 670 shouldnt have any issues ..UNLESS the cpu in the system is to slow, or a standard HDD is being used (which can cause stuttering).

My GW2 used to stutter a whole lot more than it does now when i had it on my raid 0 HDD’s ..soon as i moved it to my SSD, the stuttering dramticaly reduced. Whats left is likely down to the GPU maxing out in places and general issues regarding loading of server information ..which is affected by your connection.

Is your GW2 game and OS installed on a SSD ? the stuttering may be just slow access time to a standard HDD.

other than that, due to GW2 utilization of CPU’s ..all you can do is OC more.

Even monster CPU’s OC’d to proper high ends are having issues with GW2. (note cpu usuage will be lower the more threads u have available .as its the individual threads that get maxed out, which with GW2 is 2 to 3 main threads that get heavily used)

You will bassicaly need a whole new rig due to the parts being upgraded.

Your GPU is fine so that can stay.. >IF< your HDD’s CDroms etc are SATA ..then they can stay. Your 600w powersupply is good enough so that can stay.

What you need is.

Intel i5 processor (K and Sandybridge preferably for OC, if your tight for money a non k 3ghz+ will be adequate)
A CPU cooler, if you OC go for high end Air cooling.
Matching motherboard (depending on the chipset you decide on)
8GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM, i sugest G.Skill

If your current case is NOT a ATX compatable one then you may need a new case. Chances are though it should be ok.. very few computers were ever made BTX.

You can get all that for roughly £450 to £550 depending on extra parts (I.e case/powersupply)

My recommendations are

CPU: Intel i5 2550k (then OC to 4.5ghz)
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P Cooler /or/ Noctua NH-D14 (get the later if you can afford it, its worth it)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77
RAM: 8gb (2x 4gb) 1600mhz CL9 G.skill Ram

If you need/want them:
Case: ‘Coolmaster Enforcer Gaming Case’ would be good for around £75
PSU: 650w or 750w Corsair TX series
SSD: Corsair Performance Pro 128gb

That along with the parts you can salvage from your old rig should get you uptodate.

@LeijonaSisu.4760
Like to point out to you that in regular pve situation my 560ti can manage 60 fps(caped by vsync) max settings (native sampling). When it does dip from high stress situations in pve like events, and swamps in particular, it goes down to 45 fps minimum. My 560ti Is the gigabyte Super Overclocked edition ..runs at 950mhz core clock and 4580mhz effective memory clock.My GPU does need an upgrade i totaly agree ..im waiting on the 780 personaly which should come out around Q2 next year.

WvWvW however is CPU bound ..my GPU usuage drop to 60% my CPU maxes out around 20-25% which is the cap(for a 12 thread cpu) for the GW2 main threads. It wouldnt matter if i had a 690 gtx ..it wouldnt help in WvWvW situation with over 30 people on the screen. becouse at that point the CPU is the one under heavy load.
When there isnt 30 odd people on the screen i can get 60 fps in WvWvW easy ..WvWvW itself isnt the thing that lowers the fps ..its the number of people in one place on the screen that does. .and that generaly only happens in WvWvW.(and some pve events).

As for CPU stability when OC’d ..so long as you use the correct programs you can make sure the OC’d cpu is not causing errors and is indeed running faster. Oh and my RAM is stock at 1866mhz. At this point in time the latency of the RAM matter more than the core speed Which is why you get CL9 or if you can CL8. Mine are CL9 which is perfectly fine.

I highly sugest you research into the outcomes of ‘proper’ OC’ing befor you condem somthing that so many people do.

Honestly the general tone and info in your post makes me suspect your trolling ..but giving the benifit of the doubt ill just take it that yor missinformed.

NO cpu can handle WvWvW at 60 fps. But you will get better performance the more you OC it. Expect 30 fps ..or there abouts if you can reach 4.3 to 4.6ghz

My god . !! HawkMeister ..your a genious ! ..You found the problem ..ofcourse i shoulda seen it .. Planetary alignment in relation to sunspot activity.

Ok now we know the source of the problem ..ideas for tweeking said alignment and sunspots :P ? Anet get your genious group of guy, who’s soul job is to think random s*it up, out here and help us ! :P

Note: For those halfwits who cant tell ..im joking around :P

It doesnt >>change<< Anet game files. So its perfectly legal.
It >>adds<<, files to the >>FOLDER<< ..the folder not being somthing Anet owns ..its part of your OS interface.

Its bassicaly the same as using Nvidia control panel or Catalyst control center.

If they state otherwise is just a BS public statement that they have to say to protect themselves. If they start saying you can use this and this but you cant do this. Then it leave holes for possible cheats and such. So dont expect a statement …and if you do get a statement ..dont epxect them to say yes its fine.

Their rules basicaly states you cant alter any game files or use any program that gives you an ingame advantage.
Well graphics tweeks dont give you an advantage ..atleast in a game like this. You could possibly argue that making a night time FPS shooter look brighter and thus make it easier to see other players ..gives you an advantage.. but this isnt a proper skill bassed pvp game ..its a MMORPG. The required amount of precise character control, twitch bassed movement, and such, required to make the visuals important enough to keep as stock , do not exist in this game.

It is possible that due ot the OC the cpu is causing errors when doing computations. This isusualy due to having to low a voltage. Check to see if your motherboard is compensating for the higher clock.. if it is not ..you would need ot up the voltage. be carefull.

if it is doing it autmoticaly, try going manual.

Also i should point out that 11.8 to 10 fps i would consider within an acceptable margin for error.

And as i said in previouse posts ..it may just end up that your GPU isnt powerfull enough and is capping out. The cpu ..though also not powerull enogh ..is just powerfull enough to allow that GPU to run at max in GW2.

Yea pritty much.

it also depends on how much access you have in the BIOS ..if you computer was pre built ..like A old Dell for example ..you wont have much choice in the OC area.

You should still be able to up the multiplier though (which in a locked bios usualy automaticaly ups the voltage)

Heavy OC rquires alot of research. So for now ..try a small OC to 3ghz. ..then push from there.

CPU3 is the one that Gw2 is using the most, and thats where your bottleneck is.

As for your GPU. That could well be running as fast as it can. PCI-e v1.1 i beleve is perfectly fine for old cards like your own. But its not good enough for modern cards. We are on PCI-e x16 and x8 v2.0 and v3.0 nowerdays. v3.0 isnt being fully utilized atm though ..its kinda ‘next gen’.

I sugest tryign this.

Find a place in GW2 that you get low FPS BUT the area doesnt change much ..so a place showing alot of land with little movement.
Then OC your CPU to 3ghz or maybe 3.2ghz
Go back into GW2 .. you should still be in the same place and see if your fps is any better ..if its not.. then you have an ‘equal bottleneck’ of both GPU and CPU. Meaning any upgrade to your GPU will quikly be bottlenecked next by your CPU.

If after reasting your RAM, graphics card, and other parts and leads, it stil ldoesnt boot or even get as far as the BIOS then do the following.

Reset the BIOS physicaly via the CMOS button on the mothebroard or if it doesnt have a button , then look for the CMOS jumper ..move the jumper from what is usualy the 1st and 2nd pins to the 2nd and 3rd pins. Then power up for a minute,. Then powerdown again and put it back to 1st and 2nd pins.

Another option is to simply remove the motherboard battery (little circlular button battery) for about 10 minutes then put it back in and try again.

That looks like a driver issue.

Post your computer specs also ..it helps.

I wouldnt go AMD if your wanting to play GW2 atm. I beleve (depending on where you are in the world) that you can get a intel i5 for the same price (or close) as a AMD FX-8150,, which would run a whole lot better.

Yea im afraid while your laptop may be able to play old games. Its no match for GW2.

What is your overall CPU load ? (it wont be max)

Chances are your CPU is the bottleneck.

Kirito has bassicaly explained why you wont see 100% cpu load on a quad core ..but can still be bottlenecked, so i wont repeat that

Companies always exagerate minimum and recommended system specs for obviose reasons. Thats generaly common knowledge to gamers.

Most people on this forum will likely tell you your CPU is your problem. You can wait for more people to post to be sure..or you can take what the few people who have replied here have said already ..that its your CPU.

Goodluck

NP ..GL to ya

Aye the sandybridge processors 2500k/2550k 2600k 2700k 3930k and 3960x can all go up to 5ghz with water cooling.
And usualy around 4.5ghz give or take on air cooling dependong on how lucky you are (i.e how low voltage your individual cpu chip can run on )

Mine for example is currently running 3930k @ 4.6ghz with 1.36 core voltage. i could probably get to 4.7ghz with a little more voltage and still keep temps undercontrol with my cooler. .but i cba to spend another week tweeking and testing :P

takes that long to find a 100% 24/7 stable OC ..sicne you need to run Prime95 for 12 hours atleast to mak sure your CPu has enough Vcore so it doesnt cause errors or BSOD ..and ofcourse make sure temps are stable ..temps usualy peak after 30 minutes at max load. If it fails any of thos you then tweek some more. .test again for 12 hours ..rinse and repeat :P

It differes between CPU types but i would say try to keep it below 80c when at 100% max load .
Use Prime95 to test 100% stress usuage for stability, along with a program to monitor temperatures ..i personaly use Aida 64 ..but its not free ..unless you ‘aquir’ it :P

Top end temperature is a personal choice really ..some say 75c ..others 80 ..other 85. I personaly went with 75c for extra safety since my CPU isnt cheap :P

Well it ‘should’ be enough ..it all depends on what voltage you end up having to put through your cpu to get a stable 4.5ghz OC ..you may need to go down to 4.4ghz or 4.3ghz if things get to toasty with that cooler.

i would just try OC’ing find out how far you can go and then decide if you want ot spend money on a new cooler for what ever extra mhz you needo t reach 4.5ghz.

I mean if you do upgrade the cooler. .the Noctua NH-D14 is the best air cooler out ..if you want somthing better than that you have to go mid/high end water cooling. However the Nh-D14 is HUGE so you have to take your case size into concideration with it :P

If you havnt got a good high end cpu cooler ..just spend a few on one and OC your CPU to 4.5ghz .You will see a higher performance gain (in WvW atleast) from a OC’d cpu ..than a better GPU than what you already have.

Do make sure your GPu isnt maxing out though in those areas you mention. Get a monitoring prgram and check its utilization . If its a 560 (non Ti) ..there is the slight possibility that its maxing out ..but i doubt it.

personaly im saving for a 700 series that comeso ut in march (roughly) ..probably a 780 ..which also coincides ..just after actually ..of the release of Crysis 3 which looks VERY demanding .a.swell as a coupel other nice games that will requir more gpu power than my current 560ti

No.

WvWvW is limited in fps by the CPU .and no CPU currently out even at 5ghz can run WvWvW battles at max fps. This is down to the game engine.

You can see my rig ..it uses a 560ti ..i get 50 fps with a battle of 30 people(which isnt alot, some WvWvW can get 70 or more people together) smashing down a gate and my GPU was only running at 60% ..so your GPU is overkill for WvWvW.
Your CPU will need to be OC’d ..i sugest 4.5ghz if your cooler can handle it ..if not ..4ghz minimum. This will help you in WvWvW. But FPS wise dont expect mroe than 30 fps in BIG battles.

I saw that some of you were talking about how GW2 uses CPU cores.

I woud like to inform you that GW2 has 2.5 (2 full use threads 1 half used thread) to 3 major thread processes that affect performance. These processes run all the time and are high load processes.

Meaning along with about 50 other GW2 processes that are on and of and get processed loads of times a second. These 3 need to be kept going.
This requirs a CPU with at least 3 threads (to avoid ‘constant’ bottlenecking). Luckily the Op has a 2 core 4 thread cpu so he isnt bottlenecked by the CPU threads, however hiscpu’s speed will eventualy bottleneck him ..2.4ghz isnt fast enough ..3ghz isnt even fast enough but is a good minimum to set.

Once he gets his GPU sorted .even on absolute lowest settings. he might find that his GPU isnt maxing out and yet he still wont be getting max fps for his screen (likely 60), and this will be down to the procesor core speed.

Hi Captain N.

I can tell you straight away what your problem is.

Its your CPU ..its old ,outdated, and to slow for GW2.

GW2 takes most of its performance from your CPU.

Next thing you should no is that with Nvidia, for gaming, you need a x60 or higher card. So a 460/560ti/660ti and so on. The x50’s are top end entertainment cards for things like watch movies ..browsing ..and so forth ..anythign but gaming bassicaly. Though it will handle older titles.

CPU usage, if you have a program that measures it, doenst have to reach 100% to be bottlenecked ..but in your case it will be pritty much close to max.

In GW2’s case it has around 2.5 to 3 main process threads that tax any cpu out there. Which means you need atleast 2.5 to 3 threads + room for other processes to let GW2 run without ‘constant’ bottleneck. Then you need to have those threads run fast enough aswell.

Your cpu has 2 cores ..2 threads (1 on each core) which means no matter your cpu’s speed ..it will never be able to handle GW2 wihtout bottleneck (unless you OC to somthing like 10ghz lol ..which isnt possible)

Realisticly GW2 requirs a 4 core 4 thread CPU ..then that cpu needs to be fast. To be fast it needs to be modern (so its efficient at processing data) and have a high clock speed. 3ghz+ at minimum.

Recommend you should have a 4core 8 thread cpu clocked at 4.5ghz.
With that you shouldnt see any CPU bottlenecks in small scale pvp and any pve environment.
WvWvW on the other hand .well ..no cpu out atm can run that at full speed when there is like 50 people on the screen or more. Thats down to the GW2 engine ..its just not optimised enough.

Once you got your CPU sorted ..its down to your GPU to do the work.

Oh and the reason you dont see this CPU problem with you other games is becouse they take most of their performance from your GPU.

To work out if your cpu is bottlenecking do this math. its not 100% accurate ..but its close. The main number to worry about is 2.5 or 3 ..which is refering to the number of high usuage threads GW2 uses .some say its 2.5 some say its 3..so do both

100/Number of Threads x 2.5 = Battleneck cap %
100/Number of Threads x 3 = Battleneck cap %

So for me its
100/12 (8.333) x 2.5 = 20 .83
100/12 (8.333) x 3 = 25

So if my CPU reaches between 20% and 25% during GW2 i can safely say my cpu is likely running the important GW2 threads as fast as it can. Which in WvWvW is roughyl accurate i was on about 22%cpu usuage and was getting 50fps with my gpu at 60% usuage. (30 people on screen shooting a gate)

For a 4 thread and 8 thread cpu it would be.

100/4 (25) x 2.5 =62.5
100/4 (25) x 3 = 75

100/8 (12.5) x 2.5 -31.25
100/8 (12.5) x 3 = 37.5

Add ontop of that background usuage for windows and other programs ..depending on the cpu and number of processes the % will vary. But it makes sense that a 4 thread cpu + background processes would register very high usuage likely above/around 85%
This matches Gibbel’s usuage above.

FYI.

You CAN see a difference between 60 fps and 120 (difers person to person).. however you will only notice this difference on a monitor that can handle said fps ..i.e a 120hz monitor.

The human eye doesnt work in frames per second. And i wont get into how it does work since it would take forever.. however theres no need to say ‘its proven blah bla’ since its perfectly simple to test yourself.

Simply load up an old game that you can run at super high fps… use a program to cap the fps ..like evga precision ..and go through the fps count in 10’s.
So start of at 10fps ..then 20 ..then 30 ..and so on untill you reach your monitors limit ..i.e 60hz or 120hz. And then you have your answere ..to ‘can YOU see a difference between X and X frame rates’ ..it wont be the same for everyone i might add.

Granted you cant test above 60fps if you dont have a monitor than can show above 60fps ..anything above 60 fps on a 60hz monitor will cause tearing and wont actualy be showing the fps indicated on screen. The indication on screen will be the fps that is being pumped out to the screen ..but not what the screen is actualy showing (due ot its limits)

The only properly effective way of countering botters is to have a CM/GM or other employee setup on each server or (1 per 2 servers) who’s only job is to find and ban botters.

This ofcourse costs more money the more servers you have. And Anet in their infinite wisdom went down the same route many other mmo companies do which is to have loads of smaller servers instead of a few big ones.

Anyway its unlikely to happen so we have to put up with 1 of two options. 1) the botters 2) a dumb anti bot program. ..potential both

Quik question on that screenie Alteris.

Do you have Vsync enabled ? ..if you do ..do you have your monitor settings set to 50hz by any chance. I only ask becouse that image just hapens to be dead on 50 fps in a rather calm area of the game. The only other reason for <60 fps with <99% GPU usuage would be CPU bottlenecking which is odd in an area like that ..obviosly being an AMD cpu ‘could’ the reason.
Just checking anyway

They cant make beta’s longer. The core reason being down to how easy and quik western players these days like to level. Let me explain.

Short beta’s mean people dont have time to reach max level, if they do, they dont have long at those max levels. The downside for the game and its players, as you sugest, is that the game doesnt get tested enough. The upside for companies though is that players dont get a chance to experiance the entire game for free, instead players get just enough to want more…and thus buy the game.

IF however companies made mmo’s harder ..and by result make leveling takes a longer time….then beta’s could also last longer, granted endgame may again still not be properly tested BUT the content that is available is then tested for longer periods. .things like performance is tested longer ..skills used more often .events triggered more frequently etc. When it comes to testing end game, they can simply open a beta where all characters start at max level in the appropriat area…..its not hard to do that. They can even purposly lock content and skip content that really doesnt need testing becouse all or most of the problems that could be encounted are tested elswhere.

Unfortunatly this will never happen as MMORPG’s are generaly very easy to play these days ..they were never really hard ot begin with ..they have just got easier for sales purposes and for the fact that current generation gamers have grown up on easy games through all genres.

So yes a longer beta woulda been nice but they simply cant do it..to many people would play said long beta’s and complete most/all content before release, instead of buying the game.

I wasnt trying to compare .. as i stated in the 1st sentence. it was just extra data ..performance data.

Do what you will with it.

A budget is always good to have.
But in your case i suspect your budget will only be enough for a general ‘house PC’ ..its likely not enough to get into a ‘gaming pc’.
By which i mean a house pc can be used for movies ..browsing …word processing etc…even really old gaming.
But a Gaming PC is ..well it is what it is :P and so is the price :P

GL to ya ..hope your able to play to be honest. but atm GW2 is being a real B*tch performance wise ..even on high end systems.

Anet is pushing patchesi n all the tie ot try sort out the top end performance issues peopel are having with igh end rigs.

This could potentialy ..depending on how its done ..push out lower end PC’s from being able to play with good performance. This is just a theory so dont take my word on it.

Ether way i think you got lucky being able to play GW2 at those settings with that FPS ..with your rig. becouse it is old ..it is slow now compared to todays standards.

All i can sugest is to find out what is causing the low FPS ..is it your GPU or CPU bottleecking. Go download a monitoring program and find out. If its your CPU ..you can OC. if its your GPU ..well you could try a OC .but im no expert on AMD cards so i wouldtn know what you could expect from that.

Just for a bit extra info.

I poped into WvWvW last night and found a group of about 30 players bashing at a gate. My GPU usage went ‘down’ to about 60% ..my cpu usuage was around ~20% (note i have a 6core 12 thread 3930k so for GW2 20-25% is theoreticaly the zone for bottlenecking)
Anyway my FPS droped to 50. Now i know WvWvW fights can be double that in size ..doesnt mean i will half my fps but i would expect around 30fps in massive fights asuming my GPU, which was at 60%, doesnt max out ..its only a 560ti afterall.

Still points to GW2 have some optimization issues. .but thats to be expected i guess.

Anything above 3,300 ‘should’ be able to run the game with pritty high detail levels.

2,700 score is probably the lowest you would want to go if you want good fps on any detail level.

Your other problem is that you stuck with AMD. You shoulda went to Intel if you want good performance from your cpu for GW2.

As for the 7750 …well… its deffinatly better than a 640 ..but its still below a 550ti in overall benchmarks ..so it stil isnt a ‘proper’ gaming GPU. Ofcourse iv always used Nvidia so som1 with more experiance with AMD cards might know more.

use this website and go to ‘high end video card chart’ to check where roughly a certain gpu is in the performance list.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/index.php

IMO you want a card that score 3,300 or more on that list.