Guild Wars 2

hoegarden.4287:

It’s still overkill to buy that graphic card to play on a resolution of 1280 × 1024.
It’s not even HD…
Maybe you can even save some money by not taking a computer case. If you really want a cheap pc, use your old case (or one who a friend trow away :p)
I would pick a better PSU. That GPU requires minimum 550W …. I have some questions on how well the pc will run when the card is running at full speed. (Or maybe i’m looking at the wrong version of the one you suggest)

Just because he’s currently using a lower resolution monitor is no reason to take a crap GPU. Then he’ll be stuck with the exact opposite problem if he decides to get a new monitor in a year or two (well, might as well stick with a low res monitor, my crap GPU won’t handle it). Better to get a quality card while you’re at it, considering it’s primarily a gaming computer and all that. He could save a bit on the GPU and get a better CPU to improve performance in crowded GW2 events, but to get good performance even with a $200+ CPU requires overclocking.

Minimum power supply for the 7870XT is 500W. If it were me I’d get a higher wattage than 500, but 500 will do it for this system. When it comes down to it, the “required” power supply numbers given by GPU manufacturers are just estimates, it’s much more meaningful to add up your power consumption and see what you’ll be using (as pcpartpicker does for you).

Your processor is what’s causing the performance drops with a lot of people around. The only real way to (kind of) prevent it is to get a top of the line CPU and overclock to 4.5GHz+. That will get you around 25-35 fps in those situations which will at least appear relatively smooth to most people. You could probably see improvement over what you’re getting with less than that, but that’s what it takes to get “ok” performance.

Updating your graphics card will get you higher fps in most other situations, but not the ones you’re talking about. If you look at your GPU usage in those situations, you’ll actually find it’s not being used fully due to the CPU bottleneck.

For the most part, I don’t think this phenomenon scales with graphics settings much at all, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to turn down some of the most intense options (supersampling, shadows, reflections) if you haven’t already. Also, I would suggest adjusting the new WvW culling options.

Looks like a reasonable build for your budget. I have a few thoughts, here’s the build with my small adjustments: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MK2G

First, I changed the graphics card from the Club 3D 7870XT to the Sapphire one. The 7870XT is without a doubt the best option in that price range, but I think the sapphire version is worth the extra money. It has a much better cooler, and should run significantly quieter.

The other change I made was bumping up the PSU to 500W. 430W is cutting it fairly close for my taste, I’d recommend getting at least 500W.

I didn’t change it, but I’m not a huge fan of the Xigmatek case. A lot of it is personal preference though, and it certainly isn’t a terrible case like some that are out there. My suggestion would be the Corsair 200R, but it would add even a bit more to your budget (~£20).

My only other suggestion is to be certain you will not want to go for a full overclock on this build in the future (i.e. anything that requires a voltage increase). If you think you may at some point, I’d suggest upgrading the motherboard to the GA-970A-UD3, since it will handle voltage increases much better than the DS3.

Won’t be great for crowded DEs/WvW (no laptop really would anyway), but other areas should be fine. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if you did ok with high settings other than supersampling, reflections, and shadows for the most part. When you hit crowded areas where your fps drops, it wont matter what your settings are anyway. Since you’re buying from a friend, see if he/she would let you test it first to be sure.

I’d recommend checking your temps to make sure nothing is overheating, and maybe trying a clean reinstall of your graphics driver.

AMD’s recommended max for Phenom IIs is 62C (pretty sure intels usually go higher). I keep my 980 well under that, even overclocked. If you’re regularly going over (or even hitting) 62, I’d recommend playing around with your hardware to get it under control. At the very least, as SolarNova mentioned, take off the CPU cooler and reseat it with fresh TIM (decent stuff, if you used the stuff that came on the stock cooler new TIM alone could help) and check your voltage. If that’s not enough, an inexpensive aftermarket cooler like the coolermaster 212 EVO should help.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

SolarNova.1052:

u’d need SLI for that.

Well then…. SLI that kitten!
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MqLV
Couldn’t help myself.

In all seriousness OP, a budget would be very helpful.

You should download the NCSoft Game Advisor and upload the report. You can find instructions for it here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/How-to-Submit-a-Technical-Support-Ticket-2

You can attach the results file to a post.

Fathme.5216:

basketcase.3894:

Fathme.5216:

Yea, I’ve tried overclocking it before, but was unsuccessful in using AMD OverDrive, I have not attempted the manual OC through the BIOS; personally it seems like too much of a hassle to go into that every time i want to set it back to normal clock speeds, so i just don’t do it. But yes, a lot of strange things happen when i OC mostly just game crashes and stuttering when browsing the web; the start menu will change its style along with windows, having smaller Close, Restore, and minimize options (top right)… I will most likely just get a new motherboard as you say, and also a new cpu…

I highly recommend using the BIOS rather than software if you want to overclock. If you do it properly and get a stable overclock in the BIOS with reasonable temps and voltages, there’s not much reason to switch back to stock speed. Even then, many motherboards will let you save profiles, so you can save your overclocked settings (or multiple overclocks) and quickly swap as you start up.

it’s just extra wear and tear on the cpu if you overclock it 24/7 though, no?

While higher voltage (the speed isn’t really the issue, it’s the voltage you’ll need to make it stable) does theoretically decrease the life of your processor, it probably won’t cause you problems if you stay within reasonable limits. Most people who care enough to overclock are probably on a quick enough upgrade cycle that the loss of longevity would never be noticed anyway (I’d bet you fall in this category, since you have a CPU that’s <1.5 years old and you’re looking for more performance, although this may say more about the kitten-poor optimization of this game than your upgrade habits).

If you’re really concerned about decreasing your CPU’s lifespan, you have the option of backing off on the voltage you’re willing to use slightly (this will limit your overclock potential though). Often you’ll reach a point where a small increase in speed will require a relatively large increase in voltage. If you’re really concerned about longevity, don’t take that step.

I’d interpret it as a single action, but I could see the argument the other way, and it would suck to be banned for something that stupid.

I don’t know much about Pingzapper’s safety/reliability, but if you’re already using a VPN and you’re happy with it I don’t think there’s any reason to switch to something like Pingzapper. It’s going to perform essentially the same function using SSH rather than VPN. There are differences, but I don’t think you’d see any boost over what you’re using now.

You mean individual dodge binds for each direction? Not that I’m aware of. AFAIK you can only bind the dodge key itself, and then use the direction key at the same time.

The only way I could imagine getting around it is creating a macro that did a double direction tap for you (or dodge + direction), but that could be interpreted as a violation of the “one action per click” rules they’ve given for macros. Technically your character is only performing one action, but it’s an action that results from two button presses. I wouldn’t try it without an explicit ok from ANet.

Fathme.5216:

Yea, I’ve tried overclocking it before, but was unsuccessful in using AMD OverDrive, I have not attempted the manual OC through the BIOS; personally it seems like too much of a hassle to go into that every time i want to set it back to normal clock speeds, so i just don’t do it. But yes, a lot of strange things happen when i OC mostly just game crashes and stuttering when browsing the web; the start menu will change its style along with windows, having smaller Close, Restore, and minimize options (top right)… I will most likely just get a new motherboard as you say, and also a new cpu…

I highly recommend using the BIOS rather than software if you want to overclock. If you do it properly and get a stable overclock in the BIOS with reasonable temps and voltages, there’s not much reason to switch back to stock speed. Even then, many motherboards will let you save profiles, so you can save your overclocked settings (or multiple overclocks) and quickly swap as you start up.

Is this network lag, as in you still see things fine you just can’t move or do skills, or is your fps dropping? If you’re not sure, open up the options panel to the side during a large fight and keep an eye on the fps (I know it’s a pain to have open, but they didn’t think to add a separate fps meter to the UI, so it’s the only option other than an overlay).

As for large scale battles perfectly smooth on an i3, that sounds like a load of bullkitten to me. Somebody is either feeding you BS, or they have a different understanding of “large scale” and/or “smooth.”

Simply put, unless you have an i7 or FX83xx overclocked to 4.5+ you’re going to see relatively poor fps in large scale battles (even then, it’s not great). Network lag has been a problem for many people lately as well. I think some people may have seen improvement using port 80 (add /clientport 80 to your GW2 shortcut target under properties- outside the quotes), but I don’t think it’s fixed things for everyone.

Your problems with overclocking your current processor are most likely due to your motherboard. The board most likely can’t handle the stress of the overclock (VRM isn’t meant to supply higher voltages, and has no heatsink). If you want to get a good overclock with any chip, you’ll need a new motherboard. Something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128519
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514
should allow you to overclock your current processor or an upgrade (both will support up to an FX8350).

The other possibility is that your CPU is overheating, so I’d add aftermarket cooling if you don’t have it already. If you add much voltage at all you’ll hit the thermal limits of your CPU pretty quickly on stock cooling, and there’s no reason to risk frying your hardware when a $30 cooler can keep things reasonably under control.

Sheer.7529:

Alex -
Actually, the AMD FX-8350 holds the world record for the highest stable overclock speed

Off topic, but that wasn’t really a “stable” overclock.

I wouldn’t get a 660Ti, an HD 7870XT (or 7870LE, same card) will beat it for less money. If you have the extra cash, an HD 7950 will do even better at the same price (as the 660Ti).

Same problems here, can’t log in from two accounts/computers.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

The short answer is get better hardware.

This.
There may be some things you can do to squeeze out a few extra frames here or there, but with those system specs, you can’t expect to run a modern game like GW2 well (especially one with performance issues that doesn’t scale well). I would definitely not recommend overclocking on a laptop (if the HP bios would even allow it) since it isn’t designed to dissipate the excess heat effectively. Your best bet is to save up and look into building yourself a desktop.

Simplicity.7208:

I guess the question then becomes; continue to play with my current crappy computer on low graphics until computers catch up to GW2/GW2 is more optimized then buy or buy now and hope for something better. My current rig is:
8 GB RAM
Intel i7 Quad Core 1.6 GHz/core
nVidia 230M
It’s pretty terribad…but all I’ve done since release is sPvP on low graphics so I am actually getting sufficient framerates.

Personally I’m not holding my breath for any huge performance enhancements from ANet any time soon, and it will probably be a few years before average desktops are even able to keep up with it the way it is now. You certainly should be able to get a laptop that will run everything EXCEPT crowded WvW/DEs/LA at 60fps, so an upgrade may still be worth it, just don’t have unreasonable expectations regarding those situations.

Simplicity.7208:

I know 16GB of RAM is more than I’ll ever probably need, still, it doesn’t cost much to get. Also, I know it’s better with desktops to get the best single graphics card you can afford and later down the line pick up a second if you need it, pop it in, & add SLI to get the equivalent of a next gen graphics card…but can one do that with laptops? My understanding is laptops are less flexible, so unless I get a laptop that can take two cards now, it will never take two cards. As for the power supply, that’s not a giant concern as 99.9% of the time my laptop is plugged in.

As for Sager, I read lots of reviews and checked them out on the BBB…apparently they are a very poor company for buying computers from. It sounds like their parts are sketchy, their service is terrible, and most of their machines have a very short lifespan. I’m inclined to believe those reviews since Sager notebooks tend to be around 10~15% cheaper than an identical counterpart from another brand. You get what you pay for, you know?

Moving on, would it be possible to run the entire game on high with WvW on medium then on a laptop? If so, what would the specs be to make that happen? Should I go single or SLI graphics? How much processor power should I aim for since the game tends to rely on that a fair bit more than most other games?

The short answer is no. No laptop will run crowded WvW and DEs at good fps regardless of settings, it just isn’t going to happen. The only systems that do have high end desktop processors overclocked to 4.5-4.6GHz (they manage to average about 30fps in the worst situations). I can’t imagine a laptop that could come close to dealing with that heat dissipation unless you want to play on dry ice.

If you can’t reach that level due to whatever constraints you have (and no laptop will), you’re basically stuck with the rest of us and are going to end up with fps in the teens or lower in some WvW.

I wouldn’t say to do SLI just because you won’t be able to down the road though. Adding a second card is a nice advantage of a desktop system, but here the tradeoff you want to consider is whether or not you can get a better single card for the same/lower price. There isn’t any inherent advantage to two cards unless they combine for better performance. With the 680M you’re at the end of the road ATM, but 2 670Ms would lose to 1 680M, no idea what the price difference might be though. The fact that you couldn’t stick a second 680 in means it’s not as good as 2 680s, but still better than 2 670s (you probably aren’t going to upgrade 2 670s to 2 680s either, so upgradeability isn’t really the issue).

The low load on your GPU doesn’t mean your GPU isn’t keeping up, it means your GPU doesn’t have much to do. Simply put, a low number for load means that component is NOT causing the bottleneck, it’s seeing less use due to a bottleneck elsewhere.

Downclocking your processor would make your problems worse, if anything. Assuming you’ve reached the stable limit for overclocking your processor, there’s probably not much you can do short of upgrading (even then, you’re only likely to reach about 30fps in similar situations) or waiting for performance fixes from ANet.

It will run fine in PCI-E 2.0. The card won’t use the extra bandwidth given by 3.0 anyway.

Felix.2613:

No autoloot please it would take away much of the fun in the game.

Pounding “f” while you’re supposed to be WvWing and losing loot because you were too busy fighting is fun? News to me. Seriously though, making auto-loot an option would be the best move. Those who want autoloot have it, those who don’t can continue manual looting.

slingblade.1437:

Some people, including me, want auto-loot, and some people don’t. Seems to me the solution is pretty clear. Make it optional.

QFT
My preference would be autoloot. Not only is it easier, but it really is terrible design when players end up thinking “well, I really should chase them down, but I have a lot of bags to loot, so kitten it” or vice versa.

Zimmy.4726:

im having the same issue as u soon as more than 30/40 people on my screen and they start using skills i get lagg jittry and fps drops from 30 between 2-8

im using a AMD II 3.0 gz duocore
vista 32bit ultimate
4g ram
GTX650ti
600w psu
board is – asrock n68c-s ucc phenom II am2+/am3

any tips to help me???

Have you seen downclocking of your processor in these situations like eXzi had? If your CPU is still running full throttle, you could just be seeing the limit of your CPU.

If you are experiencing downclocking, the first thing you need to check is your core temps. If your core temps are getting too high, your processor can be throttled back to prevent damage from overheating. If your core temps aren’t getting too high, it could be a similar situation to eXzi where your CPU is being throttled to protect the motherboard’s VRM from overheating. If you are getting throttling for either reason, try undervolting the CPU, and see if that is enough to alleviate the heat problems (if it’s the CPU overheating, you can also get a better CPU cooler).

1.48V is really high for a phenom II at stock, not sure why your motherboard would have done that. I would still say a motherboard upgrade should be in the not too distant future for you, but if it’s running smoothly with the voltage adjustment you should be good for now.

My guess would be your motherboard is throttling your processor to prevent itself from overheating. If the VRM on the motherboard starts to get too hot, it will often throttle the CPU to prevent overheating (overheating of the motherboard, not the CPU). The best way to fix it is to get a new motherboard, but if that’s out of the question you could try undervolting the CPU. This might be enough to stop the throttling.

Ruufio.1496:

The motherboard I’m getting states that it has a DVI-D port on the back panel. My monitor does have a DVI-D IN on the back. (As well as a VGA IN)

So I should be alright I guess. I probably have a cord stashed somewhere already that came with my monitor, with the other buttload of cords in my drawer.

Make sure you plug your monitor into the graphics card’s port, not the motherboard’s port. If you know your monitor has a DVI port, you’re all set, just ignore what I said above. When I looked your monitor up on newegg it said it only had VGA input, must have been a slightly different model.

Tried this a number of times today on my 77 ele, got the champ to about 20% health each time before dying. The worst part is that the allies don’t respawn with you, so your only options when you go down are redoing the entire escort (could he have walked any slower on those platforms BTW?) or doing gradual revives. Both are extremely annoying.

The only problem you may run into with that monitor is that it only has a VGA input, and your graphics card may not have a VGA output. This isn’t a huge problem, as you can get (and may get with the new computer) a DVI-VGA adapter that will take care of that (like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814998101). Stick that onto the DVI port of your graphics card, and then connect the monitor’s VGA cable to that. You might want to call or email customer support and ask about that issue so you can have the adapter ahead of time if you need to get it yourself. That way you won’t be stuck with a new computer you can’t use because of a stupid cable.

My guess would be either you ended up with a problematic card or your power supply isn’t quite keeping up. The first thing I’d suggest though, if you haven’t already, is to reseat both the graphics card and the RAM. Seems silly, but sometimes the stupidest things can cause problems.

In my experience bad memory is more likely to cause a freeze or BSOD rather than instant shutdown (I’ve had to RMA my current RAM about 4 times now, so I’ve seen it a lot), but you can run memtest86+ to check for bad memory (http://www.memtest.org/). Run at least one full pass, more to be sure. I usually just set it up before I go to bed so it does a number of passes. If 3GB can pass an overnight of that, your RAM is most likely good.

If you still have the old graphics card, I’d throw that back in for a bit and see if you continue to get the crashes. If the old card runs smoothly, it’s definitely related to the card at least. You could also do the same with the RAM (independently).

Do you know the brand of your PSU? 500w should be enough if your PSU is actually putting out about 500w (nVidia recommends at least 400W with that card), but some brands don’t put out what they’re supposed to to start with, and all PSUs will lose wattage over time (cheap ones will do so much faster). As far as I know there isn’t a really good way to test a for a PSU related issue other than swapping in another, or using a meter on it.

I doubt this is a processor issue, but you can test the CPU with prime95 if you’d like. Just make sure you keep an eye on your core temps, and stop the test if they get too hot (look up the safe operating temp of your CPU ahead of time).

Just a bit of perspective on what you could gain by building your own. This system (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CZap) comes to essentially the same price as your first option above, but has more + faster RAM, and a far better graphics card (plus you’re using quality components rather than the kitten that HP tends to use). For reference, http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CZnT is about the closest I can get to what HP would put together, but think even kittenier components with wholesale prices- you’re probably paying $300 for them to put it together and slap a logo on it.
Another great advantage is that you can easily fine-tune what you want based on your budget and needs/wants. HP is trying to maximize the “WOW-factor” (hence Beats Audio). You can focus on maximizing performance in the price range you can afford.

Make sure that the laptop itself has 3D capability and is actually using SLI, or both are meaningless. That’s not to say that the 675m is a bad card, but don’t let the laptop manufacturer sell you on buzzwords associated with a card that don’t apply to the laptop you’re getting. SLI is meaningless unless there’s 2 graphics cards and as I understand it (I’m no expert) Nvidia 3D requires a 120Hz screen, which isn’t the norm. Also, be prepared to take a significant hit to performance to run in 3D.

Jandus.2834:

Completely disagree. I have a comparable gaming laptop (Asus) and GW2 runs very very well. With most things on high in the settings I run at 60+ fps in most areas of the game. LA is 30-40 and WvW varies based upon how many people and what is going on.

There are some laptop brands out there that have very good cooling and play games very well – that’s why they are gaming laptops.

It’s a pretty well known issue that GW2 is extremely CPU-bound in large scale WvW (massive events too, they’re just less common). There’s been multiple reports of it on the forums, and it has been openly acknowledged by devs (see the reddit AMA).

I’d agree with other recommendations here that you should consider building your own. It may sound like a complicated task, but it truly is not, and there are loads of resources out there to help. Look around for some general guides, and use sites like Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech for reviews and such. Pcpartpicker.com is awesome for helping to design your system, and it will make sure things are compatible.

I’d say you probably want to aim for an i5 3550/3570 or FX 8350 build with a mid-range graphics card (HD 7770 or GTX 560), and at least 8GB memory, 16 if you can.

The big variable here is how the new math behind the ratings is going to work, and whether or not that will significantly impact how the new matchups look. One interesting thing I’ve noticed on the millennium site though is that T1 is so evenly matched right now that even with the havoc of the new ratings, the same matchup is set to happen again as T4.
In the end I think it would have been better to let the ratings system bring the servers to where they belong and have a few servers in the wrong tiers until they level out, rather than having essentially the entire system be a mess for the next couple of months. The system may not be at perfect balance yet, but a partially balanced system is better than a clusterkittened system.

wildmanfrost.3986:

110% the math tells the leader and second place to crush 3rd place. It’s the most logical decision.

That will only come into play if/when the leader has already blown away second place. If second place is still close enough to win, the leader needs to keep them in check. Likewise, second place needs to take objectives from the leader if they want to have any hope of catching them. Beating the opponent is still the number one objective until it’s no longer an option (or guaranteed), and you aren’t going to beat any competitive opponents if you let them run wild.

HabibLoew.2590:

wAGlickoScore = (sin((wAPercent – 0.5) * Pi) + 1) * 0.5

That last transform is easiest to visualize as a graph .

From what I understand the point of this transform is to apply diminishing returns to worlds that are dominating their opponents. It’s pretty clear on the graph, however, that there’s also similar a penalty to teams that are being dominated. Is this intended? It seems like if anything the worlds being dominated should be given a bit of a bonus for every last point they can manage to grab (not an overwhelming advantage of course, just something moderate).

Arani.9057:

we can’t see the enemy either. There is no portal culling buff. Those on the portal have a giant pink circle that says “enemy here”, we have to estimate where we think you are or go on scout reports. The Mesmer can usually see and you can see the Mesmer we the zergs cannot see each other.

When both sides are fighting blind, I think there’s a massive advantage to the side that knows it’s coming. Rendering isn’t as big an issue if you already know the enemy is in the area. It’s much worse when the rendering prevents you from even realizing that there’s an enemy there.