Upgrade? Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns

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leo0787sx

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# 175162 19-Jun-2015 16:02

Hey guys,

I have a desktop computer, built mainly for Guild Wars 2 but haven't played it for the last year or so. Thinking of kick starting it again with Heart of Thorns. I was also thinking of connecting it to my 48" TV instead of my 26" monitor so I can play it on the sofa.

Just wondered if theres anything I could upgrade to make it better and smoother? However reading online it seems an i5 with 560GTX is still a good system.

CPU: i5-4670 Haswell, 3.40GHz(Turbo 3.8GHz)
MB: Gigabyte (GA-H87M-D3H) Intel H87 Micro-ATX Motherboard, Haswell, Socket LGA1150
Memory: Kingston 2x 4GB Hyper X 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL10 DIMM
HD: SSD 120GB Corsair
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 560GTX
Case: Cooler Master elite 331
Monitor: Viewsonic 26"

Thanks.

Brumfondl

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# 1327916 19-Jun-2015 16:26

I would say that the i5 is fine and dandy but the 560GTX is just a tad past it.

Assuming your power supply is up to it, there are some lovely new Radeons just announced and the current crop of AMD and Nvidia cards are pretty nice too. It all depends on your budget for a new card really. Get the fastest one you can afford, be it AMD or Nvidia :)

Inphinity

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# 1327921 19-Jun-2015 16:41

If the TV is only 1080p, then the 560 is probably OK, but a 660Ti or 960 would help smooth things out. If you want to go higher res, or have lots of eye candy turned on, look at a GTX970 or 980.

leo0787sx

407 posts

Ultimate Geek
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# 1329040 22-Jun-2015 09:46

I heard that the processor is usually the bottleneck with Guild Wars 2 but the i5 will be fine I take it. I'll have a look at a few 660s but don't fancy spending too much. Will the 660 give a big boost or not worth it?

leo0787sx

407 posts

Ultimate Geek
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# 1339186 8-Jul-2015 11:50

Just wanted to revive this rather than making a new topic.

If I was to upgrade the RAM before DDR3 goes up in price will the following work together: Kingston 2x 4GB Hyper X 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL10 DIMM and http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=MEMKHX1200&name=Kingston-DDR3-8GB-(2X4GB)-1600MHz-HyperX-Fury-seri ? - both are CL10 as far as I can see, just the 'fury' can automatically overclock?

Also looking at graphics cards, I had a look and it seems memory bus is important in Guild Wars 2 and my 560GTX has a 1GB GDDR5 256bit memory bus yet looking at a lot of the cards in my price range like the 750ti 2GB only has 128bit memory bus, is that correct I am better sticking with my card?

Looks like only the 960GTX+ would give a any decent boost?

Thanks.

JWR

755 posts

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# 1339438 8-Jul-2015 18:33

leo0787sx: Hey guys,

I have a desktop computer, built mainly for Guild Wars 2 but haven't played it for the last year or so. Thinking of kick starting it again with Heart of Thorns. I was also thinking of connecting it to my 48" TV instead of my 26" monitor so I can play it on the sofa.

Just wondered if theres anything I could upgrade to make it better and smoother? However reading online it seems an i5 with 560GTX is still a good system.

CPU: i5-4670 Haswell, 3.40GHz(Turbo 3.8GHz)
MB: Gigabyte (GA-H87M-D3H) Intel H87 Micro-ATX Motherboard, Haswell, Socket LGA1150
Memory: Kingston 2x 4GB Hyper X 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL10 DIMM
HD: SSD 120GB Corsair
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 560GTX
Case: Cooler Master elite 331
Monitor: Viewsonic 26"

Thanks.

I actually play this game too. It is one of my many vices!

The game is a bit odd. The CPU is a lot more important than in many recent games.
I don't mean the graphics card is unimportant. It just means the CPU is also a factor and getting the latest graphics card may not have as big an effect as you might expect.

Of course, as you increase the settings/resolution, eventually the graphics card will become the overwhelming bottleneck.

What could you upgrade?

NOT any of these.. They are all current and close to as good as you can get. You might get an extra few frames going to a core I7. But, I don't think cost would be worth it.

- CPU: i5-4670 Haswell, 3.40GHz(Turbo 3.8GHz) -
- MB: Gigabyte (GA-H87M-D3H) Intel H87 Micro-ATX Motherboard, Haswell, Socket LGA1150
- Memory: Kingston 2x 4GB Hyper X 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL10 DIMM
- HD: SSD 120GB Corsair
- Case: Cooler Master elite 331

For these.. Depends what resolution/settings you ran in the past.

Monitor: Viewsonic 26"
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 560GTX

Also, on how close to the TV you are.

If you sit further back, you might even be able to decrease graphics settings.

leo0787sx

407 posts

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# 1339726 9-Jul-2015 10:01

I get about 30 fps currently just in one of the towns but drops to 15 fps in zergs.

I heard if I went for a 960 GTX I would probably get 60fps in towns and 30 fps in zerg but not sure. I jsut don't want to spend $300 to find no difference.

I've heard the issue is Guild Wars 2 uses DX9c and has no plans to move to a later engine therefore the differences that will come with Windows 10 / DX12 /CPU usage will make little difference :(

JWR

755 posts

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# 1339770 9-Jul-2015 10:48

leo0787sx: I get about 30 fps currently just in one of the towns but drops to 15 fps in zergs.

I heard if I went for a 960 GTX I would probably get 60fps in towns and 30 fps in zerg but not sure. I jsut don't want to spend $300 to find no difference.

I've heard the issue is Guild Wars 2 uses DX9c and has no plans to move to a later engine therefore the differences that will come with Windows 10 / DX12 /CPU usage will make little difference :(

I started out with an AMD Phenom X4 955 CPU and an AMD 5770 graphics card. Also, I have a 1900x1200 monitor.

With that combo, I struggled in the game. I ran low settings. But, only managed 30-40 fps even in good conditions. In large groups, it was more like 5fps.

Then I upgraded my CPU (and motherboard) to a new Haswell-e Core i7 5820K. That made a big difference. I could run 50fps with pretty decent settings.

This CPU only runs about the same speed as your one. It does have more cores and threads. But, I don't think that would matter much. You still have 4 Intel cores, which should be enough for GW2.

Later, I got a GTX 970 graphics card. Now, I run 100 ish fps nearly all the time.

Even in really big groups, I still see 50 fps or more. But, of course I get server lag then.

So what you are hearing about a GTX 960 sounds pretty reasonable to me. It may even be better than 30-60 fps.

leo0787sx

407 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

# 1340385 10-Jul-2015 09:49

Cool thanks, I'll look into it, also I can add you in game if you play it? I haven't for a while but looking to get back into it :)

leo0787sx

407 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

# 1342849 14-Jul-2015 10:40

I have decided I am going to wait for Windows 10 and see if this impacts anything. Will see if GW2 or HoT are affected and see if any new cards are released otherwise the GTX960 looks good.