Guild Wars 2 Hardware Upgrades? Need Advice / Suggestions!

[Transducer]

Hello! I would like some advice on what to upgrade so that I can get smooth and consistent frame rates on Guild Wars 2, with graphics on high settings.
I'd like 35 fps at minimum in most situations. However, I'm also willing to accept frame drops in heavily populated areas, but no lower than 20 fps.
Ultra settings would be nice, but not if its a huge price difference. The cheaper I can do this upgrade, the better.


I have an HP/Compaq CQ5210f.
No hardware has been changed, except for the graphics card bought shortly after the computer.

**Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit service pack 1
**Athlon II x2 215, 2.70 GHz processor (65w)
**Phoenix Technologies 5.49 BIOS
**3GB DDR2 SDRAM memory (400 mhz)
**M2N68-LA Narra5-GL6 motherboard
**ST350041 8AS SCSI Disk Device (500gb, 7200 rpm)
**250w power supply

More detailed specs are listed here, including acceptable processor and memory upgrades:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01859813&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=4005896

This my graphics card:
**single Radeon HD 4650, uses PCI-E x16 (pci and pci-e x1 are also available slots)
**1gb GDDR3 memory w/ 500mhz clock
**600 mhz core clock, 55nm chip, bus width 128 bits, 320 unified shaders, GPU rv730 (etc)

This might be overkill on spec info, but I figured better more info than need to add later.
I look forward to hearing advice and suggestions for upgrades.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

That card is OLD and very low end.... new card time....

All the best Brett

 

[AntiZig]

Hello, your computer is too old for that game. Looking at what you got, I don't see a reasonable upgrade path that wouldn't leave you with thing still to be desired. So, the way I see it your only option is to build a new machine.

Cheapest thing you could do is replace the motherboard + CPU + ram, to get an i3, but I'd recommend getting a quad core like i5.

Also, as brett stated, your GPU is not that great, I'd advise to upgrade to at least something like 7750.

what is the budget that you had in mind for this?

 

[Transducer]

Thanks for the reply. That sounds pretty rough, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I'd like to point out, that I *do* already have GW2 and it *can* run at 25 fps on medium/low settings in most situations, though more like 20 fps in big cities and populated areas. So it's definitely playable, just not as nice as it could be.

That said, I'm wondering if this may be a cheaper option? It's going for $550, including shipping. It's a lower end (by today's standards), but well rated gaming pc. One comment says it sucked on beta GW2, but it was dated months ago and certainly before optimization. Another says the release GW2 is running fine on high settings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285

Should I just grab that, or are there certain parts that just aren't good enough? Or would it be better/cheaper to replace stuff individually, either way?

 

[simon12]

This build is much better http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-pc-overclocking-pc-building,review-32506.html you can tweak it a bit more since prices have changed since.

 

[Transducer]

This build is much better http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-pc-overclocking-pc-building,review-32506.html you can tweak it a bit more since prices have changed since.

It does look pretty good. What do you suggest I replace, just the graphics card? And with what then?

 

[AntiZig]

Don't compare how the game ran in beta. There's plenty of accounts where the game actually ran better in beta than after release (although I do believe most of those issues have been resolved already).

as far as upgrading the TH $500 build, I'd recommend upgrading the CPU, an i3 can be had for $125. GW2 as any other MMO is very cpu limited (although devs claim that once optimization is finished it shouldn't be). As far as GPU, for $170 you can grab a 7850 today.

 

[simon12]

+1 Ivy bridge Pentium gs or i3s are a good idea as is a Radeon 7850