Building a PC to run GW2

My PC of 9 years finally died on me yesterday. It starts up, gets a BSOD, then restarts the loop.

GW2 is pretty much my favourite game and I want to now build a new PC that can run GW2 with maxed everything.

Does anyone know what parts I should aim for? I know high end stuff can easily run GW2, bu I'm not sure I'm ready to drop 5k yet.

I built a rig last year for roughly $500. My cpu and mobo were from around 2008. I had upgraded ram hdd and graphic card over time. I'm not sure how much you can recycle. If it died on you and you got the bsod I'd imagine your drive might be shot. Id see bow much you can reuse. I kept my old case, graphic card, burner and hard drive so that saved a bit of money. I did not invest in top of the line parts. I got an i5, Asus gaming mobo, couple sticks of ram and a copy of win 10 for probably just under 500. My game runs wonderfully and just about every setting is high. Load times are a little long especially for lions arch but the downtime is manageable . Go to pcpartpicker.com or even go to newegg because they usually have bundles and some good deals to get your rig together. Good luck!

One reference: mine is an i7 6700 with 16GB RAM and a GTX 1070, and I'm running GW2 maxed out, including supersampling, on a G-Synced Acer X34. FPS is in the 65-95 range, with an occasional dip to 35 or so

i7 is preferred. 1070 should be fine for gw2. you want a good cpu for gw2.

https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/lenovo-legion-y520-gaming-pc-10164522-pdt.htmlThis should run it more then fine, if you build something around these specs you can run the game on high settings :) and enjoy the game and it's beauty.

Another reference:

i7 4790k (overclocked)GTX 970 (overclocked)16 GB ramSamsung 850 Pro SSD

Built years ago, I'm sure this or something similar wouldn't run you too high, so depending on your budget something like this might be a viable option for you.

Everything maxed. FPS during events like Tequatl or whatever can drop to 15-20, but other than that it runs great for open world PvE.

I run a Ryzen 1600X, 26gb DDR4 3000, RX 470. Lowest fps I see is 20-25, that was in LA during Mad King Says and even Jormag in a zerg. I run VSync which caps me at 60.

Depending on your OS you may be able to enter Safe Mode with Command Prompt and run sfc /scannow. This can repair bad OS files.

I3-7100, gtx 1050 to or 1060, SSD, 8gb ram and you'll be fine. The I3 for gw2 should actually be better than a majority of the i5 and i7.

Get intel.

The latest coffee lake i5 has best price performance. Though I would suggest to wait a month or two for the motherboard industry to push their motherboard out into the market.

Intel i5-8600k -> 6 cores, best price / performance ratio -> 6 cores also enough to last for many years; naturally i7-8 series is the best performance but bad price ratioMB -> wait for a month or two since coffee lake just releaseGPU -> Depends on your resolution -> 1060 or 580 for 1080p, 1070 for 1440p, 1080 and above for 4k -> ignore branding, look at spec, one fan if not overclocking, dual fan if overclocking, graphic intensive game use more ram at high setting too; also take note of casing temperature since it affect your decision on fansRam -> 16gb is good, 8gb if budget -> brand wise, if you not going budget, mid range maybe something like hyperX fury while high end will be gskill related ramsSSD -> it is a lot more affordable nowadays, get pcie ssd if you wan speed, get sata ssd if you want budget large space

CPU CoolerOverclocking, you will need a cooler. gw2 is just super cpu intensive and which means if you really want to run max settings with stable 60 fps (in world boss or wvw), honestly speaking, i think you will need to at least overclock it to 5ghz. since you need to overclock it, you cannot buy any cheap cooler. Oh, you also cannot buy budget ram in that case.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/build-of-the-month/

The Puppy at $575 will run you the game at ultra or close to it.

One expense adding to that budget I absolutely recommend is getting a good SSD. It might be a hundred dollars more, but it will make your computer start up and transition between programs so, so much faster. Loading screens will be pretty quick.

Don't buy prebuilt pc's. Guild wars 2 is almost entirely CPU dependent so lean your budget heavily on that. Also note that 99% of the suggestions are from people who have no clue about hardware and just post w/e the guy in the computer store sold them to make the most profit. r/buildapc and r/pcmasterrace are good places to check.Be skeptical and make your own research. Again, if you're only gonna play GW2 lean your budget heavily on the CPU.

@Crimson King.3465 said:My PC of 9 years finally died on me yesterday. It starts up, gets a BSOD, then restarts the loop.

GW2 is pretty much my favourite game and I want to now build a new PC that can run GW2 with maxed everything.

Does anyone know what parts I should aim for? I know high end stuff can easily run GW2, bu I'm not sure I'm ready to drop 5k yet.People throwing out suggestions and not asking the most important question -- What's your budget?

@Lunarlife.5128 said:I3-7100, gtx 1050 to or 1060, SSD, 8gb ram and you'll be fine. The I3 for gw2 should actually be better than a majority of the i5 and i7.

OK, I'll bite, how do you figure an i3 is better than an i5 or i7 in any metric other than price, at least at stock clocks?

Maybe he's thinking because it has fewer cores... but I'm not sure that's a valid thought.

Avoid prebuilt pc's like a plague. Most of them are filled in with cheap shit, and then get sold for the price of a good pc on decent parts. The only thing you know what you get is cpu,gpu, gb of ram(no other info) and how much hdd space(also no speed and other things you would want to know about it), same with power unit, mobo.

You don't need much to run a 2012 game in 2017.

get your self a Intel i5 and you be more than good . or if you like amd you could get a fx8350 for cheep new. both are very good and will run all the new games easy . then i would say save what you can from your old comp that would be useable like your case and fans . these days hard drives are cheep and you can get a 250sdd for about $100.00 . and to do this you do not need to drop 5K at all . that is not being very wise . how ever you can drop $800.00 to $1000.00 and have a really good computer depending on your BUDGET . far as video cards goes you can get a NVidia 1050 or 1060 for a good price. on that tho i would say spend a little extra their and get a 6 gig video card in case you want to play the most newest games like destiny2 and so forth .

honestly you might even be able to pull this all off for $600.00 if your able to use some of your parts you already got like case and fans and power supply .

Another question...what does your current system have?

Any budget modest build can run gw2, the new i3 8350k less than 200$ and performs better than previous gen i5 7600k get the Z370 mobo since it’s an unlocked CPU, for GPU a 1060 6gb (1050 Ti can do extremely well at maxed 1080p) is more than enough to run GW2 on max settings at 1080p and 1440 with adjusted settings.

Long story short, this game doesn’t require much to run well.

@BlaqueFyre.5678 said:Any budget modest build can run gw2, the new i3 8350k less than 200$ and performs better than previous gen i5 7600k get the Z370 mobo since it’s an unlocked CPU, for GPU a 1060 6gb (1050 Ti can do extremely well at maxed 1080p) is more than enough to run GW2 on max settings at 1080p and 1440 with adjusted settings.

Long story short, this game doesn’t require much to run well.

That very much depends on where you are and what you're doing. I've got an i7-6700k, GTX 1070, 32 GB DDR4, running the game and OS from SSDs, and still clocked 12 FPS in places like the Teq zerg or frozen maw. Lion's Arch lately has been 45 FPS or so, except during Mad King Says. Granted, this is with max prettiness video settings, but I don't see the point to playing a game set to 'Etch-a-Sketch' graphics :)

@Erulogos.2591 said:

@Lunarlife.5128 said:I3-7100, gtx 1050 to or 1060, SSD, 8gb ram and you'll be fine. The I3 for gw2 should actually be better than a majority of the i5 and i7.

I3-7100 has a 3.9 GHz clockrate. A lot of I5's and I7's have a lower clockrate but more cores. The extra cores do nothing for GW2.Video editing & some parts of 3D modeling can like more cores.Gaming usually only uses 1-2 cores.3D modeling usually only uses 1-2 cores.So the I3-7100, 3.9 GHz which costs ~$115 is better than:

• $180 I5-7600 3.4 GHz
• $210 I5-7700K 3.8 GHzGranted something like a $300 I7-7700K 4.2 GHz is still 5% to 15% better, but if you get the wrong one, you have something that is, once again, worse.

I second a good cpu, this game is very cpu intensive i am still on a 750ti but my cpu is an i7 4ghz, and I can run gw2 on almost max settings with 60-100fps in wvw.

GW2's requirements got raised with PoF and now requires more then 2 cores for the expansion content.("https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/201862958-Minimum-System-Requirements")

What would you need, when not going for minimum specs:? CPU's (Processor)

• CPU: 4 cores minimum, the options with 2 threads were removed with PoF (see requirements)
• CPU: the highest clockspeed you can afford or are willing to risk with overclocking,(OC-ing will require high end cooling measures AND and an oc-able Motherborad and oc-able CPU and will void warranty)

Memory

• 8 Gb of ram (4 will work, but 8 will be considrably less problems) Optional.: if you want to overclock buy faster ram then neccesary for the board.
• Also more memory will mean alt tabbing can be done faster. More then 8 Gb's would be an advantage on a single monitor system

GPU (graphics)

• GPU is of less importance if you run it at 1080p if you want 4k buy an appropriate card. having 3-4 Gb of Vram is helpfull, double this for 4k) my 2 780's even though obsolete will run this game at 30-125 FPS. Requirements were slightly raised with PoF, however most middle to high end videocards now available will run Guild wars on high to max settings.

Storage:

• A SSD even a smaller one to put the game & system on (128 or 256Gb min. (and that's SMALL!)) is really nice and will speed up your loading times, especially in new maps or LA.

Make sure your CPu can handle the GPU you need, if you get cpu bottlenecking (your GPU being to powerfull for the CPU to fill with data) your game will slow considerably.Having acces to a newer motherboard and processor could give acces to faster M.2 SSD's, and will support better connectors.Audio onboard is enough for me. I have old ears and I cannot distinguish between high end audio and basic audio. on a budget system it is a waste of cash.

For Intel:Any "above mid end quadcore i5" will be enough core, BUT if you can get an hex core you are done for the next couple of years.Advantage of i5:

• faster clocks for less money.
• CPU core dedicated to 1 thread needing less management
• cheaper Motherboards
• easier to overclock (imho)
• less usefull for streaming

Any "above mid end quadcore i7" is also perfectly capable of running Guild |Wars 2 but Hyperthreading is not really that usefull for gaming. having a new hex core processort will however make multitasking on a PC easier. If you do not do multiple things at the same time the validness of buying a i7 tens to wither.

• high end computers and higher end prices
• CPU cores usable by 2 threads , but it's alternate computing so... when 2 thrads use 1 core both threads DO get slowed down. even though it's marginally.
• Lower maximum speed.
• more expensive hardware
• could do more at the same time,as streaming, also buy an appropriate graphic option

And i9 well..

• I suggest you ignore it for now. unless you need a videoediting machine. having 10 or 16 cores, with 20 or 32 threads merans nothing if you only use 3 for your game, most clockspeeds are lower. making this less ideal for a gaming system.

For AMD:has very nice options with Ryzen. However I have not used one yet and I do not feel I could give you much usefull information about it.Ryzen based processors will and can perform very well for less cost then comparable i7's and i5's . As such looking into those is most certainly worthwhile.They'll provide powerfull platforms with 8 or 6 cores with 16 of 12 threads while still easily being between the i5 and i7 in performance. however the per thread performance is a little lower. They do however provide great value for money.

• very decent performance out of the box
• powerfull platform with more expansion options then Intel provides...

Myself I run a 5 yr old PC based upon an i7 3930K (hex core) (oc-ed @ 4.1Ghz (on air placed in our attic where ambients vary very widely)) on an X79 chipset with 32 Gb of RAM and 2x Nvidia GTX 780. The CPU and GPU's are still okay, but I miss acces to modern I/O like M.2 drive(s) and such, and I'm not willing to invest in cards to provide these as the system is 5 years old now. I'm saving up for a replacement. My 5+ year old vertex 4 still works smooth and I have some raid linked HDD's. All in all it's a past gen PC. however it still performs pretty well.

Be sure your CPU has a nuclear reactor connected to it, least you want to do world events and wvw

I got a computer with i7 7700K and 1060 GTX Geforce card for $1400 recently. Runs the game smooth at 64 bits high settings.