Bulding a PC for Guild Wars 2 (and Dota 2)

[Ele.6318]

Hey! I am about to build/buy my first PC build for Guild Wars 2.

I'm torn between 5800X3D and 7500F. GPU will be 4060 or 4060TI, with 32 GB of RAM and fast SSD.

I know that 5800X3D is excellent for GW2, but with a set like this it will be bored most of time. Does anyone have any experience with 7500F?

I like the lower TDP of 7500F, one of the goals for the build is to be power efficient.

[Royal Grand Majesty.9852]

Since your system is AM5.

7500F seems to be a very good budget friendly CPU for entry level systems.

If money isn't an issue you could look into the 7000's X3D CPUs.

The 5800X3D is mostly used in high end AM4 systems.

[ZenDrake.8316]

Going with the 7500F gets you the AM5 platform, giving you a way better upgrade path in the future. I'd personally recommend looking at the 7800X3D if that's within your budget though, it jsut shreds through GW2's CPU-bound nature.

Edited October 2, 2023 by ZenDrake.8316

[ShadowCatz.8437]

12 hours ago, Ele.6318 said:

Hey! I am about to build/buy my first PC build for Guild Wars 2.

I'm torn between 5800X3D and 7500F. GPU will be 4060 or 4060TI, with 32 GB of RAM and fast SSD.

I know that 5800X3D is excellent for GW2, but with a set like this it will be bored most of time. Does anyone have any experience with 7500F?

I like the lower TDP of 7500F, one of the goals for the build is to be power efficient.

AMD 5800X3D is an AM4 platform which means you need DDR4 RAM to run that. For AMD 7500F which is AM5 you will need DDR5 RAM, Depending on price for DDR4 vs DDR5 and what your total budget is, it might be best to invest in M2 SSD (which you mount on board on motherboard/mainboard), so will have to look into how many M2 slot there is on MB in case you later want to add more M2 SSD. Don't mix up SATA based SSD with M2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2
 

Before you decide on platform or any mainboard/motherboard, look up MB on the producers Support section for that MB. As an example when you go to the main product page you will often find a Support link for that product and can down load manual in form of a PDF file.

From there you can find drivers, BIOS updates and manual. Here is a link to MSI B360 Tomahawk as an example: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B350-TOMAHAWK/support#manual

By checking out MB I mean that you can download (PDF) and study how you need to think when you build or make use of that MB before you purchase it. Sometimes you can see limitation that isn't mentioned other places before you start to build.

While you are checking out MB make sure that your MB will have support for that CPU you decide (often same place where you see version of BIOS updates) on or can update BIOS without CPU onboard as some MB have that feature.

Don't forget to also make sure that the type DDR4 or DDR5 will have support as for bandwidth measured in data transfer rate a DDR 4 3200 MHz runs at a 1600 MHz data transfer rate (x2) and same for DDR5. Pick DDR5 (if you go for AM5 platform) that isn't the fastest possible, but the most stable. If MB are advertising it can run DDR5 at 7200MHz it doesn't mean that your CPU will be able to run it stable at that speed as memory controller on CPU can have variations and XMP or AMDs version of it EXPO means that it make use of a pre-set profile for DDR5 in BIOS. Look for what is you CPUs baseline for SPD and use that some a goal, any CPU should at least be able to run at SPD that CPU maker have advertised their CPU to be able to run.

Read benchmarks and be analytical/critical about what each benchmark show. We don't know anything about your display which have an impact as the higher resolution, the more workload will be moved from on CPU to GPU. This is something you have find out self by reading how each game can be balanced between performance or better visual (as in higher resolution vs lower resolution and graphical settings that control light and other effects in game).

RTX 4060 or 4060 TI aren't very powerful and most reviewers point out that it have a performance on same level as the older RTX 3060 TI. It seem to be targeted at 1920 x 1080 pixel (1080p) resolution and only have 8 GB VRAM (frame buffer) on board, so you will probably have issues with some newer games with higher demand for using VRAM.

This isn't clear cut that 8 GB is bad by itself, but it is after all a limit you can't change by adjusting something. DLSS on 4060 and TI means scaling up from a lower resolution and GW2 doesn't have support for FSR or DLSS as for now at least. I don't know how DOTA work today, so you have to check with sources you can trust for that information.

You haven't mention anything about case or cooling solution, only that you have a goal to build a power efficient system. Cooling and case is important part of power efficient systems as you need to keep GPU, RAM and CPU cold enough to perform without getting into throttling issues. I would suggest to go for an ATX case and motherboard/mainboard instead of microATX as it is very little space between components on a microATX motherboard and case for microATX in general also have less space which fast can get into problem when you want to add more SATA SSD or mechanical drives in the same space.

Don't forget air cooling in form of tower heat sinks can also become a limit if you don't plan how high it can be before it touches side panel or door (distance from MB up to door or side), the same issue can happen if you don't plan for water cooling (all in one AIO) and have enough space in front or at top of case (make sure that there is also space enough with fans mounted on AIO before it hits MB large chipset heat sinks or anything else that might not be obvious when you look only at product pages).

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by ShadowCatz.8437