Compatibility check! (calling all PC gurus) - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

Grammar

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

19 Dec 2006 at 02:38 - 1

This is not a hardware suggestion thread! I'm more interested in what I should be staying away from.

I've decided to finally get a new desktop PC, and I thought I'd check to see if there are any GW compatibility quirks that I should know about.
I know what the min. and recommended requirements are, but experience has taught me that it's never quite that simple.

Specific questions:
1. Does GW not run well with any processor in particular?
2. Does GW not run well with any video card in particular (I already know that integrated video is a no-no, so I'll be getting a card)

Thanks a million in advance.

BFG

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Lost

DCSB

19 Dec 2006 at 04:30 - 2

My build has an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (~2.2GHz) and an NVidia 6800GT (~375MHz/2GHz), which both perform quite well when playing GW. The only problem that I've experienced was graphics freeze after some recent GW updates, which the latest DirectX update seemed to remedy.

Somewhere, and I don't remember where, I seem to have remember reading that Guild Wars seems to be tailored toward aTi cards. If I find the source of that information, I will try to post a link.

erick5876

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2006

TN

Heroes ETC

D/A

19 Dec 2006 at 05:48 - 3

I don't think anyone has ever really come out and said that. You can, however, draw that conclusion simply from the high number of Nvidia complaints on these forums.

Personally, I'd go with ATI. Nvidia may have a reputation for slightly better performance, and being more 'leading edge;' but in my experience it's never been that reliable.

MegaMouse

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

south mississippi

Warriors Of Melos WOM

E/N

19 Dec 2006 at 07:38 - 4

Newegg and Tigerdirect both have some very good deals on low end systems that will run guild wars quite well. Do be aware though that whatever system you do get make sure it has a seperate video card, onboard sound is not that much of a big deal unless you want to run a full surround sound settup. Here are a couple links for you to check out;

www.tigerdirect.com www.newegg.com

From tigerdirect go with the systemmx line of computers as they do perform very well at a low price.

Mega Mouse

dronex

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Mo/

19 Dec 2006 at 11:36 - 5

Quote:

(~375MHz/2GHz)

more like 1ghz not 2

Quote:

Personally, I'd go with ATI. Nvidia may have a reputation for slightly better performance, and being more 'leading edge;' but in my experience it's never been that reliable.

Ive got the opposite expirience, lots of problems with ati ... never had problems with nvidia cards.

ok: stay away from cheap memory (wont be posting brand cause i might get problems :S)

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

19 Dec 2006 at 11:53 - 6

Doesn't guildwars.com have a ATI banner or something?

Hengis

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

London

Better Than Life (BTL)

R/

19 Dec 2006 at 12:21 - 7

I think there is a lot more to it than simply "Nvidia cards suck at GW".

Personally both my son and I use Nvidia cards for Guildwars. I have a Geforce 7950GT (PCIE) and he has a Geforce 6800GTX (AGP). Both of these cards have performed faultlessly in Guildwars in our PCs.

I agree that there do seem to be more threads posted about problems with Nvidia cards than with ATi ones, but from my own experience I have never had a problem using Nvidia.

MegaMouse

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

south mississippi

Warriors Of Melos WOM

E/N

19 Dec 2006 at 18:50 - 8

The debate between ATI and Nvidea is more related to preference. I have several computers and use cards from both companies. I have found that the Nvidea cards are good at certian apps while the ATI units are good at others. Sometimes the problem stems from the motherboard and video card not getting along. There have been cases where some inel motherboards will not work well with Nvidea cards yet give killer results with an ATI card. In the past I have had problems with both manufacturers cards but nothing that could be attributed to faulty drivers or installs, just bad luck I guess. Before making any purchase make sure that you go to the manufacturers website to check for any compatibility isssues.

Mega Mouse

Grammar

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

19 Dec 2006 at 19:03 - 9

But generally speaking guys, there isn't a known compatibility issue with one or a series of particular video cards out there that you are aware of is there?

I'm definitely going to make sure I end up with a AGP/PCIE video card and not integrated video, that much is for sure.

Thanks for all the advice so far BTW.

EDIT: One more bizarre tech issue I'm having with my current computer...
The bosses are milky white in color. It's like my PC is screwing up the colored aura that bosses are supposed to have and just presenting it as milky white instead. And not just a white aura, I mean the entire skin is just completely white in color. What's up with that?
I suppose it won't really matter once I get my new PC, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway, lol.

erick5876

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2006

TN

Heroes ETC

D/A

19 Dec 2006 at 22:15 - 10

One more quick tip - If you find something you like on a random site, always check newegg.com for it. They may not have a better price, but they have user reviews that can be very very helpful.

BFG

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Lost

DCSB

19 Dec 2006 at 23:33 - 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by dronex

more like 1ghz not 2

Believe it:

Shakkara

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2006

W/

20 Dec 2006 at 00:47 - 12

I've been playing guildwars perfectly at the following systems:

AMD XP 3200+
A7N8X Deluxe mobo
2x512MB DDR400
ATI Radeon X800 256MB and Nvidia Asus FX 5700 Pro 256MB
Windows 98 and Windows 2000 (somewhere just before Nightfall some patch broke up the metallic reflection effect which is shown on capes and some weapons/monsters on Windows 98 though)

AMD XP 2800+
A7N8X mobo
1x512MB 2x256MB
NVidia Asus GeForce 6600 256MB
Windows XP

AMD XP 1800+
K7T series mobo
1x 512MB
Nvidia Asus FX 5700 Pro 256MB and Nvidia Asus Ti4400 128MB
Windows 98 and Windows 2000

I have severe performance problems on the school computers with the following:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
2x256MB RAM
GeForce 5200 128MB
Windows XP (ran much better when it still had win2000 on it)

cannonfodder

Tech Monkeh Mod

Join Date: May 2005

Good Old North East of England

Mo/Me

20 Dec 2006 at 06:24 - 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by BFG

Believe it:

Hmm, unless there is 2 6800's in SLI set up then now I certainly do not believe it, you have "no overclocking" option enabled and its registering at 2ghz, that is a 100% overclock, as the GT has ddr2 clocked at 500mhz, so its either photeshopped or reporting the incorrect speed.

I'm not calling you a liar, but there is absolutely no way on earth that a 6800gt can have ram running at 2ghz.

cannonfodder

BFG

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Lost

DCSB

20 Dec 2006 at 23:03 - 14

A little research shows that to be a bug in the latest ForceWare drivers, causing the memory clock speed to report the erroneous reading. As always, the card is running at 1GHz memory speed as it always had. The BFG Tech. 6800GToc is a great card and I honestly thought that they had found a way to extract more from the beast.

jimmy_logic

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

R/

21 Dec 2006 at 02:59 - 15

I thought when you have DDR RAM the video card drivers always report x2 the physical speed of the RAM. So in this instance its 1GHz but effectively running 2GHz as the RAM is DDR.

Also anything greater than these specs should and will run GW fine.

P4 1.7GHz with 1.25GB RAM (SDRAM I might add)
ATI Radeon 9700
Plus all the usual extras that don't hamper performance.

That is my computer spec at the moment. And I get around 20-30FPS when playing alone. In PvP I need to switch to another computer the FPS drops to around 8-20FPS.

Regards

cannonfodder

Tech Monkeh Mod

Join Date: May 2005

Good Old North East of England

Mo/Me

21 Dec 2006 at 08:16 - 16

No no no, DDR2 running at 500mhz will be 1ghz effective, afterall it is just an advancement of technology from ddr, hence gddr3 and the newer gddr4, this just allows for higher clock speeds. The newer ati cards have gddr4 which can give an effective speed of up to 2ghz, same as the ne 8800 range from nvidia.

I agree there is a bug in some forceware drivers that show incorrect speed.