Benchmark Results: Best Appearance Preset
The Best Appearance preset adds FXAA, with maximum texture, shadow, post-processing, and reflection detail. These benchmarks reveal how mid-range and high-end cards fare when Guild Wars 2 is cranked up as high as it can go.
The Radeon HD 7750 and GeForce GTX 550 Ti had no trouble through 1920x1080 at the Balanced preset. However, they're both knocked down to about 30 FPS minimums using the Best Appearance setting. The graphics cards we add to the field scale pretty much as we'd expect.
Three of the cards cannot quite manage a minimum of 30 FPS at 1680x1050, but they're close enough that we'd still consider them playable. More than half of our GPUs aren't able to push minimum frame rates higher than 40 FPS at 1680x1050.
At 1920x1080, you need at least a Radeon HD 7770 or GeForce GTX 560 to use the best-looking graphics preset offered in Guild Wars 2. It's preferable to get smoother performance using the Balanced setting when it comes to slower cards.
Cranking our test resolution up to 2560x1600 complicates the story quite a bit.
Using a 30" screen and Guild Wars 2's Best Appearance preset causes most graphics cards to choke. Only the top four cards manage to maintain more than 30 FPS throughout the benchmark run. None of the boards we're testing can keep above 40 FPS, including the powerful Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 670. At its highest detail setting, Guild Wars 2 clearly demands a potent graphics subsystem.
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Hmm.. shame I can never touch an MMORPG ever again...
get your graphs and test setup to match:
Radeon HD 6450 512 MB GDDR5
Radeon HD 6670 512 MB DDR3
Radeon HD 7770 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 6850 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7870 2 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7970 3 GB GDDR5
where's the 6850 in the graphs ? There's a 6870 instead ...
I'm wonder how my pII x4 955BE will perform, there none in the chart...
Anyone know? at stock speed and at 3.8 O.C....
Interesting. The less-than-$100-without-external-power-connector Radeon 7750 is a balance card providing appealing visual while still runs good framerates at 1080p. I imagined if you tinker with the Best Appearance preset a little bit you can get better image quality without framerates dropping below 30. I mean let's face it, who plays on their PC without tinkering the settings here and there, that's just stupid.
Great review as always! Really appreciate it
I'm disappointed that this neglects the post processing bar when determining if the best appearance setting is enabled when taking in to account processing ability. I have an fx4100 and an hd 7950. How will that do at high grahhics settings?
Duh, we want to know this stuff.
get your graphs and test setup to match:
Radeon HD 6450 512 MB GDDR5
Radeon HD 6670 512 MB DDR3
Radeon HD 7770 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 6850 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7870 2 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7970 3 GB GDDR5
where's the 6850 in the graphs ? There's a 6870 instead ...
Although it's probably a typo, there's probably no need to use the 6850 as well since the 7770 should perform similar
Now I wonder where some people got the idea that GW2 was nvidia favored O_o
You gots me wanting to buy this game......
I'm disappointed that this neglects the post processing bar when determining if the best appearance setting is enabled when taking in to account processing ability. I have an fx4100 and an hd 7950. How will that do at high grahhics settings?Duh, we want to know this stuff.
It will be cpu limited, you'll get around 35-40fps
Guild wars 2 min system requirements is Core 2 Duo 2.0 Geforce 7800, I would like u to test base on that too.
Guild wars 2 min system requirements is Core 2 Duo 2.0 Geforce 7800, I would like u to test base on that too.
gpu wise, the gt version of the 7800 will perform about the same level as the 6450 in question. a low end core 2 duo will be on the lower end of the cpu chart.
Playing mine on EVGA GTX 570 SC... everything runs smoothly. The game is absolutely great. I was a 50/50 member of GW1 and I was hoping GW2 wouldn't disappoint. GW2 truly delivers fun experience and entertainment without having to shell out 10 or 15 monthly. My gaming laptop with GT 650M with output to 1080p display to a TV also performed smoothly in medium setting. I haven't tried max setting though on that.
Ugh really hate developers who do that. Its not just low performance with the Bulldozer cores. Its almost purpostantial performance loss, or a big error in coding. Heard that sometimes with Bulldozer everything gets piled onto 1 core like the engine has no idea what to do with the architecture.
Also DX9, are they serious? THIS IS 2012. DX10 is 6 years old. Get with it already and learn to code a game engine. Its not like this is a multi-platform game.
Playing mine on EVGA GTX 570 SC... everything runs smoothly. The game is absolutely great. I was a 50/50 member of GW1 and I was hoping GW2 wouldn't disappoint. GW2 truly delivers fun experience and entertainment without having to shell out 10 or 15 monthly. My gaming laptop with GT 650M with output to 1080p display to a TV also performed smoothly in medium setting. I haven't tried max setting though on that.
the 650m will perform similarish to the 7750 in question
Ugh really hate developers who do that. Its not just low performance with the Bulldozer cores. Its almost purpostantial performance loss, or a big error in coding. Heard that sometimes with Bulldozer everything gets piled onto 1 core like the engine has no idea what to do with the architecture.Also DX9, are they serious? THIS IS 2012. DX10 is 6 years old. Get with it already and learn to code a game engine. Its not like this is a multi-platform game.
being dx9, it allows users who still use windows XP to play without someone creating a mod or use the directx hack to force xp to run it. I mean skyrim also runs on DX9
A dual core SB pentium outperforming an 8 core FX.........ROFL!
Thats why I really hope that piledriver/steamroller pulls through.
A dual core SB pentium outperforming an 8 core FX.........ROFL!
You tested the game only in DirectX 9. Where is DirectX10 and 11? Or aren't they implemented yet (post-release patch)?
This definitely shows us that the way GW2 was compiled does not favour AMD instructions or architecture, but is compiled in such an inefficient manner that it only supports Intel.
That really makes you wander, if games/programs really know to put Bulldozer to work. I think it just sits there, idling at least 50% of processor raw power.