Minimum GPU for flash games and GW2

[lifeblood]

My buddy's kid want to play Guild Wars 2, WoW, Flash based games like Animal Jam, etc, and the ancient PC he currently uses can't even handle flash games. Will the integrated GPU on a Core i3 or equivalent AMD APU handle that? Or will he still need a dGPU? We were thinking he should get a Core i3-4160 or an AMD A8-7650K based system.

They'll also use it for Office, web browsing, and stuff like that, but anything can do that nowadays.

 

[LTC8K6]

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-system-requirements

I would get a GTX750/750Ti and a core i3

 

[monstercameron]

the apu will be just fine, the a10 is ~$140 USD http://www.amazon.com/AMD-A10-Serie...UTF8&qid=1431456803&sr=8-1&keywords=a10+7850k

with price cuts to ~$120 coming soon.

wow raid video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5VIHwPlRgo

if you decide on the apu just try to fet 1866 or better ddr3 memory.

 

[LTC8K6]

If you want a computer that will last longer, maybe go with an i5 instead of an i3.

You can always upgrade the video card later.

 

[monstercameron]

If you want a computer that will last longer, maybe go with an i5 instead of an i3.

You can always upgrade the video card later.

lol, I saw this post in the other thread, thought you must've made a mistake.

the is a decent pricing gulf between an apu and an i5. Short term, IMHO, the apu is the better buy. maybe with a larger budget and willingness to wait out gaming for a while then the i5 can make some sense.

 

[Enigmoid]

the apu will be just fine, the a10 is ~$140 USD http://www.amazon.com/AMD-A10-Serie...UTF8&qid=1431456803&sr=8-1&keywords=a10+7850k

with price cuts to ~$120 coming soon.

wow raid video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5VIHwPlRgo

if you decide on the apu just try to fet 1866 or better ddr3 memory.

GW2 will eat an AMD CPU alive, it absolutely loves ST CPU performance.

I haven't played for a year but 50 - 70 person W vs. W vs. W fights for fighting a world boss with ~50-100 players brought the game down to ~10-20 fps on a 3630qm on the lowest settings due to CPU limitations. I could use the HD 4000 instead of the dgpu because the CPU limited the fps so bad and not notice a difference.

Sometimes someone would shout out "FPS?" and the chat would say something like this.

-8
-10
-5
-12
-9
-15
-13

Then there would always be that one guy with a 4.5 ghz intel CPU and 25 fps. But basically no CPU on the market could reach 30 fps minimums.

This is from October 2013 and shows the kind of CPU demands crowded areas have.

I have some of the more demanding settings turned up (shadows, shaders, character model limit) but basically the game is completely CPU limited on a 3630qm (3.2 ghz IVB quad) and a 660m OC (desktop 650) to 25 fps.

720p and 1080p screen shots taken a minute apart.

Go into an abandoned area and you can get 150 fps easy but once there are people fps tanks like a rock. The screenshot above was taken during an event so the load is a little higher (area is generally around 30 fps). But you will experience said conditions a lot if you play a lot of the biweekly events.

IMO I believe GW2 uses three main threads and 2 light threads.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I play GW2 almost exclusively, and once you get a lot of action on the screen things get demanding quick. If you want the game to look good you'll want a strong discrete GPU and a fast CPU.

 

[lifeblood]

So, in short, buy a i3 for the faster ST performance. I suspect he'll have to use his old GPU (HD4830) until he can afford a newer dGPU. We'll try using the iGPU then test the 4830 and see which one gives better performance.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

4830 will be a lot better.