This weekend, ArenaNet will launch their subscription-less MMO Guild Wars 2. If you're wondering how your system will handle the game, they've released a handy chart comparing the performance of different video cards.
To evaluate graphics cards, ArenaNet used system data from the game's recent stress tests. Only data from systems with an Intel Core i5 processor or better was used, to ensure that a subpar CPU isn't throwing off the results:
Based on the chart, it looks like the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is getting the best performance, with an average framerate of nearly 80. NVIDIA's top dog, the GeForce GTX 680, has an average framerate a little over 70. ArenaNet cautions that your system might not achieve these exact results. Your processor and system memory will obviously have a big effect on the game's performance as well.
"At present, Guild Wars 2 has already received a massive amount of optimizations. This means that players who have suffered from poor performance in the past should see an improvement to their frame rate. But there are still discrepancies between individual systems," said ArenaNet's Bill Freist.
Your graphics card drivers can also play a role. For example, the version 301.42 driver for GeForce GTX cards seems to severely hurt framerate across the board. The GTX 680 card performs about 20 fps slower on average with that driver versus other versions:
If you're encountering issues, you should check the game's Knowledge Base. Alternately, you can contact the customer support team. I suspect the game's CS staff will be completely slammed at launch, though.
Guild Wars 2 will launch on August 25th for players who pre-purchased the game. Pre-order customers will get in on the 27th. The game will formally launch on the 28th.
