Guild Wars 2

@Chavo

I run a X58 i7, i7 950. With the DDR3 triple channel config and more bandwidth per lane I never need to OC. I barely use 50 CPU power playing this game with the XMP profile auto set to overclock to 3.2ghz

@ Samaul

You have a lot of interesting theory’s and misconceptions about system building and overclocking in general, so at this point I have decided to just agree to disagree with you and leave it at that. This thread is anything but constructive when 2 people with opposing views constantly bump heads, I would only invoke people to check things out at other sites, not just here, if interested in either buying a pre-built system, building your own system, or overclocking. as Samaul listed www.anandtech.com, I will list some others which I think are helpful.

Oh on a side note, I noticed you said your computer restarts or has issues if you don’t turn on the active thermal cooling or whatever you called it. You can download a program here that might help.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Speedfan taps into your motherboards and cpu’s speed and temperature sensors and although at first seems a bit overwhelming it can be set up to ramp up your speeds of any fan it can read that supports pwm (pulse width modulation) based on whatever temperature readout you wish. It can also be set to start up with Windows via the Task Scheduler and once set up is a more or less set and forget program. No need to turn on anything if gaming, if your cpu/video card goes over the user defined temperature (set as desired) it will speed up. Note you can set the minimum and maximum temps so that when browsing the internet or watching videos your fans will remain quiet, and when things heat up, they speed up.

Another great program is EVGA precision. It can be downloaded here.

http://majorgeeks.com/EVGA_Precision_d6209.html

It allows you to set up custom fan curves for your video card, and IMHO the stock fan curve is a little less aggressive than I would like and tailored more for quietness at least on the GTX 580.

Also if you don’t keep you hard drive properly defragmented over time your overall performance will suffer. I think that Mydefrag is a great disk defragmenter that goes above and beyond most other ones with its ability to defrag by path and by file type and size. its also freeware.

http://www.mydefrag.com/

Ever Wonder what is going on with your computer, what drivers are running, what programs are set to start up with windows automatically, or if there are any unwanted spyware or malware that is running on your computer that you can’t seem to find? Try autoruns, it gives a full list of everything that is set to auto run on your computer, and allows you to click to disable auto starting. Its made by Microsoft and is an invaluable tool for seeing everything in a shapshot.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Want an easy all in one registry/computer cleaner that will clean out all of your temp files/browsing history, any temp junk that you would want to clean before doing a defragment (which its better to actually defrag in safe mode once you finish the cleaning) try Ccleaner. One note, under the applications Window please uncheck the box next to Ms Search. It will delete the database that Windows Search uses the quickly find files when you search for them in the start menu, and cause the search indexer to constantly run trying to rebuild the search index.

http://www.tomshardware.com/ http://www.guru3d.com/ http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/ http://www.xbitlabs.com/ http://www.tweakguides.com/ http://www.benchmarkreviews.com/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/ http://www.frostytech.com/
http://www.overclockers.com/ http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forum.php

When making an informed decision on buying a Computer or individual components, it is best to get more than one opinion to help balance or rule out individual biases. Whenever I look for something I either google reviews/roundsup for the said product type (GTX 670 for instance) or browse thru some of these sites to see which have comparative reviews. Also the last 2 listings are Computer enthusiast forums and have large communities of very knowledgeable people who both real world experience with building and maintaining gaming systems, servers, benchmarking machines, distributed computer farms, etc. Hope some of this helps.

I don’t understand why this thread is stickied to begin with. It’s not so much a helpful thread as it is someone spent a lot more money on a computer than they probably should’ve and just needed to boast about it online. There are some useful tips but they get buried underneath the massive weight of a pungent ego~cylindrical.

First off – isn’t the purpose of purchasing a high end PC such that you don’t have to tweak it? The immediate second comment from Syn says it all – If you’re not getting “good stable performance” with any machine that costs more than $2000 USD then you need to return that machine.

This like someone walking into a room where everyone drives a Toyota Corolla, and trying to give them advice on how to keep the engine on your high-end Lexus from breaking down by looking under the hood and checking the oil.

If you spent so much on a system you should be able to run the game with multiple browsers up, instant messenger client on, and another MMO alt-tabbed in the background.

The only tip I would think is useful to give to your typical end user is:

Display -> Adjust Desktop Color Settings -> Digital Vibrance

Play with that setting – it can do wonderful things.

At risk of getting on my high horse now, there’s more to a gaming environment than just FPS. People keep talking about it like that’s the only thing important to gaming. For example, below is my system. It’s quiet, as in SPCR build quiet. I can sleep in that room with the computer on. I can watch movies on it with my lady without having to hear constant fan thrumming noise. Its got air filters on it so I don’t have to air-spray the insides all the time, I just need to talk the filters off and clean those. There are never any dust bunnies inside the case, and I’ve had the computer for a year. The most annoying thing about it was the blue power light – I actually had to stick a bit of masking tape over it because it was too bright when I had the room lights off.

Arugess.8754:

I don’t understand why this thread is stickied to begin with. It’s not so much a helpful thread as it is someone spent a lot more money on a computer than they probably should’ve and just needed to boast about it online. There are some useful tips but they get buried underneath the massive weight of a pungent ego~cylindrical.

First off – isn’t the purpose of purchasing a high end PC such that you don’t have to tweak it? The immediate second comment from Syn says it all – If you’re not getting “good stable performance” with any machine that costs more than $2000 USD then you need to return that machine.

This like someone walking into a room where everyone drives a Toyota Corolla, and trying to give them advice on how to keep the engine on your high-end Lexus from breaking down by looking under the hood and checking the oil.

If you spent so much on a system you should be able to run the game with multiple browsers up, instant messenger client on, and another MMO alt-tabbed in the background.

The only tip I would think is useful to give to your typical end user is:

Display -> Adjust Desktop Color Settings -> Digital Vibrance

Play with that setting – it can do wonderful things.

At risk of getting on my high horse now, there’s more to a gaming environment than just FPS. People keep talking about it like that’s the only thing important to gaming. For example, below is my system. It’s quiet, as in SPCR build quiet. I can sleep in that room with the computer on. I can watch movies on it with my lady without having to hear constant fan thrumming noise. Its got air filters on it so I don’t have to air-spray the insides all the time, I just need to talk the filters off and clean those. There are never any dust bunnies inside the case, and I’ve had the computer for a year. The most annoying thing about it was the blue power light – I actually had to stick a bit of masking tape over it because it was too bright when I had the room lights off.

So many myths, so much bias and misinformation in this post. A few responses

1. How much myself or anyone else spent on our PCs is not your concern. Opinions are like… well you know and no one wants yours on how we spend our money. I bought the GW2 collectors edition, you going to give me a hard time about that too? Seems to me that PC gaming is a less harmful vice than most.

2. High end games, especially new high end games usually have more issues on high end PCs than on simple, inexpensive PCs, assuming a minimum level of performance is there. High end pcs usuallyhave more devices and therefore more drivers. Just because you have the bandwidth doesnt mean you should waste it.

3. Do not assume that your experience with your PC applies to everyone.

4. High end PCs present a greater challenge for gamers and game developers than do simpler, less complex systems. One video card is slower than two (other things being equal) but most games tend to run better on one GPU than two. On board sound usually has less issues than a dedicated sound card but not always. I could go on and on, you get the idea.

Lets try to stay focused on helping people run GW2 better on their PCs, especially high end PCs.

Samaul.6073:

The purpose of this thread is to suggest ways to improve GW2 performance on high end PCs without getting your GPU or CPU so hot you can fry an egg on it.

If it isn’t overclocked, it isn’t “high-end”; it is mid-range at best. Intel sells and advertises CPUs for the purpose of overclocking (that’s what K and X models are for). This isn’t apocryphal: Intel provides the information and the tools to overclock.

Overclocking improves GW2 performance directly and is therefore directly on-topic; your fear-mongering isn’t. Improper or extreme overclocking can damage components; proper overclocking will not, as it still keeps components within manufacturer’s specifications. I don’t know how that can be more clear.

Besides, I just read a thread where a guy’s new Alienware locks up running GW2. What is Anet going to say if he were to open a ticket? Disable overclocking as it comes “factory” overclocked. I don’t know why some think “factory” overclocking is any different than individual overclocking: they are the same components but the difference will be that the personally-invested individual can spend more time on it and get better, more solid results.

Using the “factory” logic, I personally build and sell high-end PCs (since 1991, for individuals and small businesses, schools) and every single one of them is overclocked. Is my having ZERO hardware failures attributed to my being a so-called “factory” or is it that I only pick quality components and that I know what I am doing?

Rolo.9248:

Samaul.6073:

The purpose of this thread is to suggest ways to improve GW2 performance on high end PCs without getting your GPU or CPU so hot you can fry an egg on it.

If it isn’t overclocked, it isn’t “high-end”; it is mid-range at best. Intel sells and advertises CPUs for the purpose of overclocking (that’s what K and X models are for). This isn’t apocryphal: Intel provides the information and the tools to overclock.

Overclockinkittenroves GW2 performance directly and is therefore directly on-topic; your
fear-mongering isn’t. Improper or extreme overclocking can damage components; proper overclocking will not, as it still keeps components within manufacturer’s specifications. I don’t know how that can be more clear.

Besides, I just read a thread where a guy’s new Alienware locks up running GW2. What is Anet going to say if he were to open a ticket? Disable overclocking as it comes “factory” overclocked. I don’t know why some think “factory” overclocking is any different than individual overclocking: they are the same components but the difference will be that the personally-invested individual can spend more time on it and get better, more solid results.

Using the “factory” logic, I personally build and sell high-end PCs (since 1991, for individuals and small businesses, schools) and every single one of them is overclocked. Is my having ZERO hardware failures attributed to my being a so-called “factory” or is it that I only pick quality components and that I know what I am doing?

Well I said I wouldn’t come back, but this response is so full of “Win” i just had to. Well said Rolo.9248

Oh on a side note, noticed when googling Alienware core voltages (wanted to see how much vcore alienware supplied since they are the “Authority” on overclocks, and saw that for very modest overclocks they were applying 1.36 to 1.38v on various 2nd and 3rd gen I7 processors. And to think I dropped my OC from 4.0 to 3.85 to lower my vcore from 1.336 (1.287 in bios) under load with LLC enabled to 1.304 (1.276) under load with LLC. Note I have read multiple times that Sandy Bridge will easily do 4.5+ on air at very modest clocks, my first gen Lynnfield takes quite a bit more voltage but still is well below the 1.4v threshold Intel sets per its whitesheet.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19444344/20088236.aspx

http://www.alienwarearena.com/forums/topic/18902/hardware/alienware-aurora-vcore/

http://forum.desktopreview.com/alienware/242998-aurora-r3-overclocking-2.html

Even those users recognized that the Vcore applied was a tad too strong for the overclocks they were getting. Good thing they warranty their dual purpose egg fryers/gaming computers.

Oh thought I’d add this since I’ve been questioned about my knowledge multiple times, note I just set this up yesterday somewhat based off of a stable 4.0ghz at 1.336 under load with LLC, notice how long prime has been running if you can.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2525347

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/152/eggfryingtime.jpg/

So yeah I have no clue what I’m doing, notice lacks like 40 min got 24 hrs on prime with about 90% memory usage and both error checkings on.

I was actually hoping to find something Nvidia related from the OP. 3 pages of PC tech and 1 item pertaining to Nvidia drivers:/

MajorRocker.8143:

I was actually hoping to find something Nvidia related from the OP. 3 pages of PC tech and 1 item pertaining to Nvidia drivers:/

I have made several posts about Nvida drivers. This is the driver you want (depending on your OS and GPU)

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/48847

The 306.23 driver fully supports GW2 on Nvida GPUs. There may be exceptions for older GPUs. I do think the 400, 500 and 600 series GPUs are covered by that driver.

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

Samaul.6073:

11. MSconfig is your friend. Use it to disable unneeded memory resident programs that are using up your ram and burning up cpu cycles. You can get a 10-15% speed boost just by using MSconfig. Turn off all auto-updaters except your virus protection including java, quicktime, itunes, adobe, office, windows update etc. Disable all CD/DVD programs including roxio and power dvd. These programs will run fine without them.

13. Remove all unecessary software, browser plugins, desktop enhancements etc. None of them will help GW2 run faster and are likely to slow it down.

14. Close all programs while running GW2, especially browsers with multiple tabs open. Browsers can use a ton of memory, cpu cycles and bandwidth.

Depending on what it is you have enabled/running before all this, going through and closing programs or disabling them from auto-starting could have a negligible effect. This was standard practice and boilerplate advice back before multi-core processors were standard, but I’m sitting here browsing the forums while playing GW2 and two of my logical cores (CPU) are sitting idle.

Memory is a different, though related issue, and IS highly dependent on your individual system… However, you may be surprised by WHAT exactly is hogging your memory.

Ever since I found it, I’ve been utterly in love with Process Explorer

Looking at what’s running on my machine right now, besides Guild Wars 2 (and rosetta@home), the highest memory usage is by svchost.exe. More precisely, the svchost.exe instance controlling the Windows service Superfectch. There are pros and cons to Superfetch (and other Windows services), as well, but I’m getting off-topic…

My point is, use something like Process Explorer to SEE exactly what’s the bottleneck. I’m at 33% CPU (give or take) and 11GB out of 32GB of RAM. In other words, closing programs and the like will probably not net me a fraction of a frame per second difference.

The REAL issue is disk I/O performance… and that gets complicated

Androcore.7615:

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

My brother’s friend was an Alienware employee, and at least when I had the chance to chat with him a year and a half ago, he pretty much said the same thing you did: Dell took the name and cut the quality all for the sake of profit margin.

I’m a big fan of home-built, but you have to be careful with component manufacturers too. Designing a gaming machine is a bit more complicated these days than it was when I first started a decade ago… In any case, AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware are decent starting points for seeing comparisons of different parts, manufacturers, etc. I wouldn’t pay TOO much attention to benchmarks, though. Stuff like that is over-hyped… People make a big deal out of a 5-6fps difference, which in my opinion is well within the margin of error in real-world applications (ie, playing a game instead of running a benchmark)

GranoblasticMan.2514:

Androcore.7615:

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

My brother’s friend was an Alienware employee, and at least when I had the chance to chat with him a year and a half ago, he pretty much said the same thing you did: Dell took the name and cut the quality all for the sake of profit margin.

I’m a big fan of home-built, but you have to be careful with component manufacturers too. Designing a gaming machine is a bit more complicated these days than it was when I first started a decade ago… In any case, AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware are decent starting points for seeing comparisons of different parts, manufacturers, etc. I wouldn’t pay TOO much attention to benchmarks, though. Stuff like that is over-hyped… People make a big deal out of a 5-6fps difference, which in my opinion is well within the margin of error in real-world applications (ie, playing a game instead of running a benchmark)

Thanks for that and Ill get on there and check em out. As to the other posters thanks for all the info and hope this thread keeps going as a source of reliable discussion

GranoblasticMan.2514:

Androcore.7615:

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

My brother’s friend was an Alienware employee, and at least when I had the chance to chat with him a year and a half ago, he pretty much said the same thing you did: Dell took the name and cut the quality all for the sake of profit margin.

I’m a big fan of home-built, but you have to be careful with component manufacturers too. Designing a gaming machine is a bit more complicated these days than it was when I first started a decade ago… In any case, AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware are decent starting points for seeing comparisons of different parts, manufacturers, etc. I wouldn’t pay TOO much attention to benchmarks, though. Stuff like that is over-hyped… People make a big deal out of a 5-6fps difference, which in my opinion is well within the margin of error in real-world applications (ie, playing a game instead of running a benchmark)

This is purely hearsay and opposite to my own experience. I owned an Alienware laptop and an Alienware desktop before Dell bought Alienware and after Dell bought Alienware.

In fact since Dell bought Alienware, the quality has gone up and the prices have gone down by 30-40%. Not only that but the service and support has actually gotten better.

At OP

ALienwar are pos. Im running a AMD q-core Phenom. With a crappy gfx card and I get more fps then you.

Samaul.6073:

GranoblasticMan.2514:

Androcore.7615:

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

My brother’s friend was an Alienware employee, and at least when I had the chance to chat with him a year and a half ago, he pretty much said the same thing you did: Dell took the name and cut the quality all for the sake of profit margin.

I’m a big fan of home-built, but you have to be careful with component manufacturers too. Designing a gaming machine is a bit more complicated these days than it was when I first started a decade ago… In any case, AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware are decent starting points for seeing comparisons of different parts, manufacturers, etc. I wouldn’t pay TOO much attention to benchmarks, though. Stuff like that is over-hyped… People make a big deal out of a 5-6fps difference, which in my opinion is well within the margin of error in real-world applications (ie, playing a game instead of running a benchmark)

This is purely hearsay and opposite to my own experience. I owned an Alienware laptop and an Alienware desktop before Dell bought Alienware and after Dell bought Alienware.

In fact since Dell bought Alienware, the quality has gone up and the prices have gone down by 30-40%. Not only that but the service and support has actually gotten better.

Ok regarding the buying of Alienware causing quality to go up could you compare a handbuilt system for me using similar/same parts? If this proves to have the price remaining similar then I may go Alienware. Thats not including any costs for insurance or the like. Anandtech had some articles about the recent alienware laptops and they seem to be rather dismal towards them so I am still heavily unsure at this point.

Ok regarding the buying of Alienware causing quality to go up could you compare a handbuilt system for me using similar/same parts? If this proves to have the price remaining similar then I may go Alienware. Thats not including any costs for insurance or the like. Anandtech had some articles about the recent alienware laptops and they seem to be rather dismal towards them so I am still heavily unsure at this point.

Building your own pc is a crapshoot. One bad component can cost you a week or two in build time and the hassel of RMAs and returns. I have found the failure rate of even high quality components to be unacceptably high. Others may have had a better experience and swear by their home built systems. Ask yourself

Do I enjoy building things and can I afford the risk?
Do I want a pre-configured system with a comprehensive warranty where all I have to do is open it up, plug it in, power it up and install GW2?

Only you can answer those questions. I would start by researching both options. Go to anandtech.com, newegg.com and alienware.com and browse around. Educate yourself and make a decision on a system that fits your needs and your budget.

Androcore.7615:

Ok regarding the buying of Alienware causing quality to go up could you compare a handbuilt system for me using similar/same parts? If this proves to have the price remaining similar then I may go Alienware. Thats not including any costs for insurance or the like. Anandtech had some articles about the recent alienware laptops and they seem to be rather dismal towards them so I am still heavily unsure at this point.

Configure a system you might like on http://www.alienware.com. Then configure a system with similar components on http://www.newegg.com and compare the cost. Remember, that the newegg components have varying warranties. If you want no hassel replacement from newegg like you would get from Alienware, you need to purchase extended warranties on every component which can get quite expensive. I recommend the 3 year warranty for any alienware system. When i compared apples to apples, I found that the Alienware was only a few hundred dollars more than the homebuilt. Its your choice. I had a hard drive blowout and a pixel go bad on my 3D HD monitor on my AW desktop system in the past 1.5 years, both were quickly replaced and I was sent a prepaid shipping label for the return. Alienware’s service and support have been outstanding.

Its your choice and your dime. Make the best decision for yourself. There are several good posts in this thread on how to build your own.

If you are looking for a good laptop, I love my Alienware M14x. I have a fully loaded one and GW2 runs great on it. Remember that a desktop will cost you half as much and run GW2 twice as fast. You should get a desktop as your primary gaming system.

GlockworK.2954:

This is where I’ll disagree. You may THINK you’re getting the same components but I would wager you’re not. Most times when you turn to a manufacturer for a PC they tend to us inferior/lesser quality of parts to keep the overhead down and the profit up.

this is right on the mark.

non PC example: You walk in to, say, Canadian Tire to buy a sleeping bag rated at -40 C because they are selling it for 100$ when the enthusiast Valhalla Supplies camping store up the way sells the same model # for 400$.

A-buh? That is because large companies (like Alienware) go to manufacturer vendors and drop a large sum on the table and say “give us #X# of units” and the manufacturer says “okay” and then uses all of the cheap, left over, poor quality, mis-ordered materials that they have to get rid of in order to fill the order at such a low margin.

Believe it or not, you really DO get what you paid for.

Im playing GW2 on my 40" tv at a resolution of 1080p (native high res) using an old intel e8400+ and nvidia 8800 GT OC with 2GB of ram. Not all settings are maxed, but .. oh darn?

nakoda.4213:

this is right on the mark.

non PC example: You walk in to, say, Canadian Tire to buy a sleeping bag rated at -40 C because they are selling it for 100$ when the enthusiast Valhalla Supplies camping store up the way sells the same model # for 400$.

A-buh? That is because large companies (like Alienware) go to manufacturer vendors and drop a large sum on the table and say “give us #X# of units” and the manufacturer says “okay” and then uses all of the cheap, left over, poor quality, mis-ordered materials that they have to get rid of in order to fill the order at such a low margin.

Believe it or not, you really DO get what you paid for.

Im playing GW2 on my 40" tv at a resolution of 1080p (native high res) using an old intel e8400+ and nvidia 8800 GT OC with 2GB of ram. Not all settings are maxed, but .. oh darn?

Dell/Alienware has nothing to gain from putting shoddy components in their PCs because under the terms of their warranty, they are required to replace them which costs more than buying good ones to begin with. In fact, I have found the failure rate of the components in Dell/Alienware computers to be lower than components that were purchased individually.

Lets focus on the facts, not innuendo or hearsay. Your personal experience does not necessarily apply to everyone. In fact, I opened up my Aurora R3 and found that almost all of the components were in fact OEM versions of highly rated components with the exception of the two GTX 460s which were essentially Nvidia reference cards. They were not bad video cards but they could have been better. I have since replaced them with 2x GTX 560 ti.

All of the other components were retail quality components. Everything, the mother board, the memory, processor, liquid cooling system, power supply etc. are all comparable to the best components I could have gotten on newegg.com at the time. And of course the Alienware case is a work of art. Alienware’s Command Center software, case lighting and active thermal cooling solution are second to none.

The only criticism of Alienware I would have in terms of components is that they sometimes skimp on video card quality and performance. My advice to them would be to go back to using eVGA video cards. On the other hand, the reference cards they buy from Nvidia and ATI are solid cards that have good heat dissipation and are very stable. I think that Alienware tends to favor cards that are cheaper, cooler and more stable rather than getting the best bang for the buck card such as a mainstream eVGA card. I do think that Falcon Northwest tends to use better video cards than Alienware in their systems but the video cards they offer are also much more expensive.

And then there is my M14x. This little laptop is truly a work of art. It runs GW2 fast and flawlessly and on a 4G LTE connection. At 1600×900, the frame rates are a strong 35-55 fps with default settings and the image quality of the GT 650M is stunning. One of the really nice things about the M14x is the bose audio on speakers or headphones. The sound it puts out is actually better than the on-board sound on my Aurora R3 desktop. I could not ask for a better designed, more comfortable gaming and business laptop.

these tips seem helpful, but they aren’t
it’s like a “general guide to PC-tweaking”, which barely gives you any noticable performance boost
except for older machines…but high end?

i don’t even run a high-end PC (i7 950 quad @3,55ghz, gtx580, 8GB ram @1066mhz, GW2 installed on a ssd) and can multitask while palying GW2 at max settings just fine (mplayer, firefox, some system-check tools in the background like “coretemp” and all that with 40~60FPS ingame – limited at 60FPS)
and my CPU never goes above 55°C (about 131~133°F) while doing so which are nice temps for my hot-tempered CPU model, especially when overclocked
but yeah, the summer boost those temps up to the sky…but no way to cool down my room…so i just throttle my system, if it get’s too hot outside

the best thing to do, when running a geforce gfx-card, is to mess about at the nvidia-control panel (i assume, the optimal settings are posted somewhere in this forum)
and get at least a quad core CPU…GW2 likes good CPU’s
and behold of bottlenecking…it’s when one component slows everything else down, mostly caused by people who just buy random components from the internet and blend them together – get some help, if you are not sure about the single components, before you buy them! some components are just not compatable to some others OR could get higher performance when mixed up with certain ones! ;D

also, turn off the windows 7 aero peek and visuals while running GW2 (rightclick the .exe or shortcut, go to properties, select the
“compatibility” tab and there are the options to disable them)

GW2 drains not nearly as much performance as some other games, i’ve installed
my power supply is about to melt down when playing Crysis 2 O.O
…might come in handy at winter -_-’

There is a new Nvidia driver out, 306.97

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

I did not see any specific reference to Guild Wars 2 in the release notes. I will download it and test it out tonight. You may want to consider cleaning your existing driver before installing a new one. Driver fusion is a good way to do that

http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

I have tried it and it works well.

Please post your results with the new Nvidia driver in this thread.

@Samuel: did you accedently swapped the “7” with the “9” in “306.79”? :P

got steady almost stable 61FPS now with the latest driver (306.97) on my GTX580
had about 40~55FPS (mostly about 45FPS) before
i had to reduce the shadow effects to “high”, because the camera stutters on moving and turning if set to “ultra” (no FPS changes), but it also could be due some control-panel changes i did after updating
everything else in-game is set to maximum quality
frame-refresh is set to 60Hz and the framerate is limited to 60FPS

oh btw, my system:
GW2 installed on OCZ Vert EX SSD/connected to a 6GB/s SATA slot (also windows partition)
ASUS Rampage III Extreme, I7 950 @3.63Ghz, 4x 2GB Corsair DDR3-SDRAM @574.3MHz (Triple Channel), and of course my beloved GTX580 1,5GB-GDDR5 @772Mhz/24.7GPixel/s
still more OC potential and 2 other 2GB corsair rams of the same type lying around here collecting dust (i removed them, because they heat up my whole system and they are pointless…i never even scratched 6GB utilisation even if i try hard…also they are running on double-channel if all DIMMs are used)
but my powersupply (cheap stuff/750W) and my big, huge, monstrous CPU cooler (expensive as hell/liquid metal filled heatpipes – not better than a good Noctua) are crap

not even 400 bucks for the whole system…bought the stuff from a high-end lover who declared that setup as “junk” and gave me them for 300€ (about $385)
man…can’t understand high-end lovers

if anyone got a similiar system, i’ll gladly post my nvidia control panel settings as well as other performance related settings(some BIOS stuff, Win7 stuff, etc)when asked for it

The new Nvidia 306.79 drivers are a big improvement over the previous drivers for GW2. Performance is fast and stable with the new drivers. I highly recommend them.

Samaul.6073:

TheKow.7604:

I build custom Desktops as a hobby and the fact you title yourself PC enthusiast and over clocker while using a Alien-ware is degrading on the other hand decent list of helpful stuff but would be better with links and post to how-to’s and wider range of subjects other then clean PC, cool PC, and less programs…

Running 3rd party software like Gamebooster is simple for the people without major PC experience and shutdowns all auto update features rather easily without getting into MSconfig. Google is always a good friend for performance related topics and walk though and major forums have plenty of guides.

It is not necessary to trash Dell/Alienware. Everyone is welcome to their own opinions. The fact is that most high end pcs have essentially the same components in them. The primary difference is configuration. I have had zero issues with my alienware factory overclock. Alienwares active thermal cooling is great for making games like GW2 run faster and more stable.

I really doubt that Alienware’s motherboard would use similar VRMs on them. These, among other things, impact your ability to keep your overclocked system stable.

I really doubt that Alienware’s motherboard would use similar VRMs on them. These, among other things, impact your ability to keep your overclocked system stable.

Innuendo, hearsay, opinions and myths are not facts. The fact is that I opened up my case and looked inside my Aurora R3 and the components were all except the video cards of comparable quality to the best you can get in other systems or from newegg.com. The video cards were OEM reference cards. Not bad cards but not great either. I believe that the mother board was at the time a top of the line mini-ATX intel gaming motherboard.

Yes, you can spend more for components if you build your own system. They may be better components but I am not sure that a $300 motherboard is better than a $150 motherboard unless you are trying to set 3DMark records.

Please stop speculating on which components Alienware computers have in them. If you want to know which components your Alienware system would have in it, why dont you call Alienware and ask them?

1.800.Alienware
(1-800-254-3692)

If your salesperson cant answer your questions, call tech support and ask them. I am sure they will be happy to answer your questions.

Samaul.6073:

I really doubt that Alienware’s motherboard would use similar VRMs on them. These, among other things, impact your ability to keep your overclocked system stable.

Innuendo, hearsay, opinions and myths are not facts. The fact is that I opened up my case and looked inside my Aurora R3 and the components were all except the video cards of comparable quality to the best you can get in other systems or from newegg.com. The video cards were OEM reference cards. Not bad cards but not great either. I believe that the mother board was at the time a top of the line mini-ATX intel gaming motherboard.

Yes, you can spend more for components if you build your own system. They may be better components but I am not sure that a $300 motherboard is better than a $150 motherboard unless you are trying to set 3DMark records.

Please stop speculating on which components Alienware computers have in them. If you want to know which components your Alienware system would have in it, why dont you call Alienware and ask them?

1.800.Alienware
(1-800-254-3692)

If your salesperson cant answer your questions, call tech support and ask them. I am sure they will be happy to answer your questions.

Would you by any chance be selling or in any way affiliated to Alienware..? I find your aggressive defending of Alienware very puzzling.

Facts are facts – you pay a premium for the shining lights of the Alienware, compared to what you can build your self. Granted if you are in the segment of Alienware (young and/or new to hardware) and like the overly plasticky and spacey look of their various lines – then by all means enjoy your time with it. But by claiming that Alienware give better/equal value and bang for the buck – as a home built system, is just silly.

Finally – please remove the High End from this post title – nothing about your pc is high end. As per the word high-end, it would have to be just about the best throughout the system – and e.g. 2 × 560ti, is quite far from high-end – a GTX 670 barely qualify + your CPU is two generations old.

Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but time just moves fast in this world of hardware. Maybe you paid high-end price for your system back in the day, but that does not mean it is high-end today

Ondmand.5234:

Would you by any chance be selling or in any way affiliated to Alienware..? I find your aggressive defending of Alienware very puzzling.

Facts are facts – you pay a premium for the shining lights of the Alienware, compared to what you can build your self. Granted if you are in the segment of Alienware (young and/or new to hardware) and like the overly plasticky and spacey look of their various lines – then by all means enjoy your time with it. But by claiming that Alienware give better/equal value and bang for the buck – as a home built system, is just silly.

Finally – please remove the High End from this post title – nothing about your pc is high end. As per the word high-end, it would have to be just about the best throughout the system – and e.g. 2 × 560ti, is quite far from high-end – a GTX 670 barely qualify + your CPU is two generations old.

Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but time just moves fast in this world of hardware. Maybe you paid high-end price for your system back in the day, but that does not mean it is high-end today

PCs are by definition outdated the day that they arrive at your house. However, game development, especially MMORPG game development often lags far behind PC gaming hardware develpment. When GW2 was started, 3 or 4 years ago, the hardware in my PC was not on the market. GW2 was developed for NVIDIA 200 and 400 series GPUs, then later 500 series GPUs. In GW2 terms, my system is high end as I am able to run GW2 on high settings in all situations.

Facts are facts, in GW2 terms, the i7 2600k and 2x GTX 560ti are high end components. Sorry to burst your bubble “mate” but for most of GW2 development, the GTX 670 did even exist.

Oh and BTW, I am a web application developer by profession and I dont work for Dell.

I just loaded WoW MoP on “Ultra” settings on my M14x laptop, then GW2. When wow was running, my M14x ran quiet, I could not even hear the main cooling fan. When GW2 was running, the cooling fan went into overdrive. GW2 runs fine on my M14x but it does make it work hard.

This is merely an observation, not a value judgement. I think that it is safe to conclude that GW2 is much more demanding of gaming hardware than wow. That does not mean that wow is a better game. WoW was designed over 10 years ago so it makes sense that it would not strain my M14x.

Samaul.6073:

Ondmand.5234:

Would you by any chance be selling or in any way affiliated to Alienware..? I find your aggressive defending of Alienware very puzzling.

Facts are facts – you pay a premium for the shining lights of the Alienware, compared to what you can build your self. Granted if you are in the segment of Alienware (young and/or new to hardware) and like the overly plasticky and spacey look of their various lines – then by all means enjoy your time with it. But by claiming that Alienware give better/equal value and bang for the buck – as a home built system, is just silly.

Finally – please remove the High End from this post title – nothing about your pc is high end. As per the word high-end, it would have to be just about the best throughout the system – and e.g. 2 × 560ti, is quite far from high-end – a GTX 670 barely qualify + your CPU is two generations old.

Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but time just moves fast in this world of hardware. Maybe you paid high-end price for your system back in the day, but that does not mean it is high-end today

PCs are by definition outdated the day that they arrive at your house. However, game development, especially MMORPG game development often lags far behind PC gaming hardware develpment. When GW2 was started, 3 or 4 years ago, the hardware in my PC was not on the market. GW2 was developed for NVIDIA 200 and 400 series GPUs, then later 500 series GPUs. In GW2 terms, my system is high end as I am able to run GW2 on high settings in all situations.

Facts are facts, in GW2 terms, the i7 2600k and 2x GTX 560ti are high end components. Sorry to burst your bubble “mate” but for most of GW2 development, the GTX 670 did even exist.

Oh and BTW, I am a web application developer by profession and I dont work for Dell.

Indeed, 500x series are not high end anymore.but ofc that doesn’t change the fact it is Really good yet, i’ve a 560 on mine and just like the thread creator , i’m getting around 90~40 fps with full graphics including Ultra Shadows and Ultra LOD distance. ( ofc i think its REALLY unstable due to my cpu setting that are pretty good, so i bet they need to improve GW2 performance more! to be smoother)

Punk.4072:

Indeed, 500x series are not high end anymore.but ofc that doesn’t change the fact it is Really good yet, i’ve a 560 on mine and just like the thread creator , i’m getting around 90~40 fps with full graphics including Ultra Shadows and Ultra LOD distance. ( ofc i think its REALLY unstable due to my cpu setting that are pretty good, so i bet they need to improve GW2 performance more! to be smoother)

I get about 90-110 fps with 2x GTX 560 ti at 1080p with autodetect high settings. I dont change either the Nvidia control panel settings or the game settings.

Has anyone had any luck changing the game settings or Nvidia c-panel seettings?

in general, the best nvidia-cp settings are the ones recommended by the dev’s.
but everyone running different cards and drivers whichmay require you to mess about at the settings until you are satisfied with the graphics and perfomance

i didn’t played for about one and a half week now and noticed something weird:
my FPS
it’s now at steady 50 frames per second
it won’t go higher or lower...i tried everything (limit FPS to 30 cuts it down to 25 tho)
well it could be worse right?

i’ve read somewhere on here about this "issue"(?), but i can’t find the thread anymore

wauwi.9162:

in general, the best nvidia-cp settings are the ones recommended by the dev’s.
but everyone running different cards and drivers whichmay require you to mess about at the settings until you are satisfied with the graphics and perfomance

i didn’t played for about one and a half week now and noticed something weird:
my FPS
it’s now at steady 50 frames per second
it won’t go higher or lower…i tried everything (limit FPS to 30 cuts it down to 25 tho)
well it could be worse right?

i’ve read somewhere on here about this “issue”(?), but i can’t find the thread anymore

I recommend default settings for the Nvidia Control Panel unless you are having issues. If you need to change your graphics settings, let GW2 control the settings in game. The latest Nvidia drivers fully support GW2 on supported Nvidia GPUs. The Nvidia driver will autodetect the game when it loads and load the stored profile created for GW2 by Nvidia in cooperation with ArenaNet. In game hit ESC, select Options then Graphics. Then click Choose… Autodetect to let the game load optimal settings for your system.

I am currently running GW2 in SLI mode with no issues. Perfromance is strong in all situations including large scale wvwvw. I used the settings I suggest above.

You can get the latest Nvidia drivers from

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

I use auto-detect to select the right driver or you can select the appropriate driver from the drop-down menus.

This is the “Players Helping Players” forum. Specifically, this thread is about helping other players run GW2 better on their Nvidia GPU-based systems.

We want more posts from players sharing their experiences with running GW2 on Nvidia GPUs

I opened this thread to see if there were any tweaks beyond the options provided in-game or in the Nvidia control panel, and then I was greeted with almost three full pages of back-and-forth about overclocking and whether or not someone’s computer counts as high end.

The first post has a decent list of general tips for reducing heat and helping keep a machine run OK, I guess.

Can we trim out all of the fluff and actually make an Nvidia tweak thread?

Also I was a bit amused that the opening post implies that a "high end" machine cannot also run other programs, including a browser, while playing.

In any case ever since the Headstart Weekend, I have updated my graphics drivers a few times. Currently on 306.97; they did a good job, in my opinion, with their September-October updates getting better SLI performance in GW2. I haven’t felt need to edit settings from the normal ones for GW2.exe in the control panel, and I run with everything high in game.

Samaul.6073:

I recommend default settings for the Nvidia Control Panel unless you are having issues. If you need to change your graphics settings, let GW2 control the settings in game. The latest Nvidia drivers fully support GW2 on supported Nvidia GPUs. The Nvidia driver will autodetect the game when it loads and load the stored profile created for GW2 by Nvidia in cooperation with ArenaNet. In game hit ESC, select Options then Graphics. Then click Choose... Autodetect to let the game load optimal settings for your system.

I am currently running GW2 in SLI mode with no issues. Perfromance is strong in all situations including large scale wvwvw. I used the settings I suggest above.

You can get the latest Nvidia drivers from

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

I use auto-detect to select the right driver or you can select the appropriate driver from the drop-down menus.

so the recommended nvidia-CP settings should NOT be the ones that the actual developers of this game are recommending?
well it’s always a kind of opinion and taste which settings you run there.
i’m always set them up to my taste of performance and quality and what my eyes actually are able to see and what not.
you can’t mess that much at the nvidia CP anyways...

and the game always autodetects native rendering(everything else getting maxed out)...i can’t tell the difference between supersampling and native really but if my character walks up at some hills, the ground disappears if set to native.
every other settings does not affect my FPS in any way except reflections and shaders.

btw: A-Net already admitted performance issues on their side, also my internet provider got transmission issues especially with the A-Net servers...

so i can’t increase my performance except if i’d move near to the A-Net servers and change my internet provider...
i’ll just wait...i mean 40-60FPS aren’t the world’s end lol

wauwi.9162:

so the recommended nvidia-CP settings should NOT be the ones that the actual developers of this game are recommending?
well it’s always a kind of opinion and taste which settings you run there.
i’m always set them up to my taste of performance and quality and what my eyes actually are able to see and what not.
you can’t mess that much at the nvidia CP anyways…

and the game always autodetects native rendering(everything else getting maxed out)…i can’t tell the difference between supersampling and native really but if my character walks up at some hills, the ground disappears if set to native.
every other settings does not affect my FPS in any way except reflections and shaders.

btw: A-Net already admitted performance issues on their side, also my internet provider got transmission issues especially with the A-Net servers…

so i can’t increase my performance except if i’d move near to the A-Net servers and change my internet provider…
i’ll just wait…i mean 40-60FPS aren’t the world’s end lol

Thanks for the heads up on the Native vs. Supersampling issue. Can we get some feedback from ArenaNet on this issue?

native seems to work now...but suddenly i got a aliasing effect if i zoom out (AA effect especially on my character only)
let’s see if i can fix this at the nvidia-cp...
also vsync disables itself at times now...

oh and my FPS goes crazy now - 6~109FPS O.o
once you solve one problem, another one takes it’s place -_-

why is GW2 such a diva if it’s about peformance and quality...i can play the latest high-end games out there at "extreme" (dx11) flawlessly but then GW2 got installed at my computer and i’d like to throw it out the window now

i OC’ed my i7 even further (@4GHz) as a test to see if this actually changes anything...
watched out for bottlenecking RAM
cleaned my SSD
nvidia settings at max performance
well i guess i got 1 frame per second more than before...i could be wrong though

why am i not satisfied with 40-60FPS?
because of random FPS drops
i want to have a nice little buffer so that i’m not able to notice them

edit: now it’s steady 60FPS again no matter on which map i am
what a fickle game
edit2: steady, extremly stuttering 45FPS now o.O (feels like 20, laggy FPS)
this starts to make me mad Dx

alot things became better since my 3 weeks inactivity...TP, PuGs... even botting and goldselling
but the performance is still really bad most of the time...over 10 weeks after this game’s release...as a customer, i’m starting to lose my patience

wauwi.9162:

native seems to work now…but suddenly i got a aliasing effect if i zoom out (AA effect especially on my character only)
let’s see if i can fix this at the nvidia-cp…
also vsync disables itself at times now…

oh and my FPS goes crazy now – 6~109FPS O.o
once you solve one problem, another one takes it’s place -_-

why is GW2 such a diva if it’s about peformance and quality…i can play the latest high-end games out there at “extreme” (dx11) flawlessly but then GW2 got installed at my computer and i’d like to throw it out the window now

i OC’ed my i7 even further (@4GHz) as a test to see if this actually changes anything…
watched out for bottlenecking RAM
cleaned my SSD
nvidia settings at max performance
well i guess i got 1 frame per second more than before…i could be wrong though

why am i not satisfied with 40-60FPS?
because of random FPS drops
i want to have a nice little buffer so that i’m not able to notice them

edit: now it’s steady 60FPS again no matter on which map i am
what a fickle game
edit2: steady, extremly stuttering 45FPS now o.O (feels like 20, laggy FPS)
this starts to make me mad Dx

alot things became better since my 3 weeks inactivity…TP, PuGs… even botting and goldselling
but the performance is still really bad most of the time…over 10 weeks after this game’s release…as a customer, i’m starting to lose my patience

What version of the Nvidia drivers are you using?

I recommend the latest

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

i’m using the latest WHQL ones (the latest BETA one is even WORSE - common issue for nvidia lately...even previous games running not quite as flawless as before -.-) and btw i know about hardware and software stuff...enough
that sysprofile should tell ya:

http://www.sysprofile.de/id170142

said all relevant things.
*waiting for A-Net to fix stuff*

wauwi.9162:

i’m using the latest WHQL ones (the latest BETA one is even WORSE – common issue for nvidia lately…even previous games running not quite as flawless as before -.-) and btw i know about hardware and software stuff…enough
that sysprofile should tell ya:

http://www.sysprofile.de/id170142

said all relevant things.
waiting for A-Net to fix stuff

GW2 is an MMORPG which presents unique challenges for game developers. I think that ArenaNets MMORPG is the best technically so far but it is not perfect.

What specific issues are you experiencing?

Are you able to consistenly duplicate those issues?

Can you tell us the steps you go through to cause and/or fix those issues?

For example, I still experience blue screens due to overheating in GW2 when I forget to set my cooling and fans just right.

Samaul.6073:

GW2 is an MMORPG which presents unique challenges for game developers. I think that ArenaNets MMORPG is the best technically so far but it is not perfect.

sure point, but don’t release a game until it’s working perfectly.
people these days got way too tolerant for bugs/glitches/other technical problems caused by the game
though, alot of problems can be solved by the user/player

Samaul.6073:

What specific issues are you experiencing?

FPS drops down to 40FPS or lower at certain areas.
these areas includes water and everything else that have reflections, animated objects like tree shadows or flames and NPC’s (not monsters strangely)

Samaul.6073:

Are you able to consistenly duplicate those issues?

yes, i am

Samaul.6073:

Can you tell us the steps you go through to cause and/or fix those issues?

just being at these areas causes it

[attempts]
tried to fix this by OC my GPU’s clock to 1GHz and my CPU to 4GHz – did not increased performance
also terminated EVERYTHING, that runs in the background (which is not vital for the PC to run) as well as COMPLETELY disabled any windows visuals (desktop looks like win95/98/2k) – did not increased performance
optimized my network connection – did not increased performance

[FIX]
it can be either fixed by disabling vsync and restart the client (obviously screen tearing after applying this – also FPS goes sometimes higher than needed which heat up my system, frame limiter will decrease the FPS to 50 or lower)
or
set render sampling to “native” (ambient occlusion must be disabled at the nvidia-cp OR reflections has to be set to “none”, or some terrains will be invisible)
or
set reflections to “none” (will solve most of my FPS drops, got still some drops at other areas)
also, reinstalling GW2 completely gave me a nice boost of performance ingame

Samaul.6073:

For example, I still experience blue screens due to overheating in GW2 when I forget to set my cooling and fans just right.

maybe you just have to audjust your OC settings a little bit? :P

i don’t get a blue screen, but randomly, GW2 terminates and the GW1 (yes, ONE) website with the message “overheating or bad OC settings blah blah” opens
it never happened again since i increased my vcore a little bit

it looks like you can test your system with prime95 as much as you like, but it only guarantees that your PC will run stable on anything BUT GW2

note: my GPU’s usage is at about 60-70% @normal clock and it’s temps are at 50-60°C (customized fan speed) and my CPU’s usage @3,68MHz is at 30-50% and it’s temps are at 50°C while playing GW2

i wonder why it uses CORE1, 2 and 3 instead of CORE0, 1 and 2

40 fps is not optimal but it is playable. I am getting about 50 fps in Lion’s Arch on high settings. I will take a closer look at your hardware configuration and your post and comment later.

well it’s definitely not my hardware…it’s the game’s bad optimization…the dev’s admitted it
it’s now even below 40FPS since the latest patch most of the time on MEDIUM settings (PvE – outside of cities—-doesn’t even want to know my framerate at lion’s arch/black citadel)
i give up until a super epic nvidia driver/more super epic GW2 patch is out

it was at so nice and steady 60FPS during the first month after GW2’s launch…but that feels like an impossible framerate now

well…i could increase my ramerate by 5-10 if buying a new GFX card which runs @1GHz graphics-clock and with a dynamic OC feature (most cards of the GTX600 series have it)
i just don’t like to OC my GTX 580…it’s not build for it

would be still unplayable for me…because the FPS spikes, which makes the game looks like 20FPS…
it’s very noticable if you suddenly drop down to 5FPS for 1 second and then go up to 72 just to drop down to 30…it’s just crazy

i hope for a GTX660TI to christmas…it contains an assasin’s creed III digital download code…hopefully this game is optimized to a playable state next year

Oconell.8673:

Samaul.6073:

7. Get a can of compressed air, open up your case and carefully blow all of the dust out of your system.

Wrong. Don’t do this or you may very well damage your components. The correct way to do that is to get an air compressor and compress it yourself. But that’s neither cheap or efficient.
Cans of compressed air contain fluid that can damage your components. Also you can damage your fans by spinning them too fast when using a can of compressed air, and presumably even the components they are wired to.

Edit: In my opinion the best way is the old way, use a tiny brush or a vacuum not close to the components.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do NOT listen to this advice at all!

A regular vacuum should not be anywhere near a computer! A regular vacuum can cause a build up of static electricity which will fry your computer.

Compressed air does have fluid in it. I believe its nitrate, not sure though. But with proper technique it is NOT a problem and is recommended by computer technicians.

1. Do not tilt or hold the can upside down or it will spray out fluid.
2. Short bursts are your friend.
3. Do not get too close to the actual component itself.
4. If spraying near or toward a fan, stick something solid(like your finger) in between the fans fins. If you don’t than you risk breaking the fan itself.

Now, there are special anti-static vacuums that you can use. These aren’t a gimmick or a scam. I personally use one myself. If you want to know the brand name than just ask. I amtyping this at work so I can’t just go check lol.

Oconell.8673:

Samaul.6073:

7. Get a can of compressed air, open up your case and carefully blow all of the dust out of your system.

Wrong. Don’t do this or you may very well damage your components. The correct way to do that is to get an air compressor and compress it yourself. But that’s neither cheap or efficient.
Cans of compressed air contain fluid that can damage your components. Also you can damage your fans by spinning them too fast when using a can of compressed air, and presumably even the components they are wired to.

Edit: In my opinion the best way is the old way, use a tiny brush or a vacuum not close to the components.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do NOT listen to this advice at all!

A regular vacuum should not be anywhere near a computer! A regular vacuum can cause a build up of static electricity which will fry your computer.

Compressed air does have fluid in it. I believe its nitrate, not sure though. But with proper technique it is NOT a problem and is recommended by computer technicians.

1. Do not tilt or hold the can upside down or it will spray out fluid.
2. Short bursts are your friend.
3. Do not get too close to the actual component itself.
4. If spraying near or toward a fan, stick something solid(like your finger) in between the fans fins. If you don’t than you risk breaking the fan itself.

Now, there are special anti-static vacuums that you can use. These aren’t a gimmick or a scam. I personally use one myself. If you want to know the brand name than just ask. I amtyping this at work so I can’t just go check lol.

Oconell.8673:

Samaul.6073:

7. Get a can of compressed air, open up your case and carefully blow all of the dust out of your system.

Wrong. Don’t do this or you may very well damage your components. The correct way to do that is to get an air compressor and compress it yourself. But that’s neither cheap or efficient.
Cans of compressed air contain fluid that can damage your components. Also you can damage your fans by spinning them too fast when using a can of compressed air, and presumably even the components they are wired to.

Edit: In my opinion the best way is the old way, use a tiny brush or a vacuum not close to the components.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do NOT listen to this advice at all!

A regular vacuum should not be anywhere near a computer! A regular vacuum can cause a build up of static electricity which will fry your computer.

Compressed air does have fluid in it. I believe its nitrate, not sure though. But with proper technique it is NOT a problem and is recommended by computer technicians.

1. Do not tilt or hold the can upside down or it will spray out fluid.
2. Short bursts are your friend.
3. Do not get too close to the actual component itself.
4. If spraying near or toward a fan, stick something solid(like your finger) in between the fans fins. If you don’t than you risk breaking the fan itself.

Now, there are special anti-static vacuums that you can use. These aren’t a gimmick or a scam. I personally use one myself. If you want to know the brand name than just ask. I amtyping this at work so I can’t just go check lol.

sighs, i’ve had no issues with my rigs, sli MSI 580’s LE’s or my sli Asus top 670’s :p

wauwi.9162:

well it’s definitely not my hardware…it’s the game’s bad optimization…the dev’s admitted it
it’s now even below 40FPS since the latest patch most of the time on MEDIUM settings (PvE – outside of cities—-doesn’t even want to know my framerate at lion’s arch/black citadel)
i give up until a super epic nvidia driver/more super epic GW2 patch is out

it was at so nice and steady 60FPS during the first month after GW2’s launch…but that feels like an impossible framerate now

well…i could increase my ramerate by 5-10 if buying a new GFX card which runs @1GHz graphics-clock and with a dynamic OC feature (most cards of the GTX600 series have it)
i just don’t like to OC my GTX 580…it’s not build for it

would be still unplayable for me…because the FPS spikes, which makes the game looks like 20FPS…
it’s very noticable if you suddenly drop down to 5FPS for 1 second and then go up to 72 just to drop down to 30…it’s just crazy

i hope for a GTX660TI to christmas…it contains an assasin’s creed III digital download code…hopefully this game is optimized to a playable state next year

I just got 2x GTX 660ti and my 3DMark 11 Xtreme score went up by 2k to X4957.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5019247

I am using the following driver with them

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

I am looking forward to playing GW2 on them, I will let you know how it goes. According to anandtech.com

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review

The 660 ti actually uses less power and runs cooler than the 560ti despite having twice as much GDDR5 vram at 2GB as the 560 ti. This is welcome news to me with the cards crammed so closely together in my PC.

DivineBeing.2086:

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do NOT listen to this advice at all!

A regular vacuum should not be anywhere near a computer! A regular vacuum can cause a build up of static electricity which will fry your computer.

Compressed air does have fluid in it. I believe its nitrate, not sure though. But with proper technique it is NOT a problem and is recommended by computer technicians.

1. Do not tilt or hold the can upside down or it will spray out fluid.
2. Short bursts are your friend.
3. Do not get too close to the actual component itself.
4. If spraying near or toward a fan, stick something solid(like your finger) in between the fans fins. If you don’t than you risk breaking the fan itself.

Now, there are special anti-static vacuums that you can use. These aren’t a gimmick or a scam. I personally use one myself. If you want to know the brand name than just ask. I amtyping this at work so I can’t just go check lol.

I tend to agree, physically touching electronic components in a gaming PC is always dicey.

Previously GW2 on 2x GTX 560 ti 1 GB SLI:

2x GTX 560 ti 1 GB SLI 3DMark11 Score: X2938

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4783260

On 2x GTX 560 ti I experienced occaisional massive 3D lag, hitching while loading data from disk or memory, occaisional client crashes caused by overheating. The GTX 560 ti is a very hot GPU and heat causes instability. GW2 choked on the 560 ti’s limited 1 GB of VRAM, struggling to keep enough data in the form of textures, polygons etc loaded on to the video card for smooth gameplay. 2x GTX 560 ti SLI sometimes struggled at running GW2.

Currently PS2 on 2x GTX 660 ti 2 GB SLI

2x GTX 660 ti 2 GB SLI 3DMark11 Score: X4957

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5019247

On the same hardware, only the video cards changed, a 30%+ boost in performance. No crashes, no overheating, no hitching or stuttering, no 3D lag, all on High settings in PS2. Hours of smooth, flawless gameplay. Improved image quality, brighter colors, smoother effects and better visibility. That pretty much settles it. My 560 ti’s are now paper weights.

Rad this Anandtech review:

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte

It shows that despite the fact that the 660 ti has twice as much GDDR5 VRAM as the 560 ti, it actually runs cooler, uses less power and is at least 30% faster than the 560 ti.