Guild Wars 2

Sorry to say it guys but Guild Wars 2 has not been too friendly with AMD systems. I went out and built myself a computer just for this game only to find out that GW2 has horrible threading and I picked the worst parts I possibly could. But there is a small glimmer of hope if your willing to do some work into some overclocking.

http://imgur.com/a/jD7En

This album shows my options / stats used to achieve higher fps. Here is a short list of things you should do to increase your FPS using an AMD system.

1. Turn off Crossfire in Catalyst Control Center (See Picture 2 in link above)

2. Turn off 8-core processing if using a FX-8XXX model. (You can get a higher Overclock using just 4 cores)

3. Make sure RAM timings are accurate (I have DDR3 1600 with 9-9-9-24 timings, this can be changed in the BIOS)

3. Turn up Core Speed Multiplier in BIOS (I have my FX-8150 busting out 4.8GHz, See picture 1)

4. Turn off Core Boosters (We want a stable and even core speed)

5. Turn up Core Voltage to stabilize Multiplier (Be very careful with this. I don’t recommend pushing this past 1.5V. I have water cooling in my computer which allows me to keep my CPU cooler and am able to pump more volts into it, MORE VOLTS = MORE OVERCLOCKING)

6. In the Guild Wars 2 graphics options turn down reflections and shadows as much as possible. (See picture 5)

http://youtu.be/8u7MIwphuoE <- this video was a great tutorial on basic overclocking and what happens if you turn the volts up too high. I recommend you watch this.

50+ FPS on an AMD processor clocked at 4.8 GHz?
An intel i5 or an intel i7 is doing that, or more, on stock settings.

also yeah the overclock will help, though. I hit 4.7 stable on mine and got better performance though the resulting heat that was generated made it so hot in my room, holy cow

[using Corsair H100 btw]

Im not comparing intel vs AMD. i know an intel is MUCH MUCH better for FPS in Guild Wars 2. I was just trying to help those of us who were unfortunate enough to go with an AMD system without knowing how Guild Wars 2 handled threading.

Oh I know. I think. Maybe. Dead from work hi.
Anyway.
Yeah it takes a monster clock speed to get good fps in cpu intense locations.

Well it shouldn’t be a secret that AMD processors are kittened up against Intels in CPU eating Software.

I get even with my i5 3570k @ stock settings 60 frames in LA :|

especially you’re running only at 1280×1024....

This works on everything, but I think you have additional issues that are killing your FPS. I see 50+ FPS when not in huge zergs, with only shadows turned down (shadows always have killed my performance on all systems).

I’ve got a 6850 and a 1090T phenom 2 x6. I’ll agree with disabling turbo core, but leaving on the extra cores doesn’t really hurt. If you’re having issues with that, I suggest you look into core parking. RAM timings aren’t going to significantly affect your game performance, unless you buy RAM that’s rated above what you can set to (say 1866 or something) and you up your FSB AND attempt to run tighter timings than your RAM is rated for. There’s more to overclocking, btw, that just increasing your multiplier and voltage. You can actually end up with worse performance if you don’t take care to increase the north bridge and hyper transport frequencies along with the cpu clock.

But yes, increasing the cpu clock will get you some performance increases, but unless you are getting massive overclocks or taking care to speed up HT/NB and RAM alongside the CPU, you aren’t going to get more than a few frames additional performance. Maybe a coulple fps/100MHz increase, up to a certain point, after which you have to balance the HT/NB speeds with the CPU to remain stable to keep getting any benefit.