Guild Wars 2

I get around 40-60 FPS with an i5-3570K @ stock (clock speeds), a Radeon HD 7970 IceQ X2 @ stock, and 4×2 8GB of Ripjaws X memory @ stock with all my settings up and at a 1920×1080 resolution, max settings (except for the view distance rendering setting which is on high instead of ultra), and a 55" LCD screen (If that makes any difference. I read somewhere online that screen size doesn’t make a difference in FPS). Ultra drops me a good 10 or so FPS I believe). Is this good/normal?

Would anyone else with similar or exact specs care to share their FPS?

Others are welcome too.

Also, any tips for a new player? I just started.

that seems very low. i have a 7850 and 965 and i run on max minus super sampling and medium shadows and i have seen it go up to 84 fps in certain areas. average is probably around 45. in wvwvw and holiday lion’s arch it drops to like 20 though.

I’m getting that on my 7850, yea. I have a 32" 1080p display (cheap as hell on black friday, lol)

i am gaming with i73930/ 2xgtx 680 bla bla but even then…. wot ever i play, allways play with zero shadows imo.

Running 180 fps steaddy. In zerg it drops to 100.

i have i-7 3770 processor, 8gb ram, 2gb raedon 7770 vid card, in towns my fps drops to about 60 on mostly ultra settings, run between 80-100 elsewhere. i use a 40 inch sony bravia 1080p for my computer monitor.

The 7000 series from AMD has some serious design issues. I have a 7870 and get similar performance to the OP.

i5 3570, 8gb viper, gtx660ti oc on 1920×1080… I just mentioned in last thread that was locked. In dungeons got 60 or few world areas 50-60. But in LA or other areas got drop to 35 constantly. This game is eating CPU too much when compared with other high graph mmos. Many many many ppl got those problems. Nvidia still didnt made any preformance boosts, only outdated driver had some fixes but nothing serious.

Hickeroar.9734:

The 7000 series from AMD has some serious design issues. I have a 7870 and get similar performance to the OP.

What is your cpu?

I play on 7750 (900) w/i5-3570k, 7770 w/ quad core 2 8200 and 6870 w/ i5-2500k all play very well and rarely ever dip lower than 35fps anywhere.

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

Willis.1789:

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

i get 80-100 outside of towns, not 180, the 180 fps was a post or two above mine(think that guy is running two vidcards).

i can have so much if i look into the skybox xD

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

i get 80-100 outside of towns, not 180, the 180 fps was a post or two above mine(think that guy is running two vidcards).

Oops that explains it. Must’ve misread.
So yeah, he does say “2×680s” which is well, really good. I’m not surprised 2 680s will get you 180 FPS. >o>

But still, you getting to 80-100 FPS is somewhat surprising with the reason I stated. Perhaps I need to OC to get more? :/

i7 2600k @ 4.4Ghz / GTX680 / 8GB / SSD

I have shadows usually set to low, but everything else set to max and I get a solid, constant 60fps (maybe 40ish in heavy WvW)

Only I run 1920×1080 × 3 (5760×1080)

It’s nothing short of spectacular.

Willis.1789:

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

i get 80-100 outside of towns, not 180, the 180 fps was a post or two above mine(think that guy is running two vidcards).

Oops that explains it. Must’ve misread.
So yeah, he does say “2×680s” which is well, really good. I’m not surprised 2 680s will get you 180 FPS. >o>

But still, you getting to 80-100 FPS is somewhat surprising with the reason I stated. Perhaps I need to OC to get more? :/

i dont oc. i just dont install any junk on my computer, i use it for games only. seems to run better that way. and my gpu is midrange, not low end, it scored pretty high on performance reviews compared to other midrange cards.

i dont oc. i just dont install any junk on my computer, i use it for games only. seems to run better that way. and my gpu is midrange, not low end, it scored pretty high on performance reviews compared to other midrange cards.

I think this is an often overlooked factor. I keep my system lean and mean – no extra junk but a lot of people seem unable to resist clicking, confirming and downloading everything they can find and then wonder why their system runs so slow…

Dreamslayer.7659:

i dont oc. i just dont install any junk on my computer, i use it for games only. seems to run better that way. and my gpu is midrange, not low end, it scored pretty high on performance reviews compared to other midrange cards.

I think this is an often overlooked factor. I keep my system lean and mean – no extra junk but a lot of people seem unable to resist clicking, confirming and downloading everything they can find and then wonder why their system runs so slow…

firefox is horrible for that. that web browser has tons of add-ons. another thing that can contribute to slowing down your computer is the stupid gaming keyboards they sell with the built in macro functions or whatever. i havent seen any setup in awhile but a few years back i had a friend buy one and it lagged the hell out of his computer. not sure if that still holds true today tho with the ungodly amounts of ram you can stuff into a computer.

I have an AMD FX6100, 12 Gigs Ram, 2×7850s (2gig each), play at 1920×1080 on ultra and using SweetFX and I get 60 FPS, 30 FPS when things are really busy.

I get pretty stable frame rates of 40-50 with Radeon 6870 with Phenom II
1045T. This is outside of WvW.

I’m so jealous of you guys. Running around with your $1k machines and all I’ve got is this lowly GTX 550 Ti and an i3-530.

i have an amd fx-4100 and radeon xfx 7770 HD and while just doing simple questing and some heavy zone events my fps will be 35 at best and 15 at worst on everything maxed out, although i use the limit option to set it to 30.

max = 16x AA and all that crap, everything…

Hickeroar.9734:

The 7000 series from AMD has some serious design issues. I have a 7870 and get similar performance to the OP.

lol what no it doesn’t? performance is great on mine, maybe yours :\

Fathme.5216:

i have an amd fx-4100 and radeon xfx 7770 HD and while just doing simple questing and some heavy zone events my fps will be 35 at best and 15 at worst on everything maxed out, although i use the limit option to set it to 30.

max = 16x AA and all that crap, everything…

SIXTEEN AA?!!!,

WTF! You can’t see a difference between 4x and 8x(well you can but it requires extreme zooms/angles). And now the difference between 8x and 16x is visible when exactly? When playing with projector lol? Maybe at XxXtRreme zooms? It’s not even worth it! Turn that waffle down!

Dreamslayer.7659:

i7 2600k @ 4.4Ghz / GTX680 / 8GB / SSD

I have shadows usually set to low, but everything else set to max and I get a solid, constant 60fps (maybe 40ish in heavy WvW)

Only I run 1920×1080 × 3 (5760×1080)

It’s nothing short of spectacular.

Good to hear. I have same setup (5900×1080) but only 1 gtx 670 4gb, been wondering if sli is worth it for this game, but that’s looks good enough for me

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

i get 80-100 outside of towns, not 180, the 180 fps was a post or two above mine(think that guy is running two vidcards).

Oops that explains it. Must’ve misread.
So yeah, he does say “2×680s” which is well, really good. I’m not surprised 2 680s will get you 180 FPS. >o>

But still, you getting to 80-100 FPS is somewhat surprising with the reason I stated. Perhaps I need to OC to get more? :/

i dont oc. i just dont install any junk on my computer, i use it for games only. seems to run better that way. and my gpu is midrange, not low end, it scored pretty high on performance reviews compared to other midrange cards.

Hm… I don’t really install “junk” on my computer either. Also just to clarify, I didn’t call your GPU “low-end”, just lower than the 7970 in ranking. I know that your GPU is a high end GPU just like the 7970.

Also, I just found out I get like 32-40ish FPS when roaming around that town (I guess you would call it a town?) when you go through that big portal in the Sylvari area and enter that big chamber with an elevator in it. >o>

Willis.1789:

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

Willis.1789:

Hm…so AMD has some design issues with GW2? I got the 7970 bc it has great OC potential but I’m wondering why I only get 40-60 FPS? I don’t think I’ve been to a town yet, lol.

And dang Rikimeru, I want your setup. Do you seriously get 180 FPS? O-o
That’s quite unbelievable, considering your GPU is a lower model. Then again, you have a greater CPU.

i get 80-100 outside of towns, not 180, the 180 fps was a post or two above mine(think that guy is running two vidcards).

Oops that explains it. Must’ve misread.
So yeah, he does say “2×680s” which is well, really good. I’m not surprised 2 680s will get you 180 FPS. >o>

But still, you getting to 80-100 FPS is somewhat surprising with the reason I stated. Perhaps I need to OC to get more? :/

i dont oc. i just dont install any junk on my computer, i use it for games only. seems to run better that way. and my gpu is midrange, not low end, it scored pretty high on performance reviews compared to other midrange cards.

Hm… I don’t really install “junk” on my computer either. Also just to clarify, I didn’t call your GPU “low-end”, just lower than the 7970 in ranking. I know that your GPU is a high end GPU just like the 7970.

messengers, toolbars, web browser add-ons, winamp or other music players, etc. are all junk that will slow your system down.

I cap my fps to 60 (though for some reason it caps out at 50 since lost shores patch, I think there’s a mis-digit in the code).

During the first couple days of play I capped out at about 95 fps in queensdale, but thought this was excessive.

Unfortunately, thanks to recent patches and DX9 single-core performance issues, I often dip into the 20’s and 30’s in dynamic events (shatterer, OUCH) and certain areas of lion’s arch.

everything maxed except sampling – running it on my plasma panasonic veira @ 1080p.

System specs:
gtx670 hand-oc’d by about 18% (run at about the standard max stable clock rate of 1246)
i7 2600k @ 4.6 ghz.

115 fps/avg

70 in wvw.

If you guys are having issues with fps, set reflections to ‘Sky and Terrain’. Doing this gave me a 5-15 fps increase in most areas even if I wasn’t looking at water.

Lofty.8759:

115 fps/avg

70 in wvw.

Pics of specs and fps please.

your fps on your tv i based on its refresh rate so tv doesnt matter, its based on your high def tv refersh rate(hdmi cord also). as long as your fps doesnt go lower then 55 in and video game on your pc your fine. I recommend changing your fps on your video card to not go over 60. unless you fly fighter planes dont think your eye is trained to see more than 60.

Rikimeru Tokesbudz.3816:

messengers, toolbars, web browser add-ons, winamp or other music players, etc. are all junk that will slow your system down.

Yep close them, problem solved. But 64 bit with much more ram you can also find out that they don’t affect your fps much at all either.

For what the OP mentioned it seemed reasonable the FPS he was getting with his system.

Get a steady 60 just out in the world on my own, drops if i move the camera around real fast(is this a common thing in gw2?), 20-30 in a major wvw zerg vs zerg battle. Around 30-40 in Lions Arch.
i5 2500k 4.2 ghz
560ti 448 cores
8gb ram

I noticed that I had Vsync on (which is why it never went past 61 FPS). When I turned it off, I got around 70ish but rotating around caused it to lag a bit. I went back to Vsync because of that, and it seemed to make the game smoother. Soon I’m going to get a Asus vh236h monitor with a 2ms response time and see if FPS improves.

Also, this is slightly irrelevant, but does anyone else’s GPU have coil whine? Mine does. >o>

Willis.1789:

I noticed that I had Vsync on (which is why it never went past 61 FPS). When I turned it off, I got around 70ish but rotating around caused it to lag a bit. I went back to Vsync because of that, and it seemed to make the game smoother. Soon I’m going to get a Asus vh236h monitor with a 2ms response time and see if FPS improves.

Also, this is slightly irrelevant, but does anyone else’s GPU have coil whine? Mine does. >o>

I don’t think fps is tied to your monitor.

Btw does anyone think I’d get better fps in big zergs with a new graphics card or is that mostly tied to cpu? i5 2500k, 560ti 448 cores atm.

Amd fx-6100 @ 4.2, and 1 PC 7950 @ 1030. Fully maxed out with native. Getting 60 fps constantly. The new drivers for amd make a positive difference with the fps drops. The game still has some random bottlenecks to be found though. I saw someone say something about the 7000 series having issues. The biggest issue they have is they don’t handle dx9 stuff well which I believe a lot of gw is. The drivers are making a big difference with this though.

Knifeprrty.8274:

your fps on your tv i based on its refresh rate so tv doesnt matter, its based on your high def tv refersh rate(hdmi cord also). as long as your fps doesnt go lower then 55 in and video game on your pc your fine. I recommend changing your fps on your video card to not go over 60. unless you fly fighter planes dont think your eye is trained to see more than 60.

The refresh rate on a plasma is 600hz. I doubt anything short of an experimental NVIDIA super-cluster could play gw2 at 600 FPS

Lifeson.4352:

Willis.1789:

I noticed that I had Vsync on (which is why it never went past 61 FPS). When I turned it off, I got around 70ish but rotating around caused it to lag a bit. I went back to Vsync because of that, and it seemed to make the game smoother. Soon I’m going to get a Asus vh236h monitor with a 2ms response time and see if FPS improves.

Also, this is slightly irrelevant, but does anyone else’s GPU have coil whine? Mine does. >o>

I don’t think fps is tied to your monitor.

Btw does anyone think I’d get better fps in big zergs with a new graphics card or is that mostly tied to cpu? i5 2500k, 560ti 448 cores atm.

I don’t think FPS is tied in with the size of a monitor either, but it’s nice to have hope in that. XP

And on your FPS matter, I would say both. Your GPU is for your graphics processing power (it’s probably THE MOST important part of your computer besides the CPU), and a ton of that is consumed in playing GW2. In addition to this, your CPU also has to process the program and what happens in-game. So to answer your question, getting a better GPU is always a better thing. However, if you are feeling a bit adventurous then you can OC your GPU/CPU and see if that makes a difference.

Also, I believe your network connection would also tie in to gameplay during the big zergs as you have to connect to the server which is processing thousands of other connections in that area. However, connectivity would be a lot worse if GW2 was peer to peer.

30 – 35 FPS in SPvP and PvE (when not in massive events like Joprmarg)
7 – 10 FPS in WvW zergs so I don’t play WvW at all. Feel like playing half of the game only.

willis: dx9 does a terrible job at using the CPU to feed the GPU.

in today’s environment where cpu power is banching out more laterally (more cores) than vertically (higher performance per core), you will be bottlenecking yourself at gtx680 if your CPU is under 5ghz.

If you have a 690 or the latest from ATI (a single 690 is a serious “tock” in the iterative cycle and will blow even a pair of SLI’d 680’s out of the benchmarking water), you’ll probably notice in many high-demand situations such as crowded ares or large DE’s that your CPU will peg and your GPU will actually drop.

This game is severely CPU-bound in this way. It’s really quite frustrating to watch my oc’d gtx-670 drop to 30%-under-max in encounters like shatterer when my cpu is churning away at 4.6ghz.

zerg v zerg in wvw getting very high fps and no drops really even while frapsing @60fps

http://youtu.be/k6EZpgYqTuY

xiv.7136:

zerg v zerg in wvw getting very high fps and no drops really even while frapsing @60fps

http://youtu.be/k6EZpgYqTuY

system specifics and setting specifics please. heck, upload your graphics config so I can run a diff.

5760 × 1080
All graphics set to as high as I can get.
FPS 50-60
(EDIT: I forgot to overclock my GPU’s so same as above but OC’d I’m FPS 90 – 115)
If I set to “Best Performance”
FPS 120
(EDIT Same: FPS 165 – 170)

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Redline 32GB 2133 MOBO: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
SSD: Crucial M4 256GB GPU: EVGA GTX 680 SLI CASE: NZXT SWITCH 810
PSU: SeaSonic Platinum-1000 COOLING: Water Cooling

Overclocked @4.8Ghz

plasmacutter.2709:

xiv.7136:

zerg v zerg in wvw getting very high fps and no drops really even while frapsing @60fps

http://youtu.be/k6EZpgYqTuY

system specifics and setting specifics please. heck, upload your graphics config so I can run a diff.

2700k, 16gb, 570SLI – in other words, nothing special

turn off reflections (makes it harder to see underwater for escaping thieves), shadows to low and it’s 60fps all the time

the main thing is my computer is completely clean, very barebones

GTX580 @ stock clocks (v.310.90 driver), i7-950 @3,7GHz (HT disabled) and 55FPS avg. @LA on high settings O.o

didn’t played a month, but nice framerates all of the sudden
i had avg. 25FPS @LA/BC/Zergs/Events at the the last time i was online (ingame: no reflections/low shadows/rest at high, nvidia-cp: low quality/high performance)

now it’s ~55FPS on high+reflections@terrain&sky+high shadows on populated and heavy areas and high texture filtering quality at the nvidia cp

either it’s one of the magical framerate boosts that happened before a few times for a short period of time or it’s finally some game optimisation :D

Raijinn.9065:

Dreamslayer.7659:

i7 2600k @ 4.4Ghz / GTX680 / 8GB / SSD

I have shadows usually set to low, but everything else set to max and I get a solid, constant 60fps (maybe 40ish in heavy WvW)

Only I run 1920×1080 × 3 (5760×1080)

It’s nothing short of spectacular.

Good to hear. I have same setup (5900×1080) but only 1 gtx 670 4gb, been wondering if sli is worth it for this game, but that’s looks good enough for me

I used to run dual 680s (in a Silverstone FT03 case) and it was great for Battlefield 3, but I just got tired of that game and sold one of my cards. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it would benefit this game because it seems to be significantly CPU bound.

I’m very picky and if there is a game I play that does not run more or less perfectly, then I will throw hardware at it until it does, but a single 680 is plenty for GW2.

@OP There be alot of performance claims on here but not much in terms of a way of sorting ur issue..wiht that said…

Turn Reflections to terrain And sky, When on ‘All’ it has a massive impact of FPS since its sort of bugged. It will render relfections that aren to even visible. .like underground and out of view. Shadows on Max can also cause a significant drop in certain situations so u could try lowering that.

Make sure ur GPU is running on PCIE x16, GW2 performance drops significantly if its on anything but x16. Try different driver versions, old ,new, and beta’s. try downlcoking ur GPU if its facotry OC’d.. GW2 can be picky. make sure any CPU OC is stable without errors using Prime95. Check out the following thread for more ways of troubleshooting.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095383

As for the comments on CPU and GPU and AMD etc.

GPU wise there is no issues with AMD or Nvidia. There are cases of driver/software issues with the latest series of cards mainly, but they r not the ‘norm’.

CPU wise there is a difference. Dispite claims of good performance , AMD CPU’s will at some point in the game, mainly WvW, drop below 30 fps.
The only list of normal consumer CPU’s that will keep GW2 from droping below 30FPS are the following.

Intel 2500k,2550k,2600k,2700k,3570k,3770k,3930k. All with a OC of ‘around’ 4.5ghz.

Any thing above those that are capable of good OC’s wil lalso work but are not really consumer friendly as they r the 2 extreme CPU’s that cost insane amounts. Xeon CPU’s rate good on single thread performance but dont OC that high so get out performed by the listed CPU’s at those OC’s.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

If you have a good OC’d CPU and a half good GPU, there is no reason to drop below 30 fps so long as u set graphics accordingly. If u have done those and u still get poor performance there is highly likely to be a software/driver issue not related to GW2 specificaly or possibly,though less likely, a hardware issue.

Hope this helps.
FYI none of the above info is bassed on my ‘opinion’

Willis.1789:

Lifeson.4352:

Willis.1789:

I noticed that I had Vsync on (which is why it never went past 61 FPS). When I turned it off, I got around 70ish but rotating around caused it to lag a bit. I went back to Vsync because of that, and it seemed to make the game smoother. Soon I’m going to get a Asus vh236h monitor with a 2ms response time and see if FPS improves.

Also, this is slightly irrelevant, but does anyone else’s GPU have coil whine? Mine does. >o>

I don’t think fps is tied to your monitor.

Btw does anyone think I’d get better fps in big zergs with a new graphics card or is that mostly tied to cpu? i5 2500k, 560ti 448 cores atm.

I don’t think FPS is tied in with the size of a monitor either, but it’s nice to have hope in that. XP

And on your FPS matter, I would say both. Your GPU is for your graphics processing power (it’s probably THE MOST important part of your computer besides the CPU), and a ton of that is consumed in playing GW2. In addition to this, your CPU also has to process the program and what happens in-game. So to answer your question, getting a better GPU is always a better thing. However, if you are feeling a bit adventurous then you can OC your GPU/CPU and see if that makes a difference.

Also, I believe your network connection would also tie in to gameplay during the big zergs as you have to connect to the server which is processing thousands of other connections in that area. However, connectivity would be a lot worse if GW2 was peer to peer.

Sorry for the enormous quote. The only direct impact a monitor can have on performance is based solely on the resolution. Adjusting from 720p to 1080 and up and up each step cuts your fps somewhere between 1\3 and half, there is of course a lot of variables. If you are having trouble running the game dropping the resolution is a easy way to get the performance without sacrificing all those special effects, but generally its better to optimize at the best resolution for your system. 1080p at medium is almost always better visually then the next step down but low? Maybe not. So in conclusion a 32" 1080 and a 21" 1080 will have the same load on your card. Hope that helps.

For those asking about upgrading FROM a 2500k,2550k,3570k,2600k,2700k,3930k.. to somthing else…..DONT.. just OC.

You can run GW2 the best that is possible with ANY of those CPU’s (and only those CPU’s) so long as u OC to around 4.5ghz.

*well ‘only’ ..except for the 3960X and 3970X :P but they r insanely expensive and give no performance increase.

If u have anything lower than those, OCing will still help . But depending on how far down the single thread performance tree ur current CPU is it might not be worth the effort OC’ing and would be better just buying one of the above CPU’s then OC’ing.

SCREENSIZE:
As the poster said above.. SIZE doesnt matter. Resolution does.
I run a 42" Plasma TV at 1920x 1080 …if i used a 17" CRT at1920x1080 ..it wouldnt make the slightest difference in FPS.
Refresh rate does have an effect when Vsync is enabled. Most TV’s/Monitors nowerdays are 60hz so FPS is capped a 60 wiht Vsync on. You can get 120hz monitors also now ..so thats 120FPS cap with Vsync.

If som1 tells u otherwise about screen size (not resolution) affecting FPS .they dont have a clue bassicaly

SolarNova.1052:

For those asking about upgrading FROM a 2500k,2550k,3570k,2600k,2700k,3930k.. to somthing else…..DONT.. just OC.

You can run GW2 the best that is possible with ANY of those CPU’s (and only those CPU’s) so long as u OC to around 4.5ghz.

*well ‘only’ ..except for the 3960X and 3970X :P but they r insanely expensive and give no performance increase.

If u have anything lower than those, OCing will still help . But depending on how far down the single thread performance tree ur current CPU is it might not be worth the effort OC’ing and would be better just buying one of the above CPU’s then OC’ing.

I have the above, all the recommended (my specs are further up this thread).

Any dragon DE (where people actually congregate) will tank my FPS to about 22 – all while the GPU hangs 30% below max.

You said run max except sampling. Turn down Reflections, also Shadows On max can somtimes cause issues, turn that down 1 notch also. See if that helps.
Make sure ur GPU is running on X16 PCIE also just incase.

MAX SETTINGS @ 1920×1080 ~ GTX 680 4G SLI

Resolution : Full Screen 1920 x1080
Refresh Rate : 120 Hz
Frame Limiter : Unlimited
3D Stereoscopic rendering : ON
Animation : High
Anti Aliasing : FXAA
Environment : High
LOD Distance : Ultra
Reflections : All
Textures : High
Render Sampling : Supersample
Shadows : Ultra
Shaders : High
Post processing : High
Best texturing Filtering
Depth Blur
High Res Character Textures
Vertical Vsync : OFF

45 min ….. 60 avg …. 95 Max (outside , dungeons)
15 min ….. 35 avg …. 75 Max (lion arch) Spin your view & watch your comp die.
Stare at a tree, look at the sky or your feet for 180 fps

In my opinion you dont need 60fps consistant for a 3rd person as its not a totally fast reaction game like a first person shooter

Actually I havent tested out the 30" IPS panel for 2560 x1600 for guild wars 2 , maybe i should benchmark that one too