Guild Wars 2

Hey there guys, I picked up Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition some days ago, and started playing it on my new System. The thing is im gettin quite low FPS, no matter if on low or high.

My Rig:
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Intel Core i5 4670K 4x 3.40GHz
4096MB Sapphire Radeon R9 290X
ASRock Z87 Pro4 Intel Z87 So.1150 Dual (Mainbord)
Win7 64 Bit
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What I’ve tried:
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Unpark my CPU
Do everything THIS told me
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I really hope someone can help me getting better frames. (Im getting about 20FPS in Maintown, no matter what graphic options…)

That is a system that has about the best potential for GW2, I give you that.

GW2 doesn’t require much for a graphics card, so I don’t think there’s any issues with that and thus nothing needed to be done to it. What you can do is next time you play, go into the main town (I assume it’s Lion’s Arch you’re talking about) and have Windows Task Manager or some similar kind of program running in background to monitor CPU Usage . GW2 doesn’t utilize more than 3 threads effectively and once 1 core hits 100 usage, the performance starts to drop. So, when you’re seeing low performance, alt tab into whatever program it is you’re using, and I bet it shows you’ve just been to if not max then very near it.

You can monitor you your GPU usage as well just for the lulz with GPU-Z for example and see that it doesn’t go anywhere near max while playing GW2 (unless you’re running higher than 1080p resolution and/or eyefinity). I have a GTX 660 and it hardly ever even peaks at 99% usage.

There currently isn’t a CPU on the market that’s powerful enough to provide constant 60+ fps in crowded areas, not even 30+ for that matter. The only thing you can do, however, is to overclock that beast and unleash its fullest potential.

In my experience, the number one performance hog in this game when in big cities with lots of players, like Lions Arch, is the “Character Model Limit” option under graphics options. Try changing this one from highest to lowest in LA.

Thanks for the help locx, well I never overclocked anything, so I got no idea how to tweak the volt usage, the GHz and all that stuff perfectly fine without breaking dat thing.

OGDead, I turned everything to lowest, gave me bout 2 FPS ._.

There are tons of great guides around, just type Haswell overclocking or 4670k overclocking to google and youtube and follow them. I’m on my phone now so I can’t give links, but the basic idea pretty much is to increase that clock speed and voltage, it’s all done in BIOS just using your keyboard.

Now before you go, you want to check your temps with RealTemp or CoreTemp while running a stress test, and see what your distance to TJMax is. That’s how much warmer your CPU can get before it throttles or shuts itself down. Mind you, you won’t get very far with the stock cooler. Also rememver, OCing is a slow process, take baby steps, better to be safe than sorry. When done right, there’s nothing dangerous about it and it’s right now the only way to get better performance with a 4670k. Good luck!

MaciKeks.2415:

Thanks for the help locx, well I never overclocked anything, so I got no idea how to tweak the volt usage, the GHz and all that stuff perfectly fine without breaking dat thing.

OGDead, I turned everything to lowest, gave me bout 2 FPS ._.

Is it possible for you to monitor cpu as well as gpu usage while in the game? Would be interesting to know.

Personally, I use “System Monitor II” (gadget) to monitor cpu usage/temps/clock, and “MSI Afterburner” to monitor my gpu, both running on the second monitor while playing.

How’s performance in LA compared to general open world pve?

Try all the things on this list that apply to your pc:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=327922

also use gamebooster:
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

and i promise you your fps will improve.

NeedCoffee.1402:

Try all the things on this list that apply to your pc:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=327922

also use gamebooster:
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

and i promise you your fps will improve.

or just manually shutsdown backround softwares instead of installing 1 more resource hog? only thing these so called “boosters” do is killing/freezing backround services/software which is not in need, if you think anything else its just placebo.

MakkeOnMies.4718:

NeedCoffee.1402:

Try all the things on this list that apply to your pc:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=327922

also use gamebooster:
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

and i promise you your fps will improve.

or just manually shutsdown backround softwares instead of installing 1 more resource hog? only thing these so called “boosters” do is killing/freezing backround services/software which is not in need, if you think anything else its just placebo.

thats funny. from your enlightening and helpful post i know you have never tried the software.
gamebooster has more than a “background shutdown” or however you say it.

installing gamebooster and using the tweaks alone will give you a 5-10 fps boost.

I don’t even use the “boost” option, as i like having things running while i game.

and what about Von Dach’s tweaks? got anything intelligent to say about that?

Stop arguin guys :p

Well, that Gamebooster part didn’t help anything – it did on my laptop but I think it only helps if the system is at it’s limits while running a Game, mine’s not.

Ill try the Von Dach’s stuff later, I’ll now be looking for a guide to overclock dat thing.

@locx – Can I also use the OC Programme which came with my Motherboard? It’s from AsRock.

They say that you shouldn’t OC with any software, or at least it wont yield as good result as doing manually. I’m not a pro overclocker so I can’t really get into details there, but I’d say those programs can’t be total garbage since there’s been professional engineers and programmers behind them. what you could do is use it as a guideline to check where your CPU can go. At least ASUS boards have this software that monitors everything and auto-overclocks as well while watching the temps and voltages etc. and it takes the frequency as high as it will go until it BSOD’s.

You could check that to see your limits and stay below that. It probably requires some skill and advanced tweaking to get above. If you stay, say, 300 MHz below the result and you’re already getting worryingly high temps at idle, just lower both frequency and voltage down.

Overclocking manually isn’t actually hard or very time-consuming; it’s the small tweaking and optimizing that comes after. Bump a few hundred MHz’s up and add a little to voltage. It boots up? Great. Temperatures are ok? Fantastic. Wash, rinse and repeat. You don’t have to stay for the fine tuning at every step, you’re not gonna use them after you’ve found you’re sweet spot after all. Having higher voltage than required isn’t necessarily harmful to your CPU, it’s just unoptimal. Unless it’s crazy high, of course.

EDIT: It could be that you’re done with overclocking very quickly also. It could be that your CPU doesn’t overclock very well at all. For example, my current Q6600 stays at stock 2.4 GHz at 1.08V and 2.9 GHz requires 1.225V (not bad, older CPUs required more voltage). However, with normal means it refuses to go any higher. I even tried as high as 1.475V @ 3 GHz and it hardly booted up. Temps are not the issue either since it stays under 55C while stress testing. If you hit this kind of wall somewhere around 4-4.2 GHZ maybe, well, tough luck but at least you don’t need to spend too much time on it.

Well, k – I overclocked my CPU now to 4.4 GHz in the BIOS. But well nothing really changed in GW2. Here’s a screenshot of GW2 at lowest graphics and windowed mode – + CPU-Z And that programm that came with my motherboard.

[img]http://epvpimg.com/RqSrb.png[/img]

27 FPS as you can see… (My game is on German :p)
Did I do sth. wrong?

EDIT: After I got a Bluescreen I removed the overclock again, lol.

MaciKeks.2415:

Well, k – I overclocked my CPU now to 4.4 GHz in the BIOS. But well nothing really changed in GW2. Here’s a screenshot of GW2 at lowest graphics and windowed mode – + CPU-Z And that programm that came with my motherboard.

[img]http://epvpimg.com/RqSrb.png[/img]

27 FPS as you can see… (My game is on German :p)
Did I do sth. wrong?

EDIT: After I got a Bluescreen I removed the overclock again, lol.

Did temperatures stay in safe range?(id say 80c is max u want have after stressing cpu)
IF temperatures were okay try adding little more voltage to cpu and try again.
Or perhaps better is to Start from 3.8-4.0ghz every chip should stay stable on that with normal voltage, if its stable then raise multiplier 1 step at time and always test after. When system becomes unstable you want raise voltage 1 step at time.

Overclocking really take some time, since Every chip is different, you just have to raise multiplier/voltage slowly, and see if its temperatures which goes too High so you cant OC more or maybe its bad chip which just dont have OC potential.

And btw which Cooler you have for your cpu? If stock Cooler please stop overclocking, haswells are too hot to BE oc’ed with stock one.

Btw, set your voltage mode to manual from adaptive when you’re overclocking. It wont affect much when gaming but when you run a stress test the motherboard will demand and get more voltage than you set it to. Set it back when you’re done.

One thing that baffles me is that CPU-Z shows 4.2 GHz. Was it even at some point 4.4 GHz?

Also, remember that going from 3,4 GHz to 4,4 is ~30% increase. At framerates of 20’s it means 6 fps increase. If it didn’t increase at all, then something might be off.

If you get BSOD, don’t be afraid, it’s all part of the game. It just shuts down the computer to prevent anything. Most likely you had too little voltage, so try increasing it a bit and up you go. Also I’m not sure how accurate ASRock temp monitor is, so you might want to download Core Temp or Real Temp and see if they are similiar and that your CPU doesn’t overheat.

MaciKeks.2415:

Well, k – I overclocked my CPU now to 4.4 GHz in the BIOS. But well nothing really changed in GW2. Here’s a screenshot of GW2 at lowest graphics and windowed mode – + CPU-Z And that programm that came with my motherboard.

[img]http://epvpimg.com/RqSrb.png[/img]

27 FPS as you can see… (My game is on German :p)
Did I do sth. wrong?

EDIT: After I got a Bluescreen I removed the overclock again, lol.

Please, please, please read through Von Dach’s list of tweaks.
I have been using them for a long time now. they work. Some of them may not apply to your haswell rig, but alot of them will. using one or two of them may not yield big results, but using alot of them will.

I’m using a Thermalright Macho 120 Rev. A Tower Cooler.

btw, here’s my complete Rig: https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/4e64c622030c46333f048a86edaeae3943d5f92222303ffd12f

Alright I’ll read through that Guide tomorrow, and then try overclocking with a bit more time :p

Thanks guys!

Good luck, remember to read haswell oc guide as well. You might wanna keep one open on a phone or laptop if you can so you don’t have to memorize everything. Linustechtips has a pretty good one, also there was some quite long and thorough video in 4 parts on youtube. Their bios might look different but just find your equivalent. Post here again if you have any issues or doubts or you just wanna report your results!

Shouldn’t really have to overclock to get decent performance, not with that cpu.
At the very least there should be a greater difference between lowest/highest graphic settings than what you seem to get.

On my pc (i7 920 @ 3.6 GHz, R9 280 Toxic, Win7 64 bit, 24 gig ram), on the same location in LA, I get these results (resolution 1680×1050):

Best performance setting: 50-55 fps
Best appearence setting: 20-22 fps

I tweak my settings to try and get around 30-35 fps in LA normally, and as I said earlier, lowering the “character model limit” makes the biggest difference for me.

On a normal load of LA, there are more than 7000 models to load. When I jumped to Cursed Shore just now, there’s only about 150 models (not that I’m fully aware of what counts as ‘models’ in this game, but there’s a huge difference between these two locations).

If you OC that 4670k DO NOT push the vCore above 1.3v on Air. IT will cause damage to the CPU’s Die over time. Only under water is it save to push more then 1.3.

To do a simple OC test, set your Multiplier to 46, vCore to 1.2 and see if you can boot into windows. If you cannot, set the Multiplier to 4.5, then 4.4. Once you are in windows you adjust from that point (up or down). Most chips will run 4.6ghz on 1.25 or 1.3 vcore and be stable. about 20% of them will fail above 4.2Ghz at 1.3vcore. Just to give an idea of what to expect there for OC.

after you get into windows run Prime95 for 5-15mins to verify temps. If the Temps go above 83c (i mean it, ABOVE 83c) you need to reduce the Clock on that CPU. Once you get a stable Boot, and Prime95 running at or below 83c’s run the bench tests for 4-6 hours. And make sure the PC doesn’t BSOD or Hardlock(which will result in a reboot).

On Air you can get a solid 75c-80c with the proper Heatpipe setup and high quality TIM (Arctic Silver).

Now, thats it for OC’ing

How is your system currently configured? How many PCI-E slots are populated? Have you verified your GPU’s PCI-E lane Link speed (Has to be 8x or 16x). You can do this via CPU-Z, on Mainboard Tab.

every system that I have seen that locks at 20-25FPS under any in-game settings, has the GPU linked at 1×. This happens for a couple of reasons, the main one being Drivers.

So that is where you SHOULD be starting to fix your performance issues, and NOT overclocking.

And for the record, the CPU (i5-4650k) only has a total of 16lanes of PCI-E. If the MB doesnt supply its own Lanes via the NB/SB, then you only have 16lanes to distribute. PCi-E 3.0 ver3 works best at 16×. So keep that in mind when you start to add additional PCi-E Cards to your system (Even those 1x NICs/TV Tuner Cards), as they will take away from the GPU’s total performance and Link speed on the PCI-E bus.

Saw you posted a link on the MB. I could not find out what the SLOT configuration is for your PCI-E Lanes are. BUT I’m willing to bet that the 2 16x Slots are tied to the CPU, and the 2 1x Slots are tied to the Z87 Chipset. (and the other 4-6Lanes for the Chipset are bound to the Onboard Audio, and OnBoard NIC, Onboard RAID and SATA Controllers)

So that Wireless NIC you bought, MAKE sure its in one of the 1x slots and not that 2nd 16x slot. And make sure your GPU is in the Top slot (nearest the CPU).