Guild Wars 2

I know, in a mob of people you can’t expect a solid 60FPS especially with all settings maxed.

However, I feel I’m getting extremely low FPS considering my hardware.

I’m currently getting 35-40FPS idle at WPs and 15-20 FPS in zerg fights.

My hardware:
i5 4670k @ 4.8ghz
GTX 760 (x2 SLI) @ 1300mhz
16Gb ddr3 1600
27" 1080p 60hz monitor
Full water setup GPU peaks around 45*, CPU around 50* while gaming
All drivers up to date

According to MSI afterburner and HWinfo my CPU / GPU are being way under utilized.

CPU never breaks 75% load, like ever during gameplay even in full zerg
GPUs rarely break 65% load even memory usage isn’t maxed (2gig each card)

So… what gives?

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

sirsquishy.8531:

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Thanks for reply!

I have all those utilites, and my OC is as stable as they come.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

Full screen currently, I’ll give the link a look over thanks!

sirsquishy.8531:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

Using a full water setup. Swiftech D5 pump, 1x 240 Rad, 1x 120 Rad, EK blocks for CPU / GPUs with 6x corsair sp120s. CPU temp hardly raises above 50* gaming, GPU’s stay around 45*

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Thanks for reply!

I have all those utilites, and my OC is as stable as they come.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

Full screen currently, I’ll give the link a look over thanks!

sirsquishy.8531:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

Using a full water setup. Swiftech D5 pump, 1x 240 Rad, 1x 120 Rad, EK blocks for CPU / GPUs. CPU temp hardly raises above 50* gaming, GPU’s stay around 45*

How are you testing your OC? and what voltage did you push to get the 4.8ghz?
Unless you run something like AIDA64 or Prime95 for several hours, you are not stable.

With GW2 in a window can you screenshot the GPU-Z main window for Both GPUs? I would like to confirm that your GPUs are actually linked at 8x 8x and not 1x or 4×.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Thanks for reply!

I have all those utilites, and my OC is as stable as they come.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

Full screen currently, I’ll give the link a look over thanks!

sirsquishy.8531:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

Using a full water setup. Swiftech D5 pump, 1x 240 Rad, 1x 120 Rad, EK blocks for CPU / GPUs. CPU temp hardly raises above 50* gaming, GPU’s stay around 45*

How are you testing your OC? and what voltage did you push to get the 4.8ghz?
Unless you run something like AIDA64 or Prime95 for several hours, you are not stable.

Prime95 is a no go for me, i use aida / x264

x264 zero issues

AIDA64 for 24 hours zero issues

Also using unigine valley to dial in GPUs

1.36 voltage

GPUs are running 8x

I’ve also tried running CPU (4.4ghz @ 1.2V) and my GPUs at stock speeds with similar performance.

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Thanks for reply!

I have all those utilites, and my OC is as stable as they come.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

Full screen currently, I’ll give the link a look over thanks!

sirsquishy.8531:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

Using a full water setup. Swiftech D5 pump, 1x 240 Rad, 1x 120 Rad, EK blocks for CPU / GPUs. CPU temp hardly raises above 50* gaming, GPU’s stay around 45*

How are you testing your OC? and what voltage did you push to get the 4.8ghz?
Unless you run something like AIDA64 or Prime95 for several hours, you are not stable.

Prime95 is a no go for me, i use aida / x264

x264 zero issues

AIDA64 for 24 hours zero issues

Also using unigine valley to dial in GPUs

1.36 voltage

GPUs are running 8x

I’ve also tried running CPU (4.4ghz @ 1.2V) and my GPUs at stock speeds with similar performance.

Why is Prime95 a no go?

Try reinstalling all your drivers,properly.

Remove Local.Dat,located in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2.
You have to reset your video settings ingame afterwards again.

Also do a repair on your client- Rightclick the gw2 shortcut and add /repair behind the commandline parameter so it looks like “C:\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” /repair
Then restart gw2 and let it verify and repair your files.

Also try running the game on one gpu and look if your gpu’s are running at x16.

It’s really difficult to reach higher values than 75-80% of cpu usage. That would require all 4 cores running at maximum, and this game only stresses one/two core to their maximum, the rest are less used.
But you should have higher gpu usage. I have a r9 285 and I think it reaches 100% most of the times.
I think SLI and pcie speeds could be the problem. Try to play with just one gpu and make sure it runs at x16.

PD: My experience with overclocking both cpu and gpu is Gw2 is far better test than most stress tests. Prime95, Linpark or Intel burn test simply put my cpu into nonsense temperatures unreachable in real situations. Passed hours in Aida64, OCCT, IETU… and still got crashes while gaming in a matter of minutes. 10 minutes of Gw2 and it allows me to run tests for more than 1 hour. Test overclocks playing Gw2 during 2 hours in intensive work and haven’t seen a bsod in weeks.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

could be your OC, could be temps, could be the SLI.

Download Coretemp, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z and use those to gauge your performance.
You can screenshot them with GW2 in a window that would help to see what is going on. GPU-Z’s main window and the sensor tab for EACH GPU (though SLI wont work in a window it will give us the temps and the PCIE link speed).

Thanks for reply!

I have all those utilites, and my OC is as stable as they come.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

Full screen currently, I’ll give the link a look over thanks!

sirsquishy.8531:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s now how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

He has his 4670K at 4.8Ghz. MOST of those chips require 1.38v to reach that clock. If he is using the stock intel cooler, or a Hyper 212Evo, his CPU is going to overheat with this game (due to the single threaded performance) and will become throttled. He needs a bigger cooler to push 4.8ghz or to be using water cooling.

Your game tips don’t cover that kind of data, yet.

Using a full water setup. Swiftech D5 pump, 1x 240 Rad, 1x 120 Rad, EK blocks for CPU / GPUs. CPU temp hardly raises above 50* gaming, GPU’s stay around 45*

How are you testing your OC? and what voltage did you push to get the 4.8ghz?
Unless you run something like AIDA64 or Prime95 for several hours, you are not stable.

Prime95 is a no go for me, i use aida / x264

x264 zero issues

AIDA64 for 24 hours zero issues

Also using unigine valley to dial in GPUs

1.36 voltage

GPUs are running 8x

I’ve also tried running CPU (4.4ghz @ 1.2V) and my GPUs at stock speeds with similar performance.

Why is Prime95 a no go?

Just bad rumors about cooking haswell processors. I more or less avoided it prior to going with my water loop. It’s probably safe on temps now. Standard is aida64 / x264 most people I know don’t even both with p95.

Caedmon.6798:

Try reinstalling all your drivers,properly.

Remove Local.Dat,located in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2.
You have to reset your video settings ingame afterwards again.

Also do a repair on your client- Rightclick the gw2 shortcut and add /repair behind the commandline parameter so it looks like “C:\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” /repair
Then restart gw2 and let it verify and repair your files.

Also try running the game on one gpu and look if your gpu’s are running at x16.

I tried the repair tool prior to the topic.

I’ll go ahead and remove the .dat though, thanks!

Single GPU runs at x16 with similar performance.

Ansau.7326:

It’s really difficult to reach higher values than 75-80% of cpu usage. That would require all 4 cores running at maximum, and this game only stresses one/two core to their maximum, the rest are less used.
But you should have higher gpu usage. I have a r9 285 and I think it reaches 100% most of the times.
I think SLI and pcie speeds could be the problem. Try to play with just one gpu and make sure it runs at x16.

Single GPU runs x16

Try the game without the overclock.

Sometimes overclocking (if too much) will cause worse performance.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Are you running full screen or windowed? Also that’s not how VRAM works, check this out http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/198568-the-video-ram-information-guide/

I sent a ticket a week ago concerning the same issue (FPS) and I got no response. I also provided extra information.

abomally.2694:

Try the game without the overclock.

Sometimes overclocking (if too much) will cause worse performance.

indeed try without OC using the default clock profiles. In some occasions ,even if the OC is stable, sometimes it results in lower performance

Also, by saying the CPU usage is lower than 75% is this on all core or on some?
What mobo you have?
Also SLI sometimes gives weird results cause of drivers or mobo bios. Search if anyone with your same mobo had any problems with SLI or check the if any newer bios and what it fixes

Unparking your cpu cores seems to work for older games like these, especially since GW2 mostly uses your CPU, not GPU.

Zaruna.3812:

Unparking your cpu cores seems to work for older games like these, especially since GW2 mostly uses your CPU, not GPU.

That isn’t true like it was at release, at least the way many people throw that phrase around, like back when ~45% gpu and nearly 100% cpu was common for a number of people, because their cpu was weak and gpu overkill for that computer. GW2 actually runs fine at 30 fps, but of course we all would like more. 15-20 fps for a big zerg fight happens to most people, which again, fortunately it is still quite playable at that, although when you expect much higher can definitely understand the frustration.

Normally, GW2 won’t be hitting 100% total cpu usage, and most likely won’t hit 100% on one of the cores. Also probably won’t hit 100% on the gpu with only gw2 running. Is any core hitting 100%? Your #’s are what I would expect for usage, for only gw2 running.

One thing I am not sure if it is still true at all, but that I last saw stated a year ago, is that GW2 tends to run better without overclocks and running only on single gpu.

See if any cores are actually being parked, and if so, try what Zaruna said, to unpark the cores.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Zaruna.3812:

Unparking your cpu cores seems to work for older games like these, especially since GW2 mostly uses your CPU, not GPU.

That isn’t true like it was at release, at least the way many people throw that phrase around, like back when ~45% gpu and nearly 100% cpu was common for a number of people, because their cpu was weak and gpu overkill for that computer. GW2 actually runs fine at 30 fps, but of course we all would like more. 15-20 fps for a big zerg fight happens to most people, which again, fortunately it is still quite playable at that, although when you expect much higher can definitely understand the frustration.

Normally, GW2 won’t be hitting 100% total cpu usage, and most likely won’t hit 100% on one of the cores. Also probably won’t hit 100% on the gpu with only gw2 running. Is any core hitting 100%? Your #’s are what I would expect for usage, for only gw2 running.

One thing I am not sure if it is still true at all, but that I last saw stated a year ago, is that GW2 tends to run better without overclocks and running only on single gpu.

See if any cores are actually being parked, and if so, try what Zaruna said, to unpark the cores.

GW2 is not capable of hitting 100% CPU usage on something like a i5-4670K, even at stock clocks. The game is still very much dependent on how fast your cpus single core performance is, and even a Haswell i5 or i7 (clocked at 5ghz) is not fast enough to get the main process under 87% under heavy loads.

And the GPU load is going to depend on the GPU. Ill hit 100% on a single 290, but 70% on dual 290’s in Crossfire. I have seen 970’s sit at about 80%, 280x’s at 100%…ect. Its going to depend on the GPU in question, the settings in game, the resolution/setup of your monitors (Surround vs Eyefinity)…ect.

For reference, I have my i7-4790K at 5.0Ghz (1.38V) and my Ram at 1600Mhz(cant OC the Ram while at 5Ghz on my chip). I do not have my 290’s Overclocked, and GW2 scales appropriately as the Clock raises from the Default 4ghz, to 4.6ghz, to 5ghz and from a single 290 to two 290’s in Cross fire. And as expected, going from 1600×900 to 1080P to 5040×900(eyefinity) the load on my CPU/GPUs raise accordingly. So it all scales really well, and as expected, with GW2.

So you can’t really say GW2 doesn’t like a single GPU and an stock clocked CPU.

Also, unparking your cores directly affects GW2 on CPUs with HT. It doesn’t work AS well for Dual core and quad core CPUs with no HT available. AMD it works good for FX CPUS and some APUs (Trinity+) but not as well for Althon II and Phenom II’s.

Aeniklast.9283:

I know, in a mob of people you can’t expect a solid 60FPS especially with all settings maxed.

However, I feel I’m getting extremely low FPS considering my hardware.

I’m currently getting 35-40FPS idle at WPs and 15-20 FPS in zerg fights.

My hardware:
i5 4670k @ 4.8ghz
GTX 760 (x2 SLI) @ 1300mhz
16Gb ddr3 1600
27" 1080p 60hz monitor
Full water setup GPU peaks around 45*, CPU around 50* while gaming
All drivers up to date

According to MSI afterburner and HWinfo my CPU / GPU are being way under utilized.

CPU never breaks 75% load, like ever during gameplay even in full zerg
GPUs rarely break 65% load even memory usage isn’t maxed (2gig each card)

So… what gives?

Im just going to say it, we need screenshots to help you more.

GW2 in a window (full screen windowed mode works too), CPU-Z, GPU-Z (main screen and sensors window) and Core temp open.

In Zerg content (Jormag is a good place to test this, low stress…ect)
open world Way Point (I usually use Queensdale, the WP near the Monastery)
and Black citadel (known to have issues due to reflections)

One thing to check as well, are any of your cores parked? Windows loves parking cores, which prevents full utilization until a certain threshold is reached.

To check bring up your task manager → (click More Details if Win → Performance → Open Resource Monitor → CPU and scroll down. If any are labeled as Parked, you can fix it by doing the following:
1) press the windows key + r
2) type regedit
3) click Edit → Find
4) search for the code 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583
5) make sure both Min and Max values are 0
6) press F3
7) repeat step 5 & 6 until it says “end of list” or whatever
8) close and reboot

Here are your screen shots. These were taken with stock clocked cards and processor at my lower 4.4GHZ.

Queensdale idle
Black Citadel idle
PvP lobby

eidt: ss

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

Aeniklast.9283:

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

There are 2 BIG settings that screw with performance on even the highest end of hardware

Character Limit
Reflections

Those are both heavily CPU bound and will cripple even a 5ghz i7.

I usually run character limit on Medium and Reflections on Terrain and sky only.

that should give you another 20-30FPS.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

There are 2 BIG settings that screw with performance on even the highest end of hardware

Character Limit
Reflections

Those are both heavily CPU bound and will cripple even a 5ghz i7.

I usually run character limit on Medium and Reflections on Terrain and sky only.

that should give you another 20-30FPS.

Yeah I’ll give it a go. I can probably deal with the blur and loss of resolution at a distance. I just hate seeing floating names and pixelated textures up close.

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

There are 2 BIG settings that screw with performance on even the highest end of hardware

Character Limit
Reflections

Those are both heavily CPU bound and will cripple even a 5ghz i7.

I usually run character limit on Medium and Reflections on Terrain and sky only.

that should give you another 20-30FPS.

Yeah I’ll give it a go. I can probably deal with the blur and loss of resolution at a distance. I just hate seeing floating names and pixelated textures up close.

Shouldn’t be a blur in the distance. Name plates yea, in zerg content.

ALso if you are using FXAA turn it off. it does nothing for the game. Super Sampling then forcing higher AA in your GPUs control panel is a much better option over the crappy FXAA in game.

One thing about reflections :-)
There is a GIANT pool of water under MOST of the zones in the game. The surface of that pool is reflected when you use ALL for reflections. This kills performance due to this, so setting it to terrain/sky is the work around to this issue.

I tested this in WvW when you could teleport under the ground and swim around. Setting to terrain and sky removes the reflection from the under ground water :-)

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

There are 2 BIG settings that screw with performance on even the highest end of hardware

Character Limit
Reflections

Those are both heavily CPU bound and will cripple even a 5ghz i7.

I usually run character limit on Medium and Reflections on Terrain and sky only.

that should give you another 20-30FPS.

Yeah I’ll give it a go. I can probably deal with the blur and loss of resolution at a distance. I just hate seeing floating names and pixelated textures up close.

Shouldn’t be a blur in the distance. Name plates yea, in zerg content.

ALso if you are using FXAA turn it off. it does nothing for the game. Super Sampling then forcing higher AA in your GPUs control panel is a much better option over the crappy FXAA in game.

One thing about reflections :-)
There is a GIANT pool of water under MOST of the zones in the game. The surface of that pool is reflected when you use ALL for reflections. This kills performance due to this, so setting it to terrain/sky is the work around to this issue.

I tested this in WvW when you could teleport under the ground and swim around. Setting to terrain and sky removes the reflection from the under ground water :-)

I’ve made all the recommended changes above, but haven’t noticed an FPS improvement.

What AA would you recommend using in the control panel?

Also, what other settings could I lower that have little visual impact?

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

Ansau.7326:

I don’t see any big issue, but the game runs like that at such settings. Try reducing these:
- Put Frame limiter to “Unlimited”.
- Put reflections to “Terran & Sky”.
- Shadows to “High” or even “Medium”.
- Put Character Model Limit and Quality to “High” or “Medium”.
- Check Effect LOD.
- Uncheck V-sync.

Also I advise you to not to use FXAA. It blurs the game one of a hell.

I’ll give it a go, I just find it weird that my hardware isn’t being ran at its optimal levels and I’m still not getting 60fps idle

There are 2 BIG settings that screw with performance on even the highest end of hardware

Character Limit
Reflections

Those are both heavily CPU bound and will cripple even a 5ghz i7.

I usually run character limit on Medium and Reflections on Terrain and sky only.

that should give you another 20-30FPS.

Yeah I’ll give it a go. I can probably deal with the blur and loss of resolution at a distance. I just hate seeing floating names and pixelated textures up close.

Shouldn’t be a blur in the distance. Name plates yea, in zerg content.

ALso if you are using FXAA turn it off. it does nothing for the game. Super Sampling then forcing higher AA in your GPUs control panel is a much better option over the crappy FXAA in game.

One thing about reflections :-)
There is a GIANT pool of water under MOST of the zones in the game. The surface of that pool is reflected when you use ALL for reflections. This kills performance due to this, so setting it to terrain/sky is the work around to this issue.

I tested this in WvW when you could teleport under the ground and swim around. Setting to terrain and sky removes the reflection from the under ground water :-)

I’ve made all the recommended changes above, but haven’t noticed an FPS improvement.

What AA would you recommend using in the control panel?

Also, what other settings could I lower that have little visual impact?

really the only options, IMHO, are as follows

FXAA – None
LOD Distance – High
Reflections – Terrain and Sky
Rendering Sampling – Super
Shadows – High
Post Processing – Low
Character Model Limit – Medium
Effect LOD

I do see a performance hit and barely any visual quality with the following enabled settings, so play with them on/off and see what suits you best

Best texture filtering (I use my GPUs AA settings, between 8x and 16x samples – instead)
High-Res Character Models (I see no difference with this on/off honestly)

The rest of the options should be on high settings, as even with my G3258 build I had a while back was pulling 80-120 FPS with these settings. And I currently run these settings on my i7 for the best ‘Zerg’ Performance.

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

Here ya go, I’m running SLI.

This is with all settings lowest possible with super sampling on. Can’t even get 60 lol

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

Here ya go, I’m running SLI.

This is with all settings lowest possible with super sampling on. Can’t even get 60 lol

that really just doesnt add up.

Do me a favor, pull the 2nd card from your system and rerun that last screenshot. I want to see if you jump to x16 verson3 and if your FPS does anything different.

Also are you using the SLI bridges with your cards?

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

Here ya go, I’m running SLI.

This is with all settings lowest possible with super sampling on. Can’t even get 60 lol

that really just doesnt add up.

Do me a favor, pull the 2nd card from your system and rerun that last screenshot. I want to see if you jump to x16 verson3 and if your FPS does anything different.

Also are you using the SLI bridges with your cards?

I can’t pull the cards as I’m running a water loop.

Prior to going SLI it was running x16 properly. Yes I’m using an ASUS SLI bridge.

On mac the game’s performance has been worse and worse over the past years.I used to get kitten and now I get 25-30.

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

Here ya go, I’m running SLI.

This is with all settings lowest possible with super sampling on. Can’t even get 60 lol

that really just doesnt add up.

Do me a favor, pull the 2nd card from your system and rerun that last screenshot. I want to see if you jump to x16 verson3 and if your FPS does anything different.

Also are you using the SLI bridges with your cards?

I can’t pull the cards as I’m running a water loop.

Prior to going SLI it was running x16 properly. Yes I’m using an ASUS SLI bridge.

with out pulling the 2nd card its going to be hard to isolate it down to the PCIE bridges, SLI bridges, Power supply, or just a faulty card somewhere in there.

But all your status are correct, from what I can tell. Did you drop down the GPU selection on GPu-Z to verify both cards are at 8x btw? thats the only other thing I can think of.

It’s funny because I can run Shadow of Mordor and many other games on Ultra settings and have 60 fps solid. THIS game I run on 7 fps on high settings..

And sadly the support had no solution.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

sirsquishy.8531:

Aeniklast.9283:

That’s crazy on that little G series. I can’t get any close to that even with everything on LOW.

I’ve tried your settings but my FPS has tanked with render sampling on super.

I just realized, you never included a screenshot with GPU-Z main window.

that shows the PCIE bus link speed. It should show x16 v3 @ x16 V3 While GW2 is running. Make sure that it is.

When i first rebuild my 4790K (it was a 4670K before), I had a x1 v1.1 issue that caused the game to run at 30FPS no matter the settings.

I had to reseat the GPU 3 times to fix it. I think the Slot had dust or something in it from my 280x (upgraded to dual 290’s). After that both GPUs were at x8 v3 specs.

see what yours says with GW2 in a window.

Here ya go, I’m running SLI.

This is with all settings lowest possible with super sampling on. Can’t even get 60 lol

that really just doesnt add up.

Do me a favor, pull the 2nd card from your system and rerun that last screenshot. I want to see if you jump to x16 verson3 and if your FPS does anything different.

Also are you using the SLI bridges with your cards?

I can’t pull the cards as I’m running a water loop.

Prior to going SLI it was running x16 properly. Yes I’m using an ASUS SLI bridge.

with out pulling the 2nd card its going to be hard to isolate it down to the PCIE bridges, SLI bridges, Power supply, or just a faulty card somewhere in there.

But all your status are correct, from what I can tell. Did you drop down the GPU selection on GPu-Z to verify both cards are at 8x btw? thats the only other thing I can think of.

Every other game I play has zero issues :/

I have an 850w Corsair PSU Gold cert, bridge is brand new with second GPU.

Prior to water loop I had zero issues with my first card. I also ran the second card by itself for almost a week to ensure stability.

Both cards are running 8x

I honestly have no idea what is causing it to perform so bad

You are not the first one I see the game doesn’t run well even everything seems fine. The only way to determinate what’s failing it would be to test every part of your hardware. Could be a RAM slot, the cpu, the MB, software related… anything.

You can try your hard drive into another computer, or put any other one with existing OS (no need for fresh install). That will determinate if there’s a problem with your hardware or it’s a software problem (install, corrupted files of the OS…).

But for sure the problem is not with the game itself, but in these computers.

“You can try your hard drive into another computer, or put any other one with existing OS (no need for fresh install). "

This won’t work unless the chipsets are the same. Usually, Windows won’t even boot and if you are lucky enough that it does boot, Windows will deactivate itself because of the different motherboard.

Emmm… I put both ssd and hdd from my laptop (i5 2410m gt 525m) to my desktop (i5 4690k r9 285) and had no problems, besides my amd gpu not liking nvidia drivers (once removed through my laptop it worked perfectly).

HDD is the original from the laptop (initially W7 and updated to W8.1) and ssd had a fresh W8.1 install also in the laptop.

abomally.2694:

“You can try your hard drive into another computer, or put any other one with existing OS (no need for fresh install). "

This won’t work unless the chipsets are the same. Usually, Windows won’t even boot and if you are lucky enough that it does boot, Windows will deactivate itself because of the different motherboard.

Change your SATA controller driver to compatible AHCI 1.0, and as long as your SATA is set to AHCI in the bios you can move your HDD to any other PC.

Windows will deactivate and go on the 3day trial, but when you put it back in the original PC it will reactivate.

sirsquishy.8531:

abomally.2694:

“You can try your hard drive into another computer, or put any other one with existing OS (no need for fresh install). "

This won’t work unless the chipsets are the same. Usually, Windows won’t even boot and if you are lucky enough that it does boot, Windows will deactivate itself because of the different motherboard.

Change your SATA controller driver to compatible AHCI 1.0, and as long as your SATA is set to AHCI in the bios you can move your HDD to any other PC.

Windows will deactivate and go on the 3day trial, but when you put it back in the original PC it will reactivate.

This isn’t true and usually doesn’t work. I know, I repair PC’s and have attempted this on numerous occasions. Like I said, if the chipset is the same, it might work, usually it doesn’t – you often get a bluescreen even in safemode.

Try it with a variety of PC’s – I have.

Edited to add:

“I put both ssd and hdd from my laptop (i5 2410m gt 525m) to my desktop (i5 4690k r9 285)”.

They are probably using the same Intel chipset. Try going from an AMD machine to an Intel one – I guarantee it won’t work.

abomally.2694:

“I put both ssd and hdd from my laptop (i5 2410m gt 525m) to my desktop (i5 4690k r9 285)”.

They are probably using the same Intel chipset. Try going from an AMD machine to an Intel one – I guarantee it won’t work.

Laptop is using H65 Express (Sandy Bridge 32nm) chipset while desktop is using Z97… Never tried with AMD computers cause never had them.
Also, the hhd came with the laptop and still has a lot of Toshiba’s software. I built the desktop and no problem.

Anyway, the OP already has Haswell.

abomally.2694:

sirsquishy.8531:

abomally.2694:

“You can try your hard drive into another computer, or put any other one with existing OS (no need for fresh install). "

This won’t work unless the chipsets are the same. Usually, Windows won’t even boot and if you are lucky enough that it does boot, Windows will deactivate itself because of the different motherboard.

Change your SATA controller driver to compatible AHCI 1.0, and as long as your SATA is set to AHCI in the bios you can move your HDD to any other PC.

Windows will deactivate and go on the 3day trial, but when you put it back in the original PC it will reactivate.

This isn’t true and usually doesn’t work. I know, I repair PC’s and have attempted this on numerous occasions. Like I said, if the chipset is the same, it might work, usually it doesn’t – you often get a bluescreen even in safemode.

Try it with a variety of PC’s – I have.

Edited to add:

“I put both ssd and hdd from my laptop (i5 2410m gt 525m) to my desktop (i5 4690k r9 285)”.

They are probably using the same Intel chipset. Try going from an AMD machine to an Intel one – I guarantee it won’t work.

It is true, This is how i build hardware agnostic images. You might work on PCs, but you really don’t know much about imagining.

If you unlock the AHCI controller in windows device manager, you can move that install (or image it really) to any other system(AMD OR INTEL!). I do this A LOT and its how we image with Dell Kace 2000, and Clonezilla at work. So YES, its true and that is exactly how it works.

abomally.2694:

This isn’t true and usually doesn’t work. I know, I repair PC’s and have attempted this on numerous occasions. Like I said, if the chipset is the same, it might work, usually it doesn’t – you often get a bluescreen even in safemode.

Try it with a variety of PC’s – I have.

Edited to add:

“I put both ssd and hdd from my laptop (i5 2410m gt 525m) to my desktop (i5 4690k r9 285)”.

They are probably using the same Intel chipset. Try going from an AMD machine to an Intel one – I guarantee it won’t work.

Alright I’m just going to lay it out for you since I feel EVERYONE should know how to do this.

1. Building a Hardware Agnostic Image – AHCI ONLY!

Your BIOS has to have SATA in AHCI mode for this to work
You can make this work with IDE and RAID but IDE is aged and should be retired and RAID requires sysprep driver stuff.

After you have your working windows install, open device manager and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, and find your AHCI controller. It should be listed as the chipset version. In my example its a Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA AHCI Controller – 3B29. You are going to right click on it and update driver. Click Browse my computer for driver, then click Let me pick from a list. Now you will see Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller listed. Select this and click Next. After the Install is done, click Close then reboot the machine.

When the machine is back up go back into the device manager location to make sure the driver is updated and the device shows as Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller. If it does then your current OS install is unlocked and now hardware agnostic. You can pull the HDD and put it in any other system, regardless of chipset, as long as the BIOS supports AHCI mode on the SATA controller. It will not work for IDE mode SATA controllers or SATA controllers that are setup for RAID.

2. Shrinking the Installed partitions to fit into smaller HDDs, you can always image to a larger HDD with out doing this step.

I use a tool called mini partition wizard – its free!, because it is aware of windows system files(unmovable files). You use this tool to shrink the OS partition down so that you can move the Install to a smaller drive, such as kitten. And example would be moving Windows from a failing 1TB HDD to a 240G SSD, that is what this would be mainly used for.

Use the program’s sliders to adjust the volume sizes. Im not going to really go over the app, as I feel its pretty self explanatory and operates just like G.Parted.

Once the shrink operations are ready to go, you click the Check mark, it will ask you to reboot do so. It will then shrink the partitions down. When its finished, open Disk manager in windows to verify that the Partition is smaller (whatever you set it to).

Now you create an image of the OS using Clonezilla. For this to work you HAVE to make an image of the source disk to Image File, going Disk to Disk will error out with destination disk to small. After you have your image of the OS you need to edit the .parted file to address the sector size issue.

Example would be a file in the image directory called sda-pt.parted

File Break out (I use Notepad ++ for this)
Model: ATA ST500LM000-1EJ16 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 976773168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 2048s 976771071s 976769024s primary ntfs boot

In this table you will take the End size (in bold) and copy/paste it up to the Disk line (again in bold) to tell clonezilla that the disk size is the size of the partition in question. Else it will think the Disk size is that of the source disk instead. So edit the file then save it, and now you can write the image to your new SSD/SDHDD/HDD with out issue.

That is how you build an agnostic image that can be written to just about any size HDD/SSD with out issue, AMD or otherwise.

“If you unlock the AHCI controller in windows device manager, you can move that install (or image it really) to any other system(AMD OR INTEL!). "

So…is this the same as pulling out an HDD and simply swapping it to another machine?

No; it is not what I stated. What I stated is true.

Now, changing the SATA drivers will work as you stated (I thought you were talking about BIOS setting, not changing the driver) and I’ve done this as well (I also use Clonezilla). I use a different program to resize partitions – it’s called Parted Magic. It was free but I don’t know if it still is.

Personally, if I’m changing a motherboard to a completely different one – I prefer to just format the drive, which is good to clean up old junk (fresh registry, etc.).

Edited for clarity.

abomally.2694:

“If you unlock the AHCI controller in windows device manager, you can move that install (or image it really) to any other system(AMD OR INTEL!). "

So…is this the same as pulling out an HDD and simply swapping it to another machine?

No; it is not what I stated. What I stated is true.

Now, changing the SATA drivers will work as you stated (I thought you were talking about BIOS setting, not changing the driver) and I’ve done this as well (I also use Clonezilla). I use a different program to resize partitions – it’s called Parted Magic. It was free but I don’t know if it still is.

Personally, if I’m changing a motherboard to a completely different one – I prefer to just format the drive, which is good to clean up old junk (fresh registry, etc.).

Edited for clarity.

What i said was, he can change the driver (per the directions) and then he can pull the HDD out and put it in another machine (as a user here suggested for testing)

so yea, that is exactly true.

Why are you being difficult?

Edit You need to change the BIOS to AHCI on the target machine you wanna slip the HDD into, else it will bluescreen on startup, so you need to do both the driver swap and the AHCI bios change. Most BIOS’s default to raid or AHCI per the factory via OEM, whiteboxes/custom builds could be anything.

Sorry, misread your post and somehow thought you were talking about the BIOS setting. Just reread it and you did say “driver”, so my reply to you was incorrect.

Edited for typo.

abomally.2694:

Sorry, misread your post and somehow thought you were talking about a BIOS setting. Just reread it and you did say “driver”, so my reply to you was incorrect.

its both bios and driver :-)
BIOS on the target machine if its not setup to AHCI already. well read my last edit.

sirsquishy.8531:

snip
One thing about reflections :-)
There is a GIANT pool of water under MOST of the zones in the game. The surface of that pool is reflected when you use ALL for reflections. This kills performance due to this, so setting it to terrain/sky is the work around to this issue.

I tested this in WvW when you could teleport under the ground and swim around. Setting to terrain and sky removes the reflection from the under ground water :-)

I had kind of wondered if it was reflecting there, but never enough to investigate to find out. That is good to know, but I always preferred it with all >.<