Guild Wars 2

Hello. I can see that many players on the forum are having trouble with their FPS in this game – especially multicore CPU users.
What I did for myself was disable CORE PARKING.
There are two ways to do it. One is with an application. The other is through a registry edit.
Application:
http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility
Regedit method:
PLEASE PLEASE BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS. I am not responsible if your computer blows up when you try the method below.
SOURCE: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1861804
- Go to run (windows key + r)
- Type in regedit and run

- CTRL + F and find this key:- " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "

- Within this key, there is a value called: " ValueMax "

- This value represents the % number of cores the system will park – the default 100% ie: all Cores are potentially park-able

- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin " and " ValueMax " are both zero

- You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found – the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system [ in my DAW it was only found twice ]

- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start
This worked for me perfectly. I went from low 30s to high 50s. Hope this works as well for you as it did for me!
Good day!

Interesting. Though I would like to hear others input on this.

This won’t help you much on lower end hardware, i think. This will only prevent the CPU from “stopping” when idle.

Not a bad solution but there s a much easier way to disable CPU core parking without a registry edit: just choose the “Performance Power Plan” under power settings. That disables core parking.

I checked my I7-902 (OCed to 3.4) and it had several CPUs parked. However, this was done remotely as I am at work. I would like to load the game up and see if they remain parked while the GW2 client is open. If they do, then yes this might be a problem. If they come out of parked status on their own then, not a big deal.

How do you check parked status?

for anyone who might be in my situation i tried this and got a wee boost in fps.

but more importantly it made me realize the low fps issues (gtx 670 here) is actually the cpu bottlenecking. this makes sense as i change all my settings to low and get a minor increase in fps.

i have a i72600k, and ended up biting the bullet and temporarily overclocking it to 3.5ghz to see. had a massive increase in fps in lions arch, seemed to stop throttling my cpu. this is pretty weird since 100mhz OC yielded me almost double fps.

sadly i cannot keep the OC as my cpu temps get into the high 80s which im not comfortable with.

Brazensage.1328:

How do you check parked status?

Hit CTRL + Shift + Esc

Go to Performance

Go to Resource Monitor

Go to CPU

On the right hand side you should see graphs. There it will say if the CPU is parked or not.

iselin.8253:

Not a bad solution but there s a much easier way to disable CPU core parking without a registry edit: just choose the “Performance Power Plan” under power settings. That disables core parking.

I believe you have to enable a registry edit so the core parking options show up in the Performance Power Plan options.
————————————

The problem with core parking is that the OS determines during low load in GW2, not all CPUs are needed – thus it “parks” a CPU core. When GW demands more power, it “unparks” a core. There should be at most a microstutter in performance.

However, when I had core parking enabled, that wasn’t the case. It was just a choppy and slow experience. Once it was disabled, I was able to enjoy a smooth frame rate.

I’m unparking the cores since the release of Win7 actually,and yes it can improve overall performance.For people that dont like messing with registry there’s an app that will tell the status if any cores are parked and will unpark them with a click. http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

Caedmon.6798:

I’m unparking the cores since the release of Win7 actually,and yes it can improve overall performance.For people that dont like messing with registry there’s an app that will tell the status if any cores are parked and will unpark them with a click. http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

Yup. I already linked it in my first post.

I hope this post helps someone!

Thanks for this! I’ve been getting (to me) lousy performance for my GTX670 and even my GTX480s in SLI (Currently RMAing the 670). I’m going to try this out when I get home tonight and I’ll try and remember to post results and will do a Fraps benchmark in Lion’s Arch to try and generate some good comparison benchmarks on how much this helps.

EDIT: Removed orphan from type. (Orphan is a word that falls on its own line and looks out of place)

Bumping old threads but this does fix the drop FPS shuttering. /confirmed.

Windows 8 performs better due they manage the CPU better than Win7.

Holy Cow! Alcu, you just made my day. This really did work for me. Downloaded the utility linked above, didnt even require an installation and it said I had 3 of my 4 cores parked for some reason. Unparked them all and I am running super smooth, and much more happier.

My specs:
AMD Athlon II X4 640 (3.0 GHz)
8 GB Ram
nVidia 560 ti OC

Thank you for posting this tip. Extremely easy and I was quite surprised when it worked for me! :]

This does absolutely nothing. Parking is a power management feature. If a program isn’t well multi threaded like Guild Wars 2. The CPU will take the few threads and move them around a few cores continously. This is why some people see something like 4 cores at 50% with a few cores parked. If you unpark them all now it takes the few threads and moves them around 8 cores. This makes the processor work harder for little to no extra benefits. This prevents Windows and other background apps from unparking the cores so they can use them. It heats up the processor because now it can’t park unused cores under heavy load to reduce heat.

Kryptio.3169:

Holy Cow! Alcu, you just made my day. This really did work for me. Downloaded the utility linked above, didnt even require an installation and it said I had 3 of my 4 cores parked for some reason. Unparked them all and I am running super smooth, and much more happier.

My specs:
AMD Athlon II X4 640 (3.0 GHz)
8 GB Ram
nVidia 560 ti OC

Thank you for posting this tip. Extremely easy and I was quite surprised when it worked for me! :]

I have exactly the same specs and it worked for me as well. The game runs a lot more smoother.

Can we get some none anecdotal or placebo tests on this? This basically works always the same.

1) XY with no technical background or clue what he was or is doing posts some “magical” FPS improvement
2) The sheep’s follow the steps, also no idea how or why this should work at all.
3) Some post “drastic” FPS improvements and post “thx” other do get nothing.
4) If u review the change technically, there should be no increase at all.
5) Some “tech guy” makes a real FPS comparison on a stable test scene before and after and finds no change at all, matching the technically expected behavior.

So did any of the “wow i got 50%+ more FPS” posters here have a reproducible test? Where did u test FPS before the change, where after, could u reproduce the gain/loose by toggle the “change” on/off.

Can u Fraps/record a video of the steps and the change, since we all know a video tells more than 1000 words.

i tried this out last night and it actually seemed to have worsened my fps. before the change, i sat my char on a cliff overlooking a heart zone in Caledon Forest. I was getting 90+ fps with 0 screen stuttering when i panned my camera around. when i followed the OP’s steps and got back into the game at the same location in Caledon Forest, i was greeted with about 10-15 lower fps and screen stuttering when panning the camera.

i didnt do any extensive testing, but i can say that parking actually introduced more screen stuttering when disabled on my system. when i turned parking back on, my screen stuttering went back to normal (read: none).

i dont know if that make sense technically, but that is what happened on my system.

I really wish people would stop posting this “tip”. This is not something you should be messing with without the proper qualifications / experience and it really is nothing more than a placebo.

What do you want, an official statement from arenanet stating this is what you have to do to improve your frame rate in this game? Lol good luck that’s not gonna happen. If you’re skeptical to do this, then just try and maybe you’ll get a performance boost like I did. I was skeptical myself, after all the tricks and tips I tried. If it works for you, great! If not, it’s a simple fix and literally takes 30 seconds, and you can go back to your QQing lol. I went from about 25-30 Fps up to 55-65 fps. Whether or not this should or shouldn’t work, it did and I’m glad this was brought to my attention.

Disabling core parking matters the most for those AMD FX 6*/8* CPUs, not sure if it matters much for i7’s but maybe GW2 aren’t taking advantage of the virtual cores the i7 has.

As far as I know, if you have an i3, i5, A8, Phenom II X4/6 you shouldn’t have to worry about this.

When running GW2 on an i7-2600K none of the 8 virtual cores are parked while running the game.

There is only benefit from this tip if you are seeing cores parked (or oscillating between parked and unparked states) in Resource Monitor while running the game. Put the game in windowed mode and open Resource Monitor.

There is no benefit to having cores unparked while Windows is idle.

My cores were parked too long, and now I have to pay a fine…I should have unparked them before the meter ran out…

Sorry but i won’t fiddle around in my registry just so i can squeeze out a couple more frames in a game with an absolutely horribly optimized engine.How can i know this won’t mess up other games FPS big time?

I know you only mean it good OP but nah,i wouldn’t do such things just to get one kitten game running better.It’s arena.nets job to get their kitten together and fix their engine.Costumers shouldn’t have to go into their registrys and change stuff.

“Parking disabled”

3DMark ScoreP6882
Graphics Score11100
Physics Score3408
Combined Score2967
GraphicsTest156.62 FPS
GraphicsTest282.01 FPS
GraphicsTest396.61 FPS
GraphicsTest423.44 FPS
PhysicsTest10.82 FPS
CombinedTest13.8 FPS

“Parking enabled”

3DMark ScoreP6743
Graphics Score10494
Physics Score3344
Combined Score3129
GraphicsTest148.83 FPS
GraphicsTest255.21 FPS
GraphicsTest364.25 FPS
GraphicsTest429.84 FPS
PhysicsTest10.62 FPS
CombinedTest14.55 FPS

What CPU and OS shastawong?

windows 7
amd phenom 2 x3 overclocked to 3.4ghz
i can say it is a bottleneck

shastawong.3486:

“Parking disabled”

3DMark ScoreP6882
CombinedTest13.8 FPS

“Parking enabled”

3DMark ScoreP6743
CombinedTest14.55 FPS

So basically within the normal random margin of error, so no change for 3DMark. We still need a real test, preferable with a video for GW2.

@shastawong.3486

Did you check with Resource Monitor if some cores were effectively parked (or oscillating) during the tests?

Here is an interesting Windows 7 hotfix from Microsoft which directly addresses known core parking issues with certain AMD processors.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060/EN-US

@support.microsoft.com

Currently, the CPU Power Policies that are used by Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not optimized for the dual core AMD Bulldozer module architecture. This architecture is found on AMD FX series, AMD Opteron 4200 Series, and AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors. This can result in decreased system performance with multithreaded workloads in lightly-threaded environments.

When this update is installed, Bulldozer modules will be less likely to achieve the C6 power state. This potentially results in increased power consumption in more lightly-threaded environments.

A similar article gives the same information but they excluded the mention “dual core” which at first was confusing since the AMD Bulldozer processors span from 2 to 8 cores.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2645594

Or you could just set your computer to maximum performance in the control panel…

@Swedemon.4670, nice find. Any AMD Bulldozer user should make sure he’s using both those fixes, the first one is aimed at the core parking issue, and the second one is aimed at the windows scheduler.

@Home Style.9640, true, if you don’t pay your electricity bill

suzuka.2694:

i tried this out last night and it actually seemed to have worsened my fps. before the change, i sat my char on a cliff overlooking a heart zone in Caledon Forest. I was getting 90+ fps with 0 screen stuttering when i panned my camera around. when i followed the OP’s steps and got back into the game at the same location in Caledon Forest, i was greeted with about 10-15 lower fps and screen stuttering when panning the camera.

i didnt do any extensive testing, but i can say that parking actually introduced more screen stuttering when disabled on my system. when i turned parking back on, my screen stuttering went back to normal (read: none).

i dont know if that make sense technically, but that is what happened on my system.

I second this, I tried it out myself last night and it indeed made my performance worse, when I turned them back on it was fine again.

Again, this matters the most for those AMD FX/Bulldozer chips. Although I’m hearing that Athlon II users are getting a benefit too, I’m going to try it on my laptop.

so people that are using intel procesors(like myself)
dotn use this fix itl most likely downgrade your fps

The AMD FX (Bulldozer) Scheduling Hotfixes Tested
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5448/the-bulldozer-scheduling-patch-tested
AMD’s FX-8150 After Two Windows 7 Hotfixes And UEFI Updates
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-hotfix-bulldozer-performance,3119.html

Sneak Peek: AMD’s Bulldozer Architecture On Windows 8
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8150-zambezi-bulldozer-990fx,3043-23.html

It seems Windows 8 will bring the correct implementation of these issues for Bulldozer. The fps gain in Windows 8 is pretty nice.

How to I turn the values back to its original?

ValueMax was 64 but how much was the ValueMin

Theres pritty much no reason to turn it back on on a gaming rig. So i wouldnt worry about it.

Solfan.7531:

How to I turn the values back to its original?

ValueMax was 64 but how much was the ValueMin

ValueMin should be 0. In order to turn off Core Parking, you want the ValueMax to match ValueMin, which is why setting ValueMax to 0 disables it.

iselin.8253:

Not a bad solution but there s a much easier way to disable CPU core parking without a registry edit: just choose the “Performance Power Plan” under power settings. That disables core parking.

no, this dosnt disable core parking, it helps some but does not disable it, it disables cool n quiet and intels speedstep but not core parking.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

that tool is the best easiest way to manage core parking, also you may want to give process lasso a try.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

iselin.8253:

Not a bad solution but there s a much easier way to disable CPU core parking without a registry edit: just choose the “Performance Power Plan” under power settings. That disables core parking.

no, this dosnt disable core parking, it helps some but does not disable it, it disables cool n quiet and intels speedstep but not core parking.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

that tool is the best easiest way to manage core parking, also you may want to give process lasso a try.

Is there proof that doing the registry modification doesn’t disable Core Parking? I’ve done the registry mod in the past, and haven’t seen any parking events since when I did check.

As for a sure-fire method for disabling Core Parking on my computer; I just drop the ACPI level from 3.0 to 1.0 and that takes care of it (I do nothing on my computer to require a higher ACPI level).

the reg mod works BUT nomal users should NOT monkey around with regedit, changing the profile to high perf dosnt work, thats what I said if you read it.

the tool I linked is very easy does the reg tweak for you, no risk of breaking your system and trust me, 20+years doing this work, its shocking how many idiots break their systems trying to do stuff like reg tweaks/fixes they read about….when i was working at computer shops years ago, I made alot of money reinstalling windows due to that….

8500 views for this topic but Anet decides not to post anything regarding performance aside from the culling patch, which to my knowledge is WvW only and does not address the PVE world event and zerg issues.

The registry ‘tweak’ isnt all that difficult. I done it manualy, granted im more adept at Computers than the average Joe Blogs, but still it isnt all THAT difficult. I would rather do it myself than trust a 3rd party program to go rumaging around my registry.

i got one whole frame per second more after doing it manually.
i guess the outcome depends on the system.

noob-proof tip: after opening regedit, go to “file” and click on “export”. save anywhere.
in case, that something in the registry got messed up: simply doubleclick the saved file to restore your registry to how it was before.
important note: if any programs are installed/uninstalled/made any changes, after the moment where a registry backup was made and you will load that backup, those changes will be removed from your registry and may mess things up!
you can just mark one registry entry/a group of entries and then click on file—>export to only backup those selected entries.

Guys, I got a i5 3570k OCed to 4,kitten, shall I do that to improve the FPS or let it as it now?

If so, how do I turn it back, just setting the ValueMax to 64?
What’s the ValueMin should be? 0 or something else?

You really don’t have to alter the registry at all. Just change the power profile in the OS.

Solfan.7531:

Guys, I got a i5 3570k OCed to 4,kitten, shall I do that to improve the FPS or let it as it now?

If so, how do I turn it back, just setting the ValueMax to 64?
What’s the ValueMin should be? 0 or something else?

Ur CPU will most likelly get no imporvments by disabling parking, most CPUs get no noticeable performnce boost by doing this.

rampage, this depends on the system, I have seen nill to amazing perf boosts, it does make more of a dif on hex and octa cores then quads and duals though……but some quad users will see a benefit……

A minimal benefit, i personally don’t know anyone who did this and see real noticeable improvment, most of it is placebo, so like i said most likelly u won’t see any benefit, but who knows, may be u are one of the lucky 5-10% ppl who actually see imporvemets by doing this. Most ppl who see benefits from this kind of tweaks, game boosters and stuff like that are ppl running systems full of bloatware, kittened up registry, ppl who don’t know how to keep their systems running nice, clean, fast, at full potential over time.