Guild Wars 2

So I noticed a major thing with GW2 ever since I upgraded my computer from an AMD based system to a Intel one. GW2 really does not play nicely with Intel i7 Processors.

My computer specs are

OS: Windows 10 Professional
CPU: i7-4790K @ 4.0 ghz and @4.4 ghz stock turbo
RAM: 16 GB Corsair XMS3 @ 1600 mhz
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212
GPU: Powercolor R9 390
Mobo: Asus Z-97 AR
PSU: XFX TS 750 watt gold efficiency rated.

I play at highest settings on 1600×900 resolution.

I noticed with hyper threading enabled, I lose massive amount of frames, and get quite a bit of stuttering. When I disable hyper threading, the problems basically disappear.

I realize that GW2 doesn’t / can’t utilize hyper threading… which is totally fine with me, but the question is why does it actually have an adverse effect? Is there not something you can do about it? Because none of the other games I play suffers from any noticeable problems from hyper threading being active despite the fact that they don’t make use of it.

The second thing I noticed is with CPU turbo boost enabled, my computer itself, not the game client crashes every 5-10 minutes while playing GW2. After disabling CPU turbo boost, my game becomes extremely stable, where I can play hours on end without a computer crash.

This is also weird issue exclusive to GW2. I realize that turbo boost is basically “overclocking” thus can cause system instability… but the fact is that is Intel’s stock turbo boost speed, which isn’t even all that high of an overclock. But the fact is I play numerous other games, that are also CPU intensive that cause my CPU to run at turbo speeds, but yet my computer never crashes playing them. Also I do a lot of video rendering, where my CPU is turboing for hours on end, so I know my computer can stably turbo to 4.4 ghz for long duration of time without any issues. I monitored my CPU temperature it was operating in a safe and normal temperature of 55°-60°C underload. So it definitely isn’t over heating.

And I want to note I keep all my drivers updated, I check for new driver updates every month. So its not due to outdated drivers.

Is 55-60C your idle or load temp? If it is at load, that’s ok, if it’s at idle, that’s a problem

Its at under load.

My normal idle temperature is usually at 25°-32° depending on ambient temperatures in my room.

Have you tried repairing your client?

If that doesn’t work, it may be better to contact customer support directly with your crash log. Top right “Services → Support → Submit a request”

Have you made sure that the Z97 Board is not doing a stock OC or running on some ‘Profile’? It kind of sounds like the VID/vCore might be a bit to high on the 4790K even though you are not overclocking. The fact that you crash with Turbo Boost really makes me think that.

anyway, I would start there. Go through the BIOS settings, then download HWInfo and/or Coretemp/CPU-Z and load up Prim95 and watch your VID and make sure its not going to 1.3v or higher.

The 4790K can run stock at 0.98v, but I have seen boards push the VID to 1.3-1.35v+ when turbo is enabled.

also, GW2 will use HT. Once you get your PC stable you will see when you watch your core/thread loads in task manager with GW2 loaded on high/ultra settings.

sirsquishy.2619:

Have you made sure that the Z97 Board is not doing a stock OC or running on some ‘Profile’? It kind of sounds like the VID/vCore might be a bit to high on the 4790K even though you are not overclocking. The fact that you crash with Turbo Boost really makes me think that.

anyway, I would start there. Go through the BIOS settings, then download HWInfo and/or Coretemp/CPU-Z and load up Prim95 and watch your VID and make sure its not going to 1.3v or higher.

The 4790K can run stock at 0.98v, but I have seen boards push the VID to 1.3-1.35v+ when turbo is enabled.

also, GW2 will use HT. Once you get your PC stable you will see when you watch your core/thread loads in task manager with GW2 loaded on high/ultra settings.

I ran Prime95, never got pass 1.164V. Running GW2 on the other hand it got up to 1.178.

Also GW2 does not really make use of hyper threading. When hyper threading is disabled my CPU usage is at 100% usage in task manager.

With hyper threading enabled, usage peaks at 52% overall, and only the first 2 cores seems to have 60-70% activity. The other 6 kind of just lingers at around 20% usage. Which means its not utilizing all the cores properly at max potential.

My stock i7 4770k with air cooling runs on average mid 70’s with some spikes up to the 90’s but no problems at all handling GW2.

The game has no dislike or adverse effect from using i7 processors.
Turbo Boost runs at default and should not cause any crash anywhere or game.

Since you had an AMD cpu before, did you do a clean install of Windows? The AMD code might be interfering with the new intel cpu.

There is not any issue with HT in Gw2.