Guild Wars 2

I’m not incredibly tech-savy, so advice geared towards a computer novice would help the most.

The problem I’m facing is that I seem to run into random moments of graphical stuttering and glitches that seem to happen sporadically. It’s not like the frame rate drops, but instead frames come in flashes of motion. One moment it will be doing this, the next it won’t.

I’ve tried changing around my graphics settings, using both “Auto-Detect” and “Best Performance” but the issue happens with both regardless. The issue also occurs regardless of server load, so it’s happened in maps with dense player populations, and in maps with no other players. I have very decent internet (12MB/s) so I don’t think that’s the issue.
If you have any good or general fixes that will help the performance of the game, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m more than welcome to answer any specific questions you might have about my game or computer.

I play on a MacBook Pro (late 2011), here are the specs:
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM

AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB

Running OSX 10.9.4

128 GB HD (but I barely have anything else on the HD so there’s still lot of free space)

Thanks for your help!

hey

Is it like you are having 30 fps and then for no obvious reason it drops to around 8 or so?

check this first, see which graphic card is being used when in game
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4152

your mac has 2 graphic cards, one is the amd radeon and the other one is an intel graphic processor on the motherboard(?) and it switches between them depending on how demanding a program is to save power and keep the mac cooler.
so for some reason it switches to the weaker intel graphic while in game.

here are two programs that might solve your problem.

the first one lets you lock the graphic card is being used, so it can’t switch
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4347989?tstart=0
http://www.heise.de/download/gfxcardstatus-1174053.html (no idea why it links a german site, its trustworthy though, otherwise google for “gfxCardStatus 2.3”

now simply set the graphic card to the radeon card

you can use this program to set the fans to a higher speed if you like too better control the heat (not really necessary i think)

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

hope this helps

//edit
a SMC reset might be necessary, there are instructions on the apple support page

That should not be happening to you, I have the same mac and haven’t had that problem :S.

Like Michael says, try doing an SMC reset (A PRAM reset might also be worth a try.)

Also you don’t need any of the fancy programs Michael suggested to stop it from changing graphics card – Just open up System Preferences then go to the Energy Saver tab and uncheck Automatic Graphics switching – having it unchecked will force your computer to use the AMD graphics card all the time.

you mean this?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4110

it says my mbp has this feature but it’s not there in the energy saver tab, that would have saved me some trouble

Wow, super weird that it doesn’t show up for you in the Energy Saver tab :S
If you open spotlight and type “System Information” and open that program (it’s faster than navigating there through the apple menu) then go to the Graphics/Displays tab do both the integrated intel card and your other graphics card show up in the list? I think some of the machines listed on the apple support site do actually have specific configurations where only an intel graphics card is installed, in which case there is no graphics switching. But since the OP has an identical MBP to mine it should definitely show up for them

Alright, some updates:

1. My stronger video card is running when I play GW2, even when it is stuttering.

2. I have iStat on my MBPro, so I can see how fast my fans are going and what temperature my components are while playing. In mid-game, each fan runs at 6k+ rpms, and my CPU seems to be the overheating culprit. It runs around 80-90 degrees whenever I am in-game, while all others remain in the 30s-40s range (I believe that’s Celsius, no?). I use a cooling mat which runs before and during gameplay. Stuttering seems to appear later into the game. A couple thoughts:

- My CPU is overheating too much and causing sluggishness on my computer.
– Seeing as my fans re running at 6k+ rpms during the game, is it worth it to get SMC fan control? I don’t know if my fans can run any faster.

90 isn’t anything worth worrying about. Are you absolutely sure the frame rate isn’t dropping? Can you have the frame rate monitor open and see what the numbers do when this happens?

So…90 degrees Celsius isn’t bad? I heard that’s a bit high for a CPU temperature.

And update on my FPS: when I first logged in, I hovered around 40 FPS. As the game progressed (maybe about 10 minutes into the game) it dropped to about 30, and then to 20. It wouldn’t go any higher, even if I was standing still.

I was still experiencing drag and stutter every now and then (where the graphics would slow down and speed up in small micro-bursts) but they didn’t seem reflected in the FPS count in my options menu.

When I went into combat, my FPS dropped a little more to 15 FPS and hovered around there. They would then return to 20 and not rise or fall at standstill.

Picture at 15 FPS.

90 is very high, but it isn’t dangerously so. With how inefficient GW2 is and because it is running in a cider wrapper the heat is going to end up being on the high end :S – but you aren’t a special case and there’s not a lot to be done about it.

As for the performance steadily decreasing over time I’m not sure there’s anything I can think of since I’m not a developer. I would guess there is some kind of bottleneck in the processor or RAM (the client is 32 bit so it is limited to 4GBs)

You mentioned you’ve got a lot of space on your harddrive. Would a Bootcamp’d Windows installation be an option for you? The client runs much more efficiently under Windows.

Also, Foxx, for 32bit processes, the limitation is 2GB RAM, not 4GB. That’s for adressable memory for OSes

It’s a 128GB Solid State Drive, and I already own a 1TB external. I ran the game off the external for a while, but found out it wasn’t helping load times at all. I would Bootcamp my solid state, but it’s a lot of hassle just to split how much memory my Mac side (which I use for everything else) can use. Plus, I tend to pass games back and forth between my external and my internal a lot to conserve space, so I don’t want to end up boot camping my hard drive, decide not to play GW2 for a while and end up with a useless Windows component on my comp.

Would you be able to possibly use quicktime to record this happening and upload it to say youtube or some other source and share it so we can see it happening. Without being able to see it makes it hard to diagnose. I work in IT and would be glad to offer any advice but makes it hard when we cannot see it. From what you have described and i’m just spitballing as it could be a number of things. I would say seems like may be the graphics card going bad. As that would be the first indication of graphical stuttering, it could also be the CPU or a bad sector on the HDD there are really a number of like I said reasons this could be happening so please try and record.

Also do you have Apple care?

mikeew.8607:

Also do you have Apple care?

Yup, I have AppleCare. I just finished kitten ing on EoTM, but I can go back on and try to record it when it’s happening. I’ll update this with that as soon as I can.

Naqaj.6219:

You mentioned you’ve got a lot of space on your harddrive. Would a Bootcamp’d Windows installation be an option for you? The client runs much more efficiently under Windows.

Also, Foxx, for 32bit processes, the limitation is 2GB RAM, not 4GB. That’s for adressable memory for OSes

Oh wow, I thought it was 3 (it is on windows 32bit I think) but went with 4 just in case :S but two, that’s pretty shocking and could explain a lot of the issues.

Video link to game performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIu0RFJ3yU&feature=youtu.be

Sorry for potato quality, I thought it would turn out in something more decent than 360p. I can try reuploading for better quality, otherwise let me know what you think. Read the video description for how I explain the issues I’m having more in depth.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Oh wow, I thought it was 3 (it is on windows 32bit I think) but went with 4 just in case :S but two, that’s pretty shocking and could explain a lot of the issues.

Well, that’s note entirely wrong, there is a posibility to expand the limit to 3GB, but as this comes with it’s own set of incompatibility issues, it’s appearantly not commonly used. It’s not used by the GW2 client.
Sorry for the off-topic

Entaurrus, when was the last time you deleted the GW2 folder in the user library/application support/ directory? The thing they talk about in point 4) in this post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/Basic-Mac-Beta-Client-Troubleshooting/first#post2480238
It’s usually causing crash problems, but can have an effect on performance as well.

The quality is full 1080p on youtube, did you reupload?

But yeah, it should nottt be like that. Can you do me a favour and check that you don’t have super-sampling enabled in the graphics settings.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Can you do me a favour and check that you don’t have super-sampling enabled in the graphics settings.

It’s set to Native Render Sampling, not Supersampling.

And you don’t experience any other kinds of graphical issues in other games?

Entaurrus Silver.3820:

Alright, some updates:

1. My stronger video card is running when I play GW2, even when it is stuttering.

2. I have iStat on my MBPro, so I can see how fast my fans are going and what temperature my components are while playing. In mid-game, each fan runs at 6k+ rpms, and my CPU seems to be the overheating culprit. It runs around 80-90 degrees whenever I am in-game, while all others remain in the 30s-40s range (I believe that’s Celsius, no?). I use a cooling mat which runs before and during gameplay. Stuttering seems to appear later into the game. A couple thoughts:

- My CPU is overheating too much and causing sluggishness on my computer.
– Seeing as my fans re running at 6k+ rpms during the game, is it worth it to get SMC fan control? I don’t know if my fans can run any faster.

It absolutely makes sense that the OS is pulling clock speed to cool the CPU during high temperatures. That’s your answer.

Laptops are not meant for hours of high CPU load. That’s not at all what they are designed for. You can’t expect your laptop to perform well when being used for a purpose that it’s not made for.

Also, throw the “cooling mat” in the trash. All they do is suck on the laptop battery, increasing load and causing more heat. Keeping the laptop on a flat table top with airspace underneath is the best option.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

And you don’t experience any other kinds of graphical issues in other games?

Nope, no graphical stutters in other games, just GW2.

Todd.8162:

It absolutely makes sense that the OS is pulling clock speed to cool the CPU during high temperatures. That’s your answer.

Laptops are not meant for hours of high CPU load. That’s not at all what they are designed for. You can’t expect your laptop to perform well when being used for a purpose that it’s not made for.

Also, throw the “cooling mat” in the trash. All they do is suck on the laptop battery, increasing load and causing more heat. Keeping the laptop on a flat table top with airspace underneath is the best option.

Will some sort of laptop stand do the trick? Not sure how you can keep it on a tabletop AND have airspace underneath it at the same time….

But thank you. I thought this was the answer but a lot of other people seemed to think it was more software related. I guess if there’s anything else I can do to keep the game running smoother, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it.

Laptop stands do help. During summer I use one when I play gw2, it’s not going to fix your graphics issues though :S

Entaurrus Silver.3820:

Will some sort of laptop stand do the trick? Not sure how you can keep it on a tabletop AND have airspace underneath it at the same time….

But thank you. I thought this was the answer but a lot of other people seemed to think it was more software related. I guess if there’s anything else I can do to keep the game running smoother, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it.

A stand, rubber feet, a couple of rulers under the edges, whatever hack you want to try. Just remember that the Mac Pro was designed to partially keep itself cool by radiating heat from it’s aluminum shell. That works for occasional blasts of full CPU power but it is not intended to run at high power for hours of gaming at a time.

Consider running Bootcamp and playing the game in Windows. Apple graphic drivers are not as good as the Windows versions and the Mac version of the game puts a lot of extra load on the CPU which the Windows version likely does not.

entaurus, i’ve got a mid 2011 mbp, basically same specs as urs. and i have the exact same problem!

I open GW2 and start with 70 fps and then it will periodically drops to 20 and will keep on dropping, never going higher than 20.

Sometimes the game stays on 30-40 fps, but regardless, i will have stutters.

and it’s funny because a couple of days ago the game suddenly decided to run smoothly, i was shocked and motivated to play again, but then the game somehow manages to break itself.

A couple things I have noticed on my Mac – (early 2011, similar specs as above but yours is slightly more upgraded) – Make sure the graphics are set to Better Performance in cities/intense areas (i leave it on this pretty much all the time now), I limited my FPS to 30 and found the game tends to run a lot smoother pretty much always now, make sure at the bottom the vertical sync is not checked. Few other tweaks you can play around with in the graphics tab to see if they help or not, but those were the big ones for me. I would like to play at better graphics but if I ever care that much I just go sit at my windows desktop thats all geeked out lol