Guild Wars 2

Hello, first off I’ll post my speccs:

Processor – Intel Core i5-2430m 2,4ghz
GPU – nVidia GeForce 540m (driver version 306.23)
OS – Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
System Model – Asus K53SV
Memory – 6GB

Let me just say that I’ve tried everything. Fixing GW2 install, installing fresh new drivers from both Nvidia and my asus site (with no changes) , gamebooster, stopping background programs, you name it, I’ve done it. I can’t accept that my laptop goes to 5-10 FPS in big fights in WvW, and 30ish FPS in places like Ascalon Catacombs, which is pretty barren.

I play on everything low, except for the resolution which I keep at Native level, otherwise its way too blurry. Anything from a Grenade explosion to a fire wall can ‘cause my frames to drop by 10, sometimes down to 20 if its in a closed area, where I can’t zoom out. I’d just like to clear it up, is it my hardware thats the issue? is the game not optimized for my graphics card or is it just not strong enough for this game? Please, I’ve done everything, I’d really appreciate some input. I generally play at around 50 frames no problem (capper doesn’t cap me at 60) and with everything on Low I don’t see why I’m having issues.

Would also like to mention that I run Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 on high – ultra, with constant 40 frames (which I capped it at manually) even in 4v4 battles.

As I noticed lately, GW2 is pretty CPU intensive. Your CPU is bottlenecking the game (especially WvWvW where many players appear at once), therefore this problem. The best I can advise is to start MSI Afterburner and check how much of your GPU is utilized in Sylvari starter lands. Now try cranking up your video settings in gw2 so you get about 80-90% usage (you should be able to go at least medium everywhere (shaders on high etc) I think). You will still get bad FPS, but the game will look much better

I5 with a 540 is pretty mid range for a laptop which is about low-mid range for a desktop. So expect that same performance.

We need some extra information though. What resolution and settings are you running at.

My laptop is an I7 with 570M which is mid-high end for a laptop and I get 40-80FPS outside and 20-70FPS in WvWvW at 1920×1080.

I play at the native 1366×768 which I hear is okay for a 540m, and in-game settings everything on low with native textures. I’ve tried different resolutions but the difference is really not noticeable at all, maybe 1-2 frames better, also any kind of graphical tweak in WvW keeps the frames at the same amount, for example if I put everything on high, it’ll still run at 10-15 fps which is really odd. I’ll check out MSI afterburner, thanks for the replies and keep ’em coming.

Also, no matter what driver I play it on the perfomance is pretty much identical. Could it be my GPU is faulty? I’ve had a few issues with installing new drivers, like not being able to remove a lot of the registry stuff with driver sweeper when performing a clean install and when it installs the VGA adapter it says it has a (Code 10) not sure if thats relevant.

Any clue what may be causing particle effects from Grenades and flamethrowers and thief NPC’s going into stealth to slow my computer down by a good 20-25 frames?
Another thing thats odd is I often see small blue squares on terrain pop up, think its called artifacting and sometimes textures overlapping and flickering in the distance.

bump for more info

Thats wierd.
Cause got almost same spec as u except :
i5-2410M CPU at 2,3GHZ with hyperboost to 2,9GHZ and my minimum fps in towns/crowded areas is 40… while in WvW 20

Oh and im playing on medium settings.
Strange is that my laptop handle game better then my main computer >.>

Mrowqa.3861:

Thats wierd.
Cause got almost same spec as u except :
i5-2410M CPU at 2,3GHZ with hyperboost to 2,9GHZ and my minimum fps in towns/crowded areas is 40… while in WvW 20

Oh and im playing on medium settings.
Strange is that my laptop handle game better then my main computer >.>

I have a i7-2630QM and the same gpu and I have LOWER fps something is really wrong with this game

It is definitely strange, I’m just hoping its a question of optimization rather than me having to invest into a newer laptop/desktop, I think its not crazy for me to expect a stable 40ish FPS with no random dips. Though 40 fps and 20 fps in WvW seems about right for me. It only goes to about 10-15 when there is tons of players around. The most annoying thing for me right now though, is the explosions and certain particle effects (like the mist in AC) that cause my FPS to drop to 20ish as well as the terrain artifacting (tiny blue squares flashing on ground).

i have the retina macbook pro with similar system specs, having the same major framerate drop. i used to be able to run it very smooth, 50 FPS all around. no slowdowns. suddenly today it’s just slow and jerky and not even close to where it was.

i have the baseline macbook pro with retina display, i’m running it on bootcamp with windows 7 installed. i am using the drivers that apple provides. tried updating the video driver and that diddn’t make a difference.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5

Another thing I’d like to add, is that on the Character Creation screen, when creating any race/guardian my fps drops as well, and the character rotation becomes really sluggish. It’s the only profession that makes this happen.

‘laptop’ ..well theres your problem :P

but seriosly.. modern day mmo’s requir alto of cpu power. And once you reach said cpu power 9and gpu ofc) ..any slowdowns wil be due to the game engine. In cases like WvWvW ..the game engine cant handle the amount of people on it, so not only are you getting slow down from the game engine ..but your also getitng slow down becouse your rig isnt beafy enough.

My next point is. you cant compare a MMO with games like starcraft and diablo which take very little from your cpu, and tbh dont take much from your gpu ether (unless you have a old gpu).

Best bit of advice i can give you is, if you are agrivated enough to post on the forums about speed issues, then chances are you are avid enough to justify moving away from a laptop ..and into a proper Desktop PC. For the same price as a laptop you can get anywhere from 30% to 100% speed increases. a £1000 laptop for example..the same price can get you a very nice Desktop PC, specialy if you take the time to make it yourself (pre builds are over priced).

i know its not the ‘solution’ you wanted, but its the truth.. you ‘can’ get a good gaming laptops ..but for the same money you could get somthing much better in a Desktop.

Yeah I wish it was as easy as that, but I recently bought this laptop specifically for gaming, its the best I could afford for my budget and its reasonably powerful, I don’t think its too much to ask for a stable framerate at least in PvE with out the random dips from particle effects. I’m well aware I can get a nice desktop for gaming for the same price, but unfortunately I need the mobility, since I’m only renting this flat, and unsure wether I am even staying in the country.

Also I agree, I suppose it was a bad example to put those 2 games up there, although I can say I’ve played Swtor on this laptop, which is a recent MMO, and it ran at a stable 60 frames at medium, with only the usual hiccups in crowded situations which is to be expected.

I thought an i5 processor was more than enough for newer games, reckon it was my GPU thats causing the issue. Back in beta I used to have fewer issues than I do at launch, its really frustrating.

Maybe I’m in denial though. I suppose I’ll just have to sit it out till maybe a magical patch comes through that fixes my issues, though I doubt it. I was just hoping it wasn’t my rig that was weak, just the game that needs optimizing. I still refuse to believe that zooming into a SPECIFIC particle effect, like a grenade explosions or the tip of the flamethrower makes me lose 20-30 FPS in a matter of seconds is due to my laptop not being able to handle it, it just seems really, really odd!

Still, my question stands – ANY idea what may be causing the issues of particles and guardian character creation hitting my FPS so hard? It just makes NO sense to me. Is it really too much for my rig to handle?