Guild Wars 2

Hello. My pc specs are: ATM bulldozer FX 6 core 3.2gh, 8GB ram, Raedon 7700, and I’m able to play most games at “ultra” settings with an overall nice performance. The problem is that when I play GW2 it bounces between nice and bad fps rate, for instance: I can play 5 min with 30 to 60 fps, then I get some annoying 30 secs of 20 or less fps. If I go to WvW and I engage into battle it gets much worse: between 9 and 15 fps during the first 20 secs of battle, then when it stabilizes I get 30 fps tops. You might think that probbly im overetimating my equipment, but turns out that the same happens if I set the graphics at the lowest config. Now, I’ve followed the suggestions made by Anet on forums, but little improvement. A guy suggested there might be some sort of incompatibility with the radeon 7xxx series. Any clues on this?

I have some issues with fps too, but I think mine is due to Crossfire and Eyefinity. Even with 2 HD 7870s in Crossfire, 32gb of RAM, and an FX-8150, I pull around 20-25 (or lower) fps on high settings; but I’m running it at 5760×1080. I’ve never really tried it on a single display, but I can test it out later tonight if you haven’t gotten an answer by then since I am using a 7xxx series.

Firstly im affraid OP that ur PC isnt ‘good’ ..not for GW atleast.

However things u can try.
Turn reflections down to terrain and sky. Turn shadows down to High ..Turn Sampling to native.
You got 8gb RAM ..make sure ur using a 64bit OS.
Set GW2 priority in task manager to High.
OC your CPU, GW2 gets most its performance from the CPU’s single thread performance. Thus AMD cpu;s (even their best) ,specialy at stock, dont fair well in WvW and other populated areas.
A slow HDD can also cause issues, if u have 2 HDD’s the same RPM and size ..try using them in RAID0 format to boost the speed, defrag it if u havnt done so in a while. If u have a SSD, put GW2 on that.
Update or Downgrade ur current graphics drivers to see if that helps. If its factory OC’d ..try downclocking it just incase its a unstable OC.

SolarNova.1052:

Firstly im affraid OP that ur PC isnt ‘good’ ..not for GW atleast.

However things u can try.
Turn reflections down to terrain and sky. Turn shadows down to High ..Turn Sampling to native.
You got 8gb RAM ..make sure ur using a 64bit OS.
Set GW2 priority in task manager to High.
OC your CPU, GW2 gets most its performance from the CPU’s single thread performance. Thus AMD cpu;s (even their best) ,specialy at stock, dont fair well in WvW and other populated areas.
A slow HDD can also cause issues, if u have 2 HDD’s the same RPM and size ..try using them in RAID0 format to boost the speed, defrag it if u havnt done so in a while. If u have a SSD, put GW2 on that.
Update or Downgrade ur current graphics drivers to see if that helps. If its factory OC’d ..try downclocking it just incase its a unstable OC.

Oh well, my pc isn’t as good as yours, but according to GW2’s system requirements is more than the recommended specs. And maybe you didn’t have the chance to read the complete post, but I stated that I narrowed my graphic settings to the minimum for best performance, and I got the same results. About the cpu, this is the first time I’ve heard about that issue, sounds legit but I’ll do some research on that. The funny thing is that I know I’m not pushing my system to the limit cause the performance monitor says I’m just using like 35% of my RAM memory and my CPU. And I’ve read about pc’s that even beat you specs and got similar issues as I do. Anyway thx for replying, I’ll try to follow some of the advice you just gave me, see if that works.

The GW2 system requirments just mean ’ you can run the game’, not that it will be playable. Thats what reccomended specs are for. . and notice that Anet have no reccomended specs ..becouse they are really high and requir OC’s ..which ofc they cannot recommend people do for obviose reasons.

The reason for ur performance monitor not showing 100% is explained here.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095383

Bassicaly Your CPU is split into core’s and threads, when all are used up .u have 100% usuage, BUT if 1 of those cores/threads maxes out when processing one of GW2’s 50 odd threads, that causes all other GW2 threads/processes to slow down to match it.
The main GW2 thread is very intensive, once that maxes out(meaning ur CPU is procesisng it as fast as it can) all other GW2 process cannot be run any faster than that parent thread.
This means you get a FPS drop, and also means u wont see 100% usuage on the CPU becouse not all the cpu’s threads are being maxed out,, only that 1 is, the rest are running a what ever usuage it needs to run the other Gw2 processes that have been slowed down.

AMD cpu’s have slower single thread processing power, which is why they r not the best choice for gaming in these intensive CPU situations, however most games are not as intensive as GW2 is on the CPU ..so u generaly dont see it untill extreme situations. GW2 on the other hand is intensive throughout, so when things really get busy like in WvW ..CPU’s single thread performance gets tested hard. This is why even with a top of the line Intel CPU .. u need to OC them just to keep FPS above 30 in WvW.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

This is a list of the single thread performance of all current CPU’s . Note they are all on stock and none of them at stock can keep WvW in GW2 from droping below 30 in heavy situations. So those CPU’s way down the list are even more at a disadvantage.

Since GW2 is so intensive on the CPU , so long as u have a good OC on a 2nd/3rd gen intel i5 or i7 u dont actually needa very good GPU, however alot of people are having performance issues when using the laest series of graphics cards, hence why u may see now and then people complaining about bad performance even with high end rigs, its usualy drivers issues or settings ingame, nothing to do with their CPU.
In ur case i think its the CPU, since graphics settings r doing little to imporve ur fps, and the fact it gets so bad in WvW.

BTW my rig aint all that atm, the graphics card is old .. and my CPU is no better than a 3570k/2500k with OC in ‘most’ games. I built my rig for more than just gaming ..hence the expensive CPU

MikeRiv.4031:

SolarNova.1052:

Firstly im affraid OP that ur PC isnt ‘good’ ..not for GW atleast.

However things u can try.
Turn reflections down to terrain and sky. Turn shadows down to High ..Turn Sampling to native.
You got 8gb RAM ..make sure ur using a 64bit OS.
Set GW2 priority in task manager to High.
OC your CPU, GW2 gets most its performance from the CPU’s single thread performance. Thus AMD cpu;s (even their best) ,specialy at stock, dont fair well in WvW and other populated areas.
A slow HDD can also cause issues, if u have 2 HDD’s the same RPM and size ..try using them in RAID0 format to boost the speed, defrag it if u havnt done so in a while. If u have a SSD, put GW2 on that.
Update or Downgrade ur current graphics drivers to see if that helps. If its factory OC’d ..try downclocking it just incase its a unstable OC.

Oh well, my pc isn’t as good as yours, but according to GW2’s system requirements is more than the recommended specs. And maybe you didn’t have the chance to read the complete post, but I stated that I narrowed my graphic settings to the minimum for best performance, and I got the same results. About the cpu, this is the first time I’ve heard about that issue, sounds legit but I’ll do some research on that. The funny thing is that I know I’m not pushing my system to the limit cause the performance monitor says I’m just using like 35% of my RAM memory and my CPU. And I’ve read about pc’s that even beat you specs and got similar issues as I do. Anyway thx for replying, I’ll try to follow some of the advice you just gave me, see if that works.

Im afraid that only thing You can go better then SolarNovas Pc is getting
INTEL CORE i7-3960X version which cost twice as that and gives at max 5% more performance.

The GPU really doesn’t matter untill You have Really good CPU.
I can put graphic sttings full wiht my gtx 260 216 cores and I’d still stay over 30-40 FPS in PVE while havin them on medium gives me over 70-80 FPs in some areas.

Problem of FX bulldozer series is pathetic single core performance. And while this game uses 2-3 threads It doesn’t matter really that You got 6 cores cause only 3 will get utilized.

Fx 4100/6100/8150 Got a single core performance of old Phenom BE. Which even AMD stated was thier biggest mistake.

A Piledriver series on the other hand seems to be doing good. a fx 4300/6300/8320/8350 Give really good ( as for AMD ) single core performance but still when You compare 1 core to 1 core each of them loses to lowest i3’s.

Wanna know When You CPU limits You ? Stand in LA and put setting on low, then on max.

With lowest graphican settings the FPS you’ll notice is max that You will get with that CPU – If Your FPS doesn’t change that muhc from low to high it means that isn’t not Your GPU but CPU. CPU overall can also Limit Your GPU in which case it won’t work as it should by not reciving instructions form CPU.

SolarNova.1052:

The GW2 system requirments just mean ’ you can run the game’, not that it will be playable. Thats what reccomended specs are for. . and notice that Anet have no reccomended specs ..becouse they are really high and requir OC’s ..which ofc they cannot recommend people do for obviose reasons.

The reason for ur performance monitor not showing 100% is explained here.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095383

Bassicaly Your CPU is split into core’s and threads, when all are used up .u have 100% usuage, BUT if 1 of those cores/threads maxes out when processing one of GW2’s 50 odd threads, that causes all other GW2 threads/processes to slow down to match it.
The main GW2 thread is very intensive, once that maxes out(meaning ur CPU is procesisng it as fast as it can) all other GW2 process cannot be run any faster than that parent thread.
This means you get a FPS drop, and also means u wont see 100% usuage on the CPU becouse not all the cpu’s threads are being maxed out,, only that 1 is, the rest are running a what ever usuage it needs to run the other Gw2 processes that have been slowed down.

AMD cpu’s have slower single thread processing power, which is why they r not the best choice for gaming in these intensive CPU situations, however most games are not as intensive as GW2 is on the CPU ..so u generaly dont see it untill extreme situations. GW2 on the other hand is intensive throughout, so when things really get busy like in WvW ..CPU’s single thread performance gets tested hard. This is why even with a top of the line Intel CPU .. u need to OC them just to keep FPS above 30 in WvW.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

This is a list of the single thread performance of all current CPU’s . Note they are all on stock and none of them at stock can keep WvW in GW2 from droping below 30 in heavy situations. So those CPU’s way down the list are even more at a disadvantage.

Since GW2 is so intensive on the CPU , so long as u have a good OC on a 2nd/3rd gen intel i5 or i7 u dont actually needa very good GPU, however alot of people are having performance issues when using the laest series of graphics cards, hence why u may see now and then people complaining about bad performance even with high end rigs, its usualy drivers issues or settings ingame, nothing to do with their CPU.
In ur case i think its the CPU, since graphics settings r doing little to imporve ur fps, and the fact it gets so bad in WvW.

BTW my rig aint all that atm, the graphics card is old .. and my CPU is no better than a 3570k/2500k with OC in ‘most’ games. I built my rig for more than just gaming ..hence the expensive CPU

why do gw2 set a minimum requirments to run them but not to play them that doesnt make sense at all to me , why not just make the requirments higher ……? 20fps and below is rediculous …

I just finished trying the 7xxx series GPUs and I was getting over 30 fps at 1920×1080, with all setting maxed, without any dips (but this was in a sparsely populated PvE zone and Rata Sum). That’s with a FX 8150 CPU too. So, don’t take the criticism too harshly. A lot of fanboys on both AMD and Intel sides. However, GW2 does only use 3 of your cores (I’m hoping they change this in the future) so having more cores doesn’t do you any good, it’s really down to thread speed (which Intel does best right now).

Oddly enough, when I switched back to 5760 × 1080 (in the same zone), and left the settings maxed, everything ran at nearly the same fps. If I switched from medium settings to higher settings without changing the resolution, I would dip to 19 fps or so. I’ll have to test the consistency of that this weekend.

Its all marketing. They aint exactly lieing .. The game will ‘run’, it will run by deffinition.

‘playable’ is not as precise a deffinition. heavy and profressional gamers dont accept anything other than 60 fps or higher as playable in certain genre’s like first person shooters, whilst other genre’s it can be 30fps.
However ‘normal’ gamers, and non professionals will usualy accept 30+ across ‘nearly’ all genre’s. And non gamers, people who just play 1 or 2 genres of game and only a handfull at a time, will put up with below 30 fps.

So settings specification for ‘playability’ is harder than just saying it will ‘run’. And ofc they can get away with saying minimum specs for the game to ‘run’ and profit of poeples ignorance on what it truly means. Not all companies do this ofc, its all just part of the game of marketing i guess.

TheIronFistOfDeath.3016:

I just finished trying the 7xxx series GPUs and I was getting over 30 fps at 1920×1080, with all setting maxed, without any dips (but this was in a sparsely populated PvE zone and Rata Sum). That’s with a FX 8150 CPU too. So, don’t take the criticism too harshly. A lot of fanboys on both AMD and Intel sides. However, GW2 does only use 3 of your cores (I’m hoping they change this in the future) so having more cores doesn’t do you any good, it’s really down to thread speed (which Intel does best right now).

Oddly enough, when I switched back to 5760 × 1080 (in the same zone), and left the settings maxed, everything ran at nearly the same fps. If I switched from medium settings to higher settings without changing the resolution, I would dip to 19 fps or so. I’ll have to test the consistency of that this weekend.

Some settings affect CPU performance, so swithcing settings from medium to max will have some effect if indeed the CPU is the bottleneck.
If the 7000 series GPU ur using is somthing along the lines of a 7870 or 7950 then 30 fps in a PvE zone is rather low, i suspect ur likely hitting a CPU bottleneck but their are other possibiilities like PCE bottlenecks if ur running on a PCIE x1 instead of a x16.

It really does help to have a GPU & CPU monitoring program running a overlay (OSD) when running GW2 to let u know whether ur experiancing GPU bottlenecks or not. Becouse in PvE ..if ur GPU is not maxing out when u get sub 60 fps ..then its highly likely to be a CPU bottleneck regardless of CPU usuage.

SolarNova, thx for the reply. You were right, I read the link u posted, and in part 2 they explain in a very detailed way what gear I should get in order to have a nice performance, and turns out I have a crappier gear than I thought. I wish I read that post before, so I knew where to put my money. Anyway, the example pc they put there is not what I’d call “too expensive”, and I think I’ll upgrade my equipment as soon as I’m able. You’re right, basically ignorance can be expensive, the chart with the CPU’s and GPU’s performance they link to is unveliebable if you think about how a cheaper CPU or GPU can beat a more expensive one, and how it is more expensive just cause it’s named with a higher number. Once again thank you very much.

NP.

My personal recommendation is to get a Intel i5 3570k CPU. pair with a Coolermaster evo 212 cooler, a $100 Asus or Gigabyte motherboard, and OC it to as close to 4.5ghz as can heat wise.

Rest of the rig u can decide on ur own bassicaly.. But that CPU is relativly cheap (for a OC’able Intel CPU) and can run GW2 great when OC’d.

GL

SolarNova.1052:

Some settings affect CPU performance, so swithcing settings from medium to max will have some effect if indeed the CPU is the bottleneck.
If the 7000 series GPU ur using is somthing along the lines of a 7870 or 7950 then 30 fps in a PvE zone is rather low, i suspect ur likely hitting a CPU bottleneck but their are other possibiilities like PCE bottlenecks if ur running on a PCIE x1 instead of a x16.

It really does help to have a GPU & CPU monitoring program running a overlay (OSD) when running GW2 to let u know whether ur experiancing GPU bottlenecks or not. Becouse in PvE ..if ur GPU is not maxing out when u get sub 60 fps ..then its highly likely to be a CPU bottleneck regardless of CPU usuage.

That is, most likely, the issue. I am only using a FX-8150. I didn’t have time to performance test it last night but I did download Afterburner for it’s OSD. Since AMD’s System Monitor didn’t have the option. I’m hoping ArenaNet utilizes more cores but, if not, everything runs well enough for me. I’ve been satisfied with my GW2 experience. Even on medium everything looks and runs great.

i hate to say this being an AMD guy personally, but the bulldozer line of CPUs were actually a great let down =\ They under performed in almost every aspect even when compared to the Phenom II line they were suppose to replace...hence why I still have my Phenom II x4 BE lol

Yea ..i mean iv been a Intel guuser most my life, but right at the start i did use AMD’s ..this is over 15 years ago im talking. And they were good back then.

But unfortunatly they have not kept up wiht Intels pace and its a kitten shame..becouse Intel is able to charge premiums knowing that AMD cant compete.

Not only that there is also the possibility that Intel could be holding back, since they dont need to release their best to compete. It sucks ..but ..cant rly do anythign about it.

AMD Athlon made mince meat out of Pentium 4s. Iintel released their Core cpu as a response. Now the question is will AMD be able to turn the tide again or a new rival emerge from the mobile industry.

Competition = consumer wins.

AMD will never pull it off, because their ceo is a fool and they fired the only talented chip designers they had.

prima.6478:

why do gw2 set a minimum requirments to run them but not to play them that doesnt make sense at all to me , why not just make the requirments higher ……? 20fps and below is rediculous …

um, your not thinking from a sales and profit perspective, if they where honest, they wouldnt have gotten as many sales to people who really cant run the game properly.

why do you think they stuck to dx9 when most systems running XP arent gonna get decent perf in the game?

MikeRiv.4031:

SolarNova, thx for the reply. You were right, I read the link u posted, and in part 2 they explain in a very detailed way what gear I should get in order to have a nice performance, and turns out I have a crappier gear than I thought. I wish I read that post before, so I knew where to put my money. Anyway, the example pc they put there is not what I’d call “too expensive”, and I think I’ll upgrade my equipment as soon as I’m able. You’re right, basically ignorance can be expensive, the chart with the CPU’s and GPU’s performance they link to is unveliebable if you think about how a cheaper CPU or GPU can beat a more expensive one, and how it is more expensive just cause it’s named with a higher number. Once again thank you very much.

You dont need to buy a new system, just go grab a xigmatek aiger cooler, clock that 6 core to 4.5 or better and you will be fine.(the aiger is like 65usd, i use one on my 8120 and 8350, works great)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233087

if you want you can go better by buying water kids like the h80 and h100 from corsair(or other companies selling the same basic kit from coolit systems(all of these kits are made by coolit and rebranded) )
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

honestly, theres no need to replace your whole system to get decent perf, specially when some games actually run better on FX line chips(bf3 loves more cores…..) if your board can oc, and can take it, you could just replace the chip with a 6300 or 8300 series chip(pile driver) this would boost single thread perf and with decent cooling will do at least 4.5 on air.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

AMD will never pull it off, because their ceo is a fool and they fired the only talented chip designers they had.

huh? AMD lost one fellow to Apple but then hired the guy whos considered the best chip designer in the world by many(including apple and ibm and many other major chip design companies) Jim Keller now works for AMD, hes the mind behind steamroller and helped with the tweaks to piledriver from what i have read.

http://allthingsd.com/20120801/amd-hires-apples-head-chip-designer/

keller was one of the big brains behind the original athlon

This game has a severe and very hard to pinpoint performance bug on processors with 3+ cores.
You can safely ignore all the “computer is bad” and “get intel” comments. This bug is universal and one simply cannot know if one is going to fall victim to it.

As ANet is currently rewriting a major part of their game(culling) don´t expect this problem to change very soon.

Either get a refund or come back in a couple of months. Or suffer the low FPS.

I myself experienced this phenomenon when going from a PhenomII dualcore to a PhII higher clocked quadcore and noticeably losing performance.

HawkMeister.4758:

This game has a severe and very hard to pinpoint performance bug on processors with 3+ cores.
You can safely ignore all the “computer is bad” and “get intel” comments. This bug is universal and one simply cannot now if one is going to fall victim to it.

As ANet is currently rewriting a major part of their game(culling) don´t expect this problem to change very soon.

Either get a refund or come back in a couple of months. Or suffer the low FPS.

I myself experienced this phenomenon when going from a PhenomII dualcore to a PhII higher clocked quadcore and noticeably losing performance.

very very true, go back page after page, read the comments about perf issues, you will find that they are very hard to pin down, they arent directly related to intel or amd or nvidia issues, I got a buddy who plays this on an old DTR laptop with antiquated video that i was shocked could play the game, he gets consistant fps in the game, around 40fps at native res of his old dual core laptop……crazy stuff….

then you see people with 3960k’s at 4.6 with top end videocards who see drops into the single digits in wvwvw or even in LA…..

and the culling needs re-written, they should also write a map optimization tool that removed unseen terrain so they dont need to cull them……

and again, its 1213 and they are STILL using dx9……an API that was not designed without the idea of heavy threading.

The game runs like pooooop, and regardless of troubleshooting makes no difference whatsoever, i expect sales of expansions to be very bad.

Hope it gets optimized but i doubt it after waiting this long there efforts are probably focused on banging an expansion out asap.

Its a good job this game has no raids because they would be unplayable, and inb4 i can’t stand wow coz i can’t stand it either.

omino.4302:

The game runs like pooooop, and regardless of troubleshooting makes no difference whatsoever, i expect sales of expansions to be very bad.

Hope it gets optimized but i doubt it after waiting this long there efforts are probably focused on banging an expansion out asap.

Its a good job this game has no raids because they would be unplayable, and inb4 i can’t stand wow coz i can’t stand it either.

You spent more time ranting on the forums than actually troubleshooting your own system.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

http://allthingsd.com/20120801/amd-hires-apples-head-chip-designer/

keller was one of the big brains behind the original athlon

I had not heard, that Keller was back.

and no, the original athlon(thunderbird) was the design of a Dirk Meyer and a number of other chip engineers aquired from the DEC take over.

Keller was K8/Athlon64.

That article is so wrong in so many ways
Anand covers it far better http://www.anandtech.com/show/6129/apple-a4a5-designer-k8-lead-architect-jim-keller-returns-to-amd

Interesting, I have basically written of AMD after they are done with the new XBox contract.
Maybe there will again be a properly performing non-intel x86 platform in the future.