Guild Wars 2

Hello community. I just recently purchased this game and I am enjoying it nicely.

But when I enter WvW my FPS drops like a rock just for looking in the direction of a major fight, even when my graphics are set to the lowest setting possible.

Normally I can walk around and quest with no fps issues at all. I can keep my settings at low, maybe even closer to the medium settings. On similar games such as WoW or SWTOR (both games I left to join this one) at max settings with no FPS issues at all. But once I go into WvW fights in this game, my FPS drops.

I don’t know if it is just my CPU or a game compatibility issue, or if I simply need an upgrade. It is why I am here asking for help. Here is my PC:

OS: Windows XP Pro (5.1, build 2600)
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X2 550 Processor, MMX,, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 3328MB RAM (dual channeling 2 2GB sticks)
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti (driver version 306.81)

I suspect it may be my processor but I don’t know for sure. Recommendations or suggestions?

bumpitty bump bump

Check out some of the other FPS and WvW threads in this forum. LOTS of people have FPS drops in WvW. In fact, pretty much everyone does, to some degree or another.

It’s mostly a cast of being CPU bound in WvW, and large world events, because the GPU has to wait on the CPU to tell it where to render all the players in the world. Not to mention all the spell effects, world objects, and other visuals. For the most part, there isn’t much you can do about it other than cranking down most of the settings for details, effects, shadows, and the like.

The only cure for this seems to be “faster CPU.” And you can get that by overclocking (if you know what you’re doing) or by buying a faster CPU. Or you can just live with it, if the drop isn’t too extreme.

mathisk.6427:

Check out some of the other FPS and WvW threads in this forum. LOTS of people have FPS drops in WvW. In fact, pretty much everyone does, to some degree or another.

It’s mostly a cast of being CPU bound in WvW, and large world events, because the GPU has to wait on the CPU to tell it where to render all the players in the world. Not to mention all the spell effects, world objects, and other visuals. For the most part, there isn’t much you can do about it other than cranking down most of the settings for details, effects, shadows, and the like.

The only cure for this seems to be “faster CPU.” And you can get that by overclocking (if you know what you’re doing) or by buying a faster CPU. Or you can just live with it, if the drop isn’t too extreme.

My settings are already at their lowest.

My fps drops to 5.

A friend of mine in a skype call doesn’t seem to have any issues when he sets it all on low.

But the weird thing is that I could run SWTOR at max settings 24/7 with little to no fps issues, and in this game I have to run everything at super low or my fps drops. I have been looking to upgrade my computer anyway but I didn’t know what to upgrade, although I’m pretty sure my processor is my bottleneck.

Its your CPU.

2 reasons

1) You cpu is slow clock speed wise for a AMD and only has 2 cores.
2) Your cpu is AMD, and GW2 has issue with ‘most’ AMD cpu’s

You have 3 choices

1)OC
2)Buy a new intel cpu & OC
3)Wait and hope for a super-optimisation patch (unlikely)

SolarNova.1052:

Its your CPU.

2 reasons

1) You cpu is slow clock speed wise for a AMD and only has 2 cores.
2) Your cpu is AMD, and GW2 has issue with ‘most’ AMD cpu’s

You have 3 choices

1)OC
2)Buy a new intel cpu & OC
3)Wait and hope for a super-optimisation patch (unlikely)

Can you stop that Drop AMD and go for INTEL attitude now ? i’m playing just fine maxed out in wvwvw with my fx 8120,oc at 4.8,lowest fps in wvwvw is around 29,everywhere else pve wise is around 70 – 120+. Ive seen more posts from intel users claiming bad perf then amd tbh,but your kinda trying to force down intel down everybody’s throat.And every thread you see about people wth low fps,your first comment is Buy intel.Sorry but its a pretty silly comment to be making at all.

I got nothing against AMD, its just GW2’s average trend with AMD is that they dont run very well. Yes OC’ing wil help, but you get much better performance out of Intel.

Im not forcing any1 to do anything ..im giving my advice. Take it or leave it.

SolarNova.1052:

I got nothing against AMD, its just GW2’s average trend with AMD is that they dont run very well. Yes OC’ing wil help, but you get much better performance out of Intel.

Im not forcing any1 to do anything ..im giving my advice. Take it or leave it.

I can say the same about Intel,i can seriously copy about 10+ threads about people with intels having bad performance,yet i cannot find 10threads of people with AMDs having bad perf,yes offc there are some here,but those are mostly the low range amd cpu’s.Like i said,AMD cpu’s are fine for runing this game maxed out.And i seriously dont need to oc my cpu to 4.8 to get reasonable perf,it runs fine at even 4.0 or 4.2,i just always have it running at 4.8.

SolarNova.1052:

Its your CPU.

2 reasons

1) You cpu is slow clock speed wise for a AMD and only has 2 cores.
2) Your cpu is AMD, and GW2 has issue with ‘most’ AMD cpu’s

You have 3 choices

1)OC
2)Buy a new intel cpu & OC
3)Wait and hope for a super-optimisation patch (unlikely)

1 – Captain dork move, lowering the CPU’s lifespan.
2 – No lots of intel high-end CPU’s are having problems so stop giving out wrong advices.
3 – Indeed most unlikely, but again – this or leave this game for a time imho. That’s what I’am doing

Shadow pls dont post about OC’ing if you no nothing about it. OC’ing if done sensibly and right does not lower the CPU’s lifespan, even when you do go far enough to lower its lifespan its still not going below 4 years…most people replace their cpu after 4 if they are running a gaming rig anyway.

The only cpu’s that pop within 4 years are the ones used for Suicide bechmarks..hence the name :P

high end cpu’s are not getting the performance they deserve, but what they get is far more playable than running stock, old and slow cpu’s. So there is nothing wrong with my advice.

As for Intel vs AMD with GW2
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

Im not saying go just by this one benchmark ..there plenty of post arounf forums and other places.
When i say go Intel for playable FPS, my idea of playable and your own may be totaly different. Also when i say WvWvW ..i dont mean 30 man fights ..i mean 100 man fights.

I was thinking of buying a new processor anyway, my AMD Phenom is trash compared to something like an Intel Quad core. The friend of mine in the skype call has a slightly worse graphics card than mine, but his processor something like an Intel Quad Core 6600 or something like that, which I can already tell beat the ever loving crap out of mine. And he can go into WvW without experiencing any FPS drops when he at least turns his graphics to low.

And I want to overclock but I don’t think my computer can do it, my power supply has just barely enough power for my graphics card and all of the other processes (if that matters) and I am pretty sure that my processor wouldn’t be able to handle it, as it isn’t really meant to overclock. I did some research on my processor and when I look it up I can’t even find it anywhere without the name “black edition” behind it. I know mine isn’t “black edition” and even then the black edition didn’t get too many reviews other than that “it’s okay” whereas I can’t even find any non-black edition anywhere. It’s like it isn’t even advertised. As opposed to the processor my friend is using where it is advertised as being ridiculous for gaming rigs.

The Quad core 6600 is still very old. If he has heavily OC’d it then that may account for his good fps. But in general even intel cpu’s like the 6600 are nothing compared to 2nd and 3rd gen i5’s/i7’s and top end 3rd gen i3’s.

The Q6600 was released in Q1 of 2007..so its 5 years old now. I would be surprised if it didnt reduce fps in large WvWvW battles to an unbarable level. My old QX6850 was OC’d to 3.7 and drops down to under 10fps in large WvWvW battles.

Try playing GW2 on a system with a FX-8350 OCed to 4.6GHz paired with a HD7970 and 8GBs of DDR3 1866MHz Cas 8 memory at 1920×1080 with everything but reflections and FXAA maxed out it runs very nicely, note that this is my older brothers PC not mine lol but I can say from watching him play that performance wise its quite nice, an trying to tell ppl that there AMD cpu should be replaced with an Intel CPU is rubish, BOTH brands are having issues and its not there fault that Anet doesn’t know how to optimize there own engine before they release it. Its quite painfully obvious that GW2 needs a pretty major overhaul already in reguards to optimizations etc.

If anything the OP should look at there options and choose for them selfs with what fits them finacially best, personally I like AMD cause they don’t cost me an arm and a leg to get and perform great for what I use them for, Intels are nice but if you want there higher end parts its going to cost you alot, no one can deny that fact, both brands nowadays OC like crazy and very easily, the new FX-83xx’s OC to 4.6GHz with less voltage then my current 955BE does v1.3875 atm which is just insane when you think about it.

Upgrade to a phenom x4BE 955-980, those are very respectable chips and if u can still found them they are arround 75$, they overclock to 4ghz on air on virtually any motherboard. If u have 270$ get a FX4300/FX6300+mobo, 500$ go for a i5 2500k+mobo. Phenom@4ghz will give u a min of 13FPS, the Fx4300@5ghz 16 FPS and the i5@4.7ghz 20FPS. im talking about absolute minimum which only ocurrs during a 3 sided fight inside Stonemist Castle.

The game performs about the same on AMD/intel platforms, there is not such thing as “the game don’t like AMD” “the game runs better on intel”. Non of that is true, what is true is new intel chips are much faster than AMD’s. Intel chips can process 4/4 instructions per cycle while AMD’s only 3/4 this makes AMD’s teorically 25% slower clock per clock than intel chips. Intel also have a lot advantages, they consume less power and have some other minor architecture improvmets which gives em the edge over AMD’s chips. That being said a intel chip is arround 25/40% faster clock per clock than AMD which means if u get 15FPS using an AMD quad core u will get about 20FPS using intel, if u get 5FPS on AMD u will get 7FPS using a equivalent intel which makes close to no diference at such low FPS count.
In the other hand we also have to face the fact intel dosn’t like budget gaming customers, they will allways want u buy the high end products, and here is where AMD comes into play. Intel low en chips are all multiplier locked, which means u cannot overclock them, talking about pentiums, i3, some i5s, even some i7s. While u can overclock all the AMD products+they give u more cores, which means u will get the same performance in single thread apps like games using a i3 than an fx4300 OCed but AMD chips has 4 real cores while intel don’t, and to me at least, that makes it a better CPU for the money.
OFC AMD cannot compete on the high end (200$+ CPUs) sector but face it, it is only about 5% of the market anyway.

I’ve got an i7 3770 cooled by an H100 and am still having very bad, slideshow-like fps issues. Per the threads in the tech section, it seems that Anet/GW2 isn’t taking full utilization of all 4 cores on a quad core processor anyways. Again, that’s what I have been seeing here, and there hasn’t been an official reason as to why the low fps seems to be plaguing quite a few of us.

Its simply becouse the main GW2 threads do not offload processes onto another threads when the main thread has maxed out. Instead it just strugles along causing your gpu to wait for data thus lowering fps.

The only way to resolve this is for GW2 game engine to have significant code changes to split up the current processes even further, which is not easy as some things just can be split.
GW2 uses 2 to 3 main threads for its performance. When any1 of them maxes out, you see fps drop along with gpu usuage. it also means your CPU usuage (unless u have a 2 core 2 thread cpu) will likely never reach 100%. Most 4 core 4 thread cpu’s will hover around 63% to 80%. 4 core 8 thread 31% and 40%, and 6 core 12 thread 20% and 25%. It can go abvoe these figures in extreme casses where other game threads are also being used more than usual..like during special events (Karka invasion) and enourmose WvW battles.

SolarNova.1052:

Shadow pls dont post about OC’ing if you no nothing about it. OC’ing if done sensibly and right does not lower the CPU’s lifespan, even when you do go far enough to lower its lifespan its still not going below 4 years…most people replace their cpu after 4 if they are running a gaming rig anyway.

The only cpu’s that pop within 4 years are the ones used for Suicide bechmarks..hence the name :P

high end cpu’s are not getting the performance they deserve, but what they get is far more playable than running stock, old and slow cpu’s. So there is nothing wrong with my advice.

As for Intel vs AMD with GW2
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

Im not saying go just by this one benchmark ..there plenty of post arounf forums and other places.
When i say go Intel for playable FPS, my idea of playable and your own may be totaly different. Also when i say WvWvW ..i dont mean 30 man fights ..i mean 100 man fights.

Still didnt change anything to what ive said.I know the benches,dont really care for them either since their not done on AMD oc’s.AMD is made to be oc’d,period.Perf of a fx8120 factory is crap,Oc’d its a beast( Mind you i went easily from 3.1 ghz to 4.8 with a simple h100 cooler and my cpu does not exceed 52c ,Ever ) .But people just judge from poor benches and reviews and intel always being hyped by everyone,and mindless sheep copying whatever people say about whatever cpu without knowing jackkitten about them.I rather judge from real life experiences,thats it basically.Most dont judge from real world experiences but these benches or what others have to say about a cpu without having tested them self.I know i beat more intels then i would lose to them with this cpu.Have you seen the vid on youtube intel core i7 980x VS AMD FX-8150,or the benches done ( the thing where you judge all your beliefs on ? ) I doubt it.And even when seeing it ,you will still deny it.

Caedmon.6798:

SolarNova.1052:

Shadow pls dont post about OC’ing if you no nothing about it. OC’ing if done sensibly and right does not lower the CPU’s lifespan, even when you do go far enough to lower its lifespan its still not going below 4 years…most people replace their cpu after 4 if they are running a gaming rig anyway.

The only cpu’s that pop within 4 years are the ones used for Suicide bechmarks..hence the name :P

high end cpu’s are not getting the performance they deserve, but what they get is far more playable than running stock, old and slow cpu’s. So there is nothing wrong with my advice.

As for Intel vs AMD with GW2
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

Im not saying go just by this one benchmark ..there plenty of post arounf forums and other places.
When i say go Intel for playable FPS, my idea of playable and your own may be totaly different. Also when i say WvWvW ..i dont mean 30 man fights ..i mean 100 man fights.

Still didnt change anything to what ive said.I know the benches,dont really care for them either since their not done on AMD oc’s.AMD is made to be oc’d,period.Perf of a fx8120 factory is crap,Oc’d its a beast( Mind you i went easily from 3.1 ghz to 4.8 with a simple h100 cooler and my cpu does not exceed 52c ,Ever ) .But people just judge from poor benches and reviews and intel always being hyped by everyone,and mindless sheep copying whatever people say about whatever cpu without knowing jackkitten about them.I rather judge from real life experiences,thats it basically.Most dont judge from real world experiences but these benches or what others have to say about a cpu without having tested them self.I know i beat more intels then i would lose to them with this cpu.Have you seen the vid on youtube intel core i7 980x VS AMD FX-8150,or the benches done ( the thing where you judge all your beliefs on ? ) I doubt it.And even when seeing it ,you will still deny it.

LOL +1 a guy just told me intel CPU runs cooler than AMD CPUS hahahahaha he probabaly never tryed one Even overcloked AMD’s run coolest than stock speed intel CPUs. Just saw a bench with a 990x (1000$ CPU 3 years ago) losing to a pentium g620(65$) on single thread performance. Intel cripple their chips to force u buy the more expensive ones, AMD do no cripple their chips a 100$ buldozer CPU can be overclocked to 5Ghz have u tryed to do that on a I3 :P? Yes guys intel rocks keep thinking that

Correct me if im wrong but didnt the FX 8150 come out in Q4 of 2011 and the Intel 980x in Q1 of 2010. Your comparing 2 different generations -.-
It would have to be Fx 8150 vs Intel 2700k…pritty sure the 2700k beats it.

And yea Intels run hotter.

Anyway like i’ve said befor ..i got nothing against AMD. They are just beat by Intel when it comes to performance, yes they cost more but you get what you pay for bassicaly.