Guild Wars 2

Hi folks,

I’m running a Nvidia GTX 670. I’ve had issues with GW2 since it came out and only GW2. Every other game I plan runs great and stable. After playing for a bit either the driver stops responding or I get artifacts and have to hardboot the box. I’ve updated to the latest Nvidia drivers, flashed to the latest BIOS firmware, underclocked my GPU by 20%, etc. Overheating is not an issue because this happens when it’s running between 45-55C.

Oddly enough, my issues seem to be getting worse. I can hardly get in 15 minutes without a crash at this point.

Specs:
CPU: Intel IvyBridge I7-3770k
GPU: EVGA GTX 670
Ram: 16GB DDR3
PSU: OCZ 600W
MB: Asus Maximus V Gene (Tried setting PCIe to gen 2, gen 3, auto, etc. Tried XMP on and off)

….
What PSU have u got ..is it OCZ ..or Corsair ?
Meh never mind ..that just confused me a bit lol.

It sounds to me that if ur getting artifacting ..its a GPU fault. I mean..its obviosly related to graphics ..so its ether drivers ..damaged game..or a borked GPU.

SolarNova.1052:

….
What PSU have u got ..is it OCZ ..or Corsair ?
Meh never mind ..that just confused me a bit lol.

It sounds to me that if ur getting artifacting ..its a GPU fault. I mean..its obviosly related to graphics ..so its ether drivers ..damaged game..or a borked GPU.

Sorry, I have Corsair RAM, the PSU is an OCZ.

The artifacting is new as of today when I was tweaking some things. 99% of the time the driver just stops responding.

Bit of a last resort kinda thign but have u tried flatening/formating ur HDD and starting over with a fresh Instal of ur OS + Drivers + GW2 ..no other programs. ?

Also ..is ur CPU OC’d ?

I have not tried a clean install but that seems like a major last resort since I’d have to re-download and install everything. I have done clean driver installations user driver sweeper and CCleaner though.

Nothing on my system is OC’ed.

Have u tried Driver version 306.97 ?

Looks like that’s what I was using until I just patched up to 310.70. Still had issues back then as well.

Just played DOTA 2 for 2 hours and it’s as stable as can be. Why does GW2 want to hurt me when I love it so

Hi Psypher,

Can you provide some further details about your hardware, I am particularly interested in the power supply model number to begin with.

Many system builders, when building a computer will overlook the power supply. The graphics card manufacturer in this case nvidia, will advertise a recommended minimum wattage required to run a computer with their product. However what system builders tend to overlook how the power supply makes up that wattage.

Some power supplies split the wattage over multiple rails and some use a single rail to deliver the maximum output of the power supply. If your power supply splits the wattage over multiple rails then each rail will have a limited amount of current (Amps). This can pose a problem for graphics cards as they require amperage to provide the power to the graphics card.

Your specific graphics card has the following requirements:
Minimum of a 500 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 30 Amps.)

Now from what I have gathered looking at various OCZ products, they have a wide range of multi-rail power supplies ranging with in specification between 18A – 25A per rail.

If your model of power supply happens to be one with insufficient amperage then this could be what is causing your crashes. Each game places different loads on the graphics hardware, this may be why these crashes only occur whilst running guild wars 2.

Great point. My particular PSU is the 700W version of this: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-500w-700w-modxstream-pro-power-supply.html

Based on the specs, it appears to have a 25A rail set-up but I have two connectors going to the card.

I’m confused Psyher, in your original post you have stated that your power supply is a 600W model, not a 700W. Could you please be more accurate as to which is correct.

In case the new model that you have linked to is the correct model, it has a multi-rail setup and the highest amperage available on any one of the rails is 25A which is lower than the minimum requirements for your graphics card.

However the problem would only appear once the graphics card was working hard enough to reach a point were it tried to pull more than 25A.

If your graphics card takes two power connectors, which according to nvidia.com it should. then you could perhaps isolate this problem by having one power connector from 12v1 rail and another power connector from 12v2 rail, this would give the graphics card access to both rails providing a total 50A availability to the card.

However that would depend on how the manufacturer wired the power connectors.

the AMP requirement specified by nvidia/amd is for the overall system

the card itself won’t use the entirety of 25a.

most recent cards require less than 15a

Squall Leonhart.2075:

the AMP requirement specified by nvidia/amd is for the overall system

the card itself won’t use the entirety of 25a.

most recent cards require less than 15a

Most recent cards can and will use upto 25A, an example would be the GTX690, which has a maximum power draw of 300W (300/12=25).

The reason why manufacturers will list requirements like “30A” on a single rail, is because a power supply (specifically multi-rail ones) would not have a rail singled out to power a graphics card only, considering one power connector has a maximum support of 6.25A(75W) it would be a waste to dedicate a whole rail to it. There tends to be other connectors on the same rail and depending on how the power supply is configured it could be providing power to other high amperage components from the same rail.

An example of this would be:

2x 6pin connectors powering one card (2x 6.25A)[150w]
Power to the PCI-E bus (6.25A)[75W]
Power to the CPU (6.41A)[77W as per i7-3770k spec]

Thats potentially 25.16A coming from one rail depending on how the manufacturer wired the PSU or how the end-user connected the cables. Thats before you talk about other factors like PSU efficiencies and Power Factors.

So when the manufacturer state minimum 30A its usually for good reason.

My power supply has 6 rails with 30A per rail, My graphics card requires minimum 42A from a single rail minimum according to Nvidia in order to run as expected. In actual fact my graphics card alone requires marginally over 20A (250W) at maximum performance, and thanks to my power supply manufacturer providing information on the rail configuration, I am able to make sure that no other component is on the same power rail as my graphics card. This in turn allows it to safely be powered at maximum performance.

I’m having the same problem with my GTX 670. It started happening at the start of Wintersday. Couldn’t even get anyone to respond to my thread. Been trying for weeks. Tech support is a massive joke in this game. Good luck

dual gpu cards being the exception, no single gpu cards exceed 14a.

where multirail psu’s are concerned, the system and aux rails are usually completely seperated from the accessories and pci-e rails.

Nitro.4732:

considering one power connector has a maximum support of 6.25A(75W) it would be a waste to dedicate a whole rail to it.

Umm…. thats not entirely correct. Each connector pin is rated @ 8A so one 6P Minifit JR connector is good for 24A. Even if we ‘down rated’ the pins to 6.25A each 6P connector would still be rated at 18.75A or ~225W.

When Nvidia requires a 30A rail they really mean 30A for the GPU card. While the cards will average 200-300W (depending on model/overclocking/load/exc) the current needs/spikes are much higher than the ‘average rating’.

Hence the seemingly overkill of 6-8 8A supply connections.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

dual gpu cards being the exception, no single gpu cards exceed 14a.

where multirail psu’s are concerned, the system and aux rails are usually completely seperated from the accessories and pci-e rails.

A GTX680 will use 16.25A at full power (195W) but you are correct in that the majority of graphics cards will be below this value.

MaRko.3165:

Nitro.4732:

considering one power connector has a maximum support of 6.25A(75W) it would be a waste to dedicate a whole rail to it.

Umm…. thats not entirely correct. Each connector pin is rated @ 8A so one 6P Minifit JR connector is good for 24A. Even if we ‘down rated’ the pins to 6.25A each 6P connector would still be rated at 18.75A or ~225W.

When Nvidia requires a 30A rail they really mean 30A for the GPU card. While the cards will average 200-300W (depending on model/overclocking/load/exc) the current needs/spikes are much higher than the ‘average rating’.

Hence the seemingly overkill of 6-8 8A supply connections.

According to PCI-E specifications a 6pin connector will provide a maximum of 75w if you require more power then an 8pin connector should be used providing 150w.

hence why 200-300W rated cards typically have a 2 connector requirement and an Amp rating higher than 40A this is because the card will use between 15A-25A and the remaining amperage should be enough power all other pc components.

as stated above my graphics card (GTX480) has a recommended single rail amperage of 42A the card at maximum performance and 100% load will only use 20A.

The connector itself is rated much higher than the PCIe specification.
(8A per pin)

Sounds like card goin bad, I know I have to rma my gtx 670 4gb for bad VRAM when I get another

Nitro.4732:

Squall Leonhart.2075:

dual gpu cards being the exception, no single gpu cards exceed 14a.

where multirail psu’s are concerned, the system and aux rails are usually completely seperated from the accessories and pci-e rails.

A GTX680 will use 16.25A at full power (195W) but you are correct in that the majority of graphics cards will be below this value.

Well, thats an exception again. True many 680 users do actually modify the power target, but for those who just care to game, it would actually be at 14a because the typical power target caps out at 90%, or around 170w

Sounds like it maybe the card going bad, i have the same issue at present with my Asus top 670’s, will test later today, annoying but least i don’t have to take cards out, i can just flick a switch :p Asus R3E mobo. It seems to happen more and more my MSI 580’s LE have been great, but my tri fire with xfx 5970 was a dud and a 5870 aswell.

As for my psu in this rig 1000W corsair.

I’m skeptical that the card is bad. I can run stress tests and it doesn’t crash as well as any other current game. It’s only GW2 that’s giving me trouble.

Psypher.8461:

I’m skeptical that the card is bad. I can run stress tests and it doesn’t crash as well as any other current game. It’s only GW2 that’s giving me trouble.

When stress testing you would usually only test one component at a time, unlike guild wars which is not a synthetic test, it will utilize CPU, RAM, HDD and GPU to their full potential or until one component bottlenecks the other.

Could you further explain the type of crash? Is it CTD, bsod, restart or freeze+looping sound for instance? Also the above^^ with the addition that drivers recognize and throttle some of the stress testing benchmarks.

I’m getting the same issue on a GTX 670. Weird artifacting, as in some textures on trees flashing, but the game never crashes. The card works fine running planetside 2 and any other game and benchmark. Seriously doubt it’s the card, I’m running the latest drivers, tried the ones previous as well. Is there a set of drivers that definetly work??

Oh no I have basically the same specs as the op except a corsair 850w psu, I’m downloading the game right now I hope I don’t have problems.

I’ve been reading on the forums, cause i have had some of these problems :

• System crashing
• Sound loops
• Login Black screens
• Connection drop error,
• Driver issues
• BSOD

Some days it would be good and last hours without crashing, some days it would crash every 5 minutes.
I play all other games without any problems on ULTRA , Max MSAA when i can and either 2560 × 1600 or 1920 x1080 120hz 3D with about 80-120 fps AVG

• I notice Guild wars 2 does NOT like On Screen Displays ~ that prevents black screens
  so i was able to actually login and play.

• For sound loops & Hard Reset ~ which is a massive problem… I have stopped using
  Logitech G35 or Afterglow Wireless Headset ~ and havent had a crash since, but that is quite useless if you need teamspeak , vent etc etc.

System Specs :
CPU : i7 2600
MOBO : Asus WS Revolution
RAM : 16g G.Skill
VGA : 2 x GTX 680 4G SLI
PSU : Corsair 950W

Btw I do see graphical anomalies in the game like someone said eg 1 tree in a whole forrest. (very rare)

I think your graphics card is fine , i just think the game needs a bit of tweaking .

Im just not feeling the power of SLI like other games I have. But there is a bucket load of detail in GW2 that need to be rendered .

I Play the game on these settings

Resolution : Full Screen 1920 x1080
Refresh Rate : 120 Hz
Frame Limiter : Unlimited
3D Stereoscopic rendering : ON
Animation : High
Anti Aliasing : FXAA
Environment : High
LOD Distance : Ultra
Reflections : All
Textures : High
Render Sampling : Supersample
Shadows : Ultra
Shaders : High
Post processing : High

Best texturing Filtering
Depth Blur
High Res Character Textures
Vertical Vsync : OFF

Lions Arch : 25fps MIN, 50fps AVG, 80fps MAX
and thats moving around lions arch , not standing there staring at a wall.

Dungeons : 45fps MIN , 55fps AVG, 80+fps MAX

Im using current 310.90 WHQL drivers and stopped using headsets last night and have NOT had a crash since.

Some people say they get way over 100fps, Im guessing this game works better on a singular card??? But i highly doubt they have
“Let the 3D application decide” ticked in Nvidia Control panel and running crappy presets from the slider

Turn reflection to terrain and sky and watch ur FPS sky rocket

Relfection on All is kinda buged as GW2 renders reflection even those u cant see.

I’ve never experienced any of this stuff on my gtx 670 4gb, is yours the 2gb version? I highly doubt it but maybe your hitting the VRAM limit

4 gig versions, these are the only things that
Ive experienced from 1 -80

This was after repairing Guild wars 2 & going from 310.70 – 310.90
so not sure if it was a patch or the driver

• 1 Flashing tree in a whole map but i cant say i can go up to the same tree now and say it was still flashing.
• Snow on a building flashing white
• Oh and i m not going crazy cause i saw it on the forum & thought i was going crazy
  sound cutting out in headphones & all you can hear is a siren / alarm going off

Still hasnt crashed since i stop using headsets been 3 days now