Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! So I just updated my graphics drivers, and the game runs worse then before. I have noticeably less FPS than before, and the font/icons/etc. all look smudged. I tried tinkering with settings, and switchable graphics, but I’m completely lost.

My hardware
So, I have a Samsung laptop with 2 display adapters:

• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• AMD Radeon R9 M270X

What I installed
I first went to the AMD website and downloaded the AMD Catalyst AutoDetect Utility, and ran it. It told me, I had some outdated driver, and I downloaded what the tool proposed, which was “amd-catalyst-14.4-64bit-win8.1-win8-win7-whql-aug.exe” (AMD Catalyst Install Manager). I ran that, and the installer made me install a few things, among those a tool called “AMD Gaming Evolved”.

After restarting, this Gaming Evolved thing opened, and told me I had an outdated INTEL GPU driver. I followed the link, downloaded Intel Driver Update Utility and ran it. It only found 2 outdated drivers: for WIFI and Bluetooth. This has nothing to do with my problem at hand, but I installed those. It didn’t tell me anything about the GPU driver.

After another reboot, Gaming Evolved now told me I had an outdated AMD graphics driver, and made me download & install pretty much the same thing as before (presumably with a newer version of Catalyst Control Center or of the graphics card driver).

Cue another reboot. Then I checked for software updates inside the CCC, and it actually told me I still didn’t have the newest version, so I downloaded and installed the newer version it gave me. Now, both the CCC and the AMD Catalyst Install Manager tell me I have the newest version.

Settings and switchable graphics
Another reboot, and everything seemed fine. So I launched GW2, and ingame was a complete mess: 4-6 FPS. I shut it down, and went into the CCC to check the settings. I followed the settings prescribed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/PC-FPS-and-Performance-based-issues/first#post338300

I also checked that gw2.exe was still set on high performance in the switchable graphics (so that it uses my AMD GPU and not the Intel one). This didn’t induce any notable change. I went back into switchable graphics, set gw2.exe to Power saving, just as a test, and launched gw2.exe. This actually made the game run better (around 15-20 FPS). I went back and changed gw2.exe back to high performance. Things stayed at 15-20 FPS.

So, before I updated all this stuff, the game was much smoother (I never checked how much FPS I actually had, but I assume 60, even during world bosses it stayed relatively ok). Also all text is now “smudged”, not as clear as before.

It looks like I have the newest drivers. I know that I have the right settings in the CCC. GW2 is set on high performance so that it uses the right GPU (I also checked that it actually does). And still, the game runs much kittentier than before.

So yeah, I’m pretty lost. Any help would be much appreciated!
Alex

As a general rule, laptop graphics are a “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” thing. You installed drivers but your drivers are from AMD not samsung. Laptops are usually customized products and it’s best to keep what is working from the manufacturer. So go to samsung’s website, find their latest driver for your model laptop and keep those. Never go to AMD, those are usually desktop drivers. And make sure you get the other drivers out completely, you don’t want anything messing up the fresh install. Once this is done, go into CCC settings and find powerplay- ENABLE it. Make sure it is always enabled, turning this off can screw with your graphics, then set gw2 to high performance.

How would I go about removing the currently installed driver? Uninstalling CCC isn’t enough, is it?

Sometimes it is, check around on support forums. I’m not a guy who’s familiar with all the requirements to fix drivers. When I got my laptop 3 years ago I immediately updated the drivers and had horrid performance, it was only after learning about laptop drivers and powerplay that I fixed it. When you learn things the hard way you tend to remember it well enough.

I kind of trashed my system. Uninstalling the AMD drivers kittened up a lot of stuff. I’m currently doing backups and then I’ll format and reinstall windows cleanly.

Thanks a lot for your help, I know what I did wrong now! So I won’t do it again

Hey Guys,

I have a similar problem, namely since the last patch but can’t say for sure as I’ve also updated my graphics card drivers. Previously, I was running at 60 fps on high graphics settings, now I’m down to 15-30 (30 at best and very rarely). The system I’m running is:
Windows 8.1 x64
16 GB Ram
2x AMD ATI HD8970M in Crossfire
Intel Core i7 4710M.

Tried updating via autodetect tool. Didn’t work. Then went via device manager -> check for updates, which seems to have changed the drivers. Didn’t work either. Uninstalled the drivers with AMD Catalyst, reinstalled the latest version. Still the same problem. Ran a full system scan with Norton 360, nothing pops up, problem still there. Ran Gw2 repair, again, nothing. I’m a bit lost currently, so any suggestions would be helpful!

EDIT: Just noticed a few minutes after posting this that the AMD Catalyst automatically switches power plans to maximize battery life (even for the plugged in option). After changing this to maximize performance, my frame rate is back to life (67 FPS). Should this change, I’ll make another post.