Guild Wars 2

So I’ve got a new gaming rig since about 2 months ago, but I’m curious as to what kind of performance I should be expecting when running GW2 with this thing. All other games I play run perfectly on highest settings with zero performance issues, but GW2 really tests my configuration. As I’m sure is the case with many players.

First off, here is my build:

AMD FX-8120 ~3.1GHz
Radeon HD 7770
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600 (4×2; 2 more 4GBs added soon)
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970

Will provide other details if needed. Also running Win7 x64.

I run the game with everything on the highest settings except Render Sampling. I also have not tested this configuration in WvW much so I haven’t messed with the WvW settings.

The issues I experience are weird. Some zones I run 50-60+ FPS just fine, but then I go to another map and it’ll drop down to 40 or less. Especially Lion’s Arch. I’m sure that it has something to do with there being more population there, but it certainly shouldn’t be putting me at 10 to 30 FPS… I feel that there’s something I can do to boost this a bit. I’m not familiar with overclocking as this is my first respectable gaming PC, but I was wondering if anyone out there with at least the same CPU as me or similar has OC’d with positive results when it comes to GW2. And is it true that GW2 runs more on CPU than GPU?

I also noticed tonight that if I run the game in windowed mode, or windowed fullscreen, the frames literally appear to skip. Like a stuttering. It’s extremely annoying… if I set it back to fullscreen the problem is gone.

I’m aware that there is apparently an issue with AMD CPUs compared to Intel when running GW2. I accept that, I’m just looking for a way to improve my performance with what I have.

I also am aware my GPU has undergone benchmark tests for GW2 and did somewhat poorly, so I am considering a GPU upgrade, if this would help the problem. I’m open to suggestions.

Does anyone out there have the same or similar build at least when it comes to CPU and GPU and if so, what kind of performance are you getting? I’m also interested in knowing what kind of performance other AMD CPUs are getting as well as the Radeon HD GPUs that are the next up from mine (7800 and 7900 series)… NVIDIA card data is welcome too.

Let’s use Lion’s Arch as a central test subject, lol. That is the one map that I seem to struggle with the most.

Thanks in advance.

I think your best bet would be to overclock your CPU if you have good cooling and I’d go ahead and push for the GPU upgrade. I would also check some of the finer settings in the Catalyst Control Center and set an exclusive profile for Gw2.exe to see if you can squeeze more performance out with different settings. Turning off Reflections in-game seems to be another really good thing to do to net FPS especially in Lion’s Arch.

Turn sampling to native. Turn reflections to terrain and sky or off completely. The game is still being optimized(hopefully).
Overclocking your CPU will help quite a bit but make sure you have a good cooler. There are tons of resources on the internet to help you with overclocking.
www.overclockersclub.com is a good site to get started. They have guides to help people who are new to overclocking get started.
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I’m going to try to OC my CPU, from what I have researched this particular CPU has gotten up to 4.1 GHz (I haven’t seen any higher samples). I can’t begin to OC though until I’ve gotten a good aftermarket cooler. Do you guys have any suggestions for coolers that could work with this CPU? Also, I am definitely going to upgrade the GPU. I’m considering the following cards: Radeon HD 7950 or GeForce GTX 660 Ti.

I read somewhere last night about bottlenecks, and it doesn’t seem like the CPU is bottlenecking, the GPU just seems to be reaching it’s limit. It’s a good card, does a lot better than my previous, but I’m really wanting top performance in GW2.

Guild Wars 2 is assuredly the most CPU intense game I have played since the days when I tried playing Blur on my C2D.

As nice as 8 cores sounds, your processor is on the first generation of a new architecture AMD is working on and had less than desirable results in terms of single thread performance which is what Guild Wars 2 prefers. Guild Wars 2 has a handful of threads that make up the main part of the game, that when denied the ability to compute, slow the entire game down (loss of FPS). The second generation of your processors are out (the 8320 and 8350) and have made some improvements on the first design, but AMD still lags behind Intel in terms of single thread performance. Hopefully come their third generation things improve again and hopefully toss Intel into second place so Intel can get back to innovation in performance rather than looking at improving their integrated graphics and power consumption. Overclocking that thing is your best bet right now so grabbing a nice cooler is on the right track for getting the most out of what you currently have. I currently use an AIO water cooling unit, the H50 from Corsair. Since this is your first time overclocking, I wouldn’t get too crazy with cooling. Custom water loops are the best, but most expensive and the risk is higher if you don’t properly assemble the unit because you could have water all over your electronics then. Next in terms of performance are top of the line air-coolers and AIO water coolers. Then, everything else really isn’t worth getting if you plan on overclocking :p

People around here recommend the Noctua D14 as one of the better air coolers out there. Personally, I like to have room in my case, so I went with a lower end AIO water cooler. You can get something simple and ancient, like the H50, to the H100i which is Corsair’s top end AIO water cooler. Just make sure the water cooler will fit on your case somewhere. You’ll have to bolt the radiator on somewhere. You can also get an AIO water cooler that isn’t Corsair, I am just a loyal fan.

I can’t speak for the performance of either of those graphics cards, but the card I have is worse than the 660Ti and I play at 1080p with everything set to the highest besides supersampling. Depending where I am at, I can get frames of around 30 around town (CPU bound), and out in the world I get 45+ fps, I do see 60 often.

I appreciate that information, Ilithis! I have a better understanding of what’s probably going on now. Thank you.

So it sounds like I basically need to just work on OCing this thing until I make the move to a newer-gen processor. If I can get this CPU to work well with GW2 I may not worry about upgrading the CPU until the next line is released.
I will look into those coolers you mentioned — although I’m scared to mess with water cooling lol, if I go that route it will be because I convinced a buddy of mine that has worked with that stuff before to help me. :p

Good to know what kind of performance you’re getting with your card, gives me an idea of what to expect from the 660Ti.

Wish I would have known this stuff before building this PC lol, I probably would have coughed up the extra cash for an intel CPU or the 8320/8350. But ah well. Guild Wars 2 really is the only game that I have trouble with so this hardware isn’t a complete loss I suppose.

Kazera.3162:

I appreciate that information, Ilithis! I have a better understanding of what’s probably going on now. Thank you.

So it sounds like I basically need to just work on OCing this thing until I make the move to a newer-gen processor. If I can get this CPU to work well with GW2 I may not worry about upgrading the CPU until the next line is released.
I will look into those coolers you mentioned — although I’m scared to mess with water cooling lol, if I go that route it will be because I convinced a buddy of mine that has worked with that stuff before to help me. :p

Good to know what kind of performance you’re getting with your card, gives me an idea of what to expect from the 660Ti.

Wish I would have known this stuff before building this PC lol, I probably would have coughed up the extra cash for an intel CPU or the 8320/8350. But ah well. Guild Wars 2 really is the only game that I have trouble with so this hardware isn’t a complete loss I suppose.

About water cooling…custom water loops are really the only thing you have to worry about messing up. My H50 has been in use ever since the summer of 2010 (working on 3 years come July 18th) and have moved 5 times now (thanks to being in college). Never had I leaked anything anywhere, its a very solid design and I can only imagine they have gotten better over the three years I have had mine. Basically you attach the pump and metal (normally copper) block to the CPU following the instructions provided with the unit. Then bolt the radiator and fan somewhere. I like to think I have stressed mine more than the average user since I have a unique setup where I have the tubes in an ‘S’ bend and the radiator is attached to the side of the case that allows me access to the inside of the computer. So whenever I’m inside the computer I have to open the side of the case like you would a hood of a car. I have only taken off the copper block once and that was because I thought I needed to repaste from the default paste provided by Corsair. I only gained a couple of C in doing so. I’ll be taking it off again come mid July lapping my processor and H50.