Over the past few days I’ve begun playing GW2. While playing I’ve noticed that I’m getting around 15-25FPS in PvE and <15FPS in “The Grove” and “Metrica” while using maxed out settings.
After combing through a few dozen threads, all with similar FPS issues and similar systems, I’ve reached the point where I can’t seem to find anything left to try, so I decided to make a thread to see if anyone has any more suggestions for me.
My current settings have helped to boost my FPS for the time being. PvE jumps between 20-50FPS depending on the area and I’m up to a constant 17-24FPS in “The Grove” and “Metrica”
A more detailed overview of the settings and systems specs, that I thought may be relevant, can be found in the attached image. If you require more information, just tell me where to look and I’ll post it.
System Specs:
i7 4970k
GTX 970
16GB RAM
1920×1080 Monitor
Windows 10 Professional Edition
SSD
Things I’ve Tried:
Ensuring both my GPU/CPU/Motherboard drivers are up-to-date.
Running the (“-repair”?) command to ensure the game files are uncorrupted and in working order.
Altering all of the settings in various combinations based on suggestions from “GW2 Optimization Guides” and other posts similar to this. The only real boosts game from reducing the “Character Model Limit” and “Shadows” settings to Medium.
From my few observations, the CPU is hardly even being used by the game. It seems to hover around 10% in Task Manager and rarely goes past 20% even in “The Grove”.
Ran a number of tests to ensure my internet connection is running fine. I’m on a fiber line with sufficient speeds and a ping of around 100 in most cases.
The temperature in my room is generally cool and I’m fairly certain that none of the components are overheating and slowing themselves down to prevent hardware damage.
Running the game with the x64-bit executable file. I didn’t think this would have much affect, but it was worth a shot. Loading times seem to be a little bit better though.
Running the game in Fullscreen mode rather than Windowed Fullscreen as I normally do. The FPS gain was negligible.
I’ve discovered the issue while re-seating the GPU.
Apparently, and I honestly can’t figure out how this happened, the CPU fan hasn’t been attached to the CPU for well over a week and for possibly months. After re-seating the fan ontop of the CPU, I’m getting a minimum of 100FPS and up to 300 FPS in PvE as well as a constant 40-60FPS in “The Grove”.
Others with a 900 series GPU on Windows 10 have complained about NVidia’s recent drivers causing poor performance with GW2. Try some of the older drivers and also ensure that you GPU is in the proper slot and at x16.
You can try deleting your Local.dat file, which is where your hardware related settings are stored. It can become bloated over time, which can affect performance. The file is located at %appdata%/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat by default, and may also be found at Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat.
For Windows 10, ensure that the xbox app hasn’t been enabled and is recording in the background.
Uninstalled the xbox app VIA uninstalling the xbox app using powershell and through the registry. (See link at the bottom of the post.)
Uninstalled GeForce Experience.
Ensured the GFX card is running at x16. It’s also in the slot closest to the CPU.
Downgraded the GFX drivers to “361.91-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql”.
Deleted the GW2 folder in the AppData folder.
After following through with all points above, I entered the game and set the settings to “Best Performance” and in Fullscreen mode rather than Windowed Fullscreen. FPS hovered around 25-30 while in “The Grove”. Switching to “Best Appearance” downed the FPS to around 5-14.
GW2 is highly dependent on the CPU, so when it’s running, open the task manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) and ensure that there’s no other high CPU processes running.
You can try disabling all non-essential services and programs. Press WindowsKey+R and open msconfig. Under the general tab, select selective startup and uncheck startup items. Under the services tab, check hide all from Microsoft, then click disable all. Ok and reboot. If you want to go all the way, clean install Windows 10, especially if you did the upgrade.
I’ve seen people claim that re-installing DX9 helped, though re-installing DX can’t be normally done. You can use the command “sfc /scannow” as an administrator to instead verify the files.
Also check for Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat, since if it exists, it’ll take priority. You’ll know if you deleted the right file however since your graphics settings will return to the defaults and be in full screen mode.
GW2 is highly dependent on the CPU, so when it’s running, open the task manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) and ensure that there’s no other high CPU processes running.
You can try disabling all non-essential services and programs. Press WindowsKey+R and open msconfig. Under the general tab, select selective startup and uncheck startup items. Under the services tab, check hide all from Microsoft, then click disable all. Ok and reboot. If you want to go all the way, clean install Windows 10, especially if you did the upgrade.
I’ve seen people claim that re-installing DX9 helped, though re-installing DX can’t be normally done. You can use the command “sfc /scannow” as an administrator to instead verify the files.
Also check for Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat, since if it exists, it’ll take priority. You’ll know if you deleted the right file however since your graphics settings will return to the defaults and be in full screen mode.
I’ve deleted the remaining files from the Documents folder.
I’ve installed DX9.0c.
I’ve run “sfc /scannow”.
No difference in performance after these steps.
As for CPU usage. GW2 is generally using <20% of the CPU while all other processes combined are at around 5%.
gw2 tries to get the best out of a system with the old dx9 tech (that’s why laptops have overheating issues with it, no other game is trying to get their specs so far). And i like they doing it this way, because then you can get the best out of any system if you have enough cooling. In your case 20% cpu load is not normal, in gw2 cpu is most of the time (not always) the bottleneck, so stating cpu has that low load, something else is wrong as the cpu is waiting. As stated in many post in this game and other’s, download some tools and try to see what is causing this. Their should be at least 1 thread claming 80% of 1 cpu core load, if not look elsewhere.
I also suffer from a loss in performance since about a week ago,it just came out of nowhere and can not quite figure out why.Im also using a 970 but with an amd fx oc’d at 4.4.Normally my fps was in zerg fights/wvw that is around 40fps where since a week it drops to 20 – 30.I have tried reinstalling drivers,dusting out pc and repasting cpu incase it was overheating,it did shave off 8c but did not fix my fps issue.Tried repairing the client and even let gw download the whole client again.Did the sfc /scannow aswell as reinstalling directX.Do want to say that switching the character Limit to lowest gave me a big boost in fps back,but i dont want to play with 50% of the people being floating names only.
Getting kinda tired of it at this point since the witcher 3 runs flawless.I dont have any other mmo or multiplay to test it with.
Also want to add,my gpu is not throttling nor is my cpu.
Edit: Forgot to mention that after the repair on client and removing local.dat etc,the recommended setting in gw2 were much lower than my system should be able to handle,it even set shaders to low.Where normally i remember everything being put at max for recommended.I will try to get an old batch from nvidia,359.00 and see tonight how it goes.
Caedmon: In your case it could be a problem with their servers as char limit did help. I’ll guess a lot less information is going around when char’s are limited it was a problem in swtor also. But i’ll guess also, your problems are different, instead of trying different things, monitoring all and then conclude is faster. As a start: cpu load all cores, gpu load, temperatures all, cpu, gpu settings during play, etc.. But y multiplayers encounter was always a problem in mmo maps and it will be, only thing they can do is faster or more intelligent communication protocol or less interaction.
Caedmon: In your case it could be a problem with their servers as char limit did help. I’ll guess a lot less information is going around when char’s are limited it was a problem in swtor also. But i’ll guess also, your problems are different, instead of trying different things, monitoring all and then conclude is faster.
I did everything step by step though and then checking to see if any of it helped,not all at once offcourse.But i really hope you’re right about the server issue..Its kinda driving me nuts atm.
Btw now you mention that,i noticed my ping-ms occasionally drops to 1 – 5 for a bit,something that never happend before either.Averaging at 30 – 40 ms usually,but these drops to 1 – 5 are kinda weird aswell i think.
caedmon did you set vsync adaptive as you not holding framerate in wvw?
I tried it yeah and although overall it feels smoother but my fps still drops to 20 – 30.Also tried using subsample,although it make my eyes bleed,it did not change much either.
That’s not the issue sadly.Fps overall feels alright though,it’s just when alot of people are near that im getting these drops that i never had before.
y i know it’s sad, but changing those things will help a bit as your system will be more responsive when information is coming in. Otherwise you only see it a few frames later.
That’s not the issue sadly.Fps overall feels alright though,it’s just when alot of people are near that im getting these drops that i never had before.
Im using the 64bit client since beta btw.
Check your Graphical settings and make sure that the ingame character limit is set to Low or Lowest. As the more characters are on the screen the more work the CPU has to do, lowering the FPS.
In the last couple of patches I have noticed that my graphical settings are being reset to the ‘performance’ profile and wiping my custom settings. The same thing could be happening here.
Sirsquishy as you tips could work for some it isn’t an issue for him/her i think . As said he/she has only problems in zerg fights. He/She said having a 970 so i’ll guess cpu won’t be that bad also. In that configuration character limit shouldn’t be an issue. It’s probably the updating of all char’s around, so he’s waiting for server updates. But then again easily checked on cpu and gpu load. And for the resetting, i saw that also. WHY? not a small company gw2, some service please.
edit: my sry. Was only checking nvidia settings, which are changing not gw2.
That’s not the issue sadly.Fps overall feels alright though,it’s just when alot of people are near that im getting these drops that i never had before.
Im using the 64bit client since beta btw.
Check your Graphical settings and make sure that the ingame character limit is set to Low or Lowest. As the more characters are on the screen the more work the CPU has to do, lowering the FPS.
In the last couple of patches I have noticed that my graphical settings are being reset to the ‘performance’ profile and wiping my custom settings. The same thing could be happening here.
Yeah i actually said that in my first post,im running with character limit at lowest atm..Something i never had to do before,to make the game playable in zerg fights.
My graphical settings are not being reset automatically btw.
Anyway vsync adaptive, also set prerendered frames less would make the game feel better responsive in wvw.