Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, like most of tech support forum visitors i also have issues with my FPS. While questing i run at around 20-30 fps, while in bigger group events i go well below 10 fps.
Can any other Core 2 Duo owners post their feedback regarding this issue?

I am asking this because i am using gtx 560Ti HAWK from MSI and the GPU usage NEVER exceeds 30%. NEVER. While at the same time my CPU usage runs between 80% and 95%. I do know that my CPU IS in fact bottlenecking my GPU, but is is really doing it that much?

As for cpu i have C2DE8200@3.4GHz. So even if i potentially had let’s say i5 which would be 3 times as fast(it would not) i would have what? Hardly 30 fps in that situation? On my current medium settings?

I DO have all the newest drivers installed for every piece of hardware i own and i am microelectronics engineer. Thanks for any kind of feedback.

Same here with E6850 @ 3.5 Ghz.

It’s a known problem that the CPU use a lot of power in GW2. Having a core 2 duo doesn’t make it better. Yes your CPU is bottlenecked but it wouldn’t be that bad if the game was better optimized. You just have to wait and hope for a patch to fix it. Well.. you could be lucky that some of the people here finds a temporary solution, but right now, it doesn’t seems like there are any.

I have a P8400 C2D @ 2.26 GHz and a 9600M GT (yes, laptop), close to minimum specs. Normally I have 90-100% CPU and GPU utilisation. There are some instances where the first core drops to ~30% util for 30-60 seconds, and some specific DEs seem to be hurting too. Other than that I’ve reached as high as 70 FPS. I’m confident that with reasonable graphics settings, some optimisation and bug fixes a better desktop should achieve more playable performance.

Confirm that your GPU is really operating at maximum frequency, and your PCI-E link is actually at 16×.

I have 560Ti from MSI as well with E8200@3.48GHz and I can confirm your experience. I would say that I have average 20fps during PvE. In WvW it’s great when I can somehow play when there is siege.

If you upgraded to an Ivy Bridge i5-3450, and supposing you have enough RAM to not bottleneck there, I would expect you to get around 60fps while questing on highest settings (unless you’re using a particularly high resolution).

I’ve done group events and every time I’ve checked the fps, it’s still around 50-60 in group fights. I still haven’t done WvWvW, but I’ll be curious to see how much of a drop I get there.

With a CPU upgrade, I would expect dramatic improvement.

However, there are issues with the nVidia cards right now – I’d ask other 560ti users what they’re getting with a better processor. I know the nVidia 6xx line is having big problems, but not sure about the 5xx.

E8500 3.16Ghz user here with Hd 6970 2Gb- Have to say the game runs really well imo,sure cities crowded areas your gonna get frame drops but i av 15-25 in cities and pve fights, whilst questing normally getting av 60-70fps once hit 120 in the slyvari area lol. WvW is another matter i have to play on lowest settings and big fights are almost unplayable but if you keep away from the zergs its fine. Getting a quad core next week hopefully which will make a huge difference but the old E8500 imo is bloody good and still makes playing this game fun

how much cpu does gw2.exe eat up while still being on the login window not ingame for you guys?
my older dual cores all have the problem that the client is already eating up to 50% cpu
only on the login window with no graphics so yeah game runs not really smooth …

http://i.imgur.com/UREWv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HOt16.jpg

I have a E5500 2.80Ghz with a hd radeon 7770 and i pretty much always run the game between 35-45 fps all the time. I havent tried WvW not that interested into it as of now but during group events or in cities im always around that fps its decent for me but i also think its a problem on ANet’s part and they have to further optimize the game. Because soo many people with great rigs are having worst problems then me.

Maja.6372:

how much cpu does gw2.exe eat up while still being on the login window not ingame for you guys?
my older dual cores all have the problem that the client is already eating up to 50% cpu
only on the login window with no graphics so yeah game runs not really smooth …

http://i.imgur.com/UREWv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HOt16.jpg

I notice the same thing. I will bring the logon window up for GW2 and my CPU sits at a constant 50%. Nothing else running.

Would love to know what it’s doing to eat up 50% of my processor essentially just sitting there waiting for me to type in my username and password.

I just upgraded, but it would seem that it may be something with your video card? Or are your settings too high? I was running a Core2Duo E6600 2.4, oc’d it to 3.0 with a 1GB HD5770 and would run around 30-40 fps for the most part. I kept most other things not running on my pc at the time and cpu usage was frequently over 60-70%.

What kind of motherboard are you running on and is it running a PCI-E 8-16X slot?

Yup same thing here. Running an E8400 with a Nvidia 9800GTX+ and 8GB of ram.

Before the 9/8/12 patch, I was averaging 30-40FPS on medium settings (outside of town), and after the patch I get 7-9 FPS, and that is on the lowest settings in the game, medium settings are down to about 5-6 FPS.

I did everything from try 4 different version of nvidia drivers, reset winsock, performed system restore back to before update, scanned for viruses (none found), tried the leatrix fix, defrag, ran msconfig and disabled all non-microsoft services along with all startup items. Hell last night I threw the hail mary pass and reinstalled windows. Still same issue.

Game is unplayable at this point, and getting more frustrated by the day as I have a product that was good for 2 weeks and now is useless to me. Any other game on my system runs @ 30-40 FPS, including Aion (which is more graphics intensive then this game is).

Patiently waiting for resolution, or at least acknowledgement of this situation.

Yeah I’m on an e6600 with a gtx550ti. In some areas I can get 60fps, but last night I was doing The Claw of Jormag and had about 3fps.

Ceallach.8740:

If you upgraded to an Ivy Bridge i5-3450, and supposing you have enough RAM to not bottleneck there, I would expect you to get around 60fps while questing on highest settings (unless you’re using a particularly high resolution).

I’ve done group events and every time I’ve checked the fps, it’s still around 50-60 in group fights. I still haven’t done WvWvW, but I’ll be curious to see how much of a drop I get there.

With a CPU upgrade, I would expect dramatic improvement.

However, there are issues with the nVidia cards right now – I’d ask other 560ti users what they’re getting with a better processor. I know the nVidia 6xx line is having big problems, but not sure about the 5xx.

From this, I have just upgraded froman E5200 to the i5-3450 and I use a GTS 250,
my avg fps does not drop below 40 fps now even when I go into WvWvW in a large seige, it’s stayed at a consistent 30-40 fps
This is a significant improvement, as I was getting 20-30 FPS in general before and in large WvWvW seiges i dropped to below 7FPS

The next thing for me of course is a GPU upgrade, but it is more then playable now that my framerate barely drops no matter where I am, and it was all in part of the upgrade of CPU

Ditto, Code 2 Duo shouldn’t be included in the minimum system requirements, it’s not realistic.

I have an e6750 @ 3.2 GHz, 6 GB of RAM and a HD6950 2GB. I run everything on max except shadows on medium (I could put them on low, but the performance increment is low for a much worse image quality) and reflection to “ony terrain and sky” (setting it to nothing doesn’t improve the performance). Everything is maxed because there’s no performance difference.

I usually get around 40 fps in low crowded areas (although in certain zones it can drop to 20-25), and can drop to around 15 fps in big DE. WvW sieges are just unplayable, I’m lucky if I get more than 5 fps.

Not being a big WvW fan, I’d say my experience is just ok. Looking forward to upgrade my CPU shortly.

Zax.6170:

Ditto, Code 2 Duo shouldn’t be included in the minimum system requirements, it’s not realistic.

What does this mean?

I have a similar CPU spec to OPs (e7200@3.3) and I have the same experience with SLI 465’s.

Meaning that if the game isn’t playable with Core 2 Duo it shouldn’t have been in the minimal requirements in the first place. I’m not convinced they’ll manage to make it playable so that’s why I think they should at least backtrack on their official minimal requirements.

Actually it’s playable that’s why it’s the minimum requirements. It’s playable in PvE and Story Mode probably in PvP as well but not in Large WvW fights. I also have a very old C2D ( E6300 @2.6ghz) + 560ti and 6gb ram with 1920×1080 resolution.

PvE / Story Mode – 25-30 fps
WvW (Small Group ) – 15-25fps
WvW (Large Group ) – 5 fps.

I think for the most part gw2 loves quad cores intels. My wife plays on Q6600 + 460gtx and she’s getting constant 30~40+ fps and only dips down to 15~20fps in large wvw fights.

E8400 at 3.00 Ghz,HD6870 2GB, 4 GB RAM and im running on 10-15 FPS normal questing and barely 5-10 FPS in large groups (especially WvWvW). NOTE: all on high settings with Shadows on High and Native sampling.

Im pretty sure my CPU is bottleneck but I would expect more than 20 FPS from my rig.

Arcturus.5846:

E8400 at 3.00 Ghz and HD6870 2GB and im running on 10-15 FPS normal questing and barely 5-10 FPS in large groups (especially WvWvW).

Im pretty sure my CPU is bottleneck but I would expect more than 20 FPS from my rig.

What settings are you using? I usually disable reflection,shadows and post processing everything can be set to medium-high.

Alpha Dragon.4576:

Arcturus.5846:

E8400 at 3.00 Ghz and HD6870 2GB and im running on 10-15 FPS normal questing and barely 5-10 FPS in large groups (especially WvWvW).

Im pretty sure my CPU is bottleneck but I would expect more than 20 FPS from my rig.

What settings are you using? I usually disable reflection,shadows and post processing everything can be set to medium-high.

Everything on default high settings. I tested my FPS on both lowest and highest and the difference is hardly noticeable. So the only thing I can think of is it’s either my CPU bottlenecking my GPU as my GPU activity never go beyond 40% while CPU usage is around 80% or the game is more CPU bound.

Im pretty sure its both though lol.

all on high settings with Shadows on High and Native sampling.

Drop shadows to medium. The differenece in quality is not much, but there’s a quite big performance improvement. If I set shados to high I usually get 10-15 less fps in areas with lots of dynamic shadows (like forests or towns).

It is not the high Ghz and Core2 Duo name here but how the CPU uses that power.
The E8XXX series were good CPUs for their time. But that was long time ago, sorry to say.

I do believe that the game can be tweaked to work better on older CPUs and GPUs, but most likely, you will solve this by getting some upgrades.

I know money does not grow on trees, believe me, but if you want nice graphics at high settings….you can’t have both cheap and fast.

Just tested in game for my configuration (I7 2600K, GTX 580 and 16 GB RAM 1.600 Ghz)

Standing still anywhere = 110 FPS max (min 100)
Turning 360 degrees = 96 FPS max (min 68)
With lots of players,NPCs around = 80 FPS max (min 58)

All settings maxed.

Indeed, first time when I load the game or map, FPS drops to 7 FPS for couple of seconds (1-3) while it “loads” or something, but after that, no problems.

Deepcuts.9740:

Just tested in game for my configuration (I7 2600K, GTX 580 and 16 GB RAM 1.600 Ghz)

Standing still anywhere = 110 FPS max (min 100)
Turning 360 degrees = 96 FPS max (min 68)
With lots of players,NPCs around = 80 FPS max (min 58)

All settings maxed.

Indeed, first time when I load the game or map, FPS drops to 7 FPS for couple of seconds (1-3) while it “loads” or something, but after that, no problems.

Was your processor OCed? or stock?

I’m also using an E6750 @ 3.2, 8gb of ram, and a 560ti 2gb. I tend to get 40-50 just running around, and around 30 in heavily populated areas. I haven’t done WvW much but I’m guessing my siege performance will be about the same as you guys. I’m not looking forward to it. I had the same problem in LotRO with heavy pvp, it’d become a slideshow.

My current rig has a E8500 3.16ghz (OC to 3.8) and a gtx 560 ti (upgrade from old 9800 gt) with 6gb RAM.

I’ve been getting around 20 fps when there’s more than 10 people/characters in the vicinity and upto 60fps in unpopulated areas. Usually my CPU is at 80-100% usage whilst gaming and GPU never goes higher than 60%.

I’m not playing on highest settings though (goes down to 4-10fps when i do that). I turned down shadows, post processing, texture res and added vsync for those framerates above though. Game don’t look too pretty.

I also played SWTOR since launch and got similar slowdown in populated areas so i figured it’s the CPU bottleneck and time to upgrade the rig.

New rig is i5 3450 (3.10ghz) with 8gb RAM and HD 7570 card (will replace this with my current gtx 560 ti though).

Should get delivered tomorrow and i’m expecting much better performance so i’ll let everyone on this thread know ow it goes…

Alpha, all stock settings.
I am not an OCer

Must be the good cooling I have.

Just wanted to add that if I stay still or afk for a bit and start to move, the game will be a bit slow while it reloads? graphics, for 1-3 seconds

Core-2 duo at 2.4 GHZ, 4 Gigs ram, ATI 5850 graphics card.

At lowest graphics settings it is a smooth 60-70 fps in low population areas. In WvW it gets as low as 5 to 7 fps and yes it is horrible.

What gets me is how the game uses up a large percentage of the cpu even on the login screen. There is no good software engineering reason why that should be happening.

That can only lead one to believe that the same waste of cpu cycles is happening in game which severely affects performance. It is just not as much of an issue for those with powerful rigs.

Deepcuts.9740:

Just wanted to add that if I stay still or afk for a bit and start to move, the game will be a bit slow while it reloads? graphics, for 1-3 seconds

Thanks btw planning to upgrade in upcoming months.Try toning down shadows or reflections.

Alpha Dragon.4576:

Arcturus.5846:

E8400 at 3.00 Ghz and HD6870 2GB and im running on 10-15 FPS normal questing and barely 5-10 FPS in large groups (especially WvWvW).

Im pretty sure my CPU is bottleneck but I would expect more than 20 FPS from my rig.

What settings are you using? I usually disable reflection,shadows and post processing everything can be set to medium-high.

disabling reflections and shadows is good, but post processing literally has 0 fps hit in a cpu-bound situation like this.

e8400 overclocked @4.41GHz(519×8.5)
Dfi LP LT X38, 4GB G.Skill, Vista x64
Radeon 7950 @1150/1575

I have settings maxed, supersampling, reflections sky+terrain, Shadows medium
I also have vsync on so I’m not sure when I shoot above 60fps.

Running around Questing and hunting, even when a few people show up I’m always at 50-60fps. There are a few spots where I’ll dip down or camera pan to 40-45.

In Town I usually range from 40-60, unless it’s the bank area with tons of people and I’ll be around 30.

I have hit as low as 20 in super crowded places roaming around whether it’s in or out of town. I have not tried WvWvW yet so I can’t help you there.

phew and i thought i’m the only 1 facing this issue
my rig :
i5 2500k : asus sabretooth with 8gb ram
GTX560

lion arch : 15-30fps
WvW : 3-5fps
dragon event : 3-5 fps

it’s unplayable . this rig wouldn’t be the most crappest of rigs but with this game i get THE most CRAP FPS and there is nothing i can do about it .Anet would patch up the game hopefully

I changed my E8500 (4.05GHz) for an i5-2500k.
I still have same disks and same GPU (GTX285). (new mobo and ram too off, but I guess hat doesn’t matter)
Before I had 30-50 in around in the world at quiet places, 30ish in sPvP and in Lions Arch.
In WvWvW i had from 5-25FPS.

With the i5-2500k (4.2GHz) I now have 40-60 FPS in WvWvW, If i unlock the FPS counter I have like 60-100 in Divinitys reach.

My E8500 was at 80-100% load all the time, and my GPU on 30-50%, now my CPU is from 30-60% load and my gpu from 70-100% load.

I’m pretty sure that if you have a fairly OK gfx card, you’re better off getting a new CPU than a new GPU.

The E8500 has served me well for many years now and before guild wars 2 i never thought about changing it, I was unsure with the GTX285, but it seems it handles GuildWars2 extremely well.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 at 3.06 GHz.

5-8 FPS in world v world and large fights, high 20s FPS doing nothing in town.

90-100% CPU usage whenever GW2’s active.

I have a low-end video card (256 MB) and only 3 GB of RAM, but that shouldn’t have such a huge impact on performance.

Is it a problem with the CPU?

Revenant.4906:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 at 3.06 GHz.

5-8 FPS in world v world and large fights, high 20s FPS doing nothing in town.

90-100% CPU usage whenever GW2’s active.

I have a low-end video card (256 MB) and only 3 GB of RAM, but that shouldn’t have such a huge impact on performance.

Is it a problem with the CPU?

It’s probably both. My E8500 @4.05Ghz slowed my GTX285 a lot,
but a 256MB card might be a bottleneck too.
I’m seeing VRAM usage up in the 700s MB from time to time, although much of the time as low as 350-400

Same here. I’m running on 2ghz core2duo. From BWE3-release date I played around 9 FPS or lower (1-3 fps around medium/large groups) 3 or 4 patches ago it was a way better. I was running around 15 fps (when starting game it was even 40 fps around big mob of players (30-50 or even more in one spot, but when running around it was droping a little bit but not below 15 fps while exploring map). Patch before last one, screwed everything up again making game run like during release date, but Last patch fixed it a little bit again.

A little tip. If you have this same issue as me. Try to minimaize game for few seconds. I usually gives a little boost to the game for another 2-3 minutes

Tanira.8157:

It’s probably both. My E8500 @4.05Ghz slowed my GTX285 a lot,
but a 256MB card might be a bottleneck too.
I’m seeing VRAM usage up in the 700s MB from time to time, although much of the time as low as 350-400

My GPU load is around 60-75% when I’m playing GW2. It doesn’t seem stressed by any means. I can even get Skyrim (512 MB VRAM minimum requirement) to run on my computer, even though I technically shouldn’t be able to run it at all, my video card being the sole reason.

Things don’t add up to me and I’m starting to suspect an issue between the CPU and GW2’s coding.