Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing GW2 for nearly two years now, and it’s been the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game. I played the demo of GW1 after being convinced by a friend, but it wasn’t for me. He convinced me to try GW2 with him, so he wouldn’t be playing alone, and even though he ended up hating it, I fell in love. I was handicapped from the start, though, as I played on a MacBook Pro (specs below). Even though my in-game friends all had anywhere from 60-120fps and I was stuck at 12 (on a good day), I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I had to play on lowest settings. I didn’t care that my loading screens took forever. All that mattered was that I was playing this game. I met great friends and wonderful people who have shaped not only my gaming experience, but myself as a person. GW2 has been an extremely positive force in my life.

But today, I feel like I’m being forced out of the game. I had logged on in the morning, business as usual, and everything was going fine until out of nowhere, I started having intense fps lag. At one point, my screen froze completely. I alt+tabbed out, and then back in, and my GW2 screen had gone black save for the cursor. I went into my Activity Monitor and saw that a process called kernel_task (which is essentially my OS) was using 700% of my CPU. I also found out that I’ve used up most of my RAM already. I restarted a few times and got the kernel_task process to calm down, and I restarted GW2 once more. Still low fps, but for the most part tolerable…until I got into a fractal. By that point I realized that my frames were just too low for me to be of any use to my party. I talked to a friend who understands a lot more about computers than I do, and he said that it likely wasn’t my RAM, but my CPU was on its last leg, and that’s just one thing that cannot be upgraded.

I can’t afford to buy a new computer anytime soon at ALL, and every time someone laughs at me and says, “HAHA YOU PLAY ON A MAC YOU kittenING LOSER HAHAHA” it really really frustrates and upsets me, because I didn’t buy this computer with the idea of gaming in mind; my parents bought it for me as a high school graduation present. GW2 was just a happy accident. All I can really afford to do is upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, but there’s not much I can do beyond that. It will honestly be a few years before I can afford a new computer.

Here are my specs:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

I’m not posting some angry rant/departure letter, cursing ArenaNet as if they were the scum of the earth. I’m posting a really sad, “is-there-any-hope-left-for-me” letter before giving all of my non-bound possessions on my account to my boyfriend and saying goodbye to GW2 for the last time.

So is there any hope for me? Is there any hope that GW2 is still playable on my computer?

Edit: Syntax, grammar, spelling, etc.

you cpu is old enough that I should start worrying about thermal paste. Is it dry? is your cpu overheating? 4 years is quite a bit of time. You should fix that first because performance loss due to overheating is massive.

Adding an extra stick of ram should add framerates to the bandwidth starved iGPU. With IGPU is not about amount of ram but bandwidth. Your laptop should be dual channeled so you can take advantage of extra stick of ram. You can easily test this by using another laptop ddr3 ram into your to see if it increase framerates before you commit any money.

btw, your friends kinda suck

If you can’t get the help you need from the forum, definitely contact support. They are swamped right now so it maybe a week of so, but that better than quitting the game.

Top of page: support
Top of page: submit a request
Then chose technical issue, from the drop down button.

loseridoit.2756:

you cpu is old enough that I should start worrying about thermal paste. Is it dry? is your cpu overheating? 4 years is quite a bit of time. You should fix that first because performance loss due to overheating is massive.

Adding an extra stick of ram should add framerates to the bandwidth starved iGPU. With IGPU is not about amount of ram but bandwidth. Your laptop should be dual channeled so you can take advantage of extra stick of ram. You can easily test this by using another laptop ddr3 ram into your to see if it increase framerates before you commit any money.

btw, your friends kinda suck

Thank you for your timely and polite response, you don’t know how much I appreciate it right now.

I haven’t checked, to be honest. The only time I’ve ever opened up the back of this thing was to dust it and that’s all. I’m a little scared to start removing things, but I know there are a lot of videos on YouTube that can give me lessons that will make it easier and will provide less of a chance that I screw up and break something. My laptop does get quite hot when I play.

It is dual-channeled. Initially after seeing that I was low on memory I assumed that that was the issue alone and all I needed to do was upgrade. I’ll have to pull a stick out of my mom’s barely-used laptop and see if that will help me out.

As for friends… All I can say to that is that it is often difficult being a girl on the Internet, especially in the gaming community, lol.

Astral Projections.7320:

If you can’t get the help you need from the forum, definitely contact support. They are swamped right now so it maybe a week of so, but that better than quitting the game.

Top of page: support
Top of page: submit a request
Then chose technical issue, from the drop down button.

To add to that make sure you make it very apparent in your ticket that you are a Mac customer. I’ve run across that in the past when I told them it was a Mac problem and I got an email back asking me to install and run .exe files.

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

you cpu is old enough that I should start worrying about thermal paste. Is it dry? is your cpu overheating? 4 years is quite a bit of time. You should fix that first because performance loss due to overheating is massive.

Adding an extra stick of ram should add framerates to the bandwidth starved iGPU. With IGPU is not about amount of ram but bandwidth. Your laptop should be dual channeled so you can take advantage of extra stick of ram. You can easily test this by using another laptop ddr3 ram into your to see if it increase framerates before you commit any money.

btw, your friends kinda suck

Thank you for your timely and polite response, you don’t know how much I appreciate it right now.

I haven’t checked, to be honest. The only time I’ve ever opened up the back of this thing was to dust it and that’s all. I’m a little scared to start removing things, but I know there are a lot of videos on YouTube that can give me lessons that will make it easier and will provide less of a chance that I screw up and break something. My laptop does get quite hot when I play.

It is dual-channeled. Initially after seeing that I was low on memory I assumed that that was the issue alone and all I needed to do was upgrade. I’ll have to pull a stick out of my mom’s barely-used laptop and see if that will help me out.

As for friends… All I can say to that is that it is often difficult being a girl on the Internet, especially in the gaming community, lol.

Macbook are pretty painful to open with those torq screws etc.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Heat+Sink+Replacement/5153

You mention the macbook gets quite hot…. Errr, I disklike advising people to open macbook and many other laptops. I am afraid the OP breaks something

If you currently have a stick of ram in each slot, then I doubt changing the ram will increase the framerates much. IGPU depends on bandwidth not amount of ram.

One last question? Are you running windows. Yea, I have to ask because Intel does supply comparable graphic driver than apple. GW2 is a direct x 9 game

loseridoit.2756:

Macbook are pretty painful to open with those torq screws etc.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Heat+Sink+Replacement/5153

yea… I am just wondering if the macbook is overheating? If the macbook is not overheating then opening the macbook is a waste of time.

If you currently have a stick of ram in each slot, then I doubt changing the ram will increase the framerates much. IGPU depends on bandwidth not amount of ram.

One last question? Are you running windows. Yea, I have to ask because Intel does supply comparable graphic driver than apple. GW2 is a direct x 9 game

Yes, I currently have a 2GB stick in each slot. My apologies for not clarifying earlier.

I’m starting to think that maybe it is overheating and that’s what is affecting my performance… At least, I really, really, really hope that’s what it is. It’s never overheated to the point where it completely shut down (like my ancient crappy Gateway laptop that I had in HS), but it does get HOT when I play GW2.

I run the Mac Beta client. I hate it, but I just don’t have the patience for a long Windows installation (lol).

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

Macbook are pretty painful to open with those torq screws etc.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Heat+Sink+Replacement/5153

yea… I am just wondering if the macbook is overheating? If the macbook is not overheating then opening the macbook is a waste of time.

If you currently have a stick of ram in each slot, then I doubt changing the ram will increase the framerates much. IGPU depends on bandwidth not amount of ram.

One last question? Are you running windows. Yea, I have to ask because Intel does supply comparable graphic driver than apple. GW2 is a direct x 9 game

Yes, I currently have a 2GB stick in each slot. My apologies for not clarifying earlier.

I’m starting to think that maybe it is overheating and that’s what is affecting my performance… At least, I really, really, really hope that’s what it is. It’s never overheated to the point where it completely shut down (like my ancient crappy Gateway laptop that I had in HS), but it does get HOT when I play GW2.

I run the Mac Beta client. I hate it, but I just don’t have the patience for a long Windows installation (lol).

Post your temperatures because computers trottle to protect itself.

I hate to say it but running windows will increase your frame rates. Usually, I will not advise if the op has choice but your laptop is cutting the bare minium and the direct x9→ opengl translation layer is not cheap in your case

OP you can check your mac temps and fan speeds by installing the iStat pro app. It should still be free, just Google it. I installed it last year or so.

I cropped out the stuff with my IP and such but here is what it looks like for temp and fan monitoring.

I am like absolutely positive without a shadow of a doubt that my computer is way way way too hot. Sorry if I didn’t get quite the right information, I was looking for something that looked like the screenshot you posted, but I guess this app has a free and paid version, and I got the free version.

This is with Safari, Activity Monitor, and GW2 open.

Edit: I’m stupid and don’t know how to form sentences.

mcgriddles.2416:

I am like absolutely positive without a shadow of a doubt that my computer is way way way too hot. Sorry if I didn’t get quite the right information, I was looking for something that looked like the screenshot you posted, but I guess this app has a free and paid version, and I got the free version.

This is with Safari, Activity Monitor, and GW2 open.

Edit: I’m stupid and don’t know how to form sentences.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

loseridoit.2756:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

Sorry for all the trouble, but thank you for the help so far.

There is a Best Buy very close by, and luckily enough I used to work there. There’s a chance that one of my old coworkers may be able to help me out. I sent him a message on Facebook pleading my case, so it’s just a waiting game until then. Hopefully he agrees to help me tackle this beast. The screwdriver is about $10 on eBay so that’s a relief. Another $10 or so for thermal paste, looks like.

I’m so relieved that there is a chance this problem may be fixed without me pinching pennies for a new computer. As terrible as it is to have to play on the Mac client, it’s so much better than not playing at all.

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

Sorry for all the trouble, but thank you for the help so far.

There is a Best Buy very close by, and luckily enough I used to work there. There’s a chance that one of my old coworkers may be able to help me out. I sent him a message on Facebook pleading my case, so it’s just a waiting game until then. Hopefully he agrees to help me tackle this beast. The screwdriver is about $10 on eBay so that’s a relief. Another $10 or so for thermal paste, looks like.

I’m so relieved that there is a chance this problem may be fixed without me pinching pennies for a new computer. As terrible as it is to have to play on the Mac client, it’s so much better than not playing at all.

If your old co worker has the tools, you do not have to buy the screw driver, just pay him the thermal paste. You do not change thermal paste that often. Once every 3-6 years.

loseridoit.2756:

If your old co worker has the tools, you do not have to buy the screw driver, just pay him the thermal paste. You do not change thermal paste that often. Once every 3-6 years.

It’s doubtful that he does, considering he owns only PCs, I think. I am under the impression that this type of screwdriver is used for Macs only. But he built his own computer and he was easily the most knowledgeable person in our department, if not the entire store, about computers, so I know he will be more reliable than just me by my lonesome lol.

I cannot thank you enough for your patience, politeness, and time! I honestly thought that this was the end of the road for me, and I was not taking it well at all lol. Here’s hoping that this is the solution I’ve been looking for.

SpiritSpeakerOfHoelbrak.3980:

loseridoit.2756:

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

Sorry for all the trouble, but thank you for the help so far.

There is a Best Buy very close by, and luckily enough I used to work there. There’s a chance that one of my old coworkers may be able to help me out. I sent him a message on Facebook pleading my case, so it’s just a waiting game until then. Hopefully he agrees to help me tackle this beast. The screwdriver is about $10 on eBay so that’s a relief. Another $10 or so for thermal paste, looks like.

I’m so relieved that there is a chance this problem may be fixed without me pinching pennies for a new computer. As terrible as it is to have to play on the Mac client, it’s so much better than not playing at all.

If your old co worker has the tools, you do not have to buy the screw driver, just pay him the thermal paste. You do not change thermal paste that often. Once every 3-6 years.

I don’t like anecdotal evidence. Please provide proof. Edit just kidding !

Great to see helpful people

http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/mx-4.html

mx 4 is advertised for 8 years. 3-6 years is actually a very conservative estimate. I can and go list others but I am lazy

I usually do not like anecdotal evidence because it usually is a poor excuse for a weak argument. Little evidence and the reader is required to guess all the prerequisites which makes the line pretty much unreproducible.

If you are fishing for my response, I guess you got it.

SpiritSpeakerOfHoelbrak.3980:

loseridoit.2756:

SpiritSpeakerOfHoelbrak.3980:

loseridoit.2756:

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

Sorry for all the trouble, but thank you for the help so far.

There is a Best Buy very close by, and luckily enough I used to work there. There’s a chance that one of my old coworkers may be able to help me out. I sent him a message on Facebook pleading my case, so it’s just a waiting game until then. Hopefully he agrees to help me tackle this beast. The screwdriver is about $10 on eBay so that’s a relief. Another $10 or so for thermal paste, looks like.

I’m so relieved that there is a chance this problem may be fixed without me pinching pennies for a new computer. As terrible as it is to have to play on the Mac client, it’s so much better than not playing at all.

If your old co worker has the tools, you do not have to buy the screw driver, just pay him the thermal paste. You do not change thermal paste that often. Once every 3-6 years.

I don’t like anecdotal evidence. Please provide proof. Edit just kidding !

Great to see helpful people

http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/mx-4.html

mx 4 is advertised for 8 years. 3-6 years is actually a very conservative estimate. I can and go list others but I am lazy

I usually do not like anecdotal evidence because it usually is a poor excuse for a weak argument. Little evidence and the reader is required to guess all the prerequisites which makes the line pretty much unreproducible.

If you are fishing for my response, I guess you got it.

Ahhhh I said I was kidding ! All good loser. Hey just a heads up though. As the subject matter relates to general PC knowledge, anecdotal or otherwise is good information when it comes to these things. Unless of course you’re submitting academic articles.

sacrasm does not exist on the internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

loseridoit.2756:

SpiritSpeakerOfHoelbrak.3980:

loseridoit.2756:

mcgriddles.2416:

loseridoit.2756:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=211+f+to+celsius

yep, I think it is overheating

http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

I do not know your exact i5 model but I just grab a random i5 sandy bridge and it says 100 C limit. You are hitting 99 C.

sigh… Do you have a friend who has apple torq screws and thermal paste?

Sorry for all the trouble, but thank you for the help so far.

There is a Best Buy very close by, and luckily enough I used to work there. There’s a chance that one of my old coworkers may be able to help me out. I sent him a message on Facebook pleading my case, so it’s just a waiting game until then. Hopefully he agrees to help me tackle this beast. The screwdriver is about $10 on eBay so that’s a relief. Another $10 or so for thermal paste, looks like.

I’m so relieved that there is a chance this problem may be fixed without me pinching pennies for a new computer. As terrible as it is to have to play on the Mac client, it’s so much better than not playing at all.

If your old co worker has the tools, you do not have to buy the screw driver, just pay him the thermal paste. You do not change thermal paste that often. Once every 3-6 years.

I don’t like anecdotal evidence. Please provide proof. Edit just kidding !

Great to see helpful people

http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/mx-4.html

mx 4 is advertised for 8 years. 3-6 years is actually a very conservative estimate. I can and go list others but I am lazy

I usually do not like anecdotal evidence because it usually is a poor excuse for a weak argument. Little evidence and the reader is required to guess all the prerequisites which makes the line pretty much unreproducible.

If you are fishing for my response, I guess you got it.

I completely understand & respect your apprehension regarding anecdotal evidence. Regardless of how knowledgeable and experienced my former coworker is, I will still insist that we use iFixIt as a guide.