Guild Wars 2

My fps peaks at 40 max and is hovering at about 30, when i move my camera it drops to as low as 10 at times. Changing any graphic settings seem to have very little difference, as everything set to minimal i get about same fps.

I had a long break from the game and recently tried again after summer and the performance is very bad for me currently. Only things different with my setup is gtx660 is now gtx980ti and windows 7 to 10. I used to be able to run the game with pretty stable 60fps before.

My rig is i5 2500k @4.4 GHz, GTX980 ti, 8GB RAM, 1920×1080p 60Hz. All recent and very graphic intense games such as Metro Last Light, Witcher 3, Battlefield 4, Arma 3 all run maxed out stable 60 fps. The problem only seems to be with GW2.

I have already tried to reseat the GPU, cleared and reinstalled the most recent nvidia drivers, aswell as tried some older ones. Also tried to repair and reinstall the game. Both GPU and CPU load shows almost 100% and clocks seem to be as they should be, just the performance is terrible.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Upgraded-to-AMD-R9-390-Low-FPS-Performance/first#post5508372

The GPU indeed is in x4 slot instead of the x16 that is closer to the CPU, but so used to be the GTX660ti as well, so that really doesn’t explain the performance loss. I can’t use the slot closer to CPU because that slot is physically broken on the mobo.

You’re running your gpu on a broken mobo with 4x instead of 16x,you should not be surprised by having bad performance.

Caedmon.6798:

You’re running your gpu on a broken mobo with 4x instead of 16x,you should not be surprised by having bad performance.

I just wonder why the problem only occurs in GW2 and also why the performance used to be fine with gtx660ti using the same pcie slot and windows 7?

Maybe it’s also win 10 related,possible.I don’t have or want windows 10 so i cant test the perf diff myself.But i don’t think it’s a good thing to keep on using that mobo,i don’t know how your 16x pcie slot died but i doubt its a wise thing to keep on using that mobo though.
Also it’s possible that since the 980TI is a much stronger gpu than the gtx660 that you just notice the perf drop from using 4x more than you did when using the 660. ( I know from exp that my fps is crap in 4x compared to 16x using a 970.

edit: I did read somewhere that win10 likes to automatically install drivers eventhough you already have them installed.Have you checked if windows have overwritten yours ? And if so,check to see if you can disable it from doing that.

Well, the x16 slot broke ages ago because of an incident where the whole system got dropped on the ground and the pins on that slot got bent beyond repair under the weight of the GPU, but that’s unrelated to this problem as i have played GW2 for years after that happened and always had stable fps.

Last time i played was march or something and the game ran fine. No it’s not the difference between the GPU’s fooling me as the game used to run smooth with gtx660ti and now it’s just plain unplayable with fps dropping to 10 when turning around.

Removing auto driver installation was the first thing i did with w10. Reverting to older windows isn’t a solution for me. I just wanted to try the game out again and it has gotten unplayable suddenly.

OP has a gtx 980ti running in a 4x slot? Uhhhh why? I know broken mobo, but that’s a serious waste of a gpu right there!

Also OP, please check to see if the card is running in adaptive power mode, or performance mode. Adaptive can sometimes switch to power saving mode and cause the game to lag something awful.

Loli Ruri.8307:

OP has a gtx 980ti running in a 4x slot? Uhhhh why? I know broken mobo, but that’s a serious waste of a gpu right there!

Also OP, please check to see if the card is running in adaptive power mode, or performance mode. Adaptive can sometimes switch to power saving mode and cause the game to lag something awful.

Thanks for your input, but changing those nvidia settings is the most basic thing i would do when i notice performance issues. I’m not even sure if it’s x4, because it reads PCIE x16 2 in the slot it currently is in. The slot that’s broken is PCIE x16 1. However in nvidia inspector it says 3.0 @ 1.1×4.

Arkkitehti.4092:

The GPU indeed is in x4 slot instead of the x16 that is closer to the CPU, but so used to be the GTX660ti as well, so that really doesn’t explain the performance loss. I can’t use the slot closer to CPU because that slot is physically broken on the mobo.

16x > 4x .. that means more data can be transfered in the same time what results
in higer FPS. Less data means lower FPS.

For more detailed description you should ask the NVidia developers.

Arkkitehti.4092:

Thanks for your input, but changing those nvidia settings is the most basic thing i would do when i notice performance issues. I’m not even sure if it’s x4, because it reads PCIE x16 2 in the slot it currently is in. The slot that’s broken is PCIE x16 1. However in nvidia inspector it says 3.0 @ 1.1×4.

What about windows power settings in advanced. Could the PCI express be power saving? Set power options to high performance. Just throwing out ideas.

Loli Ruri.8307:

What about windows power settings in advanced. Could the PCI express be power saving? Set power options to high performance. Just throwing out ideas.

This again is one of those things i would have noticed already in performance of other games.

I don’t think the issue is with the slot I’m using as it used to run just fine before and does with other games. It has to be something with windows 10 or the game has issues with the gpu drivers.

Its going to be running 1.1 at 4x, cause that 4x slot is probably not programmed for a GPU. Your Motherboard has to have DMI linking between PCIE Slots and support CF or SLI for all the slots to properly work with GPUs.

MOST Motherboards that have a 16x and a 4x run the 4x against the DMI PCIE link in the chipset and not from the CPU. the 16x is generally all CPU Lanes. That is probably also a big root cause to your issue here too.

The best solution is to replace the motherboard with a new one, or reach out to the motherboards maker and see if a warranty replacement is possible. As long as the LGA pins are not bent, anything else that breaks on the motherboard is fair game for a defect replacement. Most MB’s have a 2-3 year warranty replacement time frame.

As for why the 660Ti gives higher performance is because your 660Ti is SOOOO SLOW compared to the 980Ti that your CPU is now the sole bottle neck in the system. So now your GPU linked at 4x v1.1 has to wait for the CPU instructions to keep up, where at before the CPU and 660Ti linked at x4 v1.1 were probably on par with each other.

Also do you OC your 2500K? If not, I highly suggest looking into it. It will make that 980Ti scream.

But yea, get a new motherboard that 2500K will ‘love you long time’ for it.

I had an FPS drop problem as well a few weeks ago, but it’s back to normal again, I think they fixed it. But lately however I’ve been having FPS drop “hiccups” from time to time. Just a while ago my client was stuttering so bad in the HotM lobby, now it’s back to 30+ FPS again. It’s not the best FPS around, but it does the job and the graphics is smooth enough, I mean when I swing the camera or when I move, it doesn’t stutter at all.

Sorry to say this mate but the only solution to your issue is to get a new mobo (try find the same model so u dont have driver issues with the OS), i am pretty sure u can find a cheap one on Ebay. GW2 is extremly bandwith sensitive unlike other games, as you describe metro, W3, BF4, or whatever will work just fine on low bandwith but GW2 just wont. Anything below PCIe 2.0@8x or PCIe 3.0@4x will bottleneck GW2 big time produccing massive FPS loss. It has nothing to do with win 10 or the drivers, it is just the game for some reasson.