Guild Wars 2

Hello, so I’ve got my new setup ready for Gw2 HoT but my fps hasn’t gone up that much…

New setup: i7 4790k, GTX 980, running/installed on SSD and 1.5T Hard Drive, 20GB of RAM.

I’m a bit disappointed, it’s jumping between 35-65fps in an average map, getting only 15-20 fps at Teq, 30-35 in Lion’s Arch…
I’ve heard many people say that they get more fps with a smaller setup..

Is this normal fps for my setup? If not what’s wrong?

Do you use vertical synch and/or a limited framerate? Those can screw around with your FPS in weird ways.

Karkas.5837:

Hello, so I’ve got my new setup ready for Gw2 HoT but my fps hasn’t gone up that much…

New setup: i7 4790k, GTX 980, running/installed on SSD and 1.5T Hard Drive, 20GB of RAM.

I’m a bit disappointed, it’s jumping between 35-65fps in an average map, getting only 15-20 fps at Teq, 30-35 in Lion’s Arch…
I’ve heard many people say that they get more fps with a smaller setup..

Is this normal fps for my setup? If not what’s wrong?

What resolution are you playing at? What ingame settings are you using? if you download GPU-Z and look at the Bus status, what is listed there? In GPU-Z on the sensors tab what is your Temp and GPU Core/Memory clock?

also, what did you upgrade from to the GTX980? Did you wipe out drivers before installing the new Nvidia drivers?

I had a top-of-the-line machine performing terribly due to CPU overheating (heatsink issue). You will also want to check your main processor temp/clock/etc in addition to the graphics hardware, GW2 is very CPU intensive.

• I don’t play with vSync or limited framerate but I tried with those on and it didn’t help.

• I play in 1080p

• Everything is pretty much at max, apart from max players and players quality to High. Also I can run it in Supersample without any fps difference.

• Temperature of my GPU when playing is around 50-55 (I saw it went to 62 but that was when I tried a small OC).

• When using GPUz I noticed in the PrefCap Reason section that as soon as my Gw2 was running (not in loading screens), I got VRel and VOp.

•Temperature of my CPU sits around 45 all the time.

• I don’t remember what card I had, pretty bad one that came with the computer, but I’m 100% sure my drivers are good, using GeForce Experience and I’m at my third total Windows 8.1 reinstall (Just reinstalled it on my SSD).

• I tried with GPU overclocked and gained about 2-3 fps.. maybe..
And I tried with CPU overclocked to 4.5 and 4.7 Ghz, didn’t change anything…

• For the Bus status, the Core Clock and the Memory Clock I’ll be back with those infos (away from home atm). I do remember the Core Clock and the Memory Clock red bars being pretty high when running Gw2, but what I don’t understand is that playing around in the graphics options didn’t seem to affect my fps that much..

I had a similar issue a week or so ago when I started playing. For reference I’m running an i5 3470 and a GTX 760. I had odd performance at the time. Sometimes it ran fine, sometimes terribly. I’m talking 60-90 FPS avg and sometimes dropping to around 15. This wasn’t in super crowded areas either. I looked into what could be causing this issue and found that my GPU was barely under load by the low temperatures it had, which were near the usual idle temps.

I went looking around for info on the subject and eventually found this reddit post about someone who seemed to have a similar issue. I um.. didn’t check anything on GPU-Z because I’m lazy and/or stupid. I just went straight to reseating my GPU as I seemed to have some visual artifacting as well. Well, it worked. Runs buttery smooth now.

This might not work for you but.. I dunno. Hope ya find a solution regardless.

Here are the GPU-Z results…

Tested a bit more…

Got 100fps on empty map on my log-in.
Then 35-45 in Silverwastes.
And a stable 35 in LA.

Karkas.5837:

Here are the GPU-Z results…

Tested a bit more…

Got 100fps on empty map on my log-in.
Then 35-45 in Silverwastes.
And a stable 35 in LA.

That fps is perfectly fine,it’s the engine..Not your pc,i wouldn’t worry if i were you.

How do your other games run ?

Actually, not really. “It’s the engine” would explain it if his PC were nowhere near as good as it is, but with this one, OP should get more than an average of 35 FPS. That number is perfectly acceptable, even great for events like Tequatl, but just a normal map should have a consistently higher number. I average around 50 with a less powerful setup.

Maybe the fix really is a simple as Vex suggested. Take video card out and put it in again. Computers are idiots, so maybe that helps.

Red Queen.7915:

Actually, not really. “It’s the engine” would explain it if his PC were nowhere near as good as it is, but with this one, OP should get more than an average of 35 FPS. That number is perfectly acceptable, even great for events like Tequatl, but just a normal map should have a consistently higher number. I average around 50 with a less powerful setup.

Maybe the fix really is a simple as Vex suggested. Take video card out and put it in again. Computers are idiots, so maybe that helps.

It Is the engine,I also have 35Fps in LA in the south section near portals where the bank is located etc,it is normal for most systems,also for his.The game isnt optimized for High end systems,its just the way it is.I have an older pc here with a phenom x4 and a 560ti that blast this game just as hard as a newer pc i have with an octocore and a 2x more expensive gpu the diff is barely noticable.

Caedmon, what really matters in this game is IPC, single core performance, and it isn’t written to take advantage of multi threads. The fact that the game runs pretty much the same in a 4 core than an 8 core, it only means that the 8 core cpu has crap IPC, and the game doesn’t take advantage of its extra cores.

This guy has a problem, I can play at 70-80fps with Sweetfx enabled, while having an i5 4690k and a r9 285, lower specs than him.

As for you karkas, it seems a problem of the cpu. The fact that the cpu sits always around 45ºC means it isn’t working at full potential.
You could bring screenshots of the graphic settings, cpu-z (also ram speeds), bios energy settings, hwinfo after gaming for a while…

Also, the game is installed in the ssd?
And do you have a specific configuration for the game in Nvidia panel?
Have you tried to do a repair, or running it as administrator?
Have you tried different drivers, or disabling Nvidia Game Experience and launching game directly from Gw2.exe?

The game does take advantage of multiple threads, it just doesn’t scale based on the number of cores you have. I’ve seen the game rarely push the CPU use on my quad past 75%, quite often it’s only in the 55-60% range. The game only has a few CPU intensive threads and that’s likely due to the Dx9 nature of the renderer.

I assume the OP isn’t running some 3rd party graphics injector and this is a straight up vanilla GW2 with just all the graphic options cranked to their max.

The two graphic options an know that impact the CPU’s usage simply standing about are having Reflections on All and Shadows to Ultra.

Ansau.7326:

This guy has a problem, I can play at 70-80fps with Sweetfx enabled, while having an i5 4690k and a r9 285, lower specs than him.

As for you karkas, it seems a problem of the cpu. The fact that the cpu sits always around 45ºC means it isn’t working at full potential.
You could bring screenshots of the graphic settings, cpu-z (also ram speeds), bios energy settings, hwinfo after gaming for a while…

Also, the game is installed in the ssd?
And do you have a specific configuration for the game in Nvidia panel?
Have you tried to do a repair, or running it as administrator?
Have you tried different drivers, or disabling Nvidia Game Experience and launching game directly from Gw2.exe?

• Ram speed, according to hwinfo, is 666.7 Mhz with a maximum of 800Mhz.
• Yes Gw2 is installed on the ssd.
• Nvidia specific: Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
• Didn’t tried the repair, did reinstall.
• I’m always running it as admin.
• Didn’t try different drivers.
• Always launching from Gw2.exe
• Also, another precision, I’m connected to Internet by Wifi, not cable.. but I’m on 5Ghz.

I use GemFX myself, but there’s no FPS difference at all.
Also can you tell me what’s your FPS like in LA, world bosses zergs and those kind of places?

Here are the screenshots (couldn’t get one from my bios so I wrote it down).

Erm can i ask if you tried running the game on Fullscreen mode and observed any difference? If you hadn’t please do and check whether or not it changes anything.

I tried but no sadly didn’t see any difference there..

Karkas.5837:

I tried but no sadly didn’t see any difference there..

kitten I’m like the only one having better fps while on fullscreen (without CFX)

Also, Are you running the latest bios version for your mobo?

Wasn’t 2 hours ago.. but everything is up to date now!
Gained a few frames, went from 35-45 in SW to 40-50… went from 15-25 to 18-29 during Teq (not full map tho..)..

Even there, shouldn’t I get around 60 with my specs? I mean… I’ve literally updated everything in my desktop…

Well, cpu temps are normal. Core temps are the relevant, and you can see 75-80ºC with max of 84. Even they are a bit high it shouldn’t be the problem. My oc i5 normally runs around 70ºC with max of 80 and I don’t have a problem.

The rest seems pretty normal… What only bothers me is the 0% and 0MHz of cores and buses. But this could happen if you didn’t reset monitoring while in game.
Try gaming for 5 minutes, reset the monitoring (clock button in bottom right) and play for 10 or 15 minutes.

Also try to lower a little bit the settings: disable high-res character, put shadows to medium or high and reflections to terrain & sky. And don’t forget to test 1 or 2 different drivers.

If anything doesn’t work, your only hope is to put in contact with anet support and pray xd

Finally, this is a performance test I did during winter, showing empty situations, . All settings and hardware is in the description of the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSvcnLcmwI

try disabling hyperthreading

your cpu usage is pretty high on the non gw2 threads as well.

when i run chrome + gw2 on a 4820k with ht off my readings are 70 70 45 40 ish, with ht on its 70 15 70 20 35 10 40 5

dodgycookies.4562:

try disabling hyperthreading

Now you are just throwing darts.

There are players who get higher frame rates with similar systems.

The only settings he had that may be problematic and that we know can eat additional CPU cycles are Shadows on Ultra and on some maps, Reflections on All.

You pick your poison here, pretty or frame rate. Sure that’s something you normally needn’t do with a rig like that but here it still matters. The OP has plenty of memory, the top end CPU, a top end GPU although not needed by a long shot and the game installed on an SSD. Unless a really crappy Internet connection, lots of packet drops and what not to the game servers, can impact the renderer I have no idea what the problem can be.

The OP can always start on minimum at start playing with each setting to find the few that have the greatest impact.

The OP isn’t streaming or recording his session at all, right?

So with the BIOS update and the settings you (Ansau) suggested I went from 35 fps to 50 in LA.
But for large scale events I still get less then you do.. (30 before everyone attacks, and 20 when attacking) with a lower resolution than you. Still don’t understand why I’m not getting higher with my config..

Also.. Noob question, what’s the ’’OP’’ ?

What about hyperthreading like suggested dodgycookies?
Any driver suggestions?
Also here’s the updated version on the hwinfo.

OP – Original Poster

Hyperthreading is Intel’s method of trying to squeeze even more performance out of each core by lying to the OS that there are really two cores so a 2nd thread is assigned. The assumption that better utilization of all the components within the core due to <overly drawn out CPU design discussion> is offset by losses due to <another overly drawn out CPU design discussion>. Some software sees a large performance gain from HT being on but it’s usually only in the 10-20% range. However a few, including some games, actually are slower with HT on. That’s dodgy’s point.

Hahahah, was looking for a computer part XD

Karkas.5837:

So with the BIOS update and the settings you (Ansau) suggested I went from 35 fps to 50 in LA.
But for large scale events I still get less then you do.. (30 before everyone attacks, and 20 when attacking) with a lower resolution than you. Still don’t understand why I’m not getting higher with my config..

Also.. Noob question, what’s the ’’OP’’ ?

What about hyperthreading like suggested dodgycookies?
Any driver suggestions?
Also here’s the updated version on the hwinfo.

Why not throw up a screenshot of your in game settings as well? I can say for sure that one setting that should NEVER be on All/high is reflections. that should be set to Sky/Terrain at the very highest setting due to the ‘under ground’ effects that exist.

Sure ! Also look at his video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSvcnLcmwI, im pretty much running this, with 15-20 fps lower..

Karkas.5837:

Sure ! Also look at his video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSvcnLcmwI, im pretty much running this, with 15-20 fps lower..

well you are not mirroring his ingame settings. also he is using a R9 285, thats closer to a 290 or a 970 then a 980.

Disable FXAA, drop high res character textures, shadows down to medium, then logout/back in and check your FPS again, I would expect it to be closer to the youtube video then.

Also, im sure this has been asked, your GPU is in the PCIE slot closest to the CPU correct?

The memory isn’t 800mhz. It’s working at double data rates but the utility doesn’t take that into account. Double it: 1600Mhz.

I myself have a i5-2500K at 4Ghz an overclocked ASUS DCII 290 and 8GB of DDR3 at 1600Mhz. I get 60fps mostly, with dips into the low 40s. With Vsync off I get 80-110 in some places, but in areas where FPS tumbles low, it makes zero difference if Vsync is on or off. Basically for me, Vsync does not “artificially” lower FPS. With Vsync off and everything set to low I still get awful FPS in big events. In fact, on medium settings, events like Ulgoth or Golem Mark II are so crappy I get FPS in low 20s. Some events I drop into low teens, which is frankly ridiculous (and this is on medium by the way) whilst playing at my native resolution – 1920×1080.

If I play on high settings (not ubersampled though), my FPS still tumbles in towns even if there are only a few real world players around. On medium this’ll recover it to 30-45, but it’s still massively disappointing. Lowering the settings further makes little difference, if any, in those situations.

Taking into account that this game is like 2+ years old and Intel’s 4th Gen i5s , AMD’s later FX CPUs weren’t around then and tons of people have been complaining for ages about a complete lack of optimisation, and of course taking into account your rig, it’s just further proof to the claims. There are rigs out there far greater than yours that get similar/worse FPS and other rigs that are weaker that meet the same sorts of frame rates. This all points to a drastic lack of optimisation and reminds me horribly of the lack of optimisation that Bohemia Interactive failed to do on ARMA 3 (where weak hardware would somehow beat beasty rigs and everyone complained both nothing was ever done) – though fanboys would do as fanboys do any other game and claim that X developer is great and the game is fine.

I don’t play GW2 a huge amount and I may of ended up getting HoT. However given how crappy the core game runs and how little effect lowering settings has (which is basically inexcusable in itself given that we should be able to run at high settings with respectable frame rates), I don’t think I’ll bother with the expansion. I don’t dislike the game, but there are so many games coming out soon that interests me, I’ll just end up forgetting about this if I can’t properly enjoy it.

There are lots of people who want and feel that optimisation is long over due. It’s either that or the engine is so crappy that no amount of optimisation can save it or it just inherently runs bad. To me it’d be another ARMA 3 situation and another game I won’t bother with.

(This post was unbelievably difficult to construct given how low my glucose is LOL – I’m so deserving of 1 copper right now).

sirsquishy.8531:

Karkas.5837:

Sure ! Also look at his video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSvcnLcmwI, im pretty much running this, with 15-20 fps lower..

well you are not mirroring his ingame settings. also he is using a R9 285, thats closer to a 290 or a 970 then a 980.

Disable FXAA, drop high res character textures, shadows down to medium, then logout/back in and check your FPS again, I would expect it to be closer to the youtube video then.

Also, im sure this has been asked, your GPU is in the PCIE slot closest to the CPU correct?

Correct!

I did not mirrored his settings, because the 3 settings you mentionned didnt influence my fps at all. (Tried it again to be sure, confirmed)

Should I consider OC my CPU/GPU?

Not to derail it, but looks like you’ve already OC’ed your 980, no? Isn’t stock clock 1227mhz?

Mourningcry.9428:

Not to derail it, but looks like you’ve already OC’ed your 980, no? Isn’t stock clock 1227mhz?

Apparently it was… weird, now it isnt tho…. see how big the difference was.. didnt notice xd

Mourningcry.9428:

Not to derail it, but looks like you’ve already OC’ed your 980, no? Isn’t stock clock 1227mhz?

Not that it mattered much. The GPU Core load peaked at only 39%.

Behellagh.1468:

Mourningcry.9428:

Not to derail it, but looks like you’ve already OC’ed your 980, no? Isn’t stock clock 1227mhz?

Not that it mattered much. The GPU Core load peaked at only 39%.

Agreed. Was just responding to OP’s query if they should attempt overclocking.

The GPU is very much the unlikely bottleneck. Stock or otherwise.

Uhm, did you try setting your energy saving options (control panel) to maximum performance? A friend has only got to around 50% cpu and gpu load due to energy saving mode.

Yes, my power settings are set to Maximum Performance.

All this talk of GPU, GPU makes little to no difference once you get past a certain tier of card.

I went from a 295 GTX to a 660ti to a 670 and noticed 0 difference in fps with this game.

What makes the difference is CPU clock speed, I went from a stock i7 920 to a 3770k clocked at 4.6ghz and thats when i saw a decent increase in fps, but then it was only 10-15 fps over the old i7.

Currently I get a solid 60-61 fps in div reach or LA, everything Max

The ssd helps, when I tested, loading a fully populated LA on a samsung spinpoint f1 took 93 seconds, but on my ocz vertex 4 it takes 12 seconds.

Just to indicate to OP that this game is heavily reliant on one thread, but by no means performs badly and on a normal map…Say Dredgehaunt, or a map that isn’t heavily populated such as a teq even or Silverwastes; that pc should smash this game and get a solid 60fps on max settings with vysnc on without fail.
The engine is a lot better than some others; but is reliant on a good cpu, which you have.
My pc = i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz. Gpu is Windforce r9 290 Stock windforce settings which are slightly overclocked. At 1080p I get a solid 60fps on all maps; and most of the time in Silverwastes too. In Lions Arch i will get around 45-60 on my server. This is on ultra without supersampling and with sweetfx installed. Running latest AMD Omega drivers.

The game tanks in fps when there are many characters displayed on screen. To achieve higher fps in these situations, you need to limit the amount of characters displayed or their detail levels. Also supersampling is overkill and is not needed at all. If you use this expect fps to drop. What im suggesting is that with the performance you have something is not right with your rig. I would reinstall all GPU drivers for a start as that gpu utilisation is not right. Mine does (as is known) use the cpu heavily but it is also using about 75% gpu power most of the time. This low usage stems usually from a driver fail. Either a useless driver release, or one that needs to be reinstalled. Make sure when doing this you fully uninstall all existing drivers every time. I would suggest that maybe Nvidias later drivers are not so great, try with an older release to eliminate that.
You also didn’t mention your power supply. A struggling power supply or a cheap/old one will cause all manner of issues and I hope this was upgraded along with the rest of the build, which looks great Imo you should be getting better performance. Keep investigating.

So I’ve reinstall all my GPU drivers like you suggested… sadly I’m not noticing any fps increase…
Also, before I pick a random driver that’s older, do you have any recommendations on which one I should get?

PS: My Power Supply is a Rosewill Hive 650W.

Direct x 9, Dev’s need to stop being lazy and building games around this OLD as kitten API good lord arenanet.

Safari.3021:

All this talk of GPU, GPU makes little to no difference once you get past a certain tier of card.

I went from a 295 GTX to a 660ti to a 670 and noticed 0 difference in fps with this game.

What makes the difference is CPU clock speed, I went from a stock i7 920 to a 3770k clocked at 4.6ghz and thats when i saw a decent increase in fps, but then it was only 10-15 fps over the old i7.

Currently I get a solid 60-61 fps in div reach or LA, everything Max

The ssd helps, when I tested, loading a fully populated LA on a samsung spinpoint f1 took 93 seconds, but on my ocz vertex 4 it takes 12 seconds.

That might be somewhat related to the 660ti only being slightly faster (although much more efficient) than the gtx 295 and the 670 only being slightly faster than the 660ti. Either way the OP should stay well above 60-120 fps at all times, zergs aside.

Exiled Dbl.9035:

Direct x 9, Dev’s need to stop being lazy and building games around this OLD as kitten API good lord arenanet.

Well go hop into your time machine and go back 7 years and tell them they are doing it all wrong.

Last patch cut about 50% of everyone’s frame rate.

Behellagh.1468:

Exiled Dbl.9035:

Direct x 9, Dev’s need to stop being lazy and building games around this OLD as kitten API good lord arenanet.

Well go hop into your time machine and go back 7 years and tell them they are doing it all wrong.

I second this. Also while you are at it, tell them to bring a 64bit client aswell

Fanboy’s will be Fanboy’s keep protecting Lazy Dev’s and we will continue to game with OLD API WOOHOO!

Exiled Dbl.9035:

Fanboy’s will be Fanboy’s keep protecting Lazy Dev’s and we will continue to game with OLD API WOOHOO!

WOOHOO! Yet another someone who thinks recoding the game engine is a trivial thing. 64-bit is a lot more doable as long as the 3rd party libraries they are using have 64-bit versions as well. But unless you are also selling your game engine to third parties or have an enormous war chest like Blizzard, there is very little motivation to spend the time and money to do it.

OP, did you try the suggestions found here?: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/PC-FPS-and-Performance-based-issues/first#post338300

I have a i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz and a GTX 770, and I used to get some problems with framerates in general play unless certain settings were toned down.

However, after I followed the suggestions in the thread I linked, I noticed immediate FPS improvements in all areas of the game while running on maximum settings (the suggestions say to use no reflections and native sampling, but I set both those to max and still have good framerates). I do still notice dips into the mid 40s in large scale events (i.e. Teq raid), and massive WvW zerging is usually not feasible on maximum settings. But I’ve been able to maintain a very consistent 60 FPS in areas like dry top and the silverwastes.

However, I do still like to turn the settings down in large scale stuff, just so I can keep nice framerates. The only place it will consistently drop is in WvW during large zerg stuff.

Some Settings costs a disproportional Framerate-drop.
Set Reflections to none and you will get ~30FPS more in LA.
Reflections cost performance even if you can’t see the water. For me it’s just not worth the perfomance hit.

Yamsandjams.3267:

OP, did you try the suggestions found here?: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/PC-FPS-and-Performance-based-issues/first#post338300

I have a i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz and a GTX 770, and I used to get some problems with framerates in general play unless certain settings were toned down.

However, after I followed the suggestions in the thread I linked, I noticed immediate FPS improvements in all areas of the game while running on maximum settings (the suggestions say to use no reflections and native sampling, but I set both those to max and still have good framerates). I do still notice dips into the mid 40s in large scale events (i.e. Teq raid), and massive WvW zerging is usually not feasible on maximum settings. But I’ve been able to maintain a very consistent 60 FPS in areas like dry top and the silverwastes.

However, I do still like to turn the settings down in large scale stuff, just so I can keep nice framerates. The only place it will consistently drop is in WvW during large zerg stuff.

I tried all of that and while updating every single thing on my computer helped a lot (not just Windows, but the Bios, all possible drivers) I still can’t get 40fps (getting 25-30) in large scale events, and barely get 50 fps in LA, also can’t hit 60 in Camp Resolve(Silverwastes).

Oh and @Pixelninja, I’m getting about 63fps exactly where you are with the same settings (btw I get no difference between No Reflection and Terrain and Sky Reflections.)

Karkas.5837:

Oh and @Pixelninja, I’m getting about 63fps exactly where you are with the same settings (btw I get no difference between No Reflection and Terrain and Sky Reflections.)

I think you only get 63FPS because it’s nighttime in Game, try again at daytime. I get only ~66FPS at night at the Lion Statue.

Pixelninja.6971:

Karkas.5837:

Oh and @Pixelninja, I’m getting about 63fps exactly where you are with the same settings (btw I get no difference between No Reflection and Terrain and Sky Reflections.)

I think you only get 63FPS because it’s nighttime in Game, try again at daytime. I get only ~66FPS at night at the Lion Statue.

I do get better fps (65-70) during the day, maybe the reflections are more important at night, BUT 65-70 fps is nothing, there’s no one there, with my config I should be getting more in such an empty place..

Would you maybe do a recording of cpu and gpu load, temperatures and everything else while you play gw2 and then the same for another game?