Guild Wars 2

Reading through this will answer most hardware FPS related issues. Post reply here if you have one that should be added.

Q1: Why is my FPS so low?

Q2: I meet the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low?

Q3: I exceed the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low!

Q4: What is cpu/gpu bottlenecking

Q5: How do you check for CPU/GPU usage?

Q6: FPS low or stuttering with 100% GPU usage?

Q7: My total CPU usage/load never reach even close to 100%. Why is FPS & GPU usage is low?

Q8: My cores never ever come close to 100%, but my FPS & GPU usage is still low.

Q9: So my CPU is bottlenecking what now?

Q10: I have a FAST graphic card, it plays other games on high settings with good FPS except in GW2 I get low FPS

Q11: Performance is horrible, why are the developer not fixing this!!!

Q12: I upgraded from YYY graphic card to a better ZZZ card, but my fps doesn’t increase.

Q13: Rotating or turning camera lowers FPS.

Q14: My fps drops when opening contact list or UI windows.

Q15: Why is AMD performance bad with the game? Is it not optimized as much as INTEL?

Q16: So what kind of system do I need to run GW2 well?

Q17: My FPS was fine before the most recent patch. Why is it now low?

Q18: My system crashes or restarts randomly or whenever I enter a certain area?

edit: list was getting too long, re-organized into links of smaller segments for easier reading.

Q: Rotating or turning camera lowers FPS.
A: With Shadows & Reflections set to high/ultra there is currently some kind of programming software bug that causes your FPS to plummet. Lowering these should alleviate some of the FPS drops.

My e6600 (OC to 3Ghz) is badly bottle necking my 560ti, take a look at the poor performance in LA. In WvW you can guess its horrible, around 8 fps slide-show style in large fights, and even when roaming around the FPS is kind of unstable. I can’t afford to upgrade atm due to my circumstances so i have to suffer

http://i.imgur.com/K5ClI.jpg

While standing in LA, normal questing i get around 30-50fps in most areas but when doing big zergs in cursed shore ect get around 10-15 fps
http://i.imgur.com/XOEnV.jpg

Q: What can I do about FPS stuttering when100% GPU usage is indicated.

A: You may have an old card, or there may be disabled GPU engines on your video card. In case of the latter, make sure all your GPU engines are enabled. This may be accomplished with Process Explorer or another similar program. Process Explorer > View > System Information > GPU > Engines

+1 for holding the fort.

Just to clear up the CPU usage, the 2.5 was only in my example in LA. Depending on where you look, this might be 1.5 or 3.5 or even 4.0, but assuming the GPU is not the bottleneck, one (or more) of those threads will be using very close to the max allotted to a single core. A few too many flaming infractions so I don’t post much any more :p

(eg. my new jormag benchmark is very close to maxing out my 2500k @ 4.8)

everyone reporting “cpu bottleneck” seems to be using an nvida card.
Are there any reports of people getting poor fps on an AMD card actually?
Because there was one dood claiming he uses a Q6600 and AMD card and had great performance..

Antiriad.7160:

everyone reporting “cpu bottleneck” seems to be using an nvida card.
Are there any reports of people getting poor fps on an AMD card actually?
Because there was one dood claiming he uses a Q6600 and AMD card and had great performance..

First its a “claim”, combined with vague formulated fps statements and personal bias towards a manufacturer. Secondly the “CPU bottleneck” has nothing to-do at all with the GPU manufacturer used and lastly NO not everyone reporting this had used a nVidia card.
Just google for GW2 benchmarks.

Antiriad.7160:

everyone reporting “cpu bottleneck” seems to be using an nvida card.
Are there any reports of people getting poor fps on an AMD card actually?
Because there was one dood claiming he uses a Q6600 and AMD card and had great performance..

Well the most common one from the complainers on this forum are using a 660, 680 and 690 and most often SLI, but there’s also ATI users having problems. I wasn’t having problems with my 560Ti until the October patches, gonna see how it pans out with today’s patch, I upgraded from 285.62 to 306.97 and almost no real improvement (but in Battlefield 3 the driver is giving me problems, I can’t play with ultra settings anymore without the game crashing).

deltaconnected.4058:

+1 for holding the fort.

Just to clear up the CPU usage, the 2.5 was only in my example in LA. Depending on where you look, this might be 1.5 or 3.5 or even 4.0, but assuming the GPU is not the bottleneck, one (or more) of those threads will be using very close to the max allotted to a single core. A few too many flaming infractions so I don’t post much any more :p

(eg. my new jormag benchmark is very close to maxing out my 2500k @ 4.8)

This is true. If someone has a fast enough CPU (a core that can handle the main game loop thread) then GW2 will fully utilize all the other cores. But sadly for most people this isn’t the case, so at beast they see 2-3 core at best utilized.

Its like a music conductor (main game loop thread) if he is slow then the other orchestra members (graphic threads etc) will sit idle yawning waiting for instructions. When the conductor is fast, the music flows beautifully and everyone works.

Still rather sad you need to OC a modern CPU so heavily to achieve this. Main game loop needs more slimming down and optimize since its living on a single thread, the limiting factor.

I have a Intel Core i7 2600K overclocked to 4.2GHz and a Radeon HD 6950 2GB OC. Process Explorer shows the CPU and GPU as low usage when I play Guild Wars 2, yet fps can drop as low as 20 in Lions Arch. I run the game @1920x1200 on maximum settings (native). Is my CPU a bottleneck? I ask because when I lower the resolution to say 1024×768, I only gain a couple of frames.

Forgot to mention, a guild mate also has the same CPU and GPU as me (but XFX instead of MSI) and he gets much better fps and he runs the game @ a higher resolution too.

you need to look at the per-thread cpu usage not core usage (read faq above for detail)

lion arch is problematic for almost everyone. That said, is your friend measuring fps in the same areas?

I don’t really understand to be honest and I did read your FAQ. Here is a screenshot:

What does it show?

http://imageshack.us/a/img696/8863/cpucores.jpg

Just by looking at your core graph, you can see that one core is highly loaded. Likely Gw2 is running on that core maxing it out, hence your bottleneck.

Example of looking at per-thread CPU usage.
http://i.imgur.com/L0Pom.png

I have a quad core, each core handles 25% of the CPU’s total usage. The thread TID 5008 (first thread) I highlighted is probably gw2’s main game loop. it eats about 20-24% of the CPU usage. Each thread can only operate on a single core, because of that the main gw2 thread is maxing out a core. It can’t go any faster and will cause other threads to be slow waiting for commands. The other 3 cores will remain partially at load waiting up on the main thread.

It shows what the usage looks like after Windows’ balancing. There’s no way I know of to get a real-time or history graph of each thread, so it’s limited to watching it in windowed mode. The highest thread on the list will always be using 20-25% on a 4core system.

Q1: Why is my FPS so low?
A: Your system does not meet the requirements for the game or need to lower your graphic settings. Use this CPU chart & GPU chart to compare your relative performance.

Q2: I meet the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low?
A: Meeting the requirement allows you to play the game, but does not mean it will be fully pleasurable experience.

Q3: I exceed the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low!
A: Many reason why. However, GW2 is very hardware intensive especially CPU power.

1. CPU running at max load and bottlenecking GPU. (most common reason)
2. Your drivers might be out of date or GPU driver settings need adjusting (Nvidia controlpanel / ATI Catalyst)
3. CPU/GPU might be overheating and throttling down due to dust build-up.
4. GPU running at max usage, lower settings or resolution.
5. WinXP runs slower than Win7, in some cases 2x slower.
6. Disable Vertical Sync, if you can’t get consistent 60FPS+ or try windowed fullscreen mode.
7. Make sure your hardware is clean, and properly connected/seated. This user reassembled his desktop and his issues got fixed after trying everything else.
8. Incorrect memory speeds could cause GPU issues rendering lower FPS
9. Make sure your GPU is running at the correct bus speed. Use GPU-Z tool.
10. Possible software bug in the game itself.

Chart for those lazy to read

Go back to top Q/A list

One thing to remember is that development started 2+ years ago. Devs are (usually) only somewhat responsible for real world performance testing. So what might have run fine on their dev PC a few years ago, may run into some real world issues such as a heavily loaded WvW area.

It’s amazing what issues crop up late in the dev. cycle that are hard to forsee. So I suspect it has almost nothing to do with what machines the devs were using to do their dev. testing on (dev testing is NOT the same type of testing which the game went through during beta etc.)

^and their rigs might have changed over the span of that time.

Also worth mentioning why the game feels “unoptimzed” for AMD: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/47155-amd-bulldozer-fx-8150-processor-review-8.html

There is simply no comparison between AMD and Intel. That is, literally, a 100% increase going from an FX-8150 to a 2500k when the environment is limited by a single thread.

Very nicely explained post, thanks.

Am having some FPS problems that don’t seem to quite fit the explanation though, so am wondering if anyone has comments.

Intel Q9650 Core2 Quad @ 3Ghz
Nvidia 560Ti
Asus P5Q Deluxe 1.xx

Am currently getting 18-25 FPS everywhere. Changing resolution right down to 1024×768 makes no difference, so am ruling out the GPU being any kind of problem.

Windows reports CPU at something like 40% while the game runs, but as per the above it sounds as though that’s not a good representative figure.

I’ve run Process Explorer alongside GW2, and switched to the Threads tab on the Properties panel for GW2.exe, then left it running on my second monitor so I can see the list of threads sorted by CPU-usage as the game is running. However, the top TID is maxing at around 10-15% CPU, ie. not even close to maxing out a core.

Am I misinterpreting something here? I’d probably consider upgrading to an i5/i7 if it would definitely get me the FPS that I know the GPU’s capable of, but I first need to convince myself that that would be the case!

TIA for comments

Same Problem as the user above:

Intel Q9650 Core2 Quad @ 3.5Ghz
Nvidia 670 GTX
Intel P35 / ICH9R Board (pretty old stuff)

18-25 FPS in LA, in empty areas i hit Vsync. Changing resolution right down to 1024×768 makes no difference, neither does setting graphics to low. And my GPU is on vacation all the time, i can even set the thing to the P5 power state with NVInspector and still play the game.

Process Explorer shows a peak of 76% usage overall and around 92% peak on core 2. The other cores run below 60% mostly.
Also getting extreme stutter while turning the camera.

Horrible optimization.

/Edit
The stuttering on camera turn is caused by the reflection setting. Set it to none and everything else still max/ultra and its gone.

@ Aureole, your stuttering issue was addressed in Q15, you might have missed it as the list of questions was split in two post due to post length limit.

@ muute, gw2 main thread should be using about 20-24%, not sure why you are getting 10-15. My best guess would be that core running the main thread for some reason had another large thread sharing it’s load. My Q6600 @ 3.2 uses 60% of my total cpu usage on high settings, but yours only use 40%. What operating system are you using?

@muut: What’s your GPU usage like? Might be getting locked at a lower clock (because of Flash or a video in the background)

Cbuzz.5083:

Q: Rotating or turning camera lowers FPS.
A: With Shadows & Reflections set to high/ultra there is currently some kind of programming software bug that causes your FPS to plummet. Lowering these should alleviate some of the FPS drops.

Confirmed this. Setting reflections to “All” causes the game to lag horribly in new areas, when logging in. Changing reflections to “Terrain & Sky” resolved it.

Turn reflection to terrain&sky (or off)
and use 306.23WHql unless you have kepler cards.

@ kirito – Am fairly sure that nothing else is using much in the way of CPU, and the OS is WinXP. Know if people are having more luck under Win7? I do have that on dual-boot so could give it a go if it’s likely to make a difference.

@ deltaconnected – GPU usage is very, very low!

Attached screenshot shows typical performance / load with game set to min detail.

WinXP doesn’t manage multicore as efficiently as Win7, that might be a reason why.

GPU doesn’t seem to be underclocked, probably the CPU isn’t being used fully so GPU sits idle waiting.

@ kirito – Good call – seems XP doesn’t do GW2 well at all.

See attached Win7 screenshot – same scene as before, but double the framerate, with a similar increase in CPU usage, and a close-to-maxed core for the busiest thread.

I guess it’s time to switch gaming OS and start thinking about some new hardware

Thanks again for a very informative thread!

Nice, good info to add to the FAQ. WinXP < Win7 for Gw2 FPS maybe others will have similar results.

I am completely frustrated by GW2 and how it’s optimized with hardware. You’d think that Ultra-ing it out with an FX-8150 clocked to 4.6ghz and dual 660ti’s in triple monitor setup wouldn’t be a problem, but I hardly ever get 60 fps anywhere, let alone in cities/wvw, even though according to resource monitor not a single one of my cores ever gets 100% used, and my video cards rarely work over 30% load.

At first I thought it was because of how the FX cores work and got the hotfix for it installed, but it didn’t improve my situation in any way shape or form. I also checked if there’s any other bandwidth issues that could be affecting it, NOTHING is maxed out at all on my system, it’s just lagging because… it’s lagging.

Admittedly I’m a jerk and I want my machine to run everything at absolute maximum because I put a good amount of cash into it, but this is inexcusable and needs to be fixed. If you have light threads, put them on the video card processors for co-processing, split main thread in two if you have to, as it is right now you get monster machines getting crappy performance even on medium settings. Idk about you, but it turns me off from playing this game immensely. It has potential to look so good, but if I’m forced to run it at low settings just to not have stuttering (which doesn’t actually help, lol?), I have a dozen other things I could play.

I should also mention that there’s next to no difference in performance between 1 and 3 monitors…

Q7: My total CPU usage/load never reach even close to 100%. Why is FPS & GPU usage is low?
A: This occurs in system with Multi-core CPU. GW2 main thread will operate on one core maxing it out, while the other core waits on it. GW2 effectively only use 2-3 cores to it’s potential on system with Quad core or higher. Because of this you will never see 100% usage.

Q8: None of my individual cores ever come close to 100%, but my FPS & GPU usage is still low.
A: You need to look at the per-thread CPU usage; ProcessExplorer will allow you to view it. Windows will bounce threads around to different cores depending on whichever is most free or not loaded. Because it does that so rapidly and the monitoring tool polls at a slower rate it can give an illusion no cores are maxed and all cores more evenly spread out.

GW2 actually uses about 50 threads, and uses every core. However, GW2 only has 3 threads that puts a large load on the CPU. One of those thread will be at a % just under 100/#core. (e.g 25% for quadcore) Most likely that thread is the main game loop coordinating everything. Its working on a fully loaded core and can’t go any faster making all other core/thread/gpu wait hence lowering fps.

Example: Quad core system. Each core should handle 25% cpu usage. There will be a GW2 thread on a core which has usage of near 25%, this is your bottlenecking thread holding everything down. http://i.imgur.com/L0Pom.png

Gw2 is heavily dependent on “single thread performance”, and a thread only works on one core at a time. So, having a faster core is more beneficial than having lots of core that are slower.

Alternatively, you can test by disabling one of your CPU core. The result will be zero impact on FPS assuming you have 3+ cores, because GW2 only effectively have 3 threads actually using CPU load.

Go back to top Q/A list

Q9: So my CPU is bottlenecking what now?
A: Three option.

1. You can wait for GW2 to get better optimized and rely less on single thread performance. This will be difficult to change and might require a lot of code to be rewritten. Don’t bank too much on this happening soon.
2. Overclock your CPU. Doing so will increase per core single thread performance
3. Buy better hardware. Sad, but unavoidable if you want better performance.

Q10: I have a FAST graphic card, it plays other games on high settings with good FPS except in GW2 I get low FPS
A: This is a sign the CPU is bottlenecked. The GPU is idling waiting for the CPU to instruct it to render. Another way to tell is by changing game resolution. If the FPS has little to no change, your CPU is bottlenecked. This is basically Question#4

Every game is made differently. Some games require a lot of calculations and rely on the CPU more. This is called CPU-bounded games & FPS will be dictated by the speed of the CPU. Other games will require fewer calculations and the GPU is the determining factor of FPS.

Like many other MMOs, GW2 is very CPU bound, but more so than other games. GW2 is built from the old GW1 engine with improved tweaks added on top, however it is not as optimized.

Q11: Performance is horrible, why are the developers not fixing this!!!
A: They are aware of the issue and working on it. There was a Reddit AMA where the programmers addressed the issue.

• Question 1: CPU Opti­miza­tion
• Question 2: CPU Opti­miza­tion 2
• Question 3: Are there any plans to improve the per­for­mance on AMD systems?
• Question 4: Regard­ing DX11 support
• Question 5: DirectX and OpenGL
• Question 6: WvWvW Culling issues

• in-depth view of the programming side of GW2

Q12: I upgraded from YYY graphic card to a better ZZZ card, but my fps doesn’t increase.
A: This is because the CPU is like bottlenecked. It can’t feed the GPU instructions fast enough so a better GPU will do little to increase FPS. This question is basically the same as Question #4

Q13: Rotating or turning camera lowers FPS.
A: CPU and/or GPU not able to handle rendering. Also, textures and object can stutter or load slow if the hard drive is heavily fragmented. Defrag or try SSD upgrade.

Additionally, with Shadows & Reflections set to high/ultra there is currently some kind of programming software bug that causes FPS to plummet. Lowering these should alleviate some of the FPS drops.

Q14: My fps drops when opening contact list or UI windows.
A: Gw2 appears to use the flash for UI. Some users have issues with fps drops, but not everyone. Try updating flash for InternetExplorer and/or your browser of choice. Also try disabling hardware acceleration for flash 1

Go back to top Q/A list

Q15: Why is AMD performance bad with the game? Is it not optimized as much as INTEL?

A: AMD FX cpu such as bulldozer, single thread performance is much lower than INTEL Core i5/7. GW2 support multi-threaded and multi-core CPU, but again it’s heavily dependent on single thread performance as explained in Question#8 above.

Take a look at this single thread CPU comparison chart.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
All of the top cpus are intel base.

However, this might help AMD users optimize their CPU in Win7 environment
http://techreport.com/review/21865/a-quick-look-at-bulldozer-thread-scheduling

Q16: So what kind of system do I need to run GW2 well?
A: Depends on how you want to play and what kind of system. Visit this thread to get a feel of what other people have and what to get/upgrade. [link]

Q17: My FPS was fine before the most recent patch. Why is it now low?
A: Many things can change between patches.

1. Try deleting the Local.Dat file, it contains game settings and etc. It will recreate it self. On Windows7 it is located at C:\Users\Username\Documents\Guild Wars 2
2. Try -repair command line among other ones listed here. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Command_line_arguments
3. Check for disk fragmentation or antivirus conflicts
4. Check to see if your GPU bus speed is correct. Use tools like GPU-Z to view.
5. Reboot your machine
6. Drivers might need updating.
7. GW2 patch it self might have bugs, await for fix.

Q18: My system crashes or restarts randomly or whenever I enter a certain area?
A: either software related or hardware problem.

1. Could be a software bug in-game or your drivers. Update to latest drivers.
2. Hardware if overheated will fail when stressed, especially when overclocked. A computer will shutdown if heat exceed its threshold set in the BIOS. Check for dust buildup on the heatsink/fan and temperature. Most bios will shutoff at CPU temps above 80C, but it can be set lower. Ideally you want the CPU to be less than 60. For GPU it can handle up to 90C but ideally you want it under 70C.
3. Overclocking can introduce instability, to confirm this stress, test your system and check for stability. Use Prime95 to test your CPU and Furmark to test your GPU.
4. PSU failing at peak load. GW2 is very demanding more than most games.
5. There may be other component that might be failing when stressed such as motherboard chipset or ram. If corrupted data is on the HD, try using the -repair option as explaind in Q17.

Go back to top Q/A list

STICKY

/15char

Gibbel.5734:

STICKY

/15char

Would be nice to be stickied and people wouldn’t have to ask the same Q’s repeatedly

Noticed something wierd to day.
I was playing some WvW obviously with terrible FPS.
I am using a G15 and standard i have the lcd screen on the cpu load / ram load.
I noticed my CPU was doing about 60% load.
I figured it must be my CPU bottlenecking my GPU (i am using 2xHD6870) so i started up GPU-Z to check the sensor tab to see the load and it was stuck on around 30% load.. what the hell.

Now ofc you can think 60% load sound about right on a Quad considering GW 2 is using 2/3 cores instead of a perfect 4. (according to the FAQ)
But then when i went in to the Heart of the mist my CPU load jumped up to 88/90% load and my GPU to 93%

So terrible optimizations or am i missing something ?
Just wondering why my cpu wont go above 60% load in WvW with a GPU on 30%
While in Heart of the mist/Spvp i am getting 90%+ on both

Dubbel checked it and it’s happening at Etheron Waypoint. With or without player on the screen the load will be around 60% on cpu .. No players will make my GPU work harder so there some sort off cpu bottleneck going on just dont get why it’s stuck on 60%

Phenom II 965 @4 ghz
HD6870 crossfire
8Gig Ram

HotM is a smaller area than WvW and Open PVE. Fewer calculations bottlenecking the main game thread, it is more free to instruct other threads/cores/gpu to do work.

Like wise, the opposite occurs when you enter a busy area like Lion Arch or WvWvW where FPS drops a lot for people. Much bigger area,lots more people, objects, more work that the main game thread needs to do and gets bottlenecked harder. GPU sits there waiting.

AMD’s single core speed isn’t up to par with INTEL’s and people have come to believe GW2 isn’t optimized for AMD, but it looks like its Windows 7 that isn’t optimized and not totally GW2’s fault.

Any AMD bulldozer users tried this optimizing tweak?
http://techreport.com/review/21865/a-quick-look-at-bulldozer-thread-scheduling

[example]
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START “GW2” /affinity 55 “C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\GW2\Gw2.exe”

The /affinity is a mask that restricts GW2 to run only on the cores specified (55h = 0b01010101 = cores 2, 4, 6 and 8 ). For an FX-6100 you would need something like 15h (0b010101) although it’ll probably hurt performance more than help as GW2 does use more than 3 cores on a lot of occasions.

kirito.4138:

AMD’s single core speed isn’t up to par with INTEL’s and people have come to believe GW2 isn’t optimized for AMD, but it looks like its Windows 7 that isn’t optimized and not totally GW2’s fault.

Any AMD bulldozer users tried this optimizing tweak?
http://techreport.com/review/21865/a-quick-look-at-bulldozer-thread-scheduling

[example]
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START “GW2” /affinity 55 “C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\GW2\Gw2.exe”

I have no problems running this game with an AMD cpu Fyi,ive seen people with intels getting way worse performance than i ever had.

Some reason Q4-7 got deleted or removed. Reposting.

Q4: What is CPU/GPU bottlenecking
A: CPU bottleneck occurs when the CPU is too slow and unable to provide the GPU with adequate data to process.

There is a general misconception that the GPU or graphic card is what determines the FPS performance. What most people don’t realize is that the CPU is just as important. No matter how fast the GPU is the FPS will not increase if the CPU does not instruct the GPU to render. Often people would buy powerful GPU and pair it with a weak CPU and start to wonder why their FPS doesn’t change.Conversely the GPU can be the bottleneck when it can’t handle the data given by the CPU.

Q5: How do you check for CPU/GPU usage?
A: There are many programs to use. Here are some.

1. HwINFO
2. Process Explorer
3. MSI After Burner (formerly rivatuner)
4. GPU-Z / CPU-Z

Q6: FPS low or stuttering with 100% GPU usage?
A: Several possibilities.

1. GPU is bottlenecked working at its full potental. Lower graphic settings if possible
2. GPU clock speed is throttled or artifically set low by other applications or settings.
3. GPU has disabled cores, unlikely but possible.
4. Bad drivers, update or rollback version
5. Possible bios issues with the card and/or motherboard. Try updating bios, or reseating gfx card.

Go back to top Q/A list

I’m running an i5 2500K processor with a 7770 OC Sapphire card yet im only getting about 15fps on low settings. :S Regardless of this, im being told I have to OC just to meet specs? Wth? I just bought this game and every other title I bought works perfectly fine at medium or high settings (Deus Ex, Borderlands, etc)

I agree 100%. You should NOT have to overclock your 2500K in order to play this game at decent framerates.

I have a question about performance too.

I have an ATI Radeon 7850 with 2gb RAM on it, a Win7 64 bit OS, 16Gb RAM with an i5-3470 CPU @ 3.2Ghz.

Lately when I run GW2 at even low res, I get lag and very low fps. I have found that if I change the affinity in task manager and run it only on 2 cores not all 4, it runs better but still slows down. The 2 cores it is running on are always around 80-90% and if I allow it access to all cores they all jump up to that level. My GPU isn’t being taxed at all and I’m wondering why this is happening.
I used to be able to run GW2 at High in WvW and still got 20fps in large zergs, 60+ outside zergs, then we had a patch a few weeks ago and it’s gone downhill.
Anyone have any suggestions? I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the video drivers as well as trying the current beta ones but I’m thinking its not the video card that is the issue.

cheers
Val

gw2 uses 3 heavy threads, if any one stalls even for an instant, the whole game is drug down with it, in short your cpu is bottlenecking your system, you need at least 4.5ghz to get a min of 25-30fps in high population events/areas……

welcome to the world of gw2…….a game optimized for a tricore console with dx9 gfx….:P

Thanks for the reply but it’s an Intel chip not an AMD and they don’t go to 4.5 .. the CPU is only a few months old so I don’’t think it’s the issue. Something is causing it to run badly since patch as it was great before it.

Val im quite aware what chip you have, and that your multiplyer locked/limited, try maxing out your turbo multi see if it helps.

read this thread it will help you understand why the game runs like crap and that your not aloje https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Will-the-lousy-fps-be-fixed

kirito.4138:

Some reason Q4-7 got deleted or removed. Reposting.

Q4: What is CPU/GPU bottlenecking
A: CPU bottleneck occurs when the CPU is too slow and unable to provide the GPU with adequate data to process.

There is a general misconception that the GPU or graphic card is what determines the FPS performance. What most people don’t realize is that the CPU is just as important. No matter how fast the GPU is the FPS will not increase if the CPU does not instruct the GPU to render. Often people would buy powerful GPU and pair it with a weak CPU and start to wonder why their FPS doesn’t change.Conversely the GPU can be the bottleneck when it can’t handle the data given by the CPU.

Q5: How do you check for CPU/GPU usage?
A: There are many programs to use. Here are some.

1. HwINFO
2. Process Explorer
3. MSI After Burner (formerly rivatuner)
4. GPU-Z / CPU-Z

Q6: FPS low or stuttering with 100% GPU usage?
A: Several possibilities.

1. GPU is bottlenecked working at its full potental. Lower graphic settings if possible
2. GPU clock speed is throttled or artifically set low by other applications or settings.
3. GPU has disabled cores, unlikely but possible.
4. Bad drivers, update or rollback version
5. Possible bios issues with the card and/or motherboard. Try updating bios, or reseating gfx card.

Go back to top Q/A list

My config:

Intel Q6850 Quad Core @ 3.00 Ghz
8 GB ram
64-bit OS Windows 7
GTX 580 (GF110) GDDR5 1.5 GB ram

My system experience this same issue…if I am in a big city or in a dragon fight (a lot of people in the area), my frame drops to 10-15 FPS. Keep in my with Process Explorer it states my system, across the board, is only at 60% with all graphics maxed. I have ran burn in tests on memory, CPU, and GPU. These all passed with flying colors.

I found another thread stating the code for this game is an overhaul of GW1. It stated the code was not designed very well and will not use the system at full capicity. Even the best i(branded proc) from Intel with 8 cores @ 4.2 Ghz does not do well with this game. The tread complete with, “Wait until Areonet fixes their code.”

There are three major Thread process it uses and does not use multi-core procs efficiently. There for, not matter what system you have, there is more than like going to be a drop in FPS in major cities and during event fights (dragons)

Here is the thread I pulled this information from (or you can read the information below)…

Look at section 4.3 and 4.4 (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095406)

But, none of my CPU cores are fully loaded

What you are seeing in task manager is an average over time of the core’s usage. Threads work in short micro burst. So the core can be 100% loaded but appear to be less. Also, the OS will dynamically bounce thread work load around to different cores.
To get a better measure, you need to look at the per-thread CPU usage using tools like ProcessExplorer
GW2 actually uses about 50 threads, and uses every core. However, GW2 only has 3 threads that puts a large load on the CPU. One of those thread will be at a % just under 100/#core. (e.g 25% for quadcore) Most likely that thread is the main game loop coordinating everything.
Example: Quad core system. Each core should handle 25% cpu usage. There will be a GW2 thread on a core which has usage of near 25%, this is your bottlenecking thread holding everything down. http://i.imgur.com/L0Pom.png
Alternatively, you can test by disabling one of your CPU core. The result will be zero impact on FPS assuming you have 3+ cores, because GW2 only effectively have 3 threads actually using CPU load.