Guild Wars 2

I know this is a common topic here, but I’ll bring up my situation to see if I can get something on it.

Within the last two weeks or so my FPS has seen a decline, fluctuating between 22, 35, even 40+ in places that don’t normally get this problem. I’m usually pretty good with an FPS of 35 but anything below that and things start getting sketchy. In major cities the framerate can drop as low as 13, forcing me out of the city sometimes. Black Citadel gets some of the worst framerates for some reason and it’s usually not that busy.

I’ve tried changing all my graphic settings on the game to the lowest possible setting with no change in FPS and it doesn’t stop the fluctuation either. I’ve been tentatively playing it knowing that I could suddenly drop in FPS without warning. DR has seemingly decent FPS so I got there for my crafting and world hopping needs, though I’ve only really been using the Terrace for that.

As far as outside the game, I’ve updated my GPU driver to the most recent one. There’s nothing running in the background that I don’t know about (whatever’s in Task Manager that I can’t remove with a good Sweep at least). I’ve taken care of all my computer issues.

Here’s my rig:

GPU: GeForce GTX 670M
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3630 CPU @ 2.40GHz
Memory: 16.00 GB RAM (15.95 available)
Current resolution: 1536 × 864, 100Hz
Driver version: 332.21
OS: Windows 8

I know that 8/.1 have memory leaking problems but I’ve checked on my task manager and the highest it’s at is 18%. I have a Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390 and it’s just over one year old. And it is a laptop, which I know that laptops are not necessarily the best choices for MMOs but I wanted something portable to suit my needs and still be able to play GW2.

Also, as an added note I do not have much knowledge in the computer sense. My understanding of it is limited, but I am slowly learning as I go.

Any help pertaining to this matter would be most appreciated. I enjoy GW2 and what it offers but not with my wildly fluctuating FPS.

Disable Core parking, this made the most impact out of all the other things I did to get more performance out of my system.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

And in your game settings make sure the following are set;

Sampling – Native
Character Limit – Low
Character Quality -Medium

While your system will probably be fine with higher settings, to work around the FPS issue you are currently having, I recommend change those 3 Settings. The rest should be fine on High/Ultra.

Download and run GPU-Z, CPU-Z, and Coretemp to monitor your HW performance/temps.

GPU-Z has a sensor tab that will tell you your core clock (Changes with power states), and your Temps and utilization. It also shows fan speed % (RPM doesnt work for me, so i suspect it wont work for you?).

CPU-Z is used to verify your CPU Clock and vCore. As well as the PCI-E speed setting under Mainboard tab (should show 16x in BOTH colums)

CoreTemp – Shows the CPU’s temps per core, as well as per core utilization and speed.

Start by taking sample stats from the above programs and report what you find here.

Also include your driver versions that you have installed.

Okay, so far I have GPU-Z up with GW2 running. Here are my stats for it now:
GPU Core Clock: 594.8MHz
GPU Memory Clock: 750.0MHz
GPU Shader Clock: 1195.0MHz
GPU Temp: 70.0 C
Fan Speed: 100%
Memory Used: 619MB
GPU Load: 82~84%
Memory Controller Load: 29%
Video Engine Load: 0%
VDDC: 0.8500 V

And here’s when I increase my settings:
GPU Temp: 78.0 C
Memory Used: 562MB
GPU Load: 91%
Memory Controller Load: 33%

Everything else is the same, and that’s not on max settings btw.

EDIT: Also, my current GPU driver is listed in my original post.

Raijin Tora.3294:

Okay, so far I have GPU-Z up with GW2 running. Here are my stats for it now:
GPU Core Clock: 594.8MHz
GPU Memory Clock: 750.0MHz
GPU Shader Clock: 1195.0MHz
GPU Temp: 70.0 C
Fan Speed: 100%
Memory Used: 619MB
GPU Load: 82~84%
Memory Controller Load: 29%
Video Engine Load: 0%
VDDC: 0.8500 V

And here’s when I increase my settings:
GPU Temp: 78.0 C
Memory Used: 562MB
GPU Load: 91%
Memory Controller Load: 33%

Everything else is the same, and that’s not on max settings btw.

EDIT: Also, my current GPU driver is listed in my original post.

This tells me your CPU is holding you back more then anything. You should be able to push that GPU to 100%. If not, then your CPU is causing the GPU to wait. Please tell me you are not taking these stats while in LA. Go someplace else if you are, like the Hilltop where Boar Spawns in Queensdale. It has a good wide range of things to test against. Such as low population, high population, high population while in combat, Looking over long distances(trees vs the Lakes). Looking away from the player zerg/mesh to test performance…ect. It’s not the same as testing in WvW, but you should be able to get 60+ FPS with your specs there on High/Ultra settings. The fact your not tells me something else is going on.

Also, what does CPU-Z and CoreTemp tell you?

Oh no. I wasn’t anywhere near LA. I left Black Citadel and went out into Diessa Plateau. Highest peak is roughly 95% with an increase to my game settings. I’ll see about going to the Boar Spawn and testing it out though and I’ll watch for any changes.

Core Temp now is about 81, or was. It’s leveled out at 80.

EDIT: Okay, so I ran a test through Boar and it only got up to 98% GPU Load. If it peaked at 100% it was very brief while I was messing around with my camera to test the FPS. Sliced in half from roughly 60 FPS to between 30-36, with the lower end facing the actual boar.

Raijin Tora.3294:

Oh no. I wasn’t anywhere near LA. I left Black Citadel and went out into Diessa Plateau. Highest peak is roughly 95% with an increase to my game settings. I’ll see about going to the Boar Spawn and testing it out though and I’ll watch for any changes.

Core Temp now is about 81, or was. It’s leveled out at 80.

EDIT: Okay, so I ran a test through Boar and it only got up to 98% GPU Load. If it peaked at 100% it was very brief while I was messing around with my camera to test the FPS. Sliced in half from roughly 60 FPS to between 30-36, with the lower end facing the actual boar.

Um, Coretemp is showing your CPU at 80C?

that is probably why, you are going above the thermal protection on the laptop. Make sure the laptop is dust free, blow out the vents and such. Maybe get a cooling pad for it…ect.

Under load your CPU (unless overclocked) should be between 55c-65c. 80c is ALOT for normal configurations on Laptops.

I figured, considering that internal heating is not necessarily good for the parts inside. It’s quite warm so I’ll probably be better off lowering my settings for now until I can land a good external cooling system. And keeping my desk and such clean in the meantime – perhaps I’ll see about raising my laptop off the desk surface just a bit so the vents can breathe better, if only temporarily.

Know of any good cooling pads I should check into?

Raijin Tora.3294:

I figured, considering that internal heating is not necessarily good for the parts inside. It’s quite warm so I’ll probably be better off lowering my settings for now until I can land a good external cooling system. And keeping my desk and such clean in the meantime – perhaps I’ll see about raising my laptop off the desk surface just a bit so the vents can breathe better, if only temporarily.

Know of any good cooling pads I should check into?

Are you overclocking your laptop at all?

If not, then something is just wrong with it.
Your TIM dried up between the CPU and heatsink, or your Heatpipe isnt working anymore. Or your FAN’s vents are plugged with dust balls.

Its going to be something along those lines, but its serious enough to get it looked at. Or spend a couple hours tearing into it yourself.

80c at full load for a stock clocked laptop is a bit much. It shouldn’t be more then 65c.

I really hope not. I’ll look into getting my computer cleaned at best. And I’ll check my fans as well.

Overclocking is something I really want to avoid at all costs. Don’t want to run the risk of possibly ruining my computer.