Guild Wars 2

Following tips might help to optimize your Guild Wars 2 game. I’ve collected these from Dev answers. Tried all and they either work or have no effect in my case.

• Don’t install GW2 in program folders, due to restrictions on file editing. C:\Guild Wars 2\ is highly recommended
• Make a shortcut to the GW2.exe > right click it > properties > compatibility > run as administrator.
• Turn off User Account Control (if you know what you’re doing)
  Being administrator in Windows 7/8 merely gives you the right to run stuff as administrator, it doesn’t do so by default. If Guild Wars 2 doesn’t install or update, you’ll have to trigger admin rights for a piece of software.

Firewall:

• exclude GW2.exe and awesomiumprocess.exe
• exclude tcp ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 in both directions

Router configuration:

• give your dedicated gaming PC a fixed IP adress
• tunnel TCP ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 directly to this PC in two directions

Router hardware:

• buy a new one. Old routers (5+ years) tend to not accept dozens of connections which are very common in all software nowadays
• memory leaks in firmware tend to bog down a router. Unplug it and let it rest for at least 5 minutes to clear the RAM.
• install the latest firmware or a homebrew
• especially with frequent disconnects at eg 18:00 in the evening, change wireless channel to another number. Many people logging on after work can overload any customer grade device.

Trading Post:

• awesomiumprocess.exe is the ingame browser running the Trading Post. Give it full access to TCP port 80 to run smoothly.
• delete GW2cache in temp files temp. Garbage tends to collect there, reducing access to the trading post. Can only be done before starting GW2.

Graphics:

• Update videocard drivers to at least June 2012. Intel, ATi and nVidia all implemented heavy optimization after BWE#2.

GW2.dat:

• doing a full repair can fix some issues
• if you used other languages in the past, deleting and downloading GW2.dat again could potentially shrink the file and improve performance.
• doing an image update once every so often will significantly speed up loading times.

Hall of Monuments:

• if Hall of Monuments doesn’t load properly, right click the website > properties > allow pop-ups for this website. It helped for me.

Absolute minimum system requirements:

• i3 + HD3000 graphics family
• 2 GB ram
• If you don’t mind low graphics and some lag, this is all that’s necessary.
• for a smoother experience I’d recommend minimal i5 and 4 GB ram.

Feel free to ask questions and PM me to let me know. I’ll update this one accordingly.

reserved for FAQ

marnick.4305:

Following tips might help to optimize your Guild Wars 2 game. I’ve collected these from Dev answers. Tried all and they either work or have no effect in my case.

• Don’t install GW2 in program folders, due to restrictions on file editing. C:\Guild Wars 2\ is highly recommended
• Make a shortcut to the GW2.exe > right click it > properties > compatibility > run as administrator.
• Turn off User Account Control (if you know what you’re doing)
  Being administrator in Windows 7/8 merely gives you the right to run stuff as administrator, it doesn’t do so by default. If Guild Wars 2 doesn’t install or update, you’ll have to trigger admin rights for a piece of software.

Firewall:

• exclude GW2.exe and awesomiumprocess.exe
• exclude tcp ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 in both directions

Router configuration:

• give your dedicated gaming PC a fixed IP adress
• tunnel TCP ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 directly to this PC in two directions

Router hardware:

• buy a new one. Old routers (5+ years) tend to not accept dozens of connections which are very common in all software nowadays
• memory leaks in firmware tend to bog down a router. Unplug it and let it rest for at least 5 minutes to clear the RAM.
• install the latest firmware or a homebrew
• especially with frequent disconnects at eg 18:00 in the evening, change wireless channel to another number. Many people logging on after work can overload any customer grade device.

Trading Post:

• awesomiumprocess.exe is the ingame browser running the Trading Post. Give it full access to TCP port 80 to run smoothly.
• delete GW2cache in temp files temp. Garbage tends to collect there, reducing access to the trading post. Can only be done before starting GW2.

Graphics:

• Update videocard drivers to at least June 2012. Intel, ATi and nVidia all implemented heavy optimization after BWE#2.

GW2.dat:

• doing a full repair can fix some issues
• if you used other languages in the past, deleting and downloading GW2.dat again could potentially shrink the file and improve performance.
• doing an image update once every so often will significantly speed up loading times.

Hall of Monuments:

• if Hall of Monuments doesn’t load properly, right click the website > properties > allow pop-ups for this website. It helped for me.

Absolute minimum system requirements:

• i5 + HD3000 graphics family
• 4 GB ram
• If you don’t mind low graphics, this is all that’s necessary.

Feel free to ask questions and PM me to let me know. I’ll update this one accordingly.

Mostly useful information besides the minimum requirements part. The absolute minimum requirements are that ArenaNet specifies at the bottom of this page:
https://buy.guildwars2.com/en/

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

marnick.4305:

Following tips might help to optimize your Guild Wars 2 game. I’ve collected these from Dev answers. Tried all and they either work or have no effect in my case.

• Don’t install GW2 in program folders, due to restrictions on file editing. C:\Guild Wars 2\ is highly recommended
• Make a shortcut to the GW2.exe > right click it > properties > compatibility > run as administrator.
• Turn off User Account Control (if you know what you’re doing)
  Being administrator in Windows 7/8 merely gives you the right to run stuff as administrator, it doesn’t do so by default. If Guild Wars 2 doesn’t install or update, you’ll have to trigger admin rights for a piece of software.

Firewall:

• exclude GW2.exe and awesomiumprocess.exe
• exclude tcp ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 in both directions

Router configuration:

• give your dedicated gaming PC a fixed IP adress
• tunnel TCP ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 directly to this PC in two directions

Router hardware:

• buy a new one. Old routers (5+ years) tend to not accept dozens of connections which are very common in all software nowadays
• memory leaks in firmware tend to bog down a router. Unplug it and let it rest for at least 5 minutes to clear the RAM.
• install the latest firmware or a homebrew
• especially with frequent disconnects at eg 18:00 in the evening, change wireless channel to another number. Many people logging on after work can overload any customer grade device.

Trading Post:

• awesomiumprocess.exe is the ingame browser running the Trading Post. Give it full access to TCP port 80 to run smoothly.
• delete GW2cache in temp files temp. Garbage tends to collect there, reducing access to the trading post. Can only be done before starting GW2.

Graphics:

• Update videocard drivers to at least June 2012. Intel, ATi and nVidia all implemented heavy optimization after BWE#2.

GW2.dat:

• doing a full repair can fix some issues
• if you used other languages in the past, deleting and downloading GW2.dat again could potentially shrink the file and improve performance.
• doing an image update once every so often will significantly speed up loading times.

Hall of Monuments:

• if Hall of Monuments doesn’t load properly, right click the website > properties > allow pop-ups for this website. It helped for me.

Absolute minimum system requirements:

• i5 + HD3000 graphics family
• 4 GB ram
• If you don’t mind low graphics, this is all that’s necessary.

Feel free to ask questions and PM me to let me know. I’ll update this one accordingly.

Mostly useful information besides the minimum requirements part. The absolute minimum requirements are that ArenaNet specifies at the bottom of this page:
https://buy.guildwars2.com/en/

Edited. I’m using that hardware on my company notebook and I have a relatively smooth experience on lowest, which is why I wrote that. One could go lower I guess.