Guild Wars 2

Hi, i’m experiencing really high GPU usage (almost always 99%). I am playing at maximum setting (vsync enabled and supersample).
I usually run at 45-60 FPS outdoor and 30-45 FPS at Lion’s Arch (they are never stable). GPU reaches a maximun of 66°C which is normal.

My brother has got an older PC and run always between 25-30 FPS with stable GPU load around 30-40%.

What i would like to know: is that normal? Should i experience better performace?

My comp:

i5-3570
AsRock z77 pro3
8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz
Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X

My brother’s comp:
i5-2500
AsRock z68
8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz
HD6950

Thank you.

You are using ultra settings thats normal. lower settings get better fps. Start with Supersample, Fxaa, shadows.

muslumgurseks.4951:

You are using ultra settings thats normal. lower settings get better fps. Start with Supersample, Fxaa, shadows.

I linked my brother’s PC because he uses the same settings and his GPU doesn’t load that much.

What is your resolution and your brother’s? Also what are your driver versions?

I have a 7850 OC’d to 1000MHz and using Eyefinity, and rarely cap to 99% usage (to be fair though my CPU is pretty weak).

Espionage.3685:

What is your resolution and your brother’s? Also what are your driver versions?

I have a 7850 OC’d to 1000MHz and using Eyefinity, and rarely cap to 99% usage (to be fair though my CPU is pretty weak).

He plays at the same settings. 1920×1080 resolution. I am using 13.4 Catalyst Driver and i’m not sure about his, i think 12.8.

I just thought, i installed the graphic card by myself. So i thought about 2 thing.
Maybe that’s caused by a wrong physical installation.
May i have plugged the card in the wrong slot? If yes, may it be the cause?
Or, may i have inserted wrong the PSU cable? Or something :|?

CirdyGu.1689:

muslumgurseks.4951:

You are using ultra settings thats normal. lower settings get better fps. Start with Supersample, Fxaa, shadows.

I linked my brother’s PC because he uses the same settings and his GPU doesn’t load that much.

Bottlenecking 99% of gpu load is the way it should be yours is fine your brothers’ isnt. But still if you want to lower its load for I dont know why then you better start turning down the settings i told you earlier.

muslumgurseks.4951:

CirdyGu.1689:

muslumgurseks.4951:

You are using ultra settings thats normal. lower settings get better fps. Start with Supersample, Fxaa, shadows.

I linked my brother’s PC because he uses the same settings and his GPU doesn’t load that much.

Bottlenecking 99% of gpu load is the way it should be yours is fine your brothers’ isnt. But still if you want to lower its load for I dont know why then you better start turning down the settings i told you earlier.

No way to fix except changing the components? Am i right?

Thank you, btw.

No Anet needs to fix their engine. In other games it should be fine both for your and your brother’s pc. In the mean time you can try overclocking cpus to increase your performance. But wouldnt bother much if the cpus arent K series tho might get hairy.

CirdyGu.1689:

I just thought, i installed the graphic card by myself. So i thought about 2 thing.
Maybe that’s caused by a wrong physical installation.
May i have plugged the card in the wrong slot? If yes, may it be the cause?
Or, may i have inserted wrong the PSU cable? Or something :|?

You might be onto something. Some motherboards have multiple PCI-E slots that operate on different speeds. May have to check the mobo manual itself, but generally speaking, the first slot is usually the fastest.

You’ll also want to verify if the GPU is actually using the full potential of that slot. My PCI-E slot is 2.0 x16, and my GPU on-load goes to 2.0 x16 speeds (although it’s a 3.0 card). I remember a while ago when I put the GPU into my slot, it must of been loose or something, and wouldn’t go above 1.1 x16 speeds, but re-inserting it fixed that.

GPU-Z can tell you the speed of the PCI-E slot, what it’s operating at at that current time, and the max your GPU can do. Typically on-idle, the slot should be in a lower-power state (1.1 x16 in my case). GPU-Z has a little test thing though that puts some load on the GPU to test if it throws itself into a high-power mode (2.0 x16 in my case).

I’ll try with GPU-Z. Yesterday i checked and i’m sure i placed my card into the PCIe 3.0 slot (i also re-inserted it).

Thank you.

if its in the slot which is closest to the CPU its the correct one (nevermind the short pci-e slots they dont count :O)

I tried GPU-Z and gives me the same resulst that i obtained with MSI-afterburner:
high GPU load, no overheating.

The only strange thing i noticed is that it runs at 850/1250 MHz and not 950/1250 MHz (stock boost). I had to change it manually, but nothing improved.

I have the exact same configuration besides maybe the RAM.
99% GPU load is a good thing! it means you’re not bottlenecked by your CPU. Which will not happen with a single 7950.

45-60 fps is okay, even tho i’d say it would have to be 60 at all times (outside of heavy populated areas such as Lions Arch)

As for the 99%. as i said, it;s a good thing. However, on stock settings mine does about 70-99%. This ofcourse greatly depends on the vieuw. If you’re looking up into the sky or down on the floor, you will have far less detail that needs to be put on screen, thus the GPU will simply only need 70% of it’s calculating power to do so.
However if you look into the depth with more detail ahead of you, it will naturally require more power to get to that 60fps sweetspot.

And the z77 pro3 motherboard has:
- 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot (PCIE2: x16 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE3: x4 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot

In the “1x slot” It will simply not fit, and you will notice that definantly!
in the 2.0 16x slot, it will be more then enough to feed the card the bus speed that it needs. so even if you put it in there, it will not decrease performance.

That being said, you’re good to go! Just wait for updates, things will get more balanced.

Wow! I’m so happy to hear someone with my same configuration! Indeed i have 45-60 (mostly 60) FPS outdoor and 30-45 in Lion’s Arch.
Since i don’t have a lvl80 character i haven’t already tried what happens in dungeons (lot of particles and other shiny things) to my FPS. Load floats between 70-99% as you said.

Just a question, you have a lvl80 character? What about fps in dungeons? Still 45-60 ALWAYS? I’m asking so i can have something to compare as soon as i reach it.

Thank you!

I was playing this evening and noticed on GPU-Z that also core clock also fluctuates °_°

http://i44.tinypic.com/2vt4nc9.png

What does it mean? And what may cause that?

it does fluctuate ofc but its nothing to worry about its the game engine being a kitten. When your fps goes down your cpu and gpu loads are going down aswell. Cheers Anet great coding.

CirdyGu.1689:

I was playing this evening and noticed on GPU-Z that also core clock also fluctuates °_°

http://i44.tinypic.com/2vt4nc9.png

What does it mean? And what may cause that?

Both GPUs and CPUs have multiple power states and can switch between them fast enough to react to changes in workload like that.

The GPU doesn’t know much about the gameworld and has to be told to draw stuff in fairly small steps. When the CPU side is too busy the GPU may run out of stuff to do.

Note that the voltage (VDDC) spikes roughly match the clock speed graph’s pattern. The GPU and/or its driver is probably deciding it doesn’t need to run at full speed to keep up, so the clock speed and voltage are slightly lowered to reduce power demands and heat output.

This shouldn’t affect the performance much, and it reduces GPU fan noise, so it’s a good thing.

Some hardware may also do this when overheating, in which case it’s called (thermal) throttling, but your card is clearly not doing that.

You mean that i give possibility to memory to run a Maximun of 950MHz an it uses what’s necessary? I thought it was a constat paramater! My bad

Thank you.

CirdyGu.1689:

You mean that i give possibility to memory to run a Maximun of 950MHz an it uses what’s necessary? I thought it was a constat paramater! My bad

Thank you.

In theory yeah on full load it would run at constant 950mhz but when it clocks down as @tota previously said it doesnt need that much of a horse power to do so. And those spikes might be caused by the frame drops I mentioned earlier. Since the release I have invested quite a lot of time to monitor Gpu and Cpu behaviors since I have played this game 4 different systems since the Beta weekends (Still havent got to the performance level I’m after) And all behave the same way… As FPS drops Both Gpu & Cpu utilizations drop. So I really doubt that there is anything wrong/faulty in your end and you should wait for Anet to implement performance patches if they will ever deliver.

Ok, i think i shall accept this XD Thank you all!