Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone

First and foremost, let me say that I completely appreciate any and all efforts to help me troubleshoot this issue which has, to this point, gotten the better of me for more than a week.

Here’s what I’m rollin with:

Alienware M15X-R2
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit, Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q720@1.60GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics Card: Radeon 5800

…think this covers the relevant particulars. If I’ve left anything out, please feel free to ask.

While I understand that I’m not bleeding-cutting-edge here, I’m feeling like I’m pretty darn close. Does anyone have some insight for me as to what might be going on?

Here’s what I’m seeing:

1. I have a system that goes FAR beyond the minimum requirements for this game, and I am 100% a PVE player (IE, not even stretching the limits here with WvW). So please, please don’t tell me that I need a new system/cpu/graphics card/motherboard. I don’t. I checked.

2. My game play experience was FINE until 9-9-12. Whatever happened on that day chopped my game into 10fps little pieces. No, I don’t know what my fps was previous to that — I ran the game on highest-end video settings with absolutely no issue whatsoever, so I never had to check because I never cared. Smooth as silk.

3. My game play experience DOES NOT CHANGE no matter what my video settings are. Period. Ever. 10fps in towns, max of 20fps in world (with no one around, 5-7 in an event), max 25-30 in private story. Settings are irrelevant. I’ve tried looking into my video card settings hardware-wise, and can’t find anything like “stereoscopic rendering” or whatever else… It is as it is, as far as I can tell. If I have to dive farther into it, that’s fine, I just need to know how. Or where to teach myself how.

4. Driver updates have been checked for graphics card, processor, chipset, motherboard, sound card. I’ve done the quick and dirty automatic checks in Control Panel and I’ve also gone to manufacturers web sites to do it manually (most of which redirected me to Alienware’s site). All checks came back current as of 9-13-12.

5. I inherited this laptop from a coworker who wanted BETTER (for some reason), and the hard drive has been totally wiped, reimaged, the whole 9. GW2, GW1, Chrome, Avast antivirus, TextMod and RaidCall are literally the only programs on it. I’ve scanned it and disk-defragged it. It’s clean.

6. Finally, my significant other plays wireless (cable modem, speed boosted) right next to me with an Alienware a few years older than mine and has zero issues. He drops down to 20fps in heavy group events, but he plays seamlessly otherwise. And to be honest, his 20 looks outstanding beside my 5 in the same event.

A full uninstall-reinstall did not help. 12fps sitting still in Hoelbrak.

The next target is my router. I have a Belkin 494 with dual channels, my partner’s laptop on 2.4ghz and mine on the 5ghz channel. Having the option to do so, I set up Intellistream, a feature which allows for prioritizing high-bandwidth stuff (like games). No change. 12fps. sitting still in Hoelbrak.

And for reference, we were both playing WOW with no difficulty whatsoever, me on my 8 year old laptop. Played like a breeze. So it’s not my router or my internet connection. I haven’t tried WOW on this laptop.. siiiiince I got it for the expressed purpose of playing GW2.

I’m having a hard time thinking that the problem is on my end. My machine is more than capable, I have plenty of RAM, processor power, and bandwidth. And — it was GREAT until last Sunday!! That’s the maddening thing.

The only vaguely intriguing thing I’ve read suggests that the Guild Wars 2 engine at work against me… something about conflicts with coding and quad+ cores??! Is this even real? This seems completely foolish. Either a totally false claim or severe oversight/undersight on Anet’s part. I’ve really found nothing else substantive on this subject, so if anyone has something I haven’t thought of or covered, PLEASE let me know!

For the love of all that’s holy, can we please get a response from Anet? This is like a bad break up! It’s not me, it’s you. :p Roll back the patch, fix the coding, do SOMETHING, please!!!

Where is this high end rig you speak of? I see a mid/low end laptop.

For the record, 1.6Ghz is actually below minimum requirements…

If you think what you have is high-end well i have bad news for you. What you have is more like low-end, you need something better than this.

defiance.2403:

If you think what you have is high end well i have bad news for you. What you have is more like low-end, you need something better than this.

Though, I got gtx 680 and i5 3.3 which CERTAINLY is high end and I lag badly in WvW and outside sometimes, depending on the zone. Anet must fix this.

Ohhhhhkay, so my partner plays with an Alienware i7CPU Q740 @ 1.73Ghz and 4.00 GB of ram, medium settings and it looks like silk. Well, 20-40 fps looks like silk in comparison to what I’m seeing.

And you’re telling me that my system’s CPU isn’t powerful enough to run GW at AT LEAST 20fps at lowest settings? Are you kidding? Trolls please go elsewhere. I’m looking for real solutions. If that “real solution” is get a different/better computer, I find that very intriguing since even my 8 year old laptop beats the minimum requirements posted by GW2.

The 8 year old Dell Vostro looks like this:

Intel® core™2duo cpu t7300 @ 2 ghz
3.00 gb ram
Windows Vista 32 bit
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT
(oh by the way, this one managed GW1 on moderate settings, but nvidia and gw1 didn’t really seem to want to get along all that well)

GW2 minimum requirements:

Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better
NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)

Telling me my Dell Vostro is better for this game than my Alienware M15? If this is the case, can someone please explain WHY? I really just want to understand here.

Litani.1432:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q720@1.60GHz

^

That’s not a particularly high end laptop but it more than meets minimum req, regardless of what others are telling you.

Make absolutely certain that you have all drivers up to date (motherboard chipset, sound, graphics, usb devices) and run the game on auto detect.

If you’re still having issues and you know everything is up to date, submit a report to Anet and help them fix the problem.

Teknobug.3782:

Litani.1432:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q720@1.60GHz

^

It’s still an i7, and the minimum requirement is an i3 (laptop version). It’s more than enough to run the game, and it’s well above min requirement.

….ROFL.

Ok. Laugh. Go ahead. I am.

Being new to Alienware, I had NO IDEA what “stealth mode” was. >.<

Having just spoken with the original owner and poked a little blue button, I’m now back up to my happy 50fps.

R.O.F.L. Shoot me.

Let me guess, Stealth mode is their attempt to make their crappy battery last longer?

LOL yeah… it throttles down the CPU and GPU to extend battery life. Sooooo on stealth, I was at 10-20fps. Off it, I’m looking at 50fps on highest settings.

So. No. I don’t need a new computer. Like I said in the first post.

Thanks though

hahaha such a liar, that slowkittencpu cant run this game stable at 50fps with a 5800 series gpu. Good try tho troll.

This is not a top end system Alienware M15X-R2
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit, Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q720@1.60GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics Card: Radeon 5800

The Cpu is old and small Not quite min specs. The graphics card is outdated.
To help you update drivers for the graphics card. Use the slider in the game untill you can get a steady 12-15 fps which will be hard. This game takes a really good CPU and great graphics card to see the game in all its glory ,this is the best looking game of this kind I have seen in years.

tbrunt.8036:

This is not a top end system Alienware M15X-R2
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit, Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q720@1.60GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics Card: Radeon 5800

The Cpu is old and small Not quite min specs. The graphics card is outdated.
To help you update drivers for the graphics card. Use the slider in the game untill you can get a steady 12-15 fps which will be hard. This game takes a really good CPU and great graphics card to see the game in all its glory ,this is the best looking game of this kind I have seen in years.

Actualy it’s not that bad yes the CPU came out in 2009 but it is still an i7 same number of transistors just slightly lowe l3 cash and clocks up to 2.8ghz undeload, which is more than fast enough to run this game and the 5800m is more or less the same speed as the 5770 desktop card which again is more than enough to run this game at a decent frame rate.

You also need to factor in he is on a 15" laptop which probbably has a lower screen res, so yes I can well belive he is running at 50fps on high settings.

Yep. Sorry to break it to yas but… I really AM on 50fps now. But thanks anyway! Funny how the thread turned from “you need a new computer” to “you’re a troll because you fixed your own problem and now you’re lying about it.”

Gee. thanks >.<