Guild Wars 2

Hi all, this is just a question in regards to whether guild wars 2 is still heavy CPU usage or has it been slowly moved towards gpu since release? I have a 1st gen i7 800 or 900 series 3ghz quad CPU, I was using a HD 5970 dual gpu 2g card and the frames weren’t half bad, dropped to 15-20 at times but could get as high as 100fps + av around 40-60fps. My hd 5970 died after almost 3 years and YAY gigabyte 3 year warranty is giving me a brand new HD 7970 factory overclock 3g card to replace it. GIGABYTE RULE!!! Anyway what I"m concerned about is getting this new card and having my 1st gen i7 bottleneck my system. Could anyone give me a heads up about how optimized gw2 is for GPU now, that would be really appreciated. I’ve been playing since 1st beta but i been off for almost 3 weeks since my PC f’d out. thanks all.

I always thought that it was heavy GPU. Then again I think with my old GPU I was getting messages saying the game was using 100% of one or more processors. But I haven’t recieved that message at all with my new GPU.

Hmm well there have been some points where I have hit 30%-37% CPU Usage from gw2… maybe it is! :0

It is CPU heavy in that a good CPU will make the game playable (laptops).

GPU is optional in this game, much like every other cosmetic upgrade.

Seriously, an i5 without dedicated GPU will run GW2 just fine. But don’t expect to set graphics on highest.

The game is CPU bound in WvW, for some unknown reason GPUs aren’t used heavily, while CPU usage goes extremely high. Elsewhere, the game is mostly dependant on GPU, not CPU.

Yes, this game is notably CPU heavy due to all the processing the client needs to do for skills/combos that you/others and NPC’s/enemies use. The amount of data that is created by 100 players (WvW clashes lets say) all using their skills and combo-ing off each other is, well a lot and your computer is processing its effects/damage as well as the visual portion.

It does seem (speculation here I can’t prove it) that some of the processing for the visual effects are being done by the CPU instead of offloading it to the GPU to lighten the load. THis could be due to the “casual” angle that A-net takes, and the casual gamer is using a relatively low end computer with integrated graphics. Still, I would rather that the game offloaded more of the games data to the GPU as high end GPU’s can sometimes process some of this data better than the CPU.

Guild Wars 2 has very nice graphics for an MMO, but they aren’t pushing the envelope with the. While a "good "graphics card would be optimal, the main source of stress on your system would be your CPU and hard drive that the game would be installed on. Also the size of your RAM “could” be a limiting factor, but not something huge.

Raif.9507:

Yes, this game is notably CPU heavy due to all the processing the client needs to do for skills/combos that you/others and NPC’s/enemies use. The amount of data that is created by 100 players (WvW clashes lets say) all using their skills and combo-ing off each other is, well a lot and your computer is processing its effects/damage as well as the visual portion.

It does seem (speculation here I can’t prove it) that some of the processing for the visual effects are being done by the CPU instead of offloading it to the GPU to lighten the load. THis could be due to the “casual” angle that A-net takes, and the casual gamer is using a relatively low end computer with integrated graphics. Still, I would rather that the game offloaded more of the games data to the GPU as high end GPU’s can sometimes process some of this data better than the CPU.

Guild Wars 2 has very nice graphics for an MMO, but they aren’t pushing the envelope with the. While a "good "graphics card would be optimal, the main source of stress on your system would be your CPU and hard drive that the game would be installed on. Also the size of your RAM “could” be a limiting factor, but not something huge.

Thanks for the feed back mate. As it stands my system is i7 860 2.8g quad, 120ghz SSHD, 16g ram, and soon to be Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD Overclocked HD 7970 3GB video card, so i shouldn’t have too many bottlenecks if any, slowest component is my CPU but its still a very fast CPU despite its age/generation.

Late in the betas they were still saying that the graphics engine is still running on cpu, and that optimization will be the last step before moving to full version. Then of course they rushed the opening, and since that time there was no mention about engine optimization at all.

It’s no longer 100% cpu, as in the beginning, but the game is still a long way from utilizing GPU to the fullest (not to mention the dx10/11 case).

yakuza snowdragon.4639:

Thanks for the feed back mate. As it stands my system is i7 860 2.8g quad, 120ghz SSHD, 16g ram, and soon to be Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD Overclocked HD 7970 3GB video card, so i shouldn’t have too many bottlenecks if any, slowest component is my CPU but its still a very fast CPU despite its age/generation.

I myself have a i5 2500K overclocked at 4.5GHz with a GTX 580 and don’t experience “bottlenecks” per se. Only at certain events where (Fire Elemental when it pops up comes to mind or in WvW with the Veil bombs), but the main issue is the bandwidth the client is getting as well as certain tasks that aren’t being offloaded to the GPU that should be, making teh game less CPU heavy and maybe a bit more streamlined. Again, not something I can prove, or even give a suggestion as I don’t know the workings beghind teh magic so to speak. Just a general feeling of watching how much of my GPU/CPU is being utilized and when changing parts around and noticing no change or a major change in performance.

Sure you might not play with EVERYTHNG turned on. But you will be quite close to it. I don’t like the post processing the game has, adds this weird lighting effects to everything, so I have it off.

Late in the betas they were still saying that the graphics engine is still running on cpu, and that optimization will be the last step before moving to full version. Then of course they rushed the opening, and since that time there was no mention about engine optimization at all.
It’s no longer 100% cpu, as in the beginning, but the game is still a long way from utilizing GPU to the fullest (not to mention the dx10/11 case).

DX 10/11 won’t help as much as you think. It will somewhat aid in performance, but it wont be a huge boost as people hope. It might streamline performance by a bit, add some FPS here or there to systems that have the proper setup for it, but mainly will add effects to the game (tessellation for one) and that might not be a good thing till they sort out the CPU/GPU usage and task management

The main issue is still not offloading certain tasks to the GPU, that would be better handled by it than the CPU. I’d want a fix to that before adding DX10/11.

Yes its CPU bound.
You will notice bottlenecks in WvW battles and large Dynamic Events, likely below 20FPS.
‘Normal’ PvE and dungeons however will be totaly fine.

I love Gigabyte too! Your really going to like that windforce card! Super quiet and awesome performance.
I can only guess that your rig might have bottlenecking with that CPU but your not alone. Depending on what cooling you have for your CPU you might want to consider overclocking it. Even if you go from 2.8ghz to 3.5ghz, again depending on your cooling and components, you will notice a difference. Best of luck and enjoy your new card!