Guild Wars 2

Hey all. I’m running the following:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz w/Thermaltake MaxOrb Gaming Fan
RAM: 4GB DDR2 800 G. Skill High Performance
GPU: EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 550Ti 2GB
MOBO: MSI P6N SLI-F
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 700W

Like many, I’m having crippling FPS issues (and since I just got the game this weekend, I’ve yet to actually get through the opening chapter). I know that ANet is working on this, but I thought I’d ask…would it be worth it to overclock my CPU to 3Ghz? I’ve never overclocked my CPU before, only an older Nvidia GeForce 8800 (which was admittedly easy due to the Nvidia overclock tool).

Should I even attempt it, or just wait it out and see?
PS I attached that report from the utility ANet provides, don’t know if it will help.
Thanks in advance.

Overclocking will help, but read up about it first. There’s a lot more factors than a core speed and memory speed slider in nvidia system tools.

It depends on what the problem is. If the problem is that your GPU isn’t able to display data as fast as the GPU is sending it, then overclocking will just give the CPU more cycles to calculate data that the GPU won’t be ready to process. If the GPU is constantly waiting to get data from the CPU, then overclocking will help.

As deltaconnected stated, though, make sure you do your research and overclock your system properly. At best, a bad overclock will be unstable and not give any boost in performance. At worst, a bad overclock can turn a poorly performing computer into a very large doorstop.

Thank you both. I wouldn’t attempt it without much more research…I’ve researched it just enough to know it’s not something to fool with lightly.

I’m not really sure what the problem is. I can run WoW and Mass Effect 3 on Fair to Good with no FPS issues at all, and while my PC isn’t great, it’s certainly above the minimum requirements. I would expect that, even if you just meet the minimums, you should be able to play on low quality with no effects at least at 30FPS…

@spyridon
Comparing GW2 to WoW, performance-wise, isn’t really valid. The WoW engine was designed to run well on middle of the road computers of 8 years ago. And it’s been refined and optimized since it was released. So you should expect your computer to do significantly better in WoW than it does with GW2.

On my system, WoW can do 230 FPS most of the time. In GW2, my uncapped FPS usually ranges between 70 and 90. All things being equal, one might expect a computer to perform less than half as well in GW2 as it does in WoW.

Overclocking to 3Ghz will give you a solid boost in FPS. But your going to have to do some research first.

Worst case your system wont boot & you’ll have to clear cmos.

Overclocking will not give you any decent FPS boost in this case.

Your CPU and GPU are more than enough for this game, the problem is not with you it’s with the game.

Also note that Overclocking is pretty pointless, there is about 0 reasons to do it and many people seem to think that it’s required for gaming when it’s not.

Overclocking also has a bounty of downsides that no one likes to talk about the first being heat.

Also to anyone that doesn’t frame limit after 60FPS (unless you use 3d then 120 FPS) don’t brag how you have 9001 FPS it’s stupid and irrelevant, if you want to generate higher electric bills go ahead but this is a tech support not a kitten competition.

Cheekything.6941:

Also note that Overclocking is pretty pointless, there is about 0 reasons to do it and many people seem to think that it’s required for gaming when it’s not.

Sounds like someone bought a laptop or non-OC’able sandy/ivy CPU.

GW2 is a very single-threaded program that likes raw MHz. Overclocking gives it those MHz, and therefore lets it give you more FPS.

I don’t agree with Cheekything. Overclocking is a good way to get some extra performance out of you system. Obviously you should only OC if you have have a decent enough setup and can maintain good temps (70c on CPU).

Not quiet sure overclocking does anything on this particular game though. I get very little usage on my i5-2500k. 40% is the most I have ever seen the game use. I normally have my CPU at 4.7GHZ, but I’ve tested all degrees starting at 3.3-4.9GHZ and I don’t notice any kind of improvement. Performance is incredibly erratic on my system.

@Varna: go to Lion’s Arch, find a spot where you get 30-40FPS and remember that number, move forward a little to reset the camera behind you, alt-F4, change your multi to something noticeable (like stock 32x), go back in and without moving look at your FPS now. It will be about 33% less (equal to how much you lost in clockspeed).

Set it back at 47x and it’ll be back at where it used to be.

deltaconnected.4058:

Cheekything.6941:

Also note that Overclocking is pretty pointless, there is about 0 reasons to do it and many people seem to think that it’s required for gaming when it’s not.

Sounds like someone bought a laptop or non-OC’able sandy/ivy CPU.

GW2 is a very single-threaded program that likes raw MHz. Overclocking gives it those MHz, and therefore lets it give you more FPS.

Assumptions are always a bad thing.

However if you think that your new computer needs to be overclocked to get more FPS when a 5 year old PC can run it on the bare minimum pretty OK then I think you have something wrong with your hardware.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Running_the_game

I mean seriously some of you people are just all about the kittens.

Cheekything.6941:

Overclocking will not give you any decent FPS boost in this case.

Your CPU and GPU are more than enough for this game, the problem is not with you it’s with the game.

Also note that Overclocking is pretty pointless, there is about 0 reasons to do it and many people seem to think that it’s required for gaming when it’s not.

Overclocking also has a bounty of downsides that no one likes to talk about the first being heat.

Also to anyone that doesn’t frame limit after 60FPS (unless you use 3d then 120 FPS) don’t brag how you have 9001 FPS it’s stupid and irrelevant, if you want to generate higher electric bills go ahead but this is a tech support not a kitten competition.

Ha Ha Ha, good one man. Classic, mac user post with ZERO clue on how overclocking really works.

Do you use a Mac? Want to see my FPS DOUBLE from overclocking on a low end machine? I’ll do it… Go on, dare me…

deltaconnected.4058:

@Varna: go to Lion’s Arch, find a spot where you get 30-40FPS and remember that number, move forward a little to reset the camera behind you, alt-F4, change your multi to something noticeable (like stock 32x), go back in and without moving look at your FPS now. It will be about 33% less (equal to how much you lost in clockspeed).

Set it back at 47x and it’ll be back at where it used to be.

That would never work in this game. Lion’s Arch is a CPU bottleneck that’s always changing based on number of players. For that to work the exact same number of players doing the exact same things would have to be happening.

My system has really bad frame-rate drops and stuttering just moving the camera around. I already have shadows to high like suggested. Certain locations also drop my frame-rate for no particular reason (no heavy player numbers). No amount of overclocking has helped me with this. I’ve officially given up, I’m taking a break at this point and hope Arena Net decides to investigate some of these issues. Tons of people with 600 series cards are having issues (690gtx here).

Cheekything.6941:

Assumptions are always a bad thing.

However if you think that your new computer needs to be overclocked to get more FPS when a 5 year old PC can run it on the bare minimum pretty OK then I think you have something wrong with your hardware.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Running_the_game

I mean seriously some of you people are just all about the kittens.

1) I just replied in your other thread about how much of a difference overclocking makes. 3.2GHz and again at 4.7Ghz.

2) Look up the definition of “minimum” and “recommended” in the dictionary. If you convince yourself that GW2 having no recommended specs means that minimum == recommended, your comprehension needs some work.

Varna.5162:

That would never work in this game. Lion’s Arch is a CPU bottleneck that’s always changing based on number of players. For that to work the exact same number of players doing the exact same things would have to be happening.

My system has really bad frame-rate drops and stuttering just moving the camera around. I already have shadows to high like suggested. Certain locations also drop my frame-rate for no particular reason (no heavy player numbers). No amount of overclocking has helped me with this. I’ve officially given up, I’m taking a break at this point and hope Arena Net decides to investigate some of these issues. Tons of people with 600 series cards are having issues (690gtx here).

I had 1 and zero player characters in my screenshots, so no, it’s not just the number of characters. Something else about it lowers the FPS that much.

I’ve noticed shadows on Ultra give the camera lag, despite running well running forward.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input. I think for now that I’ll hold off on the OC, and see what happens with ANet.

Also, can we not fight? C’mon guys, we’re all just trying to play the game here.

The game seems much more dependant on CPU architecture than clock, and AMD CPUs are really bad at this game…
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

GTX600 users should disable turbo too: http://www.overclock.net/t/1267918/guide-nvidia-inspector-gtx670-680-disable-boost-fixed-clock-speed-undervolting

spyridon.6587:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input. I think for now that I’ll hold off on the OC, and see what happens with ANet.

Also, can we not fight? C’mon guys, we’re all just trying to play the game here.

Real men overclock…

Cbuzz.5083:

spyridon.6587:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input. I think for now that I’ll hold off on the OC, and see what happens with ANet.

Also, can we not fight? C’mon guys, we’re all just trying to play the game here.

Real men overclock…

Thanks, erm, for the input…?

spyridon.6587:

Cbuzz.5083:

spyridon.6587:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input. I think for now that I’ll hold off on the OC, and see what happens with ANet.

Also, can we not fight? C’mon guys, we’re all just trying to play the game here.

Real men overclock…

Thanks, erm, for the input…?

No prob, hope it helped.

deltaconnected.4058:

GTX600 users should disable turbo too: http://www.overclock.net/t/1267918/guide-nvidia-inspector-gtx670-680-disable-boost-fixed-clock-speed-undervolting

For a long time I thought this was the cause of poor performance on kepler cards. This didn’t fix my issues however. Both GPUs working on 1200 fixed clock and I still got massive slow downs, stuttering, etc.

Cbuzz.5083:

spyridon.6587:

Cbuzz.5083:

spyridon.6587:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input. I think for now that I’ll hold off on the OC, and see what happens with ANet.

Also, can we not fight? C’mon guys, we’re all just trying to play the game here.

Real men overclock…

Thanks, erm, for the input…?

No prob, hope it helped.

It didn’t, in fact. Also, I can’t even begin to imagine why you’re giving me an attitude. Maybe you should lose it and try to help instead of mouthing off.

Varna.5162:

deltaconnected.4058:

GTX600 users should disable turbo too: http://www.overclock.net/t/1267918/guide-nvidia-inspector-gtx670-680-disable-boost-fixed-clock-speed-undervolting

For a long time I thought this was the cause of poor performance on kepler cards. This didn’t fix my issues however. Both GPUs working on 1200 fixed clock and I still got massive slow downs, stuttering, etc.

Pretty sure the 690 is one of those cards with a legit issue. The 590 also has the same issue.

Cbuzz.5083:

Pretty sure the 690 is one of those cards with a legit issue. The 590 also has the same issue.

It might. Though I’m not sure about the 590 since I have no problem on tri-580’s. Also, if you’re getting over 30fps 99% of the time, that’s about right for our sandy’s. Gonna have to wait til 7.5GHz to keep 60 everywhere.