Guild Wars 2

Can we get some developer comments on the constant lag in WvWvW?

In the regular game, I play at about 50 frames per second. When I go into WvWvW, I drop to 20, and it even goes as low as 5 some times. What is going on with this? Can we get a possible fix? Changing the graphics settings does not help the problem at all.

Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 ghz
RAM: 8 GB

I’m asking myself the same question for weeks. FPS problem is the exact reason why I stopped playing this game and now I’m waiting for ArenaNet to fix their own game. I have no idea if I will live enough to see that day come.

It is due to the large number of players in a small area. If PvE had 50-150 players spamming abilities in one area you would see the same issues.

Quad core required. Intel Core i5 or i7 required. 4+GHz required. That is if you want sustained 20+ FPS.

First of all. Low FPS is NOT lag. To many people seem to be getting this confused lately it seems. .Makes it hard for those of us who help in the Tech support forum when ppl complain about lag and it turns out they are talking about FPS :P Lag = High latency ..measured in ms usualy.. when people talk about high ping ..they are talking about lag.

Next up. Yes GW2 needs better optimizations for high population environments. But since we cant do anything about that as players the only things we can do are as follows:

OC current CPU
Buy New Intel CPU & OC
Wait

You can get 30+ fps easy in any WvWvW situation..but u need at minimum a i5 OC’d to 4.5ghz (air cooling). At best a i7 OC’d to 4.5ghz or above (requirs water cooling). Thats asuming your GPU can sustain that fps with the higher population and thus objects to render.

the reason changing grahics settings changes nothign is becouse it isnt the graphics card that is having an issue ..its the CPU.

INB4 “but my cpu isnt maxing out”
use this math to work out what % usuage your cpu will show when its bottlenecked.

100/number of cpu threads x 2.5 = lowest % usuage when bottleneck can occure
100/number of cpu threads x 3 = highest % usuage when bottleneck can occure.

I.e intel i5 2500k (4 cores 4 threads)
100/4 × 3 = 75
Intel i7 2600k (4 cores 8 threads)
100/8 × 3 = 37.5

If you are running win 7 you might want to see if Core Parking is turned on. I turned the parking off on my cpu and saw a better FPS. Check it out and read about it here. http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/15/how-to-change-core-parking-states-in-windows/

So does everyone “lag” in wvw then? It doesnt look like it when i see videos on youtube. Is everyone just spamming their skills blind like me? I find wvw completely unplayable, and I have a good computer. Even sPvP has lag for me. It’s very discouraging, and is making me consider re-opening my old republic account.

Try overclocking your chip to around 4ghz it should help some but you will still dip low in huge zergs around 15fps with that processor.

Revelry

No everyone does not. However ..what is a ‘good’ computer to you ? ..becouse unfortunatly GW2 requirs a monster CPU to play WvWvW smoothly.

SolarNova.1052:

100/number of cpu threads x 2.5 = lowest % usuage when bottleneck can occure
100/number of cpu threads x 3 = highest % usuage when bottleneck can occure.

I.e intel i5 2500k (4 cores 4 threads)
100/4 × 3 = 75
Intel i7 2600k (4 cores 8 threads)
100/8 × 3 = 37.5

supplement/ or correction if you will
if Guild Wars 2 uses HT then above condition applies,
but from what most of us sees from other thread is that’s not the case.
so the number only applies to number of cores that Guild Wars 2 uses.
which is no greater than 4 physical cores.

back to OP
according to Tom’s current CPU chart, a AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 ghz
is equivalent to Intel’s Sandy i3-2100. i’ve been personally used an such identical processor and found not enough hoursepower to roam under heavy WvW fights.
after upgrade to E3, the current processor signed under my sig, can handle the number of the crowd increased by 3 times more before FPS drops.
in short, there might be some issue on optimization front, but using Sandy i5 and later greatly improves Guild Wars 2 experience in WvW fights.

I know where your coming from but the above math is only used to show what % of your > total <usuage will be used before bottlenecking occurs. So even though GW2 will not use all the available threads .the total number of threads available is still the same.

i also know the above math works as other people consitantly say “my cpu uses X %” and when you do said math the numbers a very very simular ..even my own cpu always reaches betwen 20 and 25% when it bottlenecks and for me the math works out like this.

100/12 = 8.33 × 2.5 = 20.83
100/12 = 8.33 × 3 = 24.99

SolarNova.1052:

Revelry

No everyone does not. However ..what is a ‘good’ computer to you ? ..becouse unfortunatly GW2 requirs a monster CPU to play WvWvW smoothly.

I have an intel i7, 6GB ram, and a geforce gts 360m. Do I need to buy a new computer? It’s a laptop, so I can’t really upgrade. All of the higher end computers at the local shops don’t really seem that much better.

What i7 is it exactly ?
The gts 360m is a rather dated GPU tbh. If lowering the graphics settings does not change fps however its highly likely its your CPU.
Just being an i7 isnt enough ..it needs ot be fast. And unfortantly ..very few affordable laptop cpus are actually fast enough for GW2.

Woops. It’s a Q 720

Hmm yea ..change the graphics setting to lower and see if it helps but the 720QM processor is an older generation i7 (released Q3 of 2009) and also rather slow in terms ofclock speed…which matters alot with GW2. A 2.8ghz turbo is a far cry from the recommended (by players) 4.3ghz+ OC that desktops use. Also remember a laptop processor clock for clock ..(meaning say ..2ghz laptop vs 2ghz desktop) ..will be slower.

first-gen i7 plus an laptop. won’t give you pretty FPS.

Alright, I’ll buy a new computer. Thanks.

Duskling.5463:

Can we get some developer comments on the constant lag in WvWvW?

If you want to read what the developers have said and commented read Q11 of this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FPS-GPU-CPU-Performance-issues-FAQ/first#post504481

So, I got a new computer, and I am totally lag free now. I was thinking it was the game, or the servers and it turns out it was my computer, even though I thought I had a decent one. Got an i7 2700 overclocked to 4.3 and when I come on a zerg in WvW now, I have 0 lag, even when others are complaining about lag.

Good to hear

It was thanks to you, SolarNova.
Just thought I’d post it here, incase others are having the same problem and think it’s just the game.