Guild Wars 2

Ok so I uninstalled and reinstalled Alienware Command Center and 3DMark Advanced. I then re-downloaded the 314.07 driver. Then I uninstalled the 310.90 driver, ran DriverFusion and reinstalled the 314.07 driver. Now no more conflicts with 3DMark or the ACC. 3DMark launches and runs good. My guess is that I got a bad driver installer or a bad driver install.

The 314.07 driver appears to work well with Crysis 3, GW2 and PlanetSide 2.

I just downloaded and installed the following driver

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/57096

I upgraded from the 310.90 driver which was working very well with GW2 and other games. I used Treexy Driver Fusion to do a clean install. After installing the 314.07 driver and enabling SLI, I rebooted and experienced the following issues

1. .NET Framework error caused by Alienware Command Center Thermal Controller which caused my case and cpu fan controller application to fail to load.

2. 3DMark Advanced nv1.00 crashed on startup and refused to load.

I was not experiencing either one of these issues before installing the 314.07 driver. If 3DMark Advanced fails to load after installing a new video driver, it is a sign there is something seriously wrong with the driver.

I uninstalled the 314.07 driver, ran DriverFusion and reinstalled the 310.90 driver. Everything is back to normal. 3DMark now loads as it should. Please post your issues with the 314.07 driver, if any here.

• WARNING NVIDIA 314.07 Driver *

I just downloaded and installed the following driver

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/57096

I upgraded from the 310.90 driver which was working very well with GW2 and other games. I used Treexy Driver Fusion to do a clean install. After installing the 314.07 driver and enabling SLI, I rebooted and experienced the following issues

1. .NET Framework error caused by Alienware Command Center Thermal Controller which caused my case and cpu fan controller application to fail to load.

2. 3DMark Advanced nv1.00 crashed on startup and refused to load.

I was not experiencing either one of these issues before installing the 314.07 driver. If 3DMark Advanced fails to load after installing a new video driver, it is a sign there is something seriously wrong with the driver.

I uninstalled the 314.07 driver, ran DriverFusion and reinstalled the 310.90 driver. Everything is back to normal. 3DMark now loads as it should. Please post your issues with the 314.07 driver, if any here.

GunAngel.7415:

Just for the record…

My rig: NF780i, 8GB PC6400, 1kW PSU

QX6700 stock 2.66ghz
GTX470 SLI stock 610, 1674mhz

Average fps w graphics maxed out with a few players fighting event mobs inside a small town populated with npcs: 19fps

QX6700 oc’d to 3.6ghz
GTX470 SLI oc’d to 810, 1910mhz

Average fps w graphics maxed out with a few players fighting event mobs inside a small town populated with npcs: 23fps

This game crushed my heart.

Try autodetecting settings in game. Hopefully that will lower your settings.

There is a new Nvidia driver out, 610.37

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/54625

I am trying it out tonight.

Cowrex.9564:

Charrs and Norns would really love to toss around Asuras….. Wow….Imagine if they made a cannon that shoots Asurans….

Awesome idea! I like it!

Nickthemoonwolf.1485:

What about Necro? Feel so left out

Fixed

For the time being, there are no dwarfs to toss in GW2. I think that Asura would make great siege ammo in WvWvW! I want to be able to load up my treb with Asura and toss them at the enemy.

Just imagine the possibilities:

Asura Elementalist Toss- Fire, Water, Lightning and Earth ammo
Asura Mesmer Toss – Illusion toss, which one is real?
Asura Gaurdian Toss – extra damage to walls
Asura Warrior Toss – a really angry Asura that does extra damage when it hits
Asura Thief Toss – steals supplies from the supply depot
Asura Ranger Toss – double hit with pet and asura
Asura Engineer Toss – napalm area effect
Asura Necro Toss – turns every player in the targeted area into a zombie that then attacks other players of their faction

Make it so ArenaNet!

I am still waiting for the 310.70 desktop driver. Has anyone tried the beta version?

wauwi.9162:

driver version 310.70BETA is still (again?) available on at the nvidia homepage

no noticeable performance changes in any of my games except a little bit smoother gameplay in some “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” custom storys

not a big fan of benchmarks…they never ensure the shown performance when actually launching applications/games

according to some benchmarks, my computer would be powerful enough to run a space cannon (big laser used for pyrotechnic shows)

most benchmark tools just focus on one component (at a time), which is the problem imo

the best benchmark is to use your computer normally and decide yourself how well it performs

oh and that site that Samaul linked said his installed driver is not approved, because 310.70 is a BETA driver

The 310.70 Mobile driver is out, the desktop one is still in beta.

There is a new Nvidia Driver out, that was flagged by Nvidia update, 310.70. I downloaded and installed it on my M14x and got a significant 3DMark11 boost. However, the driver is not available on the Nvidia website. Here is the benchmark result

P2466: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5137329

If anyone has any more info on this new driver please share it with us.

RollingBob.8502:

Regarding airflow and fans, it is nice that people put some thought into the issue and don’t just buy the party line, which I often see as misinformed. It sounds like most of you are putting some thought into the subject, so let me leave you with a thought experiment just to test your own preconceptions:

You have a tube about 6 3/4" ID and about 10 feet long, total internal volume 10 cubic feet.

Take a 6" fan with housing that fits the end well. Apply it to one end of your tube. The fan discharges the air out of the tube at the rate of 1000 cubic feet per minute (CFM).

question 1, to see if you follow; how many times does the tube have its internal volume of air replaced? Answer: 100 times per minute. Easy peasy.

Now we turn the screwplate around and instead of evacuating the tube we are charging the tube. That means extra air blows out of the other end. Same question, at 1000 CFM how many times per minute does the tube volume get replaced? Still easy peasy, the answer is 100 times per minute. It doesn’t matter if the fan charges or discharges, the tube has to flow 1000 CFM if the fan flows 1000 CFM.

Okay, test your preconcieved notions: we put a fan on each end, both identical 1000CFM flow, one charges the tube and one discharges. How many times does the tube volume get replaced per minute in this case?

A: 100 times
B: 200 times
C: 100000 times

If you think it is anything other than A, please rethink and if still sure about your answer please post your reasoning (I am assuming simplified classroom physics here so please don’t try and obfuscate the lesson with minor variances due to non-ideal circumstances).

Interesting post. Lets get started:

The volume of a cylinder is

V = PI*(Radius**2)*height

V=PI*(6.75**2)*10*12

CFM = V/1000CFM

More benchmark results, this time with my CPU turbo-boost overclocked to 4.1 GHz (overclock on demand, not full time overclock).

P13466: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5063246

X4955: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5063331

Note that the Xtreme score actually went down slightly but the Physics score went way up. The physics score is essentially a cpu benchmark. Yes, it does include physics processing on the GPU but physics is very cpu intensive.

wauwi.9162:

i like how all benchmarks are useless when it comes to Guild Wars 2

however, my christmas wish:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti Windforce 2X

quite powerful, and very low in price, therefore, i am able to get a second one to SLI up with in the future

i’m wondering why my current older, slower card, a GTX580 is still priced twice as much as a GTX650

3DMark11 scores are a good relative measure of performance. They do not necessarily predict MMO performance because they do not also measure cpu usage by audio devices, the effect of voice chat or network throughput and processing on performance.

There is some truth in this statement. I have noticed that the more CPU and GPU horsepower I give GW2, the more it takes. GW2 scales itself up to your setup unless you manually change your settings. Is this a good or bad thing? You decide.

RollingBob.8502:

Sorry this is a myth; in fact without specific load balance this results in serious inefficiencies. Speak to a mechanical engineer or better yet, to a millwright who has to actually deal with these things daily (on a much larger scale). There are reasons a dual setup can be an improvement in some cases but it has nothing to do with being superior to a proper single discharge setup, only because it may improve over a poorly designed setup, that is all.

You do make a good point but I think that every fan slot should be filled with carefully chosen fans in a high end gaming PC.

In fact, the Alienware Command center and Active Thermal cooling provides configurable load balancing controls. There are configurable curves for each fan that are on a graph that has fan speed on one axis and PCI Fan or Hard Drive fan on the other. The curve can be changed by dragging a portion of it for less or more agressive cooling. There is also an interface where the fans can be hard-wired to a specific speed. I use the curve setup so my fan speeds vary between about 15% and 50% depending on load or temperature. I have two curve setups saved, one with more aggressive cooling on an actual curve, the other with linear cooling on a straight line. I use the more agressive cooling with Guild Wars 2 and PlanetSide 2. The fans are synchronized so they both increase or decrease speed at the same time at the same rate depending on temperature.

I had serious heat issues before I started using the Alienware Active thermal cooling. Remember that I am not using the factory video cards. There is a plastic wind tunnel or cover that vectors extra cooling from the hard drive fan directly onto the video cards.

Previously GW2 on 2x GTX 560 ti 1 GB SLI:

2x GTX 560 ti 1 GB SLI 3DMark11 Score: X2938

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4783260

On 2x GTX 560 ti I experienced occaisional massive 3D lag, hitching while loading data from disk or memory, occaisional client crashes caused by overheating. The GTX 560 ti is a very hot GPU and heat causes instability. GW2 choked on the 560 ti’s limited 1 GB of VRAM, struggling to keep enough data in the form of textures, polygons etc loaded on to the video card for smooth gameplay. 2x GTX 560 ti SLI sometimes struggled at running GW2.

Currently PS2 on 2x GTX 660 ti 2 GB SLI

2x GTX 660 ti 2 GB SLI 3DMark11 Score: X4957

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5019247

On the same hardware, only the video cards changed, a 30%+ boost in performance. No crashes, no overheating, no hitching or stuttering, no 3D lag, all on High settings in PS2. Hours of smooth, flawless gameplay. Improved image quality, brighter colors, smoother effects and better visibility. That pretty much settles it. My 560 ti’s are now paper weights.

Rad this Anandtech review:

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte

It shows that despite the fact that the 660 ti has twice as much GDDR5 VRAM as the 560 ti, it actually runs cooler, uses less power and is at least 30% faster than the 560 ti.

DivineBeing.2086:

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do NOT listen to this advice at all!

A regular vacuum should not be anywhere near a computer! A regular vacuum can cause a build up of static electricity which will fry your computer.

Compressed air does have fluid in it. I believe its nitrate, not sure though. But with proper technique it is NOT a problem and is recommended by computer technicians.

1. Do not tilt or hold the can upside down or it will spray out fluid.
2. Short bursts are your friend.
3. Do not get too close to the actual component itself.
4. If spraying near or toward a fan, stick something solid(like your finger) in between the fans fins. If you don’t than you risk breaking the fan itself.

Now, there are special anti-static vacuums that you can use. These aren’t a gimmick or a scam. I personally use one myself. If you want to know the brand name than just ask. I amtyping this at work so I can’t just go check lol.

I tend to agree, physically touching electronic components in a gaming PC is always dicey.

wauwi.9162:

well it’s definitely not my hardware…it’s the game’s bad optimization…the dev’s admitted it
it’s now even below 40FPS since the latest patch most of the time on MEDIUM settings (PvE – outside of cities—-doesn’t even want to know my framerate at lion’s arch/black citadel)
i give up until a super epic nvidia driver/more super epic GW2 patch is out

it was at so nice and steady 60FPS during the first month after GW2’s launch…but that feels like an impossible framerate now

well…i could increase my ramerate by 5-10 if buying a new GFX card which runs @1GHz graphics-clock and with a dynamic OC feature (most cards of the GTX600 series have it)
i just don’t like to OC my GTX 580…it’s not build for it

would be still unplayable for me…because the FPS spikes, which makes the game looks like 20FPS…
it’s very noticable if you suddenly drop down to 5FPS for 1 second and then go up to 72 just to drop down to 30…it’s just crazy

i hope for a GTX660TI to christmas…it contains an assasin’s creed III digital download code…hopefully this game is optimized to a playable state next year

I just got 2x GTX 660ti and my 3DMark 11 Xtreme score went up by 2k to X4957.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5019247

I am using the following driver with them

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

I am looking forward to playing GW2 on them, I will let you know how it goes. According to anandtech.com

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review

The 660 ti actually uses less power and runs cooler than the 560ti despite having twice as much GDDR5 vram at 2GB as the 560 ti. This is welcome news to me with the cards crammed so closely together in my PC.

40 fps is not optimal but it is playable. I am getting about 50 fps in Lion’s Arch on high settings. I will take a closer look at your hardware configuration and your post and comment later.

wauwi.9162:

i’m using the latest WHQL ones (the latest BETA one is even WORSE – common issue for nvidia lately…even previous games running not quite as flawless as before -.-) and btw i know about hardware and software stuff…enough
that sysprofile should tell ya:

http://www.sysprofile.de/id170142

said all relevant things.
waiting for A-Net to fix stuff

GW2 is an MMORPG which presents unique challenges for game developers. I think that ArenaNets MMORPG is the best technically so far but it is not perfect.

What specific issues are you experiencing?

Are you able to consistenly duplicate those issues?

Can you tell us the steps you go through to cause and/or fix those issues?

For example, I still experience blue screens due to overheating in GW2 when I forget to set my cooling and fans just right.

wauwi.9162:

native seems to work now…but suddenly i got a aliasing effect if i zoom out (AA effect especially on my character only)
let’s see if i can fix this at the nvidia-cp…
also vsync disables itself at times now…

oh and my FPS goes crazy now – 6~109FPS O.o
once you solve one problem, another one takes it’s place -_-

why is GW2 such a diva if it’s about peformance and quality…i can play the latest high-end games out there at “extreme” (dx11) flawlessly but then GW2 got installed at my computer and i’d like to throw it out the window now

i OC’ed my i7 even further (@4GHz) as a test to see if this actually changes anything…
watched out for bottlenecking RAM
cleaned my SSD
nvidia settings at max performance
well i guess i got 1 frame per second more than before…i could be wrong though

why am i not satisfied with 40-60FPS?
because of random FPS drops
i want to have a nice little buffer so that i’m not able to notice them

edit: now it’s steady 60FPS again no matter on which map i am
what a fickle game
edit2: steady, extremly stuttering 45FPS now o.O (feels like 20, laggy FPS)
this starts to make me mad Dx

alot things became better since my 3 weeks inactivity…TP, PuGs… even botting and goldselling
but the performance is still really bad most of the time…over 10 weeks after this game’s release…as a customer, i’m starting to lose my patience

What version of the Nvidia drivers are you using?

I recommend the latest

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

wauwi.9162:

so the recommended nvidia-CP settings should NOT be the ones that the actual developers of this game are recommending?
well it’s always a kind of opinion and taste which settings you run there.
i’m always set them up to my taste of performance and quality and what my eyes actually are able to see and what not.
you can’t mess that much at the nvidia CP anyways…

and the game always autodetects native rendering(everything else getting maxed out)…i can’t tell the difference between supersampling and native really but if my character walks up at some hills, the ground disappears if set to native.
every other settings does not affect my FPS in any way except reflections and shaders.

btw: A-Net already admitted performance issues on their side, also my internet provider got transmission issues especially with the A-Net servers…

so i can’t increase my performance except if i’d move near to the A-Net servers and change my internet provider…
i’ll just wait…i mean 40-60FPS aren’t the world’s end lol

Thanks for the heads up on the Native vs. Supersampling issue. Can we get some feedback from ArenaNet on this issue?

This is the “Players Helping Players” forum. Specifically, this thread is about helping other players run GW2 better on their Nvidia GPU-based systems.

We want more posts from players sharing their experiences with running GW2 on Nvidia GPUs

All weapon combinations are viable, not all are optimal for every situation. I prefer scepter/focus for ranged. To each his own.

Sinanju.8456:

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

Always good to help out a brother gaurdian

wauwi.9162:

in general, the best nvidia-cp settings are the ones recommended by the dev’s.
but everyone running different cards and drivers whichmay require you to mess about at the settings until you are satisfied with the graphics and perfomance

i didn’t played for about one and a half week now and noticed something weird:
my FPS
it’s now at steady 50 frames per second
it won’t go higher or lower…i tried everything (limit FPS to 30 cuts it down to 25 tho)
well it could be worse right?

i’ve read somewhere on here about this “issue”(?), but i can’t find the thread anymore

I recommend default settings for the Nvidia Control Panel unless you are having issues. If you need to change your graphics settings, let GW2 control the settings in game. The latest Nvidia drivers fully support GW2 on supported Nvidia GPUs. The Nvidia driver will autodetect the game when it loads and load the stored profile created for GW2 by Nvidia in cooperation with ArenaNet. In game hit ESC, select Options then Graphics. Then click Choose… Autodetect to let the game load optimal settings for your system.

I am currently running GW2 in SLI mode with no issues. Perfromance is strong in all situations including large scale wvwvw. I used the settings I suggest above.

You can get the latest Nvidia drivers from

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

I use auto-detect to select the right driver or you can select the appropriate driver from the drop-down menus.

Nimothar, Level 80 Gaurdian, full crafted exotic gear. 400 Weaponsmith/Armorsmith. Guild leader of Phoenix Battalion (http://phoenixbattalion.guildlaunch.com), Northern Shiverpeaks server.

When making gaurdian crafted Rare or Exotic armor, you should focus on the following insignias

Carrion – vitality, power, condition damage
Valkyrie – vitality, power, critical damage
Cleric – toughness, healing power and power
Knight – toughness, power, precision

The three best are Valkyrie, Cleric and Knight for a gaurdian but Carrion can be good too. Choose the best mix of those insignias, you might want to double up on one such as Knight or Valkyrie.

zastari.1730:

So after two posts in this thread explain how to circumvent this tactic you still think it’s insurmountable? Listen, you may want to stay out of WvW and go back to attacking mobs instead. You’ll find they think a lot more on your level.

WHOA!!!! I think he figured it out!!! It’s almost like you should….. Counterstack and drop a catapult on your stack spot.

Darn you! How did you know we were attacking mobs in WvWvW?

Interestingly enough, when the GOON/SFD stack adjusted its location, they moved it on top of a catapult they already had set up. Then the game became

“Healing Turret, Rifle Turret, Catapult Stack Wars!”

maybe a better name for this game would be

“Stack-Counterstack Wars”

The above responses beg the question

What game are we playing, “Guild Wars” or “Healing Turret Stack” wars?

zastari.1730:

So after two posts in this thread explain how to circumvent this tactic you still think it’s insurmountable? Listen, you may want to stay out of WvW and go back to attacking mobs instead. You’ll find they think a lot more on your level.

Samaul.6073:

joebane.5872:

There are lots of reasons to stack and lots of ways to counter it. Don’t Zerg, use siege.

So let me get this straight. We should stop on the road to a supply camp and set up siege at precisely the right location in order to counter the stacking of AoE buffs and healing effects should they occur?

WHOA!!!! I think he figured it out!!! It’s almost like you should….. Counterstack and drop a catapult on your stack spot.

Someone tried that tactic. The healing turret stack simply adjusted their location enough to be out of range.

Roughneck.2509:

If you can’t figure out a way to win in this situation other than coming to the forums to complain, then I am embarrassed for you as a pvper.

Ok so the solution to our “embarassing” predicament is to be prepared to face 40 organized enemy players who are using a tactic that ensures that none of them will die, in the middle of nowhere whose sole purpose is to farm kills from the opposing factions.

My assumption is that the way to win in this situation is to set up or own healing turret stack within range of the opposing healling turret stack and to have a “healing turret stack war”. Now why didn’t I think of that at the time?

joebane.5872:

There are lots of reasons to stack and lots of ways to counter it. Don’t Zerg, use siege.

So let me get this straight. We should stop on the road to a supply camp and set up siege at precisely the right location in order to counter the stacking of AoE buffs and healing effects should they occur?

So did you lose enthusiasm because you just wanted to run in a zerg and press autoattack to win all day in WvW? Next time try thinking up a counter instead of complaining on the forums.
Edit: /wiki Area of Effect before complaining also. It sounds like you don’t get how it works.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Area_of_effect

Assumptions:

“you just wanted to run a zerg and press autoattack” – this statement assumes you knew my exact motivation and exactly what i was doing at the time this event occurred, specifically

1. “you wanted” – you knew exactly what I was thinking.
2. “to run a zerg” – you knew that i was leading a zerg at that moment.
3. “press autoattack” – you knew exactly how I was playing the game at that moment, ie. autoattacking and doing nothing else.
4. “you don’t get how (Area of effect) works” – seems to me like I saw exactly how it works.

So what I hear you saying is that you can in fact read my mind and see through my eyes when I am playing GW2 and that AoE tactics are legitimate tactics in GW2 even when they give one side an insurmountable advantage over another in WvWvW.

Last night in Northern Shiverpeaks – Darkhaven – Maguuma in the Dark haven borderlands, two guilds from Maguuma; GOON and SFD stacked on one healing turret, one rifle turret, farming kills at a supply camp, none of them dying. It looked like a bunch of botters at first. They made no attempt to move on when it there was a lull in the fighting but stayed there and waited for more to come.

Is this an exploit?

Is it playing the game as intended?

Should the healing turret be removed from or nerfed in WvWvW?

For me and my guild, our enthusiasm for WvWvW was significantly diminished after seeing this and most of them logged off.

Punk.4072:

Indeed, 500x series are not high end anymore.but ofc that doesn’t change the fact it is Really good yet, i’ve a 560 on mine and just like the thread creator , i’m getting around 90~40 fps with full graphics including Ultra Shadows and Ultra LOD distance. ( ofc i think its REALLY unstable due to my cpu setting that are pretty good, so i bet they need to improve GW2 performance more! to be smoother)

I get about 90-110 fps with 2x GTX 560 ti at 1080p with autodetect high settings. I dont change either the Nvidia control panel settings or the game settings.

Has anyone had any luck changing the game settings or Nvidia c-panel seettings?

I just loaded WoW MoP on “Ultra” settings on my M14x laptop, then GW2. When wow was running, my M14x ran quiet, I could not even hear the main cooling fan. When GW2 was running, the cooling fan went into overdrive. GW2 runs fine on my M14x but it does make it work hard.

This is merely an observation, not a value judgement. I think that it is safe to conclude that GW2 is much more demanding of gaming hardware than wow. That does not mean that wow is a better game. WoW was designed over 10 years ago so it makes sense that it would not strain my M14x.

Ondmand.5234:

Would you by any chance be selling or in any way affiliated to Alienware..? I find your aggressive defending of Alienware very puzzling.

Facts are facts – you pay a premium for the shining lights of the Alienware, compared to what you can build your self. Granted if you are in the segment of Alienware (young and/or new to hardware) and like the overly plasticky and spacey look of their various lines – then by all means enjoy your time with it. But by claiming that Alienware give better/equal value and bang for the buck – as a home built system, is just silly.

Finally – please remove the High End from this post title – nothing about your pc is high end. As per the word high-end, it would have to be just about the best throughout the system – and e.g. 2 × 560ti, is quite far from high-end – a GTX 670 barely qualify + your CPU is two generations old.

Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but time just moves fast in this world of hardware. Maybe you paid high-end price for your system back in the day, but that does not mean it is high-end today

PCs are by definition outdated the day that they arrive at your house. However, game development, especially MMORPG game development often lags far behind PC gaming hardware develpment. When GW2 was started, 3 or 4 years ago, the hardware in my PC was not on the market. GW2 was developed for NVIDIA 200 and 400 series GPUs, then later 500 series GPUs. In GW2 terms, my system is high end as I am able to run GW2 on high settings in all situations.

Facts are facts, in GW2 terms, the i7 2600k and 2x GTX 560ti are high end components. Sorry to burst your bubble “mate” but for most of GW2 development, the GTX 670 did even exist.

Oh and BTW, I am a web application developer by profession and I dont work for Dell.

I really doubt that Alienware’s motherboard would use similar VRMs on them. These, among other things, impact your ability to keep your overclocked system stable.

Innuendo, hearsay, opinions and myths are not facts. The fact is that I opened up my case and looked inside my Aurora R3 and the components were all except the video cards of comparable quality to the best you can get in other systems or from newegg.com. The video cards were OEM reference cards. Not bad cards but not great either. I believe that the mother board was at the time a top of the line mini-ATX intel gaming motherboard.

Yes, you can spend more for components if you build your own system. They may be better components but I am not sure that a $300 motherboard is better than a $150 motherboard unless you are trying to set 3DMark records.

Please stop speculating on which components Alienware computers have in them. If you want to know which components your Alienware system would have in it, why dont you call Alienware and ask them?

1.800.Alienware
(1-800-254-3692)

If your salesperson cant answer your questions, call tech support and ask them. I am sure they will be happy to answer your questions.

The new Nvidia 306.79 drivers are a big improvement over the previous drivers for GW2. Performance is fast and stable with the new drivers. I highly recommend them.

There is a new Nvidia driver out, 306.97

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

I did not see any specific reference to Guild Wars 2 in the release notes. I will download it and test it out tonight. You may want to consider cleaning your existing driver before installing a new one. Driver fusion is a good way to do that

http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

I have tried it and it works well.

Please post your results with the new Nvidia driver in this thread.

Oh I know that gaurdians do have some very weak medium range abilities but lets face it, WvWvW is owned by the ranged professions. The Gaurdian is weakest in the most important part of WvWvW, siege combat. Gaurdians cant hit anything at the bottom or top of a keep or tower wall. Gaurdians are no more useful in open ranged combat than in siege combat. Gaurdians do not have the tools to charge into the middle of a large group of enemies and survive.

To make matters worse, gaurdians get no credit for providing support in WvWvW. I can see no legitimate role for the Gaurdian other than in PvE. Gaurdians really shine in PvE but PvE is not what GW2 is about is it?

The simple fact is that

Warrior Bow >> Gaurdian Staff or Scepter.

The more I WvWvW on my 80 Gaurdian, the less I like playing him. There is no useful role for a gaurdian in WvWvW. On an 80 Gaurdian in WvWvW there are two choices

1. Charge in and maybe get a kill or two, then die.
2. Stand back at the back of the back and spam buffs and heals.

Why do I feel like I am playing a WoW classic paladin again?

The difference is that in WoW classic, you got credit for kill assists.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

nakoda.4213:

this is right on the mark.

non PC example: You walk in to, say, Canadian Tire to buy a sleeping bag rated at -40 C because they are selling it for 100$ when the enthusiast Valhalla Supplies camping store up the way sells the same model # for 400$.

A-buh? That is because large companies (like Alienware) go to manufacturer vendors and drop a large sum on the table and say “give us #X# of units” and the manufacturer says “okay” and then uses all of the cheap, left over, poor quality, mis-ordered materials that they have to get rid of in order to fill the order at such a low margin.

Believe it or not, you really DO get what you paid for.

Im playing GW2 on my 40" tv at a resolution of 1080p (native high res) using an old intel e8400+ and nvidia 8800 GT OC with 2GB of ram. Not all settings are maxed, but .. oh darn?

Dell/Alienware has nothing to gain from putting shoddy components in their PCs because under the terms of their warranty, they are required to replace them which costs more than buying good ones to begin with. In fact, I have found the failure rate of the components in Dell/Alienware computers to be lower than components that were purchased individually.

Lets focus on the facts, not innuendo or hearsay. Your personal experience does not necessarily apply to everyone. In fact, I opened up my Aurora R3 and found that almost all of the components were in fact OEM versions of highly rated components with the exception of the two GTX 460s which were essentially Nvidia reference cards. They were not bad video cards but they could have been better. I have since replaced them with 2x GTX 560 ti.

All of the other components were retail quality components. Everything, the mother board, the memory, processor, liquid cooling system, power supply etc. are all comparable to the best components I could have gotten on newegg.com at the time. And of course the Alienware case is a work of art. Alienware’s Command Center software, case lighting and active thermal cooling solution are second to none.

The only criticism of Alienware I would have in terms of components is that they sometimes skimp on video card quality and performance. My advice to them would be to go back to using eVGA video cards. On the other hand, the reference cards they buy from Nvidia and ATI are solid cards that have good heat dissipation and are very stable. I think that Alienware tends to favor cards that are cheaper, cooler and more stable rather than getting the best bang for the buck card such as a mainstream eVGA card. I do think that Falcon Northwest tends to use better video cards than Alienware in their systems but the video cards they offer are also much more expensive.

And then there is my M14x. This little laptop is truly a work of art. It runs GW2 fast and flawlessly and on a 4G LTE connection. At 1600×900, the frame rates are a strong 35-55 fps with default settings and the image quality of the GT 650M is stunning. One of the really nice things about the M14x is the bose audio on speakers or headphones. The sound it puts out is actually better than the on-board sound on my Aurora R3 desktop. I could not ask for a better designed, more comfortable gaming and business laptop.

Atmaweapon.7345:

The problem is that you aren’t thinking of any work arounds or their already present lore. One of their legions that they’ve had since GW 1 is even called “Flame Legion.”

Having fur doesn’t automatically mean intolerance for heat. As an example of the opposite, there are normal human people who can wear casual T-shirts and shorts out in the cold snow without it bothering them!

As for fur catching on fire, there ARE such things as flame-retardant chemicals and organic compounds. They might (and probably do) excrete some of these into their fur to prevent them from catching on fire.

Ever seen a cat or a dog wandering around an active steel mill?

Atmaweapon.7345:

Charr’s are felines aren’t they? Practically all felines have the ability to retract their claws (Cheetahs excluded but that’s because they need them for running.)

Retractable claws could work. Unfortunately, the claws on the charrs hands cover half of their fingers and do not retract.

Sithis.3564:

And here I thought I was playing a fantasy game…

You have a point there. The idea that the Charr would be capable of building the Black Citadel or anything in it out of metal is pure fantasy :P

DarthAcerbus.3647:

Gentlemen! Behold! The oddest trend on this forum!
Charr racism!
Duct-taping knives to your fingers is not the same as being born and living your entire life with claws. You have literally no experience with clawed hands, so how do you know how dextrous charr are? They likely grip things differently.
Smiths wear protective gear to prevent burns. And you never think about a human or dwarven smith’s hair catching on fire. In fact, dwarven smiths are more likely to have their beards catch on fire than a charr’s fur.

I know many of you have a soft spot for the Charr. I think they were the most requested race by GW2 fans. That does not change the fact that the charr would be physicially incapable of building anything out of metal.

Another problem with being near a forge and being covered with thick, downy fur is heat. Thick fur and the heat from a forge just dont go together. Like I said, the Charr would make lousy dwarves.

Cancer.9065:

Dwarves are not in exile… they are basically extinct (see ending of GW: EN). They either turned to stone (like you know who in the priory) or died in GW1 (namely the rogue faction).

Ok then who built the Black Citadel? Human Slaves?

It would be physically impossible for the Charr to do it.

The Charr are a cool race. Their appearance, demeanor, militaristic culture, Roman legion style organization are all very well done. There is one huge problem with Charr lore and that is the Charr as Smiths or metalworkers. That part of Charr lore just doesn’t add up for two reasons.

1. The Charr have huge claws on the ends of their fingers that would make it impossible to do intricate, skilled manual labor. If you disagree, duct-tape sharp sticks or knives to the ends of your fingers an try to bulid a siege engine or pound a piece of metal into an axe blade on an anvil.

2. The Charr are covered with fur and have long furry tails that would prevent them from getting anywhere near a forge or metalworks where there are bits of molten metal or sparks flying everywhere. The fur of any Charr who got near a forge or metalworks would instantly burst into flames or be covered with patches of singed fur if they had any fur left at all.

Lets face it, the Charr are not dwarves nor would they be physically capable of doing what dwarves do, buildings things out of stone, wood and metal. To put it bluntly, the Charr make lousy dwarves. I dont know who came up with the idea of turning the Charr into dwarven craftsmen but it just doesnt work. The only possible scenario I could see would be that the Black Citadel and everything in it was built by human slaves of the Charr. Of course, depending on large numbers of slaves for manual labor has its own set of problems. Often the overworked slaves become stronger than their lazy masters.

I do like the lore of GW2 but the Charr as dwarven crafstmen just doesnt add up. Significant changes are needed to the Charr race to make the idea plausible. Start with reducing their claws to the size of long fingernails and greatly reducing the amount of exposed fur they have on their bodies. Of course if you did that, they wouldnt be Charr anymore would they? And that is the problem.

Every time I see my Charr warrior swinging a sword I wonder how he could grasp his sword without driving those massive claws of his into the palm of his hand. The Charr’s physical limitations would make it impossible to compete militarily or economically with humans. Humans with their smaller, upright stature, manual dexterity, relatively hairless bodies and much smaller hands would be able to out-build, out-craft and out-work the physically primitive, tribal, carnivorous Charr. The Charr would make lousy farmers, leather workers, cooks, jewlers etc. The only thing the charr would be physically capable of doing would be tearing prey to shreds with their huge claws and teeth.

I know this is a high fantasty MMORPG and a very good one but please try to provide some shred of realism to the Charr as Smiths, Craftsmen and metalworkers. Every time I am in the Black Citadel on my Charr warrior, I find myself looking for the humans who actually built the place. Every time I pass by that huge forge, I expect to see Charr with no fur on their bodies.

Maybe in a future expansion, you can bring the dwarves who actually built the Black Citadel out of exile.