Guild Wars 2

You know, looking at everyones posts saying GPUs hitting 99% usage; I can’t stop but to get the feeling that a dev in one of the multi-threading patches has accidentally off-loaded a CPU focused calculation onto the graphics cards work list resulting in this pain-in-the-rear graphics card performance…

Because if you think about it; on-board chips running smooth compared to dedicated (keep in mind that on-board chips are within the CPU itself; this having higher calculating power)… Yeah… I think I’m right for once!

Stormcrow.7513:

I use supersampling and everything at max(high/ultra) settings with 1920×1080 rez so 99% seems high but within the realm of reason.
I think that maybe Anet is testing(with us as guinea pigs) offloading some processes from the CPU to the GPU.
I agree with you though Duck that a GTX 680 and especially a GTX 690 shouldn’t be running at 99% considering the graphics that GW2 brings to the table.
Hank, I have read about other players having that issue with the 660Ti as well, and that specific issue has been known for quite some time and to my knowledge there hasn’t been any resolution to the problem.
In a nutshell the game is the most unoptimized game that I have ever come across…ever. With an antiquated API and dreadfully old engine(GW1 engine modded) I can’t really see any “miracle” patches…ever.

I’m actually having a tough time deciding the worst between this and Rift;

On Rift I managed an amazing 8 FPS on maxed graphics with a 680GTX, facing nothingness with an 8core CPU. xD

SonicTHI.3217:

fuzzout.8652:

SonicTHI.3217:

GW2 is CPU bound and horribly optimized. Unless you are running at 5GHz you do not need a graphics card above a 460.

The biggest or rather the only noticeable frame rate impacting settings for the CPU are as said shadows (above medium) and reflections.

I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree upon the 5GHz point…. GW2 is indeed CPU bound, but not in a PVE/superlow graphics situation.

In my video I demonstrated this by turning all the settings to Low and leaving shadows alone on Ultra in an area where I’m alone with a few NPCs…. and a goat.

No matter how bad you wish to make any modern day processor look; this issue is not related to hardware. It has to relate to the recent optimization hotfix (thread allocation) where there’s a possibility that ultra shadows have not been threaded correctly.

I say this because I’m more than 95% sure that Cattlefield 3/Frysis 3 runs far better shadows/shading than GW2.

But thank you for your input

P.S. I’d take back the optimization accusation if I were you; my GW2 spreads itself across all 8 cores quite neatly.

I m sorry but you are utterly wrong. Your CPU spreads GW2 over multiple cores so to you (in task manager) it looks like all your cores are being evenly used and in a sense (thermals) they are but one thread is actually only running on one core at a time and there is one thread that your CPU would need 5GHz to actually complete all the instructions in it. It does not so your framerate takes a hit. Only if your CPU would be used 100% you could say the game is properly optimized for it.
Educate yourself better before you call people liars.

Jeez save the cannon shells XD
But in any way; ok you won me over, then… single-core; this game is.

Anyhow I was initially writing about what I had experienced with ultra shadows but I WILL tell you that I had this game running on a Q6600 (with GTX550ti) at 2.4 GHz at 18-40 FPS at launch (obvious GPU limitations; as I was noticing those on a grand scheme of things) and I’m 70% sure I had ultra shadows enabled at the time; so let’s agree to disagree. However I will admit that I never did wvw but this is not the topic; the topic is ultra shadows; and I can’t see them alone being the destroyer of framerates, and if they are clearly this topic is in the right place then.

Hopefully anet does some testing/fixing in regards to that.

SonicTHI.3217:

GW2 is CPU bound and horribly optimized. Unless you are running at 5GHz you do not need a graphics card above a 460.

The biggest or rather the only noticeable frame rate impacting settings for the CPU are as said shadows (above medium) and reflections.

I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree upon the 5GHz point…. GW2 is indeed CPU bound, but not in a PVE/superlow graphics situation.

In my video I demonstrated this by turning all the settings to Low and leaving shadows alone on Ultra in an area where I’m alone with a few NPCs…. and a goat.

No matter how bad you wish to make any modern day processor look; this issue is not related to hardware. It has to relate to the recent optimization hotfix (thread allocation) where there’s a possibility that ultra shadows have not been threaded correctly.

I say this because I’m more than 95% sure that Cattlefield 3/Frysis 3 runs far better shadows/shading than GW2.

But thank you for your input

P.S. I’d take back the optimization accusation if I were you; my GW2 spreads itself across all 8 cores quite neatly.

Well, I’m not sure about skill lags, but WvWvW has been a target in the most recent minipatch… It introduced WvWvW character-count drop-down menus.

As for WvWvW I honestly think skill lag relates to the amount of packets received when a bunch of players show up next to you, forcing your client to stream a ton of data.

Reason for me saying this?
I play from Europe on an an NA server and it seems to work smoother than butter for me.
Locations tested:
Lions Arch peak hours (Both overflow and normal)
Multiple battles in WvWvW (had the most epic zerg earlier)

What I’m wondering is -
What is your connection speed? (and I am not saying your connection is bad, but what are the up/down speed values of your connection?)
Also perhaps providing Anet with your ISP name would be good (I’m sure it would!)

Hmm… Alternatively the issues could be related to anything in between….
1. The Router you’re using (Perhaps ISP forced an update)
2. You’re on fiber optics which haven’t yet been optimized for a steady data stream
3. Your DNS server is overloaded with connections
4. ArenaNet’s patch may have affected the amount of data received by a client during a “massive burst of players” situation and the gateways between you and Anet can’t carry the extra load.

I am of course not a technical expert when it comes to connections; I am merely guessing and only trying to help.

Babak’s issue may have been resolved in the most recent patch; in options you can select the amount of people you wish your client to load/display in a WvWvW.

Turn your shadows from Ultra to High

Problem solved \o/

I investigated this problem – set your shadows to “high” as “ultra” shadows currently seem to have some sort of an issue at the minute…

Hello;

So first of all I would like to let you know what my system consists of:
CPU: AMD FX-8350 Piledriver
GPU: EVGA GTX 680 SuperClocked
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1600)
and a load of other stuff which nobody cares about

So today I decided to play a bit of that there Guild Wars 2… And BAM! Framerate bursting and immense slow-mo/speed up moments (yet, this actually still runs better than a certain game about rifts…. and storm legions… which by the way dropped my frames down as low as 8… and as high as 30… Yes… 30 was the high…But I digress).

So I did some experimentation….
As you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efRZe7ZFeKo (no need to fullscreen it ^^ bad quality, ripped it straight from my stream)

The culprit: Ultra – Shadow Quality is going to slay any piece of hardware you have. Even if you take EVERYTHING out of the game and just turn the shadows to ultra… Doom is what awaits.

So there you are. I am very happy to help you.

P.S. And oddly enough, even though the streaming software had its own 4 cores (as did guild wars 2) the FPS in GW2 halved… XD
Normally these fps spikes/bursts bring me from 70 to 11 FPS in a single camera sweep… Whereas on high shadows its hovering at 50-80 constantly.

This is my first Guild Wars 2 music video I hope you enjoy it ^,^

P.S.
Song: Hollywood Undead – This love, this hate

To The Video!