Guild Wars 2

Those serious frame drops in zergs are nothing to do with memory; rather your cpu performance choking as everything gets thrown onto one core on gw2. Unless you have a massive overclock on an Intel i5/i7 from 2500k upwards, it will struggle in zergs. Best setting to turn down is character model limit and quality for this situation.
Use MSI afterburner and you can monitor ram usage in the background. When it gets close to using all resources the pc as a whole will slow down while gw2 is running. If you use the web while playing gw2 try and alternative browser to chrome on Windows 10 and see if it performs a bit better while alt tabbed.
8gb is more than fine for this game as long as you have closed down unnecessary crap in the back ground from running. GW2 on my rig on Windows 10 on pretty much max settings apart from the two i mentioned (and no supersampling) uses about 5.6gb of memory at the very most on the 64 bit client.

To get the best value from a gaming laptop; you need to look at custom type builds. The best value for money for laptop gaming is the Sager/Clevo line of laptop; look at these. They offer decent specs; and good cooling, which means they are a lot better for gaming. If in fact that laptop ships with a similar resolution as Lolis did; they are right- it will run the game a lot better than at 1080p resolution; but wont look good. For any other game, that laptop will be pretty bad; saved a little by the (now) out of date resolution. Its not a gaming laptop, and if you need that portability; spend a bit more and get one that will work well as a gaming laptop. Stay away from brands such as HP/Dell etc for these laptops if you would like a gaming one.

I would advise you to read the current threads about the problem with Nvidia Laptop cards and gw2 on Windows 10 too. There are work arounds but it is a major problem. Search for “stuck at map loading screen”. This is a problem for anyone/everyone on this setup btw. Not specific to one hardware configuration. There is no way to avoid this currently for win 10 laptop owners who use Nvidia cards; so check out the workarounds in the forum. Anet needs to fix this, but has done nothing since November.

That spec will run games on low/medium and will not be an optimal experience. Any reseller selling a pc at the moment needs to be competitive on current tech; with that in mind the gpu is on the low end and is the last generation of Nvidia card. You really want something like a 970 for gaming now at a decent frame rate in most titles and with the competitive price of this card, look for something with that in. The processor should be great on your current build you are looking at; so it is just the gpu you need to think about.
You also dont have to go Nvidia. To cut more price and have a potentially more powerful card, you can go with an Amd R9 390. Make sure it is not a reference card. I.e. an Msi r9 390 would be great; as would a Gigabyte/Sapphire etc. Cutting price on a gpu is not worth it if intending to pc game; as you will regret it quickly, and you are best off going for the best bang for buck that you can afford. If you cant afford it now, wait until you can. Going for a low end gpu is not a good idea. Just imo of course.

For gw2, the game actually requires a powerful cpu too. In fact more so than the gpu; but the above advice will allow you to play other titles at an enjoyable framerate too. The higher the core clock speed on a processor the better for gw2. Bear this in mind too. There are many articles on this, just google.

Bump! No fix or acknowledgement by anet thus far. Lets get something done this year please now. Problem is now getting on to two months old.

If running on laptop/Nvidia Card/Windows 10 try game in Windows 7 compatibility mode/ and or Running the game with no vsync (in borderless fullscreen) to stop the map hanging on loading and corrupt textures if you get the map to load (by alt tabbing and clicking the frozen gw2 icon in the taskbar).

If you are not running using this hardware, it sounds like a connection problem to the anet servers, try an ip traceroute. Also next time you have a problem, add specs to the question, or people have to guess about yr hardware and therefore what problem you might have!

In my findings also, since that update GW2 is affected badly by the installation of Geforce experience alongside the drivers. If I was you, I would delete this useless bit of software (there are better streaming solutions, which is the only decent thing it does) and see less cpu overhead as it runs in the background. When installing new drivers (not sure if this has changed very recently) you can select custom installation (also use clean installation) and deselect Geforce experience from the install. This software gives no benefit whatsoever, unless you are unable to adjust game settings yourself, which is hardly difficult. Try both of these solutions. Good luck.

Problem is gw2. Alongside Windows 10 and Nvidia Laptop drivers. The error codes are unrelated afaik, but the map hanging on loading is due to this bug generated after a GW" patch around the time of the November Windows 10 update. Please contact Anet about this problem and refer them to the many threads on this forum about the same thing. Search “Map stuck loading; Crashes when loading map, corrupt textures.”

A partial solution for now to this is to a) run the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode. Or another one which is also less than ideal is to b) run the game without vsync; and use borderless windowed fullscreen mode. Both of these will stop the map crashing on loading and allow you to play ok.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO REPORT THIS. Even though this may help your issue, none of the solutions are ideal and Anet has had since November to fix this issue and have done nothing. More people need to complain and if necessary highlight the same problem to them in order to speed up a solution. Nothing else will help you, driver rollbacks, windows reinstallation; game reinstallation etc. This is a problem that will not go away if you want to use Windows 10 and a mobile Nvidia gpu.

As for the error codes, they may be network related as the game is partially crashing due to the above issue or they may be unrelated to this and therefore post back for more help.

The issue is that Anet cant fix their game. There are lots of posts about this. Windows 10; Optimus Nvidia cards do not play nice with Gw2 at the moment. Work around for you is to run without Vsync/borderless window mode or run in Windows 7 compatibility mode. The game was broken since the Windows November patch for you guys, but no other game has issues. Anet still have not tried/admitted that this is a problem as far as I know despite about 10 threads on this very topic and lots more people with the same problem that are unable to diagnose it. PLEASE TELL THEM. Open a support ticket. Make them aware that everyone with these specs has this problem. Its absolutely terrible how they have done nothing about this issue. It really is.

Also on at least one Nvidia mobile gpu I have tested, running November Windows update, Reshade indeed does not work on this game as stated above. Simply will not load no matter what you do. Something has been broken by either the Windows patch or Anet. Problem is they dont seem to want to acknowledge it or fix it. On the same game on my desktop system it works fine and I have no bugs. I am using an R9 290. Laptop problem case is using an Nvidia 870m. This problem also causes artifacted/corrupted textures when you can get the maps to load after changing map.

You guys all need to contact Anet and try to convince them to do something about this. They must be aware of this issue now. Only happens on mobile Nvidia gpus running Windows 10 but the silence from Anet on a fix is alarming; they either a) dont read these forums b) cant fix it or c) are hoping it goes away. It wont.

Workarounds are, as you have found out: Windows 7 compatibility mode; or running the game with no Vsync (use borderless fullscreen to avoid screen tearing.) Why this is the case I have no idea, but they have made no attempt to either admit there is a problem or fix it. Despite many threads about this same thing. They may try to shift the blame to Windows, but EVERY other game works fine since Windows November update. This is something to do with Nvidia and Anet.

You guys all need to contact Anet and try to convince them to do something about this. They must be aware of this issue now. Only happens on mobile Nvidia gpus running Windows 10 but the silence from Anet on a fix is alarming; they either a) dont read these forums b) cant fix it or c) are hoping it goes away. It wont.

Workarounds are, as you have found out: Windows 7 compatibility mode; or running the game with no Vsync (use borderless fullscreen to avoid screen tearing.) Why this is the case I have no idea, but they have made no attempt to either admit there is a problem or fix it. Despite many threads about this same thing. They may try to shift the blame to Windows, but EVERY other game works fine since Windows November update. This is something to do with Nvidia and Anet.

Unbelievable….While this is a good thing on initial viewing; it is something that is sneakily changing the economy; which isnt a good thing. Things do not get “missed” when being changed and patched. That is crap.

Also; I have recently made 40 spiritwood planks; which required an obscene amount of this wood. Am I going to get the wood back since you stealth patched this?

BUMP. More people with same issue. SAME lack of response. Tell us what is happening regarding a fix please!

Try to get a Clevo custom built laptop. If in the US these will be Sagers. Best bang for your buck but you will be looking at £1000 (uk currency) to get something decent. Atm there is a major problem with GW2 and Nvidia mobile gpus on Windows 10 at least however so i would avoid buying one at all until Anet manages to a) acknowledge and b) fix this. (texture corruption, map hanging)

Are you running on a laptop with an Nvidia card? If so alt tab and click the icon on the taskbar and the map will load…but with corrupted textures. If not; then you have a different issue.

Temp fix is to run without vsync (use borderless windowed mode for no screen tearing but less performance) or to run in compatibility mode for Windows 7. Also not ideal. MAKE ANET aware of your issue please. Report it via a ticket from your account page. We need them to do something about this.

I have an answer for you. Its because they broke something in Guild Wars 2 a few patches ago. I’ll bet you are gaming on a Nvidia Optimus laptop?

Only solution for now is to run the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode/ Or disable vsync ingame and run the game in borderless fullscreen mode. There are various threads where people are having the same issue and Anet hasnt even acknowledged the problem. This behaviour will only occur in this game. No driver changes/rollbacks or reinstalling Windows will help. I also guess you are using Windows 10?

It is a combination of the last patch for Windows 10 and Anet; and Nvidias drivers. It will also only occur on Optimus based laptops (AFAIK). Please report to the tech team and do not rest until they do something. Maybe when they get 1000 people asking them, they will fix it.

Does the game hang at map change? Forcing you to alt tab and click the gw icon on the taskbar to get back in? Also note the light on the laptop that shows when the dedicated card is being used. It will flash on, then off again at the hang. Run on integrated graphics and the problem is not there either.

Has this issue been highlighted for fixing yet Anet team? Have you worked out why it is happening etc and are we going to get a fix for it?
Was sad to see no part of the update touched on performance issues or technical issues like this.

I would always recommend a complete clean install of gpu drivers from the ones Windows 10 tries to install too. Make sure you go through Windows updates and untick “update devices from 3rd parties” and install your drivers after deleting everything from the previous install. This is especially important when installing your new gpu. Google DDU or display driver uninstaller and use this to perform a clean install of the latest BETA Crimson driver from AMD.

I will explain why I said this Loli…..

Assets for this game are loaded on map change. This is why there are several people with issues with the game hanging on loading a new map at the moment.

Besides decreasing loading times, an SSD WILL do nothing for you on this game. I have no problems with textures etc loading as you move the camera around, these calculations are done by the gpu. Many people would have problems as although getting more popular a lot of people install games onto a bigger mechanical drive.

An SSD has no effect on this whatsoever. Do not buy an SSD based on this. What one will do is (if the operating system is installed on it) decrease boot up times and Windows general speed. With Windows 10; its pretty fast anyway.

If a game is installed on it such as GW2 it will (apart from being a good source of wearing out the ssd with all the patching that happens) load initially quicker and load maps quicker. 7200rpm hds of any quality are not slow enough to cause a bottleneck in the rendering of assets which is done at map load.

To the op: Look at other things, the x16 pci express slot is a great suggestion of a place to start investigating; if you built the machine yourself. Also look at benchmarks for other games and compare results online. You will need cpu-z and gpu-z to get the screenshots Beldin mentioned above. Make sure they are running while in game.

Something is wrong Im afraid; I use Gigabyte r9 290 Windforce; 2500k @ 4.6ghz.
I get pretty much solid 60 fps in most places aside from lions arch and hot areas. I also play on a 7200rpm Caviar Black hd.
SSD will not help in any form on this game apart from loading times between maps. If you havent yet, use display driver uninstaller and install the latest AMD Crimson BETA driver. Also bear in mind that even at stock clocks the 2500k was able to still push 60fps in most places. When there is a zerg etc. The client cannot handle all the calculations and this is pushed all onto one core of your cpu, which is being over utilised anyway on Guild wars 2; thats normal for this game, and you will start seeing major fps drops. 60fps is what you SHOULD be getting in normal maps i.e. Frostgorge etc with that setup tbh. Do some benchmarks, compare yr system with similars and go from there. Good luck!

Bumping in the hope that just maybe it will get Anets attention. At least some sort of word on whether you are aware of what is a major problem for a lot of people with this hardware would be great.

This problem also occurs in 870m, 880m, 970m 980m laptops. It is not specific to the 860m and also will only occur in this game. Anet needs to bug fix.

Hi there, sorry to see you also have this problem that Anet is completely ignoring.

Please add to the thread “stuck in loading screen when switching maps” in bugs. This is an issue Anet are yet to acknowledge exists but is something to do with Nvidias laptop drivers and this game; it did indeed start with the Windows 10 update, but it is only these systems that are affected and more importantly THIS GAME ONLY.

Your laptop is fine, and no driver change available at the moment will help the issues, maybe Anet can finally respond to people on this thread on what they intend to do about this problem?

For now, compatibility mode for windows 7 (ridiculous) is and option to remedy this; alternatively the vsync off option above. Why Vsync has anything to do with these problems is truly beyond me but Anet really need to fix this. Screen tearing and having to run in borderless window mode to stop it is terrible. No word from them on problem or trying to fix it. Many people are having this same issue.

Then Anet need to think about the fact that every other game works fine since the “Windows bug”. They really cant blame this completely on Microsoft. After all, many people would be having problems with other games and the issue would be all over the web. Do you have a mobile Nvidia gpu as suggested above, or are you running something else?

I have had the same thing occaisionally on the 64 bit client; almost like it is going to crash for a very small instant and then “catches up” again. Strange. I can hear my gpu fans spinning down when this happens and immediately spinning faster again too. Doesnt happen all the time however.

Same problem. This bug has been going on for ages and is exceptionally annoying and broken in things such as pvp; and boss fights. Skills that involve movement used to be the prime cause but now it can happen anywhere. Bug Wars 2…..

Anet; once again, can we please get someone to comment on this bug? There are enough people that….if this specific issue does not occur for them; have a related problem of having to alt tab to get back into the game after map loading gets stuck. Are you aware of this issue with Vsync? Can you work with Nvidia asap to get something resolved. Silence is not a way of assuring people this is going to get better.

There is also some major performance issues with these latest patches. Although on my desktop rig i can hold steady framerate you can literally hear the fans working harder than they ever used to. Guild wars 2 is using nearly 5 gb of Ram, and cpu usage sometimes gets stuck on 100% (with a 2500k @ 4.6ghz) with little going on. Some real technical troubleshooting needs to be done to stop these issues and most of all, tell people you are aware of issues and are going to do something about it.

I have none of the map getting stuck problems on this rig, so that is related to Nvidia drivers and Vsync but I cant help but think my gpu is having to work harder than in previous patches when the Vsync option is checked…6 months ago temps would be about 65 in gw2 constantly on gpu; now are 73-75 and upwards in some places. Other games have remained at the same temperature. Something is wrong.

If you have a laptop with an Nvidia card, the problem is a bug with Guild wars 2 and Vsync/Compatibility with Windows 10. Running the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7 can fix this problem, as can running the game with vsync off. Then you get screen tearing etc. requiring you to run it in borderless window mode. In this case, it can impact performance.
Im surprised you havent found the buggy artifacted textures if you are having this problem of having to use task manager to get into the game. This is another issue with the same bug. Once going back into the game from task manager upon loading a new map etc (every time a new map is loaded you will have to do the same thing) artifacted textures will appear. Anet need to send a fix out for this asap. They havent even acknowledged the problem. It is specific to Guild Wars 2.

Any Anet reponse to this issue? This will be effecting most laptop/Windows 10/ Guild wars 2 users; and it is something that has been caused by one of the latest patches. Are you aware of this issue; and are taking steps to reproduce/remedy it?

Submitting tickets on this issue is painful as we are taken down a hardware fault path, and this is something that is specific to this game only.

Nvidia drivers; Optimus gpus, and Windows 10 are affected. Some response from a Dev to let us know that the problem has been spotted and is being worked on would be great as it is a Gamebreaking bug. No Nvidia driver for the last 6 months solves the issue so it is pointing towards a coding bug. As mentioned bug has something to do with Vsync/Windows 10/Compatibility.

Something has been changed it seems, as the vsync disabling method also works now. This is a development, as originally it didnt work. However screen tearing will occur even when vsync is forced in Nvidia drivers, or/and capped with Afterburner.

Tried to help someone with this same problem; tried windows 10 reinstallation, driver reinstallation (all nvidia drivers from 6 months ago) game repair, various tweaks. Problem started after game patch. ONLY OCCURS IN GW2.

Only way to solve this for them was to run the game in windows 7 compatibility mode. Ridiculous. Game worked fine before in Windows 10. Something has been broken here, and it is to do with Optimus/Nvidia drivers and Windows 10 and guild wars 2. Every time the gpu is tasked with loading assets etc it causes hanging on map screen and this artifacting type corruption in textures. Cntrl alt delete fixes it and then the corruption happens.
Win 7 compatibility mode works fine. Vsync method did not. Please ANET respond to this thread and tell us you are looking into this as despite several chats with their technical department they seem either unaware or unwilling to accept this is an issue with THIS GAME ONLY. There have been several updates since this and no word of the problem or a fix has been mentioned. Person is running a Clevo based laptop with a 870m. All latest drivers….clean windows installation was tried too. There is a bug in guild wars 2. Dev response would be nice as yr technical department seems unwilling to realise there is a common issue here.
My game works fine with r9 290 and latest AMD drivers, so there is a problem here with Nvidia/Guild wars 2. In compatibility mode things such as reshade etc will not work and also the game should not be ran like this. Occurs both in 32 bit and 64 bit client. Would appreciate a dev stepping up and saying something about this.

“Overheating” Is a word used by both of you. Overheating it may not be; but it is running at consistently hotter than required temperatures for no good reason other than bad software optimisation. This is something that seems to be rectified by updates as they create problems and then solve them; but I can guarantee it does happen on this game.

With the same cooling solution and seeing fluctuations in temperature in subsequent patches in the same area of an empty map on the same gpu driver; you kind of have to know where the changes are coming from.

And as for things being designed not to overheat, I agree. Running the cards at consistently high temperatures is not what anyone wants or needs however. We are soon to get to dx12. This is a dx 9 game. Run on modern video cards it should not get them hotter than any other dx9 game does. This is with capping framerate etc. and please be my guest and change video settings within reason to test this on a brand new card. They have very little impact on this whatsoever, and lower settings makes this game look worse than gw1. They do fix these things, and have done before, but hot areas are an example of where something is very badly coded or pushing the boundaries of an aging engine too far.
Also again….try running an old game on a brand new 980ti on the title screen or something similar with no vsync on and look at the temperatures and the capacitor whine it causes. Run the card at those settings all day and it will fail quickly. Instead of trying to tell people who already know about temperatures and what they can and cant do; how about reading the thread again, this isn’t about dust in someones card. Its about the coding in this game causing increases temperatures and workload on BOTH the cpu and gpu since hot. I dont have any issues with my set up but I certainly noticed the change in some areas too. To the op, im glad you managed to lower the temperatures a bit.

Its the latest update. I can tell you just from acoustic noise of fans that my pc is working unreasonably “harder” on this latest update. Mine has the power to not notice particular performance dips but there is something amiss on Anets side that they need to fix.
Nothing has been added really apart from the squad ui so as usual by changing something in this engine, something somewhere else has been crippled.

Kraggy.4169:

A piece of software can’t “set your GPU on fire”, overheating is due to bad or inadequate cooling which in your case doesn’t seem to tolerate the GPU being run at load.

By definition, a piece of software can’t make a processor work harder than it is designed to do, so any heat issues are poor cooling design.

Utter utter rubbish. You display a simple 3d environment on a modern gpu capable of churning out 2000 fps on that image and it will overheat and cause coil whine etc as the capacitors are strained. That is not what is happening on this game, but badly coded/optimised games also can, and will heat your gpu/cpu up more than they should; and this statement you made is utter crap. The “setting on fire” is an expression if I really need to tell you that; what they mean is their gpu is working far harder than it should be and is heating up as a result. Good cooling or not.

I have noticed (liquid cooling on cpu; tri-x cooler on gpu) that this game is really heating up the gpu/cpu a LOT more than any dx9 game should by definition. There is something badly wrong with the latest patches since HOT and they need to investigate asap. I know people who are artifacting etc. JUST on this game because of said issues. There is a major problem and Id suggest they know this. Fixing it needs to be a priority and statements like this are stupid and achieve nothing.

I see some good suggestions about cooling above, but when you have played the game extensively you can see the problems that are there now that never used to be there; users cooling issues are another “issue” entirely.

Crashes in HOT. Also more worrying is the way the game crashes. It displayed a flashing type effect on the graphics of on/off light/dark quicker and quicker and then the screen went black. Before this, artifact type images were displayed similar to ghost textures. My gpu is fine. EVERY other game runs fine. This game used to run fine, and runs fine in all other maps; but resource usage is through the roof, which didnt used to happen, and gpu/cpu temps are up. This is not the cause of the crashes which happen every time in HOT areas. I also personally know someone whose pc works fine on every other game but now displays artifacts in guild wars 2. They get missing green/blue textures and corrupted textures and the game will crash when changing graphics settings. Deleting local.dat from appdata helps once…..and then on a change of map this will happen again.
Please dedicate some people to fixing your client as something introduced in Heart of Thorns has definitely impacted the whole game stability wise. I will repeat that every other game I have works fine….library of some 100 games, and this also USED to work fine. i2500k @ 4.6ghz R9 290 latest beta drivers (and same issue on the standard drivers) and friends laptop is Geforce 870m and latest generation processor.

Just to indicate to OP that this game is heavily reliant on one thread, but by no means performs badly and on a normal map…Say Dredgehaunt, or a map that isn’t heavily populated such as a teq even or Silverwastes; that pc should smash this game and get a solid 60fps on max settings with vysnc on without fail.
The engine is a lot better than some others; but is reliant on a good cpu, which you have.
My pc = i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz. Gpu is Windforce r9 290 Stock windforce settings which are slightly overclocked. At 1080p I get a solid 60fps on all maps; and most of the time in Silverwastes too. In Lions Arch i will get around 45-60 on my server. This is on ultra without supersampling and with sweetfx installed. Running latest AMD Omega drivers.

The game tanks in fps when there are many characters displayed on screen. To achieve higher fps in these situations, you need to limit the amount of characters displayed or their detail levels. Also supersampling is overkill and is not needed at all. If you use this expect fps to drop. What im suggesting is that with the performance you have something is not right with your rig. I would reinstall all GPU drivers for a start as that gpu utilisation is not right. Mine does (as is known) use the cpu heavily but it is also using about 75% gpu power most of the time. This low usage stems usually from a driver fail. Either a useless driver release, or one that needs to be reinstalled. Make sure when doing this you fully uninstall all existing drivers every time. I would suggest that maybe Nvidias later drivers are not so great, try with an older release to eliminate that.
You also didn’t mention your power supply. A struggling power supply or a cheap/old one will cause all manner of issues and I hope this was upgraded along with the rest of the build, which looks great Imo you should be getting better performance. Keep investigating.

NilSatis.6720:

Location: UK
Time and date of incident: 20:00gmt but has been like it all day today
Ring Of Fire Eu Server
Description: Skill lag, Ping of 300+
All other games are fine and speedtest indicates normal internet use is ok too.
Havent had problems like this until recently, where it has been getting worse and worse; more so over the last week.

Id also like to add to my initial post that I use the same ip as a friend who lives 15 miles away and is having no problems with gw2. I, on the otherhand have had a ping that used to be 40 change to 150-250 and sometimes worse overnight; and is still like it.

I also have a worry that this is not going to be rectified as there seems to be little communication on the problem even being present. The problem is not with our isp’s its with your server routing or something similar; nothing would have changed my end. I would like to know why this would affect one person, and not the other on the same isp; the same contract and living near each other?

It seems to be like you are farming some of the population out to cheaper (worse) servers due to underestimating player numbers in the megaserver system or alternatively trying to cut costs. I would like to know how these people are chosen.

I would also suggest that this method will not work; noone will be purchasing the expansion if they cannot play the base game due to this. I feel like this is not an “error” but a conscious decision by you guys on the server side that is most definitely the wrong one. Please inform us if this is the case? I had excellent ping and server response before and would like to be confident you can sort this out. Good luck!

Location: UK
Time and date of incident: 20:00gmt but has been like it all day today
Ring Of Fire Eu Server
Description: Skill lag, Ping of 300+
All other games are fine and speedtest indicates normal internet use is ok too.
Havent had problems like this until recently, where it has been getting worse and worse; more so over the last week.