Guild Wars 2

Androcore.7615:

Ok regarding the buying of Alienware causing quality to go up could you compare a handbuilt system for me using similar/same parts? If this proves to have the price remaining similar then I may go Alienware. Thats not including any costs for insurance or the like. Anandtech had some articles about the recent alienware laptops and they seem to be rather dismal towards them so I am still heavily unsure at this point.

Configure a system you might like on http://www.alienware.com. Then configure a system with similar components on http://www.newegg.com and compare the cost. Remember, that the newegg components have varying warranties. If you want no hassel replacement from newegg like you would get from Alienware, you need to purchase extended warranties on every component which can get quite expensive. I recommend the 3 year warranty for any alienware system. When i compared apples to apples, I found that the Alienware was only a few hundred dollars more than the homebuilt. Its your choice. I had a hard drive blowout and a pixel go bad on my 3D HD monitor on my AW desktop system in the past 1.5 years, both were quickly replaced and I was sent a prepaid shipping label for the return. Alienware’s service and support have been outstanding.

Its your choice and your dime. Make the best decision for yourself. There are several good posts in this thread on how to build your own.

If you are looking for a good laptop, I love my Alienware M14x. I have a fully loaded one and GW2 runs great on it. Remember that a desktop will cost you half as much and run GW2 twice as fast. You should get a desktop as your primary gaming system.

Phoenix Battalion is recruiting! We are an established guild who came over together from SWTOR. We have mature, experienced leadership. We are an RP/PvP/PvE/WvWvW guild. We have Ventrilo and a website.

http://phoenixbattalion.gulidlaunch.com

Please whisper Nimothar or Sgt Bubbles in game for more info.

Ok regarding the buying of Alienware causing quality to go up could you compare a handbuilt system for me using similar/same parts? If this proves to have the price remaining similar then I may go Alienware. Thats not including any costs for insurance or the like. Anandtech had some articles about the recent alienware laptops and they seem to be rather dismal towards them so I am still heavily unsure at this point.

Building your own pc is a crapshoot. One bad component can cost you a week or two in build time and the hassel of RMAs and returns. I have found the failure rate of even high quality components to be unacceptably high. Others may have had a better experience and swear by their home built systems. Ask yourself

Do I enjoy building things and can I afford the risk?
Do I want a pre-configured system with a comprehensive warranty where all I have to do is open it up, plug it in, power it up and install GW2?

Only you can answer those questions. I would start by researching both options. Go to anandtech.com, newegg.com and alienware.com and browse around. Educate yourself and make a decision on a system that fits your needs and your budget.

GranoblasticMan.2514:

Androcore.7615:

I am curious about the differences between alienware and handbuilding my own pc. I have heard some pretty bad issues came when Dell bought Alienware and given some early posts wonder if it would be better to handbuild. If so can anyone offer suggestions as to what parts? I am in the market for a new machine and a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options. I want to stay with Nvidia and Intel if possible. Thanks in advance and thanks to all of the posters on pages 1 and 2 because there is some really good info that I have used even on my older machine.

My brother’s friend was an Alienware employee, and at least when I had the chance to chat with him a year and a half ago, he pretty much said the same thing you did: Dell took the name and cut the quality all for the sake of profit margin.

I’m a big fan of home-built, but you have to be careful with component manufacturers too. Designing a gaming machine is a bit more complicated these days than it was when I first started a decade ago… In any case, AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware are decent starting points for seeing comparisons of different parts, manufacturers, etc. I wouldn’t pay TOO much attention to benchmarks, though. Stuff like that is over-hyped… People make a big deal out of a 5-6fps difference, which in my opinion is well within the margin of error in real-world applications (ie, playing a game instead of running a benchmark)

This is purely hearsay and opposite to my own experience. I owned an Alienware laptop and an Alienware desktop before Dell bought Alienware and after Dell bought Alienware.

In fact since Dell bought Alienware, the quality has gone up and the prices have gone down by 30-40%. Not only that but the service and support has actually gotten better.

The question then becomes, does ArenaNet plan to do anything about this big hole in the gaurdians abilities?

My 53 Human Gaurdian is my main chararacter. He has been a lot of fun to play, for the most part but there is a big problem. He is useless in keep and tower defenses. I am uable to put any damage on the enemy while defending a tower or keep and there is no credit given for support. My gaurdian has essentially no ranged abilities. The staff should provide better ranged capabilities but it doesnt.

I have a Charr warrior and I was shocked to find that he can use a bow and a full bar of skills to go with it that are on a par with my Ranger. I am considering shelving my gaurdian for a warrior. Lets face it guys, that bow the warriors are given is uber for ranged. There is no point in wishing that gaurdians had effective ranged abilities, we must deal with what is.

MajorRocker.8143:

I was actually hoping to find something Nvidia related from the OP. 3 pages of PC tech and 1 item pertaining to Nvidia drivers:/

I have made several posts about Nvida drivers. This is the driver you want (depending on your OS and GPU)

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/48847

The 306.23 driver fully supports GW2 on Nvida GPUs. There may be exceptions for older GPUs. I do think the 400, 500 and 600 series GPUs are covered by that driver.

Arugess.8754:

I don’t understand why this thread is stickied to begin with. It’s not so much a helpful thread as it is someone spent a lot more money on a computer than they probably should’ve and just needed to boast about it online. There are some useful tips but they get buried underneath the massive weight of a pungent ego~cylindrical.

First off – isn’t the purpose of purchasing a high end PC such that you don’t have to tweak it? The immediate second comment from Syn says it all – If you’re not getting “good stable performance” with any machine that costs more than $2000 USD then you need to return that machine.

This like someone walking into a room where everyone drives a Toyota Corolla, and trying to give them advice on how to keep the engine on your high-end Lexus from breaking down by looking under the hood and checking the oil.

If you spent so much on a system you should be able to run the game with multiple browsers up, instant messenger client on, and another MMO alt-tabbed in the background.

The only tip I would think is useful to give to your typical end user is:

Display -> Adjust Desktop Color Settings -> Digital Vibrance

Play with that setting – it can do wonderful things.

At risk of getting on my high horse now, there’s more to a gaming environment than just FPS. People keep talking about it like that’s the only thing important to gaming. For example, below is my system. It’s quiet, as in SPCR build quiet. I can sleep in that room with the computer on. I can watch movies on it with my lady without having to hear constant fan thrumming noise. Its got air filters on it so I don’t have to air-spray the insides all the time, I just need to talk the filters off and clean those. There are never any dust bunnies inside the case, and I’ve had the computer for a year. The most annoying thing about it was the blue power light – I actually had to stick a bit of masking tape over it because it was too bright when I had the room lights off.

So many myths, so much bias and misinformation in this post. A few responses

1. How much myself or anyone else spent on our PCs is not your concern. Opinions are like… well you know and no one wants yours on how we spend our money. I bought the GW2 collectors edition, you going to give me a hard time about that too? Seems to me that PC gaming is a less harmful vice than most.

2. High end games, especially new high end games usually have more issues on high end PCs than on simple, inexpensive PCs, assuming a minimum level of performance is there. High end pcs usuallyhave more devices and therefore more drivers. Just because you have the bandwidth doesnt mean you should waste it.

3. Do not assume that your experience with your PC applies to everyone.

4. High end PCs present a greater challenge for gamers and game developers than do simpler, less complex systems. One video card is slower than two (other things being equal) but most games tend to run better on one GPU than two. On board sound usually has less issues than a dedicated sound card but not always. I could go on and on, you get the idea.

Lets try to stay focused on helping people run GW2 better on their PCs, especially high end PCs.

What it comes down to with build it yourself are the answers to the following questions:

1. Do I have the time to spend researching components for my home-built system?
2. Do I have the patience to wait while I am waiting for an RMA replacement component to come back after being replaced?
3. Do I have the spare funds to pay for two of the same components because most RMAs require a credit card number to cover the cost of the replacement part which is then refunded when the broken part is recieved?
4. Can I actually build the system without damaging the components in the process (liquid cooling is a prime example of this)?
5. Do I have the patience to browse overclocking forums, study product spec sheets, find the right burn-test programs, configure and thoroughly test every single component as each one is installed?
6. Do I have the patience to reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows, download and tweaking drivers, games and other software over and over again until I get a good, fast, stable windows configuration?
7. Do I have the patience and money to repeat steps 1-6 over and over again until I finally get my system tweaked and optimized just right?

If the answers are yes to all of those questions, you are an overclocking enthusiast and you should definitely build and overclock your own system. If they answer is no, then let someone like http://www.alienware.com or http://www.falcon-nw.com do it for you.

Where do you get information on which components are the best fo ryour new home-built gaming rig?

http://www.anandtech.com

is a good place to start.

Where should you buy the components for your home-built system?

http://www.newegg.com

is a good place to start.

Just in case you are thinking of overclocking, let me give you an idea of what waits for you if you do it right. First, go to

http://memtest.org/

and create a memtest boot CD. Now build your system to the point where you have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, motherboard, power supply, cpu and one video card installed (you can add a hard drive but it is not essential. Ok now add a single stick of memory and boot from your memtest CD. Allow memtest to test each stick of memory you purchased individually by swapping each one of them one at a time.

Ok now you are ready to add the rest of your components but you may want to hold off on the second, third etc video cards and more than one stick of memory because of one simple fact. The more memory your system has, the hotter your CPU will get when you burn test it. So now you get to start burn testing with one stick of memory, then two, then four etc. The more you memory you add, the hotter your cpu will get. Oh, and did I forget to mention that you need to do this every time you change your CPUs bios settings?

Someone brought up Intel Burn Test (IBT). IBT is imho the best cpu burn testing program, yes there are others but IBT is the best. IBT allows you to test your cpu at different levels, depending on how much memory you want to test. What it does is assume a certain level of memory usage and run its tests accordingly. With one stick of memory at 100% usage your cpu should be ok. However, if you start out testing 8 GB or even 16 GB of 1600 MHz+ memory at 100% usage, you will find that your cpu gets really hot, really fast. Now you are in the danger zone and if you are not careful you will cook your CPU, memory, controller, chipset etc.

You cannot and should not assume that you can just substitute the overclock parameters from a similarly configured system into yours and assume they will work without testing. Even small variations in hardware configuration can cause widely varying results.

Now, what is a good resource for hardware and support for overclocking enthusiasts?

Look no further than

http://www.evga.com/default.asp

eVGA has in my opinion the best overclocking hardware, sofware and support on the market. Their forums have some of the top overclocking experts around. Yes, there are other component manufacturers and overclocking sites but imho, eVGA is the best.

Good luck with your overclocked system!

May you not turn it into a molten pile of silicon and lead.

Chavo.3807:

There is a big difference in a processor shutting down cores to stay withing thermal limits (note the top speeds in turbo boost are always with only 1 core active..dont know about you but we are in the multi-core era last time I looked) and one that is overclocked to have all 4 cores running at a certain speed (and stable having passed all those dreaded CPU killing programs)…Next time you want to link a bunch of Intel Marketing Data read it yourself before commenting on it please. Your comparing apples and oranges, turbo boost and overclocking via bios by altering your v-core, multipliers, ram voltage and timings, memory dividers, etc are totally different creatures.

Thats only partially correct, you don’t necessarily need to overclock to play GW2, but doing so is not irresponsible and does not necessarily involve the purchase of expensive components. Note you pointed out purchase of expensive components and Alienware is probably the most expensive/worst bang for your buck way to go about getting a gaming computer unless its for a laptop only. On the contrary many people overclock as a means of taking a $200 dollar processor and making it match the performance of a $1000+ one. Ever wonder why Intel and AMD provide unlocked multipliers on their processors (and no its not to slow them down they already have Cool and Quiet (AMD) & Speedstep (Intel) which dynamically changes speeds based on load. Look at the entire industry, many motherboards are marketed as overclocker friendly with increased power phases on the VRM section, a more open bios, dual bio’s made as a backup in case on gets corrupted, etc. This whole argument I’ve had going on isn’t about whether overclocking or building your own computer will add to your GW2 experience, its about whether its as “Irresponsible” and “dangerous” as you would have everyone believe.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

But the issue isn’t do you need to overclock to play GW2, that all depends. If you are using a Core 2 processor or possibly first generation I7/I5/I3 or Bulldozer/Phenom II,Thuban, you will probably see a difference in overclocking somewhat. With Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge not so much since they are already extremely fast to begin with. TBH I don’t overclock, I used to, but my processor is fast enough at stock. Did I quit because I think somehow my processor is going to blow up? No, sure there is a such thing as electron mitigation that will slowly kill a processor over time or contribute to its death if you raise voltages too close or past what Intel or AMD stipulates in their whitesheets, but inta-killing a processor on reasonable voltages is almost unheard of unless the processor was defective to begin with. Both my computer and my sons computer (which is a AMD Phenom Based machine I passed down to him a year and a half ago) have been overclocked for periods of more than a year and a half before being returned to stock and both are running fine day in and day out no bluescreens, nothing out of the ordinary.

Ok so TurboBoost is not self-overclocking? Ok then exactly what is it? You think that they i7 doesnt change all sorts of CPU parameters when it overclocks itself? Yes, TurboBoost most definitely is overclocking.

No, Alienware is not the most expensive pre-built gaming PC anymore nor is it the worst bang for the buck. In fact the Alienware X51 Desktop starts at $699.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

Please stop spouting false myths about Alienware. In fact I priced other manufacturers systems and a bulid-it-myself system purchasing components from newegg.com before purchasing my Aurora R3. Hate to burst your Alienware-hating bubbles but the Alienware was definitely not the most expensive. The Aurora R3 was only a few hundred dollars more than buying the components separately from newegg.com. The difference between build it myself and Alienware was about the same as the Alienware with the warranty. Alienwares prices have come down a lot since they were purchased by Dell.

Sokelial.1428:

I just recently built a new computer and it has been running the game great. Though I’m really not sure what to do about the FPS limiter option. I’ve had it set to unlimited and have no problems but was wondering if I should have it set at 60.

My PC: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/flwB

I have heard mixed reviews on this issue. I do not use the FPS limiter but some do.

Opinions?

Zalastra.6290:

Samaul.6073:

Samuel, you’ve named your topic “How to get the most out of your high end PC” Simply put overclocking makes you do that. It’s perfectly safe IF you inform yourself on this topic. I think that Rolo’s issue is that you advice people to not overclock based on false/outdated info. While I can perfectly see that you do not want to advice people to overclock and I would definitely agree with you to not advice it. It’s a whole other matter to advice people to not do it at all.

Some people need to get a grip on reality when it comes to talking about overclocking in the official GW2 forums. Lets say that we turn this into a massive overclocking thread. Then someone fries one or more components in their high end PC. Who are they going to blame? You guessed it, ArenaNet.

Lets try to be responsible. Leave the overclocking discussion to the overclocking enthusiast sites.

I don’t think you’ve really read my post. I clearly stated to not be in favor of advising to overclock, I opposed your statement of advising against it.

wolonggong.3469:

Its a great list of advice but I would add one to it…and its one tip that I continually see overlooked for some reason even though it should be on every single gamers list for their system.

A small fan, round about 3 inches in size facing the front of your systems intake can help keep the temp of your system down a tremendous amount. Larger fans does NOT make a difference, in fact is worse. A very small fan, right outside the case blowing inward works far better than a case fan, just inside the case does.

Eh what? Bigger fans being worse, are you kiddin me? Bigger fan means more airflow, or letting it run much slower for the same airflow but while being much more silent, or a combination of both. Yes a fan outside your case could help in addition to case fans and possible, depending on a situation actually be more useful than an additional front intake fan, yet it’s certainly no replacement and I personally wouldn’t want it for the noise. Nor is it as much a must as you seem to think it is.

Yes, I read your post and I think we agree.

The determining factor in fan size is how big is the slot you have to put it in. Put the biggest fan that can fit in that slot.

Chavo.3807:

Overclocking programs don’t fry cpus, extreme voltage combined with improperly cooling processors do.

The programs themselves as I already stated are harmless, they just put a 100% load on the processor.

IBT is harmless? “they just put a 100% load on the processor”?

I dont think you have any clue what you are talking about when you say things like that. Tell me, what consitutes a 100% load on your CPU? How is that defined? There is one key configuration stat that determines the load on your cpu, all other factors being equal. Do you know what that is?

These statements are categorically false and inaccurate. Statements like this one lead me to believe that you may not be the overclocking expert that you claim to be.

Yes, there are cpu burn test programs used by overclockers that can fry your cpu. I can think of one in particular that can do it at cpu settings that might not be considered extreme. It is in fact the best cpu setting burn test program. If your cpu can survive this burn tester at certain settings then it could be considered stable at those settings. However, again, the risk of damaging your cpu or other components is very high with that burn test program and others like it. Use it at your own risk.

The fact is that with Intel’s Turbo Boost, many high end CPUs are self-overclocking. For example, the i7 3820QM processor in my M14x that I am on right now is capable of increasing its normal clock speed of 2.7 GHz to 3.7 GHz under load conditions.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64889/Intel-Core-i7-3820QM-Processor-(8M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz)?wapkw=3820qm

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/benchmarks/laptop/3rd-gen-core-i7-3820qm-mobile.html

That processor, a mobile processor can safely overlcok itself a full 1GHz!

The i7 3770 desktop processor can overclock itself to 3.9 GHz and it has an unlocked multiplier allowing even higher turbo boost speeds

http://ark.intel.com/products/65523/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

Just 2 or 3 years ago, overclocking enthusiasts would be happy to get those clock speeds out of their systems. So there really is no debate about overclocking. Your high intel PC with Turbo Boost 2.0

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/turbo-boost-technology-video.html?wapkw=turbo+boost+2.0

can safely overclock itself. If you want to push the envelope further, you can do that but it can be risky. I recommend letting a PC builder like Alienware or Falcon Northwest do it for you. They take all the risk in burning-in your systems overclock and warranty the result.

You do not need to overclock your system to get good performance out of GW2. Again, most of the new i7 processors overclock themselves. You can improve your GW2 performance by following the responsible suggestions I and others have given you that do not involve great risk to your system and the purchase of expensive components.

wolonggong.3469:

Its a great list of advice but I would add one to it…and its one tip that I continually see overlooked for some reason even though it should be on every single gamers list for their system.

A small fan, round about 3 inches in size facing the front of your systems intake can help keep the temp of your system down a tremendous amount. Larger fans does NOT make a difference, in fact is worse. A very small fan, right outside the case blowing inward works far better than a case fan, just inside the case does.

I agree, a well placed fan can work wonders for keeping your PC cooler.

Samuel, you’ve named your topic “How to get the most out of your high end PC” Simply put overclocking makes you do that. It’s perfectly safe IF you inform yourself on this topic. I think that Rolo’s issue is that you advice people to not overclock based on false/outdated info. While I can perfectly see that you do not want to advice people to overclock and I would definitely agree with you to not advice it. It’s a whole other matter to advice people to not do it at all.

Some people need to get a grip on reality when it comes to talking about overclocking in the official GW2 forums. Lets say that we turn this into a massive overclocking thread. Then someone fries one or more components in their high end PC. Who are they going to blame? You guessed it, ArenaNet.

Lets try to be responsible. Leave the overclocking discussion to the overclocking enthusiast sites.

I will suggest two free, non-destructive programs that can shed light on what is going on with your system. They are cpu-z

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

and gpu-z

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

These utilities just provide information. I will refrain from suggesting programs that can modify clock rates, clock multipliers, voltages etc.

FatFuzzy.2659:

My 2 cents: DON’T overclock!! You’ll fry ur stuff, void ur warranty, and get negligible performance increases. To whomever keeps getting the blue screens, ur video card is probably dying…..Also, i just keep the side of my PC case OFF and have a little fan i use to blow up on it, keep it cool. Gets dustier ya, but that’s what the compressed air cans are for.

EDIT: The blue screen advice for laurie….sry

And a THANKS to Rolo/Sam and others for sharing their knowledge w/ the community…!! Tom’s h/w site had some great stuff on fps data w/ all the different chips. I7 still market leader, w/ amd’s close behind. I don’t goto the benchmarking sites anymore just cuz I don’t wanna know I need five grand in upgrades!! lol I built my system for around 800 bux off newegg & tiger and it’s smokin!!

Good advice. I do think that factory overclocking can be effective and safe. It has been for me. I very much enjoyed overclocking my homebuilt system but I ended up spending more time tweaking my system than gaming. The purpose of this thread is to help ppl play GW2 better, not spend all their time swapping components, running benchmarks and burn testers.

Cytheria.2867:

just for refor reference, i recommended memtest for its ability to test ram for physical faults, nt for use in overclocking a system, precisely because its not the kind of test thats going to fry your cpu but will still generate data that can actually be of use (particularly because faulty physical memory has caused blue screens as described in a number of games ive supported)
You clearly know a little about supporting a pc, but please do me the service of both assuming you are not the only person who does, but also reading what I actually wrote and noticing the fact that clocking as never mentioned with regards to troubleshooting his issue. It’s
always dishearting to find someone trying to prov
de support whilst making crass assumptions and ignoring what they are told, particuarly on forums like this where they’d very likely be the same people to complain that the official support techs are overly reliant on scripts and email templates.

Moot point regardless, given his distinct lack of a response since, I suspect the issue has already been resolved or they’ve given up on it.

This is not a PC support thread. I am not going to debate PC support with you. The purpose of this thread is to suggest ways to improve GW2 performance on high end PCs without getting your GPU or CPU so hot you can fry an egg on it.

To suggest that someone who has a PC with a warranty on it seek technical support from the vendor they got it from is very good advice. I suggest everyone who is in that situation who reads this follow that advice.

Rolo.9248:

Nobody suggested that either—and you are the one who suggested benchmarks!
To optimally tweak a system one has to find the optimal clocks and voltages one’s components can reliably run at full load.

Again, this is not an overclocking forum and this is not an overclocking thread. There are plenty of those out there. There is a good reason that I am not sharing my extensive overclocking knowledge here. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. There is no way to start the overclocking process without taking significant risk. Again, there is one cpu overclocking test program that can literally fry a cpu in a matter of minutes or seconds. I am not going to share that knowledge here no matter how much you insult me or impugn my knowledge of high end PCs and overclocking.

WARNING:

If you overclock your components, you can seriously damage them or cause them to permanently fail. Changing voltages, clock multipliers and memory parameters can result in extreme heat and instability in your components. Do so at your own risk.

Asja Kadric is the vocal artist who sings “Fear Not This Night” on the GW2 sound track. Can you believe that this woman with her voice and her looks is a schoolteacher?

http://rs.linkedin.com/pub/asja-kadric/52/836/706

I would pay to hear more of her singing, especially if it was for Guild Wars 2

I have thoroughly tested GW2 with the latest Nvidia 306.23 WHQL driver using the following settings

2x GTX 560 ti
1920×1080 resolution
Autodetect Graphics settings (High/Medium)
SLI Enabled
Nvidia 3D Vision Enabled
Nvidia 3D Vision Disabled

I found GW2 performance to be excellent. I had no crashes or visual anomalies. I experienced no 3d lag. I did experience some slight mouse pointer hitching when moving the pointer from ui elements to game elements but less than with previous drivers. GW2s 3D is rated as excellent and that has been my experience with it.

You can get the new nvidia drivers here:

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

I ran the new drivers through 3DMark11 and got the following results

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4398362
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4397850

This is an improvement over the previous driver

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4018632
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3883418

3DMark11 is a gaming benchmark that will provide you with a relative measure of gaming performance. I recommend running 3DMark11 after every driver update.

re: 3Dmark. Benchmarks don’t really reflect real-world performance (ATI proved that, heh) and performance varies from game to game. The only performance that matters is sustained FPS in the game(s) one plays.

re: overclocking. I don’t recommend those designer systems for three chief reasons: cost, knowledge, and performance. For the price, one can build a far better performer or save the money (which would allow more users to have high-performance hardware).

For the knowledge that when you build it yourself, you can troubleshoot it and tweak it optimally; you won’t have practical experience if someone else does it for you. For performance for two reasons: you’ll pick better hardware because overhead isn’t an issue and you’ll tune it to its full capability rather than what’s commonly reliable without adding to tech support requests.

Building your own and overclocking it is very risky. By definition when you overclock if you do it right, you are pushing your system to its limit of performance, stability and heat tolerance. When you exceed your systems specifications, you risk damaging its components. There is no way to avoid the risk if you build your own and overclock.

In my experience, Alienware and Falcon-Northwest are only slightly more costly than buying high quality components and building it yourself. When you guy a pre-configured, factory overclocked system, you are letting falcon-nw and aw take the risk for you. They can afford to buy components in massive bulk and test them. They run components through a process called binning. They stress-test components and then put them in separate stacks or bins based on how well they dissapate heat and perform. Can you afford to buy components by the thousands, test them all, keep the good ones and throw out or return the bad ones? I am here to play GW2, not spend all my time tweaking my system so that I can get a few more fps out of it. I am happy to let aw do that for me.

I agree that overlocking and building your own system can be fun but it can also be very frustrating and expensive. I found building my own system to be much more expensive than letting someone else do it for me. Building my own was a never ending process of research, stress testing, RMAs and returns for defective components and endless upgrades. I have made only one change to my AW system, I upgraded the video cards from GTX 460s to GTX 560 tis. If something goes wrong with my system, I call alienware and they replace any failed or defective components.

Lets try to limit the advice in this thread to non-invasive, non-destructive system modifications and tweaks. Again the purpose of this thread is to help others tweak their existing system so that it runs GW2 better, not win benchmark contests with liquid-notrogen cooled super systems.

Hey guys how many FPS will i get with this build
Intel Core i7 3770k(3.50GHz)
8GB DDR3 2TB HDD
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660 Ti
WIndows 7 64-Bit
Got an Asus VS248H HDMI to go with it

3DMark11 is a good gaming benchmark. Go to their online result browser and browse systems similar to yours or what you want to build.

http://www.3dmark.com/search

You should be able to find a system that is similar to what you are looking for and see its scores.

Once this is done, grab a usb disk or blank cd, head over to memtest.org and snag the latest copy of the memtest iso, burn it, and then boot from it.

As your system bears all the hallmarks of being a custom build rather than store bought, its worth running memtest to ensure that your electronics retailer of choice didn’t send you some dodgy ram. It doesnt matter if its the latest Ocz Ultramega ram of pwnage, or value ram from the thrift store, occasionally memory sticks have physical errors, and they may only show up when a specific application (like GW2) accesses a dodgy sector on the stick that normally doesnt get touched.

memtest (memtest.org) is a great memory testing tool and invaluable for overclockers.

However, this is not an overclocking guide. I have purposely refrained from giving overclocking tips because I dont think it is appropriate to advise GW2/ArenaNet customers to overclock their system in this forum. There is at least one overclocking test program that can literally fry your cpu and chipset. the purpose of this thread is to make your already running and configured system make GW2 run better, not push the CPU or GPU overclocking envelope.

If you want to overclock, I recommend factory overclocked systems and components. The best are http://www.falcon-nw.com/ and http://www.alienware.com. Before you go insulting Alienware, remember that Dell/Alienware are sponsors and advertisers of GW2. When you insult Alienware and AW users, you are insulting GW2 and ArenaNet.

Laurie.1698:

I know there must be more I can check for (I hope hehe) because I’m still getting the bluescreen crashing. Its random, all the sudden, loud buzzing noise in my headphones and I’m bluescreened with memory dump and reboot. I looked at the dump file and there were a few indicators that it might have been from my virus program which is Avast, so I disabled before I played and its still happening.

“It isn’t random; it may be difficult to see the pattern/circumstances but some set of conditions are met to cause it. Also, I don’t know why so many people report that they get an error but leave out what that error is: it is your primary lead into diagnosing the issue.”

Sorry. I know its not random, it has to do with the video card. I must say that I have been a server admin for a very long time but on Linux, not windows so I haven’t attempted to use a windows based product for a very long time until I wanted to play GW2 after the long wait.

I thought perhaps someone had noticed a discrepancy in how the NVIDIA card was working with the GW2 program. I should have been more specific in what I was seeking, my apologizes.

In my experience, most blue-screen errors are caused by the GPU, specifically the GPU overheating. Go ahead and download the new driver that I linked above, install it and try it.

There is a new 306.23 GT 650M (and for other desktop and notebook GPUs) Driver from Nvidia

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/48693

I have downloaded, installed and tested it using 3DMark11. My 3D Mark11 results with the new driver

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4388730

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result – Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M14xR2 score: P2356 3DMarks

My 3DMark11 results with the 296.1 driver

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4181858

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result – Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M14xR2 score: P2332 3DMarks

My 3DMark11 score went up from 2332 to 2356.

I did briefly run GW2 on my M14x with the new GT 650 M driver. I was getting 65 FPS on Auto-detect, high/medium settings at 1600×900 at the Icesteppes in the Windswept Hills. The image quality seemed very good.

I have not yet installed 306.2 on my 2x GTX 560 ti SLI but I will update this post when I do.

There is a new 306.23 GT 560 M Driver from Nvidia

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/48693

I have downloaded, installed and tested it using 3DMark11. My 3D Mark11 results with the new driver

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4388730

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result – Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M14xR2 score: P2356 3DMarks

My 3DMark11 results with the 296.1 driver

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4181858

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result – Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M14xR2 score: P2332 3DMarks

My 3DMark11 score went up from 2332 to 2356.

Notsure.7028:

Liquid cooled rig with 2 560’s SLI and only 40-80 FPS? I run a core I7-3770k with a single gtx 580 and 32Gb ram, and I get 50-110 FPS even in WvW. (CPU Overclocked to 4GHZ on air, temp never exceeds 50 celsius)

How is it you get significantly lower FPS than me with what appears to be on the surface a superior rig?

Answer: SLI is something that should be avoided at all costs. VERY few games are actually coded with this in mind (even if Nvidia says it has a profile for the game, or that the game maker says it supports SLI is NOT the same thing) 99% of the time SLI = lower FPS than single card solutions.

A game coded for SLI with drivers that are coded for SLI = better performance than a single card solution, but again 99.9% of games dont fit this.

In absolute terms, according to the most reliable gaming benchmark, 3DMark11, SLI outperforms a single-gpu configuration consistently, (assuming the single and dual GPUs are the same model). In my experience, the performance boost is over 40% for SLI vs. single GPU. If you have had poor results with SLI, look at game and driver compatability and system heat.

Assuming you have the right video driver, SLI performance is absolutely, positively superior to single-gpu performance for GW2 (depending on the GPUs being compared). The frame rate figures I gave are for heavy wvwvw. Normal frame rates are up around 80-110 fps.

What SLI does provide is much higher minimum frame rates. Max frame rates are rarely the issue. Its minimum frame rates that count. Basically, if you are running SLI, dont listen to the post I quoted above. Get the right driver and enjoy your SLI system. The SLI profile for GW2 in the Nvidia driver was developed by Nvidia in cooperation with ArenaNet. I do need to qualify that SLI performance and stability are heavily driver dependent.

Rolo.9248:

KjarlSeaspite.9573:

If you have a problem with heat, use the FPS limiter in the graphics option

The GW2 limiter doesn’t work correctly; it actually limited mine to 50 when set to 60. It’s redundant anyway since vsynch essentially does the same thing whilst eliminating tearing.

Oconell.8673:

Samaul.6073:

7. Get a can of compressed air, open up your case and carefully blow all of the dust out of your system.

Wrong. Don’t do this or you may very well damage your components. The correct way to do that is to get an air compressor and compress it yourself. But that’s neither cheap or efficient.

The official line for this is to use no more than 30 PSI and to use an ESD vacuum (which will cost you ~$300). Just ground yourself, your components, and your tools before having them interact.

As for damaging components, just don’t force the fans to spin 9,000 RPM with it and you’ll be fine. If something breaks from a can of compressed air, it was broken anyway!

-+-

re: desktop vs. laptop. There’s no argument there as the answer lies in the user’s requirements.

Samaul.6073:

Building your own is a huge risk, especially if you use OEM components which have no warranty. What you have to do if you are overclocking is get extended warraties on all of the OCed components so that if you fry them while testing them, you can return them, no questions asked. Been there, done that, no thank you!

I don’t know/use any OEM components that have no warranty. The shortest OEM warranty I’ve seen/used is 30-days and that’s plenty of time to stress-test a CPU for defects. Otherwise, everything else is 90 days to 5 years. I’ve been building PCs since 1989 and overclocked everything since 1991 and the only components I’ve had fail are IBM DeathStar and Western Digital hard drives (those weren’t overclocked).

If you fry components, you are doing it waaaay wrong!

Samaul.6073:

I have a degree in elecrical engineering and I build software for a a living. I think it is safe to say that I dont need a lecture on PC perfromance.

An SSD will give you the biggest real-world pc gaming performance boost of any component you can buy. SSDs are also very expensive. A new Video card may be a more cost-effective investment.

GW2 really isnt that demanding on my desktop or even my laptop so far.

Since you’re whippin’ it out, I am a retired Electronics Engineer—to wit none of that matters since neither of us has a degree in infallibility or omniscience. I’ve stated facts about hardware as they apply to GW2 gaming: SSD only applies to loading assets, instruction into RAM/VRAM, period.

Your above statement is false; an SSD will not give you any GW2 performance gain as it pertains to FPS, only load times for the reasons I’ve explained. As far as which component would yield the biggest performance gain, it depends on the machine in question; i.e. a better video card won’t make much—if any—difference if the CPU is at max utilisation and contrarily, a better CPU won’t matter if the video card(s) are pegged at 100%.

-+-

Another note on SSD’s. They will make the entire machine far more responsive and are well worth the money. SSD’s small capacity is moot with Intel’s RST (Z68 chipsets) as it will cache whatever you are using, effectively making the SSD boost your entire hard drive. I have a 2TB drive full and everything loads instantly.

I have found the failure rate of even high-end components to be extremely high. If you buy OEM components with a 30, 60 or 90 day warranty, you may have to go directly to the manufacturer for replacement which means YOU have to contact the company, get the RMA and pay the shipping cost for the item and wait until a replacement comes back. You may have to do that with retail components as well. If for example, you buy the extended warranty from newegg, you can get the component replaced quickly with no questions asked and they are likely to pay the shipping. Get the extended warranty, its worth it.

By the time you get all of your components, burn test them, build and configure them, you will find you have just about bought a new Alienware system. All of those extended warranties on your components will pay for a 3 or 4 year alienware warranty.

If you are a true enthusiast and you love the entire selection, burn-in, build and configuration process and have the spendable cash, then building your own pc can be a lot of fun. Go to http://www.anandtech.com for advice on what to buy then go to http://www.newegg.com to get what you need.

If all you want to do is power up, install and play your favorite games, go to http://www.alienware.com. I do not have the time to build my own PC so I let Alienware do it for me.

Desolutional.3874:

SSDs are only good for games where you don’t have to wait for everyone else to load the levels, in games such as shooters, there’s usually a 15 second wait after the host has loaded the level and connected to another person. SSDs are probably only useful at the moment for the performance savvy and enthusiasts, and until they get much cheaper many gamers will stick with your bog standard, trusty HDDs (not necessarily RAID 0, which sucks for gaming), plus the capacity too, there’s always a trade-off;

SSDs – Extreme Performance, Low-Medium Capacity, Not compatible with All Mobos, No Risk of Mechanical Damage, etc.
HDDs – Standard Performance, High-Extreme Capacity, Compatible with ALL Mobos, can break if dropped or vibrated when operating, however early prediction of data corruption is possible (with S.M.A.R.T) so you can go out and buy another HDD and transfer all your data across.

In real world terms, my M14x laptop with its 512 GB SSD runs most games faster than my Aurora R3 desktop. There is no wait when launching, zoning, loading textures etc. SSDs are extremely fast. Is an SSD worth the investment? For a deskop, maybe not, for a laptop, definitely.

Of course my desktop is running GW2 at 1080p on a 23 inch monitor with a Klipsch speaker system, full sized keyboard and mouse. While laptop components do have similar model numbers and product names to desktops, look at say video cards on a desktop vs a laptop and you will notice that a GTX 560 can run games much faster than a GT 660M. The same goes for laptop vs desktop cpus. On balance, the desktop is a much better gaming system.

Rolo.9248:

CPUs and GPUs don’t lag, networks do. Storage has nothing to do with it when the CPU is the bottleneck by having more to process than it can handle, leaving the GPU to wait. Instructions and data are stored in main RAM and GPU RAM, not storage.

SSD will only have an impact when you initially load the game and instance asset loading, which has to wait for the network for mob data anyway. Basically, you’ll appear in an instance before mechanical drive users (and RAID0/0+1 users will appear before single drive users) but this has nothing to do with FPS.

I have a degree in elecrical engineering and I build software for a a living. I think it is safe to say that I dont need a lecture on PC perfromance.

An SSD will give you the biggest real-world pc gaming performance boost of any component you can buy. SSDs are also very expensive. A new Video card may be a more cost-effective investment.

GW2 really isnt that demanding on my desktop or even my laptop so far.

Rolo.9248:

Your Wolfdale can’t feed your 560Ti data fast enough (I had a 580 on one at 3.66GHz and it just was bored silly whilst the CPU was completely taxed).

I have never noticed any cpu lag with my system. I think the primary drag is the 2x 1tb 7200 rpm hds in raid 0. SSDs FTW!

Erim Elidor.3892:

Well, I actually overclocked my notebook CPU, from 2.1GHz to 2.8Ghz. It runs very well, no crashes and no overheat, the cores rarely get to 60 celsius.

Maybe it’s because the airflow design is very good, its a Sager np5793. I have a cooling pad and watch over my temps on a second monitor but they have been very good even after playing lots of hours.

I strongly recommend against overclocking any gaming notebook or laptop that is under warranty. You are likely to cook one or more components. You may not notice right away but it will cause your components to wear out much faster than they would normally.

Rolo.9248:

Synyst.2163:

Can someone please clarify the assertion that ‘heat’ is the cause of an FPS drop? The game is pretty good at staying in the 98-100% cpu load range on a C2D, so I think the issue is better explained as the game being CPU bound, therefore freeing up CPU cycles and overclocking, temp lowering, and stopping services have the larger overall benefit.

No offence but lots of things are “CPU bound” with an 8-year old CPU (that’s like, 480 Moore’s dog-years). GW2 is not CPU bound on a contemporary mid-range CPU (i5), judging by mine hovering ~50% utilisation.

Heat only drops performance if components down-clock to generate less heat or components falter because of heat (crashes, lock-ups, power-offs).

Samaul.6073:

No, I spent less than 4k on my Aurora R3.

Ouch. Building one’s own yields two chief benefits: hand-picking all components and halving the cost.

Teknobug.3782:

If it ain’t broke, why fix it.

Performance improvements and bug fixes are why.

Building your own is a huge risk, especially if you use OEM components which have no warranty. What you have to do if you are overclocking is get extended warraties on all of the OCed components so that if you fry them while testing them, you can return them, no questions asked. Been there, done that, no thank you!

Nakama.8976:

Samaul.6073:

I drive a liquid-cooled Alienware Aurora R3 with an i7 2700k CPU overclocked to 4GHz. It has 8 GB of 1866 RAM and 2x Nvidia GTX 560 ti SLI. I am getting about 40-80 fps at 1080p on high (autodetect) settings everywhere including wvwvw. My 3DMark 11 scores for my desktop:

X2898: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3883215
P8299: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3883418

According to 3dmark, your CPU runs at 2.4 – 2.8GHz
Your GTX core clock is at 822MHz.
Your RAM is clocked at 1333MHz
where’s the overclock?

And btw, your performance score should be way higher than P8300. At least P10500 with that setup, after OC of course.

It is a turbo-boost factory overclock. The actual overclock is 4.1 GHz. AW maxed the multiplier. I have tested the stability and it is a rock-solid stable overclock. All instability issues I have had have been GPU related. I could probably push the 3DMark11 score higher but at the price of stability. I think what is limiting the 3DMark11 score is the closeness of the video cards, they are right next to each other. I could turn my case fans much higher to cool them down but that makes my pc sound like a vacum cleaner.

Tetsuo.2593:

I have a I5 2500K, 8GB DD3 1600 Ram, Nvidia GTX 570. Everything was fine until about a week ago, playing with max settings pretty fine. Then, after a game patch my GPU usage hits 100% pretty much all the time, with some serious video lag. I tried reducing my graphic settings to low (best performance) and the usage keeps at 100% (I can easily keep track of this with the Vista 7 sidebar app for GPU usage). I’m running the latest beta driver and kinda of run out of options. Any ideas?

What are your settings?

You may want to try uninstalling then reinstalling your video drivers, all of them. A driver cleaner like DriverSweeper could help with that process. Follow the instructions carefully.

Masterpyro.4310:

Do you have any actual tips specifically for the Nvidia GPU settings? The title is a bit misleading when you only provide fan speed information.

Use the 306.2 driver with default settings, SLI enabled. The 306.2 driver has a GW2 profile with settings optimized for GW2. The GW2 profile was developed in cooperation with ArenaNet. The profile will be auto-selected when you launch GW2. All you have to do is play the game.

Synyst.2163:

Can someone please clarify the assertion that ‘heat’ is the cause of an FPS drop? The game is pretty good at staying in the 98-100% cpu load range on a C2D, so I think the issue is better explained as the game being CPU bound, therefore freeing up CPU cycles and overclocking, temp lowering, and stopping services have the larger overall benefit.

The harder your cpu and gpu work, the hotter they get. The hotter they get, the slower they run. If they get hot enough, one of them will generate an error and your game or system will crash.

Whiplash.7124:

I still don’t understand why people would spend the money on an Alienware…..this guy probably spent between5-6k for his deskptop and 120hz monitor for 3d. He does have solid points for heating being the main issue with fps drops, but he has a liquid cooled system he shouldn’t be having any problems even with subpar fan cooling setup.

No, I spent less than 4k on my Aurora R3. AW has come down a lot since dell bought them. In fact, they are only a few hundred more than what it would have cost to buy the components and build it myself and best of all, I dont have to bin my own components.

Rolo.9248:

Teknobug.3782:

I’ve built PCs since the mid 90’s and I’m a strong believer in only needing 2 case fans (or 2 front/1rear) hence the pull/push setup.

It really depends on the case and its location (in furniture, ambient temp).

I like more fans but lower RPM for low noise. My Antec Twelve Hundred and wife’s Nine Hundred Two can pretty much run with only the top 200mm fan running on low because they breathe so well and CPU and GPU have great cooling systems (Zalman 9900, Gigabyte 3-fan respectively). We have military switches for each fan so we can use them only when needed at low or high speeds (and wife frequently forgetting to turn on fans attests to their largely being unnecessary in this—ahem—case). Additionally, the fan went out on my old Zalman 9700 (whatever the socket 775 version is) and I didn’t notice until the 6-month take-town and clean maintenance; the large radial heat-sink near the top 200mm case fan kept the CPU plenty cool, underscoring my point that architecture matters when determining fans required for proper cooling.

Teknobug.3782:

And these days, I see no reason to overclock anymore, I used to overclock Celerons and older AMD’s but nowadays a 3.2-3.4GHz CPU is more than sufficient to run most things and so are most of the modern GPUs.

Show me a stock setup that will run GW2 at max settings, full-screen, 1920×1200 at 60 FPS unfailingly. For that matter, show me an overclocked setup (that doesn’t require liquid nitrogen or Peltiers) that will do that. You can’t because it doesn’t exist; therefore, the purpose of overclocking is to get as near that as possible and mitigate the appearance/performance trade-off.

The lesser-pragmatic reason for OC is that we can, knowing our hardware is optimally configured, ready for when it has to really chew on something. I don’t drive every 1/4 mile. in 12 seconds but its nice to know that I can when I want to—same thing.

Teknobug.3782:

this game runs no problems 50-60fps in most places, 35-40 in world vs world.

For me, 50 FPS “in most places” is a problem since I cannot stand tearing and therefore enable vsynch, eliminating tearing but 50 FPS = 30 FPS. I know the “official” definition is that 30 FPS is “playable” but liver and onions with locust hours devours is officially “edible” but that doesn’t mean I’ll find it tolerable, which I would find 35-40 FPS in any PvP game likewise intolerable.

I am getting 50-80 fps at 1080p on high default (autodetected) settings everywhere including busy wvwvw. I am not having any frame rate issues with my current setup. I occaisonally have ctd when I forget to set my active thermal cooling properly or dont set the thermostat to 74.

TheKow.7604:

I build custom Desktops as a hobby and the fact you title yourself PC enthusiast and over clocker while using a Alien-ware is degrading on the other hand decent list of helpful stuff but would be better with links and post to how-to’s and wider range of subjects other then clean PC, cool PC, and less programs…

Running 3rd party software like Gamebooster is simple for the people without major PC experience and shutdowns all auto update features rather easily without getting into MSconfig. Google is always a good friend for performance related topics and walk though and major forums have plenty of guides.

It is not necessary to trash Dell/Alienware. Everyone is welcome to their own opinions. The fact is that most high end pcs have essentially the same components in them. The primary difference is configuration. I have had zero issues with my alienware factory overclock. Alienwares active thermal cooling is great for making games like GW2 run faster and more stable.

Syn.3459:

i’m playing on an old quad core with a hd 5450 so i just giggled when i saw your specs and that you’re having a nvidia issue

There is often an inverse relationship between increased cpu and gpu power, performance and stability. Its not that those high end components dont work. The problem is all of the heat they generate and that when people get a high end system they think they can abuse the priviledge and waste memory and cpu cycles on non-gaming tasks.

I drive a liquid-cooled Alienware Aurora R3 with an i7 2700k CPU overclocked to 4GHz. It has 8 GB of 1866 RAM and 2x Nvidia GTX 560 ti SLI. My monitor is a 23" 1080p Alienware 3D monitor. I am an experienced high end PC enthusiast and overclocker. You are probably having issues with your high end Nvidia based system in GW2, especially if you are running SLI.

I also play GW2 on my Alienware M14x laptop. It has a GT 650M 2Gb, 16GB 1600 MHz memory and an i7 3820QM processory and a 512 GB SSD. It runs GW2 quite well but the 1600×900 screen is a bit small for the GW2 map.

How to get good, stable performance in GW2 from your high end PC:

1. GW2 is very demanding on your high end system and as such will make your system run hotter than most older games. Heat is the enemy, you must address the overall heat of your system.

2. You should first examine your fan speed settings in your system BIOS. Not just your CPU fan but your chassis fans as well. It doesnt matter how good the cooling is on your CPU and GPUs if the chassis airflow is insufficient. Automatic fan speed settings for chassis or case fans are often insufficient. You may need to increase the fan speeds of your chassis or case fans. I would suggest settings between 25 and 75%. Leave your CPU fan speed on Auto.

3. A push-me, pull-me case fan setup is best. You need to pull air in to the front of your pc and push it out the back. Make sure that there is a fan behind your PCI bus or video cards and one in front of your hard drives.

4. The fans and heat sinks on your video cards wont work if there is not sufficient airflow through and around your video cards. Try to space your video cards at least one slot apart. If possible.

5. DO NOT overlock your video cards unless it is a factory overclock. Make sure you have extra cpu cooling if you are going to overclock your CPU. I recommend a factory CPU overclock unless you have a lot of $$, patience and time.

6. Do not exceed the specs of your power supply. If your system keeps crashing on boot or wont boot at all, your power supply may not be up to the challenge. If you are going to upgrade your GPU or CPU, review the power requirements of the new components carefully before purchasing them to see if they are compatible with your existing motherboard and power supply.

7. Get a can of compressed air, open up your case and carefully blow all of the dust out of your system.

8. Use only high quality, highly rated components. A good resource to determine what you should buy is http://www.anandtech.com/. A good motto to follow is no bucks, no buck Rogers.

9. Reduce the ambient temperature in the room where your PC is to about 72-76 F. That will make a huge difference. It doesnt matter how much cooling you have if it is 85 degrees in the room where your high end PC is.

10. If you are running GW2 on a laptop, try a laptop cooler and whatever you do, DO NOT OVERLOCK YOUR LAPTOP GPU OR CPU. Gaming laptops are very tightly specced. Overclocking a laptop usually results in damaged components. Look for other means to increase performance on your laptop (see below). If you are running GW2 on an Alienware M14x, use the AW factory driver and wait until there is a WHQL driver available (preferably from dell) before you upgrade.

11. MSconfig is your friend. Use it to disable unneeded memory resident programs that are using up your ram and burning up cpu cycles. You can get a 10-15% speed boost just by using MSconfig. Turn off all auto-updaters except your virus protection including java, quicktime, itunes, adobe, office, windows update etc. Disable all CD/DVD programs including roxio and power dvd. These programs will run fine without them.

12. Use reliable virus and spyware detection and prevention and regularly scan your system for viruses and spyware.

13. Remove all unecessary software, browser plugins, desktop enhancements etc. None of them will help GW2 run faster and are likely to slow it down.

14. Close all programs while running GW2, especially browsers with multiple tabs open. Browsers can use a ton of memory, cpu cycles and bandwidth.

15. I am running the Nvidia 306.2 Beta driver. You should run that driver or a newer one to get the most out of GW2 and your Nvidia GPU.

Do not assume that because you paid big $$ for that high end PC, you do not have to take the time to optimize it for a game like GW2. Take some time and perform the steps above and you will notice a significant increase in performance and stability in GW2.

I am getting about 40-80 fps at 1080p on high (autodetect) settings everywhere including wvwvw. My 3DMark 11 scores for my desktop:

X2898: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3883215
P8299: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3883418

and my M14x laptop

P2332: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4181858

I hope this helps

GW2 3D is excellent, unfortunately, I have been experiencing crashes in 3D with the new Nvidia 306.2 beta driver. I am running 2x GTX 560ti with an alienware 2310 3D monitor and Nvidia 3D vision glasses. Turning off 3D seems to have stopped the crashes.

When will the GW2 3D profile issues be fixed? I assume that a new Nvidia driver will be needed to fix them.