Guild Wars 2

Likely a CPU bottleneck then.

Keep ur monitoring going and see what the CPU util goes to if/when it does it again.

To get a definative answere your best bet would have been to check ur GPU and CPU usuage during that time. I run my monitoring software all the time. GPU usuage, GRAM usuage and FPS counter in the top left of screen and AIDA 64 on my keyboard screen giving my CPU, RAM and other information. I sugest u do somthing similar.

That way when somthing like this happens u can check in a glimps wether its due to a simple bottleneck or not.

Since spells and that were active during this situation it may have simply been down to the GPU reaching 100% and u loosing FPS. Solution then is simply turn graphics down.

Same goes for the CPU. It being a 4core 4 thread CPU i have no doubt that GW2 can easily push it to 100% usuage in certain areas. For example if i turn my graphics settings down to low except for those CPU intensive settings like reflections, LOD, and Shadows, i can get my CPU load up to 40-50% in LA. Thats the equivalent to 5 or 6 full threads..2 more than what ur CPU has in total.
So if ur GPU wasnt restricted its concevable that ths particular WvW battle maxed out ur CPU completly… and not just in the usual per thread way(where overall usuage is below 100% but ur still bottlenecked on a single thread). Unfortunatly there is no solution to this apart from OC’ing more and/or buying CPU with more threads(3770k).

However without stats from monitoring software its hard to say what it was.

Was said FPS drop normal ..well this is GW2 and this is WvW ..FPS drops are an inevitability.

Im interested to see what kind of system they recommend to play WvW battles with the new settings seto to max. I.e no culling ..full details.

I highly suspect they wont release said requirments or comment on how bad the performance will be.

Unless some MAJOR backend performance enhancments are also present, all this removal of culling will do is increase the load on CPU’s which are already bottlenecking even with Culling happening on screen. thus forcing every1 to manualy turn culing back on. Anet keeps their kitten covered by being able to advertise 0 culling, whilst in reality u cant actually play with 0 culling becouse no current CPU can handle the horrid thread allocation that GW2 has.

That said ..i really really hope im wrong.

The registry ‘tweak’ isnt all that difficult. I done it manualy, granted im more adept at Computers than the average Joe Blogs, but still it isnt all THAT difficult. I would rather do it myself than trust a 3rd party program to go rumaging around my registry.

Yes its CPU bound.
You will notice bottlenecks in WvW battles and large Dynamic Events, likely below 20FPS.
‘Normal’ PvE and dungeons however will be totaly fine.

OP what CPU do u have ?

If u have a 4 thread CPU, then yes that does seem a bit unusual. You should see around 75%+

If u have a 8 thread CPU then it isnt so unusual, but u should still see around 38%+ on average.

If u have a 12 thread CPU, its perfectly normal.

Theres pritty much no reason to turn it back on on a gaming rig. So i wouldnt worry about it.

£500 should net u almost any 680 if u shop around.

I recommened a EVGA 4gb model.

Somtrhing like
http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-680-1110mhz-4gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-ftw-867G.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product%20search&utm_content=Q200

Its a 4gb Evga FTW edition with backplate.

Or u can go the AMD route which is a bit cheaper.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-301-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

Its a 6gb Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ edition.

Shouldnt really need 6gb tbh so u could get the 3gb for cheaper

http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphire-technology-amd-radeon-7970-hd-1ghz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-vapor-x-8DC1.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product%20search&utm_content=Q200

Games r comng out now that with high AA chew through 2gb GRAM so u want atleast 3gb.

Or just for shi*s and giggles ..u could get.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/asus-geforce-gtx-titan-6gb-687165?c=maplin&utm_source=gcs&utm_medium=gcs_search&utm_campaign=N00QA&utm_content=Nvidia+Graphics+Card

Asus GTX Titan (the most powerfull and overpriced Single GPU card out)

OP

Check ur GPU usuage when u get these drops and get back to us.

Personaly i still use the 306.97 drivers lol. I rarely update drivers unless i know a significant performance increase is involved. otherwise i stay with what i know works.

Temperr.5084:

What would the upgrade cost to get good fps with 50+ppl on the screen be?:)

‘good’ is different for each person but the best u can get atm is 30fps (minimum drop point, 45fps+ average) and to get that it would cost in the region of $400, asuming u only need to replace the CPU, CPU cooler, motherboard, and RAM.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/K4wx

15-20 FPS in WvW would requir a stock Non k edition Intel i5, or stock AMD FX 4300 or 6300.

Both of which would requir a new motherboard and DDR3 RAM.

The reason ur FPS didnt change much is becouse ur CPU was/is ur problem ..not ur GPU. WvW and other populated areas are highly CPU intensive, in the case of WvW u can spend as mcuh as u like on the BEST CPU out and OC it to hel land back and only manage to stop FPS from droping below 30, the average FPS will be higher ofcourse..more around 45+, but when the FPS drops it will stil lgo all the way down to 30 even on the BEST rigs.

OP

One thing u should know about Intel rigs. When u want to upgrade, it usualy means spending a large chunk of change as CPu upgrades usualy requir additional upgrades to go with it.

Upgrading for GW2 for example would requir a new CPU as that is where ur issue is. Unfortunatly that means a New motherboard aswell, and new RAM, so its not cheap.

Yes it can run on a 120hz monitor.

However dont expect ur FPS to be able to fully utilize the extra Vsync headroom..for that u need a much more powerfull card.

WvW is ALOT more CPU than Pve, dungeons etc ..hence ur FPS issues.

A upgrade will deffinatly give u a notable performance boost, specialy if u upgrade the GPU at the same time.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JUsm

That there is the cheapest rig i could build. It will play GW2. You will get better performance if u spend the time to OC the CPU, the cooler on the list should handle a respectable OC.

The GPU is minimum u want for medium settings and good FPS.

The HDD and Optical drivesu can salvagae form ur old rig. Same goes for the OS.

Also another thing about the CPU ..thats bassicaly the lowest u want for GW2..dont expect good performance in WvW or large Dynamic Events.

Honestly OP.

$50-150. Thats barely enough for 1 component.

The CPU’s that would allow u to run GW2 on a LGA 775 board have a pritty heft price tag on them for their performance nowerdays as they r discontinued.

Meaning ur best upgrade path is a new CPU/Motherboard/RAM. And since u dont got a dedicated GPU it means u will ether need a CPU with a onboard GPU or get a dedicated GPU aswell.

All in all u need alot more than $150.

If ur lucky a GPU would enable u to atleast play the Game ..but this rig looks like it was made without a dedicated GPU in mind ..meaning the PSU may well be to small to handle a dedicated card.

THB i wouldnt spend the money upgrading an older chipset rig liek that.

if /when u want to upgrade always make sure ur upgrade is worth while. In ur case, upgrading to a Phenom II X4 isnt really worth it. I mean ..its cheap ..but if i were u i would save the money till u have enough to change ur CPU, Motherboard, and RAM all together.

Well if its the same company then region matters little in most cases. The money goes to the company as a whole so …

But if u cant get anything as good or better in ur area then fair enough ..go with a repair.

Cant u get a refund form the retailer then ?

Then in all honesty if ur worried about that, get a refund and buy from another brand.

Asus
MSI
Sager
Razer

They all seem to be other popular performance laptops u can get in the US.
http://www.xoticpc.com/index.html

you would have to take it apart possibly voiding warranty. best to get it sorted by manufacturer or retailer.

Ok first things first. Budget ?

A rig capable of running GW2 with ‘playable’ FPS in WvW will requir a not so insignificant amount of cash.

A AMD FX 8000 series CPU or better yet a Intel 3570k or 3770k are pritty much the best u can get atm and even they requir OC’s to keep the MINIMUM FPS from droping lower than 25 and 30 FPS respectivly.

GPU wise u can get away with 650ti or HD7770 and that should net u medium to high setitngs with good FPS. Personaly i would get a Sapphire 7870XT as its one of the best bang for buck cards out atm.

With out a budget i cant recommend a full build but i can say that budget wise for a proper upgrade ur gunna be looking at between $600 and $900 depending on whether u go AMD or Intel and how high u wanna go on the GPU.
That wil include a New CPU, Motherboard, RAM, CPU Cooler & TIM, GPU, PSU, and Case.

With respect Wauwi. Thats not really GW2’s fault. Any OC should be set with max load in mind and with room for possible heat buildups over time from degredation, dust, TIM drying, ambient temp rises etc.

I know you done ur stress tests, but even so, a little more headroom wouldnt have hurt …live and learn i guess

Even so the higher CPU usuage atleast means Anet have done ‘somthing’ :P

Best thing to do is get it sorted by the manufactoerer or retailer u got it from.

That is ..after u have gone through all possible software related issues.

I know u said u reset to factory default.. have u tried a full format and reinstall ?

if u have then its most deffinatly hardware related.

No software will cause such hardware failures issue on a perfectly working computer.. it certainly wasnt GW2’s fault.
A computer should always be able to hand 24 hour constant max performance without any issues. Thats GPU full load and CPU full load, RAM full load etc.
If it cant ..its faulty.

I always advise people to stress test there computers when they buy them. Get a GPU benchmark grogram to stress the GPU to max, same goes for the CPU. Keep those stresses running for long periods. Not only does this test for stability, it also tests how well the rig deals with heat. If it overheats ..or crashes from instability, get a refund/repair/replacment.

It is indeed a better laptop and will give u betetr FPS. But in all honesty u will still get ‘bad’ FPS in high population area’s. This is simply down to the CPU. Although the 3630QM is one of hte best and widest used CPU’s for laptops, it cant really be OverClocked and as such will never give ‘good’ FPS for GW2.

The GPU is a BIG upgrade. A 630m to a 660m is a great thing to have. The 660m is imo a tad low for ‘proper’ gaming as its more like a desktop 650…but its MUCH better than a 630m.

If u have the cash spare then yes it may be a good idea ot upgrade. IMO you shouldmaybe save a little more to get a slightly better one with a 670m and maybe even a 3740QM or 3820QM CPU for those precious extra Mhz.

ofcourse the best advise would simply be to build a desktop, as you will get much morep erformance for you money.

The main draw back of that spec would be the 650m GPU. you would likely be using medium settings to get good FPS.

SSD’d only help with loading times.
If u have a beasty CPU and GPU a SSD can also help reduce stutter but in a laptop i doubt u will notice any improvment in that area.

Elin Berserker ..nothing beats em ..though ..u really need to be good at timing attacks as a Zerker becouse they r rather slow :P They aint noob friendly put it that way

Medium at max, more likely a mixture of low and medium. U’ll be using the onboard video chip which is intergrated with the CPU. its not really meant for gaming to be honest.

For GW2 set to High (not max), u would need atleast a 670m GPU, and to ‘reduce’ CPU bottlenecking u would want atleast a 3630QM CPU or higher.

Both of which substantialy increase the cost of the laptop.

Not on max settings .no chance.

medium would probably by the best u could get with high FPS.

Remember the 640 is media card , then also take into account this is a 640m for laptops which is yet another grade lower than its desktop counterpart. So max settings in GW2 is very very ambitous.

The OP said he wanted high setings with no low FPS.

So what i sugested is accurate.

Unless the OP of any thread says otherwise i will recommend specs that give the asked for FPS through out the ENTIRE game if possible and without any horrible Dips in FPS.

As a gamer, myself and many others dont like to accept anythigg other than ~60fps as a Minimum FPS. Now thankfully GW2 doesnt requir such precise and tight timing for combat so u can lower that Figure, but even still to keep the lowest possible FPS from droping below 50FPS in PvE still requirs, at high setitngs, a beafy GPU.
And for the CPU no laptop can keep FPS above 30 in WvW. 30 being the absolute minimum FPS u want in any game. Again as a gamer.

Now if u can put up with lower than those figures in the respective areas of the game. Then the OP can by all means say so and i will adjust my recommendations accordinngly.

Its always better to ‘over recommened’ and have the user happily surprised at the performance, than to ‘under recommend’ and have the user dissapointed with performance.

I hope u have deep pockets. As above have pointed out , u wont get a laptop that can play GW2 on high without FPS droping unless u spend insane amounts.

Graphics wise u would need a 670m at minimum. A 680m or 7970m recommended, maybe even a SLi setup.

CPU wise at minimum u want a 3630QM. Recommened a 3740QM or 3820QM.

Any laptop with those in it will already have enough RAM, HDD space, a good screen, etc, and will cost over $2000, likely $2500+ if u get the higher CPU’s.

But unfortunatly thats what u would need. Even then WvW will be sub 25 FPS since the CPU’s cant be OverClocked.

Indeed ..what Kirito said.
I’ve used that place since day 1.
Its the most intensive place graphicaly that is good for benching as aside from the odd person running in thru the portal behind u, its pritty much constant load wise. And since its in LA its also got a reasonable CPU load also..atleast more than PvE.
When u get there turn ur character around look towards the mystic forge, zoomed out as far as u can..then log out and back in again and dount touch the camera angle.. that way each time u log in ur looking EXACTLY in the same place.

Other than that u would have to get into WvW battles which will be more intensive and stress ur rig harder ..but they r not that great for quik benching as things change every1 second ur there.

The slightly higher temps GW2 puts on ur CPU could easily be attributed to the increased temp inside ur case becouse ur also using ur graphics card. On Prime95 and other CPU bench/stress tests, ur GPU is idle. Tis just a theory but its a sound one

TBH though even if it was just down to GW2 stressing the CPU harder than even stress test programs ..any1 with a OC should have left a margin for Ambient temp changes and so temps should still not be a prbolem.

My CPU for example, many people set their OC limits at 80c or even 85c..i OC’d mine keeping between 70 and 75c on aircooling and i reached 4.6ghz. Anything below 80c is perfectly safe, i could likely hit 4.7ghz if i wanted, i know the cooler i use can handle up to around 1.4v on the Vcore before temps peak above 80c..im on 1.36v…..4.7ghz would likely requir 1.38v with my chip…. but tbh ..i cba :P

Anyway yea ..temp differnece is likely being caused by heat form ur GPU.

Out of Memory crashes r usualy fixed with a OS change to 64bit if the system has 4gb or more RAM. So yes it should help

Oh dont get me wrong. I understand the difference in scaling for GPU (graphics) and CPu sclaing ..scaling for pritty much every otherp eice of hardware. But for GW2, when u talk about scaling ur tallking about the broad term as a whole ..for GW2 the means ur talking about the thing that holds it back or impacts performance the most. So if u want to specific we r talking abot CPU scaling..which as we said doesnt scale becouse it doesnt even reach the 30fps minimum till u have a top of the line OC rig.

Now if we say “ignor cpu/overal performance” and go on graphics only in an area where there is not bottlenecking ..like general PvE whilst lvling. Then yes ..it scales rather well ..Low settings u could play it on a grpahics card over 5 years old and have 60 fps, on absolute maximum u need a GTX titan or Cross fire 7970 or SLI 680 to have SuperSampling and Reflections on Max, and maybe even 1440p and again reach 60 fps as am inimum fps….bu thats oly in PvE.

Anyway not disagreeing ..just saying ..‘yes i know the difference uses of ’scaling’ "

OP

You likely didnt see an impormvent becouse the 640 is a media card just like the 240.

The increase in performance between the 2 is likely not noticable in GW2 becouse some other part of the GPU is maxed out just the same as on the 240 and thus any other improvments within the card itself r just notbeing utilized or noticed.
Any loss in FPS can be attributed to the installation process where u may have lost any tweeks done to the 240 ,via Nvida settings or specific drivers, when u installed the new 640.

GPU wise for gaming u need at least a X50ti or better from Nvida or a X770 or higher form AMD. Anything lower and u can expect poor performance.

PC gaming and low budgets dont mix im affraid, its ‘One’ of the main reasons people choose consols over PC’s. Aswell as the other reason Jaz mentioned ..which although sounding harsh ..is true.

Minimum requirments ‘should’ mean 30 FPS minimum on lowest settings EVERYWHERE in game. Current offical requirments just = the game will run ..FPS ignored.
Meaning if u have the minimum requirments, u can run the game but FPS can be anything ..and what they dont tell u is that means u wont be able to play WvW or large Dynamic Events becouse the FPS will be unplayable <15 fps.

The requirments Jaz has made up r much more inline with what u can expect. But again,,even those requirments do not garantee 30 fps everywhere. For that u need to OverClock ..and no company can recommend users to OverClock.

Scaling has nothing to do with it. GW2 doesnt scale within the playability boundries.
Scaling should mean top end rig max settings 60+fps garanteed everywhere all the time. Low spec rig lowest settings 30 FPS everywhere all the time. Anything in between scales ..bad scaling or good scaling ..it still scales.

GW2 doesnt have this becouse those minimum FPS figures r not available unless u have the top end rig with OC’s to begin with.

Low settings for proper playable FPS 40+.
Medium for 30-40 ish.
high for sub 30.
Thats for PvE.

WvW, large Dynamic Events, and Lions Arch will bog down due to ur CPU,

WvW will be the hardest and u should expect sub 20 fps right down to as low as 5., no matter what settings u use.

Your on high – mid end chart. You should look at the High end only chart, the figures go up to 15,000 Notice that the G860 isnt even on that chart becouse it doesnt rank that high.

Also those charts are overall performance. GW2 takes most its performance from single threads, so u need to look at the single thread performance chart (the one i linked).

Im not saying it wont work with GW2, i just highly suspect that any CPu intensive area ike dynamic events, Lion Arch, and WvW will suffer greatly due to it only being Dual core and being overall relativly slow per thread. So just be prepaired..i would rather paint a grim picture and have u be pleasently surprised, than to sing its praise and u be dissapointed.

A 670 4gb model might be a good choice for future SLI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130824

or 2x Sapphire 7870XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202024

Graphics wise GW2 isnt that harsh, u can easily set the settings to medium. However the CPU on the other hand will struggle. GW2 is INCREDIBILY cpu intensive.

Just to give u an idea. World vs World vs World in GW2 has battles of between 50-150 people at a time, only the very best CPU’s with a OC can keep FPS above 30. You will likely see very low FPS with that CPU in such situations.

You pritty much NEED a 4 core CPU (a 2nd or 3rd gen i5/i7 or a AMD FX 8XXX) . The G860 is only dual core and will bottleneck very quikly with GW2.

Look at this link
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

You idealy want a CPU that rates at 1800 or above for a Intel rig.

GW2 is NOT budget freindly, if u do stay with the rig u described expect poor performance. GW2’s advertised minimum requirments mean precisly kitten.

SB-E does support PCI-E 3.0

Clock for clock Ivybridge is faster yes but…

Cooler for Cooler, the SB’s clock higher which evens out the performance.

A 3770k vs a 2700k on the same cooler, like say a Evo 212, the 2700k will clock higher and thus equal out the performance of the 3770k.

Unless u pop the IHS of a Ivybridge CPU u wont get as high a clock on it than a SB no matter what ‘consumer grade’ cooling u have. So say u have a h100i water cooler, the Ivybridge may clock to say 4.7ghz. but a SB could clock to 5ghz.

Both sides have their pro’s and cons but in the end they r evenly matched. The only extra upside to SB-E is that its LGA 2011 which means u will be able to upgrade to a IB-E and possibly HW-E in the future.

GW2 + 3930k has no issues what so ever. A 3930k to a 3770k is a downgrade not an upgrade.

IIRC Bsod 0×116 is for when the grpahics driver tries to reset due to a GPU freeze ‘hang’ but fails to do so.

First thing i would check is ur temperatures. make sure ur GPU isnt freexing due to overheating. If it overheats and shuts itself of or stops rendering to protect itself the software reset will not work and result in the BSOD u r getting. However there r other reasons that could cause this..this is just the one i would check for immediatly as continued use wihtout action could cause hardware damage.

An i5 2320 and a GT 440 are by no means good enough for GW at high settings. The 400 series is 2 generations old, it is also a low end 400 series card.

The CPU is also the lowest end of the 2nd gen i5, the 2300 series, and of that series it is the mid version..not even the hgihest. All in all i think u should be happy that ur even getting 20 fps at high settings, granted that is likely in a relativly easy going part of GW2 so expect that figure to drop dramaticaly through out the game.

My advice is to set the game to medium at most, where everu are try get the game to constantly run at 60 fps so that when u hit the more demanding areas and situation, the fps doesnt drop to far down. Note however that with that CPU u will eventually reach parts of the game where the GPU will end up being slowed down by the CPU. Like in WvW and busy PvE events, at which point expect to see sub 15 fps, as only the best top end CPU’s with OC’s can handle more than 30fps in those situations.

Dont get MSI, they got a bad rap for using cheap capacitors that tend to go pop when OC’ing.

For $350 i honestly dont see u getting a CPU/MB/RAM/GPU of any worth within budget.

Generaly speaking u should be looking to spend
~$100 on motherboard
~$150 on The Graphics card
~$120~$220 on the CPU
~$ 80 on the RAM

Bassicaly around $500.

Option 2 deffinatly. However if u r so addamant about not OC’ing there is not point getting the K version of the CPU. So u can save a little on that.

Honestly though..OC’ing is so easy nowerdays that u should atleast put a mild OC on the CPU..atleast a 500ghz OC on the K versions, as a non K version can do a 400ghz OC.

All of intels non k series CPU should be able to OC 400mhz higher than their max stock turbo. After that u can tweek the base clock to get a little more out of it but thats it.
That still allows 4ghz + in most cases. The 3470 turbo’s up to 3.6ghz IIRC so u could get a 4ghz OC on it via the multiplier. That will deffinatly help.

As for GPU, a AMD 7770 is probably as low as u’ll want to go, they cost betwen £80 and £120 depending on brand and level of Factory OC. Im sure u can find one of the cheaper models.

So yea OC the 3470 to 4ghz ad get atleats a 7770 or a 560ti and u should be able to hit ur mark in WvW.

Nemaca, since ur new to the forums ill point out that 4.5ghz is by no means overkill. GW2 has been found to requir atleast a 4.5ghz on Intel CPU’s to stay above a minimum FPS of 30 in big wvw zergs. AMD FX 8k series CPU’s also need atleast a 4.5ghz OC to stay above 25 FPS. Anything less and u can expect the minimum fps to start droping.
Being able to run at 3.5ghz in WvW and get say 40 fps is all well and good but that wont be in major Zergs, what most of us here in the forums mean when we say ‘minimum fps in zergs’ is really BIG worse case zergs and FPS figures.

Well …u can somtimes us stock paste. But generaly only on the more expensive cooler options. The Noctua NH D14 for example comes with a rather good paste that really isnt worth replacing unless ur really pushing the clocks and temps and want maybe 2 degrees lower temps.

Anyway yea for the Evo 212 its worth spending another $10 on some top end paste..u wont need to buy more for a while, 1 small tube will give u enough to reseat ur cpu multiple times and still have enough to replace the TIM on ur GPU’s if u want.

Its highly likely to be the motherboard VRM’s are overheating. At high voltage there is much more heat buildup on not only he CPU but also on the motherboard. As stated above, that particular board may have a compatable chipset with ur current CPU but it is not rated for such a high wattage CPU, this is likely what is causing the throttling.
Undervolting will deffinatly help.
Infact all CPU chips can generaly be undervolted on stock clocks by some degree and if u dont like the idea of OC’ing then undervolting should be attempted to atleast let the CPU run cooler.

Anyway if u got the problem sorted by undervolting thats great but dont be surprised if ur Motherboard gives out eventually running a CPU its not rated for.