GW2 is a very CPU intensive game and demands high clock speeds.
To be honest I would get a good desktop with your 800 bucks and enjoy the game that way.
The GPU should be ok for med/high settings imo. The ram should be ok if it is at 1333mhz+
For CPU you would want an i5 3570k or i7 3770k from intel and a good aftermarket cooler to overclock it. AMD Phenom II 965 black edition apparently runs the game well overclocked and the newer FX 3850 CPUs.
The game is not optimized for more than 3 threads so it demands high clocks, thus the overclocking
GW2 is very CPU intensive and not optimized for more that 3 heavy threads. Laptops generally are not recommended for this game since GW2 loves high CPU frequencies.
That being said the 3.1ghz turbo of that i7 is your bottleneck(sad as that is). Overclocking laptops is never recommended so your pretty much stuck with what you have until Anet decides to optimize the engine to use your 4core CPU more efficiently. The GT 555M should handle GW2 if you can get it working or get a response from Lenovo
It should perform ok in PVE. During Large events like dragons or WvW your CPU will bottleneck you. If you can get a good aftermarket cooler for the CPU an overclock will help.
I had this issue as well a few months ago.
I resolved this issue by getting a new PSU. Specifically a XFX 750W XXX semi modular PSU.
The problem is that GW2 loves raw power. GW2 will max 3 heavy threads in demanding scenarios in the game such as WvW zergs or Dragon events.
If you can, try to use another PSU.
Check the system admin event viewer to see what the error is and correlate that to the issue.
In the System event log, look for EventID 41 Kernel-Power. It’s description is:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Actually I think that it is the opposite.
It has been over 6 months since release and there has been 0 performance updates to the game for PVE.
In my opinion the WvW culling “fix” did nothing to alleviate the underlying issue surrounding GW2.
The “fix” pushed the issue to the end user and did nothing to improve upon the performance problem.
I expect the same in PVE.
Until(if ever) the engine is altered to make use of more threads and/or optimized the game will have culling issues for it’s foreseeable future.
Depends on your need to upgrade currently(ie, you have a Pentium 2
There are a wide variety of great motherboards for the 3770k. They all depend on your need. Do you need SLI? Do you need more than 2 Sata 6gb ports?
On the contrary it is a well known issue that GW2 uses 3 heavy threads and doesn’t use them efficiently.
DX11 would help performance but I doubt it is a silver bullet as you state.
GW2 does need optimization in the clients use of threads.
No I don’t unfortunately. I have an x6 1055t oc to 3.5
I know from other people that I have talked to that own the FX8350 that their frames in everything except WvW and Zerg Dragon events are good when oc to 4.5+
The issue with GW2 and WvW is that the game uses only 3 heavy threads. Those threads need significant horsepower to maintain good fps in zergs.
I know people who have i7 3930x cpus oc to almost 5ghz that dip below 30fps in WvW during heavy zergs.
Don’t let that discourage you though. GW2 isnt well optimized at the moment and hopefully in the future the game will use more threads and use them more efficiently(optimized).
The 8350 is a great cpu. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
If your going to get that processor make sure you get a very good cooler(not stock) and try to overclock it since GW2 demands raw frequency horsepower to run at an acceptable rate.
In order for GW2 to play at acceptable framrates you need to overclock your CPU to roughly 4.5ghz. tsmith is right about that being GW2’s sweetspot.
Again too bad you didnt get the “k” version of that CPU as it would be easier to overclock. Make sure you have a good cooler and do research before attempting to overclock your CPU.
I noticed an improvement being able to view everything but for me the performance got worse. I tired Low/Low and High/High and everything in between.
It seems that the ability to view all the other players(culling) is offset by the sheer numbers of people. I am talking about the giant zergs of course.
X61055t OC to 3.5ghz is not a high end cpu but it really isnt a low end one either. My gtx 680 did the usual dip during high zerg battles but that is expected with the bottleneck.
I think that people with high end systems(ie 3930k@4.6) will benefit more so than the person with an average to low end system.
They seemed to put the end user in control of the issue rather than fix the engine itself which seems to be the cause.
Ya I agree that before any expansion they need to use another engine or at least fix the current one.
I also agree with the fact that multicore processors will be the norm and not 6ghz cores.
There will be some performance gains in the future with new architectures but I don’t think that this will fix the issues that GW2 has until 2020 lol.
The worst part is that there hasn’t been any response from Anet about this. The culling patch seems like a failure to me since it really didn’t improve the issue at all for most people.
There is disparity between the devs discussing new items or features and ignoring the most glaring problem with the game. If they admit that there is a problem and that they are trying their best then that would be good enough for most if not all the people who play this game.
A lot of people feel robbed. Not being able to play major features of this game at a reasonable rate for over 7 months is making the playerbase leave for bigger and better things, which is too bad really since GW2 is a really good game. It just needs to be fixed.
Imagine buying a car and not being able run it well for 7 months and the dealership ignoring your phone calls, how would you feel?
Oh they know it is a problem but they refuse to acknowledge it.
The client is overly CPU bound that uses 3 heavy threads.
Mandatory overclocking of a CPU to play this game is beyond ridiculous.
I wonder how many people have fried their CPUs from overclocking just to play this game at a reasonable level?
Since my previous post got deleted for no apparent reason(EA you modding this?) I will reiterate the statement.
There will never be a fix for this. Ever.
It would require them to rewrite the engine code to utilize more threads and do it in an optimal fashion.
Since this would require a lot of time and resources there will never be a fix.
The only way to get the game to play WvW and PVE events at a good rate is to wait for hardware to overcome the limitations of the antiquated engine.
Lets see if this one gets deleted as well for “honesty”
7 months and not a word from Anet about this issue. It is very very annoying.
On the bright side, the slideshows from the zergs allows you to target the enemy that you want See problem solved!
In all honesty, after 4 months of labor it seems that the culling fix made performance worse for a majority of people playing WvW.
Even people with high end systems are having issues with Low/Low settings.
Why should people have to overclock their computers to run this part of the game at a decent level?
Well after playing WvW tonight I can think of quite a few pros and cons to the new culling patch.
Essentially they put the control into the users’ hands. I really liked seeing the massive scale of the battles that I was in. The amount of people was amazing. Unfortunately, even on Low/Low I found myself getting skill lag and other lag during the large zergs.
I would really like to know how people with i5 3570k and i7 3770k stock and oc did with the settings and how their performance was.
Today is the big day.
The day that WvW culling was introduced into the game environment. Since I have not been able to get into WvW(I am assuming it is still down).
I was wondering if anyone at all was able to test out the new options and give a response on how the performance was affected.
Of course Anet wants you to break out that platinum Visa and gamble away!! I love how the white knights of Anet will be protecting their precious company with defenses like “you dont need the skins anyways” and “you can use ingame gold”.
RNG for accomplishing a dungeon or event is one thing but making the skin available ONLY via BLC gambling is just bad.
BAD BAD BAD.
Set your audio settings in the game client to defaults(the middle setting). That worked for me.
Interesting that this bug isnt stickied to the top of the forum since I have responded to this same issue tons of time in the last 6 months.
If a 3930K@4.6 is getting 30fps in minimum crowded WvW, then why would anet allow for 0 culling options? It really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless they are introducing a patch to fix performance as a whole.
I know that sounds hopeful but there really isnt too much left to be hopeful for
I had been looking to upgrade to a i7 3770k with a H100 but I might hold off and see what the March patch brings. I can tell you though if/when I upgrade, if I get 30fps in WvW in a small zerg then I will probably stop playing altogether
I spent alot of money on GW1. Costumes, accounts, expansions etc and Anet will lose alot of money if this doesn’t get fixed
Well written and concise. I really really hope that when they introduce the culling “patch” that the will put at lease some performance fixes into the game as well.
Having nameplates as placeholders, I am sure, is not what the designers had in mind when they created GW2.
The game is fast paced and action oriented, so who in competitive WvW will display full renders? Even people with very high end systems that are culled are getting frame rate drops. Expect all future WvW videos to show nothing but nameplates since people will want performance. GG
I agree that the culling issue has now been placed on the end user.
Any issues regarding performance will be attributed to “its your system” “tweak yer settings right” instead of admitting the fundamental issue of the code itself being lacking.
I suppose we will have to wait and see but my faith in having GW2 run as intended by the designers is slowly fading away.
I can see this as a trend for this game until issues get fixed. Too bad since GW2 has alot of potential
Too bad noone from Anet will ever read these posts.
I have a feeling that with current CPU trends going towards more power efficiency and more cores that there might never be a CPU that plays GW2 correctly in Zergs. The game really really demands high clocks from 3 threads. If Intel decides to release in 2016 a quad core CPU that runs at 6.5Ghz then maybe you will see better frames. I don’t think that will ever happen.
The game needs to be optimized client side. They need to allow the game to use more threads and optimize the cores that they do use more efficiently.
Basically every performance thread in this forum is just venting because there is pretty much nothing that anyone can do to fix an obvious lack of foresight regarding how this game plays
Try deleting the local.dat file. It will be located in the documents folder under the default folder of guild wars 2. Some people have found that helps. In addition I would also have a little patience(I know mine is wearing thing with this game) and see how the culling patch will work out for ya.
Hope that helps
If you read the posts you would realize that aside from liquid hydrogen cooled dual xeon CPUs or perhaps a Cray, nothing will make this game run 60fps in WvW and Event Zergs.
Most systems don’t have 4ghz stock. The game uses raw clocks to achieve it’s performance. It doesn’t use hyperthreading either
The game is poorly optimized for multi core CPUs, lets just hope that in the future this changes.
I love Gigabyte too! Your really going to like that windforce card! Super quiet and awesome performance.
I can only guess that your rig might have bottlenecking with that CPU but your not alone. Depending on what cooling you have for your CPU you might want to consider overclocking it. Even if you go from 2.8ghz to 3.5ghz, again depending on your cooling and components, you will notice a difference. Best of luck and enjoy your new card!
8500 views for this topic but Anet decides not to post anything regarding performance aside from the culling patch, which to my knowledge is WvW only and does not address the PVE world event and zerg issues.
The reason RoyHarmon why the game runs fairly well for you is that you have overclocked your CPU to 4.6ghz.
Making end users overclock(and potentially damage their hardware) in order to play the game at a reasonable rate is ridiculous.
World Events and WvW for pretty much everyone runs sub par. There is no denying it. Because the engine is poorly coded to use only 3 heavy threads the game will run poorly for it’s longevity until either they recode the game to use more threads/better efficiency of those threads or wait until 6ghz cpus are the norm.
I am hoping the culling patch will fix alot of the performance issues but after 6 months of waiting for performance updates and even some digression for people I am not holding my breath.
My GTX 680 OC(OC again) runs supersampling fine. The big issue that I think you have is the reflections. Turn reflections from all to terrain/sky and you will notice a difference.
Tera ran ok for me but I found the game too static. I agree that GW2 is a much more beautiful game. If they can just fix the performance issues then this game will hold my attention for as long as gw1 did.
