Guild Wars 2

Yep, there’s your culprit.

If driver installation doesn’t help, open your case and see that it’s actually in a 16x slot (I think it is, GPU-Z wouldn’t be showing 16x otherwise). Just take the card out and the power cord as well, kind of reset the card, and put it back the way it was.

The fact that it’s running correct core speed and only changing link speed (and never reaching 16) makes me think it’s a driver issue, but that could solve it too. If the issue persists, let’s talk some more.

You can keep everything else maxed, but turn down Shadows and Reflections as well as Character Quality to medium and Limit to low or even lowest. Those are all very CPU bound options, your GPU is more than capable of running the GPU-intensive side of the game.

Umm… A guy comes to help and tells you the state this game is at and you shrug him off by telling not to judge your system?

Anyway, what Behellagh said is right, this game is tremendously reliant on the CPU grunt, to a degree that not even the strongest of them can handle what it requires. That said I don’t think your system should dip down to 2 fps anyhow. I had an Intel system with weaker CPU than yours and my lowest in the biggest zergs were 5-7 fps. People do say though that the minimums of an Intel are higher than those of an AMD, but 2 fps seems quite extreme. Have you downloaded the latest drivers? Have you checked your CPU temperatures, its clock speed, usage % and the same things for your GPU? If those seem to be correct and your usage % is getting near 100 on any of the cores, then I’m afraid there’s not much to be done.

Does it get fixed if you restart the game without restarting your whole system?

Download programs called GPU-Z, CPU-Z and Core Temp or Real Temp (your choice). Run them while you play. Write up the following info:
GPU Load in GPU-Z,
GPU Core Clock in GPU-Z
GPU Temperature in GPU-Z
Bus Interface in GPU-Z or Link Width in CPU-Z (same thing),
Core Speed/Frequency in CPU-Z or chosen Temp
temperatures or your cores in the chosen Temp

Do that in both of the situations where your system is fine and where it isn’t. See where the difference is and report back.

Also, have you simply tried reinstalling the graphic drivers?

@FlyingBee oh please, did you see the statistics he posted? 90% GPU usage as well as 88% CPU. That’s not a bottleneck yet. I agree 100% that the CPU isn’t adequate but you seem to think it’s significantly weaker than what 7750 needs on its side or maybe that 7750 is stronger than it really is. 750 Ti is 2,2 times faster than it and only 10% slower than GTX 660. It is also 25% faster than HD 7790. Math tells us now that HD 7790 is 80% faster than 7750, which isn’t a secret though.

Also you can’t really say “1080p in other games” there’s a quite HUGE span of games there. Some will be slideshow in 1080p maxed graphics while others will be just fine.

Of course 750 Ti is rather slow on today’s standards as the latest gfx card, but as long as you realize it’s not meant for the ultra markets you’re good to go. It still has plenty of power, you can play Farcry 3 maxed smoothly with it (not 60 fps smooth tho). We don’t know what else the OP is gonna play, 750 Ti was his suggestion so I’m guessing it’s not the most demanding games.

Like that video shows, 7750 isn’t gonna cut it for GW2 on max graphs. 50-60 fps at 900p. 1080p has 44% more pixels, so that’ll translate into 35-42 fps. It will dip lower as well in some scenarios.

It doesn’t matter which one he gets first because both his CPU and GPU are pretty even. Upgrading the other one will only result in a bottleneck. I told him it’s no use for GW2, but at least it’s now over with. And it helps in other games.

XFlyingBeeX.2836:

Most of you dont understand that GTX 750 wont be faster than 7750- because CPU is bottlenecking!

Get new PSU
- XFX 450W
- 6300/i5 (maybe i3 4130)
- MB+ 8Gb ram

- this what you should do.

True, but not by a large margin. He stated earlier that his GPU is at 70-90% usage while CPU is at 88%. He wont see an increase right now, but when he can fund the whole upgrade he at least has the GPU ready.

BTW, 750 Ti is Maxwell.

heh, no not at all, just like 4-way SLI doesn’t bring you 4x the performance. And even if it was reduced to half it would still perform better than your 7750, 750 Ti is about 2,2 times faster.

Don’t worry too much about it, like we said it won’t bring you any kind of additional fps in GW2 when it’s paired with that system. When you get a proper mobo you’ll be guaranteed to run at 16x (and PCI-E 3.0 too!)

EDIT: Here’s some data for how much the bandwidth actually matters. As you can see, 8x is about 98-99% of 16x

That’s right. But 750 Ti @ 8x is still better than HD7750 @ 16×. Like squish said the 4 pin connector must be dedicated to the PCIe slots, otherwise it doesn’t help on that front.

But look, like I said, 750 Ti @ 8x is still better and you’re gonna be bottlenecked by the rest of your system even then, when you upgrade to a new mobo and PSU this wont be a problem anymore.

EDIT: You’re correct on not to cheap out on the PSU, however it doesn’t mean more watts = better PSU. Both of those PSUs are about the same quality, the other one only produces less watts and is cheaper.

sirsquishy.8531:

locx.6412:

sirsquishy.8531:

dodgycookies.4562:

Some of the versions (like asus) of the gtx 750ti have a 6pin connector, while others (msi) are powered only through the pcie connection.

If you buy one that requires a 6pin connector and your psu doesnt have 4pin molex connectors available for the included adapter, you will not be able to power the card.

make sure you buy the correct version. My suggestion would be the msi version as it doesnt have any extra power connectors required. (I’m a msi fan becasue twin frozr is awesome!)

Also i just remembered the 7750 has low profile versions. If you are using a slim form pc, then you will have to wait until a low profile version of the 750ti is released (which im sure they will eventually.)

The issue is, his PSU is 320W. Its a weird form factor based PC. His PSU has no 6pin connectors for the GPU if it needed power. While the 750TI comes in at about 95w, I think thats pushing his PSU with the other components in his system.

Then he has to consider that the Manufacturer put a watt limit on his PCI-E slot (like my e3010 from Dell…the PCI-E slot only gives off 18w of power) And that will NOT let the 750TI link faster then 8×.

He really needs to build a new PC at this point. The current one is just to limiting, and its only a core2.

GTX 750 Ti has 60W TDP or am I missing something? Also some models, like EVGA’s doesn’t even seem to have a power connector.

Wow, no your right. 60Watt card. I was thinking it was the same wattage as the 650TI (95w-110w). Color me impressed though, 60watts.

Yeah, it is about 2x the performance per watt compared to what we’ve had before. I’m eager to see what the 800-series brings.

@OP: The price of 4670K seems to be identical to 3570K so I would build around that at this time (the situation might be different when you’re buying them so better double check before). Also you can settle for a little lesser PSU if you want to cut down on cost, like CX500, especially if you’re going with 750 Ti. Remember to count in the new OS as well.

sirsquishy.8531:

dodgycookies.4562:

Some of the versions (like asus) of the gtx 750ti have a 6pin connector, while others (msi) are powered only through the pcie connection.

If you buy one that requires a 6pin connector and your psu doesnt have 4pin molex connectors available for the included adapter, you will not be able to power the card.

make sure you buy the correct version. My suggestion would be the msi version as it doesnt have any extra power connectors required. (I’m a msi fan becasue twin frozr is awesome!)

Also i just remembered the 7750 has low profile versions. If you are using a slim form pc, then you will have to wait until a low profile version of the 750ti is released (which im sure they will eventually.)

The issue is, his PSU is 320W. Its a weird form factor based PC. His PSU has no 6pin connectors for the GPU if it needed power. While the 750TI comes in at about 95w, I think thats pushing his PSU with the other components in his system.

Then he has to consider that the Manufacturer put a watt limit on his PCI-E slot (like my e3010 from Dell…the PCI-E slot only gives off 18w of power) And that will NOT let the 750TI link faster then 8×.

He really needs to build a new PC at this point. The current one is just to limiting, and its only a core2.

GTX 750 Ti has 60W TDP or am I missing something? Also some models, like EVGA’s doesn’t even seem to have a power connector.

^ +1 if your main focus is GW2, you don’t even have to go to the 3560/4670(k), any upgrade on the CPU front is a win.

As for the GPU, 660 easily dominates this game. If you play other games as well, only then consider more powerful options. If the release date is a concern you can always look at 750 Ti.

All games are different, there you might actually see a performance boost. In GW2 you are bottlenecked elsewhere.

If your motherboard hasn’t got 24 pin but a psu does, it doesn’t mean you have to use it, does it? You’re usually gonna be left with unused cables anyway.

If your motherboard allows it, you could upgrade to 3770K, however the difference would be quite minimal. If 750 is your budget just for the CPU, you could upgrade your mobo to something with z87 chipset and buy a 4770K, again the difference is quite insignificant.

Didn’t quite understand now, your mobo does not have 24 pin slot? What does it have?

As far as the upgrade goes, I’d say it gives you little to no benefit.

Your GPU-Z states you’re running 1x link instead of 16×. Reinstall the drivers and/or pull the card out for a moment and place it back to it’s slot (confirm it’s a 16x slot to begin with) and you’re good to go.

EDIT: Oh, and blow some dust out of the card while you’re at it. Never hurts to clean the the hardware!

First of all, turn the settings down as dodgycookies said, even if you don’t upgrade. Secondly, 750 Ti has 5 watts higher power usage but double the performance. You could underclock it 20% and still it would perform better. That being said, new PSU costs 40 to 50 bucks, not too much for peace of mind. Lastly, as dodgycookies suggested, check your GPU usage while playing the game. If it’s not 99% then your CPU is bottlenecking and this upgrade gives you nothing.

That helps a ton when I was using the stock cooler I wasn’t sure which way the screws should be pointing and when I figured it out my temps dropped from 85-90 to 60-70!

Download Core Temp or Real Temp, see if your temperature drops down when your clock speed does. if it does, it’s an issue of overheating and it throttles down to protect your CPU.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how the pc gaming is, you end up with a lot of useless parts. Of course you can resell them, for some reason there are always people needing some older tech, maybe for test purposes. I don’t know how much Those Core 2 Extremes go for atm, but the increase from the best of them is only 13% from yours, but 4670K+mobo+DDR3 RAM will cost you $400 and up depending on which mobo and RAM you choose.

Figured it must be one of the best socket 775 CPUs. Well, on paper 4670K is 87% faster at stock speeds so that’s the increase you’d be looking at in the minimum fps.

Of course it could be better but it’s not half bad. I’d say you’d do decently with that in low-med quality. Overheating can be fixed with other methods than switching your laptop, if you wish to save money and you have no problem running in low-med quality we can guide you a bit thru cleaning your computer from the inside to decrease the temps.

Which LGA 775 CPU are you getting close to 25 with? With my Q6600 I got 7 fps in a situation where I now get 20-25 fps with my i5-4670K

Did you free any space on the drive and do the smart diagnosis?

Could be a server issue, just give it some time and it will fix itself if it is.

I would just reinstall the whole game then.

I have that exact motherboard and I’m happy with it. I wouldn’t pay for 4.2 Overclock though since it’s literally pressing 3 buttons in BIOS. there is a better cooler than the stock Intel in that setup but I don’t know if that one is its moneys worth (I’m not saying it isn’t). Looks like it can be upgraded to H100i at will, at least that one has a good reputation. I suggest looking at the same parts elsewhere as well if you can find them cheaper, if not, that’s a very good option

Fair enough, I didn’t think you could find unused parts from ‘06 a few years ago anymore but what do I know. Anyway like I said, those don’t impact this issue too much, the hard drive does, when you’ve emptied it a bit as well as defragged, tell us if it made it any shorter.

An i7 brings nothing in terms of performance for GW2 so if you don’t have use for it outside the game I suggest looking at i5’s. Do you have any preference in the mobo manufacturer?

Ideally you want maybe $150-200 motherboard with a Z-series chipset, K-series CPU (4670K/3570K) and a CPU cooler if you wish to overclock. If you don’t, H-series motherboard and non-K CPU is enough, but it translates directly into fps in WvW.

Lastly, the RAM isn’t much of an issue, Crucial Ballistix 2×4 GB or 1×8 GB 1600 MHz will do fine.

Remember to check compable chipsets and CPUs, like Z77 with 3570K, z87 with 4670K.

Pretty new? Ok then, your GPU was released in 2008 and you CPU in 2006, that’s why I thought so.

Where ever your GW2 file is installed, defrag that. Also you can download any health analyzing S.M.A.R.T. program to see how healthy your GW2 drive is. Keeping it too full and defragmented will all decrease performance and increase loading times.

Well, pretty much the whole system, but what I suspect having the most impact is your HDD. Based on your other specs I suspect it’s quite old and 85% full means it’s starting to slow down. Have you defragmented it lately and deleted unnecessary files? My suggestion is buy another hard drive, 500GB-1TB or even more, better yet buy an SSD and you’ll be blown away. Loading to Lion’s Arch (or when it was still possible) takes 12 seconds and PvE maps takes 5 now.

On the other hand your system is maybe 5-6 years old so pairing some sweet new high-end technology with that is like painting racing stripes on a snail, but it’s a good start and you can carry it on to your possible (and eventual, at some point) bigger system upgrade. At least check your motherboard’s compability with the new drive, be it an SSD or a normal hard drive.

sirsquishy.8531:

locx.6412:

Btw squish, what’s your take on liquid metals like CLU on laptops? I’ve heard it works wonders under IHS and can bring problems above it but to my understanding laptop CPU’s don’t have IHS?

This entirely depends on ones skill to not ‘over spread’ the Metallic TIMs on laptops.

If you over spread, it will cause issues since there is less surface area on the CPU’s Die/Shielding for Laptops.

I for one only use synthetic materials in laptops, unless I KNOW I plan on overclocking the cpu (if you even can…you know most laptops dont allow for it).

But on my laptop, when it had the APU…now its Intel, I ran AS+ since I overclock the 1.8Ghz chip to 3.2Ghz when playing GW2 for WvW. You need Metallic materials to keep the Head dissipation up.

Using IC Diamond7, with my Air Flow mods below the CPU’s Fan (Drilled Holes into the laptop) under 89% load in WvW my Thermals on the CPU were 76c-81c (my laptop Throttles at 83c.

Using Arctic Silver+, my thermals on the CPU were 71c-74c.

Mind you that’s pushing the A8-3510MX from 1.8Ghz to 3.2Ghz using K10Stat.

Today my RMA replacement for the DOA Intel Mother board gets here. And my laptop is going to have an i7-2630QM instead of the A8-3510MX. I have to rerun my thermal testing, and I am not sure i will run AS+ since there isn’t a way to overclock the Intel (Multipler Locked, and BIOS is basic). But to give more data on this subject, Ill test with both TIM’s again with the Intel.

Fair enough, I was under the assumption that CLU dries up very quickly if it’s used on top of the IHS on desktop CPU’s, maybe that goes in hand with the skill not to over spread or laptop’s bare dies are just different.

Sure, I’d like to know the result of that test also.

sirsquishy.8531:

locx.6412:

You will want to be looking at Intel systems then instead. i5-2500K/3570K/4670K or i7 counterparts, a decent aftermarket cooler and then you’ll be looking at 20-30 fps in the worst case scenario. Your GPU will do for now.

^ This, However you don’t need a K-series Intel CPU to obtain 20+ FPS.

If you are going to upgrade that AMD to Intel, I suggest going socket 1155 and going 3rd Generation right now. i5 or i7, clocked at 3.2ghz+. The cost vs performance is the best for that range right now.

the HD7770 is more then fine for ‘most’ areas of the game. but, if you are running a 1080p LCD for your Monitor, you might want to consider upgrading to a 7790, R7-260x or something better.

Yep, 4670K is a bit faster (and more expensive) than 3570K which is a bit faster than 2500K, which can actually be more expensive than 3570K since it’s getting kind of rare and it overclocks so darn well all the enthusiasts are hoarding them. Whichever you can find the best deal on, pick that one. Don’t forget to count in the motherboard as well.

K is not necessary, it adds 20-40% performance to the standard version, depending on your cooling solution and luck with the particular chip. Might be something to look for anyway, since performance in WvW is drawn from the CPU you want the strongest you can get.

Depending on your budget, staying with that HD 7770 is a valid option, although you might need to turn Shaders down a bit and whatnot. 7790 is more on the spot and above that is playing it safe.

You will want to be looking at Intel systems then instead. i5-2500K/3570K/4670K or i7 counterparts, a decent aftermarket cooler and then you’ll be looking at 20-30 fps in the worst case scenario. Your GPU will do for now.

You would get 10-15 fps in zergs. Also I believe HD 7700 is a GPU series, so which particular unit do you have?

Not even your own? Have you checked that your chat tab is actually displaying guild and map messages?

Do the things suggested in this thread. If you find it lowering the CPU temperature, voltage, clock speed and usage during spikes you can RMA it due to overheating.

EDIT: if I understood correctly, the OP gets spikes lasting a couple of seconds every few minutes, but you get spikes lasting few minutes? How often do these occur? It could be entirely different issue but diagnosing is started the same way. You should start your own thread so these issues don’t get mixed up.

Btw squish, what’s your take on liquid metals like CLU on laptops? I’ve heard it works wonders under IHS and can bring problems above it but to my understanding laptop CPU’s don’t have IHS?

Figured as much, those two were kind of shot in the dark, I believe the issue is in the game file and thus repairing should help, if not, then complete clean reinstall could. Let us know if it works.

It stands for Thermal Interface Material, the paste that’s between your CPU and it’s cooler. It’s the stuff that transfers the heat away from the CPU. No matter what kind of cooler you have or how good airflow is inside, if it can’t get the heat pushed to the cooler it wont cool down. As squish said, IC Diamond 7 is a solid option.

have you tried repairing the game client or reinstalling the game? Do other games and tasks work fine? Have you installed the latest drivers from GeForce Experience?

Runite.6871:

More parameters: Core VID seems to drop from 1.1V to 0.7V when the spikes happen, also the GPU core and memory clock don’t seem to change during the spikes, they are around 500 MHz and 750 Mhz respectively. Clock multiplier seems to drop from x29 to x7 or so during the spikes. GPU temp is 82c and doesn’t seem to change during the spikes.

That pretty much settles it. CPU is causing this, it throttles down, cut’s on the max usage, clock speed and voltage too. Cleaning insides of the laptop should help tons, but if the TIM has dried up there’s no other way than replacing it.

sirsquishy.8531:

locx.6412:

To fix what’s causing it to run that high probably requires you to break it down to that level if you don’t want to leave it a work in progress. Keep yourself grounded, do it somewhere where there’s not much dust around and don’t use force. If you don’t start throwing the parts around or stabbing the CPU die you should be pretty far away from damage. The parts are actually sturdier than you probably think: I’ve heard of a guy throwing his CPU chip to a wall and it would still work perfectly after (Please don’t push your luck and try this though )

That made me laugh, awesome!

I doubt that would be healthy for the pc A little humour never ruins the day!

To fix what’s causing it to run that high probably requires you to break it down to that level if you don’t want to leave it a work in progress. Keep yourself grounded, do it somewhere where there’s not much dust around and don’t use force. If you don’t start throwing the parts around or stabbing the CPU die you should be pretty far away from damage. The parts are actually sturdier than you probably think: I’ve heard of a guy throwing his CPU chip to a wall and it would still work perfectly after (Please don’t push your luck and try this though )

that’s exactly the problem with prebuilt systems; you don’t always know exactly what you’re paying for, except if it’s the ultimate high-end rig, which you probably get cheaper buying the pieces yourself. Moral of the story: if the parts are junk, they leave them unspecified. Those are usually PSU and/or Motherboard, the two pieces you don’t want to fail.

Yeah of course, I don’t really play GPU intensive games so I don’t know how 760 would perform in Crysis or Farcry and whatnot, it all depends on his taste though. 760 Allows pretty nice graphics on modern and upcoming games that are not those reaching up for the extreme.

I chose the 4770K as well since he said he prefers i7, I guess he has use for it. I haven’t checked the TDP’s of the components, especially if they’re OC’d, but if you say 650W is enough for this I believe you.

The other thing I don’t know about (just for gaming, GW2 especially) is 16 GB of RAM. 8 should cut it, but maybe it was because it fit in the budget or futureproofing, sure. I just think 16 is a bit over the top even in the next few years.

The best thing about self-built computer and the deal breaker for me is that there are no compromises. Neither of those pre-built machines listed the info of their PSU or motherboard – I assume they’re junk parts and I wouldn’t want either of those parts to be the failing parts. doing it yourself you know what you’re paying for and you don’t spend extra for things you don’t need and don’t cut corners on the thing you do need.

Even if you don’t want to build it yourself, $1500 leaves a nice room to pay for some building service. sobe’s build looks pretty solid, but what I would do, especially if only GW2 is in mind, is to settle for a lesser card, like GTX 760 (It will still run very nicely on high graphics, even in 1440p) and opt for a little better air cooling, like Noctua NH-D14. It would still leave room for Windows and maybe even stronger PSU if needed.

A few things you should know:

achieving 30 fps on medium quality is veeeery easy in this game. Even high quality doesn’t take much. 20 fps in big fights on the other hand, not so much.

What you ideally want is a decent graphics card and one kitten CPU. Your best bet is Intel’s Core i3 and above, 2nd gen and above, i.e. ix-2xxx. Are you considering ordering by parts and building yourself?

EDIT: as for the graphics card, Radeon HD 7790 is maybe something you could look for, it will run the game on high settings. Its little brother, HD 7770 could maybe run decently with medium quality but the price difference of the said cards is maybe $20-30.

All that aside, building anything under $500 is going to be a struggle. It adds up very quickly: Windows = $100, case = $30, PSU = $50, hard drive = $60, RAM = $60.

$300 and that’s the bare minimum needed for all PC’s and that’s excluding the CPU, motherboard and GPU we should decide here. Those are going to be another $300 at cheapest and frankly they are nowhere close to the best performance/price section, known as the bang for the buck. What I mean is now you’re at $600. Paying $800 will get you more than that added 200’s worth.

I personally only have 1 monitor but I recall seeing that someone wrote recently that setting Interface Size to small would help with this. Small, on the other hand, makes TP almost impossible to read, so if there’s no other solution you have to switch back to normal when buying or selling something.