Low FPS/Lag

[Zaxxeh]

Howdy,

I originally played Guild Wars 2 on an ASUS 6670 1 GB. Being a budget card and how it handled everything (Hell, it refused to even play Slender on all low, it hated Shadows and AA), I opted to get a new card. I purchased an MSI R6850 Cyclone Power Edition 1 GB which generally plays my games quite well.

So when I load up Guild Wars 2, initially I tried to max out at 1920 x 1080 (no super sampling). While it looked lovely and played fine in the Norn area (where I spawned as I was on my Charr checking things out), the moment I went to the Charr area, it tanked to about the 20's or 30's. Inside cities such as Hoelbrak, LA and the like, it dipped even further into the 10's and 20's. To get some stability (I stretch that term very much so) I applied the following settings.

Animation: High
AA: Off
Enviroment: High
LOD Distance: Medium
Reflections: Terrain and Sky
Textures: High
Sampling: Native
Shadows: Off (this was recommended by a friend, as was reflections)
Shaders: Medium
Post Processing: High

I do not have any of the bottom options checked.

As I still walk around the cities with these settings, my FPS is abysmal, and I'd just like a stable FPS overall. I'm unsure of what the game should be run at, and I'd like some input as to what settings would be recommended, or anything that could solve this issue.

My full specs are:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM, 1333 MHz, Corsair
Hard Drive: 1 TB
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD R6850 Cyclone 1 GB Power Edition
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

I also have a 750W PSU

Thank you kindly,

-Zax

[skidawgz]

Well start with the basic stuff I'm about to list, even though they both use catalyst, I would uninstall all drivers and reinstall for the new cards. I have an AMD card, but we all know they have some driver hiccups....

Next... what was the performance of your old card like? Better or worse than this card?

Have you tried turning everything low and seeing if the framerate stays above 30? Try the GW2 "recommended settings" as well... check framerates.

Also, run system monitor and check the graphs before/after you get a drop in framerate. see if one of your resources pegged 100%. (such as the CPU). Maybe you have a bottleneck that is holding the card back from high settings. With a little tweaking that card is powerful enough to play this game on really nice settings.

[Zaxxeh]

I'll start off with the drivers and reinstall them tonight. I'll make a reply tomorrow about where it goes from there.

The performance of my old card was unpredictable. It hated Shadows, Anti-Aliasing. That being said, it was very picky about how it would perform.

[Zaxxeh]

I installed the latest drivers. It's extremely smooth, around 20 or so FPS on all high in LA but...it's not lagging like before, which was what really made the game unplayable. The low FPS doesn't bother me as the lag when turning my character or mouse a fraction.

I don't have a Catalyst Control Center, though. It's weird. Just an AMD Vision Control Center. That doesn't really matter, does it? I can always use MSI After Burner for my fan and the like.

[skidawgz]

I had windows 7 and I downloaded my drivers and control center directly from Sapphire.
I installed Windows 8 and I downloaded my drivers and control center from AMD this time.

OK so do a check for your bottlenecks again, see if the game is pegging the CPU at 100% use. Is that CPU OC'd? Can it be? A little overclocking may keep your FPS around 30. I won't pretend I know a lot about Phenoms other than that they were a good gaming choice for a while.

I was getting around 30 avg using a Core2Duo 3.0ghz OC'd to 3.6ghz + HD 7870. Just upgraded to an i5 last week

[Zaxxeh]

I'll check my CPU next. It isn't OC'd, but I did attempt to raise it to 3.5 a few days ago only to fail after stressing it. I think I may have done it wrong.

Quick question, when I right click on the desktop and I notice the AMD Vision Control Center, there is also an Asus Splendid that is grayed out. Should I just...ignore that stuff and be happy that it's working smoother?

[skidawgz]

this should get you on the right path:
OC Forum

Also, remove any and anything that was required for your old video card (like splendid). THEN install the latest drivers for your current video card.
this is your MSI link: http://us.msi.com/product/vga/R6850-...=Driver&os=All
the AMD link is more obvious.

edit: as far as which to choose, I'd prbly go with MSI. I see they updated in Sept '12 so they keep up with that card still.
Then get afterburner too

[Zaxxeh]

I'll uninstall the latest drivers from AMD. There's nothing to get rid of ASUS Splendid as far as I can tell in the control panel I'll uninstall completely when I get home. How odd.

When I get home today, I'll uninstall the AMD drivers. Quick question, I noticed that in the Control Panel, there is a Catalyst Contol Center Install Manager. What would the proper course to take? I was thinking uninstall the drivers, see if there's any leftovers in Control Panel, then deal with those. Then install the MSI drivers.

[skidawgz]

that sounds about right.

If you've already seen an improvement thats a good sign. If you see catalyst control center. clicking uninstall will prbly give you a dialog box with what exactly to do. Do all this before the MSI drivers.

Then dont forget to monitor for CPU usage, I'm still curious how its performing. Then OC the CPU in small steps (test for stability), 3.2, 3.4...

[Zaxxeh]

I uninstalled my drivers completely and utterly, followed by the Catalyst Install Manager. Then it reinstalled itself, I figure it must be for installing drivers. When I right click on the desktop, I still see ASUS Splendid, but it's grayed out. Maybe it's something from the Motherboard? I don't know.

Running in a circle in a densely populated part of LA I alt tabbed to see my CPU usage--around 90%. My FPS was in the mid 10's to 20's.

I should note that all of my settings are now:

Animation: High
AA: FXAA
Enviroment: High
LOD Distance: High
Reflections: All
Textures: High
Sampling: Native
Shadows: High
Shaders: High
Post Processing: High

Depth Blur box is checked to 'On'.

I also have the following programs running: Opera browser, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Steam, Xfire, Pidgin, Skype, typically Teamspeak, and my anti-virus, Trend Micro. I think only Skype takes up a bit of CPU usage, though I'm inclined to make it stay on.