HELP: Game Optimization Problems

I hope someone can help me with this issue. The game crawls at around 7 to 25 fps in the newest map from Living World. However, in other maps I see it jump around from 35 fps to 60 fps.Here is my rig:

• Intel CPU i5 3570 clocked @ 3.9 (older, but still more than enough horsepower)
• 16 GB of system memory
• GeForce 970 GTX with 4GB of video memory
• 250 GB SSD DriveMy computer should be able to run GW2 on Best Appearance, but sadly, it can not.

Here are my Advanced Settings:

• Animation: High
• Antialiasing: None
• Environment: High
• LOD Distance: High
• Reflections: None
• Textures: High
• Render Sampling: Native
• Shadows: High
• Shaders: Medium
• Postprocessing: None
• Character Model Limit: Medium
• Character Model Quality: Highest

I even have gone to the Settings Preset and set it to Autodetect and I tried Best Performance. Autodetect did absolutely nothing but make the game look horrible. Best Performance helped a little bit, but I was still in the 25-30 fps range. What is going on here? I'm just playing the damn story instance and it is this bad. Nevermind how bad it gets if I'm in the open world with other players. I love this game, but poor optimization like this will make me play something else. I can play Destiny 2 at 60 fps on maxed settings. I can play Witcher 3 on near max settings silky smooth. Doom 2016 - max settings. SWTOR - max settings and that's the Hero Engine!

Please, any advice that works will be greatly apprieciated! I've been playing GW2 since release and its always been a little choppy in high populated areas, but now we are in 2018 and the hardware of my rig is way beyond what is required to make this game run on Best Appearance. Please help!

PS: My system is clean. No virus or spyware. I've been building my own computers since I was 13 years old and I'm 37. I'm no noob when it comes to hardware and keeping my computer running efficiently.

gw2 works better on high single thread performing cputhus, if u wan gw2 to run at max steadily, u need the latest cpu with the highest clock speed possible

For what it is worth, my system specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5 2400 (3.10)Nvidia GT730 2GB/DDR58 GB DDR3250GB SATAPSU Stock Dell 265 Watt

(I also play using a Linux OS and run the game under Wine.)

I get 20-35 FPS on average, sometimes dropping to 16-20 in HoT and crowded city areas. But, the game-play is smooth, no stuttering or hitching, thus perfectly playable for me. Skills, go off as they should and I see all effects.

My game settings are almost identical to yours, EXCEPT for Shadows, I have that set to low. Shadows can be a beast for eating frames in some areas in the game. Reflections are another, looks like you got that set.

I have my Shaders set to highest setting, I saw/noticed no difference with lowering it -the visual quality matters to me.

The game relies HEAVILY on CPU, some settings simply won't change anything FPS wise because the game is CPU bound -meaning largely ignoring/not utilizing your GPU to a great extent.

So, after toggling settings, my FPS didn't really improve. Render Sampling Quality lowering below Native did give me more FPS but who would want to play GW2 looking like that? (Not me)

Reflections only impacted at higher settings for me, so I set it at Terrain and Water.

Post Processing made no difference in most game areas, maybe HoT areas, but I have it set to Highest.

Character Model Limits should be set lowest and inched up as your system allows performance wise, but generally lowering it will improve your FPS in heavy population areas/events.

I keep Model Limit at Low and Model Quality at Low. There's simply no reason to want the game engine to show 40+ players in all the armor detail as they are battling in my opinion.

turn shadows to low mate.

Thank you all.