CPU overheating while GW2 is running

[xChris.8904]

I have an issue, the one mentioned in the title and i am not entirely sure if this is the correct place to ask but i thought i would give it a shot. Basically i am playing guild wars 2 on my laptop and so far the previous years (around 2 that i have it) i didn't encounter any trouble. I am running on pretty much best performance always because i don't find it necessary to have cool graphics, i just want everything to be running as smoothly as possible (and i usually have some issues with my internet so i try to not make it worse). But some days ago my fps started dropping heavily every now and then (like below 5) making the game unplayable unless i wasn't doing anything that requires much effort (but i mostly do fractals and raids). I asked around to see if anyone could give me any info on what is going on and some people told me to check if my laptop is overheating because an fps issue means the device is responsible and that is most likely the reason it is happening. I dowloading an app and yea the temperature is high, i have no idea what it used to be because i never had a reason to check it but currently with gw2 open i am seeing 80-90 cpu temp in Celcius. And i read online that above 90 you should just close your device because you are risking something more serious happening. I would go get my laptop checked, maybe serviced somewhere but without gw2 open and just chrome running the temperature is below 50. So this seems to me to be connected only to the game. In this case what do i do? Is there any way to deal with it? Should i just take my laptop to a professional? But in this case it is not like the issue is general, i have to tell them that it happens only when gaming

[Taniniver BlindDragon.9503]

As you say this isn't really the place for this, since the issue won't be specific to GW2 - anything that puts enough load on your system would cause it. You could test with something like the "Heaven" or "Valley" benchmarks, you can download them free.

 

You don't mention what CPU your laptop has, but "below 50" at idle isn't good either - it depends on the CPU but I'd expect low 40's at the most for some modern AMD CPU's, and less for Intel ones.

 

There might be a quick and easy fix depending up on the exact cause - if you are lucky it's just the fans/heatsink fins partially blocked with dust - get yourself a can of compressed air duster and give all the vents/fans you can see a thorough clean.

 

If it's not that then you are looking at something more advanced like replacing the thermal paste if it's no longer effective - which taking a guess at your knowledge of hardware, I'd say is best left to a professional.

[Ashantara.8731]

I suggest you upgrade to a more efficient CPU fan, and also apply a fresh layer of thermal paste while at it. 🙂
 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Caedmon.6798]

11 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I suggest you upgrade to a more efficient CPU fan, and also apply a fresh layer of thermal paste while at it. 🙂
 

But he;s on a laptop though. I never had one myself so i dont know how difficult it is to do compared to a Pc. Otherwise he should bring it to a pc shop and tell them he wants it cleaned from dust and his GPU + CPU repasted, pref with something like Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut.

I actually had the same thing a while back where my gpu ( I own it since 2014, 970gtx ) started reaching 80c in this game and throttling down,same for other games. I repasted my GPU with Kryonaut and its hovering between 55c - 62c instead,massive difference.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Caedmon.6798

[Ashantara.8731]

20 minutes ago, Caedmon.6798 said:

But he;s on a laptop though.

Oops! Well, in that case there isn't much that can be done, as laptops are not made for gaming.

The only things I know of that could help are laptop cooling pads.

[KrHome.1920]

On 5/1/2022 at 11:41 PM, xChris.8904 said:

And i read online that above 90 you should just close your device because you are risking something more serious happening. 

90 degrees is the "normal" operating temperature for a lot of laptop CPUs, esp. when they are from Intel. These CPUs are often running just below throttle temperature (called Tjunction), which is at around 100 degrees (celsius) for modern CPUs.

There exist even Apple laptops with Intel CPUs that thermal throttle at higher loads, because it is impossible to cool these CPUs with a laptop cooling solution and reaching 100 degrees and throttling is "expected behavior" of the system.

Yes, this isn't actually good for the life span of the system (not because of the temperature itself but because of the huge range between idle and load temperature - heating up and cooling down such a huge range stresses materials inside the system), but it's normal in laptop environments these days.

Edited May 3, 2022 by KrHome.1920

[Friday.7864]

Well, someone in guild also complained about sudden high CPU usage due to GW. Same timing as you. But they're also experiencing crashes at boss fights on both dx versions. 

So yeah, something might really be wrong, especially if it happens only with GW while it worked normally for 2 years prior

[Dawdler.8521]

Well the standard reply would be... "it's a laptop it cant be fixed". Because that's really all there is to it. Laptops run hot because they're laptops, unless it's a megafat top of the line gaming laptop. But, aside from putting it in the fridge most of the things you could do will require fiddling with the bios which if you're not tech savvy might not be an option.

- Make sure you are capping your fps. You can do this in GW2 settings. Should be capped at 60 fps.
- Change your Windows power options so it strangles the CPU.
- Disable hyperthreading
- Change fan speed curve
- Lower the CPU boost clocks
- Undervolt the CPU

Unless it's a really old laptop it's unlikely that a simple clean/thermal paste will do much, but of course it *is* possible that is utter crap from factory too.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Dawdler.8521

[pcgamefreak.5208]

GW2 has too many "dang" shaders that are not necessary.  Good textures, lighting and basic bump mapping is all that's need for any game.  Special effects do not need to be over-done, all you're doing is baking a gpu.  Guildwars 2 is the only game that makes my PC a little too warm for comfort and that's saying a lot given how modern PC games use the gpu and shaders.

 

The word here is, optimization.

Given how bad the game concepts are, especially in WvW/PvP, one can only expect the entire structure of the game to be under par.