Can GW2 be ruining my SSD?

[dXfile.2863]

Way faster than it should, at least? Cause something strange has been happening. I returned to the game almost two months ago and for the first time installed it on an SSD. It ran fine for a couple of weeks. Super smooth, just like the MMORPG I had been playing during my GW2 break. However, the performance is getting noticeably worse every week. It's baffling, really. I've been getting awful stutters seemingly out of nowhere, and stutters that would be somewhat expected (here and there during metas and wvw, for instance) if the game weren't on an SSD (16 GB RAM, RTX 2060, i5 9600k running between 60-75 °C, for reference). Actually, models and textures are taking a good 10 seconds or so to load when I reach the Trader's Forum, for instance. This didn't happen before and I'm assuming it shouldn't be happening now. Summon your mount there for the first time? Stutter. First dash? Have another stutter! To emphasize: the game was running far smoother when I started playing early January. No stutters, no matter the chaos on the screen. I'd never see models and textures load out of a sudden in front of me as I explored a map or even as I TP'd somewhere, everything would just load during the loading screens (those are taking longer too, by the way).

 

I haven't been playing any other game, haven't installed anything, haven't messed with the settings - I've done nothing. It just really feels like playing the game is damaging my system so I thought I should ask if, by any chance, GW2 isn't a good game to have installed on an SSD. Perhaps something in the way the game's coded, perhaps it does a lot of rewriting of data or some old features don't go well with the way SSDs work? Does anyone have any advice to share, or has gone through something similar? Thanks in advance.

Edited February 22, 2023 by dXfile.2863

[Melody.8123]

I dont think thats the cause, including me and others have been seeing microstutters aswell since the last 2 weeks aswell, anet should have a look into this.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Not really. GW2 is not writing much to your disk. Only when initially downloading and when patching the game. But even then, patches are rarely more than a few GB. Usually far less.

 

What can be the case is that the SSD was already at it's edge with reliable sectors and then writing a 60GB game can be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

 

You can download a disk testing program like HDSentinel and give the SSD a surface test (read) and a self test to see if there are any problems.

[hackedraptor.3210]

On 2/22/2023 at 7:23 AM, dXfile.2863 said:

Way faster than it should, at least? Cause something strange has been happening. I returned to the game almost two months ago and for the first time installed it on an SSD. It ran fine for a couple of weeks. Super smooth, just like the MMORPG I had been playing during my GW2 break. However, the performance is getting noticeably worse every week. It's baffling, really. I've been getting awful stutters seemingly out of nowhere, and stutters that would be somewhat expected (here and there during metas and wvw, for instance) if the game weren't on an SSD (16 GB RAM, RTX 2060, i5 9600k running between 60-75 °C, for reference). Actually, models and textures are taking a good 10 seconds or so to load when I reach the Trader's Forum, for instance. This didn't happen before and I'm assuming it shouldn't be happening now. Summon your mount there for the first time? Stutter. First dash? Have another stutter! To emphasize: the game was running far smoother when I started playing early January. No stutters, no matter the chaos on the screen. I'd never see models and textures load out of a sudden in front of me as I explored a map or even as I TP'd somewhere, everything would just load during the loading screens (those are taking longer too, by the way).

 

I haven't been playing any other game, haven't installed anything, haven't messed with the settings - I've done nothing. It just really feels like playing the game is damaging my system so I thought I should ask if, by any chance, GW2 isn't a good game to have installed on an SSD. Perhaps something in the way the game's coded, perhaps it does a lot of rewriting of data or some old features don't go well with the way SSDs work? Does anyone have any advice to share, or has gone through something similar? Thanks in advance.

hey man, my SSD that I used to play gw2 with for last couple months just died on me too. it just unpartitioned itself which means its about to die if not dead already. So yes this game definitely screws ur SSD and I wouldnt be surprised if it ruins ur cpu too. it is way too unoptimised a game to be running on a PC for hours and hours which is how we keep it running.

[Teknomancer.4895]

Doubtful. The game is on a standard HDD on my system and it does a lot of the same. The instability started around the release of SotO, it went absolutely nuts over Wintersday, then the load times and general laggy performance backed down a little but it's still slow af to load zones, textures, etc. It's also typically worst on first launch of the game. There really needs to be a major Bug Hunt done on the thing but I don't think that's really on the agenda.

Definitely run some system tests and checks to verify your hardware isn't giving out on you, but even if it is I doubt the game is to blame.