is CPU important in gw2?

[Crinn.7864]

@"Zedek.8932" said:Excelsior.

To run the game best you'd need a Dual Core with 10 GHz rather than Quad/Hexa/Octa cores with less clock speeds, so basically the opposite of what would make sense.Of course I am exaggerating there, but it's like that. With a Ryzen 7 1700X, nothing has changed here as well, and my cores and the corresponding threads are used like 10-30% despite I get unstable 40fps on FullHD. Here and there some FPS gaps are filled after my upgrade from a GTX970 to my GTX1080, but else, I am in the same boat as you. It's somewhat of a bummer. It almost feels like it's been written for DualCores...

First off, no a Dual Core is not "better" for Gw2. Having less cores in your CPU does not automatically make the CPU better in single core performance. The best single core performance CPUs on the market right now are i7-7700k (4core/8threads) and the i7-8700k. (6core/12threads) Single core performance is determined by the architecture used, and the chip's binning.

As for your anecdote about 1700X rig.The Ryzen architecture does not have the greatest single core performance. Hopefully the upcoming Pinnacle Ridge Ryzen CPUs will fix this, but for now Ryzen is not very good for primarily single core applications such as GW2. That said if you are only getting 40fps with a 1080 + 1700X I think the problem is not your CPU. Ryzen may not be the greatest single-core performer, but it's hardly weak. There is something else wrong with your system. Perhaps it's your RAM, perhaps you got a horribly binned CPU, or perhaps you plugged your GPU into a PCI 8x slot instead of a PCI 16x slot.

[Crinn.7864]

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

[mercury ranique.2170]

@TexZero.7910 said:Yes. CPU is the most important thing when it comes to GW2.

I know a lot of people are stating the importance of the CPU, but it is not really accurate. Compared to simular games, GW2 leans more on the CPU then average.

The other component (RAM and GPU) still matter a lot.

[Kururu.8140]

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

[Ardid.7203]

Computerz can't take all the Beautyz.

[MFoy.3284]

Something sounds off OP. I'm running Win 7 with a 2500K, 16gb memory, GTX 760 and a 500bgb SSD. I get 60 fps just running around playing and drop into the 30 to 45 range when I'm in a group event like Melandru. I've got all the visuals turned on high in-game. One thing I have done is turn on "Override any application setting" for my anti aliasing setting in the Nvidia control. I do run with Vsync enabled which limits me to a high of 60 fps.

[Crinn.7864]

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Your GPU is installed in the PCIE 4x slot instead of the 16x slot. Check that the GPU is in the top most slot on your motherboard.

2) You are using a Radeon card, which tend to run hot. It's possible that the card is thermal throttling which is why I asked about airflow. Airflow heavily depends on what case you are using. A easy trick for bringing down GPU temps is to remove all of the expansion slot covers which will dramatically improve airflow around your GPU. I would also recommend removing all drive bays that are not currently in use. Better yet, completely remove all of the drive cages and relocate your drives to the unused external 5" bay. (I doubt your using all 5 of your 5" bays) Hard drive bays restrict the air being pushed in by the front intake fans. You may consider adding more fans to your case as well, I looked up the Z11 and it's stock fan configuration isn't very good, and I can guarantee that the stock fans are potato.

3) You've got some background program that is hogging system resources.

4) The GW2 engine really hates AMD GPUs for whatever reason (Doubtful as the forum would be drowning in QQ from AMD users)

5) Power could be a issue, if I did my math right the setup is drawing ~417 watts, which doesn't include power draw from case fans, hard drives, and any other peripherals. That's getting uncomfortably close to your power supply's maximum. However this is the most unlikely explanation for your bad FPS, as power issues will typically result in crashes rather than simple FPS drops. (Although I would recommend a better PSU regardless, as PSU's are at their most efficient around 50% load.)

6) Gremlins

[Kururu.8140]

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Your GPU is installed in the PCIE 4x slot instead of the 16x slot. Check that the GPU is in the top most slot on your motherboard.

2) You are using a Radeon card, which tend to run hot. It's possible that the card is thermal throttling which is why I asked about airflow. Airflow heavily depends on what case you are using. A easy trick for bringing down GPU temps is to remove all of the expansion slot covers which will dramatically improve airflow around your GPU. I would also recommend removing all drive bays that are not currently in use. Better yet, completely remove all of the drive cages and relocate your drives to the unused external 5" bay. (I doubt your using all 5 of your 5" bays) Hard drive bays restrict the air being pushed in by the front intake fans. You may consider adding more fans to your case as well, I looked up the Z11 and it's stock fan configuration isn't very good, and I can guarantee that the stock fans are potato.

3) You've got some background program that is hogging system resources.

4) The GW2 engine really hates AMD GPUs for whatever reason (Doubtful as the forum would be drowning in QQ from AMD users)

5) Power could be a issue, if I did my math right the setup is drawing ~417 watts, which doesn't include power draw from case fans, hard drives, and any other peripherals. That's getting uncomfortably close to your power supply's maximum. However this is the most unlikely explanation for your bad FPS, as power issues will typically result in crashes rather than simple FPS drops. (Although I would recommend a better PSU regardless, as PSU's are at their most efficient around 50% load.)

6) Gremlins

Ah, thank you for the tips! My GPU is definitely in the topmost slot.My temperatures are usually cool. Right now I have Chrome, Discord, Spotify and GW2 open and my temps range from 25 celcius to 52 celcius (across the motherboard, GPU and CPU). Is there a specific PSU you would recommend? I have been thinking of getting an upgraded PSU because I'm wanting to upgrade my GPU to the Geforce 1070.

Maybe it's gremlins. Every PC I've ever had has had some kind of incredibly odd quirk to it.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

@"Buy Some Apples.6390" said:DX9 FTL

The game was designed to work on everyone's PC, and back then the most common DX was DX9 and single core CPUs.Anet didnt want people to have to buy a new PC in order to play GW2 to help increase sales.

Like how many people here are using a PC with a DX9 GPU and single core CPU now?!I would be surprised if the number is over 100.

By catering for the "back-then" anet have shot themselves in the foot in terms of upgradability, performance and optimisation.And today we can see how badly it affects the game.

Making a DirectX 10+ renderer is relatively easy but will not solve any performance limitations. Rewriting large parts of the engine to better utilize multithreading and the current programmable nature of GPU's will bring the performance improvements you like but this requires a great investment of money, time and skill from ArenaNet.

Is the community willing to pay for this? And have another potential content draught while it is in development? At least for a casual player is it much more attractive to pay 25 EUR/USD for an expansion than like 100 EUR/USD for a new version of the game engine.

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE an improved game engine and also would pay for it but we must be realistic. We might get small improvements over time but I would not set my expectations too high. On the other hand, I think it is amazing what ArenaNet is doing with DirectX 9 and the visuals of this game show how far ahead DirectX 9 was for its time.

[Crinn.7864]

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Your GPU is installed in the PCIE 4x slot instead of the 16x slot. Check that the GPU is in the top most slot on your motherboard.

2) You are using a Radeon card, which tend to run hot. It's possible that the card is thermal throttling which is why I asked about airflow. Airflow heavily depends on what case you are using. A easy trick for bringing down GPU temps is to remove all of the expansion slot covers which will dramatically improve airflow around your GPU. I would also recommend removing all drive bays that are not currently in use. Better yet, completely remove all of the drive cages and relocate your drives to the unused external 5" bay. (I doubt your using all 5 of your 5" bays) Hard drive bays restrict the air being pushed in by the front intake fans. You may consider adding more fans to your case as well, I looked up the Z11 and it's stock fan configuration isn't very good, and I can guarantee that the stock fans are potato.

3) You've got some background program that is hogging system resources.

4) The GW2 engine really hates AMD GPUs for whatever reason (Doubtful as the forum would be drowning in QQ from AMD users)

5) Power could be a issue, if I did my math right the setup is drawing ~417 watts, which doesn't include power draw from case fans, hard drives, and any other peripherals. That's getting uncomfortably close to your power supply's maximum. However this is the most unlikely explanation for your bad FPS, as power issues will typically result in crashes rather than simple FPS drops. (Although I would recommend a better PSU regardless, as PSU's are at their most efficient around 50% load.)

6) Gremlins

Ah, thank you for the tips! My GPU is definitely in the topmost slot.My temperatures are usually cool. Right now I have Chrome, Discord, Spotify and GW2 open and my temps range from 25 celcius to 52 celcius (across the motherboard, GPU and CPU). Is there a specific PSU you would recommend? I have been thinking of getting an upgraded PSU because I'm wanting to upgrade my GPU to the Geforce 1070.

Upgrading to a GTX 1070 would actually reduce your power draw. However I do not recommend upgrading your GPU right now as GPU prices are jacked up right now due to a combination of vram shortage and cyptocurrency mining. Plus NVidia will probably release the next generation of GTX gpus in Q4 of this year, so if you wait till then you'll have the option of either picking up a GTX 10xx card for super cheap as retailers offload their stock, or pick up NVidia's latest and greatest.

As for your PSU. Anything from this:https://pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/Filter the search for units with better than 750 watts, have a 80+ Gold or better efficiency, and are either semi or fully modular.

I recommend looking for ones with 80+ Gold power efficiency or better, as the higher efficiency will save you money on the electric bill, and more importantly, higher efficiency PSU's will typically have better quality components and are more stable, which will improve the lifetime of your system.

[Kururu.8140]

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Your GPU is installed in the PCIE 4x slot instead of the 16x slot. Check that the GPU is in the top most slot on your motherboard.

2) You are using a Radeon card, which tend to run hot. It's possible that the card is thermal throttling which is why I asked about airflow. Airflow heavily depends on what case you are using. A easy trick for bringing down GPU temps is to remove all of the expansion slot covers which will dramatically improve airflow around your GPU. I would also recommend removing all drive bays that are not currently in use. Better yet, completely remove all of the drive cages and relocate your drives to the unused external 5" bay. (I doubt your using all 5 of your 5" bays) Hard drive bays restrict the air being pushed in by the front intake fans. You may consider adding more fans to your case as well, I looked up the Z11 and it's stock fan configuration isn't very good, and I can guarantee that the stock fans are potato.

3) You've got some background program that is hogging system resources.

4) The GW2 engine really hates AMD GPUs for whatever reason (Doubtful as the forum would be drowning in QQ from AMD users)

5) Power could be a issue, if I did my math right the setup is drawing ~417 watts, which doesn't include power draw from case fans, hard drives, and any other peripherals. That's getting uncomfortably close to your power supply's maximum. However this is the most unlikely explanation for your bad FPS, as power issues will typically result in crashes rather than simple FPS drops. (Although I would recommend a better PSU regardless, as PSU's are at their most efficient around 50% load.)

6) Gremlins

Ah, thank you for the tips! My GPU is definitely in the topmost slot.My temperatures are usually cool. Right now I have Chrome, Discord, Spotify and GW2 open and my temps range from 25 celcius to 52 celcius (across the motherboard, GPU and CPU). Is there a specific PSU you would recommend? I have been thinking of getting an upgraded PSU because I'm wanting to upgrade my GPU to the Geforce 1070.

Upgrading to a GTX 1070 would actually reduce your power draw. However I do not recommend upgrading your GPU right now as GPU prices are jacked up right now due to a combination of vram shortage and cyptocurrency mining. Plus NVidia will probably release the next generation of GTX gpus in Q4 of this year, so if you wait till then you'll have the option of either picking up a GTX 10xx card for super cheap as retailers offload their stock, or pick up NVidia's latest and greatest.

As for your PSU. Anything from this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/

Filter the search for units with better than 750 watts, have a 80+ Gold or better efficiency, and are either semi or fully modular.

I recommend looking for ones with 80+ Gold power efficiency or better, as the higher efficiency will save you money on the electric bill, and more importantly, higher efficiency PSU's will typically have better quality components and are more stable, which will improve the lifetime of your system.

Yeeeah. I have noticed the prices have been pretty outrageous recently. It'll take me some time to save up so hopefully by then it would be back to normal.

Now what I'm worried about with the PSU thing is the compatibility. Currently, I have a CX Corsair 500 so I'll probably linger within the Corsair range. I'm not the most tech person in the world by a long shot.

[Crinn.7864]

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:

@Kururu.8140 said:I have an Intel i7 7700 4.20GHz, 16GB RAM and Radeon RX 470 GPU and get 25FPS or so during combat (except PoF maps) and upwards of 50FPS in cities despite my GPU being pretty bad and running medium settings. So yes, GW2 is very CPU-heavy.

I have a i7-7700k at the same clock with a gtx1060 and get 90 fps everywhere except WvW and meta events. While the GTX 1060 is a better card than the RX470, it's not so much better to explain a almost 70 FPS difference.May I ask what your full specs are? How good is your rig's airflow?

Hmm, well I have no idea how to check airflow but I have a Zalman Z11 High Performance tower case if that helps. It looks to have plenty of space in there, too.Windows 10 (64)ASUS PRIME B250-PlusCorsair H45500W PSUand only 590GB used up of my 1TB storage.Also, I don't overclock.

I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Your GPU is installed in the PCIE 4x slot instead of the 16x slot. Check that the GPU is in the top most slot on your motherboard.

2) You are using a Radeon card, which tend to run hot. It's possible that the card is thermal throttling which is why I asked about airflow. Airflow heavily depends on what case you are using. A easy trick for bringing down GPU temps is to remove all of the expansion slot covers which will dramatically improve airflow around your GPU. I would also recommend removing all drive bays that are not currently in use. Better yet, completely remove all of the drive cages and relocate your drives to the unused external 5" bay. (I doubt your using all 5 of your 5" bays) Hard drive bays restrict the air being pushed in by the front intake fans. You may consider adding more fans to your case as well, I looked up the Z11 and it's stock fan configuration isn't very good, and I can guarantee that the stock fans are potato.

3) You've got some background program that is hogging system resources.

4) The GW2 engine really hates AMD GPUs for whatever reason (Doubtful as the forum would be drowning in QQ from AMD users)

5) Power could be a issue, if I did my math right the setup is drawing ~417 watts, which doesn't include power draw from case fans, hard drives, and any other peripherals. That's getting uncomfortably close to your power supply's maximum. However this is the most unlikely explanation for your bad FPS, as power issues will typically result in crashes rather than simple FPS drops. (Although I would recommend a better PSU regardless, as PSU's are at their most efficient around 50% load.)

6) Gremlins

Ah, thank you for the tips! My GPU is definitely in the topmost slot.My temperatures are usually cool. Right now I have Chrome, Discord, Spotify and GW2 open and my temps range from 25 celcius to 52 celcius (across the motherboard, GPU and CPU). Is there a specific PSU you would recommend? I have been thinking of getting an upgraded PSU because I'm wanting to upgrade my GPU to the Geforce 1070.

Upgrading to a GTX 1070 would actually reduce your power draw. However I do not recommend upgrading your GPU right now as GPU prices are jacked up right now due to a combination of vram shortage and cyptocurrency mining. Plus NVidia will probably release the next generation of GTX gpus in Q4 of this year, so if you wait till then you'll have the option of either picking up a GTX 10xx card for super cheap as retailers offload their stock, or pick up NVidia's latest and greatest.

As for your PSU. Anything from this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/

Filter the search for units with better than 750 watts, have a 80+ Gold or better efficiency, and are either semi or fully modular.

I recommend looking for ones with 80+ Gold power efficiency or better, as the higher efficiency will save you money on the electric bill, and more importantly, higher efficiency PSU's will typically have better quality components and are more stable, which will improve the lifetime of your system.

Yeeeah. I have noticed the prices have been pretty outrageous recently. It'll take me some time to save up so hopefully by then it would be back to normal.

Now what I'm worried about with the PSU thing is the compatibility. Currently, I have a CX Corsair 500 so I'll probably linger within the Corsair range. I'm not the most tech person in the world by a long shot.

As long as it's a ATX form factor PSU (almost all PSUs are) and is either semi or fully modular, you won't have to worry about compatibility. PSUs is one of the most interchangeable components on a PC.

[Noa.7490]

@"Buy Some Apples.6390" said:DX9 FTL

The game was designed to work on everyone's PC, and back then the most common DX was DX9 and single core CPUs.Anet didnt want people to have to buy a new PC in order to play GW2 to help increase sales.

Like how many people here are using a PC with a DX9 GPU and single core CPU now?!I would be surprised if the number is over 100.

By catering for the "back-then" anet have shot themselves in the foot in terms of upgradability, performance and optimisation.And today we can see how badly it affects the game.

You hit the nail straight on here. Anet stopped development on "Utopia", what was essentially going to be the next chapter in the original Guild Wars. But they realized that the engine did not allowed them to do all they wanted. So, instead of licensing an engine capable of dealing with the new versions of DX, they simply overhauled the Guild Wars engine and now just how it affects the game. That was a very shortsighted move. Last fall it looked like they were trying something (https://twitter.com/ApochPiQ/status/908108985118552064) but it looks like they're trying to keep a sputtering, leaking car into an F1 race here.

On a side note, for OP, this is what I run:

i5 4690 @ 3.50Ghz (Haswell 22nm)16,0GB DDR3 @801MhzGeForce GTZ 970Asus Z97-A mobo

During normal operations the temp of my CPU hovers at around 45 celcius but in game it jumps 70 celcius but at least my FPS is decent. In comparison, while playing Witcher 3, I never go above 60.

[Crinn.7864]

@Noa.7490 said:

@"Buy Some Apples.6390" said:DX9 FTL

The game was designed to work on everyone's PC, and back then the most common DX was DX9 and single core CPUs.Anet didnt want people to have to buy a new PC in order to play GW2 to help increase sales.

Like how many people here are using a PC with a DX9 GPU and single core CPU now?!I would be surprised if the number is over 100.

By catering for the "back-then" anet have shot themselves in the foot in terms of upgradability, performance and optimisation.And today we can see how badly it affects the game.

You hit the nail straight on here. Anet stopped development on "Utopia", what was essentially going to be the next chapter in the original Guild Wars. But they realized that the engine did not allowed them to do all they wanted. So, instead of licensing an engine capable of dealing with the new versions of DX, they simply overhauled the Guild Wars engine and now just how it affects the game. That was a very shortsighted move. Last fall it looked like they were trying something

Even if Anet licensed a engine when they started development on GW2 you'd still be here whining about the engine's CPU dependence.

Multithreaded optimization didn't really start to appear in gaming until 2015, and only that was because of Intel outright telling game companies that their was a hard limit to how far single core performance could be pushed. Moreover GW2 started development in 2007 and back in 2007 all game engines where heavily CPU dependent due to how potato GPUs of that time where.

During normal operations the temp of my CPU hovers at around 45 celcius but in game it jumps 70 celcius but at least my FPS is decent. In comparison, while playing Witcher 3, I never go above 60.CPU temp is terrible metric for measuring a game's optimization.

[Noa.7490]

@Crinn.7864 said:Even if Anet licensed a engine when they started development on GW2 you'd still be here whining about the engine's CPU dependence.

Please, don't speak like if you know me. Especially when it's done in poor taste.

@Crinn.7864 said:CPU temp is terrible metric for measuring a game's optimization.

It indicates that there's a bottleneck, which means the game engine is not optimized. Seen plenty of threads on the subject on Reddit. Perhaps one of the reasons Anet is trying to reach out both to nVidia and AMD.

[Yamazuki.6073]

@Noa.7490 said:

@Crinn.7864 said:Even if Anet licensed a engine when they started development on GW2 you'd still be here whining about the engine's CPU dependence.

Please, don't speak like if you know me. Especially when it's done in poor taste.

@Crinn.7864 said:CPU temp is terrible metric for measuring a game's optimization.

It indicates that there's a bottleneck, which means the game engine is not optimized. Seen plenty of threads on the subject on Reddit. Perhaps one of the reasons Anet is trying to reach out both to nVidia and AMD.

That's not really what thermals means, and thermals vary widely from person to person. My CPU on GW2 is between 45-55C while my GPU is 53-80C. NVidia/AMD wouldn't be able to solve any issues related to instructions involving the CPU.

[Crinn.7864]

@Noa.7490 said:It indicates that there's a bottleneck, which means the game engine is not optimized. Seen plenty of threads on the subject on Reddit. Perhaps one of the reasons Anet is trying to reach out both to nVidia and AMD.

No, increase heat simply means that the CPU is drawing more power which generally means that it is under higher load. Higher load does not indicate a bottleneck nor does it indicate that the engine is poorly designed. It simply means that GW2 uses the CPU more than the Witcher does. Which is normal as MMORPGs have always been rather heavy on the CPU side due to having a lot of backend stuff that typical games don't have to deal with.

Also you're really stretching with that Anet tweet. That dev is looking to keep GW2 compatible with modern drivers and hardware, as the last thing Anet wants is for some new driver or GPU architecture to kill GW2. If Anet was looking to modernize their engine they would be looking for engine developers not hardware companies.

[Julius Seizure.4985]

The irony is that many of the newer i3 models will play this game better (and cheaper) than i5 models. You just need 2 real cores with a high clock speed— and i3 delivers that better than all but the most expensive i5s.

For instance, my i3 4170 is probably running the game better than your i5.

[Noa.7490]

@Crinn.7864 said:

Also you're really stretching with that Anet tweet. That dev is looking to keep GW2 compatible with modern drivers and hardware, as the last thing Anet wants is for some new driver or GPU architecture to kill GW2. If Anet was looking to modernize their engine they would be looking for engine developers not hardware companies.

Not a far stretch. Because the GW2 is basically a souped-up version of the original GW engine, which dates back to 2005, Anet will soon hit the same wall they hit when they started developing Utopia. they'll realize that the engine won't be able to let them realize what they want to do with it. This guy says it better than me.

@"Buy Some Apples.6390" said:DX9 FTL

The game was designed to work on everyone's PC, and back then the most common DX was DX9 and single core CPUs.Anet didnt want people to have to buy a new PC in order to play GW2 to help increase sales.

Like how many people here are using a PC with a DX9 GPU and single core CPU now?!I would be surprised if the number is over 100.

By catering for the "back-then" anet have shot themselves in the foot in terms of upgradability, performance and optimisation.And today we can see how badly it affects the game.

Also, I play a lot of games, many way more complex than GW2, and none push the CPU like GW2 does. This thread on Reddit is very interesting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4k8fum/gw2_is_the_only_game_that_my_pc_struggles_with/

[Noa.7490]

@"Julius Seizure.4985" said:The irony is that many of the newer i3 models will play this game better (and cheaper) than i5 models. You just need 2 real cores with a high clock speed— and i3 delivers that better than all but the most expensive i5s.

For instance, my i3 4170 is probably running the game better than your i5.

Might want to check that page for an update about your statement.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-4690-vs-Intel-Core-i3-4170/2311vsm28214

[rank eleven monk.9502]

@Julius Seizure.4985 said:The irony is that many of the newer i3 models will play this game better (and cheaper) than i5 models. You just need 2 real cores with a high clock speed— and i3 delivers that better than all but the most expensive i5s.

For instance, my i3 4170 is probably running the game better than your i5.Well, Coffee Lake (latest gen) i3-s are already 4 cores.

Also, even though high single (read: dual) core speed helps a lot in GW2, it still very much uses 4 physical cores as far as I know. Most likely you will experience a lot less microlag with 4 physical cores too (this is true for most games anyway).

To OP: it seems weird that the RAMs run at 800 mhz. Aren't they supposed to be like 1600mhz or something? I think in reality your ram runs at 1600mhz anyway

If you compare this to DDR4 that mostly run between 2133-2800mhz.. that should be a big difference.

[Shikigami.4013]

Running GW2 on an old Core2Duo 8500 (socket 775, 2x 3.16 ghz) with DDR2 ram on one machine, and an i7 2600 (socket 1155 4x 3.4 ghz) with DDR3 ram on another. Both are old but despite the difference in performance I hardly notice any difference between playing on the two machines.

Gfx cards are almost identical in performance (GTX960 vs. GTX 1050Ti) and settings are all high except for low shadows & postprocessing and SMAA low antialiasing.I am not getting as low fps as the OP. The very first thing I suggest doing against performance problems with many players around is definitely turning down the shadows from high to low (or even off).

[krythix.1035]

According to the game's official specs, the minimum req is "Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3 OR AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better." which is a very modest requirement in 2018. I would say your GPU is much more important but like all things, you should strike a balance. I'd personally recommend pretty much an Intel i5 (or AMD equivalent) and the best graphics card that fits your budget. Overall GW2 is very well optimized :)

[Crystal Master.4169]

For gw2 you don't need a high end gaming pc to run it on max settings. Your CPU will only start bottleneck when running multiple instances of the game (2-4, depending on settings). To run more instances, then u need a very strong CPU, not for a single instance.

[Vespero.6180]

oh well, I ordered a new i5, i'm gonna use it for work too so it's not a big loss! btw i hope they improve the system, it's horrible to see new games running at 60fps and gw2 having trubles at 25...