i5 cannot run Guild Wars 2 properly

So i just finished playing the first public beta event for Guild wars 2 and i discovered that my m14x had a very hard time keeping my framerate anywhere above 20fps in semi-crowded areas and during large scale battles i was under 10fps and sometimes my computer would just freeze up. its pretty disappointing since i am able to run skyrim and battlefield 3 pretty smoothly.

the problem most likely is because the current version of guild wars 2 that has been developed has a very high CPU dependency. supposedly gw2 doesnt take advantage of the power of high end graphics cards much and relies mostly on CPU. changing the resolution and the altering the graphics slider bar did absolutely nothing.

"We are currently optimizing Guild Wars 2, making ongoing improvements to the game’s frame rate. Presently, the game is CPU-bound on most high-end systems, so lowering graphics settings or upgrading your video card may not have a large impact on performance."-guild wars 2 announcement

i am hoping they will in fact get gw2 to run more off of the video card for the finished product. So what do you guys think? Do you think upgrading to an i7 would do anything? or do you think there could be another problem? should i just keep my hopes up? if theyve been developing the game for so long (over 5 yrs) with an engine built around CPU dependency, will a couple of months be enough optimize it for GPU?

 

It's a beta. Give them time to optimize it. Supposedly the lowest quality settings in GW2 should be equivalent to GW1 Eye of the North on high quality. So if you can handle GW1 on high, then the final product of GW2 should work fine.

 

I think you should be able to run the final version on meduim/high at 40-60 FPS with the R1 and probably high/ultra with the R2.

 

wow, i find that a pretty hard promise for them to stick to. I mean, i can run guild wars 1 on ultra on my graphing calculator lol. But yeah, i'll give them some time. Thanks.

 

Okay, just for the record.

I have an OC'd 2600k, 16 GB RAM and a GTX 580 in my desktop and even that can't run the GW2 beta smoothly. My framerates rarely go over 60 and bigger dynamic events dropped it down to 10-15. Unbelievably poor optimization at the moment, be it either drivers or client.

 

FYI.. the game runs purely on the CPU right now it does not utilize the GPU at all... This should be remedied within the next few beta events.

QUOTE:

KNOWN ISSUES
Hardware Compatibility

Display: the graphics-settings slider has only a minor impact on performance at this time.
We are currently optimizing Guild Wars 2, making ongoing improvements to the game’s frame rate. Presently, the game is CPU-bound on most high-end systems, so lowering graphics settings or upgrading your video card may not have a large impact on performance.
On older or lower-end machines, it is recommended that you try disabling reflections to improve frame rate.
Installing the game client into the Program Files directory on Windows Vista or Windows 7 can lead to issues with the patching process.
It is advised that you install the game to another folder or launch it as an administrator.
Forcing anti-aliasing through AMD Catalyst™ Control Center or AMD VISION™ Engine Control Center typically results in a black screen when playing. ATI cards that are known to cause the black-screen issue while using the latest drivers (12.3) include:
HD 2900
HD 5770
HD 6970

Windows TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) will sometimes restart a user’s graphics drivers if they become unresponsive, resulting in a notification that the graphics driver has been restarted.

Alienware ATI Laptops: the Guild Wars 2 client does not restore properly after being minimized.

Currently, adjusting the core clock speed of the GPU or CPU typically results in lower performance.
It is advised that you leave core clock speeds at factory defaults.
AMD CrossFire™ and NVIDIA® SLI™ are not currently supported.
These features should be disabled while running the game.


Enabling NVIDIA 3D VISION® may cause a crash on some systems.

If you experience a crash while this setting is enabled, it is recommended that you disable it in the NVIDIA Control Panel.



Which would explain why I had no problem running SWTOR and GW2 at the same time in split windows... the GPU was working SWTOR while my CPU was rendering GW2. I however, have the i7.

 

Nah it'll be using the GPU (albeit badly). Would be impressed if they were lumbering Directx magic on the CPU. It's a Beta, and a rocky one. It happens. Hope they pull through!