Curse

caseyjonesxxx · Jul 16, 2007, 01:57 AM // 01:57

I apologise if this has been posted before, but I'm new the forum and didn't know where else to post this issue I'm having.
It only started happening recently, but I'm having framerate drops about 5 or 10mins into the game. I'll start out on 60fps+ then as I play, it will suddenly drop to varying framerate from 7-20fps. If i leave my character stationary, the framerate increases a small amount, but once I rotate the camera or start running around again, the framerate will drop making it really difficult to play. The only way I can fix this, is by restarting my PC and playing again, but then it happens again after 5 or 10mins in game.

My normal setup:
Dual monitors: 1 X 24" Dell Widscreen 1 X ViewSonic 19" widescreen
I have the GW client on the 24" in window mode and MSN, XFire, and FireFox on the 19". I used to run this setup without issues a month ago.

Things I've tried:
Disabling the second monitor
Lowering the settings to the lowest possible setting
Ending all processes other than the required system ones and Guild Wars
Unplugging all unused peripherals (webcam, wacom tablet, joystick)
Updating to the latest nVidia drivers

My PC Specs:
OS: WinXP Pro SP2
CPU: 3.2Gb Pentium D
RAM: 2Gb
GPU: nVidia GeForce 7900GTX 512MB
HDD: 2 X Seagate 300Gb SATA 1 X Seagate 200Gb SATA
Other: Logitech Webcam (I use the mic for XFire or TeamSpeak chat)
Wacom Intuos 2 Tablet
Logitech Wireless keyboard and mouse

As far as I know, my PC seems more than capable of running GW with the settings at max without any issues (as it has worked before in the past). I've only ever seen one post similar to mine on the nVidia forums, but with no reply to the post.
Any help would be great. Thanks in advance for any replies.

vaxmor · Jul 16, 2007, 05:05 AM // 05:05

do you have anything running in the background - like a virus scanner set to scan upon 10min of idle time? or maybe bit torrent? or a disk defrag?

do you get a high ping concurrent with the FPS drop?

caseyjonesxxx · Jul 16, 2007, 09:29 AM // 09:29

No, I'm not running any anti-virus software in the background, not behind a firewall, I don't have any utilities that scan my drive running that could compromise any CPU process power.
As for the lag option, I share an ADSL (1.5Mbit) connection with my housemate and we both play GW together and he doesn't have any framedrop issues. His computer is similar to mine but with a different GPU. He also runs a dual (2 X 22") monitor setup and has XFire, MSN, FireFox and GW running in window mode with all his settings set to max without any issues.
I've yet to try re-installing GW to see if its just bugging out with my client but I'll post with updates when I do try later tonight.
Thanks for the reply.

Hengis · Jul 16, 2007, 11:06 AM // 11:06

My guess would be that you have Vsync enabled.

This forces the graphics card to wait for the screen refresh period and usually gives a nicer image in my opinion, with far less tearing.

However, if the graphics card cannot keep up with the demands from the monitor, the frame rate can drop dramatically (basically it can be cut in half to 30 FPS or less).

You might get some gain by enabling triple buffering if your card has a lot of memory (preferably 512meg). Nvidia do not directly support triple buffering of DirectX games, but there are some third party utilities out there that can enable it for you.

Alternatively, you can just untick Vsync, which will almost certainly give a big framerate gain, but you may find you suffer from a lot more video tearing.

Zodiak · Jul 16, 2007, 12:39 PM // 12:39

Suggestions:

1. Scan for spyware
2. Disable automated anti-virus protection and scan manually as needed.
3. Check the responce time on your monitor. Larger monitors (above 22'') often have responce times over 8ms
4. Disable VSync in game
5. Disable all Windows XP graphical gobledy-goos. Since your running in windows mode, your computer is forced to share resources equally between your guildwars and OS. Whatever plays in fullscreen gets priority over resources unless told otherwise.
7. Try forcing VSync off through your video card control panel
8. Go to Start>Programs>Startup, see if any applications are there.
9. Disable startup items (go to run button>type msconfig)
10. Disable unnessecary services in the control panel (control panel>administrative tools>services)
10. If these fail, try forcing your guildwars to run in DirextX8 and see if you get the same.

caseyjonesxxx · Jul 16, 2007, 12:41 PM // 12:41

The VSync option is usually the first checkbox I untick with every game I play. Thanks for the suggestion though.
I'm doing a fresh install of Guild Wars now and its just grabbing all the updates. So I'll see how that pans out. I realised that the problem only started occurring after I purchased and installed the Nightfall campaign.

Hengis · Jul 16, 2007, 01:56 PM // 13:56

Are you also getting lag spikes/high pings when the framerate slows down?

I have a fairly similar set-up to you (Dual Core E6600, Geforce 7950GT) but a smaller 20.1 inch widescreen/19 inch standard screen dual screen set up. I prefer to play with Vsync on though as my eyes seem to be very senitive to video tearing.

If my ping goes up, as it has done WAY too often later, then I will get a corresponding drop in frame rates.

You can't always believe what the green/orange/red ping status monitor says either. If you get a huge lag spike, the monitor will just show the last successful ping it received.

Another thread on lag etc. suggested setting the game's processor affinity to only one processor on a dual core system. (Find gw.exe in the processes list, right click, set affinity, un-tick the first processor ). I thought that this made a worthwhile difference when I tried it, but since then the lag has been so bad that the small difference that makes is lost in the huge lag spike mess.

Unfortunately, there is no simple way (that I have found) to make this a permanent change, and you have to apply it every time.

Like you, I tried a fresh install when I had these problems, and a whole new -image file, with very little change.

Good luck and let us know if you find anything else that helps, as it is likely to help others too.

caseyjonesxxx · Jul 16, 2007, 11:32 PM // 23:32

Zodiak: I've tried pretty much all of what you've suggested prior to making my initial post, but thanks for all the suggestions. I've had Guild Wars since release and have been able to play in windowed mode or fullscreen with heaps of things running in the background. I've even had fullscreen video running on the second monitor without any issues. Its only just recently where I've found that after 10mins (give or take) into the game I'll get a drastic frame drop.

Hengis Stone: I get the occasional lag spike which happens to all of us it seems. But with lag spikes, they are just temporary thus termed a spike. But for me, once the framedrops kick in, they remain there.
I tried the fresh install and left it running overnight to get all the updates and everything. I had a quick run around this morning before leaving for work in a fairly active district and it seemed to be running quite well. I'll be playing tonight once I get off work so I'll be able to fully test to see if it helped.

Thanks for all the help guys.

caseyjonesxxx · Jul 17, 2007, 02:08 PM // 14:08

Okay, another update... I just finished up from a 3 hour Guild Wars session and I thought I had solved my problem because I was getting 100+ fps for a solid hour or so. But in the middle of a city mission I had my frames drop to 7-20fps and don't know what caused it. After I completed the mission, I rebooted my PC and it was fine again until half way through the following city mission. Once again when that was done, I rebooted again and managed to play through another city mission, but when I travelled to Lion's Arch, upon entering the city I had it drop frames again.
It appears to be crapping out rather randomly and don't really know what's causing it.

I disabled my second monitor as well and played with the GW client at fullscreen. I only had XFire running in the background with a voice chat session. EVERYTHING else was disabled or the process was terminated!
After the second reboot I tried playing with both monitors enabled, XFire with a voice chat, MSN with 2 conversation windows open, FireFox (with this forum up so I could post this update) and it was fine for an hour before I finally traveled to Lion's Arch before signing out.

I guess I won't ever figure out what is causing the framerate to suddenly crap out on me, but thanks to those of you that replied to this thead with suggestions. I'll keep searching and trying things and if I ever find out how to solve it, I'll post it in here just in case anyone else is having this issue.

Gawa · Jul 17, 2007, 04:01 PM // 16:01

eek, sorry for your troubles Caseyjones, gfx issues can be tricky to track down.
One thing i was wondering was when you updated to the latest nvidia drivers..?

You mention things were fine 1 month ago. Ive found in the past that sometimes the latest drivers actually makes things worse for me in a few cases and have to roll back. I guess you tried updating the driver in response to these issues which may put paid to that idea, but it wouldnt hurt to try rolling back a couple of driver releases. Also, are you using the latest stable or latest beta drivers?

Cheers

Mugzee18 · Jul 17, 2007, 04:09 PM // 16:09

im about to throw my computer though the window! Im reformatting it today because I cant stand the performance im getting from GW right now. The day before yesterday i was playing GW fine, I had normal frame rates (usually around 45-55 fps for my system) with minimal lag, but yesterday and today I have been getting like 7-20 fps in cities, outposts and even in instances!!! Id ont know whether its the maintenance they are doing on GW right now or what, but this is very hard to play. I doubt it has to do with that though because i tried playing WoW and other games, and i got pretty much the same performance. nothing was running in the background, but I have vista, so thats probably whats causing it. Im going back to XP tonight! Is anyone else experiencing major framerate issues?

Quaker · Jul 17, 2007, 05:57 PM // 17:57

It could just be that your video card (or something else) is overheating. This may be a 'natural' cause, such as:
- not enough air circulation in the case - tricky one to pin down
- dust clogging the heatsink/fan on the card - make sure it's dust free.- - in fact, blow the dust out of the power supply and cpu while you're at it.
- overclocking - can happen by accident.

or it could be something wrong like:
- bad bearings on the video card fan causing it to slow down when it warms up.
- voltage fluctuations from the power supply - what size is the PS? - maybe it's just reaching it's limit.
- bad component(s) or solder joint(s) on the video card - modern computer components are more likely to fail in the first few months because of unseen flaws.

It could even be the power supply or cpu overheating.

One way to try to determine if it is overheating would be to spray a coolant such as 'freeze mist' onto various components to see if the frame rate improves. (Often you can simulate 'freeze mist' by holding a can of 'dust off' type spray, upside down when you spray it - caution - it is very cold)

Btw - It could be that parts of your system, such as the video card or power supply, have been running close to the ragged edge for a while. After a while, the heat/power stress can cause things to break down so that reducing the stress (by disconnecting things) no longer helps, because the damage is permanent.

Mugzee18 · Jul 17, 2007, 07:34 PM // 19:34

You know, ive been so lazy to go and blow out my computer and get all the dust out, but that might be the problem. i dont know about you guys, but guild wars is a resource hog, as soon as it boots up, my computer fans sound like they go into overdrive. Some of my other games dont do that. So yes, I will try and do that. Ive been planning on downgrading to XP from vista anyways because of the choppiness that I get from vista anyways with guild wars. Some of my other games dont function as smoothly either. im trying to hold off on getting a new pc until HD drives become the standard and I dont have to upgrade for that. I also want to wait for the 8800 to drop in price. My computer is hitting the 3 year old point but I have taken very good care of my computer. But thanks Quaker for all your suggestions.

Oh, also, i thought the freeze mist that comes out of the spray can while upside down was harmful to electrical components. I see it evaporates quickly but I thought it was bad to spray onto electrical things.

Zodiak · Jul 17, 2007, 08:00 PM // 20:00

When playing Guildwars in SLI 64x AA...

everything looks ROUND! O_O