Curse

Maine · Apr 20, 2006, 09:03 PM // 21:03

I log onto Guild Wars and everything runs fine and smoothly but after about 15-20 mins my game begins to lag like hell. It stutters and chops no matter where I am, but when it runs smoothly at the start, it evens run smooth in towns filled with players. I'm not sure if it's my graphics card, I know my card isn't great but because it runs fine for 15 mins or so im not sure whether this is the cause or not or if it's the connection. Please would someone be able to enlighten me so I can enjoy my game. Here are some of my specs:

Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz
512mb ram
GeForce 4 MX 440 128mb
ADSL connection

Zerg · Apr 20, 2006, 09:06 PM // 21:06

I would bump the Ram up and look into a better card.

Josh · Apr 20, 2006, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Graphics Card.

Your RAM is fine.

Zaxan Razor · Apr 20, 2006, 09:52 PM // 21:52

The Geforce 4xx MX range (is it the whole range?) Is not supported by GuildWars.

Your card is a stripped down version of a GeForce 2, and so is well well out of date.

lightblade · Apr 20, 2006, 11:10 PM // 23:10

Graphic card is the problem, you're right on the minimum requirement to play GW

Linda Heartilly · Apr 20, 2006, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaxan Razor

The Geforce 4xx MX range (is it the whole range?) Is not supported by GuildWars.

As if that matters, the entire MX line is top-of-the-line crap anyway.
Even if it was supported it would perform rubbish.

Xaniera · Apr 20, 2006, 11:44 PM // 23:44

ah, the GeForce 4 MX 440. Reminds me of my old card. I could play fine for about 15-20 minutes and then my whole computer would crash. Upgraded the card to a GeForce 6600 and had the same problems. It stopped after I adjusted a few things in my BIOS, but I'm pretty sure the source of the trouble was my ram. I have 1 GB total, but it's a little old and might be unstable. I'd try replacing the ram, maybe get a single 1 GB stick of gaming memory and see how that works.

Blade Rez · Apr 21, 2006, 12:06 AM // 00:06

Your Video Card does not just stop working after 15-20 minutes, and lag. It either lags in the beginning, or it crashes. Most likely, your CPU is throttling. Clean up the dust around your CPU, and your GPU.

Gmr Leon · Apr 21, 2006, 12:10 AM // 00:10

I have that exact same graphics card and GW runs fine,nada lag or anything. I doubt it's the card...

Riplox · Apr 21, 2006, 12:19 AM // 00:19

Dual Channel kits are pretty darn cheap now, at least for the DDR400 PC3200. Look at this from Newegg --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145440

And Video card prices aren't that bad either. I picked a few decent cards that should have a good amount of power to run most stuff nowadays.
AGP --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814140070
PCIE --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150118
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125010

floplag · Apr 21, 2006, 12:21 AM // 00:21

i expereince the same issues with an ATI 9800 on a 3.2 P4 with 2GB Ram

im a bit stumped as well

Riplox · Apr 21, 2006, 12:29 AM // 00:29

Oh, also, have you tried increasing the heapsize of the game. Go to the shortcut you use to access GW and type in, after the path, -heapsize *** where the *** is 1/2 you memory size. So if you have 512MB, you'd type -heapsize 256000, 1GB would get -heapsize 512000, and so on.

nova-exarch · Apr 21, 2006, 08:16 AM // 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade Rez

Your Video Card does not just stop working after 15-20 minutes, and lag. It either lags in the beginning, or it crashes. Most likely, your CPU is throttling. Clean up the dust around your CPU, and your GPU.

/agree...

If it was a hardware issue it shouldn't take long to appear. It should show up as soon as you log in.

Has the game always done this? If it just started, have you changed anything recently?

Also, do you have other things running in the background?

--

That heapsize thing seems like it may help. I'm not sure what size GW defaults to though. That sounds more like a tool to limit the resources GW will use as opposed to increasing them.

--

My first reaction was that it could be some sort of memory leak as that can also have the same affect of make a program go slower and slower. I sort of doubt that GW would have something like that going on though.

It could be the connection causing lag. There are a few ways to test that out but in general your connection would be crappy at the start also.

One last question... have you tried turning off all other programs you may have running? It could be some other program trying to take resources (or trying to take them back after yielding them to GW during the games initial spike during start-up).

Good luck!

Serafita Kayin · Apr 21, 2006, 01:09 PM // 13:09

AVG could do that to me if it was updating or scanning. Check things like that.

Also check for dust, etc in the case. It does sound like an overheating problem.

Maine · Apr 21, 2006, 03:09 PM // 15:09

I tried turning off all other programs and background tasks running that I didn't need but that didn't change anything, same result. I also tried that heapsize method but that made no difference either.

nova-exarch · Apr 21, 2006, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Here's a list of troubleshooting questions I think may help:

Has the game always done this?

Do other games or programs behave the same way?

Have you changed anything (either hardware or major software installs) lately?

Remember to check for heat issues...
(in order from easy to time consuming)

Does the case feel hot?

Check to make sure no vents are blocked?
(Dust can block the vents, the case being too close to stuff can cut off airflow, etc...)

Check for dust inside your case?
(in/on/around the CPU and heatsink, in/on/around the video card, etc...)

---

We'll figure it out eventually... it's just a process of elimination.

Frustrating I know but most of us gamers have been there plenty of times.

Take care,
Nova-

chessyang · Apr 21, 2006, 03:44 PM // 15:44

my super fast over clocked mo-fo computer w/ all it windows tweeks does this to. After i zone in a few towns or places....

my fix... turn off AA (4x) then back or Resize to 800x600 then back to the orignal.

CS:S if perfect. don't know why GW does this?

Hoyt · Apr 21, 2006, 04:13 PM // 16:13

/nods

Yeah, what they said(see above). My bet is on it being a heat issue.
Definitely do as suggested above and crack the case and "Dust Off" everything.
Be sure to get the fan areas really thoroughly.
(Make sure you unplug the computer first.)

Other simple things to try before you do anything major:

Change the video options in game to the lowest settings.
Don’t play in “windowed” mode – play in full screen
Don’t run Mozilla/Firefox while you are running the game. (I do not know why but it can do squirrelly things to in-game graphics on some systems.)
See what, if any, programs are running auto updates and disable them. Major culprits can be Antivirus software, all Adobe products, iTunes/iPod, Real Player, Windows OS, & Data mining & Statistics applications.

And like Nova said, we have all been there & feel for you.

~Hoyt

nova-exarch · Apr 21, 2006, 05:11 PM // 17:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoyt

/nods [*]Change the video options in game to the lowest settings. [*]Don’t play in “windowed” mode – play in full screen [*]Don’t run Mozilla/Firefox while you are running the game. (I do not know why but it can do squirrelly things to in-game graphics on some systems.)[*]See what, if any, programs are running auto updates and disable them. Major culprits can be Antivirus software, all Adobe products, iTunes/iPod, Real Player, Windows OS, & Data mining & Statistics applications.
~Hoyt

1st... all of the above seem like other things worht trying. I'm not contradicting any of it, I just had some comments...

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I keep all the options turned down just to help with lag.

I can turn everything on and it only lags a little in towns or when there are too many spell effects going off.

I only turn everything up for screenshots.

This thing has a Radeon x300 and it probably could do better in full screen...

I just like having my start bar in sight because I drop out of the game often to do other stuff.

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What in the world is up with Mozilla?!? I love the tabbed browsing but holy cow even with only three tabs open it is using more memory than GW is right now (65mb vs 60mb). Earlier it was using 200+ but I think it just did that because I had about 10 tabs open and then closed them. It seems like Mozilla doesn't like to give up the resources once it has them.

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Crazy stuff...

Looking forward to hearing if any of our musings help ya out Maine.

Maine · Apr 21, 2006, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Alright thanks alot with all your help. I'll try em out and let you know how I get on.