GW.exe +90% CPU

I seem to have this problem since the April 1st update. (first occurrence)

Lately, when I play the game, sometimes my controls freezes for a short period of time. At first I thought it was just normal lag, but when I clicked my mouse during a freeze once, i heard my PC beep. So i checked how much CPU I was using. I found out that GW.exe was using over 90% (355 MB RAM) of the CPU while it used to be around 35%~50%.

Anyone have an idea what the cause may be ?

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CPU: AMD Athlon 64 - 3500+ (2,20 GHz)
RAM: Dual channel 2x 512mb
VGA: ATi X850xt

i Got 4mb ram and guild wars use the same amount on cpu
CPU: AMD Phenom 9500
Ram: 4X1Mb

Don't know why it would change but my machine was always running short on ram and I had a similiar setup using an x850xt but with a 3.2 pentium. When ram reaches a certain usage the cpu is forced to do all the extra work. I didn't notice any difference in load after the update but I got sick of the occasional slowdowns and threw in another gig of ram.. All the problems went away. Can't guarentee it will fix it but I'll take a good guess and say it would help you out enormously.

4 megabytes? thats a pretty sweet rig you got there

On my other 1.8 Ghz AMD Sempron it gets 100% flat out no matter what, on this AMD Athlon 64 6000+ X2 I get 20-35% average on windows XP, and 35-60% average on Vista.

bbh4r4l, If you are getting 100% with a Quad Core, then something is seriously wrong. That is just not right. I don't know why this happens to people though, beats me.

To the OP, I don't know either, I remember this happening on my Athlon 3200+ back in the day, one day it decided it was going to eat up 100% opposed to it used to using only half, and everyone just gave me the same answer ''Oh it just does that, that's how Guild Wars is'', personally that answer is a load of crap.

HAHAHA! /envy

XD XD XD

its just strange that it used ti be lower

There's nothing wrong here really. GW is a game, and as such games will usually use 100% of how many cpu's they're coded for unless the framerate is capped. And since you only have a single core it makes sense the cpu usage is like it is.

It's probably a one time occurrence. Can you confirm it's 90%+ every time you play? Even though, for your rig it's normal for Guild Wars to tax that much.

I have a 3500+ and a x850xt except with 4x512mb of RAM. Since around this update I have noticed a drop in frame rate and a increase of CPU usage. (It would always use as much processing power it could until the whole system was at 100%, but now it doesn't allow other programs any breathing room) Before I could use iTunes without any hiccups. Now iTunes will stutter unless I put it at a higher priority then GW. (I assumed this was because I added a webcam and the driver eats 1-4% CPU at all times if it is plugged in) Maybe the OP was onto something... or maybe we are all imagining things...

If I could make a wild guess at what is going on, it would be this. GW is constantly downloading stuff for new content (either streaming constantly or in "big" updates that require an game restart) and it is slowly adding more strain to your (Im guessing not up to date) system. Therefore, when you add more memory and such, it "fixes the problem". My dad is constantly trying to update my computer and I think I've switched computers once, maybe twice within the time I've got the game so I notice nothing of the sort. That and Im a good person when it comes to cleaning out my monster of a machine (say goodbye 3 gigs of hellgate wasted space! *zap*). So this is why Im guessing you need to find yourself some memory. ^^"

bbh4r4l, if you're maxing out on a quad core that's an issue. GW isn't concurrent so you shouldn't be using anymore than about 10% of the three other cores it's not using.

No, he should be using less. Your file system may be bloated. Try a fresh install of XP Pro and get SP3 for it.

Here is mine
[image is 1920x1200, so you have to click it)

(currently running an Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 OC @ 3.2GHz)

If you have a singlecore cpu, windows gives nearly 100% of the cpu to GW when you are playing fullscreen.

Yes but you have Guild Wars minimized right? on my 3.0Ghz X2 athlon It goes to 50% straight away upon minimizing on XP Pro SP2, and on Vista Ultimate 64bit SP1 it goes to 60% straight away when minimized, so that looks normal.

Would like to see it up on the screen in Window mode to get a better idea.

Here it is on my OC'd x2 4000+ @ 2.825 ghz.



Hovers around what is equal to 75%-85% of a single core in a window. Uses the full equivalent of a single core in full screen according to my g15 lcd, but i can't ScreenShot that.

Yeah that's what it should look like.

So the question is: Why are people with equal/better processors getting such high usage? It's quite odd really..

I mean with Skype, Msn, Yahoo, Weatherbug, Winamp, Firefox, and Guild Wars open I get 30-60% depending.

On Windows XP Professional SP2 with two Guild Wars clients opened - and both minimized (and the tasks I mentioned above running), I get 100%. Then 80% with one opened and the other minimized, so yeah.

PS: On an unrelated note, what town are you in? I can't even recognize that oddly enough, even after nearly 3 years of play.

That would be Eotn's Tarnished Haven.

It matters little if it's windowed or fullscreen, as soon as you switch the taskmanager as the active window, Guild Wars looses priority.

I've highlighted the screenshot for concept. (graph shows higher load for when Guild Wars was active)

its not about fullscreen or window
its all about minimized or not she was pointing out
when minimizing it u render no actuall frames to the gfxcard, so it doesnt get bottlenecked, and the fps raises up, and so does the cpuload

Anyway, about the topic
i have noticed lately that GW has become sluggish as well as loading towns slower , and i know its nothing wrong with my drivers etc
something has been changed in how the game handles everything