Low FPS on high spec machine?

-Situation:
I used to play with a Dual core 2.8ghz , 2 gb of DDR2-533 ram, nVidia 7950 GTX2 oced, and everything was running smoothly on settings near max for everything. I changed every piece of my computer this weekend, here are the current specs:
-IX38 QuadGT motherboard
-8 GB of DDR2-1066 ram (OCZ REAPER HPC edition)
-Q6600 Quadcore
-Still got my modded nVidia 7950 GTX2 Oced
-1 500GB HDD SATA2
-1 1TB HDD SATA2
-650Watts OCZ Power supply
Ran every stability test with orthos and memtest, and everything ran smoothly, even after 8 hours of stress testing both ram and CPU.

-Problem:
I put all settings to max, thinking the game would running at well over 60 FPS now that I had a new processor and clean computer, but no, I get a sluggish 10-20 fps, and this, is with all settings set to LOW.

-Attempts to fix:
Updated DirectX to latest version
Updated drivers to latest compatible version
Updated audio drivers to latest version
Set to use a single core
Noticed that GW.exe is always set to LOW PRIORITY, and if changed to normal or high, it keeps returning to low, anyone knows a wait to keep it at normal?


-Conclusion:
If this is a known bug, what are the common ways to fixing this? I'll be looking at other support cases to see if anyone else experienced this before.

Thank you for your time,
--Elku

Guild Wars does not like multi-core processors. Try setting the affinity of the program to run on only one core. That may help.

I will try this, a fun fact is that when Intel was still in development of their quad cores, they used a beta version quad core to demonstrate how well it went, and to show a game, they showed Guild Wars.

Source: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/03...r_multi_core/1

Edit:
So I set affinity to a single core, and still got very low FPS.

Wow... 8 GB of DDR2-1066 ram (OCZ REAPER HPC edition) I'm sure you have your reasons. It's most likely something to do with the Quad Core which is scary because I was thinking about upgrading and it has that in it.

I'm assuming since you have 8 gb of ram you are running vista 64 bit. Try running guildwars in xp compatibility mode.

I'll quote myself from another thread to answer this quoted question:

Probably same reason as me - there's 4 slots, so why not fill 'em?

I run GW on Vista x64 on a QX6700 quite happily. GW is fine with x64, it's fine with Quads and it's fine with 8GB. Runs at 150fps+ on mine.

Something else, then.

No, I am running Windows XP Pro SP3, I do have 8GB installed, although only 3.5GB is used by windows, it's split to use about 1GB of ram on each, so heating is totally out of the question. I wondered if it might have been my hardware, so I installed and played Hellgate london with every settings to maximum and FPS over 60. I can safely assume that Hellgate London at maximum setting requires a much better machine than Guild Wars, so we can conclude that it would be compatibility related.

I also noticed that some people have quad cores on XP pro and they don't have the bug, while others have it. It might be good to start a poll to all Quadcore users and see if there are any correlations between hardwares or drivers installed.

I will try playing with the amount of core priorities and the such for now.

If any of you guys got any other ideas, it would be really great.

Thanks for the help so far.

So, 2*this=$170 of memory (assuming you got the rebate.)

Why? (Just curious - 8GB is pretty superfluous on my 64bit system - seems like madness on XP32 )

Got mine here: linki
Thing is, I am waiting for 64bit versions to stabilize, probably going to wait for Windows 7, and that's when I'll switch. Even then, 3.5GB of ram is pretty much too much nowadays, so when that amount will start to be deemed average, I'll switch over to 64 bit, or when 64 bits only games will appear, whichever comes first.

Wow - 2 Canadian problems in one day. There's your answer - Uncle Sam's hacking you again.

Vista x64 is plenty stable to my eyes. Vista64>XP32>Vista32>>XP64 IMO

Please tell me you updated BIOS. Can't expect BIOS to automatically read what changes are added and taken away from the motherboard.

Go to your BIOS and manually update it, for all we know your motherboard might be running on the old specs and running sluggish because the old hardware isn't there.

Of course I have updated my bios. I first updated it literally, from V1.0 to V1.2 (latest), then I set every settings properly. As I mentioned in my first post, every piece of hardware is new, was never used with anything else before (except for the GPU).

Considering I am one of those strange person that actually buy legit copy of windows, I don't want to spend lots of money for vista 64 and then respend lots of money on Windows 7.

Any other tips to fixing this?

Maybe Guild Wars doesn't like the 7950X2.
There have been reports about Guild Wars and multi-GPU setups. (and to explain why it has worked so well until now, "some people are just lucky")

Try setting it to single GPU in the Nvidia profile?

This is probably just from minimizing GW, mine does the same thing, but when running in the foreground it will return to normal priority. To increase fps try running GW with nothing running in background. Open Task Manager and terminate every application you can and end services that you don't need. Avast was giving me horrible fps until I finally switched to nod32.

yeah if ya got xp32 format the hdd and reinstall, thnx to microjunk ya got a limit on changing hardware (really hope the state (don't care which ever one) breaks that stupid bs rule into pieces so we don't need to reinstall windows every five foot after changing hardware)

oh and if ya got a 7950x2 please get an updated driver and if ya can't find any just disable sli if ya can in the driver, driver support for that card has been dodgy since day one. Lucky for their newer series they're actually designing a little more decent driver.

Note i never use their 'official drivers' i allways run of the beta's found on Nvnews.net, haven't had a problem in any game since day one of the 171.16 beta and i'm not updating that driver untill i really got to.
And trust me i had loads of problems with their 'official drivers' i got dual 7800gt's and since nvidia created dodgy drivers for that card since day one (heck i had problems in about any game) that was untill i installed that beta, ran through alot of different drivers that time ranging from the older 9x.xx drivers to the (was back then) 169.xx drivers

hope that helps

Elku...you do realize that XP can only address half of your RAM don't you? Anything over that is not even seen to exist by XP.

And just as a note...normally I only update the BIOS if things don't work the first time. I haven't had a system that needed it in 8 years.

Edit: I also just noticed that you updated to SP3....which has also been causing problems amongst the masses. Try reverting to SP2 and see if it clears up. That and maybe pull out the extra ram....seriously...it isn't doing anything in your system but occupying slots.

Also...can I assume that when you upgraded your hardware that you performed a fresh install of XP? It could also be that oc'd Nvidia card....maybe go back to stock settings and see what happens.

true necrotic but that shouldn't be the problem XP32 can't see it so what isn't there isn't causing the problem i'm thinking the problem is either with Xp (unlikely) or the driver for the 7950X2 (a hell of alot more likely - nvidia and drivers lately haven't been a good combo -_-)

I recall reading somewhere a while back (cant recall where) that some boards have issues if you load up all the ram slots with more than windows can address....not sure its an issue any more though. I agree that drivers are the more likely culprit...but I don't trust SP3 from everything I have been reading these last few days.

Of course I am aware that only 3.5gb of my 8gb of ram is used, but that shouldn't cause any problem. Had you read this thread from the beginning, you would have known that I stress tested both the ram and CPUs together using ORTHOS, and after 8 hours, the result was 0 warning, 0 errors.

As far as SP2 goes, I cannot revert, I updated from SP1 to SP3, so I cannot go back to SP2. I will try going for the latest drivers, although they aren't supposed to be supported by nvidia on this card.

As for the MOBO problem with ram, that's with an outdated Intel chip set that would try to force windows into using all the ram and breaking the 32bit architecture rules, bugging the hell out of windows. I got the 38X Intel chip set (the new one), and that shouldn't cause any trouble, and if there were, ORTHOS would have warned me.

All settings at maximum with 4 cores = 150-200 FPS in a battle outside of kaineng city

Another obvious answer, of course I formatted my HDDs after changing my hardware.

So here goes an attempt at playing with nvidia drivers.

EDIT:
!@#$ YEAH! THANK YOU FOR INSISTING ON NVIDIA DRIVERS.
If I used the card selection, it would give me a december 2007 driver, saying it's the latest compatible driver for my card. I tried that beta driver teller, and it gave me the may 13 2008 one, so I installed, since it should be compatible. I booted the game, 300 FPS with a single core, I'll try with all cores and see what happens .

So with all settings at maximum, walking around Kaineng city (currently my benchmark city because of how it's made and the population inside gives a good exemple of the game.), 120-150 FPS.
Thanks cyb3r and all of you who tried to help me

I think the nVidia driver search is borked. I did the same as you and got the Dec 07 one. Searched for betas and, top of the list, was 175.16, the May 16 WHQL.

Stupid widget :/

I must warn you, before it happens. The May release Beta drivers have artifacting problems with many games, including Guild Wars. You may notice the game completely freeze in areas with high texture counts, and you may notice broken textures as well as misplaced meshes. Glad they work, but the December drivers may just need to reinstalled.

No, it is working perfectly. The only reason you would need a more recent driver release is if your card series/type was newer then the December driver release. The widget selects the driver set based on your card instead of allowing you to download the newer drivers that would just add unnecessary code for features your card doesn't support, as well as DX10 support.

Lol - now YOU I ain't about to argue with! Thanks for clearing that up