So about every time I start, the graphics are fine and all.
But about 5 minutes in, it gets all jumpy and it's like everything stutters around.
Is this a problem with my video card or what?
And in case it's of any importance, my laptop model is an HP Pavilion dv9000
Edit: FPS: 18
Ping: Averaged at 155
After 3 minutes from launching Guild Wars, when it started to stutter
FPS: 8
Ping: 286
Jumpy Gaming
Xelaster
Ministry Of Peace
If it's fine for the first five minutes, it sounds to me like it could be one of several problems:
1.) You have a memory leak
2.) You don't have enough memory
3.) Your graphics card/cpu is over-heating
However it could also be your internet, as connections with high latency produce "rubber-banding" which I know from experience can make the game characters look "jumpy"
In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, there should be a little bubble of various colors, and when you hover over it, it tells you your ping and FPS (frames per second). It would be helpful if you could write down numbers when it's playing fine, and when it starts going slow, as well as the exact time (with respect to when you start playing) that the measurements were taken.
Since I might not see this post after you post the info, I can go ahead and tell you a few things to do in either case.
If you have a very high ping (I doubt this is the case) the only thing you can really do is get a better internet connection. Wireless internet has a very high natural latency, so if you have wireless there is little you can do about it.
If the problem is very low fps (less than 15 or so), and you have an NVidia graphics card (most people do), I would suggest downloading a program called "nTune". This program will show the load on your cpu, hard drive, and memory at any given time, AS WELL as the temperature for your graphics card. I use this program a lot to try to determine where any system bottlenecks I have may be. I think the program that does this is called "Nvidia Monitor" and comes packaged with nTune on the internet.
1.) You have a memory leak
2.) You don't have enough memory
3.) Your graphics card/cpu is over-heating
However it could also be your internet, as connections with high latency produce "rubber-banding" which I know from experience can make the game characters look "jumpy"
In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, there should be a little bubble of various colors, and when you hover over it, it tells you your ping and FPS (frames per second). It would be helpful if you could write down numbers when it's playing fine, and when it starts going slow, as well as the exact time (with respect to when you start playing) that the measurements were taken.
Since I might not see this post after you post the info, I can go ahead and tell you a few things to do in either case.
If you have a very high ping (I doubt this is the case) the only thing you can really do is get a better internet connection. Wireless internet has a very high natural latency, so if you have wireless there is little you can do about it.
If the problem is very low fps (less than 15 or so), and you have an NVidia graphics card (most people do), I would suggest downloading a program called "nTune". This program will show the load on your cpu, hard drive, and memory at any given time, AS WELL as the temperature for your graphics card. I use this program a lot to try to determine where any system bottlenecks I have may be. I think the program that does this is called "Nvidia Monitor" and comes packaged with nTune on the internet.