PC Graphics

[flynhawn]

My system:

Self-built desktop

ASUS DUAL RX 480 4GB

I had Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.10.2 installed, but while experiencing numerous crashes in Guild Wars 2 (GW2) I noticed a driver update available, so installed 18.9.3. Not sure how a lower number is an update..

Windows 7 64-bit SP1

OS is up to date with all important and critical patches as of 11/25/2018

LG Ultrawide 34" 2560x1080@144Hz w/Freesync

Freesync is enabled in both the monitor and Radeon Settings

Gigabyte Z170-X Gaming 7 BIOS American Megatrends F8 dated 08/26/2016

i5-6600K

I had been running it at 4.5GHz with RAM at XMP settings after having run numerous benchmarks including AIDA64, Cinebench, Heaven, OCCT, Prime95, Firestrike and MemTest86. (I ran Heaven and Firestrike as I was trying to get a bit more from the vid card, but could not get anything stable.) However after the constant crashing in GW2 I set optimized defaults and then actually lowered the clock speed of the CPU to 3.1GHz after reading that GW2 has issues with oc'd hardware. The vid card is running at stock settings which are 1300MHz core clock, 1750MHz memory clock.

EVGA Supernova G2 550W 80+ Gold

16GB Geil Super Luce DDR4-2400

There are no explicit steps required to experience a crash. I can run the game less than 5 minutes or it can run for an hour or 2 before a crash. I'm not doing anything special in the game when it occurs and there are no graphical intensive effects going off. There aren't many people per server or, if there are, not in the starter areas in which I find myself. One thing to note is that the Radeon driver is definitely crashing which causes the game to crash which became apparent once I started playing in windowed mode. This has happened with both the 18.10.2 and 18.9.3 drivers.

The only game for which I am experiencing issues is GW2, build 93613.

I initially had set the game to fullscreen so that I could take advantage of the high refresh rate I enjoy in other games and had most video settings set to medium other than Character Model Limit and Character Model Quality which were set to high, Antialiasing set to FXAA and Effect LOD checked. I have an ongoing dialog with GW2 tech support and one of the things they suggested I try is playing in windowed mode. While in windowed mode game settings are as follows:

Resolution: Window

Refresh Rate: Default

Frame Limiter: Unlimited

Interface Size: Normal

DPI Scaling is checked

Full-Screen Gamma and Enable Stereoscopic Rendering are grayed out

In Advanced Settings the following are available:

Settings Preset: Best Performance, Autodetect, Best Appearance - If I choose Autodetect, all are the same as Best Appearance with the exceptions of Antialiasing which is FXAA for Autodetect and SMAA High for Best Appearance, and Render Sampling which is Native for Autodetect and Supersample for Best Appearance. The rest are:

Animation: High

Environment: High

LOD Distance: Ultra

Reflections: All

Textures: High

Shadows: Ultra

Shaders: High

Postprocessing: High

Character Model Limit: Highest

Character Model Quality: Highest

Additionally, the following boxes are all checked:

Ambient Occlusion, Best Texture Filtering, Depth Blur, Effect LOD, High-Res Character Textures

If I choose Best Performance settings are as follows (with NO Antialiasing and Render Sampling set to Subsample):

Animation: Low

Environment: Low

LOD Distance: Low

Reflections: None

Textures: Low

Shadows: Low

Shaders: Low

Postprocessing: None

Character Model Limit: Lowest

Character Model Quality: Low

[black_zion]

You sure it isn't related to them switching to AWS hosting last year? It caused problems with a lot of people, from intense lag to outright crashes (and I was one of them), and they're still trying to sort it all out, which fixes problems for some and causes problems for others.

What do your crash logs say? Something like:

*--> Crash <--*

Assertion: MathIsUnitVector(facing, COLLIDE_VECTOR_LENGTH_EPSILON)

*--> Crash <--*

Assertion: m_dataBytes == sizeof(T)

*--> Crash <--*

Assertion: isUnit || isZero

[flynhawn]

Where can I find crash logs? Are you referring to Arenanet.log? I mean I know how to view event logs for Windows crashes, but GW2 tech support mentioned wanting to see the contents of that file although I have yet to see it appear even after numerous crashes.

[black_zion]

Navigate to your AppData folder (type %AppData% in your location bar), Guild Wars 2 folder, and the file is ArenaNet.txt.

[flynhawn]

Ok, wow, there it was! Lol I wish GW2 tech support was as good as you in explaining how to find it! Well, there is a TON of info in mine, but just one example of text similar to what you posted:

*--> Crash <--*

Assertion: ObtainSurface error!

is the only entry like that. Oh and my file is named Arenanet.log, not Arenanet.txt. GW2 supp did answer back to say more processing cores shouldn't be an issue, but now they want me to force the 32-bit game version to start. Wouldn't that potentially create more problems - running a 32-bit app in a 64-bit system? I mean sometimes Windows Compatibility Mode works and sometimes it doesn't.

[black_zion · Accepted solution]

No, Windows 64 bit runs 32 bit programs just fine, but with Guild Wars 2 using a 32 bit program will cause issues due to the 4GB RAM limit, make sure you turn your detail levels to the lowest.

[flynhawn]

Ok, will do. Tyvm for your help.

[flynhawn]

Just wanted to add - the reason I lowered the clock speed of the cpu is that the i5-6600k will auto boost to 3.9GHz on all cores depending on load and I assumed the game might take this as an overclock. Also, latest reply from GW2 tech support states the game is coded for 2 cpu cores and the cpu should be left at stock speeds. Am awaiting a response if having a 4 core (or higher core count cpu) or the auto boost feature would be a problem.