If you're experiencing overall poor performance or graphics issues while playing Guild Wars 2, we recommend that you begin by walking through the basic troubleshooting steps listed below. If you continue to experience issues, you'll find a list of more specific problems players have encountered—as well as solutions to those problems—in the known issues section, below.
General Troubleshooting Tips
Here are some basic troubleshooting steps to explore if you begin experiencing graphics or performance issues:
- Verify that your hardware meets our minimum specifications to play the game.
- Lower your in-game settings, especially if you only meet or slightly exceed the minimum specifications linked above.
- These hardware configurations are the minimum required to play the game on the game on the lowest settings, so the closer to this minimum you are, the lower your settings may need to be.
- Run GPU-Z to identify what is limiting your performance.
- Download and install the latest graphics drivers for your video card.
- See the Updating Your Video Drivers section (below) for instructions on how to update your graphics card.
If you're still having problems after attempting the steps above, submit a support ticket and we'll do our best to assist you further!
Known Graphics Issues & Solutions
I am using a multiple graphics card configuration (AMD Crossfire or NVIDIA SLI), but they don’t function properly.
Download and install the latest drivers from NVIDIA or AMD.
- Please see the Updating Your Video Drivers section below for instructions on how to update your drivers.
Note: NVIDIA users are encouraged to perform a "clean" installation when updating their drivers. This can be done by selecting the Custom (Advanced) option when installing the drivers, and then choosing Perform a clean installation.
I have an NVIDIA graphics card and my screen turns black, followed by a message stating, “the display driver has stopped responding."
If you are using an NVIDIA card and experience a black screen, try adjusting the Power management mode setting to "Prefer maximum performance." Here's how you make that change:
- Right-click your desktop and select the NVIDIA Control Panel.
- Under the 3D Settings section, select Manage 3D Settings.
- Now select the Program Settings tab.
- In the drop-down list, select Guild Wars 2 (gw2.exe) or Guild Wars 2 (gw2-64.exe).
- In the feature list, find Power management mode and change the setting to Prefer maximum performance.
- Click Apply in the bottom-right corner of the control panel to save your changes.
Note: This workaround may not solve the problem for everyone. If you continue to run into problems, please contact our support team.
I have an AMD graphics card and the game world and/or character selection screen are rendering black, blue, or white.
Please try downloading and installing the latest AMD Application Profiles.
Note: You must restart your computer for the fix to be applied.
Verifying Dedicated GPU Usage
If you have multiple graphics cards, it's worth checking if your dedicated or stronger GPU is utilized when launching Guild Wars 2. To ensure this, please follow this article: Verifying Dedicated GPU Usage
Updating Your Video Drivers
Below you'll find steps to help you update your graphics card drivers. First, let's begin by figuring out what kind of graphics card your computer is using.
Windows® Instructions
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On Windows XP or earlier:
To check your graphics card type on Windows Vista or later:
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Updating NVIDIA® GeForce Drivers
To update NVIDIA® video drivers:
- Download and save the latest video drivers for your card via NVIDIA’s Download Drivers page. Do not run the installer yet!
Before you run the installer, uninstall the old graphics drivers from your computer:
- Go to Start – Control Panel – Add or Remove Programs.
- Locate the NVIDIA Drivers item and click it.
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IMPORTANT: Make sure that you ONLY uninstall the Display Drivers. DO NOT uninstall any NVIDIA nForce chipset drivers, as this will cause system instability.
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- Click the Change/Remove button.
- On the NVIDIA Uninstall window, click the Yes button to continue.
- Once the drivers have been uninstalled, allow your computer to reboot.
- During startup, the Windows® Hardware Wizard will appear. Cancel out of it.
- Note: You may have to cancel twice if your card supports a secondary display.
Now run the driver installer:
- Install the latest video drivers by running the installer you downloaded from NVIDIA.
- Reboot once more to complete the installation process.
Alternatively, you can also download NVIDIA'S GeForce Experience tool, which will not only alert you when a new driver update is available, but will help you perform a quick, clean installation of your drivers.
Updating AMD Radeon® Drivers
To update AMD video drivers for Radeon cards:
- Download and save the latest video drivers for your card via AMD's Drivers & Support page. Do not run the installer yet!
Before you run the installer, uninstall the old graphics drivers from your computer:
- Click Start.
- Click Control Panel.
- Click Add or Remove Programs. (Alternatively, Programs and Features if you are running Windows Vista or later.)
- Locate the AMD Display Driver and click it.
- Click the Change/Remove button.
- On the AMD Uninstall window, click the Select all button and then OK.
- Once the drivers have been uninstalled, allow your computer to reboot.
- During startup, the Windows Hardware Wizard will appear. Cancel out of it.
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You may have to cancel twice if your card supports a secondary display.
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Now run the driver installer:
- Install the latest video drivers by running the installer you downloaded from AMD.
- Reboot once more to complete the installation process.
Updating Intel® Drivers
To install Intel® video drivers, please do the following:
- Visit Intel's Driver Update website.
- Click the link that corresponds to your video card model or chipset.
- Under the Drivers and Download section, click the graphics driver link to navigate to the download page for the driver.
- Now find your operating system and download the latest driver (either as a .zip or .exe file) by clicking the button.
- Run the installer executable.
- When the installation finishes, reboot your system to complete the installation process.
If you are unable to install these drivers, please check with your system manufacturer to obtain the latest video drivers for your computer.
Updating Video Drivers on a Laptop
In some cases, due to device-specific hardware, laptop video drivers must be obtained from the laptop manufacturer.
Unfortunately, laptop manufacturers don't release updates as frequently as video card manufacturers. This means that while the latest AMD driver could be one week old, the most recent driver from your laptop manufacturer may be much older.
If the above links for your device's hardware do not work, please visit the website of your laptop manufacturer for further support.
Resolving Common Hardware Issues
In addition to the above, hardware issues can also result in decreased frame rates.
First, ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements to play the game. Please note that these are the absolute minimum specifications to play the game on the lowest settings - if even one component does not meet the listed requirements, you may experience crashing, poor performance, or be unable to launch the game entirely.
Second, ensure all components are plugged in correctly. In addition to your power cable and USB peripherals, it's a good idea to ensure your primary display is plugged into the correct slot on your computer - typically, this will be the HDMI or other display port on the back of your graphics card. If your monitor is plugged into a display port on the motherboard instead, you may not get the expected performance out of your graphics card when running the game, or may experience crashes.