Asus G73JH, trouble with GW2 (GPU hits 99% with 30% fan, CPU at 11%) and low fps

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since August when the betas were going. I've played the game fairly well on this machine
ASUS - G73Jh
Here I am playing it and frapsing it in late April
Rekindle Your Relationship with Arah: The Arah Drinking Game - YouTube

At one point, ArenaNet released a patch stating they had optimized the game for performance. Since that patch, I went from roughly 30~40 fps down to 6~14 fps.
That's an unplayable state. So I got started on a reformat back to the factory settings. I had the OS updated with all Windows Updates and a clean environment to put the game to the test once more. It was still trash. This is the point at which I updated my vBios per recommendations on various forums like this one and then installed the newest AMD drivers and Catalyst Control Center. This didn't hurt me at all, but the game still suffers from the same extremely low frame rates. And I'm using all of its lowest settings.

Here is a comparison of my FPS on my current setup in Gw2 versus Rift respectively.
http://i.imgur.com/Oxir0U9.png

This image shows what my GPU and CPU are doing during a typical session of Guild Wars 2.
http://i.imgur.com/ctlKHCY.png

This one shows the same comparison while running Rift.
http://i.imgur.com/RWQgvLL.png

I understand that no two games are the same and that this is only good for consideration, not hard troubleshoot, but also considering that this machine once ran the game beautifully

I've discussed this matter with NCSoft support and while I feel they ultimately did a decent job of trying to help, they are of the impression that this is a problem with my machine and not their game.

I'm contemplating updating my Bios, but I've seen how many people are bricking this model, even if they use WinFlash and Fat32 formatting on a USB stick. Do you guys think that this is an important thing to try in getting the game to run correctly, or is it possible that the game itself is suffering very poor optimization and that taking this plunge will not be worth it in the end even if it is successful?

If you believe I should update the Bios, please show me the way to a most up to date and solid method of doing so with the least risk of bricking it. I appreciate any help that you can offer.

 

Well, the important factors would be:

Temperature/frequency off the bat (who knows, your GPU may be overheating and seriously throttling, or you may be locked on a low-frequency performance profile).
Once we know those, we can think of other stuff.

Also, what settings are you using? (Resolution, detail level, Antialias, Supersampling, etc.)? Have you tried lowering your graphics settings? Also, you're not the only one with problems. Others, including Crossfired 5870m's in R2's also have performance issues with the latest patch. It may or may not be optimized soon.

 

^^^ good points , I would test with another demanding game or playbable demo before I did anything else. What program are you using to monitor Temps + fan RPM? I fit is Hwinfo64 the 30% is INVALID use entries for fan RPM under Sensors- Asus G73 EC
Other than changing fan thresholds updating the BIOS would be the last thing I would do. What BIOS are you on now?
& Welcome to the forum

 

30% fan speed at 80C has seemed a little curious to me, but the Power4Gear settings are set to maximum performance when plugged in. And it's plugged in all the time. The machine sounds very quiet, but I can still hear the fan. Plus it's sitting on a cooling unit although I'm using that more for the extra USB slots, I don't think it does a lot of good for cooling this particular model.

Also, the game ran very well in late April, and it started running poorly extremely suddenly after the last patch. I think that says quite a bit, but I want to be sure I've got this pig running well since it's so freshly formatted.

My settings in GW2 are at the lowest possible. Resolution is 1920x1080 on a second monitor, antialias is off, supersampling native. CCC is basically set to "Application controlled". I have a screenshot with more info at the end of this post.

I'm using GPU-z to get my fan speed. Is that valid? I am on Bios 206
I just installed HwINFO

 

GPU-Z doesn't give any meaningful info on the fan speed for the G73, HWiNFO's reported RPM is better. Your CPU fan hit the max RPM at some point (~4500) which could indicate that the CPU is running hot, but your screenshots don't show the CPU temps or clocks. Something is not right, that's for sure, I was getting much better fps during the betas on my G73.

GPU usage and temps as well as the PCH temp are alright.

 

Yeah, the game ran fine for me until just two weeks ago when their patch notes stated that they were rolling out new optimizations for various games.

If you have the game, would you mind terribly checking your FPS with the new build? If you can't, it's all good.

I don't know if a game engine alone can cause such huge problems, but every other game I try out as I get them installed are running better than ever. GW2 looks more and more like an outlier.

Edit:

Also, here is a full log from about 1 minute of standing in Lion's Arch from HwINFO's sensor reads.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Apb3NSHZcmeldEU1aEhMc3JRZEd5Vm85dWNVM3FBcnc&usp=sharing

 

I forgot to follow up on this.

I found that I had to reset the embedded controller. This has now worked twice for me, typically if I see the monitor do anything strange during a boot up or something, I can rest assured GW2 will drop like a stone to 8fps.

But if I remove the battery and the plug, then hold the power button for 30 seconds, the game will run fine after I put the battery and plug back in.