Explain this to me: Completely Weird FPS Glitch

[Selenti]

I've been struggling with a technical glitch with Guild Wars 2 (and other games, like CS:GO) for the past week or so.

Basically, what I've got is sudden and unexplained FPS drops that last for a few seconds (say, from a steady 60 fps to 10-20), then spike back up. They don't correspond to a heavy load on screen (i.e I can be staring at nothing but one NPC model and suddenly dive from 100 fps to 10), and Window's resource monitor makes things look even crazier. There should be some CPU or memory hog to account for all of this, right? Nope. Resource monitor shows Guild Wars 2's CPU usage staying steady at 60%, and no other process that is loaded spikes up.

What's even stranger is that this only seems to happen when either Skype or Ventrilo is loaded. But again, their CPU usage during these fps drops doesn't change at all, remains stubbornly low, it doesn't seem to be a case of resource hogging at all.

Does *anyone* have any clue what is going on here? I'd love an answer, since it basically makes GW2 unplayable for me long-term. As a side-affect, I've seen the same thing happen with CS:GO (sudden, unexplained FPS drops while Skype is running), though not nearly as often.

[KaranP]

I have a MUCH weaker and older graphics card, but my FPS seems to be doing the same, from around 40-3, no matter the settings, I basically turned everything to low/off including the volume quality and it still happens whether Im running or standing still. Sometimes I get through 30+ minutes without it happening then it starting up again. Apparently this is a common problem that quite a few people are having/ I say to just submit a ticket and wait to see if ArenaNet proposes a fix. And keep us posted, of course =D

[Deleted]

If it happens in more than one game, it's likely some background process taking up a ton of resources for no reason.

First thing you could do was to try to play without Skype and see if that 'fixes' it; other than that you should probably check your computer for vira/malware.

Id at least try to do some of the steps found in the sticky thread on top of the computer subforum (sorry, can't post links yet).

[Selenti]

If it happens in more than one game, it's likely some background process taking up a ton of resources for no reason.

First thing you could do was to try to play without Skype and see if that 'fixes' it; other than that you should probably check your computer for vira/malware.

Id at least try to do some of the steps found in the sticky thread on top of the computer subforum (sorry, can't post links yet).

I did some more research and confirmed that this happens regardless of whether Skype or Ventrilo are running. That was a mistake on my part--sometimes it just takes a little while to crop up, so I thought they might be related.

Also, no processes ever spiked in CPU or memory usage when the slowdowns were occuring when I was watching resource monitor, so it's definitely not a background process. Pretty sure at this point this is just a really big glitch with their game... and that's kind of borne out by the fact that Diablo 3 of all things uses more of my video card's power and rendering juice than Guild Wars 2 ever does.

[BreathTaker]

You have endless amount of options to try before giving up.
Have you tried it on a fresh windows install? I'd start with it. Damn i'd even get a new pc if my favorite (or long expected) game was not working fine.
I have a worse case:
I have to remove and input a mic jack to my pc to make skype hear me after every PC reboot and first skype launch.
But it only happens on my skype account, my wife has no problems.
And lol - i got new PC but the problem's still there.
Not critical but annoying!