Anyone know how to keep framerate high?
I'm amazed at how effective this game is in destroying my 980, Hexa core combo.
It drops down to 30fps when big groups come together...
The CPU can't effectively use all your cores. It's simply bound to it. I applore you to go download the 64-bit client. It will use a lot more of your ram, and is more stable than the 32-bit client you are most likely running with. It's an easy process. you simply download a little client, and put it in your GW2 folder.
Secondly, what causes the drop is that GW2 allows there to be a staggering amount of players on screen. I advise you to lower "character model limit" and "character model quality" < this lowers the quality of all other characters besides your own. if you take the settings far down it will make some "basic character overlays" for other characters. It can boost your frames from 20-ish fps to 60-ish in hard fights.
Thirdly, and this is like in other games, shadows are extremely taxing and not worth it. crank them down.
Fourth, when you get above 60 fps, set your framelimiter to 60 fps. your computer is using exessive resources when it runs at like 200 fps when there is few players on screem. that is dumb. so set the limit there.
fifth, enable Limit Particle Effects check box. You should do this not really because of framerates (only) but also because when 50 players are going berserk on one mob you cant see whatis going on. this reduces the particles effects when there is a lot of players throwing spells and attacks.
Anet have said they are working on improving this aspect however. So lets hope it will improve!