There is a ton of benefits to a 64-bit client and Guild Wars 2 has been 32-bit since launch. One of the biggest benefits is, and pretty much the only reasonable one, is it allows a game to access bigger chunks of memory. A 32-bit game can access up to 4 gigabytes of memory total, but a 64-bit game can access more and beyond that, including not only the physical memory, but additional virtual memory as needed. This will give players more stability and make the game run better, along with curing any crashes players may receive for insufficent memory.

What are the requirements of using the 64-bit client?

Your computer needs to have a 64-bit processor, and your operating system must also be 64-bit. To find out whether you fulfill these requirements, please refer to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base. If you are using Windows 10 you may follow the steps for Windows 8, and replace the first step with simply clicking the search button in the task bar.

Please note that we do not support 64-bit Windows XP.

To get started, assuming you have a 64-bit operating system, is to locate your Guild Wars 2 installation. Then download the executable from the official site (https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2/win64) and replace your gw2.exe with this one. Voila, you're now running the 64-bit beta installation. Details aren't established for how you'll be able to play 64-bit GW2 once this moves out of beta and obviously all beta disclaimers apply. Oh, and make a backup of your old GW2.exe. Just for you know, in case something doesn't hash right.

Now, you may ask, should you bother? Well, yes, you probably should unless your GW2 runs perfectly fine, with no issues at all, and you can't imagine it running any better and it has never crashed. If that's the case, then this isn't going to do much for you other than waste a few minutes of your time. However, if you constantly run out of memory, the game runs sluggish, or you feel like it could improve, then by all means this is probably going to help anywhere from 1% to a billion %, depending on the extent that memory is a bottleneck for you. Certainly with Heart of Thorns, its squeezing many peoples memory and as a result, seeing players crash to desktop on the largest of boss fights.

Those who use GEMFX might run into some problems, but thankfully users over at Reddit have a solution to your issues. Check out this Reddit thread for some instructions.

If you need more details, be sure to scope out the official FAQ that has tons of answers to various questions.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 21, 2016

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Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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