PC Performance Question

[iejen]

Hi Guys, 

I got a question about performance. 

When I am playing medium settings the game is still using 99% of my GPU. 

Is this being looked at in A19 ?

I noticed when turning of Sun Shafts it lowers with about 5%... 

Any other tips to increase performance but maintain quality? 

Specs

MSI Z390-A-Pro Motherboard

I5 8400K 

RTX 2060

16GB RAM 

Regards, Ian

 

[JCrook1028]

shadows/reflections are both huge gpu draws.

 

[Boidster]

The tradeoff you should be considering, IMO, is

[settings] <-> [FPS]

not

[settings] <-> [GPU %]

...at least down to a certain threshold. I'm sure with your monster GPU you could lower the settings enough so that the GPU doesn't need to break a sweat while providing 200FPS.

I have a considerably more potato GPU than yours and it runs 99% at High settings, giving me 30-40 FPS. I tweak those settings to improve FPS, not to try to lower the GPU %. Let it work its little heart out to give me acceptable FPS at the highest settings possible.

GPU temperature is a metric that ought to be monitored (if not have an alarm set), in case your cooling solution is not up to snuff. Otherwise, let the GPU run free!

 

[SylenThunder]

If your system is running un-restricted, and you have no bottlenecks, your GPU will be at 99-10%. That's actually a good thing. It's designed to perform that way.

If you have a problem with temps when it gets up there, then you have a cooling issue you need to resolve. 90% of the time it's simply due to bad airflow and a negative or neutral case pressure. Or because you're relying on water cooling because the advertisements said it was better. (Tip: It's not better than air cooling 98% of the time.)

I find most often that I configure my settings to get a stable 90FPS, and then increase it from there until I have a stable 60FPS and my GPU is being worked as much as possible.

 

[Jugginator]

If your system is running un-restricted, and you have no bottlenecks, your GPU will be at 99-10%. That's actually a good thing. It's designed to perform that way.

Was going to say that. It does throw people off, since if your CPU or ram is at 99% that can be cause for worry, but graphics cards are meant to be utilized fully.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

I find most often that I configure my settings to get a stable 90FPS, and then increase it from there until I have a stable 60FPS and my GPU is being worked as much as possible.

I do it quite similar. I'm using VSync (tearing makes me puke) on my 60Hz Monitor, so i'm implicitely locked to 60fps already (with a g-/freesync monitor i'd use a framelimiter, maybe even set to 50fps as this ist still enough for me). Then i choose the settings using a common scene to have the gpu at 70-80% to get stable 60fps and have some room left for more demanding scenes (explosions, many trees in fov, hordenight, etc).

 

[iejen]

The tradeoff you should be considering, IMO, is

[settings] <-> [FPS]

not

[settings] <-> [GPU %]

...at least down to a certain threshold. I'm sure with your monster GPU you could lower the settings enough so that the GPU doesn't need to break a sweat while providing 200FPS.

I have a considerably more potato GPU than yours and it runs 99% at High settings, giving me 30-40 FPS. I tweak those settings to improve FPS, not to try to lower the GPU %. Let it work its little heart out to give me acceptable FPS at the highest settings possible.

GPU temperature is a metric that ought to be monitored (if not have an alarm set), in case your cooling solution is not up to snuff. Otherwise, let the GPU run free!

I thought it was a problem if the GPU runs at the max. 

However, when focussing on FPS I can even turn the graphics up! 

Low -> Constantly 144 fps, which is my max. 

Medium -> 115-125 FPS

High -> 65-75 FPS 

Ultra -> 55-65 FPS

High should be fine enough for me. 

Anything below 60fps triggers me personally. 

 

[Boidster]

I thought it was a problem if the GPU runs at the max.

Only if your temperature gets out of line. Use one of the many free temp. monitoring utilities to make sure things aren't overheating, but otherwise don't sweat GPU% too much. Tune for FPS.

 

[SylenThunder]

I do it quite similar. I'm using VSync (tearing makes me puke) on my 60Hz Monitor, so i'm implicitely locked to 60fps already (with a g-/freesync monitor i'd use a framelimiter, maybe even set to 50fps as this ist still enough for me). Then i choose the settings using a common scene to have the gpu at 70-80% to get stable 60fps and have some room left for more demanding scenes (explosions, many trees in fov, hordenight, etc).

Yep, that's why I tweak the settings the way I do.  Once I get the best look close to 60FPS, I set Vsync on. That way it won't dip to 30FPS if the actual FPS gets below 60. (because it won't go below 60 ofc.)

Also note that on my hardware, I get 160 FPS on medium settings.

For reference that's...
Asus ROG Strix X570-E
Ryzen 9 3900x
G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200

EVGA GTX 1060 6GB Super-Superclocked
Game client is on a m.2 SSD, and saves are on a pair of SSHD's in RAID-0

 

[Tin]

if you have a Geforce/Nvidia Gcard then: https://store.steampowered.com/app/268850/EVGA_Precision_X1/ For free on steam. 

 

[Liesel Weppen]

That way it won't dip to 30FPS if the actual FPS gets below 60. (because it won't go below 60 ofc.)

I'm using... "Fast V-Sync" or how this is called from the NVidia driver settings. With that it doesn't tip from 60 to 30 directly but still avoids tearing very well.

Also note that on my hardware, I get 160 FPS on medium settings.

For reference that's...
Asus ROG Strix X570-E
Ryzen 9 3900x
G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200
Game client is on a m.2 SSD, and saves are on a pair of SSHD's in RAID-0

I guess your graphiscard would be relevant.

I never tried how many fps i could get.

 

[SylenThunder]

I'm using... "Fast V-Sync" or how this is called from the NVidia driver settings. With that it doesn't tip from 60 to 30 directly but still avoids tearing very well.

I guess your graphiscard would be relevant.

I never tried how many fps i could get.

Ugh, not sure how I missed adding that.  updated post.

 

[q123]

I was using NVidias Fast V-Sync until they released the Frame Limiter in the driver settings some months ago.

For now I prefer a frame limit of 60 in combination with ingame V-Synch. Try that, maybe you'll like it.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

For now I prefer a frame limit of 60 in combination with ingame V-Synch. Try that, maybe you'll like it.

I guess with this setting the framelimiter is useless. It doesn't avoid tearing when used stand alone and ingame V-Sync limits to 60fps (on a 60Hz monitor) implizitely.

 

[q123]

True, it doesn't avoid tearing, that's why I use ingame V-Sync in addition.

Not sure if its just in my eyes (maybe ), but for me this combination is better than Fast-Sync which I used to have before.

But if your card isn't fast enough for stable 60 fps, you can lock it at 50 fps for example (my old eyes are ok with that) - than it's a good solution. Ok, for my setup atm maybe not, I don't know

 

[beHypE]

The shadows are the big problems in this game.

I tested it yesterday in my base, night time, decent graphics settings (not everything to max but it's high up there).

Normal, some lights, 40 fps :

Lights off, 68 fps :

Lights on, shadows off, 71 fps :

Problem being, the game looks reaaaaally bad without shadows; but the difference is crazy, we're talking 40% of the FPS being eaten away by 3 lamps (to be fair, there's lamps outside aswell, maybe those have an effect even though they shouldn't be rendered since I can't see them - I'd need to check after disabling them) .

 

[SylenThunder]

The shadows are the big problems in this game.

I tested it yesterday in my base, night time, decent graphics settings (not everything to max but it's high up there).

Normal, some lights, 40 fps :



Lights off, 68 fps :



Lights on, shadows off, 71 fps :



Problem being, the game looks reaaaaally bad without shadows; but the difference is crazy, we're talking 40% of the FPS being eaten away by 3 lamps (to be fair, there's lamps outside aswell, maybe those have an effect even though they shouldn't be rendered since I can't see them - I'd need to check after disabling them) .

Yeah, the game is SO much better with shadows, but it uses up SO much GPU because it isn't optimized.