Battlefield 1 low GPU usage with a high CPU usage

FireBlitz

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Apr 30, 2017
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Hello everyone,
Before I start, let me introduce my system:

GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5
i5 4460
MSI B85M-E45 (MS-7817)
8GB RAM DDR3
1 TB of Hard disk
1 TB external

I would like to ask for some help. I have had Bf 1 almost since the launch of the game. At the beginning i had a 960, but a month ago, i switched to my current graphics card. With the 960 I would be able to play all medium w around 50 fps average. But since I got my GTX 1060 the game hasn't worked properly at all.

The first hour of gaming or so it would work at around 60 fps, mostly stable with some minor drops to 59. No problem there. But after the first hour passes, the game starts to have hard fps drops. It can get to even completely freeze. The hardest drops and freezes are usually when big explosions occur or when there is a lot of players shooting.

At the beginning I thought it would be addressed in the next few patches, but we have already had a few of them, and it hasn't improved at all. I first used the in-game console and these commands to check what was happening:

Gametime.maxvariablefps
Perfoverlay.drawgraph
Perfoverlay.drawfps

Wasn't very helpful, but I was able to see that something was happening. Then after some research, I stumbled upon MSI afterburner, which I have been using, but I haven't gotten much out of it. The only thing is that my GPU usage never exceeds the 50%, and even in the biggest explosions and so on it doesn't surpass it. Meanwhile, my CPU usage is at a constant 100%. All my four cores are at 100% usage. And when the FPS drop happens its the GPU's usage that drops the most, although the CPU's usage also drops, but not as much.

I would love to know what is happening and how to fix it. How can I lower my CPU usage? How can I increase/force my GPU usage? Is there another way?

PD: The drivers are all updated to the best of my knowledge. I am not sure if it may be the BIOS, I haven't checked yet, but this build is only 2 years old, so the BIOS can't be that outdated.

PDD: I have tried with V-Sync enabled and disabled. Doesn't change or affect that much.

Thanks for the help.
 
Solution
Battlefield 1 is VERY cpu intensive.

Push the settings up on the graphics to put more load on your gpu, and consider upgrading to an i7 4770 or 4790 and 16gb ram


Well, sadly i spent most of my money in the 1060, so right now my economy isn't at its best. The other thing, as I already mentioned is not so much the high CPU usage, as is the super low GPU usage.

I have just been playing some games, with Afterburner activated, and the fps dropped when the GPU usage dropped.


 
I did sort of explain this, thanks for the downvote by the way, your cpu is the limiting factor so of course when you're cpu limited the gpu usage will drop. Push the graphical settings up to put more load on your gpu and bring your system into balance a little more.
 
try setting ur default reder ahead limit to 1 (renderdevice.renderaheadlimit 1)
make a user.cfg and put it in there.... (or do it via ur nvidia control panel - program specific for bf1)
i sugest limiting the game at 60 fps (to start off with) gametime.maxvariablefps 60

i also read that overclocking ur cpu will just cause the game to crash...so ur much better off not doing it also try and make sure ur ram is running at max freq via bios xmp profile

 
You need to OC your CPU to 4.2 or higher and add more ram.

Use HWmonitor to record your temps and usage of CPU and GPU.

Ram alone should help.

I have a i5 3470k @ 4.2 with 16 GB ram and r9 390x. I play BF1 @ 1920x 1080 with everything on ultra. My lowest FPS is 52. I don't have any issues with FPS drops

My CPU stays @ 100% but my ram usage will hit 7.8 GB. I think your system is using the page file more after you play for an hour.
 


LucoTf, I am sorry for the downvote, it is just that I am new on Tom's Hardware and wasn't sure what that button did. Once I realized what I had done I couldn't get it back up. I deeply apologize and actually greatly appreciate your help. I am sorry.

Thanks for the advice, I will see what happens if I put everything on Ultra.
 


Thank you for the advice. I have to say that I have already been using gametime.maxvariable but hadn't put it yet to 60, I'll try that. On the other hand, I have seen on other threads about this very same issue that renderahead.renderaheadlimit 1 is the default, and I have been playing with it to see what it does. For now I have seen that anything between 2-5 kinda decreases my cpu usage.

Btw, I am kind of a noobie on all this overclooking and BIOS xmp fiels etc. could you please explain what a xmp file is, where to find it and how to modify it for my purposes? Thank again.
 
sure np...

on where it is...it depends on your motherboard...but, what u gotta do is...restart pc...get into bios...and (usually) its in the Ai tweaker tab...now...if u cant find it...google "how to modify xmp profile <your motherboard name and model>" and u'll get easy instructions

xmp basically will force your memory to run at max of its frequency....depending on your cpu....it might automatically oc your cpu by very little just to get the memory to run like that

now...if u experience perf issues...just go back and disable it...some games done like the xmp oc

i for one have ram that goes up to 1866mhz....but if i do not run xmp...my cpu will keep it at 1600mhz...
so i run the xmp and it runs it at max...and also overclocks my cpu from 3.3 mhz to 3.4 which is no biggie