Crysis 1 low frame rates/low CPU and GPU usage with gaming PC

[bgunner]

Lets start with system specs first shall we?

MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX r2/ NB @2310MHZ
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 be @3.957Ghz
Ram: 16GB G.Skill Ares @1862 9-10-9-28-37
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 60GB /Kingston V300 120GB
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 500GB <-- Programs this drive/ Seagate Barracuda 1TB<-- games this drive
PSU: Seasonic X-850
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD7970 DD @ 965 core & 1675 memory
Case: CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced w/ BYTECC U3-225 USB 3.0 Front Hub Bracket for Dual 2.5" SSD's
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo With Arctic Silver 5
Optical: LiteOn iHAS124
Keyboard: Saitek Cyborg
Mouse: Razer Death Adder 2013
Sound Card: Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 5.1
UPS: APC BR1500G 865W
OS: Windows 10 Home x64

System is 100% stable at these settings..

OK the issue is that I get low FPS with low CPU and low GPU usage. By this I mean that I will get 30 FPS with a CPU usage of 30% and GPU usage of 45%. This happens in both the 32 and 64 bit versions of the game.

I am aware that the game uses 3 cores and while playing I can see 3 cores hovering around 50% if not below (give or take) but really never exceeding this. At graphically demanding times the GPU will hit 80% but rarely ever go above. While the GPU is at the 80% the CPU will be at 50% with an FPS of 24-28. Even if the 3 cores hit max it would show a CPU usage of 75%+ because of he other core running background processes But I don't come close to that.

Game settings: every thing on Very High, AF x16, AA x4, blood on.

I have a hard time believing that Ram is causing a bottleneck at 16GB @1862 MHz. The HDD is a sata 3 drive and faster than the fastest at the time of release. IF necessary I can move the game to an SSD as I have the extra space if needed.

Any suggestions you may have are welcome.

 

[johnnyb105]

Wow I could never get crisis 1 to run on win 7 or win 8.1 64 bit I ended up dual booting on a drive with older windows vista @ 32 bit in order for it to run smooth maybe that is the issue????? I tried every thing possible in short of wiping a drive clean but I got my crisis on steam as well...

 

[johnnyb105]

BTW I am using a older system core 2 duo e 8400 only 4 gig of ram 2 tb Toshiba drive and a gtx 660 gpu I have no issues on vista belive it or not maybe the 32 bit option works better then the 64 bit... This is just one of 5 systems I own as well..

 

[bgunner]

Wow I could never get crisis 1 to run on win 7 or win 8.1 64 bit I ended up dual booting on a drive with older windows vista @ 32 bit in order for it to run smooth maybe that is the issue????? I tried every thing possible in short of wiping a drive clean but I got my crisis on steam as well...

Damn cat stepped on the power button on the PC. I just changed power and reset switches to see if that helps. But I digress and get back to what I was trying to post before the pussy paws interruptis issue.

This is how I managed to get 64bit working on Win 10: I have the DVD version from the Maximum Edition version, Crysis- Crysis Warhead- Crysis Wars pack, I bought years ago. Well this didn't work in Win 10 at all, neither the 32 or 64 bit version so I called EA and got the digital version. I installed the Origin version and the DVD version, updating the DVD version first, then moved the Bin64 folder over to the Origin Crysis folder and it worked. The one down fall is I need the DVD in the drive to run the 64bit version though.

I upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium X64 and had no issues in that OS. Everything worked as it should. But the Origin download does not include the Bin64 file.

I feel it is important to say that no matter which version I use, either the 32 or 64 bit version I have the same frame rate issues.

 

[filippi]

1. Set clocks for 3GHz, 3.5GHz and 4GHz (3.957Ghz).
If you get same performance means your cpu is not the problem.

2. Game settings: everything on Low, then everything on med, everything on High, everything on Very High.
If you get same performance means your gpu is not the problem.

 

[bgunner]

1. Set clocks for 3GHz, 3.5GHz and 4GHz (3.957Ghz).
If you get same performance means your cpu is not the problem.

2. Game settings: everything on Low, then everything on med, everything on High, everything on Very High.
If you get same performance means your gpu is not the problem.

OK will give it a shot first I will try the GPU first since no need to enter the BIOS for that.

 

[chris987]

thats a rather old game. have experimented with older drivers?

GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD7970 DD @ 965 core & 1675memory

also are gpu clocks stated correctly? i consider such momory clock extemly high and unnecessary for hd 7970, having 384bit of bandwidth. 1675*4= 6700mhz effective . that would be over 1ghz increase! are you sure it actually provides higher performance? sometimes overclocking from a pont and above doest increase futher performance. finally crysis can be havily modded? is yours also? does cpu-gpu reach max specs?

 

[bgunner]

Ok Here is the results of the GPU test:

Settings, CPU usage, GPU usage, FPS.

Low, 33-37%, 28-30%, 43-50
Med, 35-41%, 31-32%, 33-36
High, 33-45%, 41-43%, 31-30
Very High, 33-39%, 53-55%, 27-30

now this is just adjusting the in game settings.

EDITED to add the following chart for quick reference.

Settings, CPU%, GPU%, FPS
3025MHz, 36-43%, 41-44%, 24-27
3491MHz, 34-44%, 45-47%, 26-30
3957Mhz, 32-47%, 52-55%, 27-33

All tests were done from the same save point with no character movement but action in the back ground.

 

[bgunner]

thats a rather old game. have experimented with older drivers?

GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD7970 DD @ 965 core & 1675memory

also are gpu clocks stated correctly? i consider such momory clock extemly high and unnecessary for hd 7970, having 384bit of bandwidth. 1675*4= 6700mhz effective . that would be over 1ghz increase! are you sure it actually provides higher performance? sometimes overclocking from a pont and above doest increase futher performance. finally crysis can be havily modded? is yours also? does cpu-gpu reach max specs?

Sry got tied up with things will test the CPU thing tomorrow.

Yes the stated clock speeds are accurate and yes they do speed up the GPU. The memory clock I got lucky with and got great OCing ram on this card but got totally boned on the Core clock with only a 35 MHz OC before it errors appeared. GPU clocks were tested with OCCT GPU test with error checking enabled and ran for a minimum of 1 hour. The clocks are 100% stable and have been tested many many times over.

No I did not try older drivers since I use the VSR options in the new drivers have. I use it for my second monitor to bump up to 1920x1080 from 1600x900 to match my main monitor.

 

[bgunner]

Here are the results of the CPU adjustments. I also edited my other post and add this chart to make it easier for comparisons.

Settings, CPU%, GPU%, FPS
3025MHz, 36-43%, 41-44%, 24-27
3491MHz, 34-44%, 45-47%, 26-30
3957Mhz, 32-47%, 52-55%, 27-33

All tests were done from the same save point with no character movement but action in the back ground. All CPU tests done on Very High settings.

Looking at the DATA there is nothing unexpected and seems that the main issue seems to be the CPU frequency/usage makes the GPU percentage go up, normal. SO why is my CPU usage so low creating the low FPS? OR did I misinterpret this DATA?

My game is not modded at all this is the basic game as it was shipped.

 

[bystander]

Even though Crysis only uses 3 cores, you can still be CPU bottlenecked at 30% total CPU usage. Just because it uses 3 cores does not mean it uses all 3 equally. It only takes the core in charge of draw calls to bottleneck you, while the rest are only moderately used. Check the individual cores, not the total usage.

Are you using V-sync? If so, you may find the game will either give you 60 FPS or 30 FPS, and rarely anything in between. If you turn off V-sync, that will give a truer idea of actual performance.

Crysis 1 is a CPU bound game and you don't exactly have a fast one. It is expected to see some CPU bottlenecking on that game. You may also find that 4x MSAA is more than your GPU can handle. The game is still very demanding, even today.

 

[bgunner]

Even though Crysis only uses 3 cores, you can still be CPU bottlenecked at 30% total CPU usage. Just because it uses 3 cores does not mean it uses all 3 equally. It only takes the core in charge of draw calls to bottleneck you, while the rest are only moderately used. Check the individual cores, not the total usage.

Are you using V-sync? If so, you may find the game will either give you 60 FPS or 30 FPS, and rarely anything in between. If you turn off V-sync, that will give a truer idea of actual performance.

Crysis 1 is a CPU bound game and you don't exactly have a fast one. It is expected to see some CPU bottlenecking on that game. You may also find that 4x MSAA is more than your GPU can handle. The game is still very demanding, even today.

I have check the individual cores. I did this first thing when I noticed the issue. Each of the 3 cores hover around 50% usage sometimes bumping up to 60-70% but mainly staying around 50% usage or below. I thought I mentioned this in the first post but it may have slipped my mind. Sorry if I didn't mention this before.

When Crysis 1 came out in 2007 the Fastest AMD CPU was the Phenom II x4 955 @ 3.2 GHz. I have the Phenom II x4 965 OCed to 3.957 GHz, was at 4.072 till I added the extra 8GB of ram which forced the Core Clock to be lowered for stability. While I know this is not the fastest CPU of the time it was more than enough to run the game being limited to the GPU performance. At the time the GPU's were the Nvidia 8000 series and ATI HD 4000 Series GPU's.

AS for the GPU, Mine is way more than enough for the game as it is the AMD HD 7970 3GB /280X 3GB OCed.

In Windows 7 Home Premium X64 I had no issues like this in the game nor in Vista, which I had when I first purchased this game.

I have tried removing the V-sync before posting and there was no difference. Good thought though but already tried it.

Is there a way to force the 3 cores being used for the game to do more work in for game? Since the CPU cores are not being fully utilized I'm thinking this is where the issue lays.

Can get a screen shot showing every thing if you want. Forgot to mention I have run the game with AA disabled but it only helps a little in FPS, as to be expected, and still have below normal FPS.

 

[bgunner]

In this screen shot you can see exactly what I mean by low performance and low hardware usage.

 

[bystander]

One last thing, have you applied all the updates? Crysis, from what I recall, was pretty much broken before you updated it. http://www.crytek.com/games/crysis/overview/download

 

[bgunner]

Ahh, actually the Origin version (32bit only) was patched from download to 1.2.1. The 64bit version that I installed off the disk, I did patch using all versions before moving the files over to the Origin folder. The version number for the 64bit version is 1.1.1 which i did notice but since I patched the game before moving the files I figured this was normal.

Since I can not get the disk version to run I can not confirm this.

 

[bgunner]

One last thing, have you applied all the updates? Crysis, from what I recall, was pretty much broken before you updated it. http://www.crytek.com/games/crysis/overview/download

OK update. Yes the game is updated to 1.2.1 even though it says it it says 1.1.1 minor UI glitch with the disk version.

anyone else have suggestions or comments.?

 

[DurfDiggler]

This pertains to Crysis Warhead. I don't have Crysis 1, so I haven't tested that. Hopefully the same applies -

TLDR; turn PhysX to "auto" in NVIDIA Control Panel.

Windows 10.
Intel XEON E5-1650 OC to 3.5 GHz/3.8 GHz boost.
Titan X, EVGA, base clock at 1000 MHz, boost clock 1127 MHz; OC'd GPU +200 MHz, MEM +400 MHz.
2560x1440/60, DP, non G-sync.
16GB 1333 MHz Corsair RAM
Was getting 12-29 FPS.
Using Open Hardware Monitor I could see that my GPU Core was topping out at 405 Mhz (normally idles at 135 MHz!). GPU Memory was similarly low. CPU was a little above average for gaming: ~60-70%.

This worked for me, now getting steady 60 fps vsync, drops to mid 50s sometimes; 2560x1440, AA 8x, all Enthusiast, no Motion Blur. Up to 70ish fps with vsync off. Now my GPU Core is topping out at 1326 MHz, GPU Memory 3903 MHz (as with more recent games).
*GPU never goes over 70c with my cooling setup* Usually around 65c.

How to fix:
1) Update all patches. Single player Warhead 1.0 then 1.1 - - - http://www.crytek.com/games/crysis-warhead/download - - -
2) Open NVIDIA Control Panel,
Under 3D Settings; Configure Surround, PhysX; PhysX settings; Processor: [Auto-select (recommended)].
3) Reboot (I didn't test before reboot).
4) Make sure you're running the 64bit version (not sure how much a dif this makes).

I also changed a few 3D settings for the Crysis64.exe before I turned off Physx, but these didn't seem to fix the low GPU frequency.

-Power Management mode : Prefer maximum performance
-Threaded Optimization : On

I also like to run Razer Cortex to end all unnecessary processes and services.

Good Luck!

 

[bgunner]

I would give it a try but I have an AMD HD 7970/ R9 280X GPU so PhysX does not apply to me in this way. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[bystander]

PhysX doesn't apply to any of the Crysis games.

 

[bgunner]

The issue still remains with a newer/presumably better CPU. I found a great deal on a FX 6120 for $20 usd. and couldn't resist scarfing it up. Even with the FX 6120 OCed to 4.582 GHz I still get 33-35 FPS in the same spot. CPU usage says 27% but this is with 2 cores not working on the game due to the fact the game only recognizes 4 threads and not 6-8 or more. The four working on the game average around 40% usage each and GPU hovering around 50-60% usage. Any one else have any suggestions?

System specs updated:
CPU: FX 6120 @ 4582 MHz @ 1.416V Turbo Core Disabled
Ram: 4x4 GB of G.Skill Ares 1866 @ 1900 Mhz @ 1.5V @ 9-10-9-28-37 timings
GPU: XFX AMD HD 7970 DD @ 965 MHz core AND Memory @ 1675 MHz
MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX r2.0 w/ HTT @ 203, NB @ 2647 MHz, NB HTT @ 2647 MHz
SSD's: Kingston V300 120 GB and OCZ Vertex 3 60 GB
HDD's: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB and Hitachi Deskstar 500 GB
PSU: Seasonic X-850
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo with Arctic silver 5 paste and 2x blade master fans with spacers to stop dead spots.
Case: Cooler Master 690 II advanced with with 4x 140 mm fans + 2x 120 mm Fans + 1x 80 mm rear side panel fans to cool rear of the motherboard.

 

[mr91]

Lets start with system specs first shall we?

MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX r2/ NB @2310MHZ
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 be @3.957Ghz
Ram: 16GB G.Skill Ares @1862 9-10-9-28-37
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 60GB /Kingston V300 120GB
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 500GB <-- Programs this drive/ Seagate Barracuda 1TB<-- games this drive
PSU: Seasonic X-850
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD7970 DD @ 965 core & 1675 memory
Case: CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced w/ BYTECC U3-225 USB 3.0 Front Hub Bracket for Dual 2.5" SSD's
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo With Arctic Silver 5
Optical: LiteOn iHAS124
Keyboard: Saitek Cyborg
Mouse: Razer Death Adder 2013
Sound Card: Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 5.1
UPS: APC BR1500G 865W
OS: Windows 10 Home x64

System is 100% stable at these settings..

OK the issue is that I get low FPS with low CPU and low GPU usage. By this I mean that I will get 30 FPS with a CPU usage of 30% and GPU usage of 45%. This happens in both the 32 and 64 bit versions of the game.

I am aware that the game uses 3 cores and while playing I can see 3 cores hovering around 50% if not below (give or take) but really never exceeding this. At graphically demanding times the GPU will hit 80% but rarely ever go above. While the GPU is at the 80% the CPU will be at 50% with an FPS of 24-28. Even if the 3 cores hit max it would show a CPU usage of 75%+ because of he other core running background processes But I don't come close to that.

Game settings: every thing on Very High, AF x16, AA x4, blood on.

I have a hard time believing that Ram is causing a bottleneck at 16GB @1862 MHz. The HDD is a sata 3 drive and faster than the fastest at the time of release. IF necessary I can move the game to an SSD as I have the extra space if needed.

Any suggestions you may have are welcome.

Seems like a CPU bottleneck, my gpu is working @ 99% all the time when playing Crysis 1.

" Just loaded up the game on Origin right now"

Intel platform will do much better, I noticed one cores had around 90% usage and the other cores usage was around 33%...
The other cores were barely used however i didn't do too much monitoring.

I just played the first part when you get on the island, Crysis 1 is one the games that I test when I get a new system component because it's very demanding...

" More demanding than BF4 because it is not as optimized"

" The game was ahead of its time and still challenging to run for modern rigs"
Getting around a 80 fps average with the game fully maxed out @ 1440p with 4x msaa...

 

[bgunner]

A CPU bottleneck would show up as the CPU being maxed out on at least 3 cores. My CPU's cores hover around 40-50% getting up to around 80% at times where the physics are heavy.

The section I test at is the second mission after you clear the village and rescue the scientist you go up the trial and above the water falls. Just before entering combat I sit next to a tree and watch while the enemy tries to fight off the ceph (that you can not see) but due to the foliage, physics and smoke/fog it is a very demanding place to test.

What OS are you running at the time? I've had no issues with Vista or 7 but I do with 10 though.

 

[filippi]

I think you cannot always completely trust msi afterburn %CPU usage.

I think i5 is fine. No HT. Just 4 full-fledged cores. You know how many threads the game really need and the tax in each thread just because cpu=thread.

I think i3 is ok. You dont know if the game is well threaded. You just see cores with high %CPU usage. HT is keeping them full? Or its a single-threaded cpu-bound game. You dont know exactly. But at least you can trust the %CPU usage.

FX is kinda hard. You see %CPU usage. But cant see %module usage. Because games really tax the shared components in the FX architecture sometimes 60% CPU1 usage will be the max usage that core could give that particular moment because it have to wait for resources that another core is using. So this is a 60% cpu usage bottlenecking a gpu in that particular moment? Or is this a normal no-taxed cpu and the problem is elsewhere? This is hard to tell.

This is just my opinion in that matter anyway.

 

[mr91]

A CPU bottleneck would show up as the CPU being maxed out on at least 3 cores. My CPU's cores hover around 40-50% getting up to around 80% at times where the physics are heavy.

The section I test at is the second mission after you clear the village and rescue the scientist you go up the trial and above the water falls. Just before entering combat I sit next to a tree and watch while the enemy tries to fight off the ceph (that you can not see) but due to the foliage, physics and smoke/fog it is a very demanding place to test.

What OS are you running at the time? I've had no issues with Vista or 7 but I do with 10 though.

]

Basically your cpu is bottlenecking or not allowing your gpu to work at it's full potential.

I played Crysis on an old laptop with a 6750m and an Top of the line I7 mobile processor and the experience was not bad on medium settings. Your GPU is much faster than the 6750m.

" Seems like this game is better optimized for intel based systems"

Crysis 1 might also like the fast 8mb or L3 cache on the I7.

You should get better performance with crysis 3 because it's better optimized for your hardware....

Below is a Crysis 1 video ..... Might take some time before the resolution is 1080p because it's still processing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW3-ct3auH4&feature=youtu.be

 

[mr91]

Today it seems that one core has around 70% usage and the other around 30% usage...

The game looks better than many new games today - doesn't it?