Dragon Age: Inquisition low framerates

TsTacenda

Honorable
Apr 13, 2013
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Looking at every benchmark I could find for my new card, a GTX 980, all say the same- I should be easy getting a constant 60fps.

However since the tutorial I have been struggling... between 35 and 60 (varies alot) in haven, the crossroads, half the hinterlands... infact the crossroad area shoots me down to 30-40 all over.

And this is no matter what the graphics setting, differaencd between low and ultra looks to be only a couple of frames.

MSI GTX 980 SC
FX 8350©4.2gHz
8GB RAM

Setup runs fine on Gta V on all max settings with 60fps constant. If anyone knows a fix, or a way to test if something is running slow it would be much appreciated.
 
Solution


Yes. That is typically how it goes. 1 core is being pushed to its limit, the one that is feeding the GPU instructions on how to render a frame. The rest of the cores are running physics simulations, AI, collision detection and all that other stuff, but don't need all of their cores power, but it only takes the 1 thread to hold back performance.

If you turn off V-sync, it may help some.
For the graphics setting to make little or no difference suggests a CPU bottleneck. What motherboard do you have? If it has decent VRMs, and you've got an aftermarket cooler, I'd overclock that processor at least up to 4.6-4.8 and see how much difference it makes.
If you need an aftermarket cooler, avoid the Hyper212 EVO parrots and see http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2478892/alternatives-hyper-212-evo-budget-cooling.html for more rational alternatives.
 
I have a cooler master 212 as is, I tried a higher clock, but there was no real change except the heat, the cpu works well enough in other intensive games for it- a stupid modded skyrim for example.
 


Red Cliff will also plummet your FPS. The game is very CPU bound in the right spots. The benchmark might not push your CPU so hard, but the game play, in those areas are very rough on a slow CPU and lets face it, AMD is not keeping up with Intel these days.
 
I am pretty clueless all things considered but i ran an overlay while i ran about the crossroads a while (getting between 30 and 40fps) and saw my GPU was running about 60% and my eight cores were all clocking between 30% and 85%... is this how it is meant to be?
 


Yes. That is typically how it goes. 1 core is being pushed to its limit, the one that is feeding the GPU instructions on how to render a frame. The rest of the cores are running physics simulations, AI, collision detection and all that other stuff, but don't need all of their cores power, but it only takes the 1 thread to hold back performance.

If you turn off V-sync, it may help some.
 
Solution
So... the tl;dr of all this is that i need to drop another £250 on this PC to run this game.. get a new CPU. Damn, here i was all excited with my 980. Lets hope it's just a badly optimized game ehh.

Anyone else with a similar speed processor have the same issue? Having more time below 50 fps than on 60 🙁
 


It is not necessary to replace the CPU. You can just learn to live with it. You can't always chase the perfect performance. Sometimes you just need to accept it, or lower a few settings. Sometimes we have to make compromises in life.