GPU doesn't work at 99%

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Ottagono

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Oct 10, 2014
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Hello guys,
I noticed in Total War Rome II the GPU doesn't work always at 99% even if I haven't 60fps (VSync enabled).
Could you help me to understand why?
In attachment some screenshot. (You can see the use of resources on right top)

ZaohOQq.jpg


bW4c7Bp.jpg


rHFLfwb.jpg


Thank you.
 
Solution
C
The reason for this is because for the GPU to begin to consider drawing a frame, the CPU has to be caught up with its work load. If the GPU draws a frame, and it has to wait for the CPU to finish its operation, it's going to take a break during that time because it has no work to do. This situation would be a CPU bottleneck, and what you describe is not that.

If the CPU does its operation has to wait for the GPU to draw a frame, it's not going to work any harder to try to keep up. Ergo, low CPU usage, and High GPU usage. So odds are you have a GPU bottleneck in this particular game. Odds are the engine is trading between the two which may be why your GPU is unable to reach 99% usage.

You'll want to upgrade your GPU. I would recommend...
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What is your CPU?

 
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Oh sorry, I didn't post my system.

CPU : Intel Core i5 4440 @3.10GHz
GPU : ASUS GTX 760 2GB GDDR5
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 2X4GB 1600MHz
Motherboard : Gigabyte Z87-HD3
Power Supply : Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 520W

Anyway in the screenshot above you can see the CPU use and it's not at 99%, so I don't think I have a CPU bottleneck.

Thank you for reply.
 
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The reason for this is because for the GPU to begin to consider drawing a frame, the CPU has to be caught up with its work load. If the GPU draws a frame, and it has to wait for the CPU to finish its operation, it's going to take a break during that time because it has no work to do. This situation would be a CPU bottleneck, and what you describe is not that.

If the CPU does its operation has to wait for the GPU to draw a frame, it's not going to work any harder to try to keep up. Ergo, low CPU usage, and High GPU usage. So odds are you have a GPU bottleneck in this particular game. Odds are the engine is trading between the two which may be why your GPU is unable to reach 99% usage.

You'll want to upgrade your GPU. I would recommend a GTX 970 for the best value, next gen experience, one of the cards I've purchased and have never looked back. Your PSU would handle it fine. It's only a 145W card. If it is beyond your budget try getting another 760. You may have to upgrade your PSU. I recommend the 750 watt EVGA. It has 4 6 pci-e connectors for maximum upgradeability.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438027&cm_re=750_watt_evga-_-17-438-027-_-Product
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00NJ9BJ8G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412974084&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx+970
http://www.amazon.com/GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5-GeForce-256-bit-PCI-Express-OC-selected/dp/B00DBPKEOI/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1412974101&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+760
 
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Solution


Thank you for reply.

Do you think I have a GPU bottleneck, right?

In other games when the GPU is not able to draw 60fps it works always at 99% at 40-45fps. Instead in this game there is very excursion between fps. Is it a problem about graphic engine?

I saw on the tab "Performance" on Task Manager that in some case there is one core at 100% usage.

I think this game is not optimized very good.

Anyway I dont't think I will buy another GPU because I built my system on January 2014, it's enough recently.
 
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It's possible that the game may not be able to yield 100% of your CPU with the selected GPU, which would be an issue with the engine, albeit a minor one. This would be a GPU bottleneck in this situation. Have you tried turning down the graphics to see if you yield more FPS and CPU usage to verify? This would probably be all you need to do to investigate any further. An additional 760 in SLI would probably alleviate this issue to a great extent. I however believe that your system is very good. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
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It really just seems like the Total War engine can't spread the load across enough cores, I found this interesting compilation
http://www.overclock.net/t/1426315/gamegpu-total-war-rome-ii-benchmarked

Basically Rome can't make great use of extra cores, an i3-2100 comes in a bit below an i5-2500k(73%/80% min/avg fps) while an i5 2500k edges out an i7 2600k ever so slightly so clearly those hyperthreaded cores aren't helping. I've never stared at task manager while playing it but i'd bet it only actually spreads itself over 3 cores from these results. You can try playing with settings to reduce the CPU heavy settings and get some better performance that way, particle effects are usually CPU intensive.
 
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Thats mainly because skyrim forces vsync, so will usually stop the GPU maxing out.
 
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Thank at all to reply.

I did some test.

This is with maximum settings (The game it's not playable):

tLCJNMX.png


wWgFfkk.png


This is with minimum settings (The game it's playable but with some stuttering, fps drops from 60 to 15 for a second):

MykXaFh.png


3gvPaFm.png


Looking at the tests I suppose I am CPU bottleneck. According to RobCrezz I think the game is CPU heavy.

@coovarge I cannot add an other GTX 760 because my motherboard doesn't support SLI, it support only Crossfire.

@hunter315 Setting particle effects to low the result it's the same.
 
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