Inconsistent FPS in FarCry 3

[chrischan0323]

Here's my problem, I can maintain the FPS 55-80 for 1-2 minutes. After that, it suddenly drops to 25-35 for some reason even I'm not in an intense fighting then jumps to 55-80 repeatedly every 20-30 seconds. I just explore the jungle, appreciate the beauty of Far cry 3 then BAM, FPS drops again. It's not unplayable but rather than that it's extremely annoying. 🙁

Here's my spec:
i5-2500K 3.30GHz
GTX 560
8GB RAM

Options: 1440X900, Directx 9, all max settings except shadow(medium) and post fx(false).

I have updated my driver to WHQL 310.90, limited the FPS, reinstalled, changed to low settings and still have this issue.
Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Edit:I use MSI Afterburner to check GPU usage. Strange, it's unstable because it drops to 50-60% from 80-90%.

 

[Sunius]

What about CPU usage and CPU/GPU temps?

 

[darth pravus]

All temps and what hard drive?

Sound almost like your running out of VRAM. Whats your vram usage?

 

[chrischan0323]

GPU temperature: 74C
CPU temperature: 66-72C
CPU usage: 80-95%

Vram usage: 610MB(I have 1GB)
Hard drive: HDD

 

[darth pravus]

I meant brand of harddrive

 

[darth pravus]

Also what settings are you at?

 

[Sunius]

What's using up the CPU? It's definitely a problem.

 

[HEXiT]

go into the video settings and set the pre rendered frames to 1 or 2. you will also want to set the same on the nvidia control panels render ahead limit... test each as they can dramatically affect fps and input lag.
make sure you create a profile for the game though and set it there. then activate it when you play farcry 3...
adjusting it past 3 will often give mouse lag and fps droop but also if theres a conflict between whats set in the nvidia panel and whats in the game you can get the symptoms you describe...
aslo is your hdd fragmented... if its a WD green 5400rpm or similar power saving drive then that can cause issues for things like loading up textures.
a lot of people are buying the WD green and blue drives because there cheap but really they are cheap because they aint much cop... great for storage , pointless for a primary hdd partition.

 

[venjhammet]

It's not your PC it's the game. Just run it at default setting or better yet lower a bid and don't use MSAA. Even I myself experiencing these issues, kinda sucks. I prefer the engine of Farcry 2 much nicer.

 

[chrischan0323]

Also what settings are you at?

All max settings except shadow(medium) and post fx(false).

Harddrive: wdc wd20earx-008fb0 SCSI Disk Device

 

[darth pravus]

Make sure no msaa is on, turn off alpha to coverage and try lowering texture quality.

A 560 isn't great for ultra

 

[Sunius]

Guys. Stop.

It is not settings. The CPU usage is at 95%. And that's not your average low end CPU: it's i5-2500k, one of the best gaming CPUs in the world. Something is running in the background that kills performance.

 

[chrischan0323]

Guys. Stop.

It is not settings. The CPU usage is at 95%. And that's not your average low end CPU: it's i5-2500k, one of the best gaming CPUs in the world. Something is running in the background that kills performance.

Then how should I reduce the CPU usage? GameBooster?

 

[darth pravus]

Gamebooster is worth a try. Check your processes tab in task manager.

 

[soaote]

I have the same problem

 

[chrischan0323]

Guys. Stop.

It is not settings. The CPU usage is at 95%. And that's not your average low end CPU: it's i5-2500k, one of the best gaming CPUs in the world. Something is running in the background that kills performance.

Well, before playing this game, the CPU usage remains at 0-5%. Far Cry 3 uses most of my CPU usage so it reaches to 99%.

 

[Sunius]

Far cry 3 uses 90% of your CPU? Are you sure? Did you try opening Resource monitor and sorting the list of processes by Average CPU usage? Try it with game open and report the results back.

 

[chrischan0323]

Far cry 3 uses 90% of your CPU? Are you sure? Did you try opening Resource monitor and sorting the list of processes by Average CPU usage? Try it with game open and report the results back.

Oops. Sorry for my mistake. The actual CPU usage is at 70-85% and the Average CPU usage is at 65-69. Are there any problems?

 

[Sunius]

And what is using it up? Far Cry 3 alone?

 

[chrischan0323]

And what is using it up? Far Cry 3 alone?

Yes.

 

[HEXiT]

i just tried dx9 mode myself and im happy to say its not your system. its the dx9 mode...
switch to dx11 and your fps will jump back to normal...
i switched to dx9 and went from 30 fps on ultra down to 7
so it is the game not your system.
run the game from the install folder slelecting the fc3_d3d11.exe select dx11 settings in the video options then save and restart the game.
it should play smoother now. also make sure the game is fully patched.

 

[Sunius]

Good notice, Hexit.

@OP: you definitely should not be running in DirectX 9 mode.

 

[darth pravus]

Why run dx9 with a dx11 card?

DX11 is much better for performance.

 

[chrischan0323]

i just tried dx9 mode myself and im happy to say its not your system. its the dx9 mode...
switch to dx11 and your fps will jump back to normal...
i switched to dx9 and went from 30 fps on ultra down to 7
so it is the game not your system.
run the game from the install folder slelecting the fc3_d3d11.exe select dx11 settings in the video options then save and restart the game.
it should play smoother now. also make sure the game is fully patched.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't fix the problem...... Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

[chrischan0323]

Why run dx9 with a dx11 card?

DX11 is much better for performance.

DX11 performance is worse for me than DX9.