Is there something im doing wrong? (please help!)

[SelfLESS]

So im a hardcore pc gamer and i think i have a pretty good system, but it just seems that for my specs that im not geting as good fps as i should, do any of you know what im doing wrong?
i get around 35 fps in Tera online on high settings , around 50 in Starcraft 2 on high settings, and all other games don't seem to get what i should be geting, or am i totally wrong? is this the fps i should be geting? please let me know if i needa turn anything on like settings or something or configure my crossfire etc. so please let me know if i needa do anything or if this is how much fps i should be geting,



SPECS:

Windows 7 64-bit

2x AMD Radeon 6850's Running thru crossfire

8 gigs of ram

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz

 

[maneeshthegamer]

You can easily get 60 fps- but turn down the anti aliasing to 2x or 4x and set SSAO to low.

 

[bigshootr8]

Agreed I would turn down those settings. You also have to consider as well that crossfire scaling will not act the same way in all games and some applications react to it differently. It is completely possible that Tera does not react well with multi gpu's. In most cases the best way to take care of fps loss is to turn down AA+AF it adds a little more smoothness to the game however if 60 FPS is your goal then that would be the first place I'd start and then shadows, and then detail.

 

[wanderer11]

The best thing to do is to see what your cpu/gpu usage is in game. Use gpuz to record your gpu usage and if you have a second monitor you could keep process explorer up to see your cpu usage. If neither is at ~99% there is an issue somewhere.

 

[SelfLESS]

The best thing to do is to see what your cpu/gpu usage is in game. Use gpuz to record your gpu usage and if you have a second monitor you could keep process explorer up to see your cpu usage. If neither is at ~99% there is an issue somewhere.

I have GPU z opened up but i cant find where it shows my Cpu usage, what tab is it under? i might not even have the right version of it installed

 

[bigshootr8]

It will not show up in GPU-Z. If you press control alt delete and open task manager you can see your CPU usage I also have a guide if you want it for looking at it in games.

 

[SelfLESS]

It will not show up in GPU-Z. If you press control alt delete and open task manager you can see your CPU usage I also have a guide if you want it for looking at it in games.

i have 2 monitors so i can see it while im in game. but when im in game it shows my cpu usage is at 50% not 99% .....

 

[bigshootr8]

That is fine. In most cases today games don't draw a ton of CPU power. They are more graphics centered in fact toms did a article not far back where most games perform best around 3 core processors quad being the sweet spot. I would also like to point out that the amount used up doesn't always equate to how well a processor functions. Keep in mind as well that Blizzard games tend to favor Nvidia with Tera I dont know.

 

[wanderer11]

50% usage could mean two of your cores are maxed out and 2 are not being used. Does it look like they are being used evenly?

 

[SelfLESS]

50% usage could mean two of your cores are maxed out and 2 are not being used. Does it look like they are being used evenly?

How can i tell if they are being used evenly? (sorry im very bad with computers!)

 

[wanderer11]

When you are looking at process explorer or task manager in game you should see 4 graphs. Each graph represent a core. If you see the lines are at the top on 2 of the graphs and at the bottom at the other two that means only two of the cores are being used.

 

[SelfLESS]

When you are looking at process explorer or task manager in game you should see 4 graphs. Each graph represent a core. If you see the lines are at the top on 2 of the graphs and at the bottom at the other two that means only two of the cores are being used.

so in process explorer i see 3 cores below the middle while in-game and 1 core all the way at the top, so 3 cores or all even in the middle and 1 core is at the top, not sure what this means,
and its at 50% CPU usage overall while in-game

 

[wanderer11]

It means 1 core is running at 100% and that is what is probably holding you back. Are you running anything besides the game?

 

[SelfLESS]

It means 1 core is running at 100% and that is what is probably holding you back. Are you running anything besides the game?

maybe like a browser open with pandora, steam, skype, thats pretty much it. is there anyway i can max the other 3 to full?

 

[bigshootr8]

Some games just don't utilize multi core CPU's. There is a way to monitor these things in game and I'll post images and links for you to kind of paint the picture a little larger for you.

MSI Afterburner: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/MSI-Afterburner.shtml
HWiNFO64: http://www.hwinfo.com/download64.html

then at the same time you need to be running HWINFO64. For you you may want to do core by core showing in the on screen display so you can monitor it in a game.

What in the end it will look like.

 

[SelfLESS]

Some games just don't utilize multi core CPU's. There is a way to monitor these things in game and I'll post images and links for you to kind of paint the picture a little larger for you.

MSI Afterburner: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/MSI-Afterburner.shtml
HWiNFO64: http://www.hwinfo.com/download64.html


http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/bigshootr8/1-9-201311-12-47PM_zpsa62f6173.png
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/bigshootr8/12-30-201211-44-15PM_zps028ed2aa.png


then at the same time you need to be running HWINFO64. For you you may want to do core by core showing in the on screen display so you can monitor it in a game.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/bigshootr8/12-30-201211-40-54PM_zps3d0bec63.png
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/bigshootr8/12-30-201211-42-01PM_zps81ce6382.png

What in the end it will look like.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/bigshootr8/BatmanAC_2012_12_30_23_38_30_444_zps8e042e67.png

im confused as to what this is actually going to do for me.

 

[bigshootr8]

Okay so you are trying to monitor CPU usage no? So what this does without opening task manager and looking at your system performance it shows you in the middle of a game what your usage is. Rivatuner which is being used by msi afterburner will not show cpu usage without the help of hwinfo64. So essentially what I've done for you is illustrate how you would manage to display this in a game which should be helpful in your quest of figuring out what is going on.

So what this will do say you monitor each core individually you have cores 1-4 you will see very quickly if your cpu is being stressed and if a game utilizes the other cores or application in general will show this but in a full screen environment I find the afterburner+hwinfo method the best way.

 

[SelfLESS]

Okay so you are trying to monitor CPU usage no? So what this does without opening task manager and looking at your system performance it shows you in the middle of a game what your usage is. Rivatuner which is being used by msi afterburner will not show cpu usage without the help of hwinfo64. So essentially what I've done for you is illustrate how you would manage to display this in a game which should be helpful in your quest of figuring out what is going on.

So what this will do say you monitor each core individually you have cores 1-4 you will see very quickly if your cpu is being stressed and if a game utilizes the other cores or application in general will show this but in a full screen environment I find the afterburner+hwinfo method the best way.

Well i tried doing all that stuff but it ended up just not showing up in-gaming T.T, wont it be the same if i just have task manager open in a dif monitor and see what it is in-game?

 

[bigshootr8]

You have to select the core and check mark show there is also a selection as to what line it will show up under. I'll take another pic to show you what 4 cores looks like monitored.

 

[bigshootr8]

okay so here is a picture. I choose starcraft 2 because I know it will use all 4 cores.

Under the Riva Tuner portion within hwinfo64 I have core 0 usage set to line 2 and showing, under line 3 I have core 1 showing, core 2 usage under line 4 and showing, core 3 usage and under line 5, And I have Total CPU usage under line 6. Using task manager is not the same thing as you are alt tabbing out of the game to view your system resources.