Low FPS Crysis w/ 75% usage

[gidgiddonihah]

I still play Crysis so I can see what my rig can do as its the most demanding game I own right now . But I noticed something weird...

(When I play Crysis I open up task manager and pull it across my 24" 1920x1080 screen so i have a preview of a long time of CPU usage. I also open up MSI Afterburner and set it on top of Task manager to see GPU usage.)

Now I noticed something funny when I closed Crysis. I was having frame stutters occasionally and low FPS overall, but my CPU usage never went higher than 75%. My GPU usage in Afterburner never went over 80%. Sooo:

Why is Crysis have stuttering and low FPS, but it isnt using my GPU or my CPU?

My Rig:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
MSI 870-G45
AMD Phenom II B45 x4 3.1 Ghz (Unlocked Athlon II x3 445)
MSI GTX 460 1GB Cyclone (Operating at 820/1640/2000)
4GB G. Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 (Operating at 1333)
500 Watt Corsair PSU

 

[cuecuemore]

Didn't read nearly the whole thread, but there was certainly plenty of fail up front, as well as some sound advice. Here are the facts of the matter:

1)Your CPU is holding you back. I've taken a Phenom II X4 well over 5GHz on LN2 and it still bottlenecks 2x GTX 460 in SLI in the Crysis graphics benchmark some of the time. That's right, not even talking about the CPU benchie. Idk if you've unlocked the L3 cache or if you even have it to unlock, don't know much about such things. BUT, Crysis/Warhead love L3 cache.

2)Your performance monitor can hide from you that you're CPU bottlenecked. You CPU monitor reports to you every second; in that time your CPU does billions of operations. So even if too many of the cycles were full when critical operations needed to be performed and it got backed up, it will still say to you, "Hey, I only used 75% of my cycles over the last second, I'm good." Afaict, Crysis is poorly optimized in two ways; it's not serious about multithreading and the thread(s) it does run are poorly optimized in themselves.

3) I know that Crysis needs more than 1GB of VRAM at 1080p if run on very high with heavy antialiasing. Exactly what the cutoff is, I don't remember, but the core of a GTX 460 can't nearly handle everything at very high at 1080p anyway, say nothing of anti aliasing. I haven't paid too much attention to VRAM requirements, but I'd suggest getting a graphical mod like Blackfire's to get good looking graphics and decent performance, rather setting everything to a combo of high and medium. Unfortunately, the mod doesn't help with the CPU too much.

 

[arson94]

Just for comparison and to add my 2 cents, I can max out crysis on my PII 940 and 4870 1GB at 1980x1200. It will get a tad choppy in the high action scenes where a lot of sh*t is going down but that's about it.

I will add though that if you are running dual monitors while playing Crysis and/or Crysis in window mode that will have adverse effects on your gaming performance. If you're doing any of that, try disabling one monitor while playing and/or running Crysis in full screen mode. It could also be driver related if you haven't tried to just reinstall drivers yet, I didn't notice if you had mentioned you doing that. chkdsk'ing and defragging might help also if you'd like to try that.

 

[megamanx00]

Well, if your using 80% that means either 20% is being used either waiting on some event and/or system processes. If you haven't done a clean install in a while then it's possible some copy protection or another is sucking up cycles. It could also be that you have some processes running that are sucking up RAM (monitoring tools, bit torrent, chat clients, development tools, etc.) and the slow down is a result of your system having use the swap file every now and then. Of course with 4GB you would really have to clean out your system if that was the case since that shouldn't happen on a decently clean install 😛.

Finally it could be your antivirus. Microsoft Security essentials seems to hide some of it's processes so you may not see it in the regular task manager. It also likes to do a quick scan of files you access (that's a pain if it's an iso 😛) but Norton and Macafee are alot worse in that reguard.

 

[megamanx00]

In noticed further down you said that there are 6 users, so I'm guessing your family also uses that PC or something. If that's the case I'd bet there was some junk programs and perhaps a virus or rootkit ^_^

 

[holdingholder]

Didn't read nearly the whole thread, but there was certainly plenty of fail up front, as well as some sound advice. Here are the facts of the matter:

1)Your CPU is holding you back. I've taken a Phenom II X4 well over 5GHz on LN2 and it still bottlenecks 2x GTX 460 in SLI in the Crysis graphics benchmark some of the time. That's right, not even talking about the CPU benchie. Idk if you've unlocked the L3 cache or if you even have it to unlock, don't know much about such things. BUT, Crysis/Warhead love L3 cache.

2)Your performance monitor can hide from you that you're CPU bottlenecked. You CPU monitor reports to you every second; in that time your CPU does billions of operations. So even if too many of the cycles were full when critical operations needed to be performed and it got backed up, it will still say to you, "Hey, I only used 75% of my cycles over the last second, I'm good." Afaict, Crysis is poorly optimized in two ways; it's not serious about multithreading and the thread(s) it does run are poorly optimized in themselves.

3) I know that Crysis needs more than 1GB of VRAM at 1080p if run on very high with heavy antialiasing. Exactly what the cutoff is, I don't remember, but the core of a GTX 460 can't nearly handle everything at very high at 1080p anyway, say nothing of anti aliasing. I haven't paid too much attention to VRAM requirements, but I'd suggest getting a graphical mod like Blackfire's to get good looking graphics and decent performance, rather setting everything to a combo of high and medium. Unfortunately, the mod doesn't help with the CPU too much.

i seriously doubt that you can get a phenom 2 to 5ghz, (in fact I'm outright calling bs, phenom 2's hit the wall and lose stability around 4ghz) and on top of that how the heck would it bottleneck anything at that clock rate? I have a 955 be @ 3.8 ghz with 2 gts 460 768mb cards and get about 50-60 fps at maxed out details @ 1080p with 4x aa

 

[holdingholder]

Pepole put way to much stock into cpu power, granted, of course you would be better off with a better processor, but if you were to sli with another 460, I'm sure you could get at least 50 fps with max settings @ 1080 with 4x aa. I get performance a litttle better than that with a 955 be @3.8ghz and 2 768mb 460's

 

[cuecuemore]

i seriously doubt that you can get a phenom 2 to 5ghz, (in fact I'm outright calling bs, phenom 2's hit the wall and lose stability around 4ghz) and on top of that how the heck would it bottleneck anything at that clock rate? I have a 955 be @ 3.8 ghz with 2 gts 460 768mb cards and get about 50-60 fps at maxed out details @ 1080p with 4x aa

SIGH

1) Read what I said
2) Understand what I said (Google something like "Phenom X4 LN2" [you obviously haven't a clue what the italicized part means])
3) ???
4) Profit

Edit: A golden Phenom II X4 will be stable at 4.4GHz on water, no problem. Mine is far from golden and I have it 24/7 stable @4.2 on an H50.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Wow lots of activity since i last looked. Before I read it all I did a quick Crysis Benchamark and this is some of the info it spat out.

High FPS: 59
Average FPS: 37
Low: 25 FPS
I was watching the vRAM used and it went up to 799mb max

I find this weird cause one i shouldn't get this with my computer, and two from your comments it should be sucking up more vRAM. Though i did only use 4x AA...

 

[4745454b]

Do you have fast user switching on? Any chance that 25% is being used for other users logged on? Have you tried making sure your the only user on (Clean boot) and that it still uses only 75%?

I would think it should be a bit higher, but from what I know 75-80% is rather normal for a game.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

hahaha, i find it humorous that you can afford all that and not a HaF 912 or something similar 😀

Haha I have a computer cabinet, and the case I have now is the largest one that can fit in it. It does have enough room, but it would be really tight, and i would want to OC them .

In noticed further down you said that there are 6 users, so I'm guessing your family also uses that PC or something. If that's the case I'd bet there was some junk programs and perhaps a virus or rootkit ^_^[

I have them let me give them the OK to download anything, and then I scan with Malwarebytes, Spyware Doctor, and MSE. Junk programs could be there though, i haven't looked through them.

Of course with 4GB you would really have to clean out your system if that was the case since that shouldn't happen on a decently clean install

I use CCleaner, I defrag my HD's, and clean/defrag the registry regularly. And I make sure that I keep the number of programs installed to a minimum. I have a SSD as the swap file disk, so when it does need to do that, it is on something fast.

Do you have fast user switching on? Any chance that 25% is being used for other users logged on? Have you tried making sure your the only user on (Clean boot) and that it still uses only 75%?

Yes, I make sure I'm the only one and it gets a clean reboot at gaming time . I try to shut it down each night too.

I'm trying to figure out how the tests came out so good, when I have lower FPS in game. I guess I can try FRAPS to see the actual in game FPS.

 

[bystander]

Wow lots of activity since i last looked. Before I read it all I did a quick Crysis Benchamark and this is some of the info it spat out.

High FPS: 59
Average FPS: 37
Low: 25 FPS
I was watching the vRAM used and it went up to 799mb max

I find this weird cause one i shouldn't get this with my computer, and two from your comments it should be sucking up more vRAM. Though i did only use 4x AA...

Those numbers are about exactly what I'd expect with your system. I'd recommend turning AA down to x2 or off. A single 460 is not exactly the most powerful setup, and Crysis really is that demanding.

By these benchmarks, you are doing quite well (though I'm sure those slow downs are more in line with this): http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-8.html

 

[holdingholder]

SIGH

1) Read what I said
2) Understand what I said (Google something like "Phenom X4 LN2" [you obviously haven't a clue what the italicized part means])
3) ???
4) Profit

Edit: A golden Phenom II X4 will be stable at 4.4GHz on water, no problem. Mine is far from golden and I have it 24/7 stable @4.2 on an H50.

Sorry I stand corrected on a couple points here. I actually do know what he italicized print meant but always thought that phenom 2's problems were not with heat but just stability past a certain point ( I've tried and tried again but can't crack 4ghz with mine, guess it's even less golden than yours). And i also missdd the part about heavy AA, because i do know that anything over 4x 768 or 1mb wont cut it. But 4x should be more than enough for anybody.

 

[cuecuemore]

And i also missdd the part about heavy AA, because i do know that anything over 4x 768 or 1mb wont cut it. But 4x should be more than enough for anybody.

Agreed, I don't notice a difference between 4x MSAA and 16xCQ, other than the fact that 16x is utterly unplayable. As for the whole framebuffer issue, I suspect that Crysis looks at your system resources, and sets certain values like draw distance depending on how much VRAM you have. Even if I "max out" my in-game settings, my draw distance is terrible, and I know for sure that I can max out the 1GB on my 460s without breaking a sweat.

 

[mouse24]

im sorry this is offtopic, but what is CQ? i googled for it and came up empty.... sorry

Edit: and doesnt the resources the operating takes = a non factor in game? i swear a read that somewhere on these forums... it seems a bit iffy to me though lol

 

[gidgiddonihah]

If you don't lower your resolution and tinker with your game settings you'll keep complaining until the cows come home.

I wasn't complaining, i wasn't whining. I was simply stating facts and asking questions. You were the one complaining when you were blabbing about how you were belittling yourself. Actually that might be considered whining...

Sorry everyone, when i reread his post, it kinda ticked me off.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

And while I have a ton of activity, might someone help me with a trouble ive been having? I have my GTX 460 overclocked to 820/1640/2000, but can't go any higher. No matter what I do-even messing with all sorts of voltages- I get a Hypertransport Sync Flood error after the system hangs for about 10 minutes (Looks like a motherboard warning) when i go past 825/1650/2000. Between 820-825 the game just crashes to windows. This happens in Crysis and several other games. Been driving me nuts as I want to OC to at least 900/1800/2000, but I can't. Ive tried posting this, sending PM's and I either get crappy answers or silence or people who tried to help and couldn't-and then went silent. :/

 

[4745454b]

Every card is different. If you've done all that your supposed to and cant' cross 820, guess what card you have?

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Yes, but I would have thought the Hypertransport Sync Flood error would be an indicator that something else is wrong...

 

[4745454b]

Only hyper transport that I know of is the CPU. Might be an unstable unlock/overclock. Not sure why OCing the GPU would reveal that. Up the Vcore or NB voltage?

 

[gidgiddonihah]

I've tried that with little success (Helped, but VERY little). Ill try it again tomorrow as its off and im too tired to deal with it.

(Edit) I'm open to any and all suggestions that doesn't require money right now as any upgrade I make now ill just be upgrading (hopefully) in a few months

(Edit 2) Here is a forum that discusses the HTSFE:

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=88140

Looks like for them it was it was running with too little voltage for the RAM. My RAM is 1.5v and is running at 1.5v...

(Edit 3) Could it be that the vRAM isn't getting enough voltage?

(Edit 4) http://www.erodov.com/forums/hyper-transport-sync-flood-error-pc-extremely-unstable/29977-3.html

This guy solved it by

I faced exactly the same issue with similar configuration, I suspected RAM and BIOS, but finally NB is the culprit. There are 2 options for you here - Either decrease the HT Speed or Increase the NB.

I have chosen the send one "Increasing the NB Speed" and started executing Prime95 for almost 3 hours now, no issues till now, system still running.

(Edit 5)

under stressful and continuous memory access conditions, the cpu-nb voltage might not be enough for the higher cpu-nb clock.
i would pin it to a higher cpu-nb clock in the BIOS and if i have to, increment the cpu-nb voltage a bit (one step).

that is of course if ddrams have been verified to be error-free (memtest86+ /prime95 blend 30 mins).

btw, make sure its the cpu-nb not the nb. they're different.

lol sorry for all the edits... I'm getting them down in one place, and here is a good idea because people might have ideas off of these.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Wow.... I went to Newegg to see if there were answers in the reviews and there are a great many people who get the HTSFE. They all say to manually set the Vcore and RAM voltage... There was also a guy who had the switch turn to 20% auto OC from the factory, though I doubt I missed that. So tomorrow I will try the combination of fixes and see what happens. Maybe I will get to 900! Yay!

 

[FunSurfer]

I still play Crysis so I can see what my rig can do as its the most demanding game I own right now . But I noticed something weird...

(When I play Crysis I open up task manager and pull it across my 24" 1920x1080 screen so i have a preview of a long time of CPU usage. I also open up MSI Afterburner and set it on top of Task manager to see GPU usage.)

Now I noticed something funny when I closed Crysis. I was having frame stutters occasionally and low FPS overall, but my CPU usage never went higher than 75%. My GPU usage in Afterburner never went over 80%. Sooo:

Why is Crysis have stuttering and low FPS, but it isnt using my GPU or my CPU?

My Rig:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
MSI 870-G45
AMD Phenom II B45 x4 3.1 Ghz (Unlocked Athlon II x3 445)
MSI GTX 460 1GB Cyclone (Operating at 820/1640/2000)
4GB G. Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 (Operating at 1333)
500 Watt Corsair PSU

Are you certain that Crysis is optimized for a quad core CPU? Afaik when you start the game you see only Intel's Core 2 Duo logo so how can you expect Crysis to max a quad?

 

[4745454b]

It's nice to know when I said increase the vcore or NB voltage I was on the right path.

Fun, that's why I ask if anyone knew in my first post. If it only does two or three threads, you'll always be at 75%.

 

[FunSurfer]

It's nice to know when I said increase the vcore or NB voltage I was on the right path.

Fun, that's why I ask if anyone knew in my first post. If it only does two or three threads, you'll always be at 75%.

Well, if you will find a benchmark of an E6850 beating a Q6600 in Crysis (lower settings and resolution) with patch 1.21 installed you will know that you are right.

http://lly316.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

 

[4745454b]

I think this is the link you meant to give.

http://lly316.blogspot.com/2008/04/e8200-e8400-e8500-crysis-world-in.html

Your right. Looking at the Intel CPUs, they are ordered not by cores, but purely by clock speed. The faster your clock speed, the more FPS you get. It probably isn't coded to use more then two cores or else the quad would have done better.