Question Software related hardware utilisation.

[Squadcore]

Hello.

I want to ask about hardware utilisation by most of the games.

My PC specs are:
i9-9900K watercooled cpu
RTX 2080 gpu
32Gb of 2666MHz ram
MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard
Several NVMe SSDs
Dont know much about my current PSU(680-1000W), changed aprox 3-4 of them to get quiet one. Maybe it could cause the problem explained below?

I run licensed Windows 10 Pro, everything is always updated. I install fresh Windows each year.

I expect this setup to be decent for current releases, my aim is to play multiplayer games with stable 140+ fps, since i use 144Hz monitor.

I used to enjoy 60fps gaming on my old monitor, but since i got the 144Hz one, i set my fps limit to 140 and medium to high settings in most games to maintain stable fps and get smooth experience, i ask people that cosider everything above 60fps unnecesary ignore this thread.

I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my hardware utilisation, clock and temperatures.
Temperatures never exceed 65-70 degrees, i currently dont overclock my CPU or GPU.
I have more than 10 years of gaming experience, so i roughly know what impact each ingame setting parameter has, and how it affects performance. I always keep antialliasing, V/G-Sync and Ambient Occlusion OFF, so please dont bother suggesting to disable VSYNC to unlock fps, etc.

The problem is that sometimes my fps drops from 140 to ~60, and it feels like it used to be when i played on 60 fps and dropped to ~15 on my old setup.
This problem mostly occures in ARK, GTA V multiplayer, APEX and currently in Borderlands 3.

When those fps drops happen, my GPU/CPU load doesnt exceed basic ~30-40%, so i want to know the way of utilizing hardware power to get rid from fps drops.

I want to ask for a suggestion or method that could possibly allow games to use full potential of my hardware. (Something unobvious like disabling VT-d or HPET in bios, etc)

P.S. I also want to ask more experienced PC users if it is good to have more paging file size, does windows prioritize actual RAM over it? since my RAM is always half unused, but my virtual ram made from my ssd is used actively.

 

[rgd1101]

When those fps drops happen, my GPU/CPU load doesnt exceed basic ~30-40%,

usually mean it wait for something else.
ram/sdd usage?
power usage?

 

[TerryLaze]

usually mean it wait for something else.
ram/sdd usage?
power usage?

99.9% one game thread is waiting for one or more of the other game threads...
and it doesn't matter that you have plenty of cores,games run their main thread at high priority and that causes windows to stall everything else until this high priority thread is done with it's work,because this is a game thread though it can only be done if the other,the stalled threads, can finish giving the main thread their part of the workload.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/scheduling-priorities

The system assigns time slices in a round-robin fashion to all threads with the highest priority. If none of these threads are ready to run, the system assigns time slices in a round-robin fashion to all threads with the next highest priority. If a higher-priority thread becomes available to run, the system ceases to execute the lower-priority thread (without allowing it to finish using its time slice), and assigns a full time slice to the higher-priority thread.

 

[Squadcore]

usually mean it wait for something else.
ram/sdd usage?
power usage?

I can only see how much ram is taken, usually games dont take that much, rest is always cached.
What exactly i should look for in ssd?
I can monitor power values, should i provide screenshots?

 

[Squadcore]

99.9% one game thread is waiting for one or more of the other game threads...
and it doesn't matter that you have plenty of cores,games run their main thread at high priority and that causes windows to stall everything else until this high priority thread is done with it's work,because this is a game thread though it can only be done if the other,the stalled threads, can finish giving the main thread their part of the workload.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/scheduling-priorities

So you are trying to say that it fully depends on the game and there is nothing i could do at my end?

 

[TerryLaze]

You can do the one thing you don't want to...limiting the FPS will limit the time the high priority thread will be running which will make time for the other threads.

You can also manually tune the high priority thread until it runs well.
In the first video you can see the thread being lowered in stages and you can see a big difference every time.
The second video shows the easiest and most direct way to do it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN-mdoMDuSQ

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DQl_VRiPw

 

[Squadcore]

You can do the one thing you don't want to...limiting the FPS will limit the time the high priority thread will be running which will make time for the other threads.

You can also manually tune the high priority thread until it runs well.
In the first video you can see the thread being lowered in stages and you can see a big difference every time.
The second video shows the easiest and most direct way to do it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN-mdoMDuSQ

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DQl_VRiPw

I always limit my fps to 140 using nvidia profile inspector.
I dont understand the point of those videos, guys weak processor is bottlenecking the performance.

Your recommendation is to set one exact thread to high priority using process hacker?

 

[TerryLaze]

I dont understand the point of those videos, guys weak processor is bottlenecking the performance.

Yes the weak processor is bottlenecking the performance thus the low FPS, but you get the FPS drops as well and you have an 9900k, do you think your processor is also too weak for GTA V?
The video isn't showing you how to get more FPS it is showing you that the stutters have nothing to do with the CPU.

Your recommendation is to set one exact thread to high priority using process hacker?

I recommend the exact opposite of that, set one exact thread to a lower priority, and explained why.

 

[Squadcore]

Yes the weak processor is bottlenecking the performance thus the low FPS, but you get the FPS drops as well and you have an 9900k, do you think your processor is also too weak for GTA V?
The video isn't showing you how to get more FPS it is showing you that the stutters have nothing to do with the CPU.

I recommend the exact opposite of that, set one exact thread to a lower priority, and explained why.

We can see that his CPU is loaded at max when he plays, while mine is not loaded at all. So even if my CPU is the weakest part of pc (doubt), it is not used to its full potential.
I tried to set main thread to high priority using process hacker while testing in borderlands 3, no effect at all, will try to set it to low today.
Thank you for clarification.

 

[Squadcore]

Today i tested performance with Intel Turbo Boost disabled, no hyperthreading and virtualization.
My CPU was at 3.6Ghz max load, temp was 33 degree, and it was loaded more than at 40% almost all the time, which is more than always. No performance impact tho, is gpu the weak part, or should i change PSU?