Low FPS and low CPU/GPU usage

[Oreshnik]

Hello guys. I have a problem that described in the title. I got a low fps (20-40) at Baldur's gate location (act 3).

Cpu/gpu uase is near a 40-50% but im getting 20-40 fps. Graphics settings doesnt make a deal. Changing resolution and switching settings to minimal doesn give a result

My hardware:
i5 10400f
RTX 3070
32gb 3200 RAM
Installed on ssd
Win 11, last drivers updated

Whats problem can be here? Bad optimisation or bottleneck?

[Chaosolous]

It's a CPU thing I know that much.

[Ryzilynt]

Are you using an xmp profile on ram and running in dual channel? Is the SSD an m.2 nvme?

Are temps throttling your CPU or GPU?

Do you have other things running in background? Using one monitor or 2?

What resolution? V-sync?

[Chaosolous]

This might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5xe0cy_cAE

[guppy]

Seems It's the game that is choking on single tread performance.

Ran some tests when the game goes to ~13 FPS in act 3.

GPU:
64C    P0              71W / 130W |   5759MiB /  6144MiB

Ram 
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           15Gi       9,7Gi       593Mi       779Mi       5,2Gi       4,7Gi

Proccesses:
Tasks: 344 total,   2 running, 342 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 20,1 us,  6,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 73,9 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st

so the system is chugging along half bored - on a whim I decided to see what the individual threads were doing: ( note 'Cpu7' )

top -n 1 -1

top - 00:47:56 up 16:47,  1 user,  load average: 4,46, 4,25, 4,05
Tasks: 344 total,   1 running, 343 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu0  : 33,3 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu1  : 16,7 us, 27,8 sy,  0,0 ni, 55,6 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu2  : 27,8 us,  5,6 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu3  : 23,5 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 76,5 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu4  : 17,6 us, 11,8 sy,  0,0 ni, 70,6 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu5  : 23,5 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 76,5 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu6  : 20,0 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 80,0 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu7  :100,0 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni,  0,0 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu8  : 22,2 us, 11,1 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu9  : 22,2 us,  5,6 sy,  0,0 ni, 72,2 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu10 : 13,3 us, 13,3 sy,  0,0 ni, 73,3 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu11 : 13,3 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 86,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
MiB Mem :  15838,7 total,    755,3 free,  10072,4 used,   5011,1 buff/cache
MiB Swap:   2048,0 total,     11,4 free,   2036,6 used.   4688,0 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                                                                                     
  38570 morten    20   0   15,3g   6,8g 643008 S 353,3  44,3 504:41.50 bg3_dx11.ex

So bg3 is using ~30% cpu overall and ~45% of the ram - but one thread is constantly at 100% - it differes as the CPU tries to shuffles processes around to avoid the bottle neck.

and no it's not the disc - I/O is bascially entirely idle.

Can't tell what specifically the game is trying to do on that one thread that goes nuts, but I'd wager it's the NPC ai that isn't multithreadded

[Oreshnik]

Originally posted by Ryzilynt:

Are you using an xmp profile on ram and running in dual channel? Is the SSD an m.2 nvme?

Are temps throttling your CPU or GPU?

Do you have other things running in background? Using one monitor or 2?

What resolution? V-sync?

Im using xmp
Temeratures is absolutly normal 55-60 deg
No background tasks, on monitor

resolutions 1080 abd 1440 gives the same fps
v-sync off

[ShotBot]

I have a similar system RTX 3070Ti, i5-11700k with 32GB RAM and in Wyrms Crossing I am getting 35-45 FPS. Mostly every setting turned to medium except shadows textures and enviroment textures. I saw in a post that turning shadows to low should help but I haven't tried it. Think it sucks to say but Baldurs Gate (like the city) is just hard to run and slightly unoptimised but they are aware and making patches.
I am absolutely infatuated with this game to the point I don't even care I have 35-45FPS rn but I do have to say its pretty bad. And lots of people are having FPS issues in the city. Gonna have to try turning shadows down.

[Oreshnik]

Originally posted by guppy:

Seems It's the game that is choking on single tread performance.

Ran some tests when the game goes to ~13 FPS in act 3.

GPU:
64C    P0              71W / 130W |   5759MiB /  6144MiB

Ram 
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           15Gi       9,7Gi       593Mi       779Mi       5,2Gi       4,7Gi

Proccesses:
Tasks: 344 total,   2 running, 342 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 20,1 us,  6,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 73,9 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st

so the system is chugging along half bored - on a whim I decided to see what the individual threads were doing: ( note 'Cpu7' )

top -n 1 -1

top - 00:47:56 up 16:47,  1 user,  load average: 4,46, 4,25, 4,05
Tasks: 344 total,   1 running, 343 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu0  : 33,3 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu1  : 16,7 us, 27,8 sy,  0,0 ni, 55,6 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu2  : 27,8 us,  5,6 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu3  : 23,5 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 76,5 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu4  : 17,6 us, 11,8 sy,  0,0 ni, 70,6 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu5  : 23,5 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 76,5 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu6  : 20,0 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 80,0 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu7  :100,0 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni,  0,0 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu8  : 22,2 us, 11,1 sy,  0,0 ni, 66,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu9  : 22,2 us,  5,6 sy,  0,0 ni, 72,2 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu10 : 13,3 us, 13,3 sy,  0,0 ni, 73,3 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
%Cpu11 : 13,3 us,  0,0 sy,  0,0 ni, 86,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
MiB Mem :  15838,7 total,    755,3 free,  10072,4 used,   5011,1 buff/cache
MiB Swap:   2048,0 total,     11,4 free,   2036,6 used.   4688,0 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                                                                                     
  38570 morten    20   0   15,3g   6,8g 643008 S 353,3  44,3 504:41.50 bg3_dx11.ex

So bg3 is using ~30% cpu overall and ~45% of the ram - but one thread is constantly at 100% - it differes as the CPU tries to shuffles processes around to avoid the bottle neck.

and no it's not the disc - I/O is bascially entirely idle.

Can't tell what specifically the game is trying to do on that one thread that goes nuts, but I'd wager it's the NPC ai that isn't multithreadded

Thanks a lot. It make me sense of happening

[Ryzilynt]

Historically most games have only used a single core. This is something that has begun to change in recent years.

[Razamanaz]

Try running using Vulcan. It's better at spreading CPU core usage than Dx11.

[elstirthibaut]

i have an i5 1400, rtx 3060, 16g ram and i'm too getting low fps in the coty so you're not alone.

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by Ryzilynt:

Historically most games have only used a single core. This is something that has begun to change in recent years.

that's not remotely true, games haven't used single core since Cryisis, and even then cryisis was outdated for doing that at the time. the past 20 years of gaming have been mostly multicore.