[Solved] 98% CPU + 15% GPU = choppy 20fps gameplay ..?

[Tesityr]

Just wondering what's up as this is the only game that does this:
90-100% CPU usage
5-15% GPU usage (videocard)
overall low fps (as in 20fps in the Benchmark)

AMD 3600 CPU
AMD 5600xt GPU
16GB RAM

Other games run fine, from The Witcher 3 to Hitman 2 - yet this game uses the cpu 'only' it seems, and has really low fps output??

Oddly, in the menu/options, the fps feels really smooth, showing about 90fps; but once the Benchmark or game starts, it hits 20fps...

- tried reinstalling
- tried moving game to SSD
- tried lowest settings
- tried AMD FSR (1366x768>1920x1080)
- tried turn off all overlays
- tried no recording
- tried CPU priority = High
- tried Game Mode on/off
nothing seems to help this odd thing, only in this game lol

Thanks for any other ideas

Edit:
add image of low cpu fps (CPU FPS = 21 , GPU FPS = 112)
https://ibb.co/2c6SmPz

[Eye of Newt]

Try changing your Power Plan to High Performance if you don't have the Ryzen High Performance one.

[Tesityr]

Originally posted by Eye of Newt:

Try changing your Power Plan to High Performance if you don't have the Ryzen High Performance one.

Thanks - I actually have Windows on High Performance already

[vsrs]

What's the refresh rate of the monitor resolutions you've been using for the game? Perhaps it's not related, but I found that on my PC, the monitor resolution I used for the game had a 30fps rate, and this throttled the game fps to 30, but when I switched the monitor resolution to one with 60 fps, the game matched it.

[Tesityr]

Originally posted by vsrs:

What's the refresh rate of the monitor resolutions you've been using for the game? Perhaps it's not related, but I found that on my PC, the monitor resolution I used for the game had a 30fps rate, and this throttled the game fps to 30, but when I switched the monitor resolution to one with 60 fps, the game matched it.

A good idea, but I have a 60hz monitor and lock games to 60fps most of the time.
(I tried unlocking the vsync on/off and it didn't make a difference, sadly)

I've seen others with this problem, so at least I'm not alone lol

[Cryiox]

5700 XT + R5 3600 here. My GPU is some 30% faster than yours, but I'm getting 90-100 fps maxed out in HZD in 1080p.

Make sure you have XMP enabled for RAM in BIOS.

Maybe drops settings or rez a notch, you're possibly VRAM bound? You're certainly not CPU bound (well, not completely) as we have the same CPU.

There isn't really a difference between Original and the 2 higher presets.

[Eye of Newt]

There was a weird case I saw over on the Linus Tech Tips forums where for some odd reason a person was finding games were framelocked at around 24 fps.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/67owht/why_are_my_games_locking_to_24_fps/

https://linustechtips.com/topic/855257-frame-rate-stuck-at-24fps/

[𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔲𝔰 𝔄𝔠𝔱𝔲𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔰]

99,9% something is wrong with your CPU or CPU driver if such exists.You should take your PC to service center.It's hard to guess what's wrong without actually testing your PC

[Tesityr]

I solved it! Wow it also added +30fps to all other games in the process lol
Here's what I found:

Everything is up to date, hardware works fine with all other games, so it was super hard to troubleshoot this... I eventually was messing around in the BIOS and Disabled "Above 4G Decoding" and "Re-Size BAR Support" (these two 'go together' in Enabling AMD SAM (Smart Access Memory) and other optimizations [that also work with NVIDIA videocards] - but while they 'may' give a boost to some games, they might not for others [it is used mainly in compute/tesla type usage, I've read in the past]). That was it!

Now I get 73 CPU and 74 GPU fps in HZD - and it also boosted a few other games (surprising to me) :
» Far Cry 5 = +30fps
» Hitman 2 = +30fps
» Total War, Warhammer = +30fps
» Two Point Hospital = can now run in Very High settings (was choppy on Low before)
it's crazy! lol

It's odd that it had such a huge effect, because it seemed like a 'cpu problem' (low "CPU FPS") - whereas simply disabling AMD's SAM totally fixed Horizon Zero Dawn AND boosted some other games a bunch - which to me, seems like an adjustment to how the gpu is utilized...

Anyway, I want to thank you all for the great helpfulness here; I actually own the GOG version [but out of habit I came here and posted the question/issue 'automatically' heh].
Maybe this can help others that might be having 'lower than expected' performance: disable
Above 4G Decoding
Re-Size BAR Support
especially for AMD cpu/gpu combos - maybe you'll see a bit of an improvement [if you have these enabled in the BIOS for some reason]
HTH somehow

Thanks again all!

Edit:
add new screenshot of Solved
https://ibb.co/WxZFqKj

[Eye of Newt]

Originally posted by Tesityr:

Anyway, I want to thank you all for the great helpfulness here; I actually own the GOG version [but out of habit I came here and posted the question/issue 'automatically' heh].
Maybe this can help others that might be having 'lower than expected' performance: disable
Above 4G Decoding
Re-Size BAR Support
especially for AMD cpu/gpu combos - maybe you'll see a bit of an improvement [if you have these enabled in the BIOS for some reason]
HTH somehow

Thanks again all! :pcbs_ram:

Edit:
add new screenshot of Solved
https://ibb.co/WxZFqKj

One thing that has been surprising is how variable Resizeable BAR has been when it comes to its effect on Horizon Zero Dawn. In fact on my Ryzen 7 3700X system I left it turned off for a long time because I was concerned about possibly tanking framerates w/ my RX 6700XT.

However I recently enabled it and the game seems to be behaving.

One suggestion would be to check if you have a BIOS/UEFI update for your motherboard that may fix issues like this.

[sora's 青かった星]

I've been putting off playing this game until I get a newer PC. There are some nice benchmarks you could look at if you're thinking about using the existing CPUs, and since the game is old it doesn't take that much anymore. I've heard even a $!30 i-12100 can run it okay with integrated graphics in 1080p (and no graphics card.)

[bam]

Originally posted by Tesityr:

I solved it! Wow it also added +30fps to all other games in the process lol
Here's what I found:

Everything is up to date, hardware works fine with all other games, so it was super hard to troubleshoot this... I eventually was messing around in the BIOS and Disabled "Above 4G Decoding" and "Re-Size BAR Support" (these two 'go together' in Enabling AMD SAM (Smart Access Memory) and other optimizations [that also work with NVIDIA videocards] - but while they 'may' give a boost to some games, they might not for others [it is used mainly in compute/tesla type usage, I've read in the past]). That was it!

Now I get 73 CPU and 74 GPU fps in HZD - and it also boosted a few other games (surprising to me) :
» Far Cry 5 = +30fps
» Hitman 2 = +30fps
» Total War, Warhammer = +30fps
» Two Point Hospital = can now run in Very High settings (was choppy on Low before)
it's crazy! lol

It's odd that it had such a huge effect, because it seemed like a 'cpu problem' (low "CPU FPS") - whereas simply disabling AMD's SAM totally fixed Horizon Zero Dawn AND boosted some other games a bunch - which to me, seems like an adjustment to how the gpu is utilized...

Anyway, I want to thank you all for the great helpfulness here; I actually own the GOG version [but out of habit I came here and posted the question/issue 'automatically' heh].
Maybe this can help others that might be having 'lower than expected' performance: disable
Above 4G Decoding
Re-Size BAR Support
especially for AMD cpu/gpu combos - maybe you'll see a bit of an improvement [if you have these enabled in the BIOS for some reason]
HTH somehow

Thanks again all! :pcbs_ram:

Edit:
add new screenshot of Solved
https://ibb.co/WxZFqKj

As an AMD user, your comment made me paranoid and want to check my BIOS as well haha. Thanks for investigating and sharing the findings back.

[Cryiox]

Strange that disabling ReBar helped you. I've yet to have any issues with ReBar enabled for me on 5700 XT + R5 3600.

[Tesityr]

Originally posted by Cryiox:

Strange that disabling ReBar helped you. I've yet to have any issues with ReBar enabled for me on 5700 XT + R5 3600.

If I may pop back in - Yes it is... Even AMD themselves said it 'might help some games' and yet I had almost the opposite effect

If it helps somehow:
- Windows 11
- 5600xt is by XFX (Thicc II) with new BIOS update
- B450 Aorus M is by Gigabyte, with BIOS version F63a (2022.02.17), Dual Channel

perhaps it is something specific to these manufacturers or even bios revisions. It was surprising anyhow

[Cryiox]

F63a. It's a beta Bios build. Might be what's causing issues, might not.

I would never recommend running a beta BIOS build.

[Tesityr]

Originally posted by Cryiox:

F63a. It's a beta Bios build. Might be what's causing issues, might not.

I would never recommend running a beta BIOS build.

Ah, thanks for that tidbit - when I have time I'll update it and maybe test again (at least with HZD). Just for data