Extreme Use of System Resources - Danger to GPU?

[Collateral Damage]

Hi,
I recently purchased Days Gone and started playing. Very quickly I noticed my system temps are way above normal for active load in playing a video game (comparing to GTA V, Star Citizen, Squad, Other games that heavily tax a PC system.)

I booted up MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z, CPU-Z, and Ryzen Master. All of which reported that just loading Days Gone to the main menu results in a massive power draw (100%) to both CPU and GPU.

Changing graphics settings does not alter this behavior, as when the graphics are set to high the system has the same high temps as it does when the graphics are set to low.

Does anyone else have this problem, and do you know of a fix? I don't want to burn out my GPU or anything anytime soon.

[My System Specs]
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (Water Cooled)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Rev X.0x
GPU: MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3080 Ti
Ram: 2x (64GB) G.skill Trident Z RGB (F4-3600C18D-64GTZR)
PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 1300W Modular PSU
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19042)
Memory: WD_BLACK SN750 NVMe SSD (OS), WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD (Steam/Game).

[Macdallan]

Sounds like something is going on. I have a few games that push my GPU a lot, I can always tell because the fans spin up a lot more than usual, but this one doesn't even if I play for several hours. Your system is far superior to mine so I don't think you should be seeing that kind of behaviour.

Check your graphics card software to make sure you don't have something set to overclock the GPU when playing Days Gone. You could always try a fresh install of your graphics drivers, too.

[Collateral Damage]

Thanks, MacDallan. However, I currently have not set anything to overclock. (In fact, due to an unforseen limitation of the motherboard my memory is downclocked.) Everything else is set to default settings. I attempted to try to lower the burden on my system by also downgrading the game's resolution to 1080p. Instead of lower the load on the gpu, the FPS shoots up to 240-260 range and continues to run hot.

I might bump this over to a few sub-reddits to see if the behavior isn't game specific.

[Collateral Damage]

Alright, I found a solution and I am adding it here just in case someone else wishes to discover a potential solution and play the game.

When I opened the ingame settings to discover the frame rate that the game was operating at, it was clocked at approximately 300 FPS, and was apparently only using about 60-70% of my GPU.

I went into the settings and activated the Frame-Limiter and V-sync at 60 FPS (2560x1440). The impact on my system as immediate, as both my GPU and CPU received less load, drew less power, and were able to cool down and run at lower temps.

Strangely, when remove the frame-limiter and V-Sync I also noticed that all 16 cores of the 5950x became active.

Hopes this helps someone else out there, and Good Luck with the zombies.

[Macdallan]

Glad you found it, and it's nice that it wasn't anything too complex.

I almost always have v-sync on to prevent screen tearing unless the game doesn't experience that issue - and that's rare so I didn't notice really high frame rates. I've found sometimes things act up in certain games with the in game v-sync on, but whenever that happens i just use my GPU software v-sync instead.

I also have an issue with my RAM. My motherboard, BIOS, etc. is supposed to support the RAM's fastest speed but it simply won't work properly (system either constantly acts up and reboots or is otherwise unstable) no matter what I do. I followed every direction and tweak I could find and nothing has worked so I have to under clock my ram and put up with slightly slower RAM speeds for a perfectly stable system.

[MooP]

I was gonna say you guys just need to cap your FPS sometimes...
(Some games are not meant to run uncapped)

I run an overkill system also, but I don't let my FPS just run uncapped on any of my games.
I find the 72fps cap (Half of 144 + Gsync/Freesync) works great. The normal 60fps because of bad PC ports, I usually get what holds the most stable frames & cap it at lowest dip per game.

Using the Nvidia control panel you can set an FPS limit per game you play.
(Other 3rd party software can do the same)

[Grillo]

high end system myself i dont use gsync or freesync. the unlimited framerate experience is too inconsistant and i still notice the frame drops. playing the games set to v-sync values ranging from 60fps, 75fps, 90fps, 120fps or 144fps all game dependant of course and its port optimization. it still offers the most smoothest experience.

nothing beats vsync.

[Warheadmeiky]

so i think U ALL better play on console so...

[Grillo]

Originally posted by Warheadmeiky:

so i think U ALL better play on console so...

you offering us PS5's and Xbox Series X's...

[Synapt]

Originally posted by Warheadmeiky:

so i think U ALL better play on console so...

And I would want to downgrade to trash hardware and graphics why? lol

That said, 2080 Kingpin here, been playing actively for days without issue, only uses about 40-50% of my card.

But I also always use v-sync (as I near always play windowed fullscreen mode) or frame limiter settings in all games, something that's useful to do so your card isn't trying to overhaul more than it needs to (ie; the new world issue).

[tracksone]

Originally posted by Gasser:

nothing beats vsync.

Free sync has entered chat

[Grillo]

Originally posted by tracksone:

Originally posted by Gasser:

nothing beats vsync.

Free sync has entered chat

Freesync has left the chat and Vsync has entered chat

[Grillo]

Originally posted by Synapt:

Originally posted by Warheadmeiky:

so i think U ALL better play on console so...

And I would want to downgrade to trash hardware and graphics why? lol

That said, 2080 Kingpin here, been playing actively for days without issue, only uses about 40-50% of my card.

But I also always use v-sync (as I near always play windowed fullscreen mode) or frame limiter settings in all games, something that's useful to do so your card isn't trying to overhaul more than it needs to (ie; the new world issue).

only non powerful gpu users will make that argument to use consoles and even than the ps5 and xbox series x offers a better gaming experience than midrange pcs... with gsync and freesync you can see a clear difference in framerate drops from 165fps to 140fs, 120fps or even 90fps. not all games are brilliantly optimized. unlesss your playing an online game like warzone, rainbow 6 siege, counter strike, fortnite where the framerates dont drop significantly by about 20 the most thats when freesync and gsync comes into play. but that said your also blasting your gpu constantly at 99% load, talk about hauling ass and shortening its life.

Vsync is still the smooooothest gaming experience, constant fps, consistent ms and not maxing your gpu load on every gaming session.

[_Grim_Reaper]

Just Turn on V-Sync and there will be everything fine,just dont see point of pushing GPU more then 60FPS.
I have GTX 1070 GAMING X MSI and with all settings on ultra i play ez with 60FPS.
Temps are max 52C for GPU.

[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕟]

I feel relieved that this is one of big titles is running well on my system. And seems that some people, as usual, call other of names that best fit them, when someone claim that is not having technical issues with it. No crashes, no major fps drops.

Game started by setting to high visuals preset and fullscreen windowed for me, and I just changed to very high. Running with v-sync (locking to 60fps), because more than that, is really unnecessary and pointless for my system. As also take a big hit in the processing power. I get some slightly fps drop when an area with a lot of entities is loading. Although its all fine around hordes. Based on the noise, my fans are running in a safe speed, despite playing for hours. Some games (like indies) will make it go wild in less than 30 min playing it, enough to start hearing some cracking sound of thermal expansion. I'm avoiding playing games that do this like a plague, while I cannot affort a better PC in these chaotic times of pandemic and inflation.
I understand that you might be able to run well certain games, and not others, as I do experience it myself. People often blame of "bottlenecking", what is not necessary wrong, but despite this limitation, certain games still run much better than others. Like, some 3D indie games can run so poorly in comparison to these AAA, often requiring more of the system.

What I can add to the suggestions, is doing some cleaning. Just be careful if you have HDD, while using air to push away the dirt, cause if you manage to push some inside it, you will eventually loose that drive. I had made this mistake once.

[tracksone]

Originally posted by Gasser:

Originally posted by Synapt:

And I would want to downgrade to trash hardware and graphics why? lol

That said, 2080 Kingpin here, been playing actively for days without issue, only uses about 40-50% of my card.

But I also always use v-sync (as I near always play windowed fullscreen mode) or frame limiter settings in all games, something that's useful to do so your card isn't trying to overhaul more than it needs to (ie; the new world issue).

only non powerful gpu users will make that argument to use consoles and even than the ps5 and xbox series x offers a better gaming experience than midrange pcs... with gsync and freesync you can see a clear difference in framerate drops from 165fps to 140fs, 120fps or even 90fps. not all games are brilliantly optimized. unlesss your playing an online game like warzone, rainbow 6 siege, counter strike, fortnite where the framerates dont drop significantly by about 20 the most thats when freesync and gsync comes into play. but that said your also blasting your gpu constantly at 99% load, talk about hauling ass and shortening its life.

Vsync is still the smooooothest gaming experience, constant fps, consistent ms and not maxing your gpu load on every gaming session.

G here has proved to not listen to him