Game is gimping CPU Usage? SOLVED: IT'S YOUR VRAM

[Shadowlet]

Ignore everything else after my listed specs. TLDR of thread is that the game is VERY VERY VRAM hungry especially for 8GB cards despite the game still being performant at higher settings but I refuse to believe it is being allocated optimally.

Atm I can't get the Joshua cutscene into combat training running at anything higher than 20FPS even on low Textures.

After much tweaking I managed to get into water bucket cutscene at 30fps and combat training at high 50s to 60fps for the first time instead of 20fps with High Fidelity, mid settings and all graphical toggles disabled. With Dynamic Resolution instead of FSR3 Quality it's much closer to 60FPS and higher in that demanding tutorial area.

In the end I opted for that and brought NPC Density down to low, low Textures, low Shadows, low Water and mid everything else. Every toggle unchecked, even VRS. I might turn Textures and Shadows back up to Mid if the Behemoth section won't drop below 60 with the higher settings.

Game needs a VRAM usage bar like other PC games.

RX 6600, i7-8086k 32GB RAM
GPU Settings:
https://files.catbox.moe/75b0hy.png

--------------------------------------DEPRECATED--------------------------------------

I find that if one of the following happens my CPU usage is cripped from 40+% to 14-16% and in turn my FPS takes a hit.

* If the combat tutorial starts I get hit with that gimp and now I get max 20FPS.
* If I load a save
* If I fiddle with settings too many times.

In the first case it's a MASSIVE PAIN to fix that specific instance. The other two are normally fixed on restart or setting tinkering (lowering and raising till it works again and I set them back to my previous settings)

Here's a quick labeled album I compiled of cases where the game is gimping my CPU usage and in turn FPS. I didn't include the combat tutorial BUT... if working properly I get close to and at 60FPS but drops to low 50s if I turn to NPCs.

WTF is this port man.

To note, my normal FPS during Titan/Shiva is around 80s-low 90s and maybe itll drop to 70s during the final seconds. In town is around low 30s.
https://imgur.com/a/1FfJsDt

So yea, no matter how many times I reload my save I can't get back to the 90s (high 80s at certain points) FPS that I get on my first boot into TItan/Shiva. If I load into city after Titan/Shiva I get less than 20FPS unless I load it first and I get upwards of 43FPS.

Anyone else trying to test in a performance overlay?

[Shadowlet]

So yea, no matter how many times I reload my save I can't get back to the 90s (high 80s at certain points) FPS that I get on my first boot into TItan/Shiva. If I load into city after Titan/Shiva I get less than 20FPS unless I load it first and I get upwards of 43FPS.

But nooo, right before I'm about to post this I test one more time and I am magically able to hit 60FPS at times in the city on first boot with all graphics effects toggled on and 50% CPU Usage.

https://files.catbox.moe/ufcnth.png

What the hell is this port man... Normal was 30s, now I got 40s a few times, now I boot the city save into the high 50s upwards to 60FPS.

Anyone else trying to test?

[germy813]

played at 150+ fps the whole demo sucks your system isn't up to par

[qsdww]

In MSI afterburner, check GPU clock and see whether your GPU has the same clock speed when the fps decrease.

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by germy813:

played at 150+ fps the whole demo sucks your system isn't up to par

Clearly it's up to par if I randomly boot into the city and hit 60FPS. And 80s-90s during TItan/Shiva.

After testing for hours, my avg in the city was at first 30s, then 40s a few times, and now on this test with no settings changed I can now hit high 50s up to 60 with now around 50-55% CPU usage. And I bet if I reload the save it'll ♥♥♥♥ up again.

Edit: And guess what, from perfectly fine city performance I RELOAD my city save and I'm back to 40s.

Something is wrong with the port.

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by qsdww:

In MSI afterburner, check GPU clock and see whether your GPU has the same clock speed when the fps decrease.

City (Standing):
- 19FPS Avg, max MHz 2670. (I first booted the save into a 19FPS Avg this time btw.)
- High 50s Avg, avg 2637-2639 and max MHz 2640 (Second first boot for this comment)
- Low 40s Avg, Avg of MHz 2642-2644, occasional max of 2650. A couple rare times I see 1300 or others below 1500(?). (Third boot of the comment)

Care to help now?

IMG of my performance in the city when it works:
https://files.catbox.moe/dw2vrs.png

[qsdww]

Look like it's VRAM problems...try lower setting to low and resolution and see if it help your fps.

[Aluren]

In my case i dont have any issues like these myself, but have you tried checking to make sure its running off your GPU? I had a bunch of CPU related game issues after a windows update, for whatever reason it was making most of my games not run off my GPU, changed my PC settings again and all was back to normal, hope you figure it out!

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by qsdww:

Look like it's VRAM problems...try lower setting to low and resolution and see if it help your fps.

FSR3 Quality for both settings
My old settings: High Fidelity and Textures, Mid everything else, all toggles besides VRS on.
In the OSD my memory (I assume GPU) is hitting a max of 7494MB with an avg of around 7420-7430 but initial low 7300s. High 50s-64FPS Max.

All Low:
63FPS Avg and goes into 70s and max 79FPS towards front (unopenable) castle door.
Memory 7397MB Avg around max of 7403.

98-99% GPU usage the whole time in both cases I'm pretty sure but I didn't look.

On save reload I am hitting 70fps avg if I dont pan the camera and the new memory averages around 7510s to 7520s. Low 80s FPS as I walk closer to the door.

Is it a VRAM capacity issue or the clock? Or something else? I'm not even hitting my max VRAM memory..

Keep in mind that if I swap back to the old settings I get around a 59-62FPS avg with an avg 7480MB memory usage. I reloaded the save again with these settings and I'm back to low 40FPS avg but apparently it improved back to previous avg as I edit this comment and walk around.

It just seems so... random.. Never had this problem in other games.

[qsdww]

The game won't use all of your GPU VRAM, once it reach the VRAM limit it will swap to your system RAM, that could explain why you have higher fps when you load a save file because the VRAM is slowly being filled to its cap...

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by qsdww:

The game won't use all of your GPU VRAM, once it reach the VRAM limit it will swap to your system RAM, that could explain why you have higher fps when you load a save file because the VRAM is slowly being filled to its cap...

Actually the loads actually lower FPS. I did one city load and got the max 20FPS again and then a second load got me to the high 50FPS-60s range I do on my old settings.

So I've been doing all this city testing and when I load into Titan/Shiva during the same game launch I'm not hitting my usual FPS targets 90s-high 80s and I'm stuck around 60s. (My High settings) One last load into city with the high FPS avg and VRAM sitting around 7640MB. So yea I'm sure I would still be able to get good performance there if I reboot.

You've been a big help btw. I feel like it's still the port's fault in some way though.. maybe it properly doesn't unload what isn't being used anymore?

I can definitely run the game with High-Mid settings, when it all works (even if at times I might drop to high 57+FPS in the city) which is why I'm mind boggled.

I mean look at this!

https://files.catbox.moe/0v8whq.png
https://files.catbox.moe/bynqoq.png
https://files.catbox.moe/xsovu7.png

TLDR The game is very VRAM hungry. Just lower some settings right? Anything to recommend from the bolded above? I wish the game had a VRAM memory tracker..

Edit: I'm testing Titan/Shiva -> Joshua cutscene and combat training and I'm still getting that 20FPS cap with 7400MB VRAM usage at medium and low Textures.

[loki66998]

Just get a better CPU my man. No doubt you got your moneys worth there.

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by loki66998:

Just get a better CPU my man. No doubt you got your moneys worth there.

After a second opinion it most definitely isn't the CPU or the game limiting it

[Shadowlet]

After much tweaking I managed to get into water bucket cutscene at 30fps and combat training at high 50s to 60fps for the first time instead of 20fps with High Fidelity, mid settings, and all graphical toggles disabled. With Dynamic Resolution instead of FSR3 Quality it's much closer to 60FPS in that demanding tutorial area.

In the end I opted for that and brought NPC Density down to low, low Textures, low Shadows, low Water. I might turn Textures and Shadows back up to Mid if Behemoth section shows that it won't be likely to drop below 60fps.

Edited post to reflect my incompetence. (and I hope Square's). Game needs a VRAM usage bar like other PC games. Even a game as old as GTAV has one.

Man this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hungry for VRAM.