High CPU Usage (99%)

[Wallatom]

hi everyone, i'm oppening a new thread to discuss about the witcher 3 cpu usage.

So i bought the GOTY edition 1 week ago, and since, the game is taking 95 to 98% of my CPU ( I5 6500k + MSI 1070). I tried to change video settings, FPS limitation and even overclok my CPU without a change.

It is a normal ?
Are some people in the same situation as me ?

thx for letting me know, because i'm worried my CPU is damaged ( i did a run with intel diagnostic tool, and nothing seem to be broken).

[MaximumEffort]

Did you use this?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intelburntest.html

[Wallatom]

Not at all, the " IntelProcessor Diagnostic tool "

My Pc is 1 month old, and work on any other games ( I'm playing overwatch (extreme video settings) atm and the CPU is at 35 - 45 % )

[Tasso]

Yea I have a 6700 k and 980ti my CPU never passes 30% and it's running this game at ultra settings

[hawkeye]

!00% on all cores is normal for an i5.

[MaximumEffort]

Originally posted by NameHasBeenChanged:

Yea I have a 6700 k and 980ti my CPU never passes 30% and it's running this game at ultra settings

i7...

[Wallatom]

I7 run well on the witcher 3, but dunno why my CPU is still at 100% (not warm btw) and getting random FPS drop to 45 FPS sometimes.

[MaximumEffort]

Try reinstalling driver, both Intel and nVidia. Also you can mess around in nVidia control panel to tweak some setting if the FPS drop, which they should not

[Wallatom]

i built this PC less then 1 month ago, it isn't the driver ( because the PC is working fine on other games)

[bean]

1- Drivers have nothing to do with when you bought the hardware, it is about when it was made, lol. That is why one of the first things you do when installing new hardware is to update all the drivers and firmware to make sure that it is up to date. Sometimes you can find that the newest drives conflict with old software, which is why people roll them back. It is not a black or white experience, you need to be able to adjust your system accordingly

2- If you are uncomfortable with the load on your cpu, you can always just go into the .ini and reduce the load that goes into your CPU, for example Nvidia's physx and hair works both have huge impacts on CPU load, other Nvidia effects (such as the one that governs armor animations) are also known to be huge draws.

3- 100% cpu load isn't necessarily a bad thing if it is fluctuating in between cores and maintaining a good environment (CPU not overheating/no artifacting, etc) though you have to be careful. I have an i-7 system and run the game on mostly ultra settings AND go into the TM to set the cpu to set a higher preferance to the CPU (greatly increasing the resources available to the game) and I never see more than 30-40% load on the package, though cores will randomly shoot up to 100% load. This is natural and not something that is worrying. However if you see that the TM is placing the game at 100% overall load, you should probably find out why.

4- My suggestions:

- Make sure that your hardware is properly installed, (cpu and heatsink seated, cpu fans all properly connected) these i7 systems are very powerful and can handle most apps without breaking a sweat... so if something isn't connected you won't feel throttling or timing out in 99% of commercial applications. Make sure that your PC and OS are both showing EXACTLY your cpu at the speeds and timing (mem) it is supposed to be at. Check BIOS and sysinfo to make sure.

- Make sure your system makes sense... a 32 bit OS and an old mobo are not going to play well with modern equipment even if they manage to POST and work.

- Get a base line for performance. Turn on the PC and go see what your load is while idle, 2-15% from the OS is fine, anything else take note of as you will need to find out where the resource hog is coming from.

- Watch your temperatures at all times, look for spikes in temp and load.

[Wallatom]

My hardware is properly installed ( it's not my first rig) and all drivers are up to date ( this is what i meant when i said that it is a recent built).
My Os is 64 bit and all parts of the computer are new ( MB, CPU, GPU, RAM, CPU HeatFAN, )
The load of the CPU is around 2 to 5% when iddle.

No spike of temperature, my only problem is that the game is really CPU hungry and i was worried because it never happen with other games.

Will try to edit the .ini file.

also tried to move all physx effects to the GPU in the nvidia control panel without showing results.

I think this is the way the game use with best effectivness the power of the CPU : My guess

[tonypa]

Originally posted by Wallatom:

No spike of temperature, my only problem is that the game is really CPU hungry and i was worried because it never happen with other games.

Games are different. Some games hardly use CPU at all while others rely heavily on it. TW3 wants to use CPU as much as possible. i5 series are kind of minimum for this game.

Running 100% CPU is normal and will not damage it until temps are under control.

[MaximumEffort]

Originally posted by tonypa:

Originally posted by Wallatom:

No spike of temperature, my only problem is that the game is really CPU hungry and i was worried because it never happen with other games.

Games are different. Some games hardly use CPU at all while others rely heavily on it. TW3 wants to use CPU as much as possible. i5 series are kind of minimum for this game.

Running 100% CPU is normal and will not damage it until temps are under control.

I dont think you can run this on i3, though I might be wrong. Maybe a K version can do it.

But OPs i5 should be more than enough, at least for his GPU.

As longaa he doesnt experience visual stuttering there is nothing to concern about as the CPU is simply spiking across its cores and most apps will simply give you a 100% CPU use even though its not the cass.

Also a lot depends on what your are running in the background as some programms can cause quite a stress on the CPU when run with a CPU heavy game like W3

[Wallatom]

Ok thx guys, as i said, this is the game want to use the CPU. With some FPS drops ( not so often). Maybe the fact that i use max video settings ( and nvidia hairwork) is the answer to this pbm.

[Zveihandre]

Ive just bought a gtx 1060 6gb and my cpu usage suddenly goes to 90% while playing witcher 3
I know there's something wrong because before the gtx, i had been using rx 470 and cpu usage was around 35%
Does anybody know what is the problem here?

[jbscotchman]

If your CPU usage is that high it's not the game. You must have some application running in the background that's taking up your CPU's speed.