Any ways to increase performance for low-end CPU?

[TheMystic6]

Hello, I was just wondering if theres any easy ways I can boost my performance in ark.. I have a CPU bottleneck (pretty bad) its an AMD athlon x4 845 @3.5GHz ... i have it paired with a 1060 6gb, which is obviously too powerful for this cpu..

The GPU has no problem, i get easy 55+ FPS on high-epic settings, but as soon as dinos start to spawn in or i get out of playersonly, the CPU has to start working, and if theres a lot of dinos around, I instantly drop to about 30fps or less... I'm playing singleplayer, which probably doesnt help, but..

I plan to upgrade my CPU as soon as possible, but dont have the cash right now, and I cant just swap out my cpu, since i would like to get an intel processor but my mobo wont support LGA 1151.. so thats a hefty chunk of cash before i can upgrade.

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas? The main things that cause lag are large amounts of dinos in small areas, and large structures, but mainly dinos. I've tried the tag -USEALLAVAILABLECORES, but someone told me that it just caused more issues and it was outdated.. Also, I know if i just turn down dino spawns that could help, but I'd rather not.

Thanks

[Sam Of Haywood]

I run my game in extreme slow memory with all sliders set to 0 or low, except view distance which is set to med, and my potato running a 6570 can run it just fine ;p looks like ark was made for a n64 but hey better then not being able to play

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by Sam of Haywood:

I run my game in extreme slow memory with all sliders set to 0 or low, except view distance which is set to med, and my potato running a 6570 can run it just fine ;p looks like ark was made for a n64 but hey better then not being able to play

LOL.. yea I could do that too but I'd rather keep some quality in the game, and my main issue is the CPU, and not many settings really affect the CPU that much because my GPU does all the work for that stuff.. I was just wondering if there was like something I could add to make ark less CPU intensive, but if not, oh well, ill just wait til i can upgrade.

[WizeKrack]

Unfortunately most cpus do that. It’s a big part of why being at your base yields big frame rate dips. Isn’t a cpu around that doesn’t hurt from a base with 200+ dinos. Unfortunately I don’t think there is much you can do.

[Kameraden]

-sm4 will revert the game's lighting/shading to a lower quality than what exist in game. It provides a huge FPS boost, but the game doesn't look as colorful, when it's light out it's darker when it's dark it's also lighter out so the lighting extremes are not so different. lol

[Crode]

I have one of the old i7 cpu paired with a 1060 also. turning off the ground clutter and the sky stuff helped a lot, the rest you can adjust as you need.

[builder680]

Reduce wild dino count (less scripts running).

[Plague]

cook your potato at 147 degrees

[ACuteGhost]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IS7E--y0vk

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by Silky Rough:

How much RAM do you have? If more than ~16, try setting up Ark Server Manager as a "dedicated" server backend for your single player game (which is actually client and server, not SP anyway). It might make better use of your cores as 2 seperate processes and help the CPU out a bit until you can upgrade.

I set mine up again last night for old times sake and was surprised how well my i5/6600 performed with 3 LAN players. Server is on an SSD, game on HDD, 32Gb RAM, very high fps on high/epic and zero lag. (Albeit only small base and 20 or so dinos so far)

I'd also consider getting rid of mods if you're less than 16Gb RAM. Half the lag may be from shunting too many assets to/from RAM <> HDD which also kills CPU cycles during read/write.

I have 16gb ram with just a few small quality of life mods, and i use a tool to check the usage of all of my components, the ram is always less than 30%

[Acandri]

there is only one thing you could do to get more power out of this old CPU: overclocking.

but those results will be minimal due to the low IPC (instructions per cycel) of the old CPU.

there is something fishy if only 30% of the 16gb are used. normaly ARK uses 8-12gb RAM depending on settings and mods.
could it be that you are running with the "low memory"-preset or the command -lowmemory?



PS
for a upgrade a R5 1600(X) or I5-8600K are a good idea.
the I5-8600K is a little stronger but also more expensive.

with more money you could go to a R7 1700(X) or I7-8700K.
same here: the I7 is a little stronger but way more expensive.

such a modern CPU also demands a modern mainboard and modern DDR4-RAM (go with at least with 16gb 3000MHz RAM!).

but thats more fitting for a hardweare-forum.

[TheMystic6]

nope not running on low memory, but maybe its lower cuz when i check it the game is actually paused.. and WOW, those cpus are a bit expensive, i was looking for something under $200, since I will have to find a good mobo too.. I want an intel processor, not a huge fan of AMD after what I've owned and seen with their performance. Also, the CPU i have is locked, it cannot be overclocked.

Anyway, what is a good processor that will run this game well and isnt too expensive, as well as a motherboard that will fit the processor.. I was thinking something like an i5 6600k, or is this too weak? Also, keep in consideration that I want something that isnt too powerful for my 1060 6gb, but maybe powerful enough so that if I ever want to upgrade to a 1070/1080 that it wont bottleneck..

[Acandri]

everything from Intel below 200 bucks is outperformed by AMD CPU´s.

only the new 8th gen of Intel CPU´s are currently able to beat AMD CPU´s for a higher price, more power draw and more heat genaration then the AMD counterparts....

but in the end it is up to you.

just be smart enough to ask for advice on a hardware forum like PCGH, Computerbase or Tomshardware to avoid bad/expensive choices.