Game not using all of my GPU, causing huge fps drops.

[fotmhero]

Hello,

So, my game only uses around 40 to 50% of my GPU at all times, which is causing huge fps drops depending on the area i'm in. I have a pretty decent computer (GTX 1080Ti, i7 7700k, 32Go of RAM)

If i'm in a dungeon, i'll usually be at around 140-150fps, but when i'm in some bigger areas outside, the framerate will drop ALOT.

Here's a screenshot I took to give an example, look on the top left: https://i.imgur.com/qWu77Lk.jpg

As you can see, the game is only using 39% of my GPU, which causes the framerate to drop in the 50s, while it could be 60% higher if my GPU was fully used. I have a 165hz monitor so those drops are super noticeable.

Edit: Okay, even more weird, the GPU usage seems to randomly drop in open areas, when I look on the ground at the exact same spot, the GPU usage goes up and so does my framerate: https://i.imgur.com/4EpCPL7.jpg


Is this normal? Does anyone have a solution to this problem? This is the only game that does that, never had that issue in other games.



Thanks!

[raystevens73]

Originally posted by SadPandaa:

Originally posted by Fotmhero:

Tried most of the things suggested there, didn't change anything. :(

I don't think it's CPU related, I think it's the GPU usage in this particular game. :/

hey just a thought, add the core usage for all 8 threads on your overlay. It may only be using 2 cores or something like that because of game engine limitations. I hopped in here because I am about to start the game up tonight, I have a 7700k and a RTX 2060 so its about as comparable as you can get, I will try to remember to follow up what kinda framerate I am getting with cpu/gpu loads. Have you tried flipping from full screen and windowed?

In the config.ini file at the bottom there is a setting to change the amount of cores used. The way the config file displays it is 3 if you have 4 cores and 7 if you have 8 cores. Changing this number to 1, 4, 8, or other numbers in between has helped some with issues but the ones I have worked with trying to fix FPS rates that have Intel CPU's have tried this with no change.

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

Originally posted by Fotmhero:

Oh you're the special K dude! Thanks for all your works :)

So i'm guessing it's an issue with the game then. I won't underclock my GPU since all I wanted was to get a consistent framerate but thanks for clearing that up!

I'll be fine, game runs poorly only in very specific areas in the open world, not too big of a deal, and reducing the draw distance to Medium made me gain a good 25-30fps it's pretty okay now. :D

Yeah, it's a CPU issue. Not really an issue with your CPU so much as the game just using an excessive amount of CPU. It's never going to work well above 60 FPS everywhere in the game, there will be these wild swings in framerate and they're all CPU-side bottlenecks :-\

One person I worked with on this issue was looking for ram leaks and I was thinking it could be a bottleneck but it didn't seem likely that would be an issue with the newest CPU's and GPU's on the market. He gave up on it.

[SadPandaa]

So just installed it and started it up, maxed the settings and I am easily running it at 75 fps Gsync locked. 7700k around 30%, RTX 2060 around 40% usage. Not sure what your problem could be...

[raystevens73]

Originally posted by SadPandaa:

So just installed it and started it up, maxed the settings and I am easily running it at 75 fps Gsync locked. 7700k around 30%, RTX 2060 around 40% usage. Not sure what your problem could be...

The place to check will be outside of Gran Soren on the roads where pawns travel.

[Thorny]

I just stumbled across this thread looking for help on the GOG forums to no avail. My fps is only decent after playing for about a minute as if its loading chunks of data into memory. I get 60 fps most times, but outside of Gran Soren looking around now I get 50's compared to the 30's I used to get. The thing I changed was a line called job thread in the config.ini file in C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\CAPCOM\DRAGONS DOGMA DARK ARISEN to the value of 2 and its better now, but not perfect. I have a dual core i3 4130t. I also changed the priority to HIGH in task manager. This game really does push the CPU and wastes cycles it seems, but at least its more playable now.

[fotmhero]

I already tried screwing around with the config.ini, changed the jobthread line etc but nothing worked. It's just the game, it's fine..

Originally posted by SadPandaa:

So just installed it and started it up, maxed the settings and I am easily running it at 75 fps Gsync locked. 7700k around 30%, RTX 2060 around 40% usage. Not sure what your problem could be...

Oh my framerate is usually above 100fps, usually close to 150fps with everything maxed out at 1440p. I don't lock the framerate since I have a 165hz monitor and the max framerate you can get in the game is 150. Framerate (and GPU usage) really only drop on Gran Soren in big open areas, try checking your framerate where I took that screenshot in my post.

[SadPandaa]

I was outside when checking it, didnt matter what I looked at I was still barely using cpu/gpu and wouldnt dip below 75. Didn't check max fps with it unlocked but did see that it was using all 8 threads and barely any vram. Playing another game at the moment but I will try it again when I get a minute.

[ovtchina]

The thing that helped me with the same problem was to change the Windows power consumption policy from 'economy' to 'balanced' (or maybe even 'performance', but 'balanced' was enough for me). (Ryzen 5 2600X, 2060).