Fallout 4 low CPU+GPU usage.

[OnlyNeedJuan]

When entering the city, or highly populated areas, my FPS tanks. From 40-60fps (already fairly unstable) to 20-30fps.

Both GPU and CPU usage is rather low. CPU usage is about 40-50% on the first core, and 30-35 on all other cores.
GPU usage sits between 40-60%.

Rig:
6700k 4.4GHz
GTX1080
4x8GB (2933MHz)
Storage: Samsung 850 Evo SSD

I've tried using the ini to edit the cell buffers (interior = 12, exterior = 144), set the number of threads the game should use to 8 and unparked all my cores.

Whether I run modded graphics or not only affects my GPU usage (rises ever so slightly if not using an ENB, but is so insignificant i doubt its the source of my issues).

[Pizza Basil]

What shadows do you have medium, high, or ultra?

[OnlyNeedJuan]

Tried both medium, high and ultra, FPS seems to differ minimally, and CPU/GPU usage doesn't change whatsoever.

Someone said a long time ago my ram was too slow, which I doubt is an issue that is THAT significant (I've seen people run the game better with slower ram), and I've also fixed the standby Memory issue Windows 10 has (which doesn't seem to be an issue, RAM usage isn't particularly high to begin with).

[Ħans Wurst]

Try meduim shadow Distance. I even set volumetric lightning to 0 in cfg.
Nice look, high fps, high usage

[OnlyNeedJuan]

I get the low usage regardless of shadow setting (in fact, it's higher on higher shadow settings), but volumetric fog, I doubt that's the issue as I get lag without fog being present as well. I'll give it a shot.

I'm not sure what you mean with cfg though, are you referring to the ini files?

[Ħans Wurst]

Originally posted by LSG OnlyNeedJuan:

I get the low usage regardless of shadow setting (in fact, it's higher on higher shadow settings), but volumetric fog, I doubt that's the issue as I get lag without fog being present as well. I'll give it a shot.

I'm not sure what you mean with cfg though, are you referring to the ini files?

Jep. I changed the ini files, cause there is not rly an Option in settings menu

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Restart the PC and try playing right after the PC finishes booting up (this may be a sleep or core parking issue I had early with Fallout 4)

Try Fullscreen or Borderless windowed. See if one or the other helps.

Reduce settings to see if there's any change.

[hawkeye]

Those cpu and gpu usage figures are normal.
There is an fps fix mod that helps boost fps.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Those cpu and gpu usage figures are normal.
There is an fps fix mod that helps boost fps.

The figures are, but the FPS are not. A 6700k and 1080 should be getting 60FPS everywhere except a handful of locations, usually associated with dense urban sprawl.

I run better on a 6600k 970 with slow as ♥♥♥♥ ram

[Jonny Sparta]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Those cpu and gpu usage figures are normal.
There is an fps fix mod that helps boost fps.

not sure which one hawkeye is referring to here but yea, I get similar usage on my setup as well, amd 8core, 1070.

mods im using to improve performance
unofficial patch
insignifigant object remover
the vivid fallout textures
optimized vanilla textures
boston fps fix

and a bunch of ini tweaks, if you looks around and put the effort in you can get some pretty good results. One really good ini tweak you probablly won't find out there is the
[TerrainManager] section in fallout4prefs.ini. This section deals with render distances which are pretty insane out of the box and a big contributor to engine draw calls and fps drops. You can cut the default values in half or more.

[hawkeye]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Those cpu and gpu usage figures are normal.
There is an fps fix mod that helps boost fps.

The figures are, but the FPS are not. A 6700k and 1080 should be getting 60FPS everywhere except a handful of locations, usually associated with dense urban sprawl.

I run better on a 6600k 970 with slow as ♥♥♥♥ ram

I have i7 2600, 6700k and 8700k with 970, 1080ti gpus with faster ssd's and ithey all perform the same way.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26286
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2208/

edit -

there is a detailed graphics settong guide on the nvidia website

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Why do I run better then? The thing is, I know hardware only gets you so far in Fallout 4, but unless you guys are running high FOV on supermax settings, you shouldn't be hitting those kinds of performances.

I used to have an issue where system utlization was very low and FPS suffered, but it was a Sleep setting/core parking error in Windows 10. For some reason Windows would think that the system was going idle during gameplay and power-throttle all hardware. Manually overriding the power save settings resolved this and I haven't seen it since.

The fastest way to check if that's the issue is to restart your PC and load up Fallout 4 quickly and run a little bench to see if your performance is inexplicably higher than you expect, as the OS wouldn't have attempted to sleep-idle the PC, but it might also depend on what power plan you're using (If your PC attempts to low-power after only like 5minutes for example).

[Gordon Freeman]

OP should not have to tweak any ini or add mods to get near 60fps everywhere . Some thing isn't setup right or holding the performance back .

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Top of steam > help button > system information. Copy and paste log here please

[Ez Duzit]

Curious what your resolution is? Also what your monitors freq response is (60 hz or 144hz) since the game doesn't like the high freq monitors.

And have you tried going into the nvidia control panel - 3D settings- and changing vsync from "Use the 3D application setting" to Adaptive. It sometimes solves weird fps issues on a 60 hz monitor but if it's a 144hz monitor, you might have to lower the monitors freq responce.

[OnlyNeedJuan]

Wow, awesome response so far, im gonna go test those FPS fixes out for the city (where the largest drops happen). I'm gonna have to start merging more files though (stupid 255 active file limit)

I do have a 144Hz monitor, however I have the game locked the game to 60fps manually, I'll see if changing those settings work.

Here is my system info
Computer Information:
Manufacturer: MSI
Model: MS-7971
Form Factor: Desktop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz*
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x5e
CPU Stepping: 0x3
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 4008 Mhz
8 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 24.21.13.9793
DirectX Driver Version: 24.21.13.9793
Driver Date: 5 22 2018
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 143 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1b80
Revision: 0xa1
Number of Monitors: 2
Number of Logical Video Cards: 2
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 3840 x 1107
Primary Display Size: 20.91" x 11.73" (23.94" diag)
53.1cm x 29.8cm (60.8cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 8191 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (3- Sennheiser 3D G4ME

Memory:
RAM: 32733 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Media Type: Undetermined
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 4498965 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 1372132 Mb
OS Install Date: Jan 01 1970
Game Controller: None detected
VR Headset: None detected

*CPU is clocked at 4.4GHz on all cores, not sure why Steam doesn't see this.