Is there any way to start this game in High Priority on Windows 10?

[AFreakinPlunger]

I assume it is common knowledge that this game does not score high in optimization. Nvidia says my GTX 970 should run everything on ultra and that just isn't practical because of very fluctuant and unreliable fps.

When I put this game on high priority though the task manager, I get a significant boost in performance and (more important in my book) a more consistent fps.

Is there a program or a way to always have this (and other unoptimized games) start in high priority or will I have to go through the task manager everytime? I keep looking but most of the solutions are for Windows 8 or older.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Windows 10 is always supposed to give a running application top priority. Also, the GTX970 and even the mighty 980TI will not run Fallout 4 on Ultra at 60FPS all the time. The Draw Calls for shadows in the city put too much latency on the compute time. The only real way to end this bottleneck is Async Compute, which is a whole can of worms Bethesda's programmers aren't prepared to deal with.

[AFreakinPlunger]

I understand it may be a lost cause but after tweaking (turning off Godrays and turning down shadow distance) I DO get 60fps after I set to high priority.

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Windows 10 is always supposed to give a running application top priority.

If this is the case then why do I notice a 5% increase in cpu performance when I set from normal priority to high? Is it sacrificing stability? If it makes no difference then why did they put that option there? I know they took out the "save priority" option.

My CPU is about 5 years old now but I don't think it is the problem: i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by AFreakinPlunger:

I understand it may be a lost cause but after tweaking (turning off Godrays and turning down shadow distance) I DO get 60fps after I set to high priority.

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Windows 10 is always supposed to give a running application top priority.

If this is the case then why do I notice a 5% increase in cpu performance when I set from normal priority to high? Is it sacrificing stability? If it makes no difference then why did they put that option there? I know they took out the "save priority" option.

My CPU is about 5 years old now but I don't think it is the problem: i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz.

Just because something 'should' work, doesn't mean it will, This is Windows we're talking about.

I think maybe I have this issue happen if I leave my PC idling for too long. I notice that games won't use all the hardware (CPU time, and GPU time) they normally do. But a restart always fixes it.

[AFreakinPlunger]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Just because something 'should' work, doesn't mean it will, This is Windows we're talking about.

I think maybe I have this issue happen if I leave my PC idling for too long. I notice that games won't use all the hardware (CPU time, and GPU time) they normally do. But a restart always fixes it.

Good point. Alright, I'll just keep going though the task manager for now.

[jason.washdc]

Originally posted by AFreakinPlunger:

I understand it may be a lost cause but after tweaking (turning off Godrays and turning down shadow distance) I DO get 60fps after I set to high priority.

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Windows 10 is always supposed to give a running application top priority.

If this is the case then why do I notice a 5% increase in cpu performance when I set from normal priority to high? Is it sacrificing stability? If it makes no difference then why did they put that option there? I know they took out the "save priority" option.

My CPU is about 5 years old now but I don't think it is the problem: i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz.

I think it is your CPU. You are just above minimum CPU and this game is more CPU dependant than most games. The shadow boost mod might help as it will dynamically reduce shadow distance based on framerate.

[AFreakinPlunger]

Oh wow! I didn't know my CPU was falling behind like that. I stopped checking minimum requirements a while ago. Interesting that games like Metal Gear Solid 5 run better even though it requires a higher cpu than what I have.

[ghoulrasmussen]

You can set it permanently to high priority with Bilagos Fallout4ConfigTool.

[bobczes]

Giving a process a higher priority won't make it go faster. Your programs will never use more CPU time than they need.

[Reaper]

It's your CPU. I've got a 970 and im running full ultra at almost 100 fps. The only thing thats on high is shadow distance. Everything else is maxed out and the only time i ever drop below 60 fps is in the city. Even then, the lowest I ever see it 45 fps which is barely noticeable.

[Bufo]

Originally posted by ghoulrasmussen:

You can set it permanently to high priority with Bilagos Fallout4ConfigTool.

+1

[AFreakinPlunger]

Originally posted by ghoulrasmussen:

You can set it permanently to high priority with Bilagos Fallout4ConfigTool.

This is great! Thanks! This helps with other anoyances too!

[bobczes]

It will make other services and programs slow down, Your cpu has only so much processing power. If you are multi tasking and you increase the priority on one program, it will affect the others.

As an example: if you change the priority of a game, the game may seem faster but it will affect your inputs such as keyboard and mouse (they need your cpu too) and actually slow down your gameplay.

All you've done is ensure that other processes than your game get smaller slices of cpu. As a result, the computer spends more time pre-empting tasks, refilling caches, and doing other housekeeping duties involved in enforcing the priority rules. Less CPU to go around means less performance.

Raising a task's priority to "make it go faster" is a mistake/myth. It doesn't work. All you've done is made the other tasks less efficient, causing them to need more cpu time to get their work done.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/327671-28-changing-process-priority

[d0x360]

Well lots of bad advice here...

Setting something to high priority will have some performance benefits. They might be imperceptible or they might give you a couple extra fps but there is a difference which is why the setting exists.

There are programs that you can use to automatically set it for you after its been launched which is helpful since some games don't like alt tab and that aside it's obnoxious to do it every single time.

I have a 6 core i7 running at 5ghz, 32 gigs of quad channel DDR4 and a GTX 1080 even I set games to high priority and sometimes see extra performance.

The reason is simple. At times windows has to decide whether to run a thread from the game or app x. If they all have the same priority app x has an equal chance to cpu time. If the game is set above normal or high windows will give it absolute priority and when you consider there are 100 things always running behind the scenes giving the one app you want priority helps. It helps even more in vulkan and dx12

[sdack]

Congrats on the one year old necro!

[MageThis]

Originally posted by sdack:

Congrats on the one year old necro!

With, at best, ancedotal observations signifying ziltch.