Strange CPU usage and low GPU usage resulting in low FPS.

[supergame]

Im experiencing issue with my hardware while playing this game. i have low FPS in populated areas, such as Rattay. My FPS goes as low as 30 fps sometimes, even though my GPU usage is 50% at best, but most of the time, its around 30-45%. General CPU usage is around 25%

Regarding the CPU, I have Ryzen 5900x, this is how the usage of the CPU looks while playing KCD: https://imgur.com/a/8369V62
You can see that one of the threads is being used to basically 100%, while others are not even close in terms of usage. I suspect this is bottlenecking my GPU. I already turned the core affinity off in the task manager, so the game should use as much cores as it wants.

My specs are: Ryzen 9 5900x
RTX 4090
32 GB RAM, kcd usually consumes around 12 GB for me.
I play on 1440p, 165Hz monitor

These FPS are on Ultra Settings, When I tried medium and high preset, the FPS went up to playable state, but the core usage and the usage of the GPU stayed pretty much the same.

[Bandy]

Originally posted by supergame:

... You can see that one of the threads is being used to basically 100%, while others are not even close in terms of usage. I suspect this is bottlenecking my GPU. I already turned the core affinity off in the task manager, so the game should use as much cores as it wants. ...

Thanks for not making people ask for sys specs o7

Most games still do not take advantage of all those wonderful expensive cores that chip marketing and gamer hype make you think you need.

Most games (I play at least) are not AAA titles so do not have the optimization that big budgets can spend on doing this. Here is a thread that may be relevant, and search for "KCD multithreading" for others: https://steamcommunity.com/app/379430/discussions/0/1642038749313984829/

Search for user.cfg file on this forum and other sites, there are several optimizations that can be done outside of the game.

[supergame]

Originally posted by Bandy:

Originally posted by supergame:

... You can see that one of the threads is being used to basically 100%, while others are not even close in terms of usage. I suspect this is bottlenecking my GPU. I already turned the core affinity off in the task manager, so the game should use as much cores as it wants. ...

Thanks for not making people ask for sys specs o7

Most games still do not take advantage of all those wonderful expensive cores that chip marketing and gamer hype make you think you need.

Most games (I play at least) are not AAA titles so do not have the optimization that big budgets can spend on doing this. Here is a thread that may be relevant, and search for "KCD multithreading" for others: https://steamcommunity.com/app/379430/discussions/0/1642038749313984829/

Search for user.cfg file on this forum and other sites, there are several optimizations that can be done outside of the game.

Thank you, I heard about the config options, but I also saw lot of people saying that it didnt work for them. Basically it seems that my CPU doesnt have strong enough single thread performance to deal with poorly optimised game like KCD right?


And another question. Do you think that this 5900x will be able to support 4090 for best possible usage in KCD2? Im little bit worried now seeing that in KCD1 it doesnt do that great, and also warhorse is saying that 7800X3D cpu will be needed for high on 2K resolution.

[Bandy]

I stopped paying attention to latest and greatest hardware marketing a while ago, hope somebody else can assist.

KCD was the most miserable game I ever tweaked to squeeze performance out of it. Overclocking of course boosts the whole CPU so it helped me, and the user.cfg tweaks seemed to work though admit it could just be placebo (as some maintain) since the game's performance is all over the f-place just turning the corner in Rattay, so how can you even tell?

It is a beautiful and interesting game, one of my favs, yet stuffed full of jank.
Good luck.

[supergame]

Originally posted by Bandy:

I stopped paying attention to latest and greatest hardware marketing a while ago, hope somebody else can assist.

KCD was the most miserable game I ever tweaked to squeeze performance out of it. Overclocking of course boosts the whole CPU so it helped me, and the user.cfg tweaks seemed to work though admit it could just be placebo (as some maintain) since the game's performance is all over the f-place just turning the corner in Rattay, so how can you even tell?

It is a beautiful and interesting game, one of my favs, yet stuffed full of jank.
Good luck.

Yeah I agree, since its a game from my homeland, I really love it, but I was able to play SW outlaws on ultra, with this specs with 100+fps. Seeing KCD really struggling on still pretty decent CPU is sad.

[Apocalypse]

I am anything but an expert on the subject, but when buying a new pc this year I did some research on the whole bottlenecking between cpu and gpu issue.
And it seems that your cpu is mostly working for the amount of frames while your gpu has to work for how much is needed for each frame to fill it.
So you can actually, if you are willing to, shift the workload between the two to a degree by changing your resolution.

If I am switching them up I apologize, but the conclusion still stands lol

[Bandy]

Originally posted by Apocalypse:

I am anything but an expert on the subject, but when buying a new pc this year I did some research on the whole bottlenecking between cpu and gpu issue...

I know enough to be dangerous myself, but hey, it's steam forum...

That is the 'onion skin' but need to peel the layers to get at deeper hardware insights, e.g. some games are CPU bound (those with a lot of NPC routines and threads to match) and others more GPU bound (lighting, particle effects etc...), so difficult to apply overall understanding when it depends on the application as well as the other components, games running on separate SSD from OS for example.

[TheyCallMeDende]

Not sure if your still playing this game but lowering the shadow quality down to medium actually fixed my low gpu usage in populated areas. I don't know why lowering the quality fixed the problem but it did.

[supergame]

Originally posted by TheyCallMeDende:

Not sure if your still playing this game but lowering the shadow quality down to medium actually fixed my low gpu usage in populated areas. I don't know why lowering the quality fixed the problem but it did.

I already play the KCD2 and the game is fantastic in terms of optimization. But thank you anyway.

[Soldier of the Silence]

the graphics and optimitzation of this game is from 2018 so thats the result

[supergame]

Originally posted by spiderman:

the graphics and optimitzation of this game is from 2018 so thats the result

what do you mean? the graphics of kcd2 looks absolutely amazing

[Soldier of the Silence]

Originally posted by supergame:

Originally posted by spiderman:

the graphics and optimitzation of this game is from 2018 so thats the result

what do you mean? the graphics of kcd2 looks absolutely amazing

bro you need to open your mind bro

[Soldier of the Silence]

Originally posted by supergame:

Originally posted by spiderman:

the graphics and optimitzation of this game is from 2018 so thats the result

what do you mean? the graphics of kcd2 looks absolutely amazing

No the 2 yes, the one I mean bro, we are at formum of KCD one bro

[supergame]

Originally posted by spiderman:

Originally posted by supergame:

what do you mean? the graphics of kcd2 looks absolutely amazing

No the 2 yes, the one I mean bro, we are at formum of KCD one bro

yes sorry, I missunderstood :)

[ponyeater]

I had this!
For me it was my amd settings. Try using default settings and only adjust fan speed if needed... :) This has me at 144 frames on Ultra- no blur. Amd 5700xt Ryzen 5 3600.
(okay I checked again, I sit in game around 70-90 fps. cut scenes are 70-144)

[joridiculous]

4090 here too. (intel i7 13700)
I play in 4k (ultra), 120 fps. But do get some crazy drops in certain areas as low as 30 fps. Not noticed any in the cities, but one battle (in a village in the woods). Mind the same area dropped a lot of fps before battle too.

Haven't monitored any hardware so cant say if cpu is hammered or not.