Low FPS, Low CPU & GPU Usage

[smgunsftw]

I’ve been experiencing terribly low FPS while playing the single player campaign, most smaller missions average about 60 FPS, while larger missions like the first Finland mission drops me down to 15FPS when a lot of enemy units spawn on the field, making the game an unplayable, stuttery mess.

However, task manager reports that only ~40% of my GPU and ~25% of my CPU is being used in these large battles, with about 5GB of RAM being used as well.

Are there any tweaks I can make to increase performance or increase hardware resource utilization? I’ve tried turning all of my video settings to low, but it does not make a difference in performance. I've also made sure that the game is running on my dedicated GPU, not the integrated one.

Is this related to the poor performance and poor hardware optimisation of the recycled MoWAS2 GEM engine?

I’m really enjoying the game so far, but the subpar performance for a game released in 2022 is both disappointing and limits my gameplay experience.

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 6800H
GPU: 3070Ti
RAM: 32GB DDR5

[Sunbeam]

Originally posted by smgunsftw:

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 6800H
GPU: 3070Ti
RAM: 32GB DDR5

Assuming it's laptop make sure game runs on 3070ti and not integrated AMD video and your drivers are up to date and not overridden by Windows
You should be getting better performance.

[smgunsftw]

Originally posted by Sunbeam:

Originally posted by smgunsftw:

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 6800H
GPU: 3070Ti
RAM: 32GB DDR5

Assuming it's laptop make sure game runs on 3070ti and not integrated AMD video and your drivers are up to date and not overridden by Windows
You should be getting better performance.

Yes it's a gaming laptop, and yes, the game is running on the 3070Ti, this is confirmed by Windows Task Manager, and I have the 3070Ti selected in the game's video settings.

Do you have any other recommendations or suggestions? I have the same issues when playing on my Desktop PC as well, with low CPU and low GPU usage.

[Sunbeam]

You can try to delete shader cache folder in
C:\Users\ (your name) \Documents\my games\gates of hell
Or
C:\Users\ (your name) \AppData\Local\digitalmindsoft\gates of hell

If you have any 3rd party overlays try to disable them

I run it on weaker laptop with 4800h/1660ti in 2k resolution and have decent performance with Shadows set to High, SMAAx2 / FXAA off and everything else maxed out

[smgunsftw]

Originally posted by Sunbeam:

You can try to delete shader cache folder in
C:\Users\ (your name) \Documents\my games\gates of hell
Or
C:\Users\ (your name) \AppData\Local\digitalmindsoft\gates of hell

If you have any 3rd party overlays try to disable them

I run it on weaker laptop with 4800h/1660ti in 2k resolution and have decent performance with Shadows set to High, SMAAx2 / FXAA off and everything else maxed out

Wow, deleting the shader cache definitely improved my performance. It's averaging around 45FPS now on bigger missions, however, the low CPU and GPU utilisation remains unfixed, both numbers are about the same as before. I assume it's an engine optimisation issue?

[Sunbeam]

Originally posted by smgunsftw:

Wow, deleting the shader cache definitely improved my performance. It's averaging around 45FPS now on bigger missions, however, the low CPU and GPU utilisation remains unfixed, both numbers are about the same as before. I assume it's an engine optimisation issue?

Yes, unfortunately engine doesn't max out all cores,
Some laptops also have "quiet/cool" mode that limits clock boosting for CPU unless switched to normal or performance which will improve it further

[Saxhorn]

The engine doesn't appear to have been optimised for multi-threading so most of your cores sit and do next to nothing.

It appears to me that the application runs a single thread only and the Windows OS just bounces that single thread around the various cores on your CPU.

The sound effects might use a separate thread but overall having more cores appears to do nothing to improve performance.

[Angrysquirrel]

22 fps for me on low or medium settings even after clearing shader cache on 12th gen i3 with 16gb ddr4 and vega 56. How do people play the game like this?

[Sunbeam]

Originally posted by Angrysquirrel:

22 fps for me on low or medium settings even after clearing shader cache on 12th gen i3 with 16gb ddr4 and vega 56. How do people play the game like this?

Make sure game uses Vega GPU and not i3 GPU core

[Ronin]

Originally posted by Angrysquirrel:

22 fps for me on low or medium settings even after clearing shader cache on 12th gen i3 with 16gb ddr4 and vega 56. How do people play the game like this?

20-30 FPS for me on 2080s, 3700x, 32GB RAM.

Devs really released a mod for a mod and then charged DLC for a DLC but haven't bothered to optimise their game for large battles. Devs should be ashamed for allowing such low performance standards in their overly expensive game

[smgunsftw]

Originally posted by Angrysquirrel:

22 fps for me on low or medium settings even after clearing shader cache on 12th gen i3 with 16gb ddr4 and vega 56. How do people play the game like this?

I've noticed that 16GB is woefully inadequate for this game, especially playing on high textures. The game averages around 22GB of RAM usage in MSI Afterburner when playing the dynamic campaign battles. Might be time to upgrade to 32GB or 64GB, or play with lower settings/textures.

[Urk_da_WAAAGH!]

I have no idea what y'all are talking about, i5-7400, GTX 1660, 16gb and it runs smooth on large battles with lost of units.

I guess people are just too lazy to stop running 3000 programs on the background

[recluse]

Maybe consider giving this a whirl,
https://steamcommunity.com/app/400750/discussions/0/3818543707185889480/
Best of luck to you.

[smgunsftw]

Originally posted by Urk_da_WAAAGH!:

I have no idea what y'all are talking about, i5-7400, GTX 1660, 16gb and it runs smooth on large battles with lost of units.

I guess people are just too lazy to stop running 3000 programs on the background

Try playing the game with MSI Afterburner or Task Manager open, how many GBs does it use on your system?