Low GPU and(!) CPU usage, bad performance, please help!

[thecatwithahat]

Hello everyone!

I decided to start this topic because I just dont know whats wrong and what I can do. Ive been playing FC5 with a good friend of mine for around 25 hours now and I am getting bad performance across the board.

Here is my spec:

Intel i7 7700 (non k)
GTX 1080
16GB RAM
game installed on SSD
Latest video drivers.

I am running this game on Ultra settings, resolution is 1920x1080, resolution scale is 1, V-sync and framerate lock is turned off, FOV is at 90.

My problem is, my game does not want to use my PCs power and it results in bad FPS. Example: destroying a stationary roadblock while being stationary myself, that starts a fire, the fire on the road drops my fps to 43fps, meanwhile my GPU is at 55% load, my CPU at around 60-65%

Now, i know a bit about games and computers, playing without v-sync should max out either the gpu or the cpu, one or the other will always be the bottleneck. To confirm that, I started up another ubisoft game I have installed, The Division, here is the result

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1443022656

I ran a bit around with game settings maxed out, running with v-sync and framelock turned off and either my CPU or GPU will hit full load, as it should be, the game utilizes all the power it can and gives me good FPS

Then I started up Far Cry 5 and I get this

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1443040523

As you see, there is not even much happening on the screen and the fps already dropped all the way to 50s, meanwhile neither GPU or CPU are maxed out.

Please, fellow gamers, I need your help, what could be causing this? What can I do to solve this problem? Has any of you had a similar problem with this game or maybe some other game, how did you solve it?

P.S. Sorry for the long rant.

[EternallyHers]

I had a similar problem like that before. My gf is hosting our playthrough, and the frame rate was pretty bad. I turned off the steam overlay for in game and it got better but not great.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by EternallyHers:

I had a similar problem like that before. My gf is hosting our playthrough, and the frame rate was pretty bad. I turned off the steam overlay for in game and it got better but not great.

Thanks for your reply, sorry to hear you did not find any real solution :(

[EternallyHers]

Yeah, not a problem. It's almost like things on Ubisofts end needs some serious work to get this game running better. When I'm in a place I've liberated it's 95fps, my 1070 is running 90% usage mark. In the wilderness it's 70-75fps with the usage bouncing inbetween 70-80%, and at places I need to liberate it's a constant 55fps with the gpu dropping as low as 60% usage. My i7 4790k has all 8 threads at 40-60% on average and a couple threads will go up to 75% when liberating outposts. So it's not a cpu or gpu problem.

If Ubisoft doesn't start fixing issues like this I'm going to just stop buying there video games period. Shame since I've really been enjoying FC5 but there's nothing I can do.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by EternallyHers:

Yeah, not a problem. It's almost like things on Ubisofts end needs some serious work to get this game running better. When I'm in a place I've liberated it's 95fps, my 1070 is running 90% usage mark. In the wilderness it's 70-75fps with the usage bouncing inbetween 70-80%, and at places I need to liberate it's a constant 55fps with the gpu dropping as low as 60% usage. My i7 4790k has all 8 threads at 40-60% on average and a couple threads will go up to 75% when liberating outposts. So it's not a cpu or gpu problem.

If Ubisoft doesn't start fixing issues like this I'm going to just stop buying there video games period. Shame since I've really been enjoying FC5 but there's nothing I can do.

I cant even get results that good on my machine, here is a screenshot I took earlier today at Falls End, I climbed the water tower there and just stood still looking over the town. not turning the camera, not moving an inch, just looking down on it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1443250113

The fps averaged around 57-59, with v-sync and framelock OFF! Look at the usage of both gpu and cpu! Its hardly hitting half of it, I dont know what gives, but something is definently wrong.

[FeilDOW]

It's CPU limitation since Far Cry 5 doesn't use more than 4 cores so it will not pin your CPU at 100% before dropping GPU usage. My 8700k@5.2 limits my 1080 ti at 1080p, but it runs at about 60-80% load but I can run 4k ultra settings with dips to 55fps

Use the res scale to up the resolution till you get full utilization of your GPU and you will have smoother gameplay, around 1440p should run well for you. You can also use DSR in nvidia control panel to set your res at 1440p to try it out.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by FeilDOW:

It's CPU limitation since Far Cry 5 doesn't use more than 4 cores so it will not pin your CPU at 100% before dropping GPU usage. My 8700k@5.2 limits my 1080 ti at 1080p, but it runs at about 60-80% load but I can run 4k ultra settings with dips to 55fps

Use the res scale to up the resolution till you get full utilization of your GPU and you will have smoother gameplay, around 1440p should run well for you. You can also use DSR in nvidia control panel to set your res at 1440p to try it out.

how can it be a cpu bottleneck at 50% load? I mean, I saw it used more during the game at times, up to 80% max I believe, I mean, please take a look at my latest screenshot both gpu and cpu are sitting at half or even less load and the fps is subpar for my system, i am stationary, not moving around the map,, so there should be very little data streaming going on, but even then, it runs of an SSD. I just tested COD MW Remastered with maxed settings, the fps was up to 120, GPU usage at 99-97% at all times, cpu only 50%, thats how it should be, but not this game.

[FeilDOW]

You can't compare different games that run on different engines. I explained why you don't see 100% usage in my first sentence. The games engine will not use hyper threading so you will see only 60-75% usage before your GPU usage takes a dive. Your CPU is locked and the 4790k that the other guy has is likely OC'ed so it will be a stronger CPU than the 7700.

If you want smooth gameplay with full utilization of your GPU up the resolution or deal with the 1080p limitations.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by FeilDOW:

You can't compare different games that run on different engines. I explained why you don't see 100% usage in my first sentence. The games engine will not use hyper threading so you will see only 60-75% usage before your GPU usage takes a dive. Your CPU is locked and the 4790k that the other guy has is likely OC'ed so it will be a stronger CPU than the 7700.

If you want smooth gameplay with full utilization of your GPU up the resolution or deal with the 1080p limitations.

You are missing my last point, check the screenshot I posted, we are not even talking about 60-75% usage! Highest it shows is 59% on one single core and the lowest being 34% on another, the average load is 47%! Thats not even half. Please dont tell me the cpu is bottelenecked at 50% load, that does not make any sense. Ive seen CPU usage up to 80%, GPU up to 70% and the FPS was indeed higher too. If it is indeed a CPU bottleneck as you claim, should it not reach it and just sit there? Should not GPU usage go up when CPU load decreases because the bottleneck is temporarely gone? Why do they both go down and decrease the performance?

[FeilDOW]

Originally posted by thecatwithahat:

Originally posted by FeilDOW:

You can't compare different games that run on different engines. I explained why you don't see 100% usage in my first sentence. The games engine will not use hyper threading so you will see only 60-75% usage before your GPU usage takes a dive. Your CPU is locked and the 4790k that the other guy has is likely OC'ed so it will be a stronger CPU than the 7700.

If you want smooth gameplay with full utilization of your GPU up the resolution or deal with the 1080p limitations.

You are missing my last point, check the screenshot I posted, we are not even talking about 60-75% usage! Highest it shows is 59% on one single core and the lowest being 34% on another, the average load is 47%! Thats not even half. Please dont tell me the cpu is bottelenecked at 50% load, that does not make any sense. Ive seen CPU usage up to 80%, GPU up to 70% and the FPS was indeed higher too. If it is indeed a CPU bottleneck as you claim, should it not reach it and just sit there? Should not GPU usage go up when CPU load decreases because the bottleneck is temporarely gone? Why do they both go down and decrease the performance?

Again the engine will only use 4 cores and the game isn't the only thing using your CPU because windows and other programs are running as well. Stop looking at CPU usage and try to get the GPU usage up, this will be achieved by a higher resolution. Try it or deal with 1080p limitations like I said, it's up to you.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by FeilDOW:

Originally posted by thecatwithahat:

You are missing my last point, check the screenshot I posted, we are not even talking about 60-75% usage! Highest it shows is 59% on one single core and the lowest being 34% on another, the average load is 47%! Thats not even half. Please dont tell me the cpu is bottelenecked at 50% load, that does not make any sense. Ive seen CPU usage up to 80%, GPU up to 70% and the FPS was indeed higher too. If it is indeed a CPU bottleneck as you claim, should it not reach it and just sit there? Should not GPU usage go up when CPU load decreases because the bottleneck is temporarely gone? Why do they both go down and decrease the performance?

Again the engine will only use 4 cores and the game isn't the only thing using your CPU because windows and other programs are running as well. Stop looking at CPU usage and try to get the GPU usage up this will be achieved by a higher resolution. Try it or deal with 1080p limitations like I said, it's up to you.

Why would I up the resolution when I cant even hit stable 60 fps? Because yes, for majority of those 25 hours i played with v-sync and had drops all the way to 38 fps. Check the title of my thread:"bad performance", I am looking for a solution to that above all less, its just, <50% gpu and cpu usage paired with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ fps made me wonder, if thats the source of my headache.

[Sashi]

CPU can be on "max load" with 50% due to core/thread usage. Thats not hard to understand, except for you

OC your CPU.

In addition to that:

You are asking for help, you are recieving some advices (DSR, Scaling) but you won't try it.

People like you are super annoying.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by Sashi:

CPU can be on "max load" with 50% due to core/thread usage. Thats not hard to understand, except for you

Indeed it is hard to grasp, in this game Ive seen the CPU and GPU usage go up at the same time, which then resulted in FPS increase, so I have to assume the cpu was bottlenecked at 50%, but then magically goes to 80% with significant performance improvement? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No need to right it off on background tasks either, there were like 5-7 of those at 0,1% load and the rest at 0, same as always.

[FeilDOW]

1080p
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1427103679

1080p sli
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1427115643

1440p
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1427103679

You see no difference from 1080p with a single 1080 ti to sli that means I'm limited with 1.

See the little difference in lows from 1080p to 1440p with close averages this is a limitation at 1080p.

It takes 2 min to try it out on your rig and see what happens.

[thecatwithahat]

Originally posted by Sashi:

CPU can be on "max load" with 50% due to core/thread usage. Thats not hard to understand, except for you

OC your CPU.

In addition to that:

You are asking for help, you are recieving some advices (DSR, Scaling) but you won't try it.

People like you are super annoying.

I am reinstalling the game as it was suggested on reddit, I did a clean reinstall of my drivers, it takes time, but before all that I did try scaling, the dips did not go away, even if it seemed better at first thanks to placebo, its a non-k i7 version, it cant really be overclocked.

[RedIndianRobin]

Uninstall your current graphics drivers with DDU and try something of an older version.