Why are so many newer games not optimized well these days?

[Merc]

I have an I74790 3.6ghz (4ghz) (non k) CPU and it hardly goes above 50% usage yet when I play games that users are reporting are CPU intensive, my CPU is never fully utilized? or is it a mixture of bad CPU design and bad game/ game engine design?

Cities Skylines is apprently CPU heavy yet my CPU doesn't go above 37% usage and the GPU is about 25% max yet the fps cant stay at 60fps on a 1080p monitor.

Same goes for another game, I find that the CPU doesn't go above 50% yet it is apprently very CPU heavy.

[Omega]

50% usage is good. That is good optimization the game is only using the resources it really needs. Get a better GPU to increase your FPS (and CPU usage).

[Merc]

I have an Asus GTX1070 8GB Dual, when I play squad some maps won't utilize the gpu but when they do I get over 80+ fps yet the CPU is still at 50%, it must be optimization issues with games, I am only learning this lately.

[Omega]

Originally posted by Mercenary:

I have an Asus GTX1070 8GB Dual, when I play squad some maps won't utilize the gpu but when they do I get over 80+ fps yet the CPU is still at 50%, it must be optimization issues with games, I am only learning this lately.

No. 50% CPU utilization is good. You will not get better FPS if it was utilizing the CPU for 100% you might actually get a lower FPS then because your CPU will be bottlenecking your GPU.

[Merc]

Could my CPU really bottle neck my 1070? I don't get why 50% is good compared to 80% plus usage? sorry.

[Cathulhu]

If you have performance issues in Cities Skylines, why don't you post in the Cities Skylines discussion hub?

[Merc]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

If you have performance issues in Cities Skylines, why don't you post in the Cities Skylines discussion hub?

I'm not having performance issues mate it was just an example showing how a few games don't utilize the hardware properly, now do you have any helpful input?

[Omega]

Originally posted by Mercenary:

Could my CPU really bottle neck my 1070? I don't get why 50% is good compared to 80% plus usage? sorry.

No you CPU does NOT bottleneck your GPU if it was you would have 100% CPU usage. For gaming you want 100% GPU usage and as little as possible CPU usage. The CPU is only processing what it needs to so 50% usage is great.

[Snapjak]

Just because it's not using everything doesn't mean it's poorly optimized. It means your hardware is more than capable of running the game at your settings without struggling.

[Merc]

Originally posted by Omega:

Originally posted by Mercenary:

Could my CPU really bottle neck my 1070? I don't get why 50% is good compared to 80% plus usage? sorry.

No you CPU does NOT bottleneck your GPU if it was you would have 100% CPU usage. For gaming you want 100% GPU usage and as little as possible CPU usage. The CPU is only processing what it needs to so 50% is usage is great.

Alright, thanks mate, it sounds right for my hardware then! I play DAYZ on ultra with no issues and BF1 with no issues so Ithink it is just certain game issues. I am just trying to figure out why some people get more fps in a game, but they most likely have different hardware, upgrading my hardware seems pointless going by what Omega said as my GPU and CPU seems to be working perfectly fine and not over working. Sometimes I think I know stuff about hardware then I learn something new :)

[hawkeye]

The total cpu usage isn't that important. The individual cpu cores/threads is what you look at.

Games are written in threads of code. Usually a game will have 1 or 2 main threads that control the game and govern how fast it runs. Plus dozens of minor threads. Each program thread runs in a cpu thread. Cpu threads are shared by everything running on the pc..A hyperthreaded i7 has 2 cpu threads per core giving 8 in total. So there is little chance that the total cpu usage will reach 100% if only 2 cpu threads are used heavily.

Msi afterburner shows the cpu threads as cpu1 thru cpu8. You will probably see cpu1 running at 80+% and the others running slower. If so and your gpu usage is low, it is this cpu thread that is limiting the game.

i7's are good because they have the fastest single thread speeds. That's the major reason why you buy them.

Gpu usage can also limit performance. 100% usage is obviously a limiting factor.

If all cpu threads have low usage and the gpu usage is low then that might be a poorly optimized game. Or it could be a program thread that is waiting on your hard disk or directx or vsync or something else, like a higher priority program or process. It isn't an exact science (and this explanation isn't the whole story).

So when deciding what to upgrade you look at the individual cpu thread % usage and the gpu % usage - for the games you want to improve performance for.

The cpubenchmark site has a single-thread performance chart. Anything over 2000 is a fairly decent cpu.

(The "poorly optimized game" can also be a cop-out by a cpu manufacturer trying to explain why its cpu's don't have high utilisation.)

[Merc]

Thanks hawkeye, I am using CPUID Perfmonitor2 and it shows in squad that it rarely uses 6 of the 8 threads, I am playing a cpu heavy game and CPU 1 is at 80% then the next two are at 75% then a third one is at 60% all the rest are at a very low % or not being used my GPU can range from 60% to 90% but sometimes despite my computer clearly being able to run the game easily, I still don't hit 60fps on a 1080p monitor. Other games run magnificently for example the BattleField games, I play Dayz standalone on ultra where a lot of people complain about low frame rates, yet I never lose one frame on ultra. It's annoying but I can't fix it, I am putting it down to certain games rather than my hardware going by what you guys have teached me and the monitoring software, some people with worse hardware have better fps in squad that's what I don't understand and I am trying to.

[pike]

because the devs dont have to finish and polish games , the sheep people buy pre-release , they dont have to make good games that work , they only need something that kinda runs ok , and has a season pass of some unknown type .
the sheep people buy hype , not substance

[Omega]

Originally posted by pike:

because the devs dont have to finish and polish games , the sheep people buy pre-release , they dont have to make good games that work , they only need something that kinda runs ok , and has a season pass of some unknown type .
the sheep people buy hype , not substance

Some devs indeed barely optimize their games. But that is not the reason why OPs CPU is not running at 100%.

[pike]

like i said , they dont have to .
why spend time ,money , resources when you dont have too .

[Omega]

Originally posted by pike:

like i said , they dont have to .
why spend time ,money , resources when you dont have too .

So people can run their games without lag and stutter maybe. Especially people with low-end rigs will appreciate a well optimized game. But well looking at games like ARK and how populair they are even while they are a buggy, laggy mess makes me wonder if people even care if a game has good optimization anymore.