CPU limiting Metro 2033 performance?

[frozentundra123456]

So, I just got an new computer with an i5 2320 at 3.0ghz. I cant do any kind of overclocking because it is a Dell XPS and has an H77 motherboard. I am using a HD7770 and was pretty sure there was no way the CPU could bottleneck that card. So I was playing around with the built in benchmark and found going from med to low didnt increase the framerate. I am running at 1080p with or without advanced physX, antialiasing set to AAA.

Here are the benchmarks at 1080p, high, med, low quality:

With advanced physX: 29.7, 36.0, 37.0.

Without advanced physX: 39.7, 53.7, 54.7.

Unsurprisingly, running physX on the cpu pulls performance down, but I am very surprised at the results with physX turned off. Every other game I have tested at any setting pegs the GPU while using less than half cpu. Strangely at low and med settings without physX, where it looks like I am cpu limited, the cpu usage never reaches 100 percent on any core, but pretty much 80% on all four cores. Not sure why I am posting this, except that I thought the results were interesting, and am concerned that the cpu is more limiting than I expected, at least in this particular game.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Its not just jumping around as a thread?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Its not just jumping around as a thread?

Dont think so. In task manager at med or low without physX all 4 cores are showing about 80% utilization all the time. The GPU usage jumps around all over the place, except on high, where of course it is pegged at 100% because I am gpu limited on high quality.

Is Metro supposed to use 4 threads?

 

[inf64]

Metro is one weird game. You can search for performance of CPUs and GPUs around the web and performance in those tests will be all over the place... I have no idea what to believe when it comes to Metro 2033.

 

[zootedd]

Metro seems to be coded like GTA4.. bad. There is no way that an i5 sandy will bottleneck a 7770.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Metro seems to be coded like GTA4.. bad. There is no way that an i5 sandy will bottleneck a 7770.

That is what I thought as well. Even though I turned off advanced physX, maybe the is some lesser level of physX still being done by the cpu. I wonder how it would run on an nVidia card.

TBH, the graphics dont seem that spectacular for such a demanding game.

 

[2is]

Looking at your GPU usage is an easier way to tell where your bottleneck is. If you're at 90-100% nearly the entire time, the CPU isn't your problem