CPU usage maxed out while playing oblivion

[TanisHalfElven]

i just setup a dual monitor setup and used a 15" crt for the extended desktop to monitor cpu usage while i played oblivion. it appears that my processor usage was completely maxed out most of the time (even during the talking scenes). is oblivion really that cpu intensive or (i think i heard this somewhere) the ati drivers offloading work to the processor. my rig is below. i was playing at 640x480 (21" CRT), HIGH with shadows off.

i am posting this in the video forum cuz i think its the ati drivers doing this (6.5 with ati tray tools)

basically what i wasnt to know is if oblivion is really so intensive or is it the ATI drivers.

 

[dguy6789]

99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

QFT. Oblivion is a pig and there is no other way to state it...a beautiful pig though.

 

[Hyperlite]

You could blame it on the drivers if you wanted to blame it on something, but that is intentional. They (drivers, developers, etc) will send everything they can to the processor, which means the video card can be (idealy) devoted entirely to rendering. Rendering, or whatever they have determined has to be done ON the video card for maximum eye candy.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

QFT. Oblivion is a pig and there is no other way to state it...a beautiful pig though.

For me its a big fat ass pig who can't stop gobbling down my CPU cycles. It's sad to see 20 fps in cities with my rig. The only way I can do substatially better is to buy a crossfire 2 CPU slot mobo... if it exists.

I hope Core 2 Duo does a great job with this game so I can improve my FPS.

Oh, and I have most sliders @ middle or even less.

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

QFT. Oblivion is a pig and there is no other way to state it...a beautiful pig though.

For me its a big fat ass pig who can't stop gobbling down my CPU cycles. It's sad to see 20 fps in cities with my rig. The only way I can do substatially better is to buy a crossfire 2 CPU slot mobo... if it exists.

I hope Core 2 Duo does a great job with this game so I can improve my FPS.

Oh, and I have most sliders @ middle or even less.

You shouldn't see 20FPS in cites, or anywhere at medium detail with a 1900XTX unless you're at 1680X1050. I see down to 2 FPS when my computer does this annoying thing where going from outside to inside totally kills my performance. If you save, then exit the game and go back in, your FPS should be 40+. My X1800XT, at hedium-high detail, HDR on, 2XAA, 4XAF gets 40-50FPS outside when I start the game.

To the OP, running the game at 640 X 480 will load your CPU very heavily. You may actually see better performance if you go to 800 X 600 or more, because your GPU and CPU load will be more balanced.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
i just setup a dual monitor setup and used a 15" crt for the extended desktop to monitor cpu usage while i played oblivion. it appears that my processor usage was completely maxed out most of the time (even during the talking scenes). is oblivion really that cpu intensive or (i think i heard this somewhere) the ati drivers offloading work to the processor. my rig is below. i was playing at 640x480 (21" CRT), HIGH with shadows off.

i am posting this in the video forum cuz i think its the ati drivers doing this (6.5 with ati tray tools)

basically what i wasnt to know is if oblivion is really so intensive or is it the ATI drivers.

If this is the Windows Task Manager you are using you should understand that the graph represents CPU time, not percent of CPU resources allocated. Any game will use 100% of the CPU time if it can, but that doesn't mean that it is using every execution unit on the CPU at any one time.

With that aside, it is still possible that Oblivion uses nearly all the resources on your CPU anyway as it is that resource hungry. If you look at Anand's benchmarks, oblivion is CPU limited with most modern graphics card unless you crank it up to very high resolutions, where it would not be playable even with current high-end cards.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

QFT. Oblivion is a pig and there is no other way to state it...a beautiful pig though.

For me its a big fat ass pig who can't stop gobbling down my CPU cycles. It's sad to see 20 fps in cities with my rig. The only way I can do substatially better is to buy a crossfire 2 CPU slot mobo... if it exists.

I hope Core 2 Duo does a great job with this game so I can improve my FPS.

Oh, and I have most sliders @ middle or even less.

something is wrong. my TM8200 scores 4168 in 3D05 and runs better than that.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: Hyperlite
For me its a big fat ass pig who can't stop gobbling down my CPU cycles. It's sad to see 20 fps in cities with my rig. The only way I can do substatially better is to buy a crossfire 2 CPU slot mobo... if it exists.

I hope Core 2 Duo does a great job with this game so I can improve my FPS.

Oh, and I have most sliders @ middle or even less.

something is wrong. my TM8200 scores 4168 in 3D05 and runs better than that.[/quote]
No kidding. He must be on a ridiculously high res. I get better performance with my single 7800gtx :laugh:

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

QFT. Oblivion is a pig and there is no other way to state it...a beautiful pig though.

For me its a big fat ass pig who can't stop gobbling down my CPU cycles. It's sad to see 20 fps in cities with my rig. The only way I can do substatially better is to buy a crossfire 2 CPU slot mobo... if it exists.

I hope Core 2 Duo does a great job with this game so I can improve my FPS.

Oh, and I have most sliders @ middle or even less.

Beware buddy I just got a new high paying job

BTW you should get better FPS w/ the 2005fpw, on my single I easily get 30-40fps in cities and I have tons of visual enhancement mods and all options turned to high. I did do some performance tweaks as well though but not many

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
99.999999999% of all games max out a cpu. This is completely normal. Games try to take as much cpu time as possible to run as well as possible. They are never "satisfied" with a certain amount of processor time. Since your cpu is a dual core, most games will only use 50%. However, Oblivion is multi threaded, so it is normal for it to be using all of your cpu time.

i don't mean to blame it. i was just shocked cuz i always thought it was my graphic cards bottlencking my fast processor.

To the OP, running the game at 640 X 480 will load your CPU very heavily. You may actually see better performance if you go to 800 X 600 or more, because your GPU and CPU load will be more balanced.

reallt better perofrmance at higher resolution. ok i'll try it but i don't undertand WHY?

If this is the Windows Task Manager you are using you should understand that the graph represents CPU time, not percent of CPU resources allocated. Any game will use 100% of the CPU time if it can, but that doesn't mean that it is using every execution unit on the CPU at any one time.

With that aside, it is still possible that Oblivion uses nearly all the resources on your CPU anyway as it is that resource hungry. If you look at Anand's benchmarks, oblivion is CPU limited with most modern graphics card unless you crank it up to very high resolutions, where it would not be playable even with current high-end cards.

i did not know about the cpu time. thanks.

 

[Fraggable]

I don't understand exactly why, but I know that the lower the resolution, the more load it puts on your CPU. At higher resolutions, it loads the GPU more. If you had a 1900xtx and ran it at 800X600 resolution, you would not get the same frame rate that you would at 1680X1050, because it's not taking advantage of the GPU's capabilities.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I don't understand exactly why, but I know that the lower the resolution, the more load it puts on your CPU. At higher resolutions, it loads the GPU more. If you had a 1900xtx and ran it at 800X600 resolution, you would not get the same frame rate that you would at 1680X1050, because it's not taking advantage of the GPU's capabilities.

oh i see. your working from the very common statements on these boards that lower res bottlenecks the cpu. well that true for the high ends but a x800gt=6600gt=7300gt is about more than 8 times slower than a x1900xt so thats not the case here.

anyway how do ppl bench oblivion. do they just use fraps ? if so i'll do a benchmark and let you know.