GTA IV under utilized GPU

[UglyDuckling]

Ok, i am only running a 4.3ghz Quad Core Phenom II and a 1175mhz/1450mhz 7770, but no matter the settings, the GPU it's self is just not used enough even at lower framerates.

CPU is not the bottleneck either as it sit's around 50-60% usage mostly.

I have tried adding an ENB but it makes FPS worse and again... low GPU utilization.

My CPU is around the speed of an FX at 4.8+ghz, it's per core speed is superior...

 

[TheELF]

Afterburner but also core temp and any similar program don't show you the actual usage, at any given time, but a cross-section of usage over time.
So for instance the core that shows 55% usage might run one thread at ~100% for one cycle(or one second or for however long) and a second thread of 10% for equal time,100+10 divided by 2 (since equal time) =55% .

You have to run a program like process explorer (it's free) which will show you the actual threads and their usage,look at this picture you can see 4 big threads and 4 smaller ones if one of the big ones reaches ~25% usage,so one core at 100% ,than everything is normal and that's what your cpu can give you .

 

[UglyDuckling]

Well a long time ago (over 5 years) i ran it on a 9800GTX with an ENB and got better performance than this far stronger GPU?

Same PC besides the GPU...

 

[UglyDuckling]

I have found a solution to get better FPS... i capped the game to 30FPS and turned draw distance down to 75%, then added some command line fixes.

 

[TheELF]

Whoops,thought you were talking about V totally ignored the russian
According to this the 9800 has much better texture handling which is very important for games,but I'm not sure how this impacts your problem.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-7770-vs-GeForce-GTX-9800

 

[Gryz]

Ok, i am only running a 4.3ghz Quad Core Phenom II and a 1175mhz/1450mhz 7770, but no matter the settings, the GPU it's self is just not used enough even at lower framerates.

CPU is not the bottleneck either as it sit's around 50-60% usage mostly.

That is a quick conclusion. I am not sure you are right.

60% CPU utilization might mean:
thread 1 is running 100% of the time
thread 2 is running 80%
thread 3 is running 50%
thread 4 is running 10%
Together that is 240%, divided by 4 cores, and Windows will report 60% CPU usage. But still, in reality, you are limited by the speed of the most loaded core.

Your picture shows that no core is running 100% of the time. But that doesn't mean much. Windows will move threads around during runtime. So it looks like 2 cores are used 50%, but in reality, it is one thread running full time.

The problem might be the videocard-drivers of AMD. Those are single-threaded. So if the thread that does the rendering runs 100% of the time, and is in fact the bottle-neck, there is nothing the game, or the OS can do.

Mantle fixed this. The upcoming DX12 will fix this. But at the moment, if you buy and use an AMD card, you have a higher risk to be CPU-bottlenecked.

Either buy an nVidia card with an AMD cpu. The nVidia-drivers are multi-threaded. And thus the low performance of the AMD cpu matters less.

Or buy an AMD videocard with an Intel cpu. The Intel CPU is so powerful per core, that it matters less that the AMD-driver is using only 1 core.

But what one shouldn't do at the moment, is to buy both an AMD videocard and an AMD cpu. Sorry.

 

[futurefields]

something happened to GTA4

graphics and performance got worse over time

same thing is happening to GTA5

every patch released causes more instability and performance issues

not only that but GTA5 on pc is fundamentally doomed, because not only is the gaming population less than 1/10 of any console, but people are put into seperate lobbies those who use kb/m and gamepad so the effective online playerbase is cut in half again, and to top it off, every pub has hackers.

 

[futurefields]

That is a quick conclusion. I am not sure you are right.

60% CPU utilization might mean:
thread 1 is running 100% of the time
thread 2 is running 80%
thread 3 is running 50%
thread 4 is running 10%
Together that is 240%, divided by 4 cores, and Windows will report 60% CPU usage. But still, in reality, you are limited by the speed of the most loaded core.

Your picture shows that no core is running 100% of the time. But that doesn't mean much. Windows will move threads around during runtime. So it looks like 2 cores are used 50%, but in reality, it is one thread running full time.

The problem might be the videocard-drivers of AMD. Those are single-threaded. So if the thread that does the rendering runs 100% of the time, and is in fact the bottle-neck, there is nothing the game, or the OS can do.

Mantle fixed this. The upcoming DX12 will fix this. But at the moment, if you buy and use an AMD card, you have a higher risk to be CPU-bottlenecked.

Either buy an nVidia card with an AMD cpu. The nVidia-drivers are multi-threaded. And thus the low performance of the AMD cpu matters less.

Or buy an AMD videocard with an Intel cpu. The Intel CPU is so powerful per core, that it matters less that the AMD-driver is using only 1 core.

But what one shouldn't do at the moment, is to buy both an AMD videocard and an AMD cpu. Sorry.

This is one thing about PC building that cracks me up.

You are suggesting this guy use an Intel CPU + AMD GPU, or AMD CPU with Nvidia GPU?

Both those configs have bottlenecks though don't they?

Why don't you recommend Intel CPU + Nvidia?

Most PC gamers know Intel + Nvidia is the way to go yet you are recommending AMD cpu with Nvidia or Intel CPU with AMD both of which will lead to performance issues.

 

[Gryz]

You are suggesting this guy use an Intel CPU + AMD GPU, or AMD CPU with Nvidia GPU?

No. All I said is that out of the 4 possible combinations of AMD, nVidia and Intel, the combination AMD+AMD is the worst possible. Because of AMD's single-threaded videocard-drivers and its slower single-core cpu-performance.

I'm not recommending anything. I'm just trying to explain what the OP is seeing.

I didn't make this up myself. Read it on the Internet.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-why-directx-12-is-a-gamechanger

There's an irony here: AMD's driver set-up works best on Intel CPU hardware and flounders on its own processor architecture.

FYI, I have an Intel CPU and nVidia GPU myself.

 

[UglyDuckling]

I now get solid 30FPS with the tweaks i did, i also have RadeonPro doing some behind the scenes work.

I have FXAA injector but it does not show in these pictures...

 

[futurefields]

Man that first picture hurts my eyes.

#jaggies
#stairstepping
#poorobjectfiltering

I know you are running an FXAA injector behind the scenes but gosh darn this game badly needs MSAA.

 

[UglyDuckling]

Man that first picture hurts my eyes.

#jaggies
#stairstepping
#poorobjectfiltering

I know you are running an FXAA injector behind the scenes but gosh darn this game badly needs MSAA.

This game cannot use any sort of MSAA, also downsampling is too much for 7770.

 

[futurefields]

Yeap I know.

And GTA5 does support MSAA but it barely does anything (except for getting rid of the dithering effect which is enabled when MSAA is disabled but isn't even in the xbox 360 version lulz)

 

[UglyDuckling]

Here it is running after my tweaks....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCgL0br0E0o

 

[futurefields]

i cant even play this game anymore because of how much the geometry flickers

for example the sign frames on top of the building coming into view around 0:13-0:14 on your video

that is intolerable

 

[UglyDuckling]

i cant even play this game anymore because of how much the geometry flickers

for example the sign frames on top of the building coming into view around 0:13-0:14 on your video

that is intolerable

I tend not to really look at the scenery, i am mostly driving around or doing some other dodgy weirdo stuff, but i do notice it sometimes.

I have downloaded GTA SA too... downgrading it from the Steam patch to 1.0 just so i can get those 18 music tracks back and be able to fix the bugged car models that was never fixed in retail for PC..


More info here.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/12120/discussions/0/34096318964479523/

 

[TheELF]

Here it is running after my tweaks....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCgL0br0E0o

Oh man, you just had to put fraps in the same corner as afterburner!?!?