Low CPU utilization & Low FPS

[James111333 10]

Just shows that the game is CPU speed-limited because it can't properly utilize all cores.

EDIT: Not to sound like a downer...glad it's working well for you. :)

Indeed, I still only get 30% utilisation but at least my GPU is working hard now.

It's at the expense of pretty unrealistic clocks but with AI suite, it's as simple as loading a profile before you launch Arma and you're away, a work around that needs good cooling I guess!

[stk2008 14]

So we all need 5ghz CPU`s....So much for the recommended specs of this game then.

Come on BIS I want the optimization blog :(

[St. Jimmy 272]

@Jimmy

thanks, thats it. I thought it depends on zooming but its zooming&proned. Crouched/stand: 50fps, same spot proned: 25fps.

Just noticed that there are some trees that can put your GPU to its knees but bit less than the broccoli if you watch them with SOS sight in a right spot. I recommended AtoC off if you're a sniper.

[jumpinghubert 48]

yep, thx for the tip jimmy.

@James111333

whats your score in helo´s altis benchmark? http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151794-ArmA3Mark-Benchmark-your-ArmA-3

I´m interested in your score with 4770k @4,6ghz. Please post your ingame settings too :)

edit: nice "I get 6.5Ghz on nitrogen joke" ;)

Edited November 25, 2013 by JumpingHubert

[Leon86 13]

Hey guys I just signed up to share my (obscure) findings.

So I have been sick of Arma 3 lately, I love playing it, especially flying about but I just can't stand the low FPS, 24FPS on my High end system doesn't go down too well :(

So I have forever been trying to find a solution to no avail, the worst part is that when I lower my settings, I get LESS FPS! Lowering the draw distance helps a bit but is a no go for flying really. Anyway, I was messing around with some crazy overclocks and as a result, I get a perfect 60FPS with no drops whether i'm flying, running, shooting, viewing through scope etc! :yay::yay:

Finally!

Arma 3 at 60FPS looks amazing! What a difference from the 20-35FPS that I had before!

My system:

4770k (normally clocked at 4.6 under water)

Asus maximus VI Formula

4GB Dominator GT ram 2000 MHZ 8-8-8-24

Power color 290 100% unlocked to 290x Shaders at 1200MHz and 5800MHz

Samsung 830 SSD

All this gave me 20-35FPS, it was a sad day when I installed my graphics card and didn't see a gain in FPS.

Anyway, so here's the obscure 'catch'

my 4770k will not go past 4.6 without crazy volts period.

However, if I tune each CPU core individually (this is with hyperthreading enabled still), I can easily clock core 1 to 6.5GHz, Core 2 to 6.1GHz Core 3 to 4.8GHz and leave Core 4 at 4.6Ghz This might sound rediculous but it munches through cinebench like this and powers through all benchmarks I throw at it. My chip isn't a particularly good one either but Arma now loves it! I ALWAYS had 30-40% GPU utilisation max now it's 100%! :yay:

euhm 5.6 and 5.1 I presume?

[aussiebobby 1]

For those who monitor their GPUs with OSD/LCD keyboard,keep an eye on GPU usage and temps while in the main menu.My GPU will run at 99% in the main menu and noise dive when I start a benchmark or start playing.

I noticed this high GPU usage when I had the game minimized in the menu and went to make coffee and forgot about the game.Then after awhile I could hear my GPU fans at full speed.

When I looked at the OSD I seen the temps in the 80s and GPU at 99%..WTF.

I can get the game to do this by changing a video settings and just wait for the usage to go up.Sampling works for me

First question,How do I fool the game to think Im at the main menu all the time.

Second question what the hell is going on with this game? Its got things ass about.Use GPU when Im playing and idle it when Im not.

Edit

Screenshot

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2323/1zja.png

Edited November 25, 2013 by AussieBobby

[Leon86 13]

On a near empty map it's easy to be gpu limited.

[NeMeSiS 11]

For those who monitor their GPUs with OSD/LCD keyboard,keep an eye on GPU usage and temps while in the main menu.My GPU will run at 99% in the main menu and noise dive when I start a benchmark or start playing.

I noticed this high GPU usage when I had the game minimized in the menu and went to make coffee and forgot about the game.Then after awhile I could hear my GPU fans at full speed.

When I looked at the OSD I seen the temps in the 80s and GPU at 99%..WTF.

I can get the game to do this by changing a video settings and just wait for the usage to go up.Sampling works for me

First question,How do I fool the game to think Im at the main menu all the time.

Second question what the hell is going on with this game? Its got things ass about.Use GPU when Im playing and idle it when Im not.

Edit

Screenshot

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2323/1zja.png

You cant 'fool' the game into thinking that. GPU usage goes down because the CPU (or at least 1 thread) is too busy to give the GPU all the attention it needs/wants, thus its usage goes down. If by some miracle you could force the GPU to run at 100% your FPS still wouldnt go up, since you are limited by the CPU in those cases. You are not limited by the CPU when you are in the menu, since there isnt much AI/physics/sounds/whatever to calculate.

[aussiebobby 1]

You cant 'fool' the game into thinking that. GPU usage goes down because the CPU (or at least 1 thread) is too busy to give the GPU all the attention it needs/wants, thus its usage goes down. If by some miracle you could force the GPU to run at 100% your FPS still wouldnt go up, since you are limited by the CPU in those cases. You are not limited by the CPU when you are in the menu, since there isnt much AI/physics/sounds/whatever to calculate.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3286/z5nz.jpg

Here the cpu and gpu are at 98% at the menu

For those who don't have adequate cooling or not so PC savvy it spells bad news.Its like running prime95 and a gpu burn in test at the same time.Like most of us have spent a lot of time at the menu/video options trying to get some decent fps

I have a Noctua NH-D14,but cold you imagine having a stock cooler or no software to monitor the gpu temps and walking away from the PC for 1/2hour or more at the menu.

Arma 2OA does the same,but no other game I tested did at the menu.

I just want to know if anyone else is getting this.

[oldbear 390]

@ AussieBobby : how can you walk away with Arma3 left open ... :), I am not getting this for of course, if I open Arma3 it's to play or to do something on Editor. I have more often my meals burnt off due to game playing than OFP/Arma/Arma2/Arma3 left open.

In fact when you are on GUI, the game is playing behind, so it just like you were playing a SP mission on Stratis, it's not a "prime95+GPU burn" test.

You are right no other games are having scene of the game played in background while on GUI ...

Arma3 is different.

[aussiebobby 1]

@ AussieBobby : how can you walk away with Arma3 left open ... :), I am not getting this for of course, if I open Arma3 it's to play or to do something on Editor. I have more often my meals burnt off due to game playing than OFP/Arma/Arma2/Arma3 left open.

In fact when you are on GUI, the game is playing behind, so it just like you were playing a SP mission on Stratis, it's not a "prime95+GPU burn" test.

You are right no other games are having scene of the game played in background while on GUI ...

Arma3 is different.

I did do a prime95 and gpu burn-in at the same time after your post.

Gpu reached the same temp 77°C and CPU 42.8 for about 20mins

The GUI reached higher temps in the first 3 mins for the GPU 80°C and at this temp I closed the game.

CPU stayed at 32°C because the game is only using one core unlike a prime95 test that test all cores.

Once I start SP or editor the usage on both drop to 50% and less

The post by James111333 gave the idea to do the same

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147533-Low-CPU-utilization-amp-Low-FPS&p=2563560&viewfull=1#post2563560

Iv found the app to overclock a single core.It used by extreme overclockers with liquid nitrogen and some on air and water.Ill get some expert advice before I start clicking the apply button in the app.

[Minoza 11]

Just did a FRAPS bench of campaign start, recorded the beginning (flight part mostly) because that's where issues are clearly visible. Low fps, low GPU usage using mostly autodetect settings plus lowering few settings manually. I know how to avoid these problems but playing at 1500m view distance is not ok with me.

Bench results:

2013-11-26 18:41:43 - arma3

Frames: 6442 - Time: 221234ms - Avg: 29.118 - Min: 9 - Max: 50

Settings:

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad360/Minozaa/1_zps95986ca5.jpg

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad360/Minozaa/2_zps6c3e6e9d.jpg

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad360/Minozaa/3_zps96bfed67.jpg

Hardware:

3770K @4.4GHz

16GB 1600MHz ram

GTX 670

SSD

[mamasan8 11]

I did do a prime95 and gpu burn-in at the same time after your post.

Gpu reached the same temp 77°C and CPU 42.8 for about 20mins

The GUI reached higher temps in the first 3 mins for the GPU 80°C and at this temp I closed the game.

CPU stayed at 32°C because the game is only using one core unlike a prime95 test that test all cores.

Once I start SP or editor the usage on both drop to 50% and less

The post by James111333 gave the idea to do the same

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147533-Low-CPU-utilization-amp-Low-FPS&p=2563560&viewfull=1#post2563560

Iv found the app to overclock a single core.It used by extreme overclockers with liquid nitrogen and some on air and water.Ill get some expert advice before I start clicking the apply button in the app.

Just did a quick singleplayer-test with -exthreads=7 in commandline. Arma used mostly core 0, was 60% +. Rest of the 7 cores saw between 10-20% activity. Yes, it used all 8 of my cores. I have noctua as well, temp never goes above 42C and GPU reaches 64C (Radeon 7870) only in furmark. In games I tend to never get above 55C and the card is built to withstand 90-100C.

[MavericK96 0]

A couple of tips on doing what you can to getting better peformance, after some testing:

-Turn down Terrain Detail to Very High from Ultra...in my experience there is VERY little difference between the two visually and you will gain a few FPS.

-Turn down Object Detail to Very High from Ultra...again, very little noticeable difference for the FPS loss it causes.

-Turn off SSAO completely. From what I can tell the SSAO effect is BARELY noticeable in the first place, and leaving it on is a reasonable FPS drop.

-Turn off/down PiP. It's a cool effect for the mirrors, but sometimes when you get in a vehicle you can get a pretty massive framerate drop due to this. More testing is required, but it seems like you can gain a good chunk of performance without it. I leave it on Normal, as really other than mirror view distance turning up the quality doesn't help you much visually. The mirrors are so tiny it's not really necessary to use High or greater.

That's all I've found for now. Really, for the extremely minimal difference these settings make visually, they should not be dropping FPS like they are.

[jumpinghubert 48]

yes, object/Terrain from ultra to very high plus pip deactivated helps alot, especially in the air. And yes, SSAO eats alot of fps with minimal visual difference.

Plus anisotropic filter (if its set to 16x) from quality/normal to performance mode (in driver panel) gives some extra fps too still with a AMD R9 290.

[St. Jimmy 272]

I recommend go object detail as low as standard. Can cause some LOD flickering but the performance gain is big. You really don't miss those extra pixel bushes in the distance. I keep terrain on ultra because I hate to watch some objects floating in the air. on very high it's pretty minimal though but after that it's very awful. Otherwise I agree with above.

[NeMeSiS 11]

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3286/z5nz.jpg

Here the cpu and gpu are at 98% at the menu.

I dont really see your point. I though you wanted high usage? Obviously the menu is giving you both high CPU and GPU usage, all it is doing is drawing the sea and a menu, there is nothing to hold back either the GPU or the CPU because you started the game with the ' -world=empty' parameter.

You are right no other games are having scene of the game played in background while on GUI ...

Arma3 is different.

Except for the bunch that do. :)

Edited November 26, 2013 by NeMeSiS

[aussiebobby 1]

I dont really see your point. I though you wanted high usage? Obviously the menu is giving you both high CPU and GPU usage, all it is doing is drawing the sea and a menu, there is nothing to hold back either the GPU or the CPU because you started the game with the ' -world=empty' parameter.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/433/2xny.jpg

Even without the start up parameter.

I want high usage when Im playing not when the game is idling.

[NeMeSiS 11]

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/433/2xny.jpg

Even without the start up parameter.

I want high usage when Im playing not when the game is idling.

Usage is a direct result of what the game is doing, not the other way around. You cant make it use more, it is already doing everything it can. The CPU, handling all I/O stuff, can bottleneck everything else, and since this is (apparently) caused by a single thread CPU usage can go down as well as GPU usage during CPU intensive scenarios, to the minimum of 1 core fully in use, while everything else is just waiting on it.

As long as that 1 core does not become a bottleneck ,for example in an empty screen, or a menu 'mission' with like 3 squads walking around, usage will be high.

To keep high usage, you would need to prevent a single CPU core from becoming a bottleneck. There are no tricks for that, either make the CPU faster, or the mission less CPU intensive.

Edited November 27, 2013 by NeMeSiS

[MavericK96 0]

To keep high usage, you would need to prevent a single CPU core from becoming a bottleneck. There are no tricks for that, either make the CPU faster, or the mission less CPU intensive.

Or, you know, BIS could get some extensive work going on this to fix the problem once and for all. :p

[aussiebobby 1]

Or, you know, BIS could get some extensive work going on this to fix the problem once and for all. :p

First they have to admit there is a problem..

At this stage,BIS thinks the word denial is a river in Egypt

[Minoza 11]

A couple of tips on doing what you can to getting better peformance, after some testing:

...

I am getting CPU bottlenecked so this doesn't help me at all. Going with terrain and object detail from Ultra to Low gives me 5-7fps depending on the scene... Meaning I'm going from 28 to 33...

I'm running i7 3770K at 4.4GHz, what else can I do? Not much I'm afraid... I can play mostly fine if I stick with 1500m view distance, which is crappy view distance (especially if I'm flying) meaning I can choose - play at 30 fps or play in fog... What a great choice!

This happens both in official campaign and typical MP scenarios like Wasteland, King of the hill, Annex... Going over 2000m view distance results in serious framerate drops where I get lucky if I hit 40 at best, while at 1500 I get steady 50 or so with occasional drops to 40. I'm sorry but this simply isn't acceptable for me, also, I've recently switched to Windows 8.1 which might have done even more harm. I'm not gonna go back to W7 just to gain few frames in Arma because it will still run like crap while on the other hand BF4 runs noticeably better on W8.1 compared to W7. I guess I'm just gonna keep waiting and reading those changelogs about NATO crew calibrating brakes and stuff... -.-

Edited November 27, 2013 by Minoza

[stk2008 14]

i feel ya pain on the change logs.

Every time i see an update i run to the change logs in the hope they have finally fixed this but as normal they dont all I see is pointless fixes like

Fixed font error

Corrected texture

Like I have said before this stuff is not important.

You would not build a house that is not on a solid foundation and then proceed to decorate it and spend hours doing it up whats the point the house would only fall down sooner or later.

BIS please for god sake do some thing or be honest and say it wont be fixed that way I can move on and uninstall arma 3

[nikiforos 450]

^+1111

[Minoza 11]

And one thing that keeps bothering me, why would you use PIP for passengers?! PIP in Littlebird causes massive framedrops when entering as a passenger, PIP that you can't even see?! You can barely see it even as pilot yet it drains fps like mad...