Reduce CPU load while playing Apex Legends?

[podkall]

Yo guys, so on my pc (listed in my signature) I have 100% on CPU and near 100% on GPU when playing Apex,

on 1600x900 resolution I can get framerate from 60 to 100 depending on enviourment.

So that's totally fine for me if it wasn't occasionaly stuttering.

 

I think the CPU being bound is the reason of the occasional stutter, unless someone says otherwise.

 

What does reduce CPU load?, higher graphics that "only affect GPU"?, capping the fps? or is it lowering the graphics?

or anything else?

 

Thanks.

[RAS_3885]

I'll preface by saying I don't play Apex so I have no idea how CPU-heavy the game is.

 

Lower FPS can sometimes reduce the CPU load on games that aren't otherwise CPU-intensive (such as lots of physics simulations running in the background). Off-loading work to the GPU via higher graphics settings or capping the FPS are two ways to accomplish this. Worth a shot since they are easy to test.

 

Lowering graphics settings would have the opposite effect.

 

Other easy things to check are to make sure no other resource-intensive programs are running in the background. Even some RGB/monitoring software can have an impact on lower end hardware.

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

I'll preface by saying I don't play Apex so I have no idea how CPU-heavy the game is.

 

Lower FPS can sometimes reduce the CPU load on games that aren't otherwise CPU-intensive (such as lots of physics simulations running in the background). Off-loading work to the GPU via higher graphics settings or capping the FPS are two ways to accomplish this. Worth a shot since they are easy to test.

 

Lowering graphics settings would have the opposite effect.

 

Other easy things to check are to make sure no other resource-intensive programs are running in the background. Even some RGB/monitoring software can have an impact on lower end hardware.

So I should try playing on highest details affecting GPU and than lowest with same resolution and see which ones work for me?

[RAS_3885]

Yeah, just play around with it.

 

If it's really a CPU bottleneck then increasing GPU load via higher graphics settings may help.

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

Yeah, just play around with it.

 

If it's really a CPU bottleneck then increasing GPU load via higher graphics settings may help.

yo I got a question, is your system bottlenecked by your cpu? and if yes by how much?

[RAS_3885]

4 minutes ago, podkall said:

yo I got a question, is your system bottlenecked by your cpu? and if yes by how much?

No, it is not. I'm GPU limited for most things as I run 3440x1440 @ 120 Hz. I also cap frame rate to 117 FPS, so on less demanding games the CPU and GPU are underutilized.

[podkall]

@RAS_3885 interesting, is it because you run at 4k or does that happen with 1080p too?

 

or perhaps is 6 cores and 12 threads sweet spot where you are rarely CPU bound?

 

Also I found out that on low settings the game isn't stuttering maybe it's another cause than CPU or perhaps it just gets used to the game and stops stuttering.

[RAS_3885]

4 minutes ago, podkall said:

interesting, is it because you run at 4k or does that happen with 1080p too?

 

or perhaps is 6 cores and 12 threads sweet spot where you are rarely CPU bound?

4k is about 60 percent more pixels than the 1440p ultrawide I use, but at 120 Hz the GPU is still usually the limiting factor.8

 

The only other display configuration I use is a VR headset, but that's also GPU limited. I've never run my current setup on a 1080p monitor for gaming.

 

Ryzen 5xxx reviews show there's MAYBE a few percentage point increase moving to something like the 5800x/5900x, but that's only when you're already pushing 2-300 FPS in a CPU heavy game. That's not even close to my use case, so the 6c/12t 5600x is more than sufficient. Over 120 FPS for me quickly reaches the point of diminishing visual benefit, so I'd much rather crank up the visual goodies and throw in ray tracing. Hence the 3080 Ti.

 

I still play a lot of less demanding games, in which case both the CPU and GPU are terribly overkill.

[podkall]

7 hours ago, RAS_3885 said:

4k is about 60 percent more pixels than the 1440p ultrawide I use, but at 120 Hz the GPU is still usually the limiting factor.8

 

The only other display configuration I use is a VR headset, but that's also GPU limited. I've never run my current setup on a 1080p monitor for gaming.

 

Ryzen 5xxx reviews show there's MAYBE a few percentage point increase moving to something like the 5800x/5900x, but that's only when you're already pushing 2-300 FPS in a CPU heavy game. That's not even close to my use case, so the 6c/12t 5600x is more than sufficient. Over 120 FPS for me quickly reaches the point of diminishing visual benefit, so I'd much rather crank up the visual goodies and throw in ray tracing. Hence the 3080 Ti.

 

I still play a lot of less demanding games, in which case both the CPU and GPU are terribly overkill.

Cool.

If it's overkill that depends on person, since 360Hz monitors exist.

But I guess if you lowered your settings you would also achieve higher fps than 120 right?

[LogicalDrm]

I would think that game itself is biggest issue. You have open-ish map with lots of objects moving around. All that is on CPU. So I don't think you can really fix this just by settings.

[RAS_3885]

7 hours ago, podkall said:

But I guess if you lowered your settings you would also achieve higher fps than 120 right?

Yes, if I lowered my settings and turned off my frame rate limiter then I would see higher FPS. I choose not to because I want to keep my monitor in the G-Sync range while keeping all the visual goodies enabled.

[podkall]

2 hours ago, RAS_3885 said:

Yes, if I lowered my settings and turned off my frame rate limiter then I would see higher FPS. I choose not to because I want to keep my monitor in the G-Sync range while keeping all the visual goodies enabled.

understandable man, screen tearing can sometimes be a b

[podkall]

4 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

I would think that game itself is biggest issue. You have open-ish map with lots of objects moving around. All that is on CPU. So I don't think you can really fix this just by settings.

Well going from 1080p to 900p definetly helps getting stable 60fps even in gunfights

[LogicalDrm]

36 minutes ago, podkall said:

Well going from 1080p to 900p definetly helps getting stable 60fps even in gunfights

That would indicate that GPU is lacking or your graphics settings are too high. Resolution etc. is more about things you see, not objects overall.

[podkall]

1 hour ago, LogicalDrm said:

That would indicate that GPU is lacking or your graphics settings are too high. Resolution etc. is more about things you see, not objects overall.

but GPU doesn't cause stuttering or does it?

[LogicalDrm]

8 minutes ago, podkall said:

but GPU doesn't cause stuttering or does it?

Thats too broad question to answer. Even too little RAM could cause that. And the only way to know is either another game, or upgrade.

Edited September 23, 2021 by LogicalDrm

[Gohardgrandpa]

On 9/22/2021 at 3:52 PM, podkall said:

Yo guys, so on my pc (listed in my signature) I have 100% on CPU and near 100% on GPU when playing Apex,

on 1600x900 resolution I can get framerate from 60 to 100 depending on enviourment.

So that's totally fine for me if it wasn't occasionaly stuttering.

 

I think the CPU being bound is the reason of the occasional stutter, unless someone says otherwise.

 

What does reduce CPU load?, higher graphics that "only affect GPU"?, capping the fps? or is it lowering the graphics?

or anything else?

 

Thanks.

Are you playing this with the r3 1200 and the gtx1050?

 

[podkall]

12 hours ago, Gohardgrandpa said:

Are you playing this with the r3 1200 and the gtx1050?

 

yeeep

 

18 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Thats too broad question to answer. Even too little RAM could cause that. And the only way to know is either another game, or upgrade.

Can't be ram since it's 3200Mhz 16Gb dual channel, my gpu is at the edge of being a gaming graphics card and my cpu is among cheapest for gaming 3,5Ghz, 4 cores, no hyper threading

So logicaly cpu is weakest of my components with gpu being right second after

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

yeeep

 

Can't be ram since it's 3200Mhz 16Gb dual channel, my gpu is at the edge of being a gaming graphics card and my cpu is among cheapest for gaming 3,5Ghz, 4 cores, no hyper threading

So logicaly cpu is weakest of my components with gpu being right second after

Your sig is confusing.
I was looking at wrong parts. Still, I would say CPU is lacking here.

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Your sig is confusing.
I was looking at wrong parts. Still, I would say CPU is lacking here.

What's confusing about my sig?

Text in bold is the row and specific speeds being used.

[DarkSmith2]

- Run Apex as Administrator.

- get a little more CPU resources if you havent already, there is performance held back from windows for backgroundtasks.
Editing the dword "systemresponsivness" in this location to 0:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

Restart after applying, also make sure to remember which value was set if you want to go to stock settings.

Also if you want to try i made a config especially for the purpose of fixing stutter:
https://pastebin.com/YgkNQjwP  

You will see that if works if you get the orange dev FPS counter on the upper right. This config can be loaded with startcommands, however if you switch graphic settings after loading it, you have to reload it pressing F12 while on the map. If the config works for you and you get more FPS or less/no stutter you can disable the Orange fps counter when you edit the "showfps_enabled "1" " value to "0" This config doesnt change any graphic settings you can select from menu/videosetting.txt in the apex folder. So you can run any settings you'd like. 
 

If nothing of this helps, you might try and disable windows game mode and other stuff... Sometimes peoples stutter is fixed by just setting the polling rate of the mouse to 500hz instead of 1000hz. So keep us updated

[Gohardgrandpa]

60-100fps is great with that hardware.

Isn't the R3 1200 a 4 core 4 thread CPU?

 

I remember seeing 100% CPU usage in apex using a i7 9700f CPU at 1440p and it would stutter, I can only imagine at 900p the load on your CPU has to be brutal. 

 

You want the GPU usage to be high as possible, the CPU being that high is what's causing the stutter. 

 

I ended up having to use rivatuner to cap the fps to reduce the stutter. I'd suggest trying that out at different fps to see what works best for you. Also try not to have a bunch of stuff running in the background. 

[podkall]

14 minutes ago, Gohardgrandpa said:

60-100fps is great with that hardware.

Isn't the R3 1200 a 4 core 4 thread CPU?

 

I remember seeing 100% CPU usage in apex using a i7 9700f CPU at 1440p and it would stutter, I can only imagine at 900p the load on your CPU has to be brutal. 

 

You want the GPU usage to be high as possible, the CPU being that high is what's causing the stutter. 

 

I ended up having to use rivatuner to cap the fps to reduce the stutter. I'd suggest trying that out at different fps to see what works best for you. Also try not to have a bunch of stuff running in the background. 

well 100 fps on very occasional situations like looking into sky when almost nothing is happening

but it does stay at 60 fps regardless of situation

yes its 4c 4t

 

Also I noticed that the game only stutters at start and than stops, which I believe is because both CPU and windows realised that Apex needs all the juice if possible.

[Gohardgrandpa]

@podkall

I know for the past 7-14 days after the update, apex has been running terrible. The game stutters like crazy in the beginning.

 

Even on my rig in my sig I'd see it drop below 100fps with what I'd say is medium settings overall at 1440p.  I saw it hit 50 fps a few times. 

 

Try to use the frame rate limiter in rivatuner and see what happens. I know apex tends to run pretty good on lower hardware. 

 

 

[DarkSmith2]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

Also I noticed that the game only stutters at start and than stops, which I believe is because both CPU and windows realised that Apex needs all the juice if possible.

this is because of servers. nothing you can do about.