Why do some games 'rev down' during pause menu, yet others do not?

[BattleToads]

In many games, you can see a distinct drop in system resources being demanded once you hit the pause/menu key. In others, this is not the case or it may even increase! Why is this? Poor optimization/devs? Does it depend on the game? Is there a certain setting somewhere that is causing this? 

[Levent]

Some games pause some aspects of their game engines and some can’t (online games for example). It has barely anything to do with laziness.

[RejZoR]

Some game turn off 3D and only display 2D frontend, resulting in almost no system utilization. Some other games also limit framerate to 60 or 30fps when in menu to further lower GPU utilization. Some just run at full speed no matter what. Multiplayer games usually have to run entire logic behind the menu so that you remain in sinc with other players, minus the graphics.

[johnno23]

there is no one size fits all in the answer t the question but already above me people have responded with various reasons and I agree with them.

In my own games library I have also noticed disparity in GPU use FPS etc.

 however my older solo campaign games without the always online as far as my poor memory can recall they all dropped down to an idling of the GPU and FPS would often hit a stable number and stay there.

With my always online games the situation was fluid and often more resources were used as obviously the online aspect was continuing with updating information in the background.

easy example is that some games with the multiplayer and always online even in the pause menu I could die or be killed. Annoying but makes perfect sense or everyone would simply pause a game if they got into danger.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Worse still some games remove the FPS cap in the menu such as Elden Ring at launch, which actually fried some 30x0 cards due to a manufacturing fault allowing them to draw more power than they should have.

[BattleToads]

The multiplayer games make sense. Your PC still has to keep track of what is going on. You can't pause real life. I am referring to single player games, however. In Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, you will actually notice a slight spike in system resources being used when you pause the game. 

[NekoBubbles]

It really depends on if the developer gave a damn about how optimized the pause menu or main menu is. A lot of devs don't care and as a result the FPS just go as high as they can LOL. 

[NekoBubbles]

4 minutes ago, NekoBubbles said:

It really depends on if the developer gave a damn about how optimized the pause menu or main menu is. A lot of devs don't care and as a result the FPS just go as high as they can LOL. 

I'm not going to go into super innate detail but some menu's in some games if you are unfortunate enough to pause in those games they will burn up to a whopping unbelievable like 400 fps if the fps isn't capped in menu. And its like WTAF are you loading that is A that many menu objects. And B. 400 FPS? The game runs at only close to 120 or 144 fps.

[Avocado Diaboli]

On 6/24/2023 at 7:02 PM, BattleToads said:

The multiplayer games make sense. Your PC still has to keep track of what is going on. You can't pause real life. I am referring to single player games, however. In Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, you will actually notice a slight spike in system resources being used when you pause the game. 

Some games keep rendering the in-game stuff even while paused. You can see it often in games that update the scene in the background when you go into the options to change something. There's no law stating that you have to free up system resources when pausing a game, so why does it matter?

[BattleToads]

6 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Some games keep rendering the in-game stuff even while paused. You can see it often in games that update the scene in the background when you go into the options to change something. There's no law stating that you have to free up system resources when pausing a game, so why does it matter?

It matters because if something comes up and I need to get away from my computer for a few minutes, there's no point in it pulling hundreds of watts and dumping all that heat for no reason. It would be nice to give the computer a rest for a few minutes with just the push of a button, and many games are like this. 

[Avocado Diaboli]

1 minute ago, BattleToads said:

It matters because if something comes up and I need to get away from my computer for a few minutes, there's no point in it pulling hundreds of watts and dumping all that heat for no reason. It would be nice to give the computer a rest for a few minutes with just the push of a button, and many games are like this. 

Alt+F4.

 

Seriously, this isn't something you'll be able to change. If it's just a few minutes, it's hardly much of an issue and if it's for longer, shut down the game and turn off the computer entirely. Problem solved.