playing BF4, WTF is bottlenecking!?!

[Guest]

When you tried enabling mantle, did you make sure to restart the game afterwards? If you type render.drawscreeninfo 1 in console does it say the renderer is mantle? I am able to reproduce poor gpu usage in bf4 on my AMD card, but only in DX11 mode, mantle seems to always use 95-100% of my gpu regardless of graphical settings.

 

Here's a quick video comparison I made, 64p hanai resort, mantle vs dx11 on my system. With mantle the frames are butter smooth and well above 60 fps with very consistent 95%+ gpu usage, whereas in dx11 my frames drop massively just looking at the building in the middle of the map, and very very poor gpu usage throughout:

 

dx11:

 

mantle:

[The_Evenger]

Majestic, on 20 Aug 2014 - 10:13 AM, said:

I see two cores close to saturation, that seems like a mainthread close to chocking to me.... In any case the CPU's load in general (compared to the 50ish load of the GPU) indicates it doesn't have the juice to power the card at your current settings. Just increase your visual settings, because there is nothing else you can do. Might aswell just increase the visuals if you're getting the same framerate anyway.

 

Something i'm interested in though, do you get full saturation during...say... Unigine Valley?

on what? the CPU, it only really works 1 core...

the first pic is from valley, the next is heaven, they both give off some pretty crazy readings for temp...

 

bwat47, on 20 Aug 2014 - 11:22 AM, said:

When you tried enabling mantle, did you make sure to restart the game afterwards? If you type render.drawscreeninfo 1 in console does it say the renderer is mantle? I am able to reproduce poor gpu usage in bf4 on my AMD card, but only in DX11 mode, mantle seems to always use 95-100% of my gpu regardless of graphical settings.

 

Here's a quick video comparison I made, 64p hanai resort, mantle vs dx11 on my system. With mantle the frames are butter smooth and well above 60 fps with very consistent 95%+ gpu usage, whereas in dx11 my frames drop massively just looking at the building in the middle of the map, and very very poor gpu usage throughout:

 

dx11:

 

mantle:

yes I am certain I am using mantle, but when I switch between direct X and mantle, I see no difference, even after a reboot of the game. and yes I did check render.drawscreeninfo 1, says mantle, or DX when I'm using that

[btw how do you post proper in-post videos & pictures like that like that?]

[Guest]

If you go into catalyst, enable AMD overdrive and raise the power limit to ~10% does that make any difference? I've seen some people claim that this can help with inconsistent gpu usage.

 

 

[btw how do you post proper in-post videos & pictures like that like that?]

 

I just pasted the youtube links and the forum did it automagically

[The_Evenger]

bwat47, on 21 Aug 2014 - 11:29 AM, said:

If you go into catalyst, enable AMD overdrive and raise the power limit to ~10% does that make any difference? I've seen some people claim that this can help with inconsistent gpu usage.

 

 

 

I just pasted the youtube links and the forum did it automagically

no difference, also the power limit for me is +/- 50%, not 10... according to my benchmarks when I upped the limit, it actually scored lower than when it's at 0.

Also I'm starting to not be sure if I can trust the graph, because when I have a program like Zune open (yes I still use it) just at the menu, it will just start spiking up in usage like 10% per second, then hit around 90% then drop off back to 0%, and all this without having any change to core clock or temperatures.

 

(sorry about the long wait on my reply, my ISP has been especially shitty lately and couldn't even get 50Kb/s, let alone a ping <500

[Mitrailleuse]

have you tried unparking you cpu cores?

http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

edit:

on nvm i see you tried that

 

did you try running the game on windowed mode?

[The_Evenger]

Mitrailleuse, on 23 Aug 2014 - 6:42 PM, said:

have you tried unparking you cpu cores?

http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

edit:

on nvm i see you tried that

 

did you try running the game on windowed mode?

I have checked if I was in windowed mode, and have tried windowed, there really isn't a difference, but I just noticed something that I'm kinda face palming I didn't notice earlier

 

would anyone kindly explain why GPU-Z has like, no information... is the card bios itself the issue somehow?

[Vrbas]

If you use win 8 you don't have to unpark your cores. 

 

Could be the card. If you have another try testing that. Also if you have another PCI E slot on the motherboard try that out.

[superducky94]

The problem is you vrm overheating on your motherboard, I experienced your exact problems. There is some information in a thread I made about it here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/192875-gtx-780-performance-issues/ as well as the thread linked within that thread concerning your motherboard. The VRM heatsinks are not sufficient and cause your CPU to throttle. There are things you can do to solve the problem. Gigabyte is aware of the problem and won't do anything about it, supposedly they fixed it in the most recent version of your board. 

 

I currently have solved the problem by putting a 120mm fan full blast on intake in the rear of the case. I have all clocks set to stock except for loadline calibration, which I set to extreme. This has got my framerates back into shape, no more CPU bottlenecking, without having to do any more intense modifications like you'll see in the threads. 

 

Let me know if it works out for you, I hope it does!

 

It was really weird. I didn't always have the problems and it wasn't with all games either, but then all of a sudden it was just really bad. Idk. I wish I had read around about the board more though, as it seems to be a very common problem.

[MunsonedForLife]

I just moved and all of a sudden I'm noticing a lot of stutter in BF4.  I don't understand why.  Any ideas?

[The_Evenger]

superducky94, on 24 Aug 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:superducky94, on 24 Aug 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:superducky94, on 24 Aug 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:superducky94, on 24 Aug 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:superducky94, on 24 Aug 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:

The problem is you vrm overheating on your motherboard, I experienced your exact problems. There is some information in a thread I made about it here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/192875-gtx-780-performance-issues/ as well as the thread linked within that thread concerning your motherboard. The VRM heatsinks are not sufficient and cause your CPU to throttle. There are things you can do to solve the problem. Gigabyte is aware of the problem and won't do anything about it, supposedly they fixed it in the most recent version of your board. 

 

I currently have solved the problem by putting a 120mm fan full blast on intake in the rear of the case. I have all clocks set to stock except for loadline calibration, which I set to extreme. This has got my framerates back into shape, no more CPU bottlenecking, without having to do any more intense modifications like you'll see in the threads. 

 

Let me know if it works out for you, I hope it does!

 

It was really weird. I didn't always have the problems and it wasn't with all games either, but then all of a sudden it was just really bad. Idk. I wish I had read around about the board more though, as it seems to be a very common problem.

I have the latest revision of this mobo (revision 4.0) and it has a larger heat pipe on it basically. how would I test my vrm overheating? I mean for the longest time I had duel 140 intakes on the sidepannel blasting right over the cpu & vrm area... and that was when I had duel sapphire Radeon HD 6950s, and in BF4 they both gave full boar 98% 24/7, even when I had them clocked at 960Mhz (stock is 800) and running @ 87 C

 

I have tried under clocking my CPU to 3Ghz, terrible result, all cores 99% usage, game frames were shit.      that was my first test, I'm going to do some more testing before checking back with my results

 

Edit: alright, stock clocks have no difference, the cores actually have about 10% left at stock, and I have extremely good cooling in my case, that's why I got it, 1x 140mm bottom fan, 2x 140mm sidepannel fans 2x 120mm top fans, 1x 140mm front fan, 1x 120mm rear fan (watercooler)

trust me. I have a lot of airflow through that thing, and I also have tried putting a squirrel fan blowing into the case instead of a sidepannel, no help.

 

 

Vrbas, on 24 Aug 2014 - 12:27 AM, said:Vrbas, on 24 Aug 2014 - 12:27 AM, said:Vrbas, on 24 Aug 2014 - 12:27 AM, said:

If you use win 8 you don't have to unpark your cores. 

 

Could be the card. If you have another try testing that. Also if you have another PCI E slot on the motherboard try that out.

I actually tried this, no help, BUT I was thinking I'm doing all this shit I might as well throw the sink at it too

 

http://imgur.com/llpSM71

http://imgur.com/RgkrPLA

 

(could someone tell me how to do this correctly please?)

[superducky94]

I have the latest revision of this mobo (revision 4.0) and it has a larger heat pipe on it basically. how would I test my vrm overheating? I mean for the longest time I had duel 140 intakes on the sidepannel blasting right over the cpu & vrm area... and that was when I had duel sapphire Radeon HD 6950s, and in BF4 they both gave full boar 98% 24/7, even when I had them clocked at 960Mhz (stock is 800) and running @ 87 C

 

I have tried under clocking my CPU to 3Ghz, terrible result, all cores 99% usage, game frames were shit.      that was my first test, I'm going to do some more testing before checking back with my results

 

Edit: alright, stock clocks have no difference, the cores actually have about 10% left at stock, and I have extremely good cooling in my case, that's why I got it, 1x 140mm bottom fan, 2x 140mm sidepannel fans 2x 120mm top fans, 1x 140mm front fan, 1x 120mm rear fan (watercooler)

trust me. I have a lot of airflow through that thing, and I also have tried putting a squirrel fan blowing into the case instead of a sidepannel, no help.

 

 

I actually tried this, no help, BUT I was thinking I'm doing all this shit I might as well throw the sink at it too

 

http://imgur.com/llpSM71

http://imgur.com/RgkrPLA

 

(could someone tell me how to do this correctly please?)

Well I'm sorry to hear that it didn't do anything for you, I'm not really sure where else to go from here. It's just really strange because you have the EXACT same problems as I did but it seems you have a different cause. I hope you figure something out, be sure to post if you do figure it out!

[The_Evenger]

superducky94, on 25 Aug 2014 - 11:21 PM, said:

Well I'm sorry to hear that it didn't do anything for you, I'm not really sure where else to go from here. It's just really strange because you have the EXACT same problems as I did but it seems you have a different cause. I hope you figure something out, be sure to post if you do figure it out!

thanks! I still have a few cards up my sleeve, I guess my next move is to go forward with project Frankenstein. DO will be out of commission for a while unfortunately...

these next few tests will be extremely time consuming, I also have a feeling it may have something to due with GPU-Z not picking up on any of the card's firmware, so I may try reloading that (and make it unlocked while at it) but thanks for helping! I'll definitely post it if I find the issue

 

(saying test makes me feel like that computer from aperture laboratories  )

[Majestic]

http://imgur.com/llpSM71

http://imgur.com/RgkrPLA

 

Those pictures are clearly showing the CPU struggling. To answer your original question plainly; the CPU. Get a better one.

[Juliogol]

I feel your pain OP I've been struggling with the same thing for several time. Tried everything with no good results. Let me tell you throwing a i5 2500k would not make a difference.I use to own one, @ 4.3 GHz and I was having the same issue as you with a  r9 280x. Recently I upgraded my GPUU to a Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 and same results. Then I sold my 2500k and got a 4690k, OC to 4.4 and still same thing. When on Mantle things work a liiiiiitle better, but since I record gameplay I prefer DX. After months of struggling I finally gave up and accepted that it's something with the game. 

 

For example, on some maps I can mantain 100/120 FPS (settings medium and some low) and on some other maps I get bad FPS, and that leades me to believe that is game optimization. Don't think that a 4690k can't handle this game. Also, same as you, when playing Domination or TDM on 32 players servers, I can set it to ultra, no AA and get a stable 120 FPS all the round.

 

This is MSI afterburner monitoring BF4 GPU usage

 

http://imgur.com/cRnW2IY

 

And this is Tomb Raider (the fall at the end is because of Alt+tabing)

 

http://imgur.com/dsohueq

 

Tried everything the say on this thread and no luck. I, like you, also run Dual Monitors, tried using just one, same results. Soooooooo, as much as I hate it, BF beat me and I gave up. Please if you find a solution, let me know!

[LOST TALE]

wadada

I would try re-installing microsoft network frame work, and network drivers.

Idk, I would.... this really sucks.

[The_Evenger]

Majestic, on 26 Aug 2014 - 09:00 AM, said:Majestic, on 26 Aug 2014 - 09:00 AM, said:

 

http://imgur.com/llpSM71

http://imgur.com/RgkrPLA

 

Those pictures are clearly showing the CPU struggling. To answer your original question plainly; the CPU. Get a better one.

 

that was at stock clocks, when I OC, it doesn't improve performance, just lowers the CPU usage. I actually had a semi-stable clock at 4.9Ghz, but my MOBO just wasn't able to hold on at that point, the CPU was fine, just the mobo would litteraly quit and give me a black screen, with all fans spinning, hitting the reset switch wouldn't do anything, holding power wouldn't do anything, had to force off the PSU, but like I said, it just lowered the usage, no improvement.

 

Juliogol, on 26 Aug 2014 - 7:36 PM, said:

I feel your pain OP I've been struggling with the same thing for several time. Tried everything with no good results. Let me tell you throwing a i5 2500k would not make a difference.I use to own one, @ 4.3 GHz and I was having the same issue as you with a  r9 280x. Recently I upgraded my GPUU to a Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 and same results. Then I sold my 2500k and got a 4690k, OC to 4.4 and still same thing. When on Mantle things work a liiiiiitle better, but since I record gameplay I prefer DX. After months of struggling I finally gave up and accepted that it's something with the game. 

 

For example, on some maps I can mantain 100/120 FPS (settings medium and some low) and on some other maps I get bad FPS, and that leades me to believe that is game optimization. Don't think that a 4690k can't handle this game. Also, same as you, when playing Domination or TDM on 32 players servers, I can set it to ultra, no AA and get a stable 120 FPS all the round.

 

This is MSI afterburner monitoring BF4 GPU usage

 

http://imgur.com/cRnW2IY

 

And this is Tomb Raider (the fall at the end is because of Alt+tabing)

 

http://imgur.com/dsohueq

 

Tried everything the say on this thread and no luck. I, like you, also run Dual Monitors, tried using just one, same results. Soooooooo, as much as I hate it, BF beat me and I gave up. Please if you find a solution, let me know!

it's not just me?!? awesome, well not really, but from what you've shown me you have the exact same issue as I do. that at least gives me faith that my GPU isn't DOA, although I do have a question, if you open GPU-Z, what does it say for you, like I have posted above, I get a lot of wrong or "unknown" information [Edit: actually all of it is wrong], I think that might be a link to the problem, although I don't see how, but I have almost run out of ideas.

 

(also thanks a lot for telling me you tried upgrading form a 2500k, you saved me from having to merge two computers together!)

[Juliogol]

that was at stock clocks, when I OC, it doesn't improve performance, just lowers the CPU usage. I actually had a semi-stable clock at 4.9Ghz, but my MOBO just wasn't able to hold on at that point, the CPU was fine, just the mobo would litteraly quit and give me a black screen, with all fans spinning, hitting the reset switch wouldn't do anything, holding power wouldn't do anything, had to force off the PSU, but like I said, it just lowered the usage, no improvement.

 

it's not just me?!? awesome, well not really, but from what you've shown me you have the exact same issue as I do. that at least gives me faith that my GPU isn't DOA, although I do have a question, if you open GPU-Z, what does it say for you, like I have posted above, I get a lot of wrong or "unknown" information [Edit: actually all of it is wrong], I think that might be a link to the problem, although I don't see how, but I have almost run out of ideas.

 

(also thanks a lot for telling me you tried upgrading form a 2500k, you saved me from having to merge two computers together!)

 

No problem! I've struggled so much with this game that I know the feeling. Here's the picture of GPUz, everything seems ok. Just to let you know the maps where I get the worst performance arme mostly the Dragon's Teeth expansion ones and Shangai, Haianan Resort. On rogue transmission, or the china rising maps to say a few it works much better FPS wise, but usage is usually like the graphic I posted. Any help you need, just let me know!

 

http://imgur.com/F29U6DI

[Sintezza]

Does it the same if you play single player?

you should suffer from the same in other multiplayer games.

If the mobo is throttling the cpu.

Could also be that crappy realtek lan controller on the board which is crapping out of you.

 

The only thing i saw is that your cpu is getting damm hot.

But it seems like that even users with an 4690K have the same issues, so thats kinda strange.

Maybe its just the map, or your connection

[The_Evenger]

Juliogol, on 26 Aug 2014 - 9:54 PM, said:Juliogol, on 26 Aug 2014 - 9:54 PM, said:

No problem! I've struggled so much with this game that I know the feeling. Here's the picture of GPUz, everything seems ok. Just to let you know the maps where I get the worst performance arme mostly the Dragon's Teeth expansion ones and Shangai, Haianan Resort. On rogue transmission, or the china rising maps to say a few it works much better FPS wise, but usage is usually like the graphic I posted. Any help you need, just let me know!

 

http://imgur.com/F29U6DI

well their goes that idea, your information is all correct and the problem is still their, so clearly it's not that. (to be honest I only have a few maps that actually work well. by far the worst ones for me are: Altai Range & Pearl Market)

actually what is you internet speed, a few people said it could be that, (although I can't see that being the problem [i have 2.8Mbps down and about 1Mbps up.])

 

Sintezza, on 26 Aug 2014 - 9:56 PM, said:

Does it the same if you play single player?

you should suffer from the same in other multiplayer games.

If the mobo is throttling the cpu.

Could also be that crappy realtek lan controller on the board which is crapping out of you.

 

The only thing i saw is that your cpu is getting damm hot.

But it seems like that even users with an 4690K have the same issues, so thats kinda strange.

Maybe its just the map, or your connection

yeah single player has the same issue, and the CPU is getting damn hot because I have overclocked it as far as I can push without throttling from heat.

I can't see a lan controller causing this issue. I thought it was just the map, but I saw a youtuber giveaway a 270X and it was pushing far past my 290 in terms of performance in the demonstration, so there has to be something wrong here...

[Sintezza]

well their goes that idea, your information is all correct and the problem is still their, so clearly it's not that. (to be honest I only have a few maps that actually work well. by far the worst ones for me are: Altai Range & Pearl Market)

actually what is you internet speed, a few people said it could be that, (although I can't see that being the problem [i have 2.8Mbps down and about 1Mbps up.])

 

yeah single player has the same issue, and the CPU is getting damn hot because I have overclocked it as far as I can push without throttling from heat.

I can't see a lan controller causing this issue. I thought it was just the map, but I saw a youtuber giveaway a 270X and it was pushing far past my 290 in terms of performance in the demonstration, so there has to be something wrong here...

 

Well realtek lan controllers sometimes have terrible latency issues.

 

Anyway if you suffer from the same issue offline, then it does not has anything to do with your connection probably

 

I saw indeed better numbers then what you get,with similar setups, so its kinda strange.

Did you allready tried diffrent drivers?

By the way i saw a realy strange screen  a page back, from GPU-Z not recognizing any numbers from your gpu, thats kinda strange...

[The_Evenger]

Sintezza, on 26 Aug 2014 - 11:31 PM, said:

Well realtek lan controllers sometimes have terrible latency issues.

 

Anyway if you suffer from the same issue offline, then it does not has anything to do with your connection probably

 

I saw indeed better numbers then what you get,with similar setups, so its kinda strange.

Did you allready tried diffrent drivers?

By the way i saw a realy strange screen  a page back, from GPU-Z not recognizing any numbers from your gpu, thats kinda strange...

I have tried 14.4 official and I'm currently running 14.7 beta, there isn't any difference. and just in case you didn't read the entire thread (I don't blame you) I went as far as to install another OS and reinstall the game from scratch, no luck.

 

and yes, that GPU-Z thing is scary indeed.

 

and one thing I noticed just now: if I'm in an area where I'm getting around 40-50FPS 50% usage, if I type in render.resolutionscale 2 (making the game render in 4K for me), the frame rate doesn't dip that much and the GPU usage shoots up to 100%, that was after 1 test, so don't take that too far, that may just be coincidence, and I was able to adjust the internal resolution of the game 3 times before I got it stuck at 2160x3840 and couldn't change it back to 2K

[Sintezza]

did you manage similer strange kind of things in other games?

I dont know if you also play other games, that are a bit intensive?

[Diceair]

I'm having simmilar issues with bf4. specs:

 

i7-4790k

corsair h100i

Windows 8.1 64bit

16GB 1600mhz ram

1xssd for os and ssd for games

AMD radeon r9 280x crossfire

Qnix QX2710 2560x1440 @ 96Hz

corsair ax850w

 

I can play other games fine but bf4 will use all cores but 1 core sit's @ 80% usage. Thing is my original memory was faulty so i borrowed some memory from work. I'm just waiting for my supplier to get the 2400mhz in stock so will get 2x 2400mhz in stock as I've heard BF4 loves memroy spead and seeing as I'm running Haswell i hope it will sort out.

 

I tried running this game on low without vsync and FPS unlimited and my fps when on test range can go as high as 300FPS+ with gpu usage of 99% but when playing on servers with about 20-40+ players my gpu usage drops. I just hope Dice can fix mantle cause on my old 3770k and 1x r9 280x my game was so much smoother than dx11.1. I had huge drops and when I enabled mantle my fps was stable.

 

 

I think Dice broke the game after the 8 July patch and it's actually scare that they not providing a hotfix and rather wait for the gameplay changes. I know many people that left BF4 because they can't run it since that patch. at least I have metro redux and the crew beta (for the last day or so) to play.

[Juliogol]

well their goes that idea, your information is all correct and the problem is still their, so clearly it's not that. (to be honest I only have a few maps that actually work well. by far the worst ones for me are: Altai Range & Pearl Market)

actually what is you internet speed, a few people said it could be that, (although I can't see that being the problem [i have 2.8Mbps down and about 1Mbps up.])

 

yeah single player has the same issue, and the CPU is getting damn hot because I have overclocked it as far as I can push without throttling from heat.

I can't see a lan controller causing this issue. I thought it was just the map, but I saw a youtuber giveaway a 270X and it was pushing far past my 290 in terms of performance in the demonstration, so there has to be something wrong here...

 

I have 12 MB down, but that nothing to do with it. Some friends play it with 1MB down and works fine for them. Pearl Market for me is one of the worst maps also, so it's got to be something with the game. Yesterday played a game on Pearl Market, FPS was getting as low as 50ish on some parts of the map. Next map, Propaganda, getting 100-120 FPS the entire map so, something is wrong with the game. Lots of people say that the 8th July patch messed everithing up. Guess we'll have to wait and see next patch, but if you find anything be sure to post it!

[Juliogol]

So, decided to run Mantle on my new 4690k, domination MAP, ultra, no AA and look at this usage of the GPU (120 FPS constantly)

 

 

mhmmm...