Just Why question ( Graphics / Performance )

alphabeta · September 11, 2014

I decided to test the performance of my R9 280x with farcry 3 on 1366 x 768 p monitor ( my main monitor ) .

With ultra settings ( MSAA ==> off and SSAO Method ==> SSAO and alpha to coverage ==> Standard ).

I found out that there's a single core that hits 100% most of the time while the GPU usage varies from 75%~95%.

Turning on ( MSAA ==> 8x and SSAO Method ==> HBAO and alpha to coverage ==> enhanced ).

the GPU usage 98~99% while this single core which was hitting the 100% most of the time barely hit 90% now .

So what is the explanation :3 , Can the resolution cause this !? . Anyway I'm going to try it on 1080 p and see what's going to change

thekeemo · September 11, 2014

probably the ssao

AMD Lover · September 11, 2014

Well not an expert but the one core it is utilizing the most is probably in the center most of the chip (More heat dissipation). When you increase the load on the card instead of overworking that single core the GPU spreads it out over multiple cores with less of a load to try to keep the cores as cool as possible.

Ciccioo · September 11, 2014

higher settings are GPU intensive, so the game is GPU bound, and the CPU just sits there waiting for the GPU to compute all the effects

lower settings make the GPU's work quick to do, while the CPU still has to do all of the AI and stuff that generally doesn't scale much as graphics quality increases. so the GPU has to wait for the CPU

(waiting for the other processing unit = low usage percentage)

SeanBond · September 11, 2014

When you have vsync off you will hit a hardware limit frame rate. If you cpu cannot handle going faster you won't have full gpu usage. If you gpu cannot handle keeping up then you will not get full cpu usage. It's not an issue at all. Each component just has to wait on the other. You should probably just enable vsync. You will always get a smoother gameplay with a frame rate locked to your monitors refresh rate (which is what vsync does). Also you will save on electricity heat out put from your computer and overall lifespan of the computer. The only reason you should ever not have it on is if you cannot maintain a frame rate equal to your monitor at all times. Then you will get stutter.