user.cfg trick lower CPU usage doesn't work - hurts FPS on Intel E-Cores
I'm sure some of you are aware that a lot of youtubers/redditors have been going around talking about a magic cure for "high CPU usage".
You put a 'user.cfg' file with the following words, into your battlefield steam folder:
Thread.ProcessorCount 8
Thread.MaxProcessorCount 8
Thread.MinFreeProcessorCount 0
Thread.JobThreadPriority 0
GstRender.Thread.MaxProcessorCount 16
You adjust to 6/6/12 if you have a 6 core processor, or 4/4/8 for a quad core.
And then the youtuber loads into a completely different map from the one he was on when he shows the 'high cpu usage', and like magic, in this other map, he's getting lower CPU usage! Miracle!
Be advised that this doesn't work.
It does nothing. The game already knows how to use your CPU cores. Telling it you have 6 cores and 12 threads doesn't do anything if you only have 6 cores and 12 threads. If you have 8 cores and 16 threads it knows how to use those.
It's a placebo effect. It's not harmful if you have a straight shooter 1c/2t x whatever CPU, like most AMD CPU's and any Intel CPU from 11th gen and earlier.
What it will do however, is block any CPU cores/threads that are on the CPU that are after the number you list. This is a problem if for whatever reason, you tell it to only use 6c/12t on a 8c/16t CPU.
More significantly, using 8/8/16 like the redditors & youtubers tell you to use, because you "only have 8 P-Cores", is a massive problem for 12th Gen, 13th Gen, 14th Gen and Core Ultra Intel CPUs.
BF6 knows how to use E-Cores. It works them perfectly well. I have a 14900k & 5080. The settings aren't that important except to know I keep them the same. When you tell the game to use "8 processors and 16 threads" (or 6/12 for a 14600k or similar) you're telling it to not use any of the E-Cores. Sure, you might get "reduced CPU usage", but it's doing it by not using the processor, and killing your FPS. The P-Cores don't increase their workload (or don't increase enough) to make up for the lack of E-Cores.
I did a benchmark, using a special benchmark map in Portal (it's called "Bench De Mark" if you want to find it, then stand on the tyre on the right of the map as you spawn in, and let the bots shoot and throw nades and blow up cars, it's not a perfect situation but it's as good as we get now). 2 minutes captured with CapFrameX for statistics.
Without user.cfg I get:
- Average FPS - 150.8
- 1% Low - 109.3
- 0.1% Low - 96.9
Then using the 8/8/16 user.cfg:
- Average FPS - 146.4 (4.4 worse)
- 1% Low - 87.7 (21.6 worse)
- 0.1% Low - 77.6 (19.3 worse)
As you can see, this is massively inferior. During the user.cfg 8/8/16 run it completely stopped the e-cores getting any load on them from the game. If you weren't looking closely into it (eg, an Afterburner overlay only) you might think it's good, because you have similar FPS, and significantly reduced CPU usage. Except you don't realise that it kills your 1% and 0.1% lows, which will cause dip and stuttering.
And I also did a test where I set the user.cfg to match the 14900k fully. So 24/24/32.
- Average FPS - 153.5
- 1% Low - 104
- 0.1% Low - 84.8
It's very similar to the "without user.cfg" run. Some small differences that I think are just the nature of using this test map with lots of bots and grenades etc (in the 0.1% low mostly, so maybe a bunch of nades went off at the same time). If I did more and more runs they'd probably average out to be identical.
The thread/processor user.cfg trick is a waste of time, or actively hurts your performance. Don't use it.
I had a person I know test it with their 9800x3D and it had similar negative impact to my 14900k test.
4% drop on average FPS
15% drop on 1% low FPS
16% drop on 0.1% low FPSAny "benefit" to CPU load or power or heat is because these commands have a negative impact on the game's ability to run properly. It will also make the game stutter and dip more & the frametimes will be worse and with more variation frame to frame. That much drop on the 1% and 0.1% is something that will make the game less smooth and worse feeling.
Making the game run worse isn't a solution to anything. CPU's are designed to run at full usage and most have a thermal throttle temp of 95c and higher.
Usage might be a problem if you're pinned at 95% to 100% constantly while the GPU isn't, causing bottlenecking. Heat is a problem if it's in the 90's, and it's something you might want to look at improving when it's above 70c in-game. Almost all situations where the CPU usage/heat is pinned or throttling there are solutions to try before you take the drastic step of killing the game's ability to run.
Things that might be able to be done to improve the situation instead of using these broken commands that destroy your 1% and 0.1% lows:
- Use bios commands to reduce your boost clocks or set power limits or if you are comfortable with tweaking, undervolting.
- Check that your memory is being run at correct speeds, for most people this will mean double checking it has XMP enabled (or EXPO on certain AMD boards).
- Reduce game settings or resolution or use DLSS if you have it available but aren't using it.
- Clean your case and the case/gpu fans, if you haven't done this for a while your fans and radiators might be clogged with dust.
- Consider upgrading your CPU cooler.
- Consider repasting the thermal paste on your CPU if it's older than 1 year. I use thermalgrizzly phasesheet, but have also got good results from mastergel maker, thermal grizzly's kryonaut extreme and noctua paste.
- Check if your case can add more fans for intake or exhaust.
- Find out if your case fans are low speed (1200 rpm and lower) and could be upgraded, or perhaps the case itself might be a poor performer (eg it's a glass front style case) choking airflow.
- If you are on a laptop you might want to get a laptop cooler like a Llano or IETS.
- If you have 4 sticks of ram in your motherboard this might impact performance, especially if it's on a DDR5 system. Consider consolidating into a two stick solution with a set of ram that matches your capacity needs and is on the QVL with a good XMP speed.
- Older CPU's may benefit from an upgrade within the same socket. For example, if you had an Intel 9th Gen i5 with 4 or 6 cores, you might be able to upgrade to a 9700k or 9900k with 8 cores. Most AMD CPU's have similar upgrade paths, like upgrading from a Ryzen 5 with 6 cores to Ryzen 7 in the same Zen generation but with 8 cores.
- Disable the in-game frame cap and any GPU control panel cap (eg, Nvidia control panel) and if you use afterburner with RTSS, use RTSS Async frame-cap. There's a problem with the ingame or Nvidia control panel frame cap that causes increases frametimes, with small impacts on Average FPS, and larger impacts on the 1% and 0.1% lows. My testing showed the 0.1% FPS increasing from 94 up to 107 with RTSS capping. This may allow the game to utilise the CPU more efficiently, reducing load.
