Re: High CPU & low GPU usage; microstuttering in BF5

Thanks for all the pointers.

-Repair game function came up with no errors, even did a complete uninstall and reinstall of the entire game.

-The game functions the same regardless of any monitoring tools. Completely disabling MSI afterburner/RTSS and rebooting doesn't do anything.

-Clean boot doesn't help, task manager shows nothing eating up the CPU except BFV.exe

-Nvidia driver 445.87 is currently the newest game ready driver, tried your suggestion. 

-Also used display driver uninstaller and reinstalled only the driver and physx.

-Tried switching to studio ready driver,older game ready driver. No difference.

-Xbox game bar overlay is disabled.

-The dxdiag.txt file you requested is attached.

I've also attached a link to a video of the issue,captured in game with the nvidia overlay. Just focusing on the trees there's a weird texture pop in and out, which is on other surfaces like sandbags as well. Also look at the CPU/GPU usage and the fluctuating frametimes. There are a lot of other bugs like occasionally smoke/fog might pop in and out and the hit detection feels off, even in single player. RAM and VRAM are not maxed out, but the game is using almost 11GB of RAM. Settings are all medium @ 1440p and 80% resolution scale. At these settings battlefield 1 runs at 100+ FPS all the time.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VWjOcy37LAYB0vtu8jFegUPJNLrYwoHF

This issue wasn't there in the early builds of the game, although I didn't run those on this machine.

Can't see anything unusual in the DxDiag.

Turn off the Origin in-game Overlay in the Origin Launcher and test the game.

Make sure you're running DX11, and not DX12

Check for new BIOS updates

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Yes, turns out some of my Windows files were corrupted and successfully replaced but that still didn't fix the game ! I have the latest Clevo BIOS (Prema Mod). I did a complete BIOS reset and re-applied my CPU undervolt. No joy. Every other game runs just fine, I think the game code is broken somehow.

AND WHY DOES THIS GAME RESET ALL MY NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL PROGRAM SETTINGS I'VE MADE FOR IT ?!

The game resets Nvidia control panel to avoid players using it to gain unfair advantages in multiplayer as Nvidia doesn't provide the option for games to limit the use of it to effectively cheat.

Google Drive is not playing ball and won't allow me to watch your clip of the issue happening, it looks like it might be corrupted and refuses to download after 64MB - an unlisted Youtube video is preferred.

In any case, at this point it's all a matter of ruling things out.

Battlefield V has a tendency to stress computers unlike most other games. Any memory, CPU or chipset overclock that might be stable in other games might not be stable in Battlefield V, to rule that out you need to run everything at stock speeds and voltages (in BIOS) and preferably test again after having performed a proper clean boot https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows - Your laptop seems to use a manufacturer modded bios that is supposed to " provide better Stability, Optimization & Performance", sadly we can't rule that out but it might have changed the default voltages and if that's the case you have to look that up and set it yourself manually to do this test.

If you have a spare formatted harddrive, connecting that instead, install a fresh W10 install and trying that might also be a good test to rule out most Windows 10 and harddrive issues.

Thanks @Carbonic,

Resetting everything to stock speeds and voltages made no difference whatsoever(Complete BIOS reset,MSI afterburner reset).

A clean boot does not resolve the issue.

Prema BIOS for Azom laptops does not mess with the stock voltages and speeds: Just had a chat with my OEM, they have applied a temperature limiter of 100 degrees on the CPU and raised the tjmax of the GPU to 90 degrees from its default 75 before it starts throttling, and added some overclocking options for the i7-7700K(mine is a non-K).

RAM timing,GPU VRAM clocks etc are untouched, only modification made is a -110mV core offset on the CPU(~0.1V undervolt).

Youtube apparently is not processing the video at higher than 360p, I have made another, more detailed video and uploaded on MEGA with an MSI afterburner overlay in 1080p to better highlight the issue-hope this one works:

https://mega.nz/folder/8h5H2A4a#q4O0WqTIBFtKHWYA2I2qdw

My CPU usage shouldn't be this high, an i7-7700 can easily max this game out at 120 FPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-I6r9qg-V0

That is a high GPU usage on a GTX 1080ti at 1080p, so this CPU should nearly saturate a GTX 1080 at 1440p, regardless of settings.

Windows should not be an issue,hopefully. Currently have about 35+ games installed across steam,origin,uplay etc and this is the only one giving me issues. AC Oddysey/Metro Exodus/Red Dead Redemption 2 which are even more CPU intensive than this game run without problems. If some windows features/services would have been corrupted maybe one other game using the same service would've given some issue. 

Windows error log is CLEAN.

@Carbonic 

Yes, you're right. Capping the frame rate at 75 FPS in RTSS reduces the stuttering somewhat,and capping it further in-game at 60 eliminates it completely.

To rule out that this was indeed a CPU bottleneck and not broken game code, I downloaded a launch copy of the game from...alternate sources, along with an old copy of the launch game ready driver to test it out, same problem.

Stuttering does indeed happen when there are a lot of particles flying around or there is a lot of complex geometry (any way to potato mode some CPU intensive settings?).

This game is mind-blowingly multithreaded. Never thought anything could slow down 8 threads at 4.0ghz for the next 3 years.Time to look into AMD Ryzen.

Another quick question: Would limiting the frame rate in-game to 60 add additional input latency ? I know v-sync does, but does FPS limiter in-game or otherwise cause latency issues as well ?

Should I keep my display refresh rate at 120, or reduce it to 60hz to match the 60FPS ?

The texture pop-in issue still persists though,even after lowering the CPU temperature by power limiting the CPU in BIOS.

Limiting the FPS using third party applications will add noticeable input lag. Using the ingame command to do it will add almost none.

You can see how to do it here:

https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/172424/command-to-limit-fps

Update: 

This game still has persistent frame pacing issues, even at 60. Textures are really broken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl6M0QGYFkQ

I would advise finishing installing the game.

Also, the video does not contain the overlays I suggested.