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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
11 years ago
SolvedApproved

Dragon Age Inquisition unplayable

I have installed DAI today but simply cannot play it.  My system comfortably exceeds minimum requirements  - it is quad core with 16gb RAM. The moment I launch DAI my CPU usage shoots up to 100% and ...
dragon age inquisition
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    11 years ago
    Approved

    After installing the update the game is playing really well.  It froze once and I had to restart but other than that it was fine.  It is running at about 50% which is at it should be I think.  

    I am not taking it for granted though  - the proof for me will be if it runs as smoothly for the next couple of nights.  I'll let you know

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
11 years ago
Approved

Bought this game for my wife. Our system plays every game we have thrown at it on High-Ultra Settings at steady 40-100+ FPS. This game however, is just ridiculous. 

Menu/Settings

Right from the get go the menu animation plays for 5-10 secs with no issue and then freezes. This repeats while sitting on the menu. When you go into the options you get the same issue. You have 5-10 secs to make changes then a 3-5 sec freeze.

Character creation

Character creation actually runs fairly decent with a 3-5 sec freeze every once in a while. Another issue though, if you take too long to create a character the game just closes.

Cut scenes

Just like with the Menu, the cut scenes play for 5-10 secs with no issue and then freeze for 3-5 secs.

Gameplay

Gameplay again follows with the same underlining issue. You can play for 5-10 secs with no issue and then it freezes for 3-5 secs. Also added during gameplay though, the additional issue from character creation. After a while of gameplay, about 10-30mins, the game just closes.

Notes

I do not receive any error messages. CPU Usage maxes out to 100 and stays maxed out.

Attempted Fixes

Reinstalling Game/Origin, Repairing Game, Clearing Origin Cache, Clean Boot, Reinstalling Graphics Drivers, Disabling Overlays, Running In Windowed/Fullscreen, Low/Med/High/Ultra Settings, AMD Gaming Evolved Suggested settings and prob a few other things.

So far this has been a very big disappointment and a waste of money. I see no date for the next patch or that it is meant to resolve any of these issues. To sell a product that is damaged as a new fully functional product is thieving.

  • mcsupersport's avatar
    mcsupersport
    Hero+
    11 years ago

    The CPU at 98-100% is the issue you need to fix, and I seriously doubt it is DA:I that is doing it all by itself.   The game needs between 60-90% of your CPU to run smoothly, and thus if you have anything taking up from 10-30% CPU power, then the game will lag, run slow and basically be unplayable.  So how do you find out what is causing the issue......Microsoft created a program just for this kind of problem, doing what Task manager can't do.  So you need to Download and run Microsoft Process Explorer.   So you should have a list of Process on the left of Process explorer, then CPU in next column,  then Private bytes, working set, PID, Description and finally Company name.

    What you are looking for is anything that is using CPU when running DAI...so click on CPU so it lists programs/processes by descending CPU use..

    So if you are running DAI it should basically look like this...

    Dragon Age Inquisition...       80.99         whatever memory         whatever memory   etc etc     Bioware/EA

    System Idle....                            15.00            0k                                       0k                          0   blank      blank------------system idle is just what isn't being used

    and on down the list....

    The problem will show up if you see something like

    Dragon Age Inquisition...                                                                          80.99         whatever memory         whatever memory   etc etc     Bioware/EA

    System(or really anything other than system Idle)                              16.00                       etc                                           etc                    etc            

    Which would mean you have something with Windows or related components using 16% of your CPU when you are trying to play DAI... If you are getting 2-5% you will probably be ok, but you don't want to see one topping 10% by any means when trying to play and preferably below 5%....

    I have read somewhere that Intel has a page filing process used with SSds that has a habit of doing this...is supposed to be used when drives are used in RAID if I am remembering correctly, and thus can be disabled to free up processor power...can't find the thread on here that mentions the process and how to disable it.  I have recently helped an user track down an issue with xboxlivestat.exe which was installed when he installed his wireless xbox controller, and it used CPU and accessed a HD causing slower games but just not as noticeable until he hit DAI.

    If you want to see the thread where I helped the last guy on it is here.....http://answers.ea.com/t5/Dragon-Age-Inquisition/Low-unplayable-fps-after-hardware-upgrade/td-p/4349686

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      11 years ago
      Approved

      Also check your internet usage. I've had dreadful framerates that sorted themselves out while playing once some download or other finished. (Shared line with a laptop I like to keep up-to-date.) Why that should be a factor, though, is altogether beyond me...

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      11 years ago
      Approved

      My system is sitting at 0 Activity... nothing.. when I run DA:I. The only thing that may pop up is system idle. My cpu shoots straight to 100% right when DA:I starts. I am not using an SSD and have already checked for the raid process and do not have that in my list of services. Also, outside of system processes doing a clean boot to run the game would rule out process hogs.

      • mcsupersport's avatar
        mcsupersport
        Hero+
        11 years ago

        Is that what process viewer showed??  That DAI was using 100% of your CPU??  IF you didn't use the program I linked too, then you have no idea if DAI is using that much or something else is.  You said your CPU hit 100% and not that DAI hit 100%...there IS a difference.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      11 years ago
      Approved

      Firstly, thank you for your lengthy and detailed suggestion.

      Played the game again and usual freezing was occurring. I ran the program you suggested and it showed DAI was taking up 63 - 69% of the CPU.  About 24% was being taken up by "pcControlHost.exe" from Alcatel.

      Don't know what that is but I 'killed' it using the sysexplorer program. DAI usage dropped to 54% immediately - system idle hit 40% and joy of joys the game runs smoothly.  

      I played it just for a few minutes and have immediately come on here to report the news. I didn't expect it to work but it seems to have fixed the problem.  I will go back now and give it a proper session tomorrow and will come back again to either report a permanent fix or let you know if I still have a problem.

      Thank you once again - I am so  pleased I can't find words to express my gratitude. 

      • mcsupersport's avatar
        mcsupersport
        Hero+
        11 years ago

        Glad it worked out for you Zoot...it is amazing what can cause issues for you on a computer.

        And The N 4 cer....yeah, I have been recommending that program around here for a couple months now I think...it does help quite a few people.

        Not all by any means but more people have stupid secondary programs eating CPU use and slowing down their system and they don't even know it.

        Some like K-styn don't have a secondary program causing issues, but I think they are in the minority of people who have 100% cpu use when gaming instead of the majority. 

        Hey, K-styn...if you are still reading...you said you disabled all overlays...I assume you also disabled Origin in game, since that was found out early to cause stuttering.  But have you tried changing up your Virtual memory setting to allow more virtual memory??  The game seems to respond well to that, and also you have checked into a Mobo bios update??  Depending on when you built your system and all, I have heard of a couple people on here fixing some weird issues with the game by a simple(but dangerous if done wrong as you probably know) bios upgrade.

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