Why is my game running at 5 Frames Per Second? [PC]

There have been a lot of people mentioning in this forum about high CPU usage, but that seems to be just a part of how DA:I utilizes a computer's resources, as far as I know.

What do you typically have your graphics settings at? 

What kind of temperatures are you reaching with your CPU/GPU?

Do you have your laptop set to high performance/is it plugged in when you play it?

Actually, it's possible you've read the game requirements wrong.  Your cpu shows as "slow", barely at the minimum, 2.0 GHz, per the report, and your GPU isn't super fast, being not much above minimum; however, at Low settings and medium screen resolutions, the GPU ought to be doing a lot better than it is.  Are you certain you have the correct settings in Control Panel to force the 840m to work when it is supposed to do so? 

Never having had any interest in cramping my games, I never confine any to only a mere laptop.  However, many mobile CPUs have "Turbo" core speeds that allow the processor to work harder.  If 2.0 is an UN-accellerated core speed, maybe you did read the requirements I've attached here.

 From the official Dragon Age website, the requirements are:

Minimum PC Specs

    OS: Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64-bit
    CPU: AMD quad-core CUP @2.5 GHz / Intel quad-core CPU @2.0 GHz
    System RAM: 4 GB
    Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 4870 / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
    Graphics Card Memory: 512 MB
    Hard Drive Space: 26 GB
    DirectX 10

that laptop cpu is fine, but the gpu is pretty rough at this point. I would be concerned about optimus switching and turn that off etc.

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@Gorath_the_Elder wrote:

Actually, it's possible you've read the game requirements wrong.  Your cpu shows as "slow", barely at the minimum, 2.0 GHz, per the report, and your GPU isn't super fast, being not much above minimum; however, at Low settings and medium screen resolutions, the GPU ought to be doing a lot better than it is.  Are you certain you have the correct settings in Control Panel to force the 840m to work when it is supposed to do so? 

Never having had any interest in cramping my games, I never confine any to only a mere laptop.  However, many mobile CPUs have "Turbo" core speeds that allow the processor to work harder.  If 2.0 is an UN-accellerated core speed, maybe you did read the requirements I've attached here.

 From the official Dragon Age website, the requirements are:

Minimum PC Specs

    OS: Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64-bit
@    CPU: AMD quad-core CUP @2.5 GHz / Intel quad-core CPU @2.0 GHz
    System RAM: 4 GB
    Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 4870 / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
    Graphics Card Memory: 512 MB
    Hard Drive Space: 26 GB
    DirectX 10

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her? cpu runs at 3.1 turbo.. no issues there.. 

and 840M is plenty of power to run this game on high settings.. 

as for OP.. make sure the game is using the dediacted GPU and not the intel onboard graphics.. 

set the game to the high preset.

you may have to lower the screen res to 1600x900 if its running at 1920x1080

maybe run a system check? malwarebytes is a good program for detecting malicious programs running in the background.

make sure you have the newest nvidia drivers.

this patch did make the game a little more unstable.. might just have to wait for patch 3.

1. My CPU is enough, I've run it through requirement labs several times, and it reports as enough. My DXDiag tells me it runs between 2.00~ 2.6 no problems and it's not had this problem before. Like I said usually it runs the CPU at 60-80% with no problems. This is a problem which occurs once every few plays but there's no consistency as to when it happens.

2. My GPU? More than enough. I also ran it through requirements labs several times and the only problem is it's not in their list of recommended requirements. It meets every single recommended requirement except it's name. It has all the pixel shader what not directx stuff AND it has OVER 4 gigs of video memory with 2 gigs dedicated at all times. Even if I weren't running with my renderer I would still have 2 gigs of video memory. Minimum is 512 MB, is it not? Recommended is 2 I have 4.

3. Since Nvidia's last GPU update I can no longer right click and demand it run a game with the renderer, but I have it set in the control panel that every program is run with the renderer except internet browsers and other programs which I designate. It automatically runs with the renderer, unless DAI suddenly started telling my computer it was going to run without the renderer for whatever reason (which I cannot control) it is absolutely running with the renderer.

Yes, my laptop is always set to 'high performance' when it is plugged in, and yes it is charged. The temperature shouldn't be an issue because I have a fan and it's occuring within the time frame of loading up the game, when I can play for hours without any problem at other times.

Also sorry I have to run on "a mere laptop". I'm studying in a foreign country and didn't have the money/means to buy/tranport an all holy gaming desktop system from Canada to Japan. If I have offended you with my "mere laptop" I humbly apologise oh desktop user. (Elder: Seriously, please don't talk down to me like I know nothing, I'm not an idiot, I've done my research I can read, I've utilised various different requirement analysys websites and well as utilising my own eyes I know what my computer can do.)

I will again reiterate:

Before the patch I was able to run with most settings at medium, use anti-alias, etc etc the only setting I ever put at high was mesh, and I'm pretty sure my initial (only running between 20-30) FPS problem partially stems from a different bug making me unable to run the game in fullscreen. 

After the patch I had to lower all my settings to low, turn off all anti-aliasing and the only setting I have at high is mesh (because of the stupid shiny factor). This still made it so my FPS was between 20-30. The problem is that suddenly, with no warning or consistency, the game will drop down to this odd fluctuation between 5 FPS and 20 FPS, each sitting at that FPS for about 30 seconds before switching back. While usually it just fluctuates about 5-10 FPS depending on region and clutter, it is currently fluctuating between exactly 15 FPS based on nothing but a vague measurement of time. 

The problem seems to come along with heightened CPU usage, where as my CPU usually sits between 60-80% it suddenly peaks at 80-100%. So there is suddenly a 20% jump in CPU usage. It also seems to come with occassional heightened ram usage, but that problem is one that my computer has no problem handling. 

Edit: Did some proper observations.

1. This problem doesn't appear to have anything to do with CPU after all (my bad that must be a seperate issue). In fact, the only program it affects is DAI and nothing else is affected. I sat there watching the fluctuation in FPS for a good 5 or 6 fluctuations and the CPU and memory usage were both steady the entire time.

2. It's now occuring in the middle of me playing rather than waiting until I've opened the game a second or eighth time. I've been playing for approximately 4 hours and it started up in the middle of me playing this time. This time it's fluctuating between 30 and 5 FPS rather than 20 and 5 FPS.

3. It's fluctuating 30 FPS (10 seconds) to 5 FPS (20 seconds).

The amateurs running SR Labs do not know the difference between a Geforce n30 and an n50, let alone an n40 of any kind.  Anyone relying on them for anything is a case of the blind trying to follow the blind. 

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@Gorath_the_Elder wrote:

The amateurs running SR Labs do not know the difference between a Geforce n30 and an n50, let alone an n40 of any kind.  Anyone relying on them for anything is a case of the blind trying to follow the blind. 

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You know you really don't need to act so rude, and like you know what you're doing better than I do. You're not sitting here using my computer, you don't see that the CPU runs at 2.76 GHz on a daily basis with no problems whatsoever, or that it handles DAI without any issue except for that one issue that is not a constant problem and only pops up at random.

Like I said I used SR Labs for the minimum/recommended requirements (as in the list), checked them against my own stuff with my eyes and then ran my computer through theirs and other system requirement testers just for good measure. You know, double, triple, checking and all that, because I like to know I haven't made any mistakes reading my own specs.

I'm not blind and I find the fact that you ignored my entire post, just so you could sit there acting like a hot shot know it all, annoying. You don't have to be rude, and you could actually accept the fact that you made a mistake and that I know what I'm doing, but instead you decide to go along and insult my intelligence again by both implying that I am an amateur for using outside resources to help me figure out what my computer can run and that I'm 'blind' for doing so. Considering there were other people in this thread who also told you that you were wrong, and you couldn't handle it, or handle actually talking to them so you just continued trying to take shots at me, I'm going to pretty much have to discredit everything you've said up to this point.

I've been computing for 19 years. I know what I'm doing, I know how to read my specs, I know how to test whether something is working or not, I know how to troubleshoot, and just because I'm asking for help doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing it means I'm asking for help.

MiddleFngrSalute

Thank you. I read it and it makes some serious sense. I wondered what was going on because it didn't seem to be a performance issue on my end. Hopefully we see a resolution soon. The inconsistency was the first red flag on that one. Some serious hard work and investigation on your end! I'm betting the problems I'm seeing right now are from Nvidea urging me to update my drivers, and me doing so hoping that I'd see a fix for my fullscreen issues. It would also explain the random spikes in CPU temperature that I get some days and not others.

My system, barely above minimum, were running more at 0,5FPS due to high CPU load. For me the highest CPU load is when a menu is active, but for me a user.cfg -file did the trick.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_Inquisition

RenderDevice.RenderAheadLimit 0 
RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 0 
RenderDevice.VsyncEnable 0 
PostProcess.DynamicAOEnable 0 
WorldRender.MotionBlurEnable 0
WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapEnable 0 
WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapResolution 4
WorldRender.TransparencyShadowmapsEnable 0 
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