[Old Report] Low GPU Usage and Framerate - WRC - DLSS no change
Stutters on initial track run, texture loading and compiling aside, I am concerned with the low GPU usage and framerate.
When running on a 4090 on max settings I get 60-70% GPU usage causing frame rates as low as 50fps on max settings. enabling DLSS just lowers the GPU usage but does not affect the framerate. When the game is paused during a race, the GPU usage will jump to 99% and the frame rate jumps over 120.
Issue is still persisting with using a ton of different graphic settings, DLSS, Views, Maps.
No matter what I do the GPU usage while racing won't go over 70% usage and the frame rate suffers because of it.
From the reply's I am seeing, maybe there is a driver bug for the 40 series.
I am attaching a DXdiag, as well as screenshots from both of what I am taking about.
Nearly the same for me as well. Running on a 5800X3D with an RX 7900XT, 32GB, 1440p the gpu usage is most of the time between 60-70% and just sometimes goes up. CPU usage is around 30% Tried different settings switching between FSR quality and native also trying different controllers (TM T300 + CSL-Elite V1 and PS4 controller). Makes no real difference.
It also seems that it´s getting worse at the end of a stage.Tested with 12th stage of Monaco several times and there at the end framerate drops dramatically and dips below 50fps (ultra preset with mirrors on low), while GPU and CPU usage stays at a flat 50% and 30%. So lots of performance available but totaly unused.
It was this way before and after Patch 1.3 with maybe some slight fps improvements after patch (around +5fps).
In my opinion there is definitely a game issue where at some point in a stage the GPU utilisation drops to a fixed percentage. For some it seems to be 50% for some 60%, for me it's always 80%.
See below my testing, you're not wrong, it's later in the stage that utilisation drops. Not sure why, or what triggers it, but at least in my case I can have it reliable repeat and at exactly the same spot.
For what is worth, I spent a few hours playing around with settings and I found out that If I keep everything at ultra or high settings but put CAR REFLECTIONS to Ultra Low, Mirrors to the lowest quality (also Ultra Low I think) and CROWDS to Low or lower, framerate and GPU utilization go way higher and I gain a TON on smoothness (I play at 144hz).
My setup is very similar to lots of people here (as I stated on a previous post), 5800x3D + 7900xtx.
I think some settings might be "broken" as I don't see a single core on my CPU getting to 100% (which might normally be the case for cpu-bound scenarios, which this looks like is not)
Putting these on low did help achieve close to 100% GPU utilisation for me, but couldn't prevent the game from dropping the GPU to a fixed percentage at some point in any stage.
Below you can see I recorded performance stats while driving a short stage in Sweden.
My rig is completely custom watercooled, so thermal throttling is NOT a factor.
5800X + 7900XTX (with 550W bios, core set to 3350Mhz, ram 2750Mhz
The first screenshot shows the run as I played it. You can see towards the end that GPU util drops to 80% and stays locked there.
The second screenshot shows a replay of the same run, looped threetimes.
This was from cockpit view with wheel showing as this was the most taxing for framerate.
This is a game bug for sure, as you can clearly see the GPU drop to 80% at exactly the spot in the stage, but then as soon as the reply loops back to the start the GPU util limit is immediately resolved and returns to 97-98%.
this isn't a hardware issue (like thermal throttling),
this isn't a card specific issue (happening to AMD and NVIDIA, across multiple models)
this isn't a driver issue (or it wouldn't happen at exactly the same spot)
this isn't a background service or program issue (or it wouldn't happen at exactly the same spot)
this isn't Stage specific, I have tried in the Pacific, Croatia and Sweden and it happens consistently
Nearly the same for me as well. Running on a 5800X3D with an RX 7900XT, 32GB, 1440p the gpu usage is most of the time between 60-70% and just sometimes goes up. CPU usage is around 30% Tried different settings switching between FSR quality and native also trying different controllers (TM T300 + CSL-Elite V1 and PS4 controller). Makes no real difference.
It also seems that it´s getting worse at the end of a stage.Tested with 12th stage of Monaco several times and there at the end framerate drops dramatically and dips below 50fps (ultra preset with mirrors on low), while GPU and CPU usage stays at a flat 50% and 30%. So lots of performance available but totaly unused.
It was this way before and after Patch 1.3 with maybe some slight fps improvements after patch (around +5fps).
This is "take two" posting this. This first time it "disappeared" magically 5 minutes after posting. Not saying a mod deleted it, probably just a Christmas miracle. 🤔
EDIT: And it's magically back again. Now I have two posts saying the same thing... but will leave them both up.
@Jasonatic0815 You're right, the GPU performance (utilisation) drops at the end of a stage. It seems to affect different people in different ways, some drop to 50%, some 60%, for me it's always 80%
What I've found (see below), is that this is consistently at the same spot on a stage, and is highly repeatable. There is some kind of game bug making this happen.
For what is worth, I spent a few hours playing around with settings and I found out that If I keep everything at ultra or high settings but put CAR REFLECTIONS to Ultra Low, Mirrors to the lowest quality (also Ultra Low I think) and CROWDS to Low or lower, framerate and GPU utilization go way higher and I gain a TON on smoothness (I play at 144hz).
My setup is very similar to lots of people here (as I stated on a previous post), 5800x3D + 7900xtx.
I think some settings might be "broken" as I don't see a single core on my CPU getting to 100% (which might normally be the case for cpu-bound scenarios, which this looks like is not)
Using these settings (mixed with Ultra @ 4K HDR with no upscaling) helped me achieve 97-100% GPU utilisation, but stilll couldn't prevent the game forcing the GPU to drop to 80% at some point during the stage.
I captured performance across a short (7km) stage in Sweden, where you can see the actual run (first screenshot), and then a looping 3x replay of the run (second screenshot). In each case the GPU drops to 80% utilisation at the same point. The replay is the most telling, as you can see as soon as the replay loops back to the start the artificial 80% limitation is removed and GPU utilisation returns to 97-100%.
5800X + 7900XTX
I run a custom water cooled rig where thermal throttling is not an issue.
GPU has a 550W bios, PSU is 1200W, power is not a limitation.
CPU isn't even close to taxed at any point (average 27% max 60%)
This does not appear to be a hardware issue:
Happens to AMD and NVIDIA
Happens to multiple models of GPUs
Happens across multiple CPUs, CPU bottleneck does not appear to be a factor
Happens regardless of GPU driver or settings
Happens when thermal and power limits are completely removed
If it was an issue with plugged in USB devices (as others have speculated), it surely wouldn't occur at the same spot each run.
This is unlikely to be a Windows issue:
If it was a scheduling issue it wouldn't occur at exact the same point in a stage
If it was a background task or service issue it wouldn't occur at exactly the same point in a stage
it looks as if the game is designed for consoles only and it requires a certain performance to perform in a certain way with certian fps
on the pc it looks as if there is a programmed performance cap that doesnt allow gpu cards to perfom at 99-100 gpu usage
so if i have a 4090 i would potentially have 300 fps, but the game says i dont need the extra fps and throttles the cards to 50-80 % of performance which is related to the original performace of the card (ex 4090 throttles to 50% 4070 throttles to 70% or something like that)
It's great that you did all these graphs, but you failed at one thing. You only look at overall CPU utilization. If you look at per-thread load, you'll see that it IS CPU bottleneck as when the framerate drops, one thread is 100% loaded and slows down everything else.
I don't understand how people can do such extensive thing yet fail to take into account such basics.
UE render thread is fully loaded and that causes slowdowns. This happen in certain places (triggered by loading next map tile).
it looks as if the game is designed for consoles only and it requires a certain performance to perform in a certain way with certian fps
on the pc it looks as if there is a programmed performance cap that doesnt allow gpu cards to perfom at 99-100 gpu usage
so if i have a 4090 i would potentially have 300 fps, but the game says i dont need the extra fps and throttles the cards to 50-80 % of performance which is related to the original performace of the card (ex 4090 throttles to 50% 4070 throttles to 70% or something like that)
also upscallers dont work at all
No, that's not the case. There is not performance cap (FPS), but there IS something capping how much GPU is used. It's not capping GPU utilisation to meet a framerate target, it's capping it a fixed percentage utilisation (like 60% or 80%) regardless of the FPS that subsequently generates.
The PC version is quite capable of utilising 100% of GPU performance (assuming CPU isn't bottlenecking). The problem is that there are certain code issues that seem to trigger the game to only use 80% or lower.
I can get the game to use 100% GPU, and my framerate scales accordingly (150+ FPS at 4K), but at a certain point - for seemingly no reason - the game drops my GPU utilisation to 80%.
I have recorded a video to show this which I'm uploading now.
It's great that you did all these graphs, but you failed at one thing. You only look at overall CPU utilization. If you look at per-thread load, you'll see that it IS CPU bottleneck as when the framerate drops, one thread is 100% loaded and slows down everything else.
I don't understand how people can do such extensive thing yet fail to take into account such basics.
UE render thread is fully loaded and that causes slowdowns. This happen in certain places (triggered by loading next map tile).
I didn't fail to do anything, drop the attitude. K thx.
Clearly you failed to look at the results which show max thread load.
Here is the same graph as above but showing CPU Max Thread Load (the red line), for those of you with an inability to interpret results.
Notice how the most loaded thread:
Averages 74%
Doesn't exceed 91%
Actually DROPS at the same time GPU utilisation does.
I cannot stress this enough, this is NOT a CPU issue. This is a game bug.
Happy holidays and New Year. I appreciate it's break time, but when everyone is back at work it would be awesome if we could get some acknowledgement of this issue, and an indication that it's fixable.
Some more info on this CPU usage issue. I'm no unreal expert, but seems like the game is not culling previous map tiles correctly. It's loading faster than culling and the overlap causes issues. Here's a comparision between start of Brusne and end of Vitova (same plac, same settings, same car)(open images in new tab to see in full res):
Brusne start:
Vitova end:
The performance is wildly different on my 5800X3D. It's a loss of 70 FPS. Additional 4ms on the CPU side. Maybe the engine gets overwhelmed with the amount of objects? Terrain?
