Bottleneck?

[YourChagrin]

Bottleneck?

Hi, just wondering what others think my bottleneck is. I am so close to maintaining 60fps all the time I can't help but look into what is causing drops into the mid to low 50s.

Intel Core i5- 3570K
EVGA GTX 980 SC
16GB RAM
Windows 8.1
Samsung EVO SSD

I am leaning towards the processor because the slowdown occurs the most in cities with lots of NPCs, however, I also notice it randomly drops in the wilderness as well.
I'd really like to be able to turn foliage all the way up as I notice the pop-in quite a bit while riding around, but that may be asking too much as that setting seems to have a huge impact on framerate. I do not use Hairworks at all and have Shadow quality turned down to High. Ambient Occlusion is on, but not at the maximum.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

 

[Metaljesus]

it isn't a bottleneck - at least i think it isn't ^^

run some tools in the background like MSI Afterburner to see how much usage your GPU and CPU run at.
If the GPU is used by more than 95% you're at the limit ... if however your CPU is at more than 95% usage you might have a bottleneck indeed.

 

[Galandil]

The i3 doesn't perform well in crowded areas like Novigrad, the city it's CPU intensive in which the i7 really shines. Check this video:

 

[YourChagrin]

Sorry, I made a typo. It is an i5 processor not an i3.

I have ran MSI Afterburner with RTSS and it seems in populated areas my CPU maxes out to 100% once in a while, but I can't explain the wilderness slow down because it is inconsistent... I haven't had the tools running when I came across those places.

Like I mentioned, I think it is a CPU issue, but in order to upgrade my CPU I need to upgrade my board as well because the i7 processors for my socket seem to be discontinued, so the ones in market are insanely expensive.

That video is interesting. Although it is not the same processor I wonder how much a difference there is between mine and the one they tested? Normally one generation wouldn't make a huge difference, but it might with this game. And of course I don't have a Titan X, so the GPU could still be bottlenecking the CPU.

 

[Galandil]

Well, in the video they used the Titan X in order to be sure to reduce at a mininum any GPU bottleneck during the test. However, here in the forum you can read people with 970 SLIs and i5 not performing very well in areas like Novigrad.

You should try however disabling Hairworks, which has a huge negative impact on framerate and frametime. My rig doesn't have any problem in Novigrad, i7 4790K and 970, with everything at Ultra except shadows at high and no hairworks/aa (I really don't like the engine AA). Try also to set the pre-rendered frames at 1 in the nvidia panel, and check if you are offloading the Physix on the CPU.

 

[t0yz]

The i3 doesn't perform well in crowded areas like Novigrad, the city it's CPU intensive in which the i7 really shines.

Heh, I was kinda pleasantly surprised seeing my FX 8350 at 90% utilization in cities, but damn, I didn't expect that it would close on a 4690K that much.

Just shows how much proper coding can improve the framerate. Very impressed by your efforts in this department, CDPR

 

[vuze4u]

I have 3570K as well overclocked to 4.5GHz stable, it works fine, most fps drop due to my old GPU as it raises to 99% utilize. If i turn down details keep GPU utilize 60-90% my framerate is solid.

Also this game use only 2 threading and 3 if you enabled all post-processing. No where close to utilize all 4 cores so i doubt is the CPU and i don't use antivirus.

 

[Metaljesus]

is your 3570k overclocked?
is core parking disabled? I'm not sure whether the 3570k does this or not ...

here's a video as to how to deactive core parking: http://bit.ly/1e7G5ei
maybe that helps.

otherwise it might be cheaper to just get a decent cooler and overclock that CPU.

 

[maramsp]

If ye'd ask me what the bottleneck is, then id say its either your CPU, which is an i5 and not an i7, or your ssd
But mainly i'd say its your i5. It isnt bad for games, but the youtube movies, and that german gaming site were clear on this, a core i7 4900k or some like that (not sure if it was the 4900 but sure it was the i7) alongside a 980 and you can max the game 60fps

But really, why do you bother?

With my setup im in the mid to high 40's, and i can say its fine for me.

My setup:

amd fx8350 4.0ghz watercooled
evga gtx 970 superclocked acx 2.0 stock cooling with 2 case fans
12gb ddr 1600
intel ssd 60gb (only for windows)
windows 8.1

Hope i helped you.

Cheers, Mara

 

[vuze4u]

Mind you higher end i7 also mean it allow higher turboboost under lower amount of core use. I guess is the reason why its better performed.

But i'll just leave this Witcher 3 CPU benchmark here: http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page5.html

CPU is not the problem here.

 

[bigheads]

Dropping shadow quality is probably not gaining you much FPS. The big resource hogs are Hairworks, Foliage Visibility distance, and AO, in that order.

 

[Uhtred1084]

You do not have a bottleneck. Your CPU is fine. I'm running an i5-2500K OC'ed to 4.5GHz paired with a GTX 980 at factory OC. I don't have a bottleneck. Sandy-Bridge and up, you don't need to worry about a bottleneck. Not concerning their i5 or i7 chips. Even if you were running SLI, it's not really an issue.

You don't need to invest in a new CPU, your chip will perform just fine until Skylake-E comes around. I would not upgrade my chip until then. That's when I plan to upgrade because as of right now my i5-2500K, despite being five years old is an excellent chip and I don't see it becoming obsolete anytime soon. In fact the i5-2500K can hold its own against an i7-4770. We're talking 1-3 frames difference with HT disabled on the 4770K as the i5-2500K doesn't have HT. The only possible bottleneck would be your chipset if it is a Z77 chipset due to lack of PCI-e lanes, or your temps. If your GPU even hits 80 for a second, it'll throttle. However this can remedied by overclocking your chip as your loss of frames would only be 1 to 2FPS. My chipset is Z77. This is only a concern if you were running SLI at a higher resolution than 1920x1080, again the loss would only be 1 to 2 FPS. Nothing to fret over with gaming.

Your SSD isn't the issue as long as it is connected to a 6GB/s SATA port and not a 3GB/s SATA port. I'm still rocking my Samsung EVO series 830 just fine.

I'm getting between 50-60 FPS, for the most part it's a solid 60FPS - with ultra settings, except foliage density is set to high instead of ultra, there really isn't a noticeable difference between high and ultra except the amount of frames you'll get. I also have hairworks enabled. I'm running at 1920x1080. I was using DSR set at 4K with no antialiasing enabled, that includes through my control panel as well because there was no need for it, and got I 30FPS, but I ended up wanting higher FPS.
In my Nvidia control panel I have:
FXAA--ON
Antialiasing-mode set to Enhance the application setting
Antialising setting is 8x
MFAA - ON.
Power management is set to maximum performance.

 

[killerbs007]

You do not have a bottleneck. Your CPU is fine. I'm running an i5-2500K OC'ed to 4.5GHz paired with a GTX 980 at factory OC. I don't have a bottleneck. Sandy-Bridge and up, you don't need to worry about a bottleneck. Not concerning their i5 or i7 chips. Even if you were running SLI, it's not really an issue.

You don't need to invest in a new CPU, your chip will perform just fine until Skylake-E comes around. I would not upgrade my chip until then. That's when I plan to upgrade because as of right now my i5-2500K, despite being five years old is an excellent chip and I don't see it becoming obsolete anytime soon. In fact the i5-2500K can hold its own against an i7-4770. We're talking 1-3 frames difference with HT disabled on the 4770K as the i5-2500K doesn't have HT. The only possible bottleneck would be your chipset if it is a Z77 chipset due to lack of PCI-e lanes, or your temps. If your GPU even hits 80 for a second, it'll throttle. However this can remedied by overclocking your chip as your loss of frames would only be 1 to 2FPS. My chipset is Z77. This is only a concern if you were running SLI at a higher resolution than 1920x1080, again the loss would only be 1 to 2 FPS. Nothing to fret over with gaming.

Your SSD isn't the issue as long as it is connected to a 6GB/s SATA port and not a 3GB/s SATA port. I'm still rocking my Samsung EVO series 830 just fine.

I'm getting between 50-60 FPS, for the most part it's a solid 60FPS - with ultra settings, except foliage density is set to high instead of ultra, there really isn't a noticeable difference between high and ultra except the amount of frames you'll get. I also have hairworks enabled. I'm running at 1920x1080. I was using DSR set at 4K with no antialiasing enabled, that includes through my control panel as well because there was no need for it, and got I 30FPS, but I ended up wanting higher FPS.
In my Nvidia control panel I have:
FXAA--ON
Antialiasing-mode set to Enhance the application setting
Antialising setting is 8x
MFAA - ON.
Power management is set to maximum performance.

i'am not sure you don't have bottleneck with 2 cards , for one you can drop 3-4 fps.


But his tell high cpu utilisation, for me i have i7 3930k, titan x and 570 for physx cpu utilisation = 30-40% max.

And sorry but nvidia was tell oficially, fxaa and mfaa wasn't suported by the red engine. And antilaliasing 8x i don't see any effect don't, support msaa i think at now.
You can see if you change msaa ligne in file of the witcher, it's break the game.

 

[brutlern]

i5-2500k @ 4.4 Ghz with a gtx 970, no bottleneck, running the game @ 50 fps locked, never drops below 45, not even in some of the dense forests in Skellige. All settings on Ultra/On except Hairworks off, Grass Density and Shadow Resolution High.

 

[Uhtred1084]

i'am not sure you don't have bottleneck with 2 cards , for one you can drop 3-4 fps.


But his tell high cpu utilisation, for me i have i7 3930k, titan x and 570 for physx cpu utilisation = 30-40% max.

And sorry but nvidia was tell oficially, fxaa and mfaa wasn't suported by the red engine. And antilaliasing 8x i don't see any effect don't, support msaa i think at now.
You can see if you change msaa ligne in file of the witcher, it's break the game.

You can bottleneck with two cards, it is less likely to bottleneck a CPU with a single GPU.

You're right about MFAA, however FXAA is supported. I'm looking at trying out SMAA. I see a difference in my game, less jaggies on edges, especially my swords with FXAA set to 8x.

 

[lordwarpgun]

Intel® Core™ i5-4460
8GB 1600MHz
GeForce GTX 980 4 GB

Pretty solid 60fps @ 1080p except Novigrad 60-48fps depending on area. some areas in Skellige gives crazy fps drops to. i think the cpu is the bottleneck here, i will probable upgrade to a i7 next month.

the game seems unoptimized in some places. (novigrad and dense forest areas in Skellige)

 

[roizumaaku]

I tend to drop fps at Novigrad as well. Stutters happens during long hours of play. There is no bottleneck. There are just too many details to process in some locations.

 

[shagwell142]

I havent really looked into it but this game is not cpu heavy at all. I feel this game is very well optimized and utiilized the gpu effectivly, most fps issues are resolved with gpu features. such as the hair, or other such additions. these could be completly unrealated but things like ram speeds, and gpu speeds/size are valid.

I have a 6 year old computer, the first generation I7 the same year of coursair ram 6GB, and a 780 nvidia I run the game perfectly. very surprising for how much my i7 takes a beating these days, and my ram is basically the min. but yet this game runs flawlessly - no hair thingy but even with the hair it only lagged when camera got too close.

so what I would ask you is how many processes your running, how clean your computer is.. from what I see you can run this game perfect, but there are many variables to look at.

bottleneck can be softwares as much as hardware... like drivers or spyware/maleware/virus/ or even too many programs running at once. ur specs are good u might need to look at other options to speed your game up.

---------- Updated at 01:08 AM ----------

I tend to drop fps at Novigrad as well. Stutters happens during long hours of play. There is no bottleneck. There are just too many details to process in some locations.

seeing as I am religiously playing this game 16+ hours a day... I crash once a day from too long game play...I can imagine the game needs a refresh. as far as the guy above you, I have not noticed any fps drops.. only when the hair thing is on and the camera gets to close.. .my old 6 year comp runs everything perfectly

 

[killerbs007]

Is posible what depend your card and your cpu, with a titan xis possible

http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/1911-gta-v-cpu-benchmark-4790k-3570k-9590-more

yes you'r right, i just see it's possible with fxaa injector but nvidia tell just if you use dsr. But he tell also the witcher aa is better than fxaa.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gu...-hunt-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

 

[sidspyker]

Foliage Visibility Range is extremely taxing, that's most likely what's killing your framerate, I myself have that on High because it was dropping frames more than what I consider acceptable.