#Low FPS (with low usage of GPU and CPU)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

untold hatch
silver obsidian
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I just had a look at your save file and on my PC I am seeing around 35fps. Admittedly this is on a 13th Gen i5

I notice you have a 1st Gen AMD zen which came out in 2017. This is likely your bottleneck but I would suggest checking there is nothing else running in the background taking up any system resources.

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One thing I have noticed recently is there has been an issue with Windows and the Windows Gamebar running the game capture in the background for some players. It would be worth checking this is switched off for you.
Enter "captures" into the Windows search bar and make sure "Record what happened" is switched off in the game captures settings

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untold hatch
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Yes, thanks, I have seen your post about this Windows Gaming, game bar and capture. However the first thing I turn of is this game mode and capture after installing Windows.

When I have issues like this, I always stop any heavy processes, even browsers to free up resources.

My CPU is a bit old but what I don't understand in the first place: Why the game won't even use my CPU (or GPU) at 100%. I even set priority in Task Manager for Foundation to "High"

I accept your answer, but If the game use the whole resource my PC has, the FPS still can be way above 50. It is just strange using only ~25% of my CPU and GPU.

silver obsidian
# untold hatch Yes, thanks, I have seen your post about this Windows Gaming, game bar and captu...

The issue with the Windows thing is new and possibly due to a Windows update. So it looks to have been switched back on by an update not a fresh install thing. I haven't been able to confirm this but that's why I am suggesting it.

The game won't use every core/thread in your PC, that's normal. Having a quick look at the comparative benchmarks between our CPUs it is likely that your older CPU is throttling your system fps. I have a 4070ti btw

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/3075vs5008/AMD-Ryzen-7-PRO-1700-vs-Intel-i5-13600K

silver obsidian
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What you could look at is the separate processor use. If you don't have a single processor being used at 100% then this might suggest something more strange is happening. For example this is task manager showing the separate logical processors in my CPU running your save. Overall CPU usage is at 22% but you can see 2 processors being fully utilised.

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untold hatch
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Yes, I have 4 of them. You said it is normal when Foundation won't use every core. Why? I would be extremely happy if all of them have been used 🙂 My FPS would raise. Can't developers just use more than 2/4 core if 16 available? So we can't resolve this issue neither short, nor long term?

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silver obsidian
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Without going too far into the technicals, no it isn't possible nor desirable to use all the cores/threads of your CPU.
The game does use multiple threads where possible for asynchronous tasks, but the main simulation needs to be on a single thread. I mentioned [here](#💬general message) in the general channel about the use of multiple threads.

Currently your fps is being bottlenecked by your CPU/motherboard/RAM speeds, so no there is nothing that can be done in the short term. Long term we are always looking at further optimisations but there is only so far that can go.

TBH you are hampering your newer GPU by partnering it with an older CPU and supporting hardware, so longer term it would be worth looking at possible upgrades at some point.

untold hatch
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Yes, not long before I was investing into a new graphic card 🙂 so this is a tic-toc game. Thank for the answers. 🙂

untold hatch
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One more thoughts, I just started a new game to see utilization of CPU and GPU. Here is the results... How can be a new game use almost all GPU when the game with huge population is using almost 1/5 of it?

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silver obsidian
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This is what I meant in my previous comment about your older CPU hampering your GPU. With higher populations the CPU is doing a lot more work/calculations. The GPU is then having to wait for data from the CPU before rendering frames. Lower populations = less CPU work/calculations so your GPU isn't having to wait.

With those higher pops your CPU is bottlenecking your system, which is why it is better to try and balance your hardware out as much as possible. Your GPU is kinda being wasted on an older CPU/system, particularly in games with more complex background simulations.

silver obsidian
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As a matter of interest for anyone that might stumble upon this thread. I actually updated my motherboard BIOS yesterday which allowed me to use a proper XMP profile for my DDR5 RAM. So I could run it correctly at 6000mhz (I had manually changed settings previously). This gave me an extra few fps and was averaging your save at 40fps.
In my case this is due to it being newer hardware and XMP profiles previously not being available for my RAM, so not everyone will see any benefit from this.

Note: Updating BIOS is fairly straight forward on motherboards these days but do be aware that doing this incorrectly can cause major issues. Always follow manufacturer instructions! 😅

untold hatch
silver obsidian
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No problem!