CPU Performance Hit since 22 April Patch (New Zealand Time)

waazup · April 2014

Hi,
Can you help please.
Prior to this patch I had NO performance issues at all, ran like clockwork.
Since the patch I noticed lockups and screen flicker so I opened Windows Task Manager to ensure I didn't have anything running in the background, which I didn't; and noticed strange CPU Usage.
Sitting in the game, doing absolutely nothing, not moving, nothing CPU Usage fluctuated between 73% and up to 98%.
At the Character Selection screen, 65% to 100%, how can this be.
Sitting in Windows as I type this, CPU Usage 0% to 2%!
I was in the Beta Testing and right through until the last patch everything was fine, now I have a flickering screen and associated freezes and momentary lockups.
(I have attached a separate file with my PC Specs)
What happened.
Are you going to fix it please?
Thanks

Audigy · April 2014

The patch improved my performance drastically, by 20 FPS. I also monitor my CPU usage and its still around 90% on core 1, while 2-4 are at around 20-25%, so that my overall usage is about 35%.

Screen flicker sounds like a GPU issue to me. Is your card running hot? Did you change anything lately, like the drivers or maybe your BIOS?

Your file doesn't show, yet

waazup · April 2014

Hi Audigy,
I'll try the file again, this page has a blue bar that indicates its uploading the file, then the "Attach a file" option is available again. Zen never fails to deliver what I am coming to expect

(
As for GPU, no changes, drivers are up to date: GeForce 335.23 I'm running GeForce GTX 660.

2.67 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
6144 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)

3584 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty
Slot 'A2' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A3' is Empty

Loxy37 · April 2014

Although you meet min specs, the game should run on min. Your memory is kinda low. Make sure nothing is running in the background like skype. Consider disabling your AV while you play and use something like game booster to free memory. Try turning off ESO launcher while playing and set ESO.exe to high priority via task manager.

I'm guessing also that your card is being seriously bottlenecked from your processor and that could be your issue. Try setting page flip or frames rendered ahead to 4 and and also try 1. You find the option under Nvidia control panel.

waazup · April 2014

Loxy,
See above, card is a GeForce GTX 660, system memory is 4Gig.
There isn't anything, but Antivirus, running in the background, I did check with Task Manager, thats when I noticed the high CPU load.
I will disable AV, but that has always run, so cant see why it would suddenly make a difference.
I'll turn off the launcher and AV and see if it makes any difference.

Audigy · April 2014

Hmm, do you experience those screen flickering issue´s only while you play or also while on your desktop? But there are no artifact´s or something right?

Like in the picture here,

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/ray_freeze/media/8800gtx_video_artifact_02.jpg.html

The CPU usage observation quite a few people made. I would assume that this didn't come with the patch, just that you didn't check it earlier.

That the char selection needs a lot isn't unusual I would say. There is quite something going on and your CPU just keeps running full speed.

Maybe someone else has a few suggestions too.

CoUsT · April 2014

I think it's normal for 2x2.67 GHz. Overclocking CPU should help in this case, if it's possible of course.

Also, make sure you don't run out of ram. I have 4 GB too and sometimes I need to close and run game again because I don't have ram (computer start to work slower when ~90%+ RAM is used).

Loxy37 · April 2014

Audigy wrote: »

Hmm, do you experience those screen flickering issue´s only while you play or also while on your desktop? But there are no artifact´s or something right?

Like in the picture here,

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/ray_freeze/media/8800gtx_video_artifact_02.jpg.html

The CPU usage observation quite a few people made. I would assume that this didn't come with the patch, just that you didn't check it earlier.

That the char selection needs a lot isn't unusual I would say. There is quite something going on and your CPU just keeps running full speed.

Maybe someone else has a few suggestions too.

I'm guess like I said earlier that his/her card is being bottlenecked from the CPU. As the gfx card works harder, the CPU has to work harder but because the CPU is very old and the card is a lot newer, there's a bottleneck. I would try lowering shadows and other eye candy and see if that helps. Also try the flip que suggestion I posted.

alex394053 · April 2014

Hm.... Your problem looks like mine a half year ago. As a result I had found a bitcoin mining malware utilizing my GPU (not CPU as in your case). Maybe the patch is just a coincidence?

Audigy · April 2014

Loxy37 wrote: »

Audigy wrote: »

Hmm, do you experience those screen flickering issue´s only while you play or also while on your desktop? But there are no artifact´s or something right?

Like in the picture here,

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/ray_freeze/media/8800gtx_video_artifact_02.jpg.html

The CPU usage observation quite a few people made. I would assume that this didn't come with the patch, just that you didn't check it earlier.

That the char selection needs a lot isn't unusual I would say. There is quite something going on and your CPU just keeps running full speed.

Maybe someone else has a few suggestions too.

I'm guess like I said earlier that his/her card is being bottlenecked from the CPU. As the gfx card works harder, the CPU has to work harder but because the CPU is very old and the card is a lot newer, there's a bottleneck. I would try lowering shadows and other eye candy and see if that helps. Also try the flip que suggestion I posted.

I didn't see your post earlier sorry, but I agree with what you said. However the screen flickering he described, that's really strange.

Loxy37 · April 2014

Can you somehow post a image or vid showing the tearing?

Have you tried the obvious like forcing vertical sync via nvidia control panel.

waazup · April 2014

Audigy wrote: »

Hmm, do you experience those screen flickering issue´s only while you play or also while on your desktop? But there are no artifact´s or something right?

Like in the picture here,

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/ray_freeze/media/8800gtx_video_artifact_02.jpg.html

The CPU usage observation quite a few people made. I would assume that this didn't come with the patch, just that you didn't check it earlier.

That the char selection needs a lot isn't unusual I would say. There is quite something going on and your CPU just keeps running full speed.

Maybe someone else has a few suggestions too.

Audigy, No other screens have this issue, I played "Path of Exile", no issues and
ok CPU usage, also tried SWTOR, no problems. So pass.

waazup · April 2014

Finally, Loxy, thanks for the help, but there isn't any screen tearing, etc. its as described in my initial post.
Again thanks for your time and effort, I guess I'll email NVIDIA and see what their reaction is, they supported the 3 other Elder Scrolls games, but seem reluctant (from what I've read) to do much for this version

Wonder why??
Thanks again, and I'll just persevere, if it ESO doesn't improve I'll give it a miss.
Cheers.

Nazaan · April 2014

waazup wrote: »

Finally, Loxy, thanks for the help, but there isn't any screen tearing, etc. its as described in my initial post.
Again thanks for your time and effort, I guess I'll email NVIDIA and see what their reaction is, they supported the 3 other Elder Scrolls games, but seem reluctant (from what I've read) to do much for this version
Wonder why??
Thanks again, and I'll just persevere, if it ESO doesn't improve I'll give it a miss.
Cheers.

To say Nvidia aren't supporting the game is actually an assumption. They are currently working with ZOS on SLI support as the current driver is already optimised for the game on a single card but that is the only place Nvidia has work to do... they could perhaps use some work on the 780 series (different architecture to the 760) but nothing much more.

The issue is with your low end CPU combined with the resources the game requires to run its processes. Just because other games (aguably less demanding games) run doesn't mean anything. My thoughts are that if you 'give the game a miss' I wouldn't expect decent performance with that CPU from anything else coming soon. Maybe play the games you have got and save for a new CPU and motherboard.

My GTX670 runs great (essentially the same chip as the 760)

Loxy37 · April 2014

I agree about your processor prolly being an issue. Your card is plenty to play it as I play on a 550ti with little issue on high with Shadows on med and Textures on Med as the cards only got 1GB but I have a quad core which is a older Q6600 but clocked at 3Ghz.

I firmly believe that the issue lies there because if it was a driver issue with Nvidia then more people would have your issue. I would suck it up and try running on low or med GFX but put subsampling on High cause it looks awful without.

You have to go through a process or elimination but it seem to me that you want to not accept that it could be that fact that you have a very weak processor with a stronger graphics card which is probably the issue.

EDIT: As a last resort. I would uninstall all of your drivers with a CLEAN install. To do this you need to use a free piece of software like Driver Sweeper. Look on the net how to do a clean install of the GFX drivers if you dont already know how. Its not simply enough to uninstall or install directly over the top.

Socratic · April 2014

Loxy37 wrote: »

Audigy wrote: »

Hmm, do you experience those screen flickering issue´s only while you play or also while on your desktop? But there are no artifact´s or something right?

Like in the picture here,

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/ray_freeze/media/8800gtx_video_artifact_02.jpg.html

The CPU usage observation quite a few people made. I would assume that this didn't come with the patch, just that you didn't check it earlier.

That the char selection needs a lot isn't unusual I would say. There is quite something going on and your CPU just keeps running full speed.

Maybe someone else has a few suggestions too.

I'm guess like I said earlier that his/her card is being bottlenecked from the CPU. As the gfx card works harder, the CPU has to work harder but because the CPU is very old and the card is a lot newer, there's a bottleneck. I would try lowering shadows and other eye candy and see if that helps. Also try the flip que suggestion I posted.

To my knowledge the CPU has it's commands which stay the same no matter what graphics card you use. Changing resolution doesn't increase the amount of instructions the CPU has to sort and send, and I'm not even sure if changing ingame graphics would either a part from view distance maybe, but that's all dependent on the developers wishes.. Graphics processors are far more powerful at calculating than the central processor.

buffbcub17_ESO · April 2014

I have basically the same setup as the OP has above, and haven't had the problems they have had at all. I am wondering if it is because I have a Quad processor instead of the Dual...if that is the case, then I would say it is definitely a CPU bottleneck correct?

wu.chi.kung_ESO · April 2014

@waazup I have had a similar problem, but the result is the game crashes every 5-10 minutes. What made me take notice of your post was that we have the same GPU, though I have a GTX660Ti Power edition.

My other specs are:
i5-3570K
MSI Z77 Mpower
8G Ram

When the servers went down for maintenance I went to do something else, came back later, updated the game and played, no new software, updates ... anything. Just my processor working way too hard, oh and the constant crashes.
I have run all the tests CS have suggested. Now I am waiting for further insight.

waazup · April 2014

To say Nvidia aren't supporting the game is actually an assumption. They are currently working with ZOS on SLI support as the current driver is already optimised for the game on a single card but that is the only place Nvidia has work to do... they could perhaps use some work on the 780 series (different architecture to the 760) but nothing much more.

The issue is with your low end CPU combined with the resources the game requires to run its processes. Just because other games (aguably less demanding games) run doesn't mean anything. My thoughts are that if you 'give the game a miss' I wouldn't expect decent performance with that CPU from anything else coming soon. Maybe play the games you have got and save for a new CPU and motherboard.

My GTX670 runs great (essentially the same chip as the 760)
[/quote]

Hi I agree my box has seen better days and is past its prime, the "give it a miss" wasn't a shot at anyone, just me resigned to the fact that I need an upgrade, and do I spend the bucks to play ESO?
After our earthquakes here in Christchurch I have other things that need the $'s at this time unfortunately, but a new Motherboard CPU and some RAM would be nice I admit

So if anyone has some gear that needs a southern hemisphere home

))

Nijiura · April 2014

Com on ZOS or who ever is responsible for SLI optimization Nvidia is waiting for you and my single GPU is getting hotter and hotter.
SLI isn't a new phenomenon!

waazup · May 2014

Well I'll be damned: Patch Notes V1.0.6
"Fixed an issue that would cause your screen to occasionally freeze and cause unwarranted CPU usage."

So my PC aint such a plug after all <lol>