Performance tweak that WORKED for me (maybe was a bug)

MidknightWolf

WINDOWS 10: So I recently installed a 1070 and realized that my FPS was still garbage in ESO and other games. While digging through my power profiles in windows I found something interesting. My CPU is clocked at 4.2ghz. But under my advanced power options in windows, "Maximum Processor Frequency" was set to 0! I changed it to 4200 and now I get 60-100 fps in ESO almost consistently with view distances set to 35. FPS will drop in raids of course. But here is how I did it in case you want to check yours.

To get a massive improvement, you might want to do what I just did. Not sure why it was bugged on my windows.
do the following:
WINDOWS 10
type "power" in cortana and select "choose a power plan"
Select High Performance
select change plan
select change advanced power settings
scroll down and expand processor management
expand max processor frequency
set it to your CPU Speed (mine was set to 0) lol....so I changed it to 4200.

zaria

Think 0 equal unlimited.
However windows 10 is a bit more stupid than average mobs in ESO and is easy confused.

MidknightWolf

Ya I changed it to my 4200 and it really helped

Huyen

What if you dont got Cortana on windows 10 like I do?

Saucy_Jack

Yeah I know about that setting, but I also have a bunch of nostalgic games on Steam like Shadows of the Empire; if I put that setting too high, those games end up playing like they're on super fast-forward, and I'm way too lazy to muck with internal settings every time I want to play this game or that.

SirAndy

zaria wrote: »

Think 0 equal unlimited.

I think in the context of your power settings, 0 actually means, "Let Windows decided automatically" which really is *never* a good idea.

zaria

SirAndy wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

Think 0 equal unlimited.

I think in the context of your power settings, 0 actually means, "Let Windows decided automatically" which really is *never* a good idea.

LOL, you are very right, and power settings. 4.2gHz imply an stationary gaming pc, power settings is very pointless.
its only purpose is set up screen off and optional hibernate after some hours.

Huyen

Okay, still dont got cortana, but if you search for powerplan, you get the same window you need to change it. Be sure to change the viritual memory as well, as it will speed up your computer. As said above dont let windows decide on their own.

Rohamad_Ali

If someone has a 2.4ghz processor what would they set theirs to ? 2400 ?

ereboz

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

If someone has a 2.4ghz processor what would they set theirs to ? 2400 ?

Yes

Rohamad_Ali

ereboz wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

If someone has a 2.4ghz processor what would they set theirs to ? 2400 ?

Yes

Thank you . I'm going to see if this will help my sisters laptop . She's been under the weather and needs some entertainment .

UnseenCat

Windows 10 still seems to be using Windows 7's "Power Plans", which are a little dumb when it comes to gaming and overclocking.

The default "Balanced" plan is actually poor for gaming because it artificially makes the CPU's speed stepping behavior too sluggish.

The "High Performance" plan is artificially pegged at 100% CPU speed all the time, which wastes energy, generates heat, and once in a while causes problems with old games that don't need blazing fast CPU speed.

But, if you just give "High Performance" an option to let the CPU slow down when it's idle or not doing much, it will speed up and slow down according to how much work it has to do in the right way.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to Settings > System > Power & Sleep > "Additional power settings" link (Under "Related Settings" heading)
2. You'll land on "Choose or customize a power plan"
3. Click radio button for "High Performance" (This puts your PC at full CPU speed all the time, but that really just wastes power and generates heat, so we're going to modify it.)
4. Click "Change plan settings" to the right of the now-selected "High Performance" title.
5. Click the link for "Change advanced power settings", underneath the screen timeout and sleep pull-downs
6. Another small preference pane will appear. Scroll down to "Processor power management" and click the "+" to expand the list.
7. Find "Minimum processor state" and click the "+" to expand the configuration. It will say "Setting: 100%".
8. Click on the blue number; a value box appears. Change the value to 5% and then click OK to save the value and close the property pane.
9. You can close the "Edit plan settings" window; you probably won't have to click save there because the advanced properties are separate.

OK, why set the processor minimum back down to 5%? Doesn't that make it behave the same as the default "Balanced" plan? Surprisingly, it doesn't. There's one property that's different between the power plans, and there's no option at all to change it. It's how fast Windows allows the CPU to step up or down in speed. The "High Performance" plan has a built-in bias to maximize performance -- speed up on demand, slow down only after a delay. And you can only pick the behavior by choosing between the two base plans, and modifying them or copying one or the other to make a custom one -- which will be always be based on the built-in one you started with.

"Balanced" will keep the processor speed low, and delay it from speeding up until Windows is really satisfied that the extra speed is necessary. This is great for saving laptop battery power, but it's an arrow to the knee for gaming performance.

When you set a low minimum speed (5% is recommended for seamless behavior) in the "High Performance" plan, it behaves differently. The CPU will jump up to higher speeds instantly based on CPU load. And it will stay there for a bit, not slowing back down until Windows and the CPU are really sure that there isn't more work coming.

In other words: "Balanced" = bias toward power savings, sluggish to speed up the CPU, quick to slow it down. "High Performance" with a low-speed setting defined = quick to jump to high speeds, slow to drop speed until there's definitely a lighter load on the CPU.

It's kind of dumb that there's no pre-set version of this one-setting change. My best guess is that it's designed to bias usage toward power savings for EnergyStar ratings.