Fine Tuning... Capped at 43% GPU in World Zones

Cathexis

Trying to figure out what is going on with my frame rates. Recently purchased a new graphics card.

Things that have been done:
The bios is optimized.
The mobo is up to date.
The CPU is overclocked (4.5ghz), substantial use but no report or indication of decline in responsiveness due to cpu getting slammed.
The CPU is unparked and optimized to 100%
The game is prioritized to Realtime.
Ram quantity is sufficient.
Ram is optimized clocking.
New end GPU drivers up to date and overclocked.
Windows up to date.
HPET is properly enabled.
C++ Is current version (2019 vX.XX)
The only process currently using the CPU at a consistent and noteworthy level is ESO.
Nvidia + ESO profile is configured and optimized for maximum performance (no real changes were required)

Edit; Just an update, I have also looked into the wattage problem that was suggested to me in an older post, and the issue is not to do with the cpu or gpu not receiving sufficient wattage. GPU-Z is indicating a vrel PerfCap Reason, which would suggest a voltage stability limitation, but that warning remains consistent across all areas, regardless of where the game pins gpu usage at.

Settings related
Settings are maxed except (hoping to keep this way)
-Vsync is off.
-Usersettings.ini is tweaked for framerates, processes, single gpu check, gpu smoothing shaders = 0
-shaders are on medium (really all you need, since higher settings render outside the visual field)
-view/particle distance 25~ (distance optimized for cool pixelated fade in effect just inside the visual field)

The Problem
Yet for whatever reason, in world zones, I am under 60fps (35-55 moving, 55-65 standing still depending on what I am looking at) and the GPU sits at 25-41% of maximum load (also noticed this occurs before login). In dungeons, delves, player housing, and the character select screen, my fps skyrockets to 144 and the GPU is in full usage 89-100%.

Trying to understand what the problem is here because the game does not seem to be using my GPU consistently.

Cathexis

Any insight as to what is happening would be appreciated, I have tried numerous graphical configurations and attempted to force pressure onto the gpu, the gpu usage remains constant despite ramping up gpusmoothing to 10 or 14, and disabling the shader cache.

Still sits between 28-45%, typically between 30-38% usage. But only in world zones.

Cathexis

Can confirm this is a GPU utilization issue and not a hardware limitation at the very least, as when in the character select menu, the usage is at 90-100% - logging in the usage remains at 100% very briefly and my fps indicator shows over 100fps in populated areas until the throttle kicks in and drops it to 45-50% GPU usage @ 50-60 avg~, fps being exactly proportional to usage drop.

There is some sort of zone based optimization going on that is preventing my card from using its capacity, because these issues do not show up in character select, delves, login, or player housing (I am assuming it has something to do with a host side limiter to compensate for server stress of accounting for more players in a wider area? I don't know).

I have been working at configurations for a while now and there is 0 impact on GPU utilization with regard to bios settings, overclocks, GPU settings, in game video settings, windows performance settings. None of it impacts overall GPU utilization beyond 50%.

ArseJuice

What are your PC specs?

SirAndy

Cathexis wrote: »

Trying to understand what the problem is here because the game does not seem to be using my GPU consistently.

The client side rendering and the client/server communication aren't completely asynchronous in ESO.

Server lag can (and will) negatively impact your client fps, especially in more populated areas.

Cathexis

SirAndy wrote: »

Cathexis wrote: »

Trying to understand what the problem is here because the game does not seem to be using my GPU consistently.

The client side rendering and the client/server communication aren't completely asynchronous in ESO.

Server lag can (and will) negatively impact your client fps, especially in more populated areas.

Well there's only one way I can help that. I suppose that's the obvious thing I have been wishing weren't true. Going to have to build some crazy shjtballs routing stuff (really did not want to do this, hours of work ahead bleh)

SirAndy

Cathexis wrote: »

Well there's only one way I can help that. I suppose that's the obvious thing I have been wishing weren't true. Going to have to build some crazy shjtballs routing stuff (really did not want to do this, hours of work ahead bleh)

Won't help, the game server(s) themselves are the bottleneck, not the network transmissions.

Cathexis

SirAndy wrote: »

Cathexis wrote: »

Well there's only one way I can help that. I suppose that's the obvious thing I have been wishing weren't true. Going to have to build some crazy shjtballs routing stuff (really did not want to do this, hours of work ahead bleh)

Won't help, the game server(s) themselves are the bottleneck, not the network transmissions.

While I'm sure you are speaking truths, network transmission is variable geographically, and doesn't account for things such as carrier traffic shaping/throttling. My current issue may be traffic shaping/throttling related.

woe

The game runs from a single core so your gpu doesn't matter as much. You need a strong cpu for this game.

Cathexis

deflorate wrote: »

The game runs from a single core so your gpu doesn't matter as much. You need a strong cpu for this game.

My cpu is an 8 core clocked at 4.5 GHz. Over an hour of play it hits 100% on one core maybe twice for a fraction of a second. Cpu is all good.

There is something else happening beyond this. Either it's an issue with the server's being insufficient or being capped, or traffic shaping on my network because on my end I am spec'd appropriately. It does rise now higher when the game gets more active but there's no reason I should be getting 40 frames in towns when I'm seeing 50% GPU usage.

I'm getting 70-100fps on ultra settings stress tests depending on configurations.

woe

Cathexis wrote: »

deflorate wrote: »

The game runs from a single core so your gpu doesn't matter as much. You need a strong cpu for this game.

My cpu is an 8 core clocked at 4.5 GHz. Over an hour of play it hits 100% on one core maybe twice for a fraction of a second. Cpu is all good.

There is something else happening beyond this. Either it's an issue with the server's being insufficient or being capped, or traffic shaping on my network because on my end I am spec'd appropriately. It does rise now higher when the game gets more active but there's no reason I should be getting 40 frames in towns when I'm seeing 50% GPU usage.

I'm getting 70-100fps on ultra settings stress tests depending on configurations.

Watch the video from where it starts to see what i'm talking about.

https://youtu.be/aKhUnXyOcnc?t=579

Cathexis

deflorate wrote: »

Cathexis wrote: »

deflorate wrote: »

The game runs from a single core so your gpu doesn't matter as much. You need a strong cpu for this game.

My cpu is an 8 core clocked at 4.5 GHz. Over an hour of play it hits 100% on one core maybe twice for a fraction of a second. Cpu is all good.

There is something else happening beyond this. Either it's an issue with the server's being insufficient or being capped, or traffic shaping on my network because on my end I am spec'd appropriately. It does rise now higher when the game gets more active but there's no reason I should be getting 40 frames in towns when I'm seeing 50% GPU usage.

I'm getting 70-100fps on ultra settings stress tests depending on configurations.

Watch the video from where it starts to see what i'm talking about.

https://youtu.be/aKhUnXyOcnc?t=579

I've watched this video, my cpu is fine. I've monitored cpu performance, it is not capping out under load. Single core performance rarely hits 100%, usually if that occurs it is because of some unusual system process that is compounding performance.

What seems to be happening is the GPU performance in some areas is being scaled down to about 50%. Video tests I have seen show that you need a 1070ti to maintain 60fps, and this makes sense under those conditions because the game is only making use of about half the power of the card. This is why shadows and view distance play such a significant role in fps, because the graphics card power is being constrained, and those settings are significantly more taxing under those conditions. View distance in particular seems to be extremely taxing, well beyond a reasonable degree.

To give you a sense of what I mean by scaled down, if I go outside Alinor to an Abyssal Guiser, when there is no activity my framerate sits between 80-135 running at 50%. If I reduce my settings, the framerate improves, but the GPU usage does not change. It's only when the Guiser activates that my GPU usage begins to exceed 50.

The same settings in player housing produces a framerate of way over 200+ and 99% usage. It seems like there is some sort of modifier occuring in open world where the graphical load is being constrained or split between different types of processes.