Fps bottleneck or something else?

Zheroul · February 2016

I am averaging about 22-34fps in mournhold during peak hours. This is the same regardless of add-ons, resolution, or graphic setting changes. I have installed my win 7 CPU hotfix and tried core unparking.

My rig
Mobo Asrock 990fx Extreme 9
CPU AMD fx-9590 4.7ghz(5ghz turbo)
RAM GSkill Trident 16g (4g x 4)
GPU MSI Radeon r9 390x
PSU Corsair rm1000

I have used MSI afterburner and seeing core 2 of my CPU being used at 100% off and on, but my overall CPU usage never hits 50%.
My GPU does show its being used at 100%, but I am unsure of that being as it's new, and had the same problems while using my AMD Radeon HD 7990.

If you can help please do.

Septimus_Magna · February 2016

View distance to 35-40
Min. particle density

If that doesnt fix it you can turn off bump mapping in the user settings .ini > Normal_Maps=0

Zheroul · February 2016

Thanks for the reply, but I have actually tried both of them prior to posting this. I have attempted everything I have found here on the forms over the last two weeks attempting to resolve the issue.

Zheroul · February 2016

I have attempted everything I know to. Reducing resolution to 800x600 with every setting either off or low as possible to resolutions my monitor doesn't technically support with every option maxed, and multiple changes to the user setting.txt file and still have the same fps range. No increase or decrease in fps with graphic option changes.

Asmodean · February 2016

If the problem is in general, try below. If it's only for that particular area, it's probably game, or driver related. So disregard.

Unlikely but worth a try, from the sound of your issue;

Check if your graphics card is stuck in 2d clocks, while the game is running?. (low, desktop frequencies).

Use (example) GPU-Z to check your GPU info. Check what the core/memory frequencies are supposed to be when it's running. And then cross-check those with what they actually are, while the game is running.

Zheroul · February 2016

I will check when I get home, but if this is the case how would one go about correcting it?

Zheroul · February 2016

@Asmodean I have done some looking around online in a few other forums and from what I have seen on them it very well could be a similar issue. While playing I've notice MSI Afterburner reading between 500-685Mhz and the GPU having the capabilities to run up to 1100Mhz at full load.

LostScot · February 2016

You've definitely got something a bit peculiar happening there - I've got an AMD FX-6350 (6 core) CPU with 3 cores generally at half utilisation while playing ESO, and a Radeon R9-380 card with GPU hitting 825MHz when the game's running. Typically pumping out between 60-100fps with the game's "high" quality preset, but I've got a different issue from you where the framerate suddenly drops down to 10fps for no obvious reason, game becomes unplayable for a few seconds, then it's back to normal. Except it does it quite a few times over the course of a few minutes.

Some people have suggested that I try disabling Afterburner or any other GPU-related utilities that might interfere with the game's performance. I know that for some people disabling Afterburner has helped according to other topics on these forums. Give it a try, just close Afterburner completely and try playing ESO to see if it gets your framerate up to where mine is. Given you've got a better CPU and GPU you should easily be exceeding my performance!

Zheroul · February 2016

Well now that i have done some testing with my AMD drivers, having 2 monitors, and afterburner theory that it must be something I am not seeing. Thanks for the help, but for some unknown reason nothing has changed. I will note that with the pre-"hotfix" driver amd released my GPU clock does reach 1080Mhz, but wont with the new "hotfix" Driver.

SYKOZEN · February 2016

you said you u could see 2 of your cores being used... i suppose that means you have more cores and if the others aren't really much being used then maybe you need to un-park your cpu cores

Zheroul · February 2016

I already have, core two for my setup seems to Cary the games primary load while the other 7 are much less. That is until the 2nd core is foced to push the extra load somewhere else it seems.

thejynxed · February 2016

Check your power settings for the GPU in both Windows and in CCP (if CCP is still what AMD uses), make sure they are set to performance mode and the system isn't allowed to downclock it to conserve power. I've noticed this issue on nvidia cards as well, and what helped alleviate the issue was not allowing the driver or the OS to downclock the system, because for whatever godforsaken reason, if you open menus/inventory in ESO (and I've noticed it happening if you're facing something static like the sides of buildings) something is communicated to the driver that you've entered 2D mode and the GPU gets downclocked, and you experience a big stutter once you close the menus/inventory or turn away from the large static surface as the GPU clocks back up in giant spurts.

Zheroul · February 2016

I will definitely look into it. I feel I have nothing else to loose. I may not have any stuttering, but I don't feel I should be getting so few fps either.

bountyspiter · February 2016

@Zheroul I have exactly the same problem you have. My PC spec is this:

Mobo: Asrock Socket AM3+ Fatal1ty 990FX Killer/3.1 GLan Audio Raid
CPU: AMD FX 8370 4.0 GHz Eight Core Socket AM3+ 125W
RAM: Kingston 16GB HyperX Fury DDR3L Non ECC CL11 1866MH
GPU: ATI Radeon R9 390X Nitro w/BP 8GB DDR5 PCI-E DVI HDMI Triple-DP
PSU: Corsair Power Supply 850W ATX 24 pin CX 850M

So theoraticaly, ESO should be flying with this PC. Instead it is crawling. The FPS is stuck at incredibly low lvls for what this PC can do. I'm getting 30-35 FPS in wrothgar. 18-28 in Wrothgar daily bosses when alot of people are around. 10-15 FPS in Cyrodiil prime time. These numbers are simply a bad joke when at the same time I can play Fallout 4 in Ultra high (all video options) with no problem at all.

I can confirm through the task manager that no CPU bottlenecking is at hand here. Yes 2 cores are always running higher than the rest 6, but never at 100%, and all the other cores are working too at the same time (with the game running ofc).

I changed the ingame video options (for the sake of figuring out the problem) from ultra high to medium, lowered view distance, lowered particles etc. No change in my FPS. Still running the same numbers.

I tried every single suggestion this thread here suggests. https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/3jjoql/are_you_having_fps_issues_wih_eso_on_a_pc_well/
Not only didn't I make progress but in some cases the results were negative. So i changed everything back to default values. The only thing I kept is the "unparking".

Zheroul wrote: »

I will note that with the pre-"hotfix" driver amd released my GPU clock does reach 1080Mhz, but wont with the new "hotfix" Driver.

I reinstalled the drivers (latest AMD with the hotfix). No change again. I will try out the drivers without the hotfix too and i will post the result probably tomorrow if I don't come up with some other solution. Also can you explain plz m8 how the "my GPU clock does reach 1080Mhz" affect the FPS. Is it that important? Could it possibly mean that the hotfix is more of a problem than a fix?

Also after a conversation with an expert PC technician, I need to ask, could this be Zenimax's fault once again? Cause from what I hear, there is no universe in which this PC configuration cannot play ESO. The only reason it wouldn't play it is because Zenimax didn't optimise well enough the game for usage with this GPU seiries (some might even call it a conspiracy but could NVidia have something to do with this?). So I am wondering if we see any hotfix about this from ZOS in the future. Or I don't really know how these things work, maybe in cooperation with AMD they produce a drivers "hotfix" for this ( I've seen in the recent hotfix notes that it fixes things for specific games).

This technician of mine suggested I download "Middle earth: Shadow of Mordor" game (there are more demanding games he said but this one is the one he knows that got a "benchmark" option). Set all the graffics in ultra and then run this "benchmark" option that the game provides (apparently from what I understand alot of games do that lately). If my FPS there is 60+ then the PC is running perfectly. There is nothing wrong with the hardware or whatever, and it's totaly Zenimax's flawed optimisation. Tomorrow we will be checking on if this is somehow a CPU-mobo problem, temperatures and all. I will post again. Till then @Zheroul don't lose hope

You are not alone.

Zheroul · February 2016

@bountyspiter Actually when MSI Afterburner was showing my GPU clock at 1080Mhz was while using the driver prior to the "Hotfix" Driver, which I think was maybe Crimson 15.12. The Hotfix driver, 16.1 i think, is mainly to reduce excess power usage that the prior driver didnt, but neither affected my fps adversely or positively. Make sure you use the AMD clean install or a similar program.

I need to check a few more things, but I think I finally got out of a permenant 25-35fps. I didn't have time to check all the settings yet, but it looks like I did. If so it very well could have been a corrupted driver.

Hopefully this can help you, but even if it got me out of a "fps lock", there's still no reason I should be getting the low fps I am still getting.

Zheroul · February 2016

Well, I believe I have managed to get this fixed. It had to be a corrupted driver install. If it wasn't for @Asmodean 's mention of the clock speeds & driver issues I would have never figured it out.

Atm I am still getting poor fps with the "Ultra" preset or higher, but if i drop down to the "High" preset, I begin to see a steady 50-70fps, but I still get 25+fps drops in PVP. Over all, I am happy to say this is probably not a problem with my Rig anymore. Just the game that I built it for...

@bountyspiter Good Luck, hope things go well. Maybe Something Discussed here could be of some help.

If my inquiries with support get me anywhere ill be sure to post them here.