cpu heat and gpu usage

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

I know eso is very cpu intense - didnt they announce that this should also be optimized and the game utilizing multi-threading / multi cpu better?

Am I the only one that is having this issue: My cpu temp when playing ESO is all over the place - at times it stays at 50-60 degrees, others its 80 degrees without any change in the game...

The funny thing is my gpu goes never above 55 degrees while my cpu is at 75, ESO is the only game ive ever played where my cpu gets hotter than my gpu (and i have water cooling)...

Does anyone have tips how to optimize cpu / gpu utilization and temperature?

rotaugen454 · April 2020

I've been trying to figure this out as well. My gaming laptop has the fans kick into extremely noisy hyperdrive, and ONLY for this game. Nothing else does that, and my wife complains about the noise. Save a marriage, find a fix...

zvavi · April 2020

tbh since their cpu optimization i noticed eso is kicking much more cpu power, and i have no idea where it goes, because it is not like performance got noticeably better.

clocksstoppe · April 2020

I suggest you go to power settings and put max cpu usage to 99%, this will prevent it from going into Turbo boost, but you will also get lower fps.

As for the GPU usage, there is nothing you can do about it. It's what happens when a game is CPU bound, it just can't send commands to the GPU fast enough, the GPU gobbles them up quickly and then goes for a nap while the CPU is struggling to send more commands. Only ZOS can fix this.

Ruder · April 2020

Don't play games on laptops with patato cooling, this game can't make my desktop CPU goes higher than 40-42 degrees with 20c ambient temp

votan73 · April 2020

ZOS_AlexTardif said this a while ago:

If you have a good GPU and have all your settings maxed but want higher performance, change your Reflection Quality to Low instead of Medium or High. "Low" reflections are actually using screen-space reflections, rather than heavy-duty planar reflections. Planar reflections are more accurate, but they're far harder on the CPU, whereas screen space reflections are almost entirely a GPU operation and should lighten the load on your CPU quite a bit.

But this looks so weird, you better turn it off completely.

If you want your GPU to get busy, try to use DSR 2.25+ instead of FXAA.

Nestor · April 2020

rotaugen454 wrote: »

I've been trying to figure this out as well. My gaming laptop has the fans kick into extremely noisy hyperdrive, and ONLY for this game. Nothing else does that, and my wife complains about the noise. Save a marriage, find a fix...

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+cooling&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

ForzaRammer · April 2020

It's zos's coding, and fix this requires proper compiling and stuff, no easy task.

Mancombe_Nosehair · April 2020

Nestor wrote: »

rotaugen454 wrote: »

I've been trying to figure this out as well. My gaming laptop has the fans kick into extremely noisy hyperdrive, and ONLY for this game. Nothing else does that, and my wife complains about the noise. Save a marriage, find a fix...

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+cooling&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Ooh I like that. Thanks!

worrallj · April 2020

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

daemonios · April 2020

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

worrallj · April 2020

daemonios wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

Like I said the first was a custom desktop and the second was an MSI. What fps do you get in stormhaven after an hour or two of playing? I recently had to change a bunch of settings in the user settings file based on alcast recommendations, I was getting fps tanking down to like 10 or lower when in stormhaven.

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

rotaugen454 wrote: »

I've been trying to figure this out as well. My gaming laptop has the fans kick into extremely noisy hyperdrive, and ONLY for this game. Nothing else does that, and my wife complains about the noise. Save a marriage, find a fix...

yes its that - their optimization has actual made the situation much worse, i still get 60 fps in normal and 30 fps in stress situation... but before the cpu never run hotter than 60 now constantly on 80 with no performance increase...

Ruder · April 2020

worrallj wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

Like I said the first was a custom desktop and the second was an MSI. What fps do you get in stormhaven after an hour or two of playing? I recently had to change a bunch of settings in the user settings file based on alcast recommendations, I was getting fps tanking down to like 10 or lower when in stormhaven.

What is the CPU of your "Mid-range" MSI gaming laptop, your issues with overheating have nothing to do with ESO but your poor cooling or thermal paste that needs to be replaced.

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

Ruder wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

Like I said the first was a custom desktop and the second was an MSI. What fps do you get in stormhaven after an hour or two of playing? I recently had to change a bunch of settings in the user settings file based on alcast recommendations, I was getting fps tanking down to like 10 or lower when in stormhaven.

What is the CPU of your "Mid-range" MSI gaming laptop, your issues with overheating have nothing to do with ESO but your poor cooling or thermal paste that needs to be replaced.

i doubt that as i have similar issues but can run much more demanding games at much higher settings without issues and i have a gaming desktop gpu... eso simply seems poorly coded

woufff · April 2020

I don't know what material you guys are running, my pc hardly get out the idle mode on highest settings...

SC is another story though

Bergzorn · April 2020

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Ruder wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

Like I said the first was a custom desktop and the second was an MSI. What fps do you get in stormhaven after an hour or two of playing? I recently had to change a bunch of settings in the user settings file based on alcast recommendations, I was getting fps tanking down to like 10 or lower when in stormhaven.

What is the CPU of your "Mid-range" MSI gaming laptop, your issues with overheating have nothing to do with ESO but your poor cooling or thermal paste that needs to be replaced.

i doubt that as i have similar issues but can run much more demanding games at much higher settings without issues and i have a gaming desktop gpu... eso simply seems poorly coded

Regardless of ESO's code quality, if your CPU temperature is constantly at 80 degree Celsius, you should consider to check, clean, or upgrade your cooling system. Usually, even mediocre CPU fans are able to keep the temperature below 80 degree during full load on all cores (my experience from prolonged scientific calculations on several machines).

You could do a performance test with full CPU load and check if it stays at 80 degree without throtteling CPU speed, then it should be fine. I don't know if there is a tool for it in Windows, with Linux you'd just calculate non-stop square roots on all cores to heat it up.

Hippie4927 · April 2020

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

My Alienware laptop is 7 years old and I've been playing ESO on it for 6 years and it's not firewood, yet. I do always use a cooling pad and clean out the dust and cat hair regularly.

worrallj · April 2020

Probably doesn't matter but since many are curious about what pc I'm running here ya go. I'm pretty sure this is the same model:

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GL72M-7RDX-800-GeForce-Windows/dp/B072MTXBLM

I don't know the details of what causes a PC to overheat, but I assume what's going on is that over years of being pushed so hard, things like the heat sink start to wear out. It'd probably be good for me to replace that, but its a little less common with laptops for people to open them up and start replacing things.

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

Bergzorn wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Ruder wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

I don't know what brand of pc you're buying, but my 6 year old Asus laptop is still going strong. I get lower fps at the same settings, but that's due to changes in the game, not the laptop turning into firewood as you put it.

Like I said the first was a custom desktop and the second was an MSI. What fps do you get in stormhaven after an hour or two of playing? I recently had to change a bunch of settings in the user settings file based on alcast recommendations, I was getting fps tanking down to like 10 or lower when in stormhaven.

What is the CPU of your "Mid-range" MSI gaming laptop, your issues with overheating have nothing to do with ESO but your poor cooling or thermal paste that needs to be replaced.

i doubt that as i have similar issues but can run much more demanding games at much higher settings without issues and i have a gaming desktop gpu... eso simply seems poorly coded

Regardless of ESO's code quality, if your CPU temperature is constantly at 80 degree Celsius, you should consider to check, clean, or upgrade your cooling system. Usually, even mediocre CPU fans are able to keep the temperature below 80 degree during full load on all cores (my experience from prolonged scientific calculations on several machines).

You could do a performance test with full CPU load and check if it stays at 80 degree without throtteling CPU speed, then it should be fine. I don't know if there is a tool for it in Windows, with Linux you'd just calculate non-stop square roots on all cores to heat it up.

but again this only happens with ESO it doesnt happen with the witcher 3 maxed out, skyrim modded and maxed out, total war maxed out, bannerlord maxed out etc. etc. and only after the last couple months of performance improvements so it clearly has to do with eso

ArchMikem · April 2020

I may be talking nonsense but is the CPU being bottlenecked? Or do you have programs running in the background while playing?

worrallj · April 2020

Only program I usually have going is discord.

To OP: alcast does have a guide for some changes you can make for performance. I was getting badly bogged down after the last round of performance "improvement" patches, and those changes alcast shows did make a big difference.

rfennell_ESO · April 2020

It's the hero engine they used that's the issue.

I don't think it's capable of proper multicore operation or even properly offloading video and sound.

Not to harp on it, but Amazon's New World looks better and is much higher graphics fidelity and doesn't have these issues because it's a modern engine. Even though it's a crytek based engine, lumberyard was adapted well. Hero engine is just lame; it is hardcoded to run simulation and rendering on a single thread.

They have made attempts at improving it, but putting spoilers and ground effects on a Corolla isn't going to make you win races.

Nearly all older game engines have the same issue. Inability to run multicore properly or even use the full power of modern video cards.

kyle.wilson · April 2020

I'm running a 9900K overclocked to 5GHz on all cores with a 1080ti. I usually don't see CPU temps over 55C in the most demanding situations in game. But, i'm also using a 360CLC.

You may want to run a stress test and see what the temperatures are like. D5 pumps can fail and CLC's will permeate fluid over time.

idk · April 2020

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

I know eso is very cpu intense - didnt they announce that this should also be optimized and the game utilizing multi-threading / multi cpu better?

The game utilizing multi-threading better does not mean it will be optimized for multi-threading. It just means some aspects of the game utilized it than it used to. In other words, Zos never suggested most of the game will utilize multi-threading.

Semantics are very important.

kyle.wilson · April 2020

Hippie4927 wrote: »

worrallj wrote: »

This game burns through PC's like firewood. Especially capital cities for some reason. In my experience playing this game means you will need a new pc about every 3 years. It trashed my old custom built - was getting 100 degree temps. Which ran it fine at launch. I got a mid-high range MSI gaming laptop which ran ESO like a dream for a few years, but now it's struggling.

My Alienware laptop is 7 years old and I've been playing ESO on it for 6 years and it's not firewood, yet. I do always use a cooling pad and clean out the dust and cat hair regularly.

The Alienware Area-51m 7700 laptop I bought in 2005, CPU got so hot it damaged the hard drive nearby. That was in 2007 it occurred. It also had the display backlight fail just prior and got replaced.
I went against my better judgment and bought an Alienware desktop with the 8700K during the GPU price gouging of 2018. That was also a POS. I dropped temp 10F by just replacing the mb and swapping into a case I already owned.

nejcn001 · April 2020

ESO doesnt even use 50% of my resources...but it drops under 50 fps in trials...i dont know man.

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

kyle.wilson wrote: »

I'm running a 9900K overclocked to 5GHz on all cores with a 1080ti. I usually don't see CPU temps over 55C in the most demanding situations in game. But, i'm also using a 360CLC.

You may want to run a stress test and see what the temperatures are like. D5 pumps can fail and CLC's will permeate fluid over time.

How would i be able to check that? Opening it there is no fluid and running censors the ventilators are ventilating of the CLC...

Honestly i am waiting to buy a new pc to get a new cpu and the 3080 gtx...but corona has kinda delayed the release :-(

idk · April 2020

nejcn001 wrote: »

ESO doesnt even use 50% of my resources...but it drops under 50 fps in trials...i dont know man.

While I am not sure what you mean by 50% of your resources, the drop in FPS for trials is because there is a lot more going on visually. My guess is you probably also see a drop in FPS when you enter one of the major capital cities where we pick up the undaunted pledges.

Bergzorn · April 2020

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

I'm running a 9900K overclocked to 5GHz on all cores with a 1080ti. I usually don't see CPU temps over 55C in the most demanding situations in game. But, i'm also using a 360CLC.

You may want to run a stress test and see what the temperatures are like. D5 pumps can fail and CLC's will permeate fluid over time.

How would i be able to check that? Opening it there is no fluid and running censors the ventilators are ventilating of the CLC...

Honestly i am waiting to buy a new pc to get a new cpu and the 3080 gtx...but corona has kinda delayed the release :-(

Well, if your cooling works fine but you still get temps up to 80 degree, the reason could simply be that your CPU is a bit to weak and upgrading to a stronger one would solve the issue.

The game was fine for me on a AMD Phenom II X4 until 2016 (quite weak for today's standards), at that point I upgraded to an Intel I7-6700k since the old one couldn't handle Fallout 4 in Boston.

Nemesis7884 · April 2020

i have a ryzen 5 first gen...well guess i have to wait for the gtx 3080 to finally drop so i can upgrade the whole system... gtx 2080ti wasnt worth it price vs performance wise...and i usually only upgrade based on substantial gpu power increases...