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PC Drivers & Software

Xurvoc
Journeyman III

Summary of issue: Some games won't use much of my system causing fps drops.

Summary of issue: Some games won't use much of my system causing fps drops.

System Configuration:

Operating System: Windows 10 21H2

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, overclocked (Tested with both Default and underclock)

GPU: AMD Radeon 6900 XT, overclocked (Tested with both Default and underclock)

Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 ACE ATX AM4 Motherboard

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro GB 4 x 8 GB DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory

PSU: Corsair RMx 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Monitor: AORUS FI25F Gaming Monitor

Some games run fine but some like Rust or Overwatch won't use more power to get a consistent 240 FPS. I bought this system for streaming and for Esports but to my disappointment frames change rapidly from 170-310 fps. GPU and CPU temps are under 55 celsius but rarely goes past 45 celsius. GPU and CPU usage stay under 30% at almost all times with occasional 40% spikes. I have overclocked removed overclock, uninstalled drivers using DDU, reinstalled windows 10, reset BIOS and messed with settings in windows and in BIOS. I have spend at this point spent 10+ hours messing with settings just to fix this issue with no luck. I have seen a video of someone playing overwatch with a 6900xt with 400 frames at all times with 0 frame drops. I know for a fact my rig can handle it but it wont put much effort into it.

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4 Replies
DRDOS
Adept III

Most of the games, especially old ones, don't have any effective multi-threading optimizations. It's quite sophisticated task to implement this kind of optimizations for games. It's possible to split some tasks of different type to a separated dedicated threads in order to distribute a workload to at least several processor's cores. But for another type of the tasks it's barely practically possible to do this at all. Otherwise, it would increase a cost (or a development time) of the final product significantly, which is unacceptable in the current reality where competition is very strong and everything is being developed in an ASAP mode.
There're a lot of games that have the most amount of workload processed only within 1 or 2 threads. For such games it doesn't matter how many cores a CPU has - 2 or 12, they will utilize only 1 or 2 anyway.

For this reason, i bet, there might be only a very few games in the world currently existing that would be capable to load a 12 or 16 core CPU to 100%, resulting in some insane number of frames per second, for example 500-1000 or whatever else.
Even more, majority of computer game players are more than enough satisfied of 60 FPS. Console players got used even to 30 FPS since long time ago. Game developers, of course, know this very well, so it's highly unlikely they would spend their extra resources in order to beat some limits that majority won't even notice, since it's more reasonable and profitable to redirect these resources to those parts that would make their software product more competitive on the market.

There're some ridiculous examples existing where a 30-years old games, having modern graphics and gameplay mods installed, in the best case are capable to run on the fastest modern CPU's only at average 100-200 FPS with drops to 30 FPS in a heavy graphics/physics situations. Just because these games use only a single core of the CPU.

As it's well known, there's a technological limit that makes it complicated to increase a single core performance further. So every next CPU generation nowadays has only a little increase in a single core performance. Most of the performance needs nowadays are filled by increasing a count of the cores in a CPU, which though makes no any sense for those games with partial multi-threading optimization or with no such optimizations at all.

Considering all this, if for some reason it is necessary to get as much frames per second as it is ever possible from some specific game, then most likely it's necessary to pick up a CPU that has the highest single core performance.
There're quite many reviews in the internet that show no any performance differences in many, even modern games, if they run on 6 or on 12 cores CPU's that have equal single-core performance.

You may want to inspect your game, for example, by a tool named Sysinternals ProcessExplorer in order to figure out how many threads the game runs, how it distributes the amount of workload between the threads, and finally to understand how many cores would be enough for that game.
As a result, it may appear that, for example with 6-cores Ryzen 5 5600X that game will give higher FPS than with 12-cores Ryzen 9 3900X.

Here is a list that may be used as a reference to compare a single-core performance of different CPU models: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html
The needed column in that list is named as "Thread Mark", clicking the header of that column makes the list sorted out by this value of the "Thread Mark".
In the "CPU Name" column you need to enter "AMD" or "Ryzen" to get rid of the mess caused by any unnecessary CPU names.



Though the points stated in my previous message are related to a most common cases that usually take place, it should be considered only as one of the possible reasons, because there also might be many other reasons of such issues that may take place in some particular cases.

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I'm running nearly identical hardware on my PC.

CPU Ryzen 7 2700x at 4.2 GHz with 200 watt TDP Cooler

GPU RX 6900 XT VPU at 2200 MHz  and VRAM at 2170 MHz

MOBO MSI x370 M7 ACK Gaming Series

Samsung 870 EVO SATA 3 4 TB

RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x

PSU Thermaltake Toughpower full modular 1200 watt.

Windows 10 Pro 64 version 21H2.

View Sonic 50" 240Hz monitor.

I've found that if I cap my refresh rate at 120 max and 60 min I get FPS on average from 88 FPS to 140 FPS and even older DX 9 games will run visually great with no stutter or lag yet I do get a peculiar issue where the audio sometimes briefly cuts in and out. Also Homeworld Remaster 1 and  2 used to stutter a lot till I pulled my GPU and gave the PCIE slot and the GPU interface a thorough cleaning.  Dust as all PC builders know is your worst enemy it reduces heat dissipation airflow causes poor connections in interface slots and with enough buildup is a severe fire hazard. Trust me on that last point I'm a US Sonar Technician Submariner Veteran and I've seen large accumulations of  dust bunnies catch fire when near an adequate heat source. Hope some of this info is helpful and good luck. 

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I have recently unplugged my gpu and gave the PCIE and small cleaning but almost no dust accumulation. This system is still relatively new and has always had this issue. But thanks for the tip I will clean my system more often.

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