• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:33
CEST 08:33
KST 15:33
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202562RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams10Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension5
StarCraft 2
General
#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings Server Blocker Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond)
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Ginuda's JaeDong Interview Series [Update] ShieldBattery: 2025 Redesign BW General Discussion Dewalt's Show Matches in China
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China CSL Xiamen International Invitational [CSLPRO] It's CSLAN Season! - Last Chance
Strategy
[G] Mineral Boosting Does 1 second matter in StarCraft? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Server - TAForever Nintendo Switch Thread [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Post Pic of your Favorite Food!
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2025 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Eight Anniversary as a TL…
Mizenhauer
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 707 users

Odd FPS problem with the witcher 2

Forum Index > Tech Support
Post a Reply
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-06-01 19:44:24
June 01 2015 16:29 GMT
#1
My problem is this: I have the steam-version of the witcher 2: assassins of kings enhanced edition.
my system specs are as follows:

win7 64bit home premium build 7601

GTX 660ti (3gb gddr5)

intel i7 860 4x 2,80GHz

16gb of ddr3 ram

this should easily be able to run the witcher at 60fps if i tune down the settings a bit. but i am unable to reach more than 30 fps ingame, 35 fps in menus. changing my graphics settings does not have any kind of impact on the framerate, which sounds like the CPU is bottlenecking the games performance.
however, while playing, it looks like this: + Show Spoiler +
[image loading]


So that rules out a bottleneck, right? no core is under full workload, so there's room for more power.

now it gets really weird (i think). i am currently running the game at 1024x768 in windowed, with the lowest possible settings, always below 30 fps, around 24 fps in crowded places.

when i change the window however, and have the witcher running but do not control the application, my framerate triples.
i will be on the same crowded marketplace, but my fps instantly improve by a large margin.

what's causing this i do not know, but whenever i change the window, cpu usage rises. it's like the game is limiting the amount of processing power it has whenever i'm actually playing it.

things i have tried, that didn't help:

reinstalled the game

verified integrity of game cache

uninstalled and disabled everything that might have limited fps

reinstalled gpu drivers


i am absolutely lost here, and i hope that you can help me.

thank you in advance for any suggestions you have.

***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20285 Posts
June 01 2015 18:24 GMT
#2
you can check your cpu clock speeds and temperatures with hwinfo

www.hwinfo.com

to see if you're throttling etc
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 01 2015 20:04 GMT
#3
On June 02 2015 03:24 Cyro wrote:
you can check your cpu clock speeds and temperatures with hwinfo

www.hwinfo.com

to see if you're throttling etc


one or two of the 4 used threads occasionally reach 100% usage when running the witcher, but they're far from running at the limit all the time. temperature of both gpu and cpu do not exceed 50°C while the problem is present, so i don't think overheating is an issue.
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20285 Posts
June 01 2015 20:12 GMT
#4
If CPU is at proper clockspeed (around 3ghz) you can look at GPU clocks and load%. It should be at normal clocks (maybe 1000mhz+) and if it's not at or near 100% load, it's waiting on something else in the system between rendering frames
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 01 2015 20:29 GMT
#5
cpu is clocked at 2,8 ghz, gpu is clocked at around 850 mhz when i'm playing, core usage about 30% or a bit lower. now, when i change the active window, the same thing as with the cpu happens - core load increases to about 50%, GPU D3D usage (dunno what that is) also increases from around 30% to 50%. so the game is drawing more resources and operating more smoothly when running in the background. what the fuck could be causing that?
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
xM(Z
Profile Joined November 2006
Romania5281 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-06-02 07:56:29
June 02 2015 07:55 GMT
#6
have you played with the default graphics proprieties from windows?. nvidia has weird presets/overrides based on would be game settings.
see if you have "override application settings" or something like that there.
And my fury stands ready. I bring all your plans to nought. My bleak heart beats steady. 'Tis you whom I have sought.
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 02 2015 16:10 GMT
#7
On June 02 2015 16:55 xM(Z wrote:
have you played with the default graphics proprieties from windows?. nvidia has weird presets/overrides based on would be game settings.
see if you have "override application settings" or something like that there.


nope, not the case.
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 04 2015 22:09 GMT
#8
has nobody got an idea that i could try? this problem is extremely frustrating
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
June 05 2015 04:00 GMT
#9
In the nvidia control panel in the "manage 3d settings" section, look for "power management" and set that to "performance" instead of "adaptive".

Are you playing this game in borderless-windowed or fullscreen mode? Try the opposite mode.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 05 2015 15:03 GMT
#10
On June 05 2015 13:00 Ropid wrote:
In the nvidia control panel in the "manage 3d settings" section, look for "power management" and set that to "performance" instead of "adaptive".

Are you playing this game in borderless-windowed or fullscreen mode? Try the opposite mode.


adaptive was enabled, but setting it to performance didnt help unfortunately. i've tried it in fullscreen, windowed and borderless-windowed, but no change.
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
June 05 2015 17:55 GMT
#11
I can't imagine what's causing this. The GPU usage should be towards 100%.

Things I'd try:

In the Windows Control Panel on the screen that's about power saving, I'd open the details for the profile you are currently using and try setting "minimum processor state" to 100%. That should only be relevant if you are using the "balanced" power profile right now, not the "high performance" one.

I'd try closing all programs that you have running, including the antivirus.

I'd reset the driver's settings.

I'd try to see if disabling "HyperThreading" in the BIOS does something. It's in the CPU features sections.

I'd perhaps try to see what happens when disabling the power saving features for the CPU in the BIOS.

I'd try a different graphics driver version. If you use this search page here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us, you get a list of new and old drivers.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
June 06 2015 01:09 GMT
#12
On June 06 2015 02:55 Ropid wrote:
I can't imagine what's causing this. The GPU usage should be towards 100%.

Things I'd try:

In the Windows Control Panel on the screen that's about power saving, I'd open the details for the profile you are currently using and try setting "minimum processor state" to 100%. That should only be relevant if you are using the "balanced" power profile right now, not the "high performance" one.

I'd try closing all programs that you have running, including the antivirus.

I'd reset the driver's settings.

I'd try to see if disabling "HyperThreading" in the BIOS does something. It's in the CPU features sections.

I'd perhaps try to see what happens when disabling the power saving features for the CPU in the BIOS.

I'd try a different graphics driver version. If you use this search page here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us, you get a list of new and old drivers.



thank you for the suggestions, but none had an effect on my framerate

always exactly the same, barely reaching 30 fps, when i use another window, framerate goes over 100.
this is easily the most irritating thing i've ever encountered on a pc.
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
June 06 2015 14:34 GMT
#13
I'd write an email to the developer, with the first sentence exactly what you said just now, that the framerate is low when the window is in focus, but high when it's a background window, then continuing with a description that you tried fullscreen and windowed, you're on Windows 7, intel, nvidia, tried different drivers etc. If the right programmer reads that first sentence, he might immediately know what's going on.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
June 06 2015 14:37 GMT
#14
Another thing:

Did you try different VSync settings? There's also the 3d settings in the nvidia control panel that can override this for games.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
qotsager
Profile Joined March 2012
Germany585 Posts
July 10 2015 18:09 GMT
#15
alright, i solved my issue. kind of. their support told me to redeem my key on gog.com to get a drm-free copy of the game and try if that version of the game worked, and it did. i'm not exactly sure why the steam version would have a problem like that, steam overlay is the only thing i can think of that is notably different between the two, but i had that disabled. so no real idea what caused it, but i can play the game at 60 fps now, so i'm happy.
***Official ABL Winner 2013***
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20285 Posts
July 11 2015 11:32 GMT
#16
Bad DRM
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 3h 27m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft720
Nina 241
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 3892
firebathero 325
ggaemo 163
Noble 38
Zeus 37
Dewaltoss 29
League of Legends
JimRising 662
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1671
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor118
Other Games
summit1g4698
Fuzer 160
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick951
BasetradeTV54
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH252
• Adnapsc2 20
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2110
League of Legends
• Doublelift4355
• Lourlo1088
Other Games
• Scarra1495
Upcoming Events
CranKy Ducklings
3h 27m
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
7h 27m
CSO Cup
9h 27m
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
11h 27m
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
1d 2h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 7h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 11h
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Online Event
3 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Korean StarCraft League
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Esports World Cup 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
BSL Team Wars
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.