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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
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