First time i’ve ever bothered monitoring performance on MSFS and noticed that im maxing out my GPU useage but only ever getting 30% CPU useage
My specs
Nvidia 1080
i7 - 4790k @ 4.4ghz
I realise it’s a bit dated spec wise but is there a reason im not utilising 70% of my CPU ?
The 1080 is the bottleneck. Try decreasing render scaling until it becomes CPU limited
It is ANNOYING to sit at a MENU and have your GPU 80 - 90 % while at a MENU. The background image is a darn MOVIE taxing and using your GPU while you are at dinner and your PC sits at a MENU !
I always wondered about this. 100% GPU on FS load screens too, crazy.
I agree. I am not in the least bit interested in a pretty movie playing in the background while I am at a MENU … It is a waste of ENERGY and taxes my GPU for no reason.
I run FS all the time on my laptop - i7, 32GB RAM, Nvidia P1000 (like a 1060 card). FS is GPU bound on my system so runs at 100% GPU and about 37% CPU and about 48% RAM, 48% VRAM. Runs fine, but I can only get 1080 HD with a 75% render scale (1400x810px). It runs quite smoothly albeit the GPU fan is a bit loud. I could knock down my render scale further but I don’t want to as FS still looks nice at this setting. You don’t really want to be CPU bound though or you will likely get stutters. I think you are fine as is.
Perfectly normal and ok that the GPU is running at 100% means your making full use of it. But no you don’t want to make the game CPU limited because then you won’t be making full use of the GPU.
If you look at all the individual cores in task manager your see that one of the threads is probably near maxed out even though the CPU overall usage says 30%.
I do agree it is silly that it has such high gpu usage in the menu it’s about time they made it possible to limit the fps in the menu so it doesn’t waste energy.
Maybe they could just turn off that pretty movie while we are in a menu ?
A menu should not be a GPU resource hog …
This has been a year now, Asobo could simply solve this by putting a vsync of 20 on the load and the menus… and restore to the user set vsync when starting a flight…
Meet 409 wishes !
How about simply replacing that Eye Candy Movie with a very nice background image. A background image is good enough for the main BING site. Should be good enough for a MSFS Menu ?
That’s ok, you want 100% GPU (lower CPU usage is better), except if your performance was bad, in that case you GPU is a limit.
I would suggest decreasing the render scale (or whatever else you want to decrease) until you are at a point where the Dev Mode FPS screen, is jumping back between CPU & GPU limited, spending about equal time in both.
If this is not a good idea, and 100% CPU limited is better, please can someone explain why ?
I’m no expert but I would think it is better for there to be a nice balance between the 2. If your 1080 is constantly at 100% it must be making a bit of a racket with the fan ramping up constantly. Also lowering the load on the card can help eliminate stuttering…at least it did for me. Not sure how much VRAM is in the card but that could also be an issue.
You always want to run 100% GPU not the CPU. But i really dont know what in FS is going on that it has 100% GPU load in loading times. First game ever for me doing that.
In the old days, they allowed a Control key to skip the intro…
In optimized game (not FS, since SU7 you get CPU bottleneck over major airports), your GPU should work at 100% otherwise your CPU it cause a bottleneck (old CPU vs too new GPU).
Possible scenarios:
1- CPU 100% - GPU less 100% - Low fps or too much stuttering → CPU bottleneck.
2- CPU less 100% - GPU 100% - Low fps or too much stuttering → GPU bottleneck for that resolution and quality configuration.
3- CPU less 100% - GPU 100% - Nice fps and low sttutering → Ideal GPU for that resolution and quality configuration.
Not the best piece of advice, in my opinion. MSFS should never be CPU limited as it invariably results in stutters.
That you can eliminate by placing a hard FPS limit on the GPU. For nVidia that would be in NVidia Control Panel. 60 FPS would probably be fine.
I tried this and it does help on early loading screen & GPU sits lower usage. By the time you get to the SU7 ‘Whats New’ loading page GPU is back up high again. FPS do get limited on loading by this method so thank you.
Those that have chimed in with “100% GPU and low CPU % is fine” are correct.
The point of a GPU is to offload calculating a gazillion vertices and applying textures as a scene moves.
30% CPU is actually right about where you wan it. Any higher and the CPU won’t be able to feed the data and instruct the GPU what it should do quickly even to result in a smooth flying experience.
A GPU at 100% is not at risk. They are designed to be used. That said, they are designed to be installed in a system that [properly manages heat.
Use a tool like hwinfo to understand the heat of your CPU and GPU, and as long as they level off and stop climbing and remain beneath concerning temperatures, then the system will be fine.
For GPU, I don’t like to see it above 85C. For CPU, I don’t like to see it above 50C. Note: Newer generations might have higher normal operating temps – the point is to understand those specs and ensure your system keeps those components within normal temps.
There are always a good number of gamers/simmers that just have to tinker and get numbers to align with what they assume is logical. But it is NOT logical to want your GPU and CPU to both be low, or be equal, or worse for CPU to be high and GPU never cross 70%.
No, GPU at 100% is what you want, and CPU well below 50%. THAT is logical.