Just Cause 3 - CPU bottleneck with i5?

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burgessanthony

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Jun 27, 2012
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Just got this game after loving JC2. Benchmarks say an OC'd 390 and i5 should give about 65-80fps., and I often do see this EXCEPT when looking into large towns...easily get 40fps drops. EDIT: running maxed out at 1080p

However, my i5 3450 (3.7 oc on all 4 cores) seems to be having issues. Not helped by AMD powertune continuously messing with clock speeds for no obvious reason (vsync off). Thing is, around 80% CPU usage will lead to a reduction in GPU clock. But then, I can see 90% on the CPU with full GPU usage.

I have no idea what is going on! Anyone else with similar specs?

i5 3450 (OC'd to 3.7 on 4 cores)
MSI R9 390 @1130/1650
8gb Kingston Savage 2000mhz
Samsung EVO 850
SeaSonic 620 Evo bronze

Thanks
 
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Rooster__

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Jan 26, 2016
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Maybe the 390 just can't handle the large towns? I would also recommend uninstalling powertune and using msi afterburner, which might solve the problem. I doubt that cpu would bottleneck just cause 3, seeing as its quite powerful and a quad core, more than enough for gaming. I would honestly put it down to the towns being hard to render opposed to scenery
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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^^What rooster said. Download and install MSI Afterburner and compare your CPU and GPU % usage. If your CPU % usage is above say 95% and your GPU usage is say 65%, then you have a CPU bottleneck (your CPU is not fast enough for the GPU's maximum use). Reverse those numbers for a GPU bottleneck (your GPU can't keep up with your CPU). Hope that makes sense.

And like he says, I doubt it's a CPU bottleneck. In most games I play at 1440p, I notice little FPS increase overclocking my i5 4690K to 4.7GHz vs. running it at stock 3.9GHz turbo. The higher the video quality in games (resolution, quality, and AA settings specifically), the less the importance of CPU GHz speed as the load is pushed more on the GPU.
 
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burgessanthony

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thanks :)

Well the odd thing is that the GPU clock dropping is tied in with lower fps and CPU drop also. Benchmarks seem to suggest a 390/970 manage around 65fps on Very high with minimums of 50. I am seeing mins of 40. I see CPU hitting 95+ which leads to the GPU clock dropping to around 900mhz (from 1130).


I will try going to medium across the board and check the difference
I do see what you are saying, but then my cards performance wouldn't tie in with benchmarks. :/
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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You may be getting card thermal problems. MSI Afterburner allows a custom fan curve setting for certain temperature and %fan RPM speeds. I'm not familiar with how AMD cards work and haven't owned one since an HD 7770, but that is what I'd look at. Check your card temp at max load.

 
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martinch

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Obvious dumb question - do the benchmarks include towns? If not, it might simply be a case of the towns being a bit more demanding. Obviously, if you can run the benchmarks others have and compare the results, that'd be great (sorry if it's a generic answer - I don't have that game, so I don't know if it has an inbuilt or otherwise freely-available benchmark) ...

 
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burgessanthony

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Thanks all for the replies:

Just to answer a few things:
- CPU usage maxes at 94% which corresponds to a GPU drop from 1130 core to 1000 ish. This is ALWAYS with frame drops.
- I use afterburner for my OC, and speedfan for fan profiles.
- GPU temps max at 64C after 3 hours gaming at max core clock (Far Cry 4 at 1440 does this!)
- When GPU is at max core clock, fps are around 80 in the game

I think from what you are all saying, it is normal behaviour for the game and look slike aCPU bottleneck. First time I have seen one with this CPU, but they do recommend an i7!
 
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burgessanthony

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martinch - there was one benchmark where 'worst case' was tested. I assumed it would be towns but now not so sure. most benches use i7's though....

EDIT: This game is physics-heavy to the maxc.....after reading around, I really think it is pushing the 3450 beyond what it can do. shame!
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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I don't have this game and can only speak from experience with other games recently released the last couple of years (Crysis 3, FC4, BF4, Battlefront, Witcher 3, Project Cars, DiRT Rally, etc.). But with each of those games, and running at 1440p, I've noticed more FPS improvement with my GPU overclock than my CPU overclock.

 
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burgessanthony

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~For anyone else looking for an answer:
Changing to 1440, CPU maxes around 78% worst case, so bottleneck becomes the GPU. Problem is, the 390, even with OC, isn't quite enough for 60fps 1440p gaming. And JC3's settings include 2 that actually have much effect on fps...both make the game look terrible when turned off. The frames drops through GPU are not as bad as through CPU, so will probably stick with 1440 and mess with settings.
 
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burgessanthony

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Final post on this for anyone with similar specs and wants to play the game (it is awesome!!)
- Seems unoptimised in general possibly worse on AMD (not sure?)
- CPU does not bottleneck. In fact, nothing seems to. There will be 80% CPU and 70% GPU and frames around 40fps...no idea why - game code?
- RAM maxes and pagefile also....appears that could be bottleneck?

Anyway, will await another patch and maybe a full Crimson update. Its very playable, but for something that looks about 70% as good as FC4 which runs perfectly at 1080, its rather annoying!
 
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