Skyrim gtx580 gpu usage

[jegze]

Hello, i'm having gpu usage problems with skyrim. Sometimes my gpu usage drops to 40% and then the fps drops too. Why is this happening? Whith that expensive card i expect the game running more smoothly than 40fps

 

[jegze]

I have i5 2500k@4GHz and 8Gb 1333MHz ddr3

 

[yyk71200]

First, Skyrim is much more CPU limited than GPU limited. This means that the performance will depend more on your 2500K than 580. But your system should definitely be able to produce more than 40fps given that you have OCed 2500K.

1. Have you installed the latest drivers that include support for the game?
2. Do you experience issues with other games?
3. You may try to disable V-Sync and see where the frames are.
EDIT: these drivers include support for the game. Try them http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/nvidia-geforce-285-79-beta-drivers-released

 

[jegze]

1. I have those nvidia beta drivers, and i have tested the older drivers.
2. There is no issue at other games(well there was same like issue with bf3, but i did something, and now its working).
3. I have tried without vsync, but frames are still low. Triple buffering does'nt make change either.

Here's picture about the usage:

When i look into sky i get ~150fps and gpu usage is 96-99%, but when i look down the fps drops to 40 and usage drops to ~50%

 

[yyk71200]

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=353822
Looks like other players have similar issues. May be the game thing.

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

Test all of your components thoroughly, also do a burn-in test overnight.

I had a friend who had a GTX 460, half of the memory was failing. Everything was fine until his video card needed more than 512MB of the Samsung memory installed on the card - then it became slow as molasses even on older games like GTA IV

You can test this by running a game which allows you to display used video memory, and see how much is being used. If you're lagging and only 500-600MB of memory is being used, I'd be quick to RMA my card.

For reference, I run Skyrim at full settings on my AMD Phenom II 945/GTX 460 1GB and it rarely drops to 40FPS

 

[jegze]

Bf3 runs great, and it uses 1,4Gb of memory(checked with afterburner). This problem only occurs with skyrim

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

Wow BF3 uses 1.4GB of video RAM??!?!?!?!?

Wowwwwww

What a hog lol

 

[Spyder-Si]

Wow BF3 uses 1.4GB of video RAM??!?!?!?!?

Wowwwwww

What a hog lol

Battlefield will use as much GPU ram as you can throw at it, maxing at 2.7 in triple screen!

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

hardcore!!

Guess I better snag an additional GTX 460 while I still can hah!

 

[mohawkade]

There is a small update patch for Skyrim, have you installed it?

Running on GTX 470 on max graphics (spare for 2x AA) with no issues.

 

[17seconds]

It's not uncommon for my GTX 580 system to have consistently lower framerates in Skyrim, then consistently higher framerates. It really depends on whether you are out in the open world, inside, having a conversation, etc.

One thing to do is to play around with your Nvidia Control Panel "Program Settings" for skyrimlauncher.exe. The game graphics really do respond to override settings from the Control Panel. I had to turn down AA settings from 8x to 4x in the in-game Options, but then I went into the Control Panel and set AA at 8xCSAA, which seems to work pretty well. Set the Antialiasing Mode at "Enhance the application setting" and that should allow you to change the settings from within the Control Panel.

Absolutely turn off Vsync, and Triple Buffering only works in OpenGL games, so don't expect that to help in Skyrim.

 

[bwrlane]

Just wanted to note that I have the same problem.

My config is 2*GTX 560Ti, and GPU utilisation hovers around the 40-70% mark, varying wildly. The framerate often drops well below the super smooth results I normally see with my SLI setup.

Although this game is more CPU limited than most, I highly doubt CPU bottleneck is at play here. My CPU is a core i7 920, oc to 4GHz. Less powerful than the OP's CPU, but I doubt CPU limitation is the factor. I've yet to test it though - seeing the same result at lower resolutions would be evidence that CPU bottlenecking is in play.

I strongly suspect a driver optimisation issue.

 

[statz22]

matto17secs - i'm assuming you dont think your 875k will be a limiting factor for skyrim? Just had been wondering this myself after reading the tom's performance review.

It's not uncommon for my GTX 580 system to have consistently lower framerates in Skyrim, then consistently higher framerates. It really depends on whether you are out in the open world, inside, having a conversation, etc.

One thing to do is to play around with your Nvidia Control Panel "Program Settings" for skyrimlauncher.exe. The game graphics really do respond to override settings from the Control Panel. I had to turn down AA settings from 8x to 4x in the in-game Options, but then I went into the Control Panel and set AA at 8xCSAA, which seems to work pretty well. Set the Antialiasing Mode at "Enhance the application setting" and that should allow you to change the settings from within the Control Panel.

Absolutely turn off Vsync, and Triple Buffering only works in OpenGL games, so don't expect that to help in Skyrim.

 

[bystander]

First, Skyrim is much more CPU limited than GPU limited. This means that the performance will depend more on your 2500K than 580. But your system should definitely be able to produce more than 40fps given that you have OCed 2500K.

1. Have you installed the latest drivers that include support for the game?
2. Do you experience issues with other games?
3. You may try to disable V-Sync and see where the frames are.
EDIT: these drivers include support for the game. Try them http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/nvidia-geforce-285-79-beta-drivers-released

What resolution do you play at? A 580 at a lower resolution will often not be fully utilized, especially if the game is a CPU hog like Skyrim.

If the CPU is holding you back, your GPU will not be stressed, it's as simple as that. Hopefully you have other games that do take advantage of it.

 

[17seconds]

matto17secs - i'm assuming you dont think your 875k will be a limiting factor for skyrim? Just had been wondering this myself after reading the tom's performance review.

Not enough to get me concerned. The i7-875k is a very fast processor and my FPS seems to adjust appropriately whenever I raise or lower AA settings.

 

[jegze]

What resolution do you play at? A 580 at a lower resolution will often not be fully utilized, especially if the game is a CPU hog like Skyrim.

If the CPU is holding you back, your GPU will not be stressed, it's as simple as that. Hopefully you have other games that do take advantage of it.

I play @ 1680*1050. Dont think that 2500k is slowing down my gpu, especially when it'snow oc'd to 4,5GHz.
When playing skyrim cpu usage is changing between ~30-50%

 

[bystander]

I play @ 1680*1050. Dont think that 2500k is slowing down my gpu, especially when it'snow oc'd to 4,5GHz.
When playing skyrim cpu usage is changing between ~30-50%

It will in Skyrim.

You have a GPU which is quite a bit more than your resolution needs, and you are playing a game which only uses 2 CPU cores and is very CPU demanding, so the CPU is holding back the GPU, but it doesn't matter much in this case, as you are getting good FPS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

 

[yyk71200]

I play @ 1680*1050. Dont think that 2500k is slowing down my gpu, especially when it'snow oc'd to 4,5GHz.
When playing skyrim cpu usage is changing between ~30-50%

Skyrim uses only two cores as far as I know. Therefore it will never go past 50% usage on your CPU because you have a quadcore.

 

[Trist_58]

I get 100% GPU usage on my GTX580 3GB in Syrim when I use anaglyph 3D.

Just thought I'd throw it in there...