Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Technical Issues Game use only one core?

Hi, my game lags when i moving camera in city and FSP are jumping . Stable FPS are about 30+ when i stop moving with camera.

Here is picture of CPU usage:
Only one core? Wtf?

GPU was about 60 % of usage and about 800MB VRAM.

I have Q9450 and GTX 660. So it should be OK. http://www.larian.com/forums/images/icons/default/tongue.gif

A few people have reported this problem: CPU Bottleneck issue.

Do you use firefox?

If so open task manager, go to processes and end the flash player plugin process.

I say this because the flash player plugin for firefox screws up how your computer allocates resources and I have yet to understand how or why.

I have chrome. And this problem is only in this game.

I can affirm that this is definitely an issue. I am running on a 3630QM intel chip and the game auto allocates to the first core for the bulk of the load and then never goes above 18% while hardly using the other cores at all. I ran the support tool and the application told me that my CPU failed the test? My 3630QM CPU is clocked at 2.4 GHz and it is an i7. It has a turbo boost feature that auto-overclocks to 3.4 GHz. And the tool is telling me that it failed? I think not Larian. This issue needs to be fixed. My CPU is more than capable of handling this game but I cannot maintain even a frame rate above 40 at 720p. Something is definitely up with the optimization.

It looks like it.

I guess my FPS will be better when my CPU will use all cores = GPU will work faster.
100% for one CPU core and about 70% for GPU it is slow.

But i am surprised why this problem is in released game? They did not find it in testing?
Now we will have to wait until they find this bug and repair it. If it is possible and that can take long time. This is technical problem and those are difficult to solve.

For some baffling reason my performance is much better when I turn off V-sync, though still not at the level preferable. But then with V-sync disabled I have to bear the terrible screen tearing.

Ugh... I really hope these issues get fixed.

V-sync creates a tiny performance drop because it adds a little overhead. That means if you just barely made 60 before then turning on v-sync is likely to leave you at 30 (assuming 60 hz refresh). V-sync will not lock on any FPS between 30 and 60 for a 60 hz monitor and that's how it prevents screen tearing. Also anything short of 60 but above 30 will go down to 30. And if you're below 30 it locks on 15. It exists mainly for people who are going over the maximum FPS their monitor can display.

If I don't have V-sync enabled with Triple Buffering then the screen tearing is absolutely unbearable. There is no reason why this game should be so demanding that my hardware should not be able to run it at a constant 60+ frame rate with V-sync enabled. And I am not talking about 60+ at the minimal graphical settings. My hardware should easily be able to handle this game with the highest settings save for medium shadow quality and no ambient occlusion.

So I downloaded RivaTuner and HWiNFO for some in game statistics analysis for this game and found that the GPU is not the issue at all. With Alternate Frame Rendering 2 turned on both of my GPUs stay up in the 90% range of usage. But the CPU is terribly used. I set up the analysis tool to show the usage of all 8 logical processors and here is what I found...


------------------------------------------
Core 1-
LP1 = 50-100% load
LP2 = 10-20% load
Core 2-
LP1 = 10-20% load
LP2 = 5-10% load
Core 3-
LP1 = 0-5% load
LP2 = 0-5% load
Core- 4-
LP1 = 0-5% load
LP2 = 10-30% load

Total CPU Usage - 10-20%

GPU 1 = 80-95% usage
GPU 2 = 80-95% usage

FPS = 28-34
-------------------------------------------

That CPU reading is abominable. And those numbers are just the variations that sometimes occur. Most of the time the first logical core is being maxed out at 90-100%, the second stands around 10%, and the rest of them are laying dormant at 0-5%, sometimes spiking up a little only to drop right back down. Meanwhile these are the percentage usages of the cores adding up to that total percentage usage of 10-20% for the CPU. The GPU, while running hot, seems to be pulling it's weight. Unless I have this backwards and the high usage of the GPU is not something that is desired. But I don't think that is the case. I think the CPU is not being utilized nearly as much as it should be.

My CPU model, again for those interested, is the Intel i7 3630 QM which runs at 2.4 GHz tb/ 3.4 GHz. I've tried everything I know of with this CPU. I've enabled/disabled threaded optimization in the Nvidia Control Panel, I've reallocated off of the first two logical cores (the first CPU core), I've turned off turbo boosting, and every kind of compatibility setting I could think of. But I simply cannot change the fact that this game will not use more than 20% of my CPU at any given time.

Larian, please, at least acknowledge these threads. I've been posting in several like this one for the past week, I've sent two report tickets, one of which was misunderstood entirely by one of your support staff who gave advice that was of no use, and I would very much like a simple response as to if you are aware of the CPU limitations we are experiencing. I ran the report diagnostic tool and it stated that my CPU failed the test but I cannot see how that can be. You state directly on your store page that the minimum required processor is, and I quote, "Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 or equivalent" which is a 2 core processor running at 2.4 GHz, and your listed recommended equivalent is the "Intel i5 2400" which is a quad core running at 3.1 GHz. You cannot tell me that my CPU does not fall somewhere between those two. It most certainly would outperform that meager intel E6600. There is no reason why my CPU should be listed as failing your diagnostic other than you have not programmed the diagnostic, or the game, to properly recognize and utilize this CPU.

Please respond, I am not angry, I am just wanting to be heard. I really appreciate the patches that have been put out thus far. But I do not want the issues that I am having to go unheard, unseen, or overlooked.

Yes, this is a know issue.

The support tool test is not meant to be comprehensive. It is possible it just doesn't recognize the turbo boost, or something, triggering the 'fail'.

Couple of questions...

Are you with Larian? I've seen your posts over on Steam as well... Also... How widespread is this issue, if you know that at this point? Is it effecting only i7 CPUs? Or laptop CPUs? Or a combination of both? And when can we expect a fix for this? As well, how much of a fix is possible?

My curiosity really is in how well this game engine can handle full multicore (all cores of a quad core) support. When the game was being designed, was it designed with 2 cores in mind? Or for a full quad core setup? I assume that because the recommended CPU is an i5 that full multicore support was intended. But I am curious why this game was not recommended to have an i7? What is the specific reasoning behind the i5? Is it because the i5s generally have a higher clock rate (from my experience anyways) and thus the game was meant to be run at fewer cores with higher clock rates? Or can optimization be done for CPUs with lower clock rates by utilizing all the threads? I guess the all inclusive question would be how capable this engine is when fully optimized? I suppose the folks over at Larian don't even know the answer to this, as this may be the first time they've put the engine through its full paces. I just want reassurance that a fix is possible and likely is all.

For example: Torchlight 2 was programmed from the ground up to be single core. Thus multicore support was impossible, short of rewriting the game engine. But with Original Sin, it seems that the multicore support was intended but not inclusive of the hardware on the market...

Maybe I'm just rambling at this point... Its late... Haha.

Thanks Raze for the response (assuming you are with Larian, if not... well... thanks anyway.)

Yes, I work for Larian (forum moderator, etc). I wasn't hired until after the game was in development (start of 2012), and am not in Belgium, so I have limited knowledge of things going on behind the scenes that I am not directly involved in.

I assume there are some general CPU optimizations yet to be done. With a Core i5 3570K (16GB RAM, ATI HD7870) my CPU usage is similar to what you reported above (running around at the start of a new game, I get 60-80%, 10-20%, 10-15% and 30-40% for each core, with a total about 30-35%), but I don't have any performance problems (minor stuttering if I try to play on high at 2560x1600).

Exactly the same issue here. Will it ever be solved?