CPU Utilization - Q6600

[Weet]

Hi everyone,

 

Let me explain my setup and then I'll describe my problem:

 

I'm running a Q6600 clocked at 2.7Ghz with 2GB of 800mhz ram on a Gigabyte N650 SLI DS4 motherboard (which is a really crappy overclocker for quads btw....). I have an nVidia 8800GT GPU at stock speeds and I'm running Oblivion at 1440x900 with HDR and all setting maxed minus self shadows and grass shadows. In addition I have 16x anisotropic filtering and 4x AA forced in the nVidia control panel. All of this is running on a fresh install of Windows XP Pro with the latest nVidia drivers.

 

I have modded the Vanilla install with:

 

Natural Environments (minus weather)

All Unique Landscape mods

DarNified UI

ImpeREAL

Low Poly Grass

Xerus 2048 LOD textures and normal maps

Natural Faces

OOO 1.33

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

 

I have also edited my INI file to enable all of the multi-threading tweaks I could find.

 

With this setup I'm seeing roughly 40-70 FPS outside (with an average of 47 or so) and 20-35 in the imperial city market district. Hoping to improve those frame rates I checked my CPU utilization while running around outside the imperial city (just outside the city sewers) and found that one of my four cores was pegged the entire time while the others were in slight use. Does that seem right to you guys? It seems my processor is bottlenecking my performance pretty heavily. Notably, while frame rate does improve if I lower resolution it isn't drastic which seems to confirm my CPU problems. Am I expecting too much from my CPU here? Are these mods really that heavy on the CPU? Is there anything I can do? I would overclock my processor some more to see if that would help but my motherboard seems to be artificially limiting my OC potential. On a similar note, my memory and CPU are unlinked and CPU-Z is reporting a 3:4 FSB to DRAM ratio with my current OC. Could this cause some problems?

 

I'm really just looking for some direction here as I'm not sure what to expect.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I am using the built in Reltek HD Audio from my motherboard which is certainly a less than ideal situation and no doubt exacerbates my problems....

[Jezza0]

Hey

 

I have the same processor as you, and like you, Oblivion only really uses 1 core. I would also comment that, as an FCOM user, my framerates are much _lower_ than yours! It is unfortunate, but clearly Oblivion simply is not written to take advantage of multiple cores, and when you pile on mods, it is often the CPU that is bottlenecking.

 

Regarding the ini tweaks, I found no discernable difference when the thread-loading tweaks are enabled, and some of the background tweaks just lead to instability.

 

Sucks you can't overclock your processor more. My Q6600 is at 3Ghz and loves it! I guess that wasn't a helpful comment :biggrin:

 

-- Joe

[bben46]

There are a few tweaks available in the .ini file for multiple cores, but not many. If you haven't tweaked your ini file yet, I recommend reading the info available here first. http://www.tweakguides.com/

 

First do the tweaks for your version of windows, then for your video card, and finally, the Oblivion game tweaks.

 

Lots of info here, It will take some time. the windows tweaks and video tweaks will help on other programs also.

And there are tweaks for many other games as well.

[nosisab]

Oblivion like most nowadays high demanding games runs crappy even on the bleeding edge high-end machines. Yet as the OP correctly supposes The graphics aren't the only stresses a game may load on a system and Oblivion was never optimized to take fully benefits from multi-core. This is not something that will enhance enough to justify heavily OC. The Imperial City is 'plagued' with too many scripts running at once. Only recoding the game to fully use threaded capacities, a precise load balance and other technical details would help meaningful enhancement here.

 

Yet the user can and shall do what he can to help the system, and you already did most of possible things.

 

Since I never achieved more than steady 30FPS anywhere I'm not aware of this IC stress over the system and just now I have a 4core machine to verify this issue for myself. But for what you already did I think this is among that things that can't be helped... A game like Oblivion is acceptable to run with anything above 20FPS (mainly where combats should not occurs) and you shall not make enhancing it a motive to compromise beyond the reasonable your machine, you may be sorry if you do.

[Weet]

Thanks for the responses guys. I was just a little surprised to see one whole core pegged at 100 percent utilization. Has anyone created a mod to "streamline" the number of scripts running in the background for either vanilla or these mods? Maybe I'll have to break out my poor scripting skills and see what I can do.

 

 

Sucks you can't overclock your processor more. My Q6600 is at 3Ghz and loves it! I guess that wasn't a helpful comment biggrin.gif

 

Haha! The funny thing is that I researched the board before purchase. Turns out it's a fantastic overclocker -- if you don't have a quad. Oh well! :D

 

I have the same processor as you, and like you, Oblivion only really uses 1 core. I would also comment that, as an FCOM user, my framerates are much _lower_ than yours!

 

Well to be fair, my frame rates take a dive to mid thirties whenever I run into several guards on the road etc. It seems to me like OOO probably has some serious room for script optimization. It's really too bad as my GPU is rockin' oblivion graphically. Still, I can't complain too much really - I'm getting good frame rates! I suppose it's the obsessive compulsive tweaker inside me!

 

First do the tweaks for your version of windows, then for your video card, and finally, the Oblivion game tweaks.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing that but I haven't delved too deeply into it yet. I know my way around windows quite well so I've already done most things like defrag, disable unnecessary processes, nLited my install etc. I'll definitely have to check out the INI recommendations though.

 

This is not something that will enhance enough to justify heavily OC.

 

hehe, well I overclock because it's both fun and speeds up my 3D rendering. This is the first time I've seen this CPU bottleneck a game!

[nosisab]

I tested it on my phenon machine and got the same thing you picture at IC, not only the fps fall by amount as a non fps related micro stuttering turned the game almost unplayable. approaching the Gray Prince on Arena turned clear without need to disable in the ini that the sound was the culprit as the stuttering followed painfully the sound of his claymore swing.

 

Twas tested with the onboard IDT HD, so I reinstalled my old Audigy and the issue got bye bye absolutely and the fps boosted above 40 in all IC areas I tested (not uncommonly surpassing the hundred).

 

Sadly quiet feet cannot do anything in that case, yet it help alot eliminating the almost inaudible paws sounds from creatures, so the mod is yet useful (without it even those rats on tutorial pushed the game to a crawl with the onboard sound.

 

So if you do use a onboard sound card my advise is: "go to a discrete one ASAP" and get the better you are willing to spend money. Your machine deserves one.

 

PS: It's fine you OC the machine, Doing so help to understand the way it works in it's several parts. Just keep a foot on the ground and try and avoid going nuts about it. Remember the results I reported above were achieved with a stock en9600gt, and your VC is yet better than mine (not sure about the CPU, mine is a phenon 9550 running at stock speed with ("almost" 4GB RAM ddr2 800 in dual mode (XP is limited under that amount ))).