Low GPU usage but low fps (multi-threaded rendering option disappeared in launcher ?)

[Exceelsior]

Hi !

Since a couple of month, when I installed Warframe on my current laptop, actually, I got poor performances despite having decent specs (i5 9300h, gtx 1660ti mobile, 16Gb RAM, playing at 1080p). All I'm asking is 60 fps locked, but I often encounter some stutter, low fps in some tilesets, low fps when a lot of ennemies are affected by status effects, etc...

Afterburner displays only 40% max GPU usage, as well as 40% CPU usage. My CPU temps are quite high (for now, I'll repaste CPU and GPU soon, and clean the fans), even for a laptop (between 85-90°C on average, max 95°C), but it's not thermal throttling.

After some research on the forum, I saw that it could be a single-threaded rendering issue. But when checking the launcher, the option to activate multi-threaded rendering isn't there. Has it been like this for a while and "(des)activated by default" ?

Did some of you get this issue too ? If yes, how did you solve it ?

Thank you for reading,

(sorry for grammar/typo mistakes, english is not my native language)

[Gilmaesh]

you should post a screenshot of the options you use in the display tab of the game so people with similar config could tell you if you need to change an option.

Also some low fps situations could be not your config fault but the game fault. If you see some weird fps drop in specific situation/tileset where everything else is fine and if you can reproduce it then try to post each instance on the bug forum to help them fix the game. 

the temp is quite high btw, you sure that doesn't activate the protection? Could also be a directx thing

Good luck mate

[Exceelsior]

Thank you for your quick response !

In the display options, everything is basically maxed out (with VSync on, classic engine, and directx 11 enabled).
I'll post screenshots tomorrow, and will try to find locations/situations where I get fps drops.

The CPU "downclocking" (not sure about the word) happens in some other games, but generally not in WF. I'll try reinstalling DirectX

[Yamazuki]

Given it's a laptop, is it running the game using the 1660ti, or is it using Intel's UHD Graphics 630? The 1660ti should be capable of being permanently over 60fps, even if it's the mobile variant unless it's going through severe thermal throttling. The UHD-G 630 on the other hand, is the one that gets around 30 with random spikes in frametimes.

As for cpu temperatures, if you're able to, you could try a minor undervolt on the cpu. Both cpus and gpus are given more voltage than needed due to variance in silicon quality, so it's possible to lower it without even dropping clocks, which does have notable impact on thermals.

[Exceelsior]

Yep, the 1660ti is used in-game, not the integrated intel graphics (configured it in Nvidia control panel to be sure), and its temp are 60-65°C on average in game (and even in games where it's used at higher percentage).

I already undervolted the CPU at -150mV, should've said sooner, sorry. I use a cooling pad too.

Honestly, for the CPU temps, I suspect either an issue with thermal paste or dust in fans (but I get high temp since I started the laptop for the first time, so... maybe not that).

[[DE]Momaw]

Windows CPU usage is a bit misleading on multi-core systems, i.e. all of them nowadays.  It reports TOTAL usage.  So if you have, for example, a 4 core system, then "50% usage" means 50% of the CPU's total throughput is being used.  That could be either all 4 cores running at half speed, or it could be 2 of those cores running flat out as hard as they can.  Warframe tends to do the latter thing:  It will typically run 2 threads as hard as possible. If those individual cores running those threads cannot keep up, then the game becomes CPU-bottlenecked even though there are other, unoccupied cores which aren't doing any work.

This is *further* complicated by the fact that modern computers will usually try to move highly demanding threads around to different physical CPU cores, in an effort to spread the heat around. So it runs on core 0 for a little bit, that core gets hot, the operating system moves the thread over to core 2 instead.  The problem is that this "hopping" is happening much faster than Task Manager's polling interval.  So what looks like 2 CPU cores with half usage, can actually be 1 single thread that's being bounced between them really fast and, again, hitting a bottleneck.

Typically a really easy way to tell if your computer is being limited by CPU or GPU performance, is to look straight up into the sky or straight at a wall where there's nothing behind it. This takes all the load off the GPU.  If your frame rate goes up by a ton, then it was the GPU slowing you down, while if stays the same, it's your processor that is the bottleneck.

For laptops, typically the best things to do to improve performance are making sure your cooling is working to best effect (make sure all air intakes/exhausts are clear and that the visible grills/heatsinks aren't full of dust bunnies),  and make sure you are plugged into the wall with "High Performance" mode set.