flameweilder Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) So I ran a few benchmarks of The Ballad of Gay Tony, both at med-high settings and after cranking up everything to basically max settings. The strange thing is, my CPU, GPU, and RAM usage doesn't increase significantly when I raise graphical settings - nothing ever really gets above 75%. Using an Intel i5-480m 2.66GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6550m 1GB, 4 GB DDR3. The main reason why I'm curious about this is that for about the first 2 missions, TBoGT ran beautifully on maximum settings. I ran everything at max and never dropped below 30 fps as I drove around Manhattan. Then, sh*t hit the fan and now I have to run things at medium to high to stay at 30 fps. This isn't some laptop overheating issue, and neither is it cause "omg you have a laptop you cant game on dat lolz noob gtfo the master pc gta iv elitist gaming forum". Also, it can't be the hardware, cause the game ran without a hitch with all the sliders and settings as high as possible the first time I booted it up. What I'm guessing, is that the game somehow isn't using all of my hardware, whether because it's the game's fault or because my laptop has somehow restricted itself since then. Oh, and Windows 7 64-bit. Edited August 14, 2011 by flameweilder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeesPwnMets Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 I'd like to ask you: How do you know it's not a overheating issue? Do you have proof? It doesn't help to solve the problem if you throw possible causes out the window for no reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flameweilder Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) I know it's not an overheating issue cause my laptop gets much hotter running, say, Civilization V, and that game runs fine. My left hand is basically always resting on the part of my laptop that gets hot, so I can always feel how the temperature's doing. Another obvious reason - why would the game run amazingly the first time I boot it up, but on all later boot-ups run averagely/poorly? If the game ran amazingly for 5-10 minutes every time I started it up, then decreased in performance, then it would be a clear overheating issue. But the game has not run that well since the first time I started it up, which means that something else is up. Plus - how can any hardware be overheating when not even 75% of anything is being used? I remember when I ran GTA IV / TBoGT on my older desktop, pretty much 100% of everything was being used on med-low settings, and the game would even never get above 30 fps average. Edited August 14, 2011 by flameweilder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flameweilder Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 Here's a near-max benchmark: Statistics Average FPS: 15.45 Duration: 32.36 sec CPU Usage: 68% System memory usage: 76% Video memory usage: 71% Graphics Settings Video Mode: 1600 x 900 (60 Hz) Texture Quality: High Shadow Quality: Medium Reflection Resolution: High Water Quality: High Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4 Night Shadows: Off View Distance: 100 Detail Distance: 100 Hardware Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1 Video Adapter: AMD Radeon HD 6500M/5600/5700 Series Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1083 Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) Intel® Core i5 CPU M 480 @ 2.67GHz FPS? 15-ish. Hardware usage? Surprisingly low. The hardware usage is pretty much the same on lower settings, which appalls me. Let me remind you that I was using fraps on my very first boot-up of TBoGT on this laptop, and the framerate never dropped below 30 on max settings, and even went into the 60s a few times. So... anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverTheBelow Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 You're expecting more performance than your computer is actually capable of. GTA4 (and it's respective expansions) can only use 3 cores of a quad core CPU (or three threads of a hyperthreaded dual core). This means that if your processor isn't fast enough and as a result is going to hold back your graphics card. Also, touching the top of your laptop isn't going to tell you how hot it is getting/how close it is to shutting down or throttling itself. My i5-480m can reach in excess of 92C when playing GTA4 without my notebook cooler underneath it. Around 97C it will start to throttle itself and that equals less performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeesPwnMets Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) Ok, but this tool is a little more accurate then our own senses. Run this tool in the background while you play for a while. (Half hour is good) When you close the game, check the maximum temperature in the program. Too high of a temperature usually means the hardware throttles itself down to protect itself and the user http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ Also, have you installed this fairly recent update from AMD? http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/wind...ob_win7-64.aspx Just FYI: Laptop parts get a lot hotter then desktop parts. A desktop running at 75% might not get too hot, but a laptop at 75% CPU will get pretty toasty Edited August 14, 2011 by YankeesPwnMets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flameweilder Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the replies! I'm leaving on a week-long trip right now, and I can't bring my laptop cause it's in the outdoors. Regardless, I've downloaded and installed the catalyst, and will try the temperature monitor when I get back in one week exactly. I just don't have time right now, sorry. I bought this laptop expecting at best a steady 30 frames per second on medium settings in GTA IV; I had no choice cause I need a cheap laptop for college coming up. That's why I was super surprised when I booted up TBoGT and it ran never below 27 fps and up to the 60s, with all the sliders and options on max. I had fraps on the whole time. I drove to all the lag-causing areas of Manhattan/Algonquin (Times Square, etc) and the frame rate didn't have any hiccups. All I'm asking is, if it could do that before, why can't it do it now? Anyway, we'll see if it's a temperature issue when I get back. EDIT: I ran the Core Temp really quick (with nothing running), and it said that each core is running at about 1.3-1.5 GHz. I'm no computer genius, but is that normal? Shouldn't each core be running at 2.6-2.7? Edited August 14, 2011 by flameweilder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverTheBelow Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 EDIT: I ran the Core Temp really quick (with nothing running), and it said that each core is running at about 1.3-1.5 GHz. I'm no computer genius, but is that normal? Shouldn't each core be running at 2.6-2.7? The cores clock down at idle to save power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeesPwnMets Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Yeah, it's normal. It's also normal if you aren't having the laptop plugged in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo440 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) You're expecting more performance than your computer is actually capable of. GTA4 (and it's respective expansions) can only use 3 cores of a quad core CPU (or three threads of a hyperthreaded dual core). This means that if your processor isn't fast enough and as a result is going to hold back your graphics card. Also, touching the top of your laptop isn't going to tell you how hot it is getting/how close it is to shutting down or throttling itself. My i5-480m can reach in excess of 92C when playing GTA4 without my notebook cooler underneath it. Around 97C it will start to throttle itself and that equals less performance. I'm not calling bluff, but can you show tests where the thread cap was reveled? ring3 software on any windows software handles threading through API not directly as many suggest..this includes RAGE and the DirectX subsystem. That interface shows software threads and mutex data(TLS structs), not physical instruction interfaces for core time-shares. It's actually pretty well documented, and you can look at imports on DX dlls and GTA(where securom isn't hiding them) to see. If it does have a thread cap it's cause by the kernel restricting a handles requests. ON TOPIC: The 6550m is 128bit with a low-core configuration on it's FPGA(400:20:8)..combine that with BIOS forced voltage stepping on the CPU and ATIs infamous drivers and you have your reason.. they make these things called cooling pads. Also I find most performance problems are with people who have background services hogging CPU threads and clocks but being convinced they know enough to not have such fundamental problems.. Edited August 14, 2011 by diablo440 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flameweilder Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 Okay, I am back. I played TBoGT for pretty much exactly half an hour, with everything set to high (except shadows - set to medium and night shadows off), view and detail distance to 20-something, traffic density to 51, vsync off. CPU core temp readings as follows: Core #0: Low - 50C; High - 81C Core #1: Low - 44C; High - 78C I basically drove around for a while, played a mission, then drove around a bit more. I seemed to be getting the same performance as before. So tomorrow I'll be getting a cooling pad, but I have a feeling performance won't change at all. --=I still think this has something to do with the game not using my hardware to its fullest.=-- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aljohnk Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 Try Gamebooster Premium. It helps to increase the performance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x64 Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Don't try this sh*t ! try to use GPU-Z or HwMonitor (google them) to get the temp of your Gpu too (Ingame), and look if isn't an overheating issue.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo440 Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Lower thread count in task manager before starting and use game booster to kill services(3 beta is free). Laptop bioses do voltage step even on active cooling. Look in a hardware monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flameweilder Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 Ran TBoGT with a cooling pad for a while earlier today, did a benchmark at the end: Average FPS: 23.18 Duration: 32.88 sec CPU Usage: 71% System memory usage: 76% Video memory usage: 70% Graphics Settings Video Mode: 1600 x 900 (60 Hz) Texture Quality: High Shadow Quality: Medium Reflection Resolution: High Water Quality: High Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4 Night Shadows: Off View Distance: 25 Detail Distance: 31 (Traffic Density: 51) The highest CPU core temperature was 60C, and that was for the first core. Can't anyone help me out? The game used to run super well, even on max settings. Why is it running like this now? Why is the game not using all of my CPU, RAM, and GPU power? Clearly this must be why I'm lagging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unc13bud Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Why is it running like this now? once pc parts reach their temperature thresholds, they reach them even sooner upon seeing similar stress levels. maybe remove and clean the cpu fan/reapply thermal paste... and I can't bring my laptop cause it's in the outdoors. what? where? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_root Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 turn down the sliders to 25 .. 100 is too much for your system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeesPwnMets Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 The system usages seem fairly normal. Did you perhaps change the charger of the laptop if you lost teh first one? Are you still using the same power adapter as the one that came with your PC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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