GPU Load too high?

[Phyrre56]

Hello,

 

I am new to STEP but very excited about this project. Thanks to everyone who contributes to such a cool endeavor. 

 

My question is about benchmarking. I did the benchmarking as recommended in STEP 2.2.5 and I'm not sure about my GPU Load values. They are consistently at 98% or higher. 

 

Computer:

Core i5 2500K 3.3 GHz (not overclocked currently but can take it up to 4.6 GHz with stability) 

Radeon HD 7850 2GB VRAM GDDR5

8GB RAM DDR3

Running on SSD (same as Windows install -- I only have the 1. Not in Program Files.) 

Res: 1080p 

 

I know the res is higher than recommended for Baseline, but I figured my rig is slightly higher than recommended too. 

 

Benchmark 1 -- Vanilla Ultra with HRDLC

GPU Temp: 54 +/- 5.2

GPU Load: 98% +/- 1.2

Dedicated VRAM: 1229 MB +/- 104

System VRAM: 131 MB +/- 10

FPS: 51 +/- 7

 

Benchmark 2 -- After Launcher & INI Tweaks excluding those for ENB or EXTREME

GPU Temp: 53 +/- 5.8

GPU Load: 98% +/- 1.4

Dedicated VRAM: 1253 MB +/- 109

System VRAM: 146 MB +/- 12

FPS: 48 +/- 7

 

Everything seems OK except the Load. Looking at other peoples' benchmarks, I see a lot of loads in the high 70/low 80s. I know my card is not very top of the line, but I figured it had the horsepower.

 

Is it worth continuing, or am I going to see big performance drops once I started adding Mods because the load has nowhere to go?

 

Thanks!

[Aiyen]

The GPU load is mainly related to graphics intensive additions (Surprise!!! :D ). So if you add a mod that adds more stuff that needs to be rendered, like Skyrim Flora Overhaul then you will most likely see a drop if performance.

But mainly any drops in performance is properly going to be due to your CPU before that happens, since it deals with all shadow, physics, decals, etc rendering.

Skyrim is more of a CPU heavy beast then a GPU one. You can try to OC a little bit if you got the cooling, if you get severe drops in performance and then see if that helps.

Not much point in going all the way to 4.6Ghz though... OC smart... do it is smaller increments and test performance gain as you go. Eventually clock speed no longer really matters, and it is just due to game engine limitations, since only so many cores can be used at any one point.

 

But since you are around 50FPS then you still have quite a bit of room to play with.

 

If you plan on using an ENB then you might not be able to run with high quality settings without a severe drop in performance though.

[Phyrre56]

Thanks for the reply. 

 

Yea I'm familiar with how to OC safely. I tested it at increments of 100 MHz, and I understand what you mean about only going high enough to get the performance you want. (That's why I'm not OC'ing regularly now -- I've never needed it.) 

 

Any guidelines for telling the difference between benchmarks that indicate my GPU is tapping out, vs. ones that might be improved by OC'ing the processor? Or do I just have to do trial and error when I see the FPS drop? 

[Lanceor]

I use either GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner on a second monitor to keep an eye on things like GPU load, VRAM usage and temperatures. Likewise, I use Task Manager to keep an eye on the CPU load and CPU-Z to monitor temperatures.

 

If you don't have a second monitor, MSI Afterburner has a useful on-screen display function though you may have to tab out or exit the game to check the CPU usage. (Someone may know of a mod or software that can monitor CPU usage in-game).

 

Usually, you'll find out what part of your system is maxing out this way.

[Aiyen]

For CPU performance testing you can just test on the shadow settings ingame.

 

Put the values to 4096 in the ini´s and note the performance with your current settings. Then start to OC and see how much much performance you can gain by doing that. Not that the quality is worth the performance cost, but I guess if you max performance with that and then lower again, then you know your CPU is not limiting you.

 

For GPU testing. Just put on an ENB and start to activate everything, and then crank up the settings. It will tell you fairly quickly just how much more you can squeeze out of your GPU.

[phazer11]

You can monitor your stats in game via Skyrim Performance Monitor which is compatible with Mod Organizer if you're using that. I'm currently using it now. (It has issues with ENB's though it's patch for the custom .dll's for ENB's is experimental)