low GPU usage with i5 2500K and gtx 560 Ti, any ideas?

[Mjolnir]

I have an i5 2500K at 4.3 Ghz, a gtx 560 Ti, and 12 gb of 1600 Mhz RAM. I am running more or less the CCC level 4 config at 1920 x 1200.

 During combat on 24+ player servers I get low GPU usage (measured with EVGA precision) and my framerate drops to around 30 fps, which is really annoying. When the GPU usage is 99% the game is perfectly playable.

Is this normal with my setup, or is there any way I can get better performance? I have tried switching the physics to a different CPU core but it doesn't solve this problem. Does anyone with a setup like mine have a config that works well for them?

[Mitchpate]

It's the engine's fault and there's little you can do about it.

[Mattk50]

Overclocking my CPU helped a bit. doesnt really make any sense though.

[Mjolnir]

Any idea if there are any specific settings (like particle settings perhaps) that I could lower to prevent slowdowns at least partially? Some people claim to not have these issues with their computers; are they just lying?

[Mitchpate]

If they're claiming not to have *ANY* FPS slowdowns during full combat, yes they're lying.  Now they may slow from 120 to 90, but they're still getting a decrease.

[Mjolnir]

How are they getting 90 fps then? If I have as good a CPU as the game will use and my GPU usage is at 66%, how can I get more fps?

[=CJW= Bin Fish]

Overclock your CPU more.

[Spooky]

Overclock your CPU more.

That's not the answer obviously . He has already clocked it at 4.3 GHz. With that CPU, the GTX 560 should never really be that idle, especially at that resolution and that CCC level.

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

when you ran CCC, did you set physics core to something other than 0? Try setting it to 1 if not.  I think the variable name is sys_physics_CPU in your autoexec.cfg

[=CJW= Bin Fish]

Try with and without particles being loaded onto the gpu. Failing that, overclock more. In all seriousness the CPU scaling on this game is unreal. Your two options are to lower CPU demands or make it faster.

[Mjolnir]

I have tried having the physics on every single core; I have also tried offloading particles onto the GPU and running them on the CPU. I have 99% gpu usage all the time when nothing is going on, but when battles start it sometimes drops to around 60%.

Maybe I will try to get turbo mode for 2 cores up to 4.6 or something and leave the overall overclock lower; right now I just have all 4 cores running at 4.3. I have enough cooling to hit 4.6, but I don't really want to raise the voltage that high because I don't need clocks that high for ANYTHING else.

[Mitchpate]

When you use turbomode, the voltage demand increase isn't as high as if you were doing a full overclock on all the cores.  With a 4.3GHz base, a 2core 4.6GHz turbomode should require equivalent voltage as running 4.40-4.45GHz on the entire chip.

Sandy Bridge CPUs are damn tough.  I wouldn't really be concerned about voltage.  If you're using too much it either won't POST or won't make it into Windows.  The chances of electrically damaging the CPU prior to thermally damaging it are very remote.

[Mjolnir]

I tried setting the 2 core turbo mode to 4.5 ghz, but for some reason the turbo mode didn't seem to engage at all and my FPS suffered.

Also, I have come across people with i7 9XX series cpus overclocked to around 3.6 Ghz who claim to not get drops down to under 40 fps even in heavy combat, while I sometimes go below 30 during battles with 6+ mechs (especially with a lot of autocannons). I have tried setting the physics to every possible CPU core and nothing seems to help.

[Mitchpate]

Are you sure the game is running on the cores that are being turbo'd?  The physics core should probably be on a non-turbo'd core.

[~SJ~Zathrus]

Is the gpu running at 100% when this happens? what are the gpu and cpu temps when this happens?
you could be having a cooling issue, if the gpu or cpu get to a certain preset temperature it will throttle back to lower speed settings.
This is another thing that could be causing you to lose framerate under heavy load.