Performance on Lost Ark is stable at 50% CPU with minimal frame rate.
Performance on Lost Ark is stable at 50% CPU with minimal frame rate.
Lost ark is recognized as a demanding CPU game. I'm using an i7-10700k, which is still a solid chip despite being from an older generation. The issue is that it's operating at 50% usage across all cores, yet maximum FPS in crowded areas stays between 70-80 and 100-120 when less traffic is present. I own a new RTX 4060 Ti and it handles the load without trouble. I'm puzzled as I have applied all typical fixes: performance mode in Windows, updated BIOS and graphics drivers, XMP profile enabled for my 32GB RAM at 3200MHz, Nvidia control panel adjustments to push max performance and off Vsync, plus registry tweaks for priority. I've also seen others on forums achieving over 200 FPS with the same setup. Why am I stuck at around 50% usage only for this game? Any insights or possible fixes would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hey, there's a few things i want to adress, let's get into it: so that Video is really helpful, as it shows the usage% of CPU and GPU respectively. Can you provide something similar? Doesn't have to be a Video, but get MSI Afterburner runing, pop-out the Graph window, and maybe reorder the stats (or multiple screenshots). Important are usage% of GPU and CPU, Clock speeds (to see if anything throttles) and Temperatures. Maybe Power consumption. Just for a bit more insight: - Resolution doesn't matter anything for the CPU. You could set the Game on 480p, 1080p, 4k or even 16k if Monitor & Connection could allow that - CPU has the same data to calculate. Resolution is 100% GPU-side. However: If you set your Resolution down from your 1080p to 720p or lower, and fps do NOT change, it usually means there's a CPU Bottleneck. Or anything else bottlenecks the GPU. If that's the case, the GPU is usually not at 100% usage. - Are you at the exact same Spot? Maybe you're at another place ingame, more players around you or something. i'm using a 13600k + 4070 Super, and on Final Fantasy 14 on max settings in Dungeons or somewhere outside, i capped my fps at 120 or so, while my 4070s is bored, if could do more. CPU is also at extremely low power consumption. When i visit a place with a lot of players idling around during primetime, where not all Players can even be displayed, i drop to like 60 fps. The CPU bottlenecks, or maybe the Game Engine even, but my CPU is very very Far from beeing maxed out. - A CPU Can bottleneck even at below 50% usage. How? Well, your CPU is a 8 Core CPU with 16 Threads. So 100% / 16 = 6,25. In pure Theory, if a Software can only utalize 1 single Thread, while all other Threads have nothing to do, you can have a CPU Bottleneck at 6,25% (in reality there's windows running and other applications, so 10-15%). Try a Benchmark like Prime95 or Cinebench 2024 on a Single Core. 1 Core is sweating, your usage is <20%, but this right there is a CPU-Bottleneck. Games can't use Multithreading very well like synthetic Benchmarks can. Often there's alot of stuff running on a Single core, while other stuff can run on multiple cores. While most modern Games can absolutely "use" more than 4 Cores/threads, often there's still certain things going on on a single Core. If this one hits the Limit, that's a CPU Bottleneck too, even if the other Cores are bored. Also, maybe you didn't mount your CPU-Cooler properly, causing heat dissipation to be extremely low --> CPU gets extremely hot fast (90-100°C most likely) --> CPU clock throttles down alot to reduce heat. Your CPU should be faster than the one in the Video, yet it delivers less data to the same GPU?! Strange. Something might be going on. Maybe the CPU is throttling. Maybe your GPU-Driver is causing an Issue. Try a clean Uninstall with DDU, download the latest driver (or the same one from the Video). Maybe your Windows installation is somehow rigged - from my experience, nothing is impossible with Microsoft and Windows, literealy any strange behaviour can be possible lol. Clean Reinstall of Windows might help, but it will be a bit annoying maybe. Do you have similar Issues in other Games? Do you get the expected Performance on different games or Benchmarks, just to see if the CPU for example usually does perform as it should?
The game doesn't seem overly demanding on the CPU. Try running it at higher resolution to see if CPU usage decreases. It looks quite similar to your setup, except using a faster CPU like the 7800X3D. Comparing with ultra settings on a 3060 Ti or 4060 Ti would be a good approach.
It's a 1080p monitor at 144hz. I have a two-monitor configuration, with one connected via DisplayPort (main) and the other through HDMI (also 144hz). Everything was set to default, and it didn't show much performance difference. This highlights what I was saying about CPU-heavy games—his processor is faster than mine, and even with a weaker graphics card, he achieves 30-50 more frames per second in the same area. I also checked the frame rate from the video you shared; it performed better there, though still lagging behind from the video due to his older CPU. From what I understand, it's not about thermal throttling because my CPU consistently stays around 60°C during gameplay. The Windows update is recent (about 3 months), and it doesn't seem like a GPU driver problem since other games run smoothly at full GPU power. It must be connected to how the system handles multi-threading. I've attached a screenshot displaying CPU usage and temperatures.
Consider the comparison, it could really clarify things. See how performance shifts from 10700K to 7800X3D in 1080p (using 4090). https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-r...3d/19.html
Depends on whether you're using a single core or multiple threads. The 9700K might perform better without hyperthreading, though this is still uncertain. Another possibility to consider.