(edited by Avelos.6798)
What makes the GPU hit 100% load?
Is super sampling on?
100% dual gpu load is easily reachable on CF 290x at that resolution with supersampling on. SSAA is the most resource intensive AA method. With an 1080p eyefinity setup, and assuming 2×2=4x supersample, you will be rendering a 24megapixel frame, which is 3 times the 8 mega pixel image of a 4k monitor. I think (my wag based on performance reductions) gw2 runs a 1.41×1.41=2x super sample which for your resolution is at 12.5 mega pixels. Any system including CFed 290x’s would struggle with such high resolutions. Even at native a 1080p eyefinity system still is at 6+ mega pixels which can be rough on the hardware depending on your cooling/gpu clock/game settings.
The one maxed and one idle in windowed mode is probably an issue with cf/eyefinity drivers and how directx is handeled. This seems to be a prevalent driver issue with dual gpu builds.
[ICoa] Blackgate
(edited by dodgycookies.4562)
I don’t run additional graphics options outside the game so just what I said, max everything without FXAA because FXAA is crap. One card being idle in windowed mode has been something that’s been a thing for quite a long time in the days of Crossfire.
The load bounces around like when you hold the refresh key (F5) on the Performance tab of Task Manager. There’s no up and down bits like the temperature graph. It’s just straight spikes. There is however no notice of an FPS lag at all.
FXAA was implemented because it is a post process filter that impacts frame rate minimally. Yes it can smudge textures that it mistakenly interpret as edges needing anti-aliasing. The only other way to reduce jaggies is super sampling and that has a noticeable performance hit.
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What I meant was: is the in game setting “render sampling” set to super-sampling rather than native. Max everything i will assume you have it set to supersampling.
How is gpu load measured?
gpu load percentage is simply the calculation speed of the chip being used compared to the maximum your chip is capable of. The maximum speed is a function of the number of transistors on the chip and clock speed (which in modern cards is variable and affected by available cooling and power).
For the most part the calculations done on the gpu is the rendering of shaders and textures of the game engine. The higher the resolution the more of renders per frame required. Higher settings require more renders per frame. The more effects on screen requires more renders per frame. And the more frames per second means more renders per second.
A simple way to think about it is (Resolution)x(Effect)x(Settings)x(FPS) = GPU Calculations per second. Resolution and settings are fixed and effects will always be drawn. Thus if your cards maximum speed is lower than the required speed, then the fps will decrease until the above equation becomes true. At this point your card will be running at maximum speed with 100% load.
If your card is faster then either the fps will go up until the equation is true (or is limited by other components like the cpu in a zerg) or the gpu drops below 100% usage. All this means is that the chip is capable of more but not asked to do so. This can be a fps limiter/vsync, or your card simply waiting on the other components to deliver data.
Your 100% gpu load means that your 290’s are being maxed out and not enough to drive your (resolution)x(framerate)x(settings). The 7970 was at 100% because it was not fast enough. Your CF 290x’s are much more powerful, but still not fast enough.
Graphical power limitations are pretty rare in gw2 considering the average players rig, but to be expected in multimontior setups with supersample as even top end hardware (like 290x in CF) is not fast enough to drive those resolutions with high enough framerates to the point of being capped by vsync or other limiters.
Changes in load represent many things. Do you have a specific question about gpu load changes?
[ICoa] Blackgate
(edited by dodgycookies.4562)
My mistake, yes I do have Super Sampling enabled. :P It makes my game, to me, look much more… immersive I guess I can say. Funny enough, this might sound totally strange and you’ll call me crazy, but no we didn’t just meet, but when I was previously using an AMD FX-8350, switching to Native sampling from Super Sampling actually very slightly, lowered my performance in some places more often than not. But most of the time there was absolutely no change in performance between the two. It was weird…. but I was still happy about it since it was a useable option haha.
I can see where it’s then being limited, the amount of work being put on them with my current in game settings.
In the case of the 8350, the fps was limited by the cpu, thus the required calculations by the gpu was lower and your gpu was more or less waiting on your cpu. At that point your cards were faster than the required speed. So you could turn on supersample to use the unused gpu power and see the same fps.
With the increase in performance of an i7 over the 8350, the gpu now has to work harder because more frames needing to be rendered are being pushed from the cpu. So it no longer has the extra speed to spare for super sample anti aliasing.
For those kind of resolutions (im currently running 7680×1600) with 290x’s, i HIGHLY recommend using native sampling. Then install radeonpro which will add SMAA (Sub-pixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing) which is a combination of MLAA and MSAA. This will provide a very similar visual to supersampling, but uses a lot less resources and has none of the crappy blurryness of FXAA.
I currently use SweetFX for the SMAA injector(because nvidia cards), but radeon pro (AMD only) is a more elegant piece of software, much simpler to use, has more features, and has amazing support for SweetFX’s other options.
[ICoa] Blackgate
(edited by dodgycookies.4562)
Supersampling will kill your performance no matter what, native is the way to go in zerg-fests..
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I don’t have to worry about that since I don’t do world versus world. :P