# Low GPU load when playing WoW



## ssawgift (Dec 27, 2013)

My card is a newly bought ASUS R9 280X. I noticed that when I play WoW (25-raid), FPS drops from 60+ to below 30, but at the same time GPU Load in GPU-Z shows only around 35%.

Some days ago I tried a bitcoin miner and the software can fill GPU Load almost to 100% and GPU Temperature is around 75 degrees Celsius.

Are there other people who have the same problem with me?


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## de.das.dude (Dec 27, 2013)

its called power saving. it does not need that power so it clokcs down. WoW is to 280x like 2+2 was to einstein


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## ssawgift (Dec 27, 2013)

Is there any way to tell the video card  driver not saving power? Instead I want performance.


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## r9 (Dec 27, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> its called power saving. it does not need that power so it clokcs down. WoW is to 280x like 2+2 was to einstein


He is saying below 30 FPS that is not 2+2 obviously. Try different driver make sure you have uninstalled all previous drivers and try disabling vsync and any background services that may be working in the background.


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## de.das.dude (Dec 27, 2013)

ssawgift said:


> Is there any way to tell the video card  driver not saving power? Instead I want performance.


try the new 13.12 drivers


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## DF is BUSY (Dec 27, 2013)

what cpu are you using? 


fill in your system specs, OP.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2013)

DF is BUSY said:


> what cpu are you using?



This.  WoW can become CPU limited very quickly.


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## buildzoid (Dec 27, 2013)

Blizz games are really hard on CPUs especially AMDs so that might be the cause.


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## ...PACMAN... (Dec 27, 2013)

Why do people say so often that WoW doesn't need a semi decent GPU? It does. DX11 Ultra at anything 1080p or above with AA requires something that has a little bit of grunt. It's true that CPU is king for the minimums but if you want all those DX11 gfx with high levels of AA you still need that dedicated GPU which can cope.


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## sulfur (Dec 28, 2013)

World of Warcraft loves CPU power  Like other MMO's CPU>GPU. Even older PC's with OCED CPU's can handle MoP 5.4 with 60fps 1080p without drops.


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## Frick (Dec 28, 2013)

...PACMAN... said:


> Why do people say so often that WoW doesn't need a semi decent GPU? It does. DX11 Ultra at anything 1080p or above with AA requires something that has a little bit of grunt. It's true that CPU is king for the minimums but if you want all those DX11 gfx with high levels of AA you still need that dedicated GPU which can cope.



Turn stuff down and you can run it on anything though,


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## Blue-Knight (Dec 28, 2013)

> FPS drops from 60+ to below 30, but at the same time GPU Load in GPU-Z shows only around 35%.


If VSync is turned on and it's limiting the frame rate to monitor refresh rate or half refresh rate (in this case 60/30) then the GPU usage will not go to 100%.

And if your GPU isn't at 100% load and your frame rate in game is not equal to your monitor's refresh rate (in this case 60) then there's something on your system that is limiting the full potential of the GPU (most of the time, the CPU).

If VSync is disabled and your GPU load is not at 100%, then then there's something on your system that is limiting the FULL potential of the GPU (most of the time, the CPU).

Not sure. I can be wrong.


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## ...PACMAN... (Dec 28, 2013)

Frick said:


> Turn stuff down and you can run it on anything though,


True, true. And yes, like I said CPU is king for minimums but you are not gonna run over 60fps constant with a sub par GPU on ultra with good levels of AA with any CPU... old or new.


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

Thanks all for your replies. I updated my specs, please see if anything may cause the problem.


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## v12dock (Dec 28, 2013)

Is the game in the background or foreground while this problem is occurring?


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

It's normal foreground play. GPU-Z is capable of recording stats over time.


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## DF is BUSY (Dec 28, 2013)

a 4/8 xeon, 8gb ram, 280x and a ssd should have no problems running WoW...

did you try reinstalling AMD drivers? 
desperate measure=reinstall WoW?
really extra desperate measure=reinstall windows?


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## Kaynar (Dec 28, 2013)

I'm pretty sure blizzard didn't have Xeons in mind when making WoW. In fact even a 4+ ghz i7 won't play at 60fps in a 25man raid no matter what GPU you have. I have had a 7970 in the past and now a Titan, none of them goes above 30% load because this game is badly coded and CPU bound. I'm pretty sure 30fps for a stock xeon is a good performance in 25man. And it's definately not a GPU issue.

You can try to reduce GPU-bound graphics options and see for yourself that your fps will not really increase.


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

The CPU is actually not a problem because CPU load is never very high in the sense that it never exceeds 30% during game play.

According to Kaynar, maybe it's Blizzard that is to be responsible for this problem. I once heard that AMD cards have problem of low GPU load with games. But Kaynar says NVIDIA card also has this same problem with WoW. This means this problem does not pertain to specific card maker.


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## ...PACMAN... (Dec 28, 2013)

How about trying to mess with CPU affinity? http://www.wowwiki.com/CVar_processAffinityMask

I don't know what else to suggest. I have a 4670K with a 760 and it plays the game smooth as silk on Ultra with 8xAA. You should be having no issues. Hope you get it sorted.


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## Mussels (Dec 28, 2013)

ssawgift said:


> The CPU is actually not a problem because CPU load is never very high in the sense that it never exceeds 30% during game play.
> 
> According to Kaynar, maybe it's Blizzard that is to be responsible for this problem. I once heard that AMD cards have problem of low GPU load with games. But Kaynar says NVIDIA card also has this same problem with WoW. This means this problem does not pertain to specific card maker.



FYI, 30% of an 8 threaded CPU is over two threads maxed out (12.5% would be one maxed out).

so yeah - you're CPU limited. games require highly clocked CPU's, not ones with excess cores.


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## jboydgolfer (Dec 28, 2013)

In my experience, Catalyst control center has been coming with A LOT of graphic functions set to On as a default. I had an issue of My own a few months back, and found an issue where catalyst was Default set to Do something that was causing HUGE performance loss, after a couple days of speaking with support , we ended up tracing the issue to catalyst's setting's being set to the "on" position right out of the gate. I would recommend going into it, and Verifying that ALL settings are on the "use application" setting, then go onward from there.


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

Mussels said:


> FYI, 30% of an 8 threaded CPU is over two threads maxed out (12.5% would be one maxed out).
> 
> so yeah - you're CPU limited. games require highly clocked CPU's, not ones with excess cores.



But E3-1230 V2 is already one of the best CPUs out there - moreover, the best ones are all multi-cores. I'm so confused. A game like WoW should only stress the GPU instead of the CPU.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 28, 2013)

ssawgift said:


> But E3-1230 V2 is already one of the best CPUs out there - moreover, the best ones are all multi-cores. I'm so confused. A game like WoW should only stress the GPU instead of the CPU.



Unfortunately WoW stresses the CPU not modern GPUs.  Any reasonably decent modern GPU can max out WoW graphically.  And even though the E3-1230V2 is a very power CPU, it is still your limiting factor.  People with 4.0GHz overclocks on CPUs just like yours are still CPU limited in WoW.


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## Aquinus (Dec 28, 2013)

ssawgift said:


> But E3-1230 V2 is already one of the best CPUs out there - moreover, the best ones are all multi-cores. I'm so confused. A game like WoW should only stress the GPU instead of the CPU.



If only you knew how wrong that statement was. Xeons are designed for different workloads. Not to say it won't play WoW well, but WoW definitely can't fully utilize 8 threads, so more cores does not mean more power in this case. There are some settings that hit the CPU harder than others. If you're running everything in Ultra, there is almost no way that you're going to realize 60FPS during a RAID with your hardware. It's not that the hardware isn't capable of doing it, it's that the software isn't.

With all of this said, an i5 clocked higher would probably out perform your Xeon for WoW, much like it would in other Blizzard games.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you get a Xeon in the first place? It's not like any the features of a Xeon will help you game while you throw your ability to overclock out the window.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> If only you knew how wrong that statement was. Xeons are designed for different workloads.



For the past several generations(since the 775 days) Xeons have been identical to desktop chips with a few extra instruction sets enabled, and sometimes support for ecc memory.  They handled workloads exactly the same.

But yes, the ability to overclock goes out the window, but the same goes if you buy a non-k desktop CPU.  Though even with the Xeon he should be able to use the extra 8 boost bins to get the processor running at 4.1Ghz.


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

...PACMAN... said:


> How about trying to mess with CPU affinity? http://www.wowwiki.com/CVar_processAffinityMask
> 
> I don't know what else to suggest. I have a 4670K with a 760 and it plays the game smooth as silk on Ultra with 8xAA. You should be having no issues. Hope you get it sorted.



The article says: Manually adjusting this CVar is no longer needed as of 3.3.2 unless you're trying to run the game on specific cores. It is now uncapped so it will run on whatever core your OS deems as fit.

I did try setting this cvar, but it made no difference.


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## ssawgift (Dec 28, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> If you don't mind me asking, why did you get a Xeon in the first place? It's not like any the features of a Xeon will help you game while you throw your ability to overclock out the window.



There is no special reason. It's just that I had no idea about computer hardware though I am a software developer. The only reason is that this CPU offers the best price-quality ratio.


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## ...PACMAN... (Dec 28, 2013)

I'm aware what the article states, it's just sometimes an OS can get a bit funky with what it deems fit. It was just something to try, you know, help. Anyway, done with this thread. Off to play some Wow with max details on my lowly 4670K and weak Nvidia GPU.


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## Kaynar (Dec 28, 2013)

To simply put it, if your Xeon CPU is at 3.3Ghz (as I saw on google) then your CPU is on par with an i3 worth about $100 when it comes to games like WoW. In games like Crysis 3 however, your CPU should be close to a non-overclocked i7 since your Xeon is a 4C/8T.

WoW is an old game and additionally its made to run on low end systems so that many people can actually play the game, I find it normal that things are like that.

That said, both my older overclocked i7 930 with 7970 and my newer 4930k and Titan cannot run the game at 60fps on full graphics and 1200p when I am in Orgrimmar with 50+ toons around me.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Kaynar said:


> To simply put it, if your Xeon CPU is at 3.3Ghz (as I saw on google) then your CPU is on par with an i3 worth about $100 when it comes to games like WoW. In games like Crysis 3 however, your CPU should be close to a non-overclocked i7 since your Xeon is a 4C/8T.



His Xeon boosts to 3.7GHz, it would fall somewhere between an i5 and an i7.  It has the cache and 4C/8T of an i7-3770K but with a 200MHz lower clock speed.


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## Kaynar (Dec 28, 2013)

newtekie1 said:


> His Xeon boosts to 3.7GHz, it would fall somewhere between an i5 and an i7.  It has the cache and 4C/8T of an i7-3770K but with a 200MHz lower clock speed.


 Well maybe his fps (below 30) is  a bit too low for these specs then...


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## Aquinus (Dec 28, 2013)

Kaynar said:


> Well maybe his fps (below 30) is  a bit too low for these specs then...



Or maybe when he raids, there is more stuff than the software can truly handle. I'm willing to bet that disabling shadows will help.


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## Kaynar (Dec 28, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> Or maybe when he raids, there is more stuff than the software can truly handle. I'm willing to bet that disabling shadows will help.


that always works on laptops but the 280x yawns with WoW's shadows


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## Aquinus (Dec 28, 2013)

Except that shadows are calculated on the CPU *then* rendered by the GPU. WoW does more stuff than it actually should on the CPU and it's important to remember that.

Another side note: Are you running in DX9 or DX11 mode?


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## Kaynar (Dec 28, 2013)

That might be a possible explanation for the OP's low fps, DX11 is certainly smoother on high end machines but i think WoW runs on DX11 by default now


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## ssawgift (Dec 29, 2013)

I tried DX9 but it made no difference, as I had expected.

I also tried set shadow to lowest level, but could not see any obvious improvements.


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## kn00tcn (Dec 29, 2013)

are there other options you can lower that reduce polygon/object counts or their LODs? things like draw distance, model detail, terrain detail, these are usually cpu limited & you can keep the gpu settings high (post processing, shaders, etc)

also to prove that it's cpu, lowering resolution & turning off AA should result in identical fps instead of higher

similarly, underclocking the cpu or disabling turbo should reduce fps together with the above test


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## ssawgift (Dec 29, 2013)

kn00tcn said:


> are there other options you can lower that reduce polygon/object counts or their LODs? things like draw distance, model detail, terrain detail, these are usually cpu limited & you can keep the gpu settings high (post processing, shaders, etc)
> 
> also to prove that it's cpu, lowering resolution & turning off AA should result in identical fps instead of higher
> 
> similarly, underclocking the cpu or disabling turbo should reduce fps together with the above test



Thanks for the reply.

Actually the FPS is not my biggest concern. My confusion is why the GPU load is so low which means its full capacity is not utilized and my money is wasted in some way.


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## kn00tcn (Dec 29, 2013)

that's what being cpu (or gpu) limited means, an imbalance of utilization that's either the fault of software or choice of hardware (such as buying a dualcore & a high end gfx card)

utilization it's entirely related to fps, the end result

EDIT: but i always want to run tests to confirm where the issue lies, if there's anything that can be done, etc

seeing what settings affect fps in what way would be the data to help decide what's going on, utilization not so much


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## Mussels (Dec 29, 2013)

ssawgift said:


> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Actually the FPS is not my biggest concern. My confusion is why the GPU load is so low which means its full capacity is not utilized and my money is wasted in some way.



if the GPU has nothing to render, its going to idle. thats like asking why doesnt my car stay at 5,000RPM all the time, its wasting its power!


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## Blue-Knight (Dec 29, 2013)

Isn't because the game access the disk too often? Not sure, I never played this game. It is just a possibility.
I played some games of similar genre and they accessed the disk very often which caused a high FPS fluctuation.

Running on a RAMDisk may be interesting, if possible. And if it is online game mode, online game modes can use much more CPU than offline game mode.

Not sure.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2013)

Blue-Knight said:


> Isn't because the game access the disk too often? Not sure, I never played this game. It is just a possibility.
> I played some games of similar genre and they accessed the disk very often which caused a high FPS fluctuation.
> 
> Running on a RAMDisk may be interesting, if possible. And if it is online game mode, online game modes can use much more CPU than offline game mode.
> ...



It's possible, but if you're standing still it should let everything load. I don't think that this is the issue, but I guess it could be.

A ramdisk isn't feasible with WoW because it's such a big game.


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## Paladone (Jan 4, 2014)

ssawgift said:


> It's normal foreground play. GPU-Z is capable of recording stats over time.


Sounds dumb, but I was having an issue like this, and it turned out to be an issue with an in game addon. I would recommend that your first upgrade your addons.

Secondly, make sure that you havn't set a foreground/background FPS limit. You can do this by hitting escape and going into "system".

EDIT: You can also try disabling Vsync.


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