First World Problem

[Bigvanvader]

I have played the game for years on a terrible laptop, the other day I got a very good PC but I have an issue, 5 speed is too quick but 4 speed is too slow, are there more nuanced changes I could make or is it 4 speed or 5 with loads of pausing?

 

[Joshua Happytree]

5 speed is too quick but 4 speed is too slow, are there more nuanced changes I could make or is it 4 speed or 5 with loads of pausing?

Easy ones:

1. Set your PC to eco-mode.
2. Disable CPU performance boost (GPU does not affect HOI4 in my experience). Set additional CPU energy use to zero for normal and boost operation (might be the same as the previous one depending on what manages peformance of your system in your particular case). Win10 / Win11 always try to go to boost mode and use additional wattage if allowed. And even five additional watts are discernible for CPU-heavy apps.
3. Go to Task Manager, right click HOI4 and limit affinity. Start unchecking uppermost cores first as they should be P-cores.

If it does not help and you have experience with overclocking then:

Lower clockrate. You can start with CPU but can go to memory as well though the latter is a bit tricky. You can also try to lower voltage somewhat (it's a must for overclocking but I never tried to underclock, not sure if it works without clockrate). Again do this only if you know what you're doing.​

 

[BurningEGO]

Maybe you could trade your pc with mine? Mine is too slow even on speed 5.

Easy ones:

1. Set your PC to eco-mode.
2. Disable CPU performance boost (GPU does not affect HOI4 in my experience). Set additional CPU energy use to zero for normal and boost operation (might be the same as the previous one depending on what manages peformance of your system in your particular case). Win10 / Win11 always try to go to boost mode and use additional wattage if allowed. And even five additional watts are discernible for CPU-heavy apps.
3. Go to Task Manager, right click HOI4 and limit affinity. Start unchecking uppermost cores first as they should be P-cores.

If it does not help and you have experience with overclocking then:

Lower clockrate. You can start with CPU but can go to memory as well though the latter is a bit tricky. You can also try to lower voltage somewhat (it's a must for overclocking but I never tried to underclock, not sure if it works without clockrate). Again do this only if you know what you're doing.​

You expect his computer to be intel and to actually have P cores.

The best tip I can offer is, playing normally and hitting pause button when you need to do a lot of things at once. Later on usually speed tends to get much slower.

 

[Eruth]

Speed 5 'unlocks' your computer to run as fast as possible. Speeds 1-4 run at speeds set by defines, and can thus be modded. https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Defines#GAME_SPEED_SECONDS

 

[Kanitatlan]

I would add that since speed 5 is go as fast as you can it does slow down significantly as the game progresses. Even with a fairly good PC you can end up with speed 5 not being too different from speed 4 once you have an active war with a few hundred divisions.