Victoria III - VSync impacts CPU usage (not GPU, CPU)

[Pellaken]

Short summary of your issue
VSync impacts CPU usage (not GPU, CPU)

Game Version
1.0.3

What OS are you playing on?
Windows

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Have you tried verifying your game files?
No

How much "pain" is this causing you?
3

Please explain the issue you experienced in the most condensed way possible
game was taking forever to start/boot up. made a thread. (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/long-fire-up-time-to-start-the-game.1550563/) noticed that turning on Vsync made my CPU usage for one of my 4 cores plummet to a normal, non-insane level (it would peg itself above 95% constantly)

Please explain how to reproduce the issue
start victoria 3. set ALL graphical settings to their lowest, including capping at 30fps. run in a window slightly smaller than your fullscreen. open "resource manager". look at cores. turn Vsync off while on the main menu. look at cores. turn it on. look at cores.

Is there anything else you think could help us identify/replicate the issue?
no. rather if you have any questions for me, I'm willing to tinker around way more and try to get more data if you need it. just let me know what I should do.

I have attached a save game
No

Upload Attachment
File(s) attached

 

[Pellaken]

I've been told not everyone is experiencing this. my PC is as follows:


Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model: Z170X-UD5
Form Factor: Desktop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x5e
CPU Stepping: 0x3
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3504 Mhz
4 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics
DirectX Driver Name: aticfx32.dll
Driver Version: 31.0.12019.16007
DirectX Driver Version: 31.0.12019.16007
Driver Date: 10 3 2022
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x67df
Revision: 0xc7
Number of Monitors: 2
Number of Logical Video Cards: 2
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 3200 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 20.47" x 11.42" (23.43" diag)
52.0cm x 29.0cm (59.5cm diag)
Primary Bus Type Not Detected
Primary VRAM Not Detected
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (High Definition Audio

Memory:
RAM: 16336 MB

 

[Ft56FcWb]

Just to note that I am seeing the same behavior with my CPU (Intel i5-10400F).

When VSync is OFF, the CPU usage gets very high. In my case a single CPU thread gets to a constant 100% usage even when in the main menu of the game.
And it seems it also impacts the performance while actually playing the game and not just when staring at the beautful main menu.

When VSync is ON, the CPU usage drops by some 50-60%.

 

[Malorn]

I can replicate this as well, it's quite a noticeable load with vsync off.

 

[jpd]

This is actually quite normal, and expected.

When VSync is off, you are asking the system to render as much frames as it can each second, instead of limiting it to a preset number of frames as a maximum.

Rendering frames is not only the GPU's task (the video board, if you will), even though the GPU has a major roll to play in figuring out the color of each pixel. The data that defines the objects that need to be rendered in the frame are pre-processed (using DirectX) by the main CPU before they are ready to be fed to the GPU.

And then it comes down to the workload division between the CPU and the GPU. If you have a (relatively) slow GPU and a fast CPU, the GPU is the bottle neck, and you can expect it to be pushed to (near) 100% usage, while the CPU sits idle, waiting for the GPU to finish before it starts pre-processing the data for the next frame. In the other way around (a slow CPU paired with a very fast GPU), the GPU is quick with the build-up of the actual frame, and the CPU is then running (near) 100% usage to feed the GPU the data for the next frame to be calculated.

And, just as a reminder: a CPU can't be NOT busy. It's always running something, and this is by design. If it's not running anything useful (like an application or something), it's running a never-ending loop called the system-idle process. Depending on make and model of your CPU, it may or may not lower the clock speed when spending (nearly) all of it's time running the system-idle loop. So, running something else may keep the core clock at a higher frequency.

 

[Malorn]

This is actually quite normal, and expected.

When VSync is off, you are asking the system to render as much frames as it can each second, instead of limiting it to a preset number of frames as a maximum.

Rendering frames is not only the GPU's task (the video board, if you will), even though the GPU has a major roll to play in figuring out the color of each pixel. The data that defines the objects that need to be rendered in the frame are pre-processed (using DirectX) by the main CPU before they are ready to be fed to the GPU.

And then it comes down to the workload division between the CPU and the GPU. If you have a (relatively) slow GPU and a fast CPU, the GPU is the bottle neck, and you can expect it to be pushed to (near) 100% usage, while the CPU sits idle, waiting for the GPU to finish before it starts pre-processing the data for the next frame. In the other way around (a slow CPU paired with a very fast GPU), the GPU is quick with the build-up of the actual frame, and the CPU is then running (near) 100% usage to feed the GPU the data for the next frame to be calculated.

And, just as a reminder: a CPU can't be NOT busy. It's always running something, and this is by design. If it's not running anything useful (like an application or something), it's running a never-ending loop called the system-idle process. Depending on make and model of your CPU, it may or may not lower the clock speed when spending (nearly) all of it's time running the system-idle loop. So, running something else may keep the core clock at a higher frequency.

Max fps should have a similar limiting effect, and it's set to max 60. With Vsync it also hovers around 60. I'm afraid that means your reasoning is inaccurate. There is something about vsync which reduces the cpu load, and only the cpu load, which limiting the frame rate in a similar manner does not.

Also... well, let's just say I fit neither of your catagories, but if I had to choose one, my CPU is quite a bit stronger than my GPU, and the GPU is barely being used.