Can anyone explain these cpu spikes to me?

[xNIKx]

When playing bf3, no matter what video settings i use, i consistently get cpu spikes. The higher the settings the worse the spikes.

it seems they happen every 3 seconds and every time they do i can feel the game stutter.
on the perfoverlay chart, seen below, when the yellow line reaches close to the top of the chart it causes the game to rubber band.

sorry in advance for the huge pics.
http://i48.tinypic.com/200bf2g.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/2wfk7lh.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/52ay53.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/6i8kna.jpg

i am aware that im not the only one with this problem but is this a hardware issue or a game side issue?

i7 950 @ 3.68ghz
sli 1gb 460gtx
12gbs of ram

 

[Don Karnage]

Unstable Overclock? Any crashes?

 

[xNIKx]

Unstable Overclock? Any crashes?

not besides the random battlelog related crashes.
and i tested my cpu with prime95 for 5 hours with 0 errors.

 

[VirtualLarry]

and i tested my cpu with prime95 for 5 hours with 0 errors.

That's not very much. I suggest 24hr, both with Small FFT, and then again with Blend.

Then try 100 passes of LinX, with max memory usage, or OCCT:linpack 64-bit with 90% memory for an hour.

Monitoring temps? How's your cooling?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Try disabling Hyper Threading in the BIOS.

 

[xNIKx]

That's not very much. I suggest 24hr, both with Small FFT, and then again with Blend.

Then try 100 passes of LinX, with max memory usage, or OCCT:linpack 64-bit with 90% memory for an hour.

Monitoring temps? How's your cooling?

my temps are great, great air cooling. cpu doesnt pass 55*c on full load.

if i set my cpu back to default and run the game, would this be a better way of testing rather than testing my oc for stability?
so if i set my cpu to default and still get the spikes than its not the oc?

takenoprisoners, ill give that a try however i do hate taking hyper threading off.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, try default CPU settings first.

 

[xNIKx]

still spiking
but i thought this was pretty interesting, with default clocks, when the cpu spikes the gpu spikes the opposite direction almost identically.
http://i46.tinypic.com/nzocok.jpg

 

[Prey2big]

What software do you use to show cpu- and gpu-usage?
Try playing without SLI, still stuttering?

 

[xNIKx]

What software do you use to show cpu- and gpu-usage?
Try playing without SLI, still stuttering?

got my hopes up
turned off sli and was getting this for the majority of the game
http://i50.tinypic.com/2exu92t.jpg
but once the the game got to a certain point, it started running like this for the remainder of the round.
http://i45.tinypic.com/21kxmrl.jpg

oh and i dont have software to measure my cpu usage but i use msi afterburner for my gpus

 

[VirtualLarry]

Task Manager can monitor CPU usage. So can CoreTemp.

 

[AtenRa]

That was a 64 player map ??? Does this occurs when you looking at the direction most of the players are ??

 

[xNIKx]

That was a 64 player map ??? Does this occurs when you looking at the direction most of the players are ??

Yes 64 player, and it seems to occur more in open areas.

 

[AtenRa]

I have the same CPU at 4GHz with HD6950 at 885MHz, video settings at high. Even at 4GHz i have frame drops bellow 60 fps at 64 player maps.

64 player open maps need a lot o CPU performance, try OC to 4-4.2GHz and up the video settings from medium to high with blur off. See if that will help.

 

[xNIKx]

I have the same CPU at 4GHz with HD6950 at 885MHz, video settings at high. Even at 4GHz i have frame drops bellow 60 fps at 64 player maps.

64 player open maps need a lot o CPU performance, try OC to 4-4.2GHz and up the video settings from medium to high with blur off. See if that will help.

i dont know all that much about ocing.
so what cblk and vcore should i use to get 4.2ghz?

also, i was running prime95 small fft over night, just went to check up on it now and it looked like my pc restarted. prime 95 wasnt open.

EDIT: These shots are all while in game, on shaqri and bazaar
http://i45.tinypic.com/167ro0i.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2cqem43.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/2r3z5t0.jpg

is the is weird that my core 0 load is always much higher than the rest?
also, ive come to realize these spikes usually never happen the first game
for example i played two games of shaqri with no issues, then about 5 minutes into bazaar the spikes started.

 

[xNIKx]

bump

 

[xNIKx]

no more help?

well, i found a fix.
i typed renderdevice.forcerenderaheadlimit 1 into console
and this fixed the spikes but....
now my gpu usuage drop to only 60% and im getting terrible fps.

in these pics my fps is at 59/61 but while playing it jumps from like 38 to 78 depending on if im inside of outside
http://i48.tinypic.com/zwg4fp.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/ip9xf6.jpg

 

[AtenRa]

I am at 4GHz with 191MHz bclk and 1.325v

 

[2is]

Do you have a second monitor? If so you can try having task manager running on it with the processes tab open, sort by CPU usage and maybe see which processes is responsible for the spike.

 

[Masterman86]

no more help?

well, i found a fix.
i typed renderdevice.forcerenderaheadlimit 1 into console
and this fixed the spikes but....
now my gpu usuage drop to only 60% and im getting terrible fps.

in these pics my fps is at 59/61 but while playing it jumps from like 38 to 78 depending on if im inside of outside
http://i48.tinypic.com/zwg4fp.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/ip9xf6.jpg

Try this dude, I use it:

Go to where bf3.exe is located (C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 3), create a text file, and name it user. Enter the following in:

WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapResolution 256
RenderDevice.TrippleBufferingEnable 0
RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit 1
Render.DrawFps 1
WorldRender.FxaaEnable 0
WorldRender.DxDeferredCsPathEnable 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurEnable 0
RenderDevice.Dx11Enable 1
Render.PerfOverlayEnable 0
PostProcess.DynamicAOEnable 0

Now save the text file to and change the extension to user.cfg ----> Launch the game

Did the Windows 7 power plan settings have any effect?

 

[xNIKx]

Do you have a second monitor? If so you can try having task manager running on it with the processes tab open, sort by CPU usage and maybe see which processes is responsible for the spike.

no other programs were getting spikes. but i found out that with forcerenderheatlimit 0, which is how i normally play, i usually got a 40-50 CPU for bf3.exe*32 as seen here i get 46.
http://i47.tinypic.com/2mh8tnb.jpg
when ever the CPU would drop below 40, it usually dropped at 38 or 36, the cpu spike in the perfoverlay graph would appear.
with forcerenderaheadlimit 1 the CPU was in the 30s never hitting the 40s causing a stutter free game, but honestly it was better with the spikes.

the power plan helped me get like 3 more fps but did nothing for the spikes

 

[Masterman86]

no other programs were getting spikes. but i found out that with forcerenderheatlimit 0, which is how i normally play, i usually got a 40-50 CPU for bf3.exe*32 as seen here i get 46.
http://i47.tinypic.com/2mh8tnb.jpg
when ever the CPU would drop below 40, it usually dropped at 38 or 36, the cpu spike in the perfoverlay graph would appear.
with forcerenderaheadlimit 1 the CPU was in the 30s never hitting the 40s causing a stutter free game, but honestly it was better with the spikes.

the power plan helped me get like 3 more fps but did nothing for the spikes

Why do you have so many chrome.exe browser entries in your processes? Better yet, why are you even using Chrome at all? Switch to FireFox

RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit <---- means your CPU is set to work with rendering ahead of GPU. Set it to -1, yes, negative 1

Sounds like your VRAM is being used up. 1GB card?

Also, make sure that StereoScopic 3D is Disabled, as well as Motion Blur (in-game BF3 options).

I see you have nvxdsync.exe running... Not good

I'll save you the google search and give you the info on how to shut it down:

Start menu, type services.msc and hit Enter.

Scroll for NVIDIA Driver Helper Service, right click on it, click properties, click Stop, and in the drop down box change from Automatic to Disabled. Click Apply.

- http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f24/solved-high-cpu-usage-551823.html




If that doesn't change anything, then Download this handy little utility:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Run it in the background, and read the Documentation on how to "Log to File"

This will help debug shit you've never even thought of.

Also post a dump of your display information via dxdiag (run it in 64-bit mode)

Ex. (Mine)

Display Devices
---------------
          Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
       Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
          Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x6719)
           DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6719&SUBSYS_31211682&REV_00
     Display Memory: 1772 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 2030 MB
      Shared Memory: 3838 MB
       Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: SyncMaster BX2331(Digital)
      Monitor Model: SMBX2331
         Monitor Id: SAM076F
        Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
        Output Type: HDMI
        Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1124 (English)
     Driver Version: 8.961.0.0
        DDI Version: 11
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 4/5/2012 22:20:04, 1067520 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: Yes

I'm specifically looking for this information from dxdiag:

Monitor Name: 
      Monitor Model: 
         Monitor Id:
        Native Mode: 
        Output Type:

 

[xNIKx]

wow i think it was the motion blur.

i turned it off and i can play on high settings, 16x aa, hbao and play smoothly now.
i get spikes here and there but not like every three seconds anymore.

 

[skipsneeky2]

wow i think it was the motion blur.

i turned it off and i can play on high settings, 16x aa, hbao and play smoothly now.
i get spikes here and there but not like every three seconds anymore.

I was feeling like i had a slight lag as well despite having a gtx570 at 1080p with good frames,motion blur really is a cpu hog so it seems,i tried disabling it this evening and hell what do you know,its much more smoother.

Have a 2500k here at default clocks.