Low frame rate in games but also low CPU+GPU usage

[user100monkey]

Hello,
I really want someone to take a stab at explaining this one for me.

Getting low frame rate in a lot of games (blizzard titles esp) but CPU usage and GPU usage are very low, say round 30% usage with 10fps as an example in diablo3.

Can anyone explain why this might be?
Fresh OS install has not improved matters.

 

[user100monkey]

Q6000 oc'ed to 3.3ghz
4gb RAM
Nvidia 970
Vsync off.

 

[user100monkey]

What psu are you using and how old is it.

Just replaced the PSU, purchased nice Corsair RM 850
http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/power-supply-units/rm-series?power=850 Watts|

 

[user100monkey]

I think it might be your CPU holding you back.
Might be time to look at an upgrade

I appreciate your feedback but this is the point of the thread.
I can't see how the CPU is holding me back if when i am dropping frames its only been utilized by 30-60%.

Its not even showing as one of the four cores as reaching anywhere near 80%

 

[user100monkey]

I have been eyeing up an upgrade to:

I5-4690k
MSI z97
Samsung 250g 840 Evo
corsair hydro H80i
8gb teamgroup 2666mhz

But i just don't want to drop the cash just yet as my current CPU isn't showing as the bottleneck on my system. If my CPU was clearly hitting 90%+ usage then yes but its under 50% load for a lot of the time during these FPS drops.
Using afterburner OSD to show GPU and CPU usage % along with FPS

 

[user100monkey]

Are you getting much disk swapping (ie low on ram)?

I could be i guess, this is a very good idea, any clear way to find this out?

 

[user100monkey]

Thank you for the feedback all.

My question in essence is why is the frame rate so low when the CPU (not even a single core) is not maxed nor is the GPU maxed. If these two are not maxed what is the bottleneck.

Please see image i have uploaded
http://postimg.org/image/5qbuw1gap/

Showing CPU and GPU usage in starcraft2 @ 60fps
Then it shows the CPU and GPU usage in starcraft2 when the game renders @ 30fps

Now the only thing even close to get bottle necked is CPU core4 @ 84%. But the game engine should be running a simple game logic loop such as
for( get user input
apply game logic
render
)
It should loop though that as fast as it can, in this case 28.6 times a second. The reason for it being 28.6 is some component must be maxed and unable to the loop any faster.

 

[user100monkey]

Newer Intel CPUs will give you a decent performance bump in Blizzard games,but even with my Xeon E3 1230 V2 running at 3.7GHZ,I can get dips down to around 20FPS at times during Nephalem Rifts in D3 when in multiplayer matches.

Even in the D3 thread people have had similar experiences with D3 too with the Core i7 4770 too,so even though a better CPU will help a lot,there are limitations on the server side too IMHO.

Ah this is interesting to hear, as everyone else in my guild reports solid 60fps whilst running the Nephalem Rifts and whilst i get in extreme fights down to single figure FPS

 

[user100monkey]

One more.
This time Diablo 3.
see http://postimg.org/image/bh4xsmmzj/

103 FPS in town
CPU core 4 @ 81% everything else <50% (GPU 40% cpu core3 52%)

13.6 FPS in greater rift
CPU core 4 @ 58% apart from that system no even in use
GPU 8%
cpu1 19%
cpu2 31%
cpu3 20%
cpu4 58%

Why the low frame rate?

Something here is not right. Note the CPU usage even lower in the greater rift @ 13FPS then it is in town.

Game engine logic should be simple.
loop. get user input, do game logic, render, loop.
It should do the loop as fast as possible, eg as fast as the slowest component can handle.
So if your CPU is the slowest it will be the bottleneck for example. The bottleneck can be ID'ed as that component that would be at 100% utilization. The CPU is not nor is the GPU, what component is the bottleneck?

Answer on post card

 

[user100monkey]

I have disabled the page-file and may be seeing an improvement.
Installing Diablo and Starcraft onto SSD drive to see if it affects the minimum frame rates.