CPU usage

[General George S. Patton]

3 kingdoms has all 6 threads of my 8600k almost maxed out at around 90-100% usage, while running at 5ghz. While I am thrilled warscape is finally using all available threads to there full potential this is even in smaller battles with lower graphics. Any ideas why its hitting my cpu so hard, its a pretty fast cpu so I wonder what people with slower cpus are seeing?

[LestaT]

I cant remember. I usually dont run afterburner with usage on but if not mistaken for ryzen 2600 cpu usage are around 40%.

[General George S. Patton]

It seems to scale pretty well with the amount of men in the battle.

I wonder if having more than my 6 cores would actually help in a total war game for once

[Sagat]

maybe check your bios settings.... I know on my motherboard there's a like 3 different settings for what type of performance you want from your CPU, if you want it running maxed out you can set it, but that keeps the temps high.
the setting i have is automatic OC, it basically runs lower GHZ when not in heavy use but ramps up and OC's automatically when I launch a game/program.

[A Barbarian]

If you want lower CPU utilization you actually have to raise and not lower your graphics settings That's because most graphics settings (except 'unit size', 'blood', 'shadows' to some degree and maybe some others) cause much more GPU- rather than CPU utilization. Only when your GPU is fully utilized, the CPU will be used less. It's very rare that CPU and GPU are utilized to 100% at the same time, just running a game. Either the GPU is waiting for the CPU or vice versa.

And that your 8600K is used to 100% (or close) is not really surprising since it has 'only' 6 cores (albeit real cores). A 7700K for example only has 4 real cores but also has the hyperthreading feature which presents additional 4 'virtual' cores to Windows. Those virtual cores are not as powerful as the real ones. Virtual cores can improve performance by maybe 30% depending on application. But for an application a 7700K with hyperthreading has more cores than your 8600K (the 8700K is the same as the 8600K just with the hyperthreading feature enabled), so it will divide the work into more threads (if it's properly programmed).

I would use MSI-Afterburner, which you can configure to monitor CPU- and GPU utilization in-game, to find a good mix between CPU- and GPU utilization. If your GPU utilization is usually below 100% u have some headroom to enable some more graphics settings. If you are unhappy with your framerate you have to check whether the CPU- or GPU is the bottleneck. If it's the CPU, then you don't have too many options unfortunately. The one setting which will lower CPU utilization the most is 'unit-size'. Also,'shadow' settings can be taxing for the CPU (at least in former TW games), especially in unit closeups.

[General George S. Patton]

If you want lower CPU utilization you actually have to raise and not lower your graphics settings That's because most graphics settings (except 'unit size', 'blood', 'shadows' to some degree and maybe some others) cause much more GPU- rather than CPU utilization. Only when your GPU is fully utilized, the CPU will be used less. It's very rare that CPU and GPU are utilized to 100% at the same time, just running a game. Either the GPU is waiting for the CPU or vice versa.

And that your 8600K is used to 100% (or close) is not really surprising since it has 'only' 6 cores (albeit real cores). A 7700K for example only has 4 real cores but also has the hyperthreading feature which presents additional 4 'virtual' cores to Windows. Those virtual cores are not as powerful as the real ones. Virtual cores can improve performance by maybe 30% depending on application. But for an application a 7700K with hyperthreading has more cores than your 8600K (the 8700K is the same as the 8600K just with the hyperthreading feature enabled), so it will divide the work into more threads (if it's properly programmed).

I would use MSI-Afterburner, which you can configure to monitor CPU- and GPU utilization in-game, to find a good mix between CPU- and GPU utilization. If your GPU utilization is usually below 100% u have some headroom to enable some more graphics settings. If you are unhappy with your framerate you have to check whether the CPU- or GPU is the bottleneck. If it's the CPU, then you don't have too many options unfortunately. The one setting which will lower CPU utilization the most is 'unit-size'. Also,'shadow' settings can be taxing for the CPU (at least in former TW games), especially in unit closeups.

8
I am not seeing 90-100% usage at all times anymore I think i had a glitch or bug. I am seeing a more normal usage. I know its only 6 cores, but like you said they are real cores, and they are running at 5ghz all cores, so I would think that would be plenty of horsepower for this game, but my frames dip below 60 even in medium sized battle at 1080p ( when this happens I do see my utilization way up closer to 90).

With my cpu and 1080ti I should think I could do fairly large battles at 60fps at 1080p but not really. Would I really benefit from more cores? Or is it just a poor engine.

[Leonardo]

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