Question: CPU Intensive settings?

[HybOj]

Hello,

few questions raised in my mind, and Im happy all have been answered by awesome EF comunity Answers are copy/pasted under my questions.


A) Are shadows in CE2 engine computed on CPU or GPU?
Answer: Impacts mostly GPU (as in majority of new games)

B) Same question goes for HDR / SSAO.
Answer: HDR - Postprocess effect thus only GPU intensive (same as SSAO)
Answer: SSAO - The algorithm is executed purely on the computer's GPU and implemented as a pixel shader (Wikipedia)

C) Higher resolution - how does it impact CPU load?
Answer: Impacts both CPU+GPU: ...because theres more things the GPU has to draw and theres more things the CPU has to check to see if it should tell the GPU to draw it...

D) Many avatars on radar and in field of view - CPU intensive?
Answer: Impacts CPU*+RAM the most, than GPU: ...primarily the CPU and RAM because all the models of the avatar have to be loaded into RAM to be rendered on a moments notice and the CPU has to constantly check if they're within your view or not while also keeping track of where they are and what they're doing...
*Answer 2: ...have to disagree with the impact on CPU, theres very little CPU load involved in fishing data off the HD and into RAM. Where there is CPU impact it will always be far less significant that the GPU impact. Main exception is in physics calculations...




Tesselation:

In cfg settings, there is (depends on your settings):

e_water_tesselation_amount = 6
e_water_tesselation_swath_width = 10

E) Isnt tesselation DX10/11 only feature?
Answer: ...it is a DX11 setting which means unless you have Window 7 it probably won't mean much...

F) How to improve performance / How to improve quality by changing those settings?
Answer: ...changing that setting will only increase performance if you have Windows 7 or it adjusts some other setting behind the scenes...



DualCore CPU:

G) Recomended CPU for High settings is Dual core (for medium its single core). Does EU on CE2 really utilise 2 cores?
Answer: ...EU seems to use up to 2 cores. Having more then 2 (like an quad core or i7), does not seem to give any added benefit, still just uses 2 cores...



GFX Card Memory:

H) Does increasing GFX memory for ex. from 256 to 1024 Mb ease up the job for RAM in any way?
Answer: ...more GPU RAM especially going from 256MB to 1GB will substantially improve performance and allow higher resolutions. More GPU RAM means less loading from main RAM, which is slow (relativly) and presumably means rendered textures can be held without re-rendering every time...




Thank you all for your help! It will help more people than just me I think.


Best regards
Eman Gimme Jakubisko

 

[Executor]

Deleted post.

 

[HybOj]

C) It does not.
D) It is CPU intensive. (And RAM)

C,D seems to be answered... 4 more to go Thanks Executor +rep

 

[xpoptartx]

A) Shadowing has become more and more GPU intensive rather then CPU intensive with newer graphics libraries like DX10 and the latest graphics cards (new ways to offload from the CPU). Although I can't guarantee that MA is making use of all of them yet.

B) HDR is a post-processing effect if I remember correctly so it's all about the GPU.

C) Resolution effects both the GPU and the CPU because one theres more things the GPU has to draw and two theres more things the CPU has to check to see if it should tell the GPU to draw.

D) Lots of avatar's in range effects the CPU, GPU, and RAM. Primarily the CPU and RAM in my experience because all the models of the avatar have to be loaded into RAM to be rendered on a moments notice and the CPU has to constantly check if they're within your view or not while also keeping track of where they are and what they're doing.

E) Yes it is a DX11 setting which means unless you have Window 7 it probably won't mean much for you.

F) Changing that setting will only increase performance if you have Windows 7 or it adjusts some other setting behind the scenes.

Hope this helps,
Napo

 

[HybOj]

A) Shadowing has become more and more GPU intensive rather then CPU intensive with newer graphics libraries like DX10 and the latest graphics cards (new ways to offload from the CPU). Although I can't guarantee that MA is making use of all of them yet.

B) HDR is a post-processing effect if I remember correctly so it's all about the GPU.

C) Resolution effects both the GPU and the CPU because one theres more things the GPU has to draw and two theres more things the CPU has to check to see if it should tell the GPU to draw.

D) Lots of avatar's in range effects the CPU, GPU, and RAM. Primarily the CPU and RAM in my experience because all the models of the avatar have to be loaded into RAM to be rendered on a moments notice and the CPU has to constantly check if they're within your view or not while also keeping track of where they are and what they're doing.

E) Yes it is a DX11 setting which means unless you have Window 7 it probably won't mean much for you.

F) Changing that setting will only increase performance if you have Windows 7 or it adjusts some other setting behind the scenes.

Hope this helps,
Napo

That was very detailed answer, thanks a lot. Sure it helped!

Last thing im not sure about:

Recomended CPU for High settings is Dual core (for medium its single core). Does EU on CE2 really utilise 2 cores? I have some doubts about it...

 

[xaph]

A) Shadowing has become more and more GPU intensive rather then CPU intensive with newer graphics libraries like DX10 and the latest graphics cards (new ways to offload from the CPU). Although I can't guarantee that MA is making use of all of them yet.

B) HDR is a post-processing effect if I remember correctly so it's all about the GPU.

C) Resolution effects both the GPU and the CPU because one theres more things the GPU has to draw and two theres more things the CPU has to check to see if it should tell the GPU to draw.

D) Lots of avatar's in range effects the CPU, GPU, and RAM. Primarily the CPU and RAM in my experience because all the models of the avatar have to be loaded into RAM to be rendered on a moments notice and the CPU has to constantly check if they're within your view or not while also keeping track of where they are and what they're doing.

E) Yes it is a DX11 setting which means unless you have Window 7 it probably won't mean much for you.

F) Changing that setting will only increase performance if you have Windows 7 or it adjusts some other setting behind the scenes.

Hope this helps,
Napo

Thats some good information and analysis, thanks for some leads.
Core utilization ?
Xaph
7/64

 

[alh]

G) EU seems to use up to 2 cores. Having more then 2 (like an quad core or i7), does not seem to give any added benefit, still just uses 2 cores. (and on an i7, cpu load is quite low, even with maxed settings)

 

[xaph]

G) EU seems to use up to 2 cores. Having more then 2 (like an quad core or i7), does not seem to give any added benefit, still just uses 2 cores. (and on an i7, cpu load is quite low, even with maxed settings)

Dual Core E 8400,
I've noticed that latency is far less on solid state drives and thus 295 GPU seems to work a lot faster... reduced file access on drive I suspect

 

[HybOj]

Theres still bonus question (H) to be answered

H) Does increasing GFX memory for ex. from 256 to 1024 Mb ease up the job for RAM in any way?

Thanks a lot to all who answered my questions and contributed to the thread, I hope you dont mind I used some of your replyes as a answers in my opening post.

 

[ALEXANDER]

Theres still bonus question (H) to be answered

H) Does increasing GFX memory for ex. from 256 to 1024 Mb ease up the job for RAM in any way?

Thanks a lot to all who answered my questions and contributed to the thread, I hope you dont mind I used some of your replyes as a answers in my opening post.

well yes and no. But one thing is certain: 1GB video memory is a must these days

 

[aridash]

have to disagree with the impact on CPU of more avatars, theres very little CPU load involved in fishing data off the HD and into RAM. where there is CPU impact it will always be far less significant that the GPU impact. main exception is in physics calculations.

more GPU RAM especially going from 256MB to 1GB will substantially improve performance and allow higher resolutions. more GPU RAM means less loading from main RAM, which is slow (relativly) and presumably means rendered textures can be held without re-rendering every time (dont know that for a fact, but assume that how it works).

 

[ALEXANDER]

have to disagree with the impact on CPU of more avatars, theres very little CPU load involved in fishing data off the HD and into RAM. where there is CPU impact it will always be far less significant that the GPU impact. main exception is in physics calculations.

more GPU RAM especially going from 256MB to 1GB will substantially improve performance and allow higher resolutions. more GPU RAM means less loading from main RAM, which is slow (relativly) and presumably means rendered textures can be held without re-rendering every time (dont know that for a fact, but assume that how it works).

I can confirm that once rendered, textures and models remain inside the gpu ram for at least 10 min (tested on EU)

 

[alh]

About graphics mem:

If you have a 32 bit system, you might want to hold back a bit on the ram on your graphics card.
Thats because the graphics card ram share address space with your system ram, up to the 4GB max.
Before I could upgrade, I ran my GTX295 (with 1.8G total ram) on 32 bit, and thus had only 2GB left for normal ram.
That was not a very good idea...

256 is a bit low though, then you have to upload textures too much, so for 32 bit I'd recommend 512MB.
On 64 bit, as much as you can afford... You never have enough GPU memory...

 

[Executor]

Deleted post.

 

[Wody]

- 3 GB RAM (because EU can't use more than 2 GB).

This is wrong. EU will use all the memory you throw at it if it needs to. Just because the client is 32 bit doesn't mean it uses only 32 bit functions or numbers for memory. So, it can and will use more memory.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people who have issues are having issuses due to not having enough memory. For example, with Vista, you would need 2GB minimum, then another 2GB+ for EU is very highly recommended.