Borderlands 2: GPU not running at 99%

Have you guys had this issue with your BL2 and NVIDIA GPU's? I have the GT650M, and am currently on 306.23 WHQL. I've noticed that for most of my games, the GPU runs at 99% steady. Here, however, in BL2, it spikes to only between 70-85%. When I pause the game, however, I get 99% while on the menu. Odd.

Any insights?

 

How well does Borderlands 2 run on your notebook?

John.

 

Well, I have it on 1920x1080, just about everything is on high, except I have 2x MSAA, no FXAA, no Ambient occlusion. I'm getting about 26-30fps when I'm in narrow, closed spaces, dips at about 20fps when there are a lot of things happening on the screen (i.e., lots of enemies) but oddly enough when I'm on wide open spaces I touch 40fps. It even does that when I simply make my character look up.

 

I have the same cpu and gpu as you, but i went for an 1600x900 screen as i find a fullhd screen makes everything too small, also games look best at native resolution, and the lower the resolution the easier it is for the gpu, I am going to order B2 myself.

It`s strange that the gpu shows the highest usage in the menu rather than during gameplay, if you had not mentioned that, i would have said maybe B2 is more cpu than gpu intensive, obviously not.

Somebody will give you a better answer than me.

John.

 

I'd give a better answer than me. Lols.

Apparently it has something to do with BL2's awesome PhysX stuff. Whenever I unpause the game, flags start floating around again, innards of enemies and rocks splash up when I fire bullets--all these take a share on the GPU's processing power. It doesn't reflect as GPU usage. That's why.

My workaround is to go into NVIDIA control panel and set the PhysX properties to use only the CPU to process physics instead of the card. Now it's smooth ~40fps with AO. That is, in my OC clocks. It hovers between 30-35fps on the turbo 970mhz.

 

So it was because PhysX was set to GPU rather than CPU that caused the percentage dip?

 

Excellent Idea, i will try that when in get my B2 +REP

John.

 

Probably. Other people use more than one GPU and let one handle PhysX alone, so I'd bet it's tasking to let a midrange mobile Kepler do everything. It now seems to run fine.

 

UPDATE: Okay now it seems that the CPU PhysX processing fix only affects the GPU load for light PhysX processing--once I start gunning down hoardes of enemies, it starts to slow down again. This is just so weird. Anybody thought of anything different?

 

Make me glad i went for the 1600x900 screen , the 1920x1080 is a bit too much for the 650M , looks like your going to have to cut back on the quality or reduce the resolution

John.

 

Yea I'm guessing the same thing, 1080p is too high of a resolution for the 650m. You either need to turn some graphics settings down or lower the resolution.

 

Well the thing is even if I cut back on the resolution AND quality, it still slows down because of PhysX (I think) even if I force it on CPU.

 

Then PhysX is the problem since it is pretty intensive. EIther you have to cut back on other settings or disable PhysX overall.

 

Put PhysX on low and see if that changes anything. Also you could try throttlestop to make sure the CPU is running full force with the dGPU active too. I know that some computers disable turbo boost when their graphics card is on.

 

@voozers, yeah, I'm considering it. Although I'm trying to find a way to selectively turn off PhysX features. I'd like to leave at least the clothings and bullet hits on, or something.

@Tyranids, I'm actually manually turning off the TurboBoost. With it on, there's still a dip on FPS when the PhysX is CPU-processed.

 

Have you tried running the free gamebooster3 , it stops system process while you game, see link below.

Game Booster 3 Free Download, Speed Up PC for Top Gaming Performance

http://download.cnet.com/Game-Booster/3000-18512_4-10913645.html

John.