CPU Upgrade for Witcher 2?????

From all the chatter on the Internet, I'm well aware that The Witcher 2 is very demanding, so I realize my old 9262 will never run it on highest settings. However, I'm beginning to think that a CPU upgrade would help quite a bit with this game and, perhaps, help me nurse another year or two out of this wonderful machine for other games. I'm no guru and I could be completely wrong about the advantage of a better CPU, so I'm hoping you guys will take a look at the measurements I've taken and let me know if you think I'm right or wrong.

The following in-game measurements were made using resolution/quality settings that yield 30FPS or better everywhere in the game. I used Fraps, Windows Task Manager, and the latest GPU-Z for the measurements.

FPS=31

CPU=82% (per core)

GPU=61% (per card)

VRAM=208MB (per card, 512 total per card)

VRAM Controller=15%

I've made many other measurements under widely different circumstances and they all indicate the same thing, that the CPU is very busy while the GPU is not. In all other games I've measured, the reverse is true; the GPU is nearly pegged while the CPU is loafing. As an example, Dragon Age 2 runs the GPU at 90% while the CPU is at 60%. I should note, though, that DA2's VRAM demand is about 15% lower than TW2.

So, what do you think? Is the CPU seriously slowing me down, or is there a bottle neck somewhere else? If, as I've read, TW2 effectively uses multi-core CPU's, do you think a Q9650 or a Q9550S (I like the low TDP) would help me out?

Thanks....

 

What resolution and settings are you getting these results?

 

I'm running with 460M SLI but can still only get ~30 FPS on medium settings.. Unless I overclock. haven't tried the new driver but I will later.

 

Buying yourself a cheap Core 2 Quad is a worthy investment.

 

I believe that measurement was at 1360x768. I've tried about all resolutions/settings and always get that same "high CPU-low GPU" result, but with varying FPS of course.

Custom settings ranged from low to high as follows:

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=1024
MaxAtlasTextureSize=2048
TextureMemoryBudget=500
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=512
MaxCubeShadowCount=2
MaxSpotShadowSize=512
MaxSpotShadowCount=2
FoliageDistanceScale=0.9
MeshDistanceScale=0.9
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=0
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=0
AllowBlur=0
AllowDOF=0
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=0
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=0
AllowMotionBlur=0
AllowScatterDOF=0
AllowCutsceneDOF=0
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=2
ShadowedLights=2
Fullscreen=1
VSync=0
UberSampling=0

 

lol ubersampling.. wish i could do that

 

I am running the 560m at 1080p with a hybrid between medium and high settings, edging towards high. So I would assume that if you have the 460m SLI, that it would be the CPU problem.... You could download the 3dmark 11 and watch it. If you do really well on the GPU tests and poorly on the CPU tests, then that should answer your problem..

 

I think a Q9650 is likely to help you out and it is a worthy investment regardless. However, I recommend you go over to the GOG forums where the Witcher 2 game devs hang out and ask them directly.

 

Try using Playclaw as an overlay, and enabling the GPU and CPU overlays, with temp, load and frame buffer load per GPU, and temp and load per-core for CPU. Run Witcher 2, check real-time what your loads are, then determine from that what you want to do. It's very helpful for seeing how much a game is using of your hardware. Most 3D games max out 100% GPU load for me, with a ~50% frame buffer load. If your GPUs are using less, then they're not being optimized properly I believe.

 

For what it's worth...

I "upgraded" to a q9550S and:

Total CPU utilization dropped as expected.

FPS didn't change.

GPU utilization didn't improve.

So, all-in-all, a costly experiment that didn't quite work out. (WPrime sure runs fast now, but that's not all that fun to watch. )

The GPU utilization thing has me baffled since, in all other games I've played, it runs near 100%. Anyone have any idea what causes this?

 

I take it you didn't ask the Devs of the game on the Gog forum. Make sure you don't have Nvidia 3D installed.

 

No luck on GOG, Steam forums or any other source. This "problem" seems to be quite common in other games as well, but I haven't found a good explanation for it.

No 3D installed.