[FIXED] Excessive GPU usage leading to unusable performance

[RegenerationItawa]

Hi Folks, I hope that you can advise.

I've just picked up C:MO on Steam and I've been enjoying the platform as best I can. However, it's not been a particularly smooth experience so far. There seems to be an excessive GPU load (even when idle on the Start Menu), meaning scenarios with even 18AU grind to a halt. The game time at 1x runs at perhaps 1s game time to 2-3s actual, and during engagements is much worse and 10-15s can pass without any update or ability to accept input on the map or UI. TacView is completely unusable at 2-5fps - so I'm ignoring this for now as TacView appears to work fine with other applications.

Turning all of the overlays off (so it's a black map aside from units) improves things somewhat, so it's 1s game time to 1.5-2s actual.

Here's my specs for reference:

Intel i9 12900T @ 4.9GHz
64GB DDR5 @ 4800MHz
Intel UHD 770
1TB NVMe Gen4 <-- Install location
1TB NVMe Gen4
4TB SATA SSD

1200Mbps Internet connection

2x Monitors at 2560x1080 @ 60Hz (reduced from 200Hz to see if it helped. No luck)

Command: Modern Operations v1.06 Build 1328.9
Windows 11 Professional, fully updated
Latest Intel Graphics Driver
Updated BIOS

I've done many of the Air and Submarine tutorials, but I'm currently attempting to start a scenario proper and it's just unworkable at the moment. I have no save file to present to you as I'm using the default out of the box preferences and I get the same performance on any of the pre-made scenarios or tutorials in the base game. And like I say, the second I hit the Start Menu screen on boot, the GPU is pinned to 97-100% usage until the game is closed. CPU sits around 3% usage in a scenario with 5-20AU and C:MO memory usage is about 2300MB when it's struggling.

I understand that this isn't a 'gaming PC'. But this machine can run things like Far Cry 6, Elden Ring, GTAV, CyberPunk 2077 - and while obviously not 4K 120fps Ultra - playable, and considerably more visually taxing.

I feel like the issue is not the capability of the integrated graphics, especially as I'm not doing anything demanding, but something to do with the rendering of the map through Intel hardware, as I have a friend playing on a much older Radeon integrated graphics setup just fine. His performance far outmatches mine - in fact he's able to record video with GPU encoding on the same device while playing.

Happy to take suggestions or provide more info. Tried to be as descriptive as possible.

Cheers,

Iwata.

[Nikel]

Probably is related to your Intel graphic card as you are thinking.

The 64-bits version needs a dedicated graphic card, nVidia, AMD.

You should try the 32-bits version, now is considered as beta or legacy:

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/v ... -C531-AFA3

[Dimitris]

Let's go through the usual suspects:
* Is the OS fully updated? Graphics drivers updated? Direct-X 11 installed?
* Is Command running as admin? (ie. prompting you "are you sure you want to run this program" when you launch it)
* (Steam only) Are Steam overlays disabled for Command?
* (Steam only) Is Direct-Write disabled on the Steam client?
* Are all other applications (and especially hardware-helper apps like RivaTuner, Nahimic, MSI Afterburner etc.) shut down?
* Are you using a high-DPI desktop? (ie. font size >100%)
* Are you using Norton antivirus? (This POS is very frequently silently blocking file updates)

[DmitriyBlade]

also make sure that it boost to 3D frequency like in pure 3D game/application,
and don't using idle (2D) clocks during CMO gameplay somehow

Something like this:
Right click desktop>Graphics Properties (Intel)>Power>High Performance
check in intel HD menu, add application profit > Command.exe > Maximum perfomance

Try install
Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU)https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... l-xtu.html
and raise GPU power limits up

also try overclock your integrated GPU, might help,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8YDnJ6VSFU

[RegenerationItawa]

Hi Dimitris, thanks for this.
To answer your questions:

Let's go through the usual suspects:
* Is the OS fully updated? Graphics drivers updated? Direct-X 11 installed?

All fully updated, restarted etc. Latest version of DX is installed.

* Is Command running as admin? (ie. prompting you "are you sure you want to run this program" when you launch it)

I've forced the application to run as administrator now

* (Steam only) Are Steam overlays disabled for Command?

I've already got these disabled for other compatibility issues in older games

* (Steam only) Is Direct-Write disabled on the Steam client?

As far as I know, the Steam client no longer gives this as an option - I'm not sure if it needs to be set in a config file, or shortcut argument, but I'm pretty sure it's no longer an option in the gui as far as I can see.

* Are all other applications (and especially hardware-helper apps like RivaTuner, Nahimic, MSI Afterburner etc.) shut down?
I'm running a very lightweight, dedicated setup for Dangerous Waters, Cold Waters, Silent Hunter 3/4/5 etc. and there's nothing else installed except Steam, those games, drivers, DirectX and Command: Modern Operations.

* Are you using a high-DPI desktop? (ie. font size >100%)

Scaling is set to 100%

* Are you using Norton antivirus? (This POS is very frequently silently blocking file updates)

I'm just using Windows Defender.

The performance still appears to be the same. It was mentioned above that the 32 bit version might fare better, as the system requirements show that the 32 bit version doesn't require a dedicated GPU. Is there any way to switch to this version? I understand this will be RAM limited. I changed Steam to the Beta channel, but couldn't see any beta version to change to.

Any further guidance would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Iwata.

[thewood1]

Screenshot 2023-09-18 173935.jpg (99.77 KiB) Viewed 2415 times

[RegenerationItawa]

Screenshot 2023-09-18 173935.jpg

Found it, thank you. That's perfect.

I'll give it a whirl today and see how it goes.

[RegenerationItawa]

Ok, so the 32 bit version ran perfectly for about 15 minutes, then crashed with an out of memory exception (this appears to be a bug people mention is fixed in v1.06 from what I've read).

1.5GB RAM and 20% GPU usage. It also only used a handful of the 24 threads available - but I suspect this is to do with how the 32 build can address compute units. It does 1:1 realtime speed. I'm using the scenario First Contact (2016) as a direct comparison. Even when paused and scrolling in/out and traversing the map, things load in much quicker, there's no occasional waits while it loads in the map. The Start Menu screen doesn't jump to 100% GPU usage upon opening. TacView runs ok alongside.

Unfortunately it's way back on v1.05 so it's missing the great new features from v1.06. I'm assuming as it's considered legacy, this is never getting updated in the future.

So it seems likely it's either a bug in the jump to 64bit architecture, or something to do with the new DX11 rendering update - at a guess.

It would be good to see what support comes back with as I'll need to look to getting a refund if the 32 bit version is going to be discontinued and there's no fix for the 64 bt version, or a way to change renderer like most games. At the moment it's doing very little with an awful lot of resources.

Any further assistance is appreciated.

Iwata

[Nikel]

It is related with the Dx 11 rendering update.

Before that, CMO performance was CPU dependent.

Now it is also GPU and you need a dedicated graphic card.

The name legacy says it all for the 32-bits version, unfortunately.


If I were you, I would wait for Dimitris' official answer, not playing anymore (AFAIK there is a limit in hours played), if you plan to refund and not to buy a graphic card.

[RegenerationItawa]

Yeah, frustrating, but it’s out of my hands.

It’s possible it’ll be optimised in the future as the actual graphics performance is still very poor. I tried it on a system with a GTX 1080Ti and an RTX 2060, and both of those are also being rather saturated for what they’re actually doing.

I will stop troubleshooting. I’m already way past the hours played limit Steam enforce as I’ve been trying to troubleshoot and learn the game at the same time (I can’t know what it’s meant to do/run like if I don’t know how it works). I’m sure I can point to this thread and the fact the game is very complex, requiring more time investment. I’m sure they’ll understand.

I’m glad I didn’t pull the trigger on all of the DLC at the same time as I was tempted to with it being on offer. I may still do if we can get to the bottom of this though

[Nikel]

Could be, he said Sentinel-2 map layer was reverting to the previous version.

Though I do not know what it means or whether it is the cause of the higher GPU requirements.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 4#p5122344


But the devs are busy right now at Rome with the pro users

https://www.matrixgames.com/amazon/Uplo ... pdated.pdf

[thewood1]

I have a 3080 on a laptop and experiencing no issues on 64-bit version. I also a a 3050 that runs it without issue. On the 3050 laptop, GPU usage is 11% with Sentinel 2. So there is something going on with your system.

[FifthDomain]

Might be worth checking Windows Defender is not blocking folder access. I had that as a problem just can't remember which problem it was.

[RegenerationItawa]

I have a 3080 on a laptop and experiencing no issues on 64-bit version. I also a a 3050 that runs it without issue. On the 3050 laptop, GPU usage is 11% with Sentinel 2. So there is something going on with your system.

While I appreciate you taking the time to reply, suggesting that one one of the most powerful GPUs on the market is having no issues and 'only' using 11% is probably doing more to support my argument that there's an issue with the 64 bit release than not, especially as the 32 bit version only uses 20% on my integrated GPU with Sentinel. I have a laptop with a 2060 to hand which sits around 50% on 64 bit and a desktop with a 1080Ti which sits around 70% on 64 bit. Unless they've moved the simulation compute to the GPU, which is unlikely. It doesn't really add up.

The system requirements state that a DX9c compatible card is the minimum, and a 1030 or equivalent is recommended. Not required. Ordinarily when dealing with system requirements you'd expect that if your specification was greater than the minimum and equal to or less than the recommended spec, you shouldn't have an issue. And such has it been for the last 30 years.

At the moment it appears that the minimum spec has been dropped and is no longer supported as of v1.05 and the new minimum requirement is a 1030 or greater. Which is of course, misleading.

[RegenerationItawa]

Might be worth checking Windows Defender is not blocking folder access. I had that as a problem just can't remember which problem it was.

I'll be sure to have a look. Nothing explicitly reporting, but I'll see what I can do.

[RegenerationItawa]

Ok. An update. I've done some more testing.

It's almost certainly an issue with the new map renderer, and possibly how the map tiles are stored, fetched, or cached.
None of the game preferences make any difference to the performace, only map layers, zoom level, and coodinates.

I've reinstalled the whole lot, made sure the map cache is clear etc.

Once into a scenario. Lets do First Contact (2016) for consistency. Game is PAUSED
The scenario defaults are:

Base Earth
Sentinel-2 satellite map
BMNG Layer
Borders and Coastlines
Placenames

Camera is at 877915m

[ON THE 64 BIT VERSION...]

CPU usage is 10% - stays the same throughout this test
GPU usage is 100%
RAM usage is 2268 MB

At this zoom level, switching Borders + Coastlines OFF brings the GPU usage to 85%

Turning BMNG Layer OFF brings the GPU usage down to 47%

Turning Sentinel-2 satellite map layer OFF brings the GPU usage to 4% (black screen except units).

Placenames make no difference.

[ON THE 32 BIT VERSION...]

CPU usage is 12% - stays the same throughout this test
GPU usage is 25%
RAM usage is 1316 MB

At this zoom level, switching Borders + Coastlines OFF brings the GPU usage to 13%

Turning BMNG Layer OFF brings the GPU usage down to 11%

Turning Sentinel-2 satellite map layer OFF brings the GPU usage to 9% (black screen except units).

Placenames make no difference.

So first of all, I'm fine with the 64 bit version using more memory, that's usually a given. However you can see the very obviously difference between the versions in terms of actual performance. Getting map tiles loaded into memory doesn't seem to help, so a good old zoom in/out around the area of operations, doesn't really help any. However, I've noticed that at around 333000m the GPU usage drops from 100% to 65%. One scroll click of the mouse in either direction and it's back up to 100% - it is however reliably reproducable. I'm guessing it's the point where only one tileset is loaded instead of two?

I'm not sure what to do with this information, but I'm hoping the good folks in support can use it.

Cheers,

Iwata.

[thewood1]

There is definitely something broken in your system when it comes to CMO. I took this pic of my Task Manager with a large scenario running at 15x and you can see the max usage of the GPU is 30%, but seems to sit around 20% or so. See if you can grab a similar pic from the Performance tab in Task Manager.

Screenshot 2023-09-19 162721.jpg (866.51 KiB) Viewed 2238 times

[RegenerationItawa]

That looks an awful lot like you're saying if I use the 32 bit version I'll get the same performance as a $2000 video card running the 64 bit version.

I mean that's not a proper 4090, but it's still not comparing apples to apples is it?

[FifthDomain]

Might be worth checking Windows Defender is not blocking folder access. I had that as a problem just can't remember which problem it was.

I'll be sure to have a look. Nothing explicitly reporting, but I'll see what I can do.

I got no warnings with mine an update switched something on and it blocked it as protected memory access. It was in Protection History and came up as Protected memory access blocked. Might not help but worth checking, i just can't remember which problem it solved for me.

[RegenerationItawa]

Might be worth checking Windows Defender is not blocking folder access. I had that as a problem just can't remember which problem it was.

I'll be sure to have a look. Nothing explicitly reporting, but I'll see what I can do.

I got no warnings with mine an update switched something on and it blocked it as protected memory access. It was in Protection History and came up as Protected memory access blocked. Might not help but worth checking, i just can't remember which problem it solved for me.

Thanks for this, it's most helpful. I've put exceptions in for all of the game files but this particular issue persists, it may howver help eliminate any others, so it's worth doing.