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How to: CPU and GPU usage along with FPS in-game

501K views 153 replies 69 participants last post by  8051 
#1 ·
I searched this forum and couldn't find a guide on how to have both GPU usage and FPS, which is something you can have nowadays with MSI Afterburner, along with CPU usage. I read many threads of people having to Alt-Tab out of a game to go look at the Task Manager CPU usage graphs to figure out if their CPU was bottlenecking the game or not.

Well, there is a simple way to have all three, CPU, GPU and FPS (and many other parameters if you like) on-screen during your games. This is how to do it:

1. Download and install MSI Afterburner if you haven't done so already;

With Afterburner comes RivaTuner OSD Server, a standalone program that Afterburner starts and closes when you close Afterburner. For some reason you don't get to have the FPS on-screen with HWiNFO (see below) if you are running MSI Afterburner, so you need to only have RivaTuner OSD Server running. To do that you have to launch it on its own.

For ease of use you can make a shortcut to it on your desktop.

It is usually located in the following path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\Bundle\OSDServer\RTSS.exe

2. Download and install HWiNFO32 or HWiNFO64, depending on whether your OS is 32-bit or 64-bit. I tried the 32-bit version on Windows 7 64-bit, and, while it does work, the game I tested it with, RAGE, did stutter a bit, so my advice is, if you have a 64-bit OS, install the 64-bit version.

HWiNFO is a very nice program that has two functions: it acts as a CPU-Z + GPU-Z + storage information type of program, with a nice System Summary that combines the information in a very convenient way (it also has a more conventional style of presenting more information when you close that window), along with a full array of sensor readings.

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When the program starts you get to choose to go directly to, and only to, the sensors part of the program, which is what we need in this case, so check that box to make it faster:

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Now, as you can see, there is a full array of sensors and measurements:

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Although HWiNFO is showing all the parameters' readings, you can choose to monitor the ones you want by right-clicking on each item and selecting Enable or Disable Monitoring - that is the difference between the items with a red cross and the ones with a clock: the ones with the clock can be then logged to a file by clicking on the "Logging Start" button at the bottom.

You also have to enable monitoring on the ones you want to be shown in the OSD in-game.

To tell the program which readings to send to RivaTuner's OSD Server, you need to click on the "Configure" button at the bottom. BUT, before you do this, you must run the RivaTuner OSD Server program, otherwise it will show as "Not available" and the checkboxes will be grayed out.

Now that you have RivaTuner's OSD server running you can finally click on the "Configure" button and select what you want displayed in-game. Don't forget to choose the line in which you want the information displayed.

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I have selected Core #0 - #3 usage on the first line, and then GPU Core Load and GPU Memory Allocated on the second line; the FPS will be shown on Line 3. The FPS will always be the last information displayed, as it is provided by the RivaTuner OSD Server (make sure "Show own statistics" option is ON in the OSD Server). This is how it looks:

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I chose to monitor each CPU core individually instead of the Total CPU Usage for a simple reason - Total CPU Usage is a false indicative of whether your CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. In games like Crysis for example, the game engine, although capable of using four cores, is optimized for two cores, so when one or two cores reach the 90%s utilization, your GPU will be bottlenecked and your frames will drop, even if your other CPU cores are well below 50% usage.

If after checking your CPU usage you encounter one of two scenarios: one or two cores (in the case of quad cores where the game is optimized for two cores) are at 100% and your framerates and GPU usage drop when it does that, or if all cores are at 100% and your framerates and GPU usage drop likewise, you should try overclocking your CPU and see if it makes a difference. If the framerates and GPU usage increase, then you have a CPU bottleneck.

Of course, there may be other bottlenecks in your system, like your storage and / or memory subsystem or Internet connection and / or the lag to the server you're connected to in multiplayer games. It can also be a memory leak in the game that leads to seemingly unexplainable frame drops, or the simple fact that the game's executable is 32-bit and is not Large Adress Aware and so has to constantly shift data from disk to RAM if in reality it needs more than 2 GB of RAM to work smoothly at the settings you are running it.
 
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#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aregvan View Post

Yeah I have been using HWinfo, and it's such an easy tool, and has everything!
Good article, clean, and to the point!
Repd
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I fully agree, it's a great program!

Thanks!
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#5 ·
I wonder that too lol!

I haven't publicized it much though, maybe in around three threads when it could help the OP.

Perhaps everybody has Task Manager running in a second monitor lol, I don't know. But even if they do it's very useful to have all the info available in the same place. You can see the bottlenecks happening in real time while you game and start making sense of when and why your fps drops.

For example, in Crysis I hit a CPU bottleneck on the first two cores when there are too many enemies in the vicinity (A.I. intensive), it's interesting to start establishing patterns and understand the game engine's limitations.
 
#7 ·
I went to the Source you quote in your post and not even there seems to be much interest, 17 posts total. Go figure. There is actually someone there saying that while running Afterburner you don't have FPS on-screen, which I figured out how to solve
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, which basically involves not running Afterburner at all but launching RTSS (Rivatuner OSD Statistics Server) on its own and supplying the HWiNFO values directly - including the GPU values that Afterburner normally supplies to RTSS. You really don't need Afterburner unless you are overclocking the GPU. If you are and you need to use Afterburner you'll have to use FRAPS to get FPS on-screen.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by rafety58 View Post

I have asked on the forums, a while back if this was possible and nobody had a solution. Thanks for the post OP +rep
Thanks! I'm glad I can help!
 
#13 ·
Best way to log everything during game/app sessions is Aida64 (formerly Everest).

It can log everything from temps to speeds/multipliers, RAM use, Vid Ram use etc. etc.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mumak View Post

Hi guys, I'm the author of HWiNFO and recently I came across this thread. So I decided to join this forum to help people with HWiNFO and listen to their thoughts. Do you think there would be interest if I'd open a HWiNFO thread here ?
Thanks for such an awesome software!
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I would be interested.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Accuracy158 View Post

Actually this is new to me +rep... I knew there were programs for doing it but I quick google search didn't help me much.
Thanks!
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Yeah, I created this thread because I couldn't find information on how to do this readily available either. Someone told me a few months ago (thanks to whoever it was, I can't remember where it was) about HWiNFO and then I went I learned how to use it to get the results I wanted.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mumak View Post

Hi guys, I'm the author of HWiNFO and recently I came across this thread. So I decided to join this forum to help people with HWiNFO and listen to their thoughts. Do you think there would be interest if I'd open a HWiNFO thread here ?
Hi Mumak, welcome to OCN! And, of course, congratulations and many thanks for the fine piece of software you created! It would be very interesting if you could come around and see what people are saying about it, definitely. I created this thread around two weeks ago and have been telling people about it whenever it can help, so it can get interesting when more people start using it and providing feedback.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2thAche View Post

Best way to log everything during game/app sessions is Aida64 (formerly Everest).
It can log everything from temps to speeds/multipliers, RAM use, Vid Ram use etc. etc.
I've never used AIDA64 so I can't comment on that. Then again, I've never paid the $39.95 they ask for the least expensive edition.

HWiNFO, on the other hand, is Freeware, so kudos to Mumak!
 
#19 ·
Gonna replace my aging version of RivaTuner with this combo for all the monitoring needs.

Thanks for the guide.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpi2007 View Post

I've never used AIDA64 so I can't comment on that. Then again, I've never paid the $39.95 they ask for the least expensive edition.
HWiNFO, on the other hand, is Freeware, so kudos to Mumak!
It's the most useful tool I've ever found. $40 is less than a new game, and I've been using this prog for years (since it was Everest). How many games do you play for years? It's less than I'd spend on dinner for two, a tank of gas or a concert or sports ticket. I've used it on countless machines and can't imagine overclocking without it.

$40 was worth every penny.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BritishBob View Post

Must rember this... MSI is good and all but not knowing my cpu is annoying. Ty.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eugenekrabs View Post

This is awsome
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Thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2thAche View Post

It's the most useful tool I've ever found. $40 is less than a new game, and I've been using this prog for years (since it was Everest). How many games do you play for years? It's less than I'd spend on dinner for two, a tank of gas or a concert or sports ticket. I've used it on countless machines and can't imagine overclocking without it.
$40 was worth every penny.
What about HWiNFO ? Have you tried it ? What do you think of it compared to AIDA64 ?
 
#25 ·
Hi,

i7 2600K HT on @ 4.3 all cores
gtx 670 SLI
8 gigs ram @ 1866
P8P67 mobo

I have GPU usage issues as well. I installed the monitoring software and here is my observations.

Map: Strike at Karkand

CPU usage across the board (all 8 threads) was between 40-70%, usually around 50-60% on all 8.

GPU usage for each GPU was about 50-60%

Framerate, 58-70FPS

This leads me to think that our issue is with this game and not out hardware. I had these same GPU usage problems with BFBC2 and gtx 570 SLI. It was the same thing, low GPU usage despite having a blazing fast CPU. So there you have it. I am sadened by this very much as I was hoping these problems would have been fixed with the gtx 600 series, but I was wrong. They are still here and it seems we can't do anything to fix it. The problem seems to be with BF3 simply sucking ass at utilizing multiple GPU setups. If anyone has found a solution to this or a way to improve it, please do share.
 
#26 ·
Thanks for making this. I do have a question *noob incoming* GPU Utilization monitors the load on the GPU correct?

Main reason I'm getting this is because I just got Arma 2 and it's wrecking my system specifically multiplayer but I hear that has to do with the coding so yeah. But either way this is very useful in game always nice to know you can see whats going on in game!
 
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