I need some help understanding what HWiNFO64 is telling me.

[RackMonkey]

I monitor GPU and CPU usage, and during a normal session the GPU is always at 99% usage while the 12 cores of the i5-11600 averages about 45%. This is the normal situation for both ST and MT versions of DCS. 

My problem understanding is that everything I have read, watched and my on instinct tells me that I should be CPU bottlenecked. And if I am CPU bottlenecked, my GPU should be far less utilized while waiting for the CPU to feed it. 

Looking at this without really thinking about it I would assume that I should upgrade my GPU first, but I am sure that a 4090's need for data would suck my little i5 dry like a $1000 a night Vegas hooker. Am I looking at the wrong metric for the CPU? The GPU? Is HWiNFO64 the wrong monitoring software for what I am trying to find out?  Somebody please put me on the correct path to enlightenment.

Edited May 7, 2023 by RackMonkey

[CptBligh]

If GPU is 99% loaded then it is the bottleneck.  A multicore CPU will likely never read 100% outside of rendering or something like that which can fully load all of your cores/threads.

 

ETA: Just as an example that can be CPU single thread bottlenecked.  A single threaded app on a quad core CPU can be CPU limited with a CPU usage level of 25%.  But if CPU limited your GPU usage would be lower.  GPU at 99% is the tell really.

Edited May 7, 2023 by CptBligh

[Dragon1-1]

You should definitely upgrade GPU first, if only to get off AMD. From what I've heard, they're particularly bad at doing VR. You're unlikely to be CPU bottlenecked, particularly in the MT build. VR will put a lot more load on the GPU than flying on a screen (remember, in DX11 the whole scene gets rendered twice), which is probably why you're not getting the numbers you're expecting.

[RackMonkey]

I thought that it would be GPU first. I just find it amazing that the 4090 could be beat up so badly with all the hype of how powerful it is.

A friend let me borrow his 4090 for a week and I thought I was doing something wrong when the thing was stuck at 99% usage and my little old i5 was just jogging along without a care in the world . It's going to be hard to part with $1850 for a 4090 knowing that it's still not enough GPU to satisfy DCS.

[CptBligh]

I'll wait until the 5000 series comes out and/or hope for Vulkan improvements myself.  Can't justify dumping thousands of $s into this sim and its poor performance every year considering 5 year ago I was getting decent performance out of a 1080ti when the F18 released.

[RackMonkey]

How much is the 5K gonna be and how long are you going to have to wait?