I’ve got an 8700k @ 5GHz and noticed recently that only one core is really being used when I play D3. Core 8 is pegged at 85-95% while all the other cores are at 10% or less. All other games I play use multiple/all and I’ve checked any power management or process affinity settings, but nothings stopping D3 from using as many cores as it wants. Just wondering if I’m alone or if this is normal for others.
Its a pretty old game bro. It does use a lot of gpu horsepower if you have a decent card (zero lag).
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Yeah, it won’t use more than 1 or 2 cores, depending on the CPU architecture.
32 vs 64 bit game engine doesn’t matter either. The only thing 64bit did was allow the game to access more than 3.5GB of memory.
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Working as intended. D3 runs minimum specs.
Back when the freezing issue was still live I even set my cpu to only use one core. This actually helped with performance during the issue.
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Ya, that’s why I’m asking if it’s normal for others. Figure its just an old game engine thing. Running a 3090 so it’s not the GPU. The GPU usage is around 30-40% too, which would tell me I have a CPU bottleneck but I’m running at 4k resolution and the CPU isn’t being used so I got no clue. At the end of the day it’s not a big deal (First-world problems). Just curious.
Game isn’t that GPU demanding. You could run the game on a modern CPU with integrated graphics and it would play decently.
I’m running it on a 1660 with settings maxed and FPS capped to 60 (don’t need that game to go higher) and its glass butter smooth and hardly taxes the card.
Overwatch on the other hand hammers the card a lot more.
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Thanks for all the replys everyone. Glad to know it’s not my rig. Hopefully D4 uses more of the hardware!
I’d like that too. Problem is blizzard does that so more players can afford to play their games. If their games required a 10 or 20 series gpu that would eliminate alot of customers. Same goes for cpus. Overtime they have progressed with minimum specs they usually are years behind intentionally. Heck I’m still running a gtx 960 and it hovers around 60% usage.
Kind of normal for older games.
If you want to test your gpu try 4 players, max everything.
You are not alone!
I’ve built multiple PCs for D3 launch for family and friends only to struggle with the D3 gane engine performance limitations for a decade now.
The RoS expansion brought 64bit and dx11 or 10 (forgot) yet the game hangs horribly in group play due to improper cpu utilization.
The best thing we can do is to lower the hardware class in the preferences file to 1 from 4, set priority to High, and limit the cpu cores affinity to 3 physical cores or less, lowest sound channels, audio as stereo instead of default.
Basically everything to minimize the CPU usage for this underdeveloped proprietary game engine they shouldn’t have used.
Those few steps dramatically improved performance on old and new setups.
Hopefully it works for you!
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That sounds like overkill.
I don’t have to do anything to my systems. What are you running it on that would require that many shenanigans to make it work better?
Pretty much any generation of i3, i5, i7 etc can carry this game. And you could get by on older video cards with the older gens, and literally run the game on the integrated graphics somewhat decent with the newer generation chips.
The biggest issue to run into with would be:
- Low clock speed CPUs.
- CPUs with slower memory. (higher end DDR2/lower end DDR3)
- Less than 8GB of memory.
- Older SATA based HDD instead of anything SSD.
- Low end graphics cards. (sub xx50 in nVidia for example or older integrated video)
I literally installed this game onto a 4th gen i5 Lenovo flex with integrated graphics and even IT can run this game, albeit at around 20-30FPS.
But with my main two systems, they run perfectly fine. One has the i7 2nd gen with 32GB of DDR3 and an nVidia 980, the other has a 7th gen i5 with 32GB of DDR4 memory and an nVidia 1660.
And I had been using a first gen i7 with triple buffer memory DDR2 12GB with RAID 0 Raptor drives with an nVidia 670 card and IT played the game just fine.
So…
Not sure why all the changes are needed unless you are trying to make a potato play the game.
Ah, the good ol subjective gaming experience of what is considered acceptable.
I guarantee that you are not maintaining 120fps in 4man speed or meta groups regardless of the setup at 4k or even 2k resolutions. 1080p possibly yet the game engine will still dip.
I happen to be running an 11th gen i7 with a rtx3080ti, and my fps dips periodically in groups down to 60fps, even less at times.
The latest call of duty runs great on my godlike PC and maintains avove 120fps, which is what I consider good at 2k resolution, on a gsync monitor.
The goal is to maintain high fps too pair with a gsync monitor, yet D3 just cant hang therefor the above tweaks I mentioned drastically increase FPS to accommodate higher refreshing setups. Give it a try, and run some benchmarks, youll be astonished!
Why the hell would I?
Most of the player base don’t have 4K monitors, and the game doesn’t need to run above 60FPS either.
*facepalm
The only time I ever ran the game hard was when I had a Dell XPS laptop with built in 3D glasses support, and ran it at 120Hz for the glasses.
Still played smooth. And that was an older i7 with a GTX 550TI…
That’s most certainly due to server issues, not the computer. I have no problem maintaining my monitor’s top refresh rate of 165 fps. But then again, I play solo. If you open up your resources tab, see what happens to cpu utilization when those slowdowns occur. Chances are, cpu utilization drops, indicating the computer isn’t the cause of the slowdown.
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Groups at high GRs are notorious for problems. But most of it is server side.
Too many calculations going on, larger damage numbers, etc.
Your computer literally ends up waiting on data to arrive. Most players know that even when that is going on, they keep putting in input knowing the server is still calculating things. Eventually it catches up but its not the machine you are on that is causing the issue in those specific cases. And it varies from player to player, depending on their internet connection distance, those in the group with them, region, etc. Not to mention traffic at any given moment.
Sure, a higher performance machine might handle it better than a lower performance one, but it happens.
Doesn’t need to but 144 is buttery smooth compared to 60. I didn’t believe it would make a difference but watching mine at 60 and the wifes at 144 made me a believer because mine looked like a stuttery mess by comparison.
Sadly I have done both. Wasn’t any smoother for me at 144FPS than it was at 60FPS. And I have a 144 vsync monitor. I use it run OW, and THAT does have a difference that you can see.
But no two computers are the same, and everyone has different monitors and cards, etc.
My main point here though still stands. Subpar systems can run this game just fine.
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That’s a given. Blizzard specifically designs games to run on lower end systems. Maybe not ways the best settings but at launch a 5 year old system can handle a nee Blizzard game just fine.
Um, what? Lol
2k is the sweet dpot, 4k will eventually become if not already the new standard.
60fps is already outdated.
The D3 devs specifically told us they would allow higher refresh rates with the RoS expansion alongside 64bit.
A solo player at 1080p most likely won’t need to tweak anything, but the stutters and spikes aren’t resolution dependant.
Its the funky game engine mixed in with funky servers. A decade later and it still cant maintain solid fps in group play hence why my tweaks/suggestions help.
No one is forcing anyone to try it, yet given the wonky game engine, this is all we have to maximize smoothness in an unsmooth game. Everyone that has tried it noticed an fps increase, potato or godlike machine. If fps is the goal, try it! I am only trying to help
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