When I run "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor", the GPU usage constantly fluctuates between 64% and 100%, which sometimes doesn't affect in-game framerate, but there are times, when the game will start stuttering (that includes both audio and video) or freeze for a couple of seconds, while audio playback continues, and then unfreeze again. I've set all settings (including Texture Quality, which requires 3 GB VRAM) to High and have enabled FXAA and Camera in the Anti-Aliasing/Motion Blur tab, as well as the options Depth of Field, Order Transparent Independency and Tessellation. Also, the Core Clock frequently drops from 945 MHz to 920 MHz. I've been monitoring the Memory usage for my last couple of benchmarks and not once did it exceed ~1700 MB, so I don't really see the reason the game is performing like this (with stuttering and freezes/hangs). The game runs really well actually (for instance, in Udun the framerate pretty much never drops below 50 FPS and normally stays between 55 - 65 FPS. Any ideas what might be causing this? Currently using Catalyst 15.7.1. OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
It sounds like you are running out of VRAM. It has been a while since i last played this game, but if i remember correctly high textures requires more than 2GB. Maybe not all the time, but at those moments that the game needs more it will start to stutter and freeze like hell and your FPS will drop into the single digits. Try to play the game with medium textures and see if the game still stutters. If not, then you have found your problem.
Yes, the High textures do require 3 GB VRAM, but like I said, I've been monitoring the Memory usage with High textures enabled and it doesn't exceed ~1700 MB.
Did you use the ingame benchmark to test your VRAM usage? If so, benchmarks don't always match real ingame performance. I would actually be suprised if the game doesn't use at least 2GB of VRAM at some point in the game with high textures and 1080P, but i could be wrong of course. It's up to you if you want to test it or not, but to rule out VRAM you can lower the texture quality to medium.
I haven't used the in-game benchmark to test the game - I went through a couple of game sessions (only in Udun for now).
At those moments your game starts to stutter. Are there any anomalies? Does the GPU Usage drop at those moments? How is your FPS? Does Your VRAM increase? Are your CPU cores maxed out? etc. It sounded like a VRAM problem to me, because i only have those symptoms if i'm running out of VRAM That's why i came up with it. But if you never use more than 1700MB (assuming the software that you are monitoring your VRAM usage with works correctly), lack of VRAM couldn't really be the problem. I'm just trying to help here and i'm by no means an expert, so maybe somebody else knows what's going on
Did you try setting powerlimit to 20+%? When I was testing powertune on 280x (so GCN 1.0) I noticed that power throttling would occur causing load changes between power states at 64% and 99%.
I used MSI Afterburner to monitor Memory usage. That did it for me. Now GPU usage never drops below 99%. Thanks!
