Why is Sniper Elite 4 using so much power?

[davemon50]

I've got a question for those of you who play in Crossfire mode, or know something about it. I've never had this happen in any games before, even those that run Crossfire on Ultra or high end settings. Only this one, Sniper Elite 4.

Whenever I run it, the Crossfire mode ramps up my system to a whopping 900W in power. I have a 1250W PSU on the system so that can handle it. Also my CPU temps never get high so cooling is fine. What happens is the GPU's are gobbling up massive resources to run this game. It's basically the same in Ultra mode or High settings, and I've played around with lowering other settings but the power still gets up there. I know it's the Crossfire mode because when I force the game to operate without it, then the systems run at around 550 Watts, which actually is still high anyway, but it runs there.

When I hit 900 Watts, my battery backup goes nuts because it's a 1500VA (900 Watt) UPS. That's the high end and it switches on and off, cutting off the game.

You can see my system on my specs. The cards are AMD Radeon R9 Fury (by Sapphire). I have tried the Radeon settings adjustments, and also tried using Wattman (AMD overclocking utility) to regulate the card power to actually -50%. Still does the same thing. Maybe I'm not setting up the Wattman correctly? Anyone use it and know how?

I'd like to run it in Crossfire if I can. Any advice out there from you professional gamers? I have never seen such massive power consumption from a game using Crossfire.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Sniper Elite 4 is one of the few games that is genuinely optimized for multi GPU...it genuinely uses both cards in SLI or XFire to their full potential. Basically it is what we all wanted and dreamed SLI/Xfire was going to be...just as both SLI and XFire are going obsolete :rolleyes:

[davemon50]

Hmm, sounds like it might be on purpose then to use that magnitude of power. Any idea how I can get Wattman to limit power more, or do you have any idea if I'm doing something wrong? I go to the profile for the game, click on each card for Wattman, scroll down to the spot where the power slider exists (at the bottom), and slide it as far as I can to the left which is -50%, then click apply. When I go back, it clearly has stuck there. Still when I run that profile it powers up to 900W again. I tried FPS control also, controlling to 60 fps, but similar results. Maybe I should try it at 10 or 15 fps just to see if the settings are actually working, don't know what else to try.

Another thought: should I play around in Wattman lowering the voltage limits to the cards?

[Arne_Saknussemm]

I have never used Wattman...I was always an SLI user rather than AMD cards...I just know Sniper elite had near 100% scaling and liked power on AMD cards...you running Dx12?

[davemon50]

Yeah.

[davemon50]

OK, after messing around with it I was finally able to get Wattman to limit the power correctly. That part was user error, like these things normally are. However, there are some limits to the DX12 so I decided to run DX11 settings.

I am now playing on Ultra mode, Crossfire, and able to limit the power to keep it below 850 Watts. I had to limit it by around 25-30%. Game plays great though.

I'm going to try DX12 again, but I don't like that it doesn't show the Crossfire logo in DX12, even though I'm pretty sure it's using both cards.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

davemon50 wrote:
even though I'm pretty sure it's using both cards.

At 900W it's pretty definite it's using both 😉

[davemon50]

Yeah I put up my UPS window on the second monitor so I can view the realtime power usage going to the UPS. It's interesting to see how the power of the two cards modulates during cutscenes and certain actvities in the game. There are a bunch of scenes where the character hides in the tall weeds, and the graphics are so intense you can see the power usage peak while you hide there and zoom in. Then on other scenes it drops significantly. But most definitely it's using both cards when I tell it to. Just wish it would show me the Crossfire logo when using DX12. I have read on other forums that's just the way it is, same for others as well.

This is a cool game BTW. I've never played any of the Sniper Elite series before.

[davemon50]

Been working fine ever since I figured out how to use wattman correctly. And now I have no time for forums. 😄

[Silent_Scone]

SE4 is a good game, especially tough on authentic mode. Recently picked it up for as little as £4. It's very well optimized for MGPU from both GPU vendors, so it doesn't surprise me you're seeing peak power draw whilst playing it.