Sudden FPS drop to unplayable levels after reinstall!

[lautzki 0]

I know these FPS drops are quite common, but this is quite strange. Everything was fine until I reinstalled Windows and DayZ. Now I get 5 FPS everywhere and it's basically unplayable.

 

Before reinstalling, I had DayZ installed on a MBR-scheme hard drive with Windows 7 64-bit. I thought it's time to move on and finally purchased a Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB SSD. I installed the same Windows on it in UEFI mode (GPT-style). Now, in DayZ, even with the same settings as before, I'm getting massive FPS drops everywhere. Only when I look at the floor the FPS is fine.

 

As I played, I ran HWMonitor in the background, and it seems that DayZ isn't fully utilizing the CPU and GPU. The CPU temps only rise to 40 (which is very weird on an overclocked CPU, normally goes up to 60 when gaming) and the GPU temp rises to 50c (very weird also, normal gaming temp around 70). Also, the GPU fan didn't go past 28%, normal value is around 50% when gaming. What is this sorcery?

 

Note: I also got a new, faster internet connection yesterday. On the same day, the internet provider had to deal with a fatal malfunction that affected the whole country (Finland), resulting in millions of people without internet. However, I tried to play after the majority of the provider's problems had been resolved.

 

Solutions I have tried:

1. Reinstall GPU drivers

2. Try different graphical settings in game

3. Check integrity of DayZ game files

 

Specs:

Intel i5-4670K @ 4 GHz

8GB-1600 DDR3

Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR3

Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB SSD

 

What do? I hope the preliminary information I gave is adequate.

Edited November 27, 2014 by lautzki

[Estevacio 62]

Hello man!

Do you have onboard gpu??

[gqren 49]

Are you sure the game is running on the dedicated GPU and not on the i-core CPU/GPU? I only have experience with NVidia regarding this, but it has happened a few times for me.

[lautzki 0]

Hello man!

Do you have onboard gpu??

 

Yes, I have both integrated and discrete graphics.

 

Are you sure the game is running on the dedicated GPU and not on the i-core CPU/GPU? I only have experience with NVidia regarding this, but it has happened a few times for me.

How is that even possible? Is there a way I can detect this?

 

The problem seems to be in DayZ. A GPU benchmarking tool I tried uses the discrete card correctly and the temps and fan speeds work normally, nothing out of the ordinary there. Great FPS as expected. A few CPU burn tests also indicate that the problem is not a CPU bottleneck. 

 

Could this be a BIOS/UEFI-issue? As stated before, I'm using a different boot method with my new SSD (UEFI boot to GPT disk, as opposed to normal boot to MBR). I'm really clueless here.

Edited November 27, 2014 by lautzki

[gqren 49]

Well, having an NVidia card lets you decide which programs run on the integrated intel-CPU/GPU and which run on your dedicated GPU. This is done in the NVidia control panel, as I'm sure the Radeon cards have something similir to. In here, you can decide which card is the default as well as decide for individuel programs, as it doesn't always detect 3D-applications correctly, and assigns the shitty one. 

E.g. After switching to experimental (We all wan't to try the new cars ;) ) I had to point the new dayz_experimental.exe to the dedicated graphics processor in this program. I suggest doing the google if you're not familiar with a control panel for your graphics card.

 

Besides this, an icon in the tray can be activated, to show you which programs are active right at the moment on the GPU, so it's easy to find out.

Good luck!

[jiggyjoe 43]

Have you tried disalbing integrated graphics via BIOS ?

[lautzki 0]

Have you tried disalbing integrated graphics via BIOS ?

Disabled already. Default graphics set as PCI Express.

[lautzki 0]

Okay, I've determined that this is definitely a DayZ-based problem. Far Cry 3 runs brilliant as usual on Ultra and all the benchmarks indicate that the GPU and CPU is working fine. And it can't be a driver-related problem, as these are the same drivers I used with my previous Windows installation. 

 

Solutions I've tried so far:

1. Reinstall DayZ

2. Reinstall GPU drivers

3. Disable integrated graphics

4. Check DayZ game file integrity

5. Remove DayZ configuration files

6. Make separate settings for DayZ.exe in AMD control panel

7. Load UEFI defaults

 

No luck.

 

What on earth is going on?

Edited November 28, 2014 by lautzki

[lautzki 0]

Uninstalling DayZ now, I'm done. I'll see you again when we're out of alpha. You can lock this thread.

Edited November 30, 2014 by lautzki