Performance on high end PC (awful)

[Boygor 2]

Hi all,

 

I realise that this is another performance thread but I just wanted to run something by you all.

 

I've got an i7 5820k and a Geforce 780ti.

 

I'm getting sub 20fps in (small) towns and generally get poor 40 fps performance out in the country.  Doesn't matter what settings I tweak, performance is utterly terrible on low - high settings.

 

Now I know, alpha and all that, but I used to have an i5 2500K (admittedly overclocked to 4.2 Ghz) and I wasn't getting performance hits like this.  The game is almost unplayable (and it's a shame as it's one of my favourites).  I suppose i'd like to know if this state is "par for the course" at this point (like new additions prior to optimisation have hammered performance globally) or if I have a problem.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

 

Boygor

 

 

[SFRGaming 718]

Hyperthreading --> Off

[Boygor 2]

OK I am on the case. 

 

*update*

 

OK turning off hyperthreading didn't appear to do very much, perhaps a 7 FPS gain?  Can I assume though that I should be seeing better performance than 20 - 25 FPS in a town?

Edited December 21, 2014 by Boygor

[wil24567 240]

Most Definetly.  I run a i7-4770k and an Nvidia 760, and i get 40 in towns and 80+ in the country on Medium-high.

 

You stated that no matter which settings its on, it runs the same.  That's a very interesting predicament, and it may have something to do with your i7, it is a very new processor. I can't imagine that would be the case, though. 

 

I wish I could be more of a help, but honestly the issue you have is quite weird. About all i can tell you is that you SHOULD be getting ALOT better frames then you are currently are getting. Perhaps take a look at launch parameters, you can set the number of cores and threads in steam. 

 

Best of Luck.

Edited December 21, 2014 by WilBischof

[wil24567 240]

Actually, after a Google search, others are having the same problem as you. They recommend to uninstall and reinstall your Nvidia drivers.

 

Hope that Works.

Edited December 21, 2014 by WilBischof

[Boygor 2]

Thanks for the reply ^

 

Makes me think something 'aint right here.  Crysis 3 runs @ 60FPS on ultra (1920 x 1080) so I don't think the CPU is broken per-se but I am scratching my head here too :)  Should've kept the old overclocked 2500K apparently for this game.

 

I'm off to google.  If I find anything i'll post back a possible solution

 

*edit* OK - will try that and see what happens.  The PC is a pretty new build so I wouldn't expect them to be an issue but i'll try anything just now.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Boygor

[Boygor 2]

OK so I reinstalled the Nvidia drivers (I assume a "clean" install is sufficient?) and no joy.  Altering some of the Nvidia control panel settings appeared to make a slight difference, namely power usage (upped to MAX) and Threaded Optimisation set to "ON".

 

This brought me up to around 30FPS in whatever town I was in dropping to 25 FPS.  I can live with this (better than sub-20) if I have to but obviously not ideal.  While I was doing this I logged everything via GPUZ and CPUZ so my findings are as follows on the off chance that some of this may be useful ( I have no idea)?

 

GPU:

 

Memory used didn't exceed 2000 MB during the entire logging period.  Given that it's a 3072 MB card perhaps this is something?

Clock speed was sitting at 1019.6 Mhz the entire time.

Memory clock was sitting at 1749 MHz the entire time.

GPU load appears to be all over the place, constantly jumping between a low of 50% and highs of 99%

 

CPU:

 

Core load (all 6 cores were active) never exceeded 41% and was on average below 30% on all cores.  Is this normal?

Core temps never exceeded 58 degrees

Core speed on all cores was sat at 3399.71 MHz the whole time

 

Hyperthreading was turned on.  (What the hell is hyperthreading, do I need this ever or should I disable by default?)

 

Anyways those are my findings so far.  Settings in DayZ were medium default @ 1920*1080

[wil24567 240]

OK so I reinstalled the Nvidia drivers (I assume a "clean" install is sufficient?) and no joy.  Altering some of the Nvidia control panel settings appeared to make a slight difference, namely power usage (upped to MAX) and Threaded Optimisation set to "ON".

 

This brought me up to around 30FPS in whatever town I was in dropping to 25 FPS.  I can live with this (better than sub-20) if I have to but obviously not ideal.  While I was doing this I logged everything via GPUZ and CPUZ so my findings are as follows on the off chance that some of this may be useful ( I have no idea)?

 

GPU:

 

Memory used didn't exceed 2000 MB during the entire logging period.  Given that it's a 3072 MB card perhaps this is something?

Clock speed was sitting at 1019.6 Mhz the entire time.

Memory clock was sitting at 1749 MHz the entire time.

GPU load appears to be all over the place, constantly jumping between a low of 50% and highs of 99%

 

CPU:

 

Core load (all 6 cores were active) never exceeded 41% and was on average below 30% on all cores.  Is this normal?

Core temps never exceeded 58 degrees

Core speed on all cores was sat at 3399.71 MHz the whole time

 

Hyperthreading was turned on.  (What the hell is hyperthreading, do I need this ever or should I disable by default?)

 

Anyways those are my findings so far.  Settings in DayZ were medium default @ 1920*1080

 

Hmmm.......

 

Once again, 25-30 is not even a quarter of what you should be getting FPS-wise. 

 

As for the core usage, yes that's about normal, and Hyperthreading on or off affects nothing, at least for me, and I also run an i7. 

 

Also, regarding that GPU spikes, might be related to your PSU. What is your wattage on it? Although im sure it is sufficient, as your

system is quite power hungry, it might be a sign that it is failing. 

Edited December 21, 2014 by WilBischof

[Boygor 2]

OK I've managed to get the FPS up to around 40(+) in towns and then between 70 and 100 in the open on medium settings.

 

I guess my biggest performance gain was from the two options I adjusted in the Nvidia control panel (power usage and threaded optimisation I saw in another guide relating to performance).  Hyperthreading was also off.

 

PSU is an 800w Corsair. 

 

I'll go and tweak through some more settings and see what upping to high does just now.  I'm very happy I can play the game though. Just found a gun :)

 

*edit* Here is an image of my GPU load over the last session I just played.  This is abnormal you think?:

 

Edited December 21, 2014 by Boygor

[wil24567 240]

OK I've managed to get the FPS up to around 40(+) in towns and then between 70 and 100 in the open on medium settings.

 

I guess my biggest performance gain was from the two options I adjusted in the Nvidia control panel (power usage and threaded optimisation I saw in another guide relating to performance).  Hyperthreading was also off.

 

PSU is an 800w Corsair. 

 

I'll go and tweak through some more settings and see what upping to high does just now.  I'm very happy I can play the game though. Just found a gun :)

 

*edit* Here is an image of my GPU load over the last session I just played.  This is abnormal you think?:

 

 

Yes, that graph seems very abnormal. But, that 800w PSU doesn't raise any eyebrows from me, so i don't think that's an issue.

 

But, im happy you're getting 40+ in the Towns and 70-100 in the Countryside! I still think you might have a little bit more to go, especially if you are only on medium settings. Keep fiddling with that Nvidia Control Panel. 

 

I'm glad you were able to get it working (somewhat) at least to a playable level. 

[cruiseashimself 56]

It seems to me you have to play with the settings to find what your computer is happy with

 

I have an AMD FX-8350 O.C. @ 4.6ghz

Geforce GTX 650 O.C. +200mhz

 

 

I run 60/70 in the woods and small towns and about 30/40 in the bigger cities. My video card is shit but I'm still managing to get good playable frames AND it looks good!

Edited December 22, 2014 by BMAF

[SFRGaming 718]

 

As for the core usage, yes that's about normal, and Hyperthreading on or off affects nothing, at least for me, and I also run an i7. 

 

Hyperthreading splits every core into 2 virtual cores. Turning it off let's the game utilize more of the core. (Game has single core rendering at the moment.)

 

If you want better performance, turn it off.

[Boygor 2]

Yes I'm going to leave hyperthreading off for the time being ^

 

I remember something being said about high end machines requiring high settings in the Arma engine.  Urban legend?  Given the specs being thrown around here I'm not not satisfied with my performance.  I'm going to have to play with the settings more indeed ;)

[Baker. 1484]

Hyperthreading --> Off

How much have you found this helps? Just curious, like FPS-wise

Edited December 22, 2014 by B@ker

[Boygor 2]

I'll do a test tomorrow evening and report back :)  Too late tonight

[Boygor 2]

OK sorry for the delay.  I'm off to check out the difference just now :)

[ankiltareum 4]

 

Settings in DayZ were medium default @ 1920*1080

 

 

 

You don't use the "Medium" preset for graphics i hope?

Edited December 29, 2014 by ankiltareum

[Boygor 2]

OK so I've ran about a bit with hyperthreading both on and off.  Now, FYI, I'm somewhere hopelessly lost in the woods so this wasn't the best test by any means :)  There appear to be no buildings/ towns for miles around...  I think I found the edge of the game a few miles back...

 

Settings are as follows:

 

Objects: Normal

Terrain: Normal

Clouds: High

Shadows: High

Video Memory: Auto

Texture detail: High

Texture filtering: HIgh

AA: Low

Alpha to Coverage: Disabled

Edge Smoothing: FXAA normal

HDR: Low

Ambient Occlusion: Enabled

Post processing: High

 

Resolution 1920 x 1080

(there was another resolution setting in the menu option and I had that also set to 1920 x 1080 - can anyone explain to me why there are 2x resolution settings?)

 

With hyperthreading disabled I was getting between 55 and 70 fps in the woods.

With hyperthreading enabled I was getting between 55 and 75 fps in the woods.

 

I'll need to find a town somewhere and attempt this again to see if there are any gains to be had in an urban environment.  Seems I actually lost 5 FPS (max) with hyperthreading disabled but this was hardly a scientific test by any means :)

 

*edit* OK I commited suicide to get out of the end of the world.

 

I've also tweaked the game files, options etc using this guide:  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=216291078 (thanks ankiltareum) and went for the following:

 

 

-cpuCount=6 -exThreads=7 (is this correct for an i7 5820k?) -maxMem=16384 -maxVram=3072 -nosplash -noPause

 

and this:

 

sceneComplexity=1000000;
shadowZDistance=150;
viewDistance=3000;
preferredObjectViewDistance=1700;
terrainGrid=3.125;

 

and tweaked the various settings to mirror the guide (i.e. everything on very high except where instructed to drop).

 

The results are interesting.  I get between 45 - 60FPS in rural settings, between 29 and 35 FPS urban (and not big cities either - not found one yet, still running about).

 

The only part of the guide I didn't understand was the bit about Max Frames Ahead and GPU_DetectedFramesAhead.  The guide said to keep them both around 1 - 4.  My default settings are:

 

GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=2;

 

I'm a little unsure about dropping a setting from 1000 to between 1 and 4?

 

I'm also still not sure what the difference between these 2 are:

 

Resolution_W=1920;
Resolution_H=1080;

 

and

 

Render_W=1920;
Render_H=1080;

Edited December 29, 2014 by Boygor

[ankiltareum 4]

IF you have 0 max frames ahead your GPU will not prepare frames before they are displayed, causing less stress in the GPU but as a consequence the game will stutter a bit and decrease mouse lag since you have more frames because there is less stress on the GPU.

The more max frames you pur, for example 3, before the frames are displayed, the GPU is already calculating the 3 frames ahead, making the game run "smoother" less stutter but at lower FPS and increasing mouse input lag.

 

You can read the rest of this post at if you need more explanations

Source: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=143811

 

EDIT : forgot this, - Max Frames to Render ahead only applies when V-Sync is OFF.

When V-sync is on, then double-buffering or triple-buffering are used.

 

You should set it to 4 imo.

About your launch parameters you should set -exThreads=11

[Boygor 2]

So changing this:  GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1000;

 

to this:  GPU_MaxFramesAhead=4;

 

Is what you recommend?  Why would it be set to 1000 in the first instance? :)

[ankiltareum 4]

Why would it be set to 1000 in the first instance? :)

 

'Cause it allows the cpu to pre-send up to a 1000 frames for the gpu to calculate. This prevent any stutter when you play. But i checked and 4 frames ahead is enough not to have stutter.

If your cpu and gpu always calculate like 25 or 50 frames ahead is takes a lot of power i guess.

[Boygor 2]

OK I shall go and change this to 4 and see what happens.

 

*edit*

No difference tbh.  Away to turn off hyperthreading again now I'm in a town :)

Edited January 1, 2015 by Boygor

[Boygor 2]

OK hyperthreading on or off does nothing for me.  Changing the GPU frames appeared to do nothing either.  I think I'll just have to be satisfied with what I've got (which is a lot better than it was.  I can at least play the game :))

[wuffi (DayZ) 18]

Turn off clouds (they are a huge preformance killer)

And lowering shadows should also help especially in big towns.

You could also lower max. view distance...

But if it helps you are definitely NOT alone.

Cherno for example is a no go zone for me (10-15 fps) :(

[Dunxel 17]

OK so I've ran about a bit with hyperthreading both on and off.  Now, FYI, I'm somewhere hopelessly lost in the woods so this wasn't the best test by any means :)  There appear to be no buildings/ towns for miles around...  I think I found the edge of the game a few miles back...

 

Settings are as follows:

 

Objects: Normal

Terrain: Normal

Clouds: High

Shadows: High

Video Memory: Auto

Texture detail: High

Texture filtering: HIgh

AA: Low

Alpha to Coverage: Disabled

Edge Smoothing: FXAA normal

HDR: Low

Ambient Occlusion: Enabled

Post processing: High

 

 

 

sceneComplexity=1000000;

shadowZDistance=150;

viewDistance=3000;

preferredObjectViewDistance=1700;

terrainGrid=3.125;

 

Some Youtubers who has some pretty smooth gameplay for a really simple system..  3rd Gen i7 & 970 & another had something similar but used a R9 290.

Said something along the lines of using "Edge Smoothing:" don't use FXAA only SXAA?

Also viewDistance try using 1000 to 2000;  You really don't need much more than that.  At the current state of the game.

And keep preferredObjectViewDistance 100-200 less than ViewDistance.

 

Lastly play with the Object Details settings.

In the country you could possibly max everything out & still get 40-60fps and be happy..  But the City is where it will kill you ever time no matter what.

 

Go to a major city and log out a little ways out of town in the bushes.  Make a few changes..  check it from a distance & then go into town for a bit.. Log out & make small changes & try again.   Don't bother with changes in the country or near a tiny town. 

Edited March 20, 2015 by Dunxel