Good FPS but runs choppy

[cash81 506]

Hi all, in need of some advice.

Recently changed laptops due to my last one giving up the ghost. Reinstalled dayzsa and used my old settings in game. The game looks great and seemed to be showing 40-63 fps but it actually runs worse than when i had my old laptop which only ever maxed out at mid 20s fps.

It takes forever to load screen once joining a server. Then it renders the char slowly then looks great and shows 50 fps but when i walk around its choppy as all hell like i was playing with 10fps or something.

The newer laptop is a toshiba s50-b running win10, 8g mem, 2g radeon graphics, i7 2.gh/2.6 (all are better stats than my old laptop which ran dayz decently).

Any advice is appreciated.

Edited November 1, 2015 by cash81

[Mos1ey 6301]

It sounds like your new laptop is running on a slower hard-drive. Could this be the case?

[maximumak777 (DayZ) 23]

Welcome to DayZ. The public builds have next to no optimisation, so even powerful computers like yours will struggle to run it. These problems SHOULD be resolved in the next update.

[cash81 506]

It sounds like your new laptop is running on a slower hard-drive. Could this be the case?

Correct! But i never had that issue before i put the ssd into my old laptop. (It ran fine at 25fps even with the hdd)

But could it be that i never encountered this issue because my old laptop could never run the game faster than my hd could keep up?

Basically, now that my computer is more powerful, ive outpaced the hd that it came with and so ill have to get an ssd on this one?

[Mos1ey 6301]

Correct! But i never had that issue before i put the ssd into my old laptop. (It ran fine at 25fps even with the hdd)

But could it be that i never encountered this issue because my old laptop could never run the game faster than my hd could keep up?

Basically, now that my computer is more powerful, ive outpaced the hd that it came with and so ill have to get an ssd on this one?

 

It's more likely that you simply didn't notice the stuttering as you were already struggling with the choppiness that comes with a low frame rate.

 

If putting an SSD into the new laptop is an option then I would definitely recommend it. Arma and DayZ both benefit tremendously.

[cash81 506]

It's more likely that you simply didn't notice the stuttering as you were already struggling with the choppiness that comes with a low frame rate.

 

If putting an SSD into the new laptop is an option then I would definitely recommend it. Arma and DayZ both benefit tremendously.

 

Good point. I'm wondering though if anyone else is playing with 40+ fps on a regular HDD if they get the same issue? Or for dayz is an SSD absolutely needed to experience a smooth 40fps?

[Mos1ey 6301]

Good point. I'm wondering though if anyone else is playing with 40+ fps on a regular HDD if they get the same issue? Or for dayz is an SSD absolutely needed to experience a smooth 40fps?

 

When I was running Arma and DayZ from a 7200 RPM HDD I noticed significant stuttering when using mouse2 to zoom or when entering a new area and loading textures. I'd imagine that it would be significantly worse on a 5400 RPM HDD (standard for most laptops).

 

I think an SSD is necessary for the smoothest experience possible, but you may be able to reach a level of smoothness that you're happy with purely by tinkering with things like scene complexity and render distance to reduce the amount of loading from your HDD.

[edwin3 74]

id also try to update the gpu-driver manually. at least for nvidia there had been problems with win10.

 

greets

[cash81 506]

When I was running Arma and DayZ from a 7200 RPM HDD I noticed significant stuttering when using mouse2 to zoom or when entering a new area and loading textures. I'd imagine that it would be significantly worse on a 5400 RPM HDD (standard for most laptops).

 

I think an SSD is necessary for the smoothest experience possible, but you may be able to reach a level of smoothness that you're happy with purely by tinkering with things like scene complexity and render distance to reduce the amount of loading from your HDD.

 

Bang on. I just realized that on my old laptop i had changed my hdd twice. The one prior to the ssd was a 7200rpm, and dayz ran okay. There was an improvement with the ssd installed. So as you said, the difference between a 5400 and an SSD is now painfully obvious lol

 

Thanks!!

 

Also, edwin, i checked and the drivers are up to date!

 

Will report back once I have a new SSD installed.

 

-Cheers!

[Mos1ey 6301]

I think you'll notice an improvement. :)

 

Your frame rate won't change by a noticeable amount (if at all) but it should definitely be a smoother experience overall. Loading times will also be reduced significantly too, which can only be a good thing.

[cash81 506]

I think you'll notice an improvement. :)

 

Your frame rate won't change by a noticeable amount (if at all) but it should definitely be a smoother experience overall. Loading times will also be reduced significantly too, which can only be a good thing.

 

Put in the new SSD and have been tweaking my settings. It now loads better and is clearly a huge improvement. With my settings i can get about 70fps. BUT a new problem has come up.

 

My fps seems to fluctuate up and down constantly now. Like it will go to 70 then down to 18 then up to 54 then down to 23 then stay at 45 for a bit then dance up and down again and again. When it drops down it gets laggy again but then when it goes up it runs great.

 

Any ideas?

[Mos1ey 6301]

Is this a new issue that only started since you installed the new drive?

[cash81 506]

Is this a new issue that only started since you installed the new drive?

Yes. I followed the same settings guide i used on the previous laptop install of dayz. Even without moving or doing anything it will constantly go up and down from between 70fps to 8fps. Running around doesnt seem to change the frequency of the fps lag drops. Seems pretty consitant in "waves" if i could describe it with one word.

[Mos1ey 6301]

Yes. I followed the same settings guide i used on the previous laptop install of dayz. Even without moving or doing anything it will constantly go up and down from between 70fps to 8fps. Running around doesnt seem to change the frequency of the fps lag drops. Seems pretty consitant in "waves" if i could describe it with one word.

 

Did you restart your system and try to run DayZ again? Especially since upgrading to Windows 10 I find that I'll sometimes have mysterious performance issues that are fixed by a simple restart.

 

When you say you followed the same settings guide do you mean in the software provided by Samsung with the drive?

 

Have you run any kind of health check to make sure that the drive isn't faulty?

[cash81 506]

Did you restart your system and try to run DayZ again? Especially since upgrading to Windows 10 I find that I'll sometimes have mysterious performance issues that are fixed by a simple restart.

 

When you say you followed the same settings guide do you mean in the software provided by Samsung with the drive?

 

Have you run any kind of health check to make sure that the drive isn't faulty?

I havent tried yet but i made sure drivers were up to date. I will check when i get back home today.

The settings i was referring to were the ingame settings. I kept them the same.

I havent checked to see if the drive is faulty.

So is it sounding like maybe it is still an HD issue? Maybe with the new install there is still some kind of driver missing. So far i am not too impressed with windows10 lol

[Mos1ey 6301]

I havent tried yet but i made sure drivers were up to date. I will check when i get back home today.

The settings i was referring to were the ingame settings. I kept them the same.

I havent checked to see if the drive is faulty.

So is it sounding like maybe it is still an HD issue? Maybe with the new install there is still some kind of driver missing. So far i am not too impressed with windows10 lol

 

Ah, okay. It might be worth checking for a firmware update for your drive.

 

It also might be worth running something like CrystalDiskInfo to check that your drive is in good health and functioning correctly.

 

I can't be sure that it's a problem with your new drive but it's possible given that you weren't having issues with FPS drops until you installed it. If you can rule that out then the next thing to do would be to check your DayZ installation for issues. Verify integrity of game cache in Steam, and then if that still doesn't help then maybe try a complete reinstall, being sure to remove all config files left over from the previous installation.

 

For the most part I'm finding Windows 10 to be pretty good. It definitely runs faster and is lighter than Windows 7, but it does seem to have some strange issues that I think will probably be ironed out over time.

[cash81 506]

Ah, okay. It might be worth checking for a firmware update for your drive.

 

It also might be worth running something like CrystalDiskInfo to check that your drive is in good health and functioning correctly.

 

I can't be sure that it's a problem with your new drive but it's possible given that you weren't having issues with FPS drops until you installed it. If you can rule that out then the next thing to do would be to check your DayZ installation for issues. Verify integrity of game cache in Steam, and then if that still doesn't help then maybe try a complete reinstall, being sure to remove all config files left over from the previous installation.

 

For the most part I'm finding Windows 10 to be pretty good. It definitely runs faster and is lighter than Windows 7, but it does seem to have some strange issues that I think will probably be ironed out over time.

Thanks again! Ill try some more of your suggestions and see how i fare. Ill post back with any updates.

[pilgrim* 3514]

Thanks again! Ill try some more of your suggestions and see how i fare. Ill post back with any updates.

 

I agree 100% with the points made above.

 

So: this is probably a stupid suggestion (scuse me guys) -- but have you turned off your antivirus live checks? or looked at your AV settings? Antivirus softs - if they are set to real-time-live-scan - will verify each file every time it is opened. Any file with a strange suffix is probably NOT ignored by default. This can cause hell to any game (= hundreds of small files used repeatedly) and can produce a burst effect as files are scanned before "release" (duh..check the tree, OK,  check the bush, OK ..). Some AV settings may also scan files on closure. Big waste of time.

I use antivirus on my ethernet connection in and out (interenet, other PCs) and run manual antivirus when I want to, and keep all "live protection" disabled. Or I turn it off completely when I'm playing and run a scan afterwards.

Easy to test and might make a difference?

 

xx

Edited November 4, 2015 by pilgrim

[cash81 506]

I agree 100% with the points made above.

 

So: this is probably a stupid suggestion (scuse me guys) -- but have you turned off your antivirus live checks? or looked at your AV settings? Antivirus softs - if they are set to real-time-live-scan - will verify each file every time it is opened. Any file with a strange suffix is probably NOT ignored by default. This can cause hell to any game (= hundreds of small files used repeatedly) and can produce a burst effect as files are scanned before "release" (duh..check the tree, OK,  check the bush, OK ..). Some AV settings may also scan files on closure. Big waste of time.

I use antivirus on my ethernet connection in and out (interenet, other PCs) and run manual antivirus when I want to, and keep all "live protection" disabled. Or I turn it off completely when I'm playing and run a scan afterwards.

Easy to test and might make a difference?

 

xx

 

 

tried looking for firmware updates and all was up to date. ill give game cache a check soon. anti virus didn't change anything (turned off windows defender thats all i had)

 

i tried disabling my intel hd graphics to see if forcing it to use my amd radeon would help (thinking maybe it wasnt switching to my better graphics card when running the game). i load up and it is running way worse.

 

so i figure, theres the problem. my computer isn't using the right card. so when i exit the game, my computer notifies me that no graphics is detected or that the radeon isn't working properly.

 

so i look online and someone else was having a similar issue (computer not deteecting the radeon) and it is saying something to do with catalyst control centers gaming app causing issues so do a reinstall.

 

i just uninstalled all my amd drivers and dloaded catalyst and will report back.

Edited November 4, 2015 by cash81

[cash81 506]

No change when reinstalling amd catalyst and amd drivers.

So it leaves clearing cache and doing a check on the new ssd i guess?

[cash81 506]

Dloaded samsung magician, it was showing the computer was not optimized for ssd. I changed it and now seems that it is running much better.

I had all my ingame settings set to very low but now that the fps drops are gone ill try going back to my old configuration where i was getting 50-60 fps and see how it goes.

Also using speccy and hwmonitor as well as resource monitor it does seem like when in game my computer is properly switching to the radeon graphics.

So it does look like it was still a hd issue causing these drops..

[Mos1ey 6301]

Yeah, that makes sense. So have you got everything to where you thought it would be with regards to performance then?

[cash81 506]

Yeah, that makes sense. So have you got everything to where you thought it would be with regards to performance then?

I will re do my in game settings to the way i had them before and see. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Will report back :)

[sneakydudes 278]

It's more likely that you simply didn't notice the stuttering as you were already struggling with the choppiness that comes with a low frame rate.

 

If putting an SSD into the new laptop is an option then I would definitely recommend it. Arma and DayZ both benefit tremendously.

Mos1ey has a very good point. SSD will not only increase your read and write speeds it also runs much more stable in laptops then a Sata drive.

Downfall is backing up your OS and or files to a mechanical drive. As SSD un recoverable files if windows 10 goes down. Which in the last few weeks people have been bring in units for me to fix because windows 10 just simply goes nuts and crashed. No ability to repair nothing. This is why i never ever recommended upgrades.

 

If you install windows 8.1, update it then windows 10 upgrade it runs rather nice fresh.

 

You have to watch your updates for drivers. Do search and download them prior just in-case your system crashes.

 

I also don't really recommend anything on windows 8-10 as optimizations are not perfect yet. It will take some time for the dev's to get nvidia and or ati to address this game. Ark also has lower FPS with windows 8-10. Some had loses of over 10fps right off the bat.

 

Laptops also are dangerous when trying to run games like this. Not everyone is spec'ed to exactly what should be the better processor, graphics card to play this type of game.

 

This is why i always use a pc for gaming needs. I understand why you like your laptop, but honestly they suck playing games. I don't care whom builds it.

[cash81 506]

Mos1ey has a very good point. SSD will not only increase your read and write speeds it also runs much more stable in laptops then a Sata drive.

Downfall is backing up your OS and or files to a mechanical drive. As SSD un recoverable files if windows 10 goes down. Which in the last few weeks people have been bring in units for me to fix because windows 10 just simply goes nuts and crashed. No ability to repair nothing. This is why i never ever recommended upgrades.

 

If you install windows 8.1, update it then windows 10 upgrade it runs rather nice fresh.

 

You have to watch your updates for drivers. Do search and download them prior just in-case your system crashes.

 

I also don't really recommend anything on windows 8-10 as optimizations are not perfect yet. It will take some time for the dev's to get nvidia and or ati to address this game. Ark also has lower FPS with windows 8-10. Some had loses of over 10fps right off the bat.

 

Laptops also are dangerous when trying to run games like this. Not everyone is spec'ed to exactly what should be the better processor, graphics card to play this type of game.

 

This is why i always use a pc for gaming needs. I understand why you like your laptop, but honestly they suck playing games. I don't care whom builds it.

I know a good pc would run dayz much better but what i cant understand is why with this new laptop: dayz is unplayable.

It seems no matter what settings i do, i am getting problems. Be it lag, fps drops, weird graphic hiccups or whatever.

Back to my continued quest of being able to play again.... i had to reinstall dayz because although i could play with low settings in windowed mode without noticable fps drops... the game wouldnt load after i shut down my computer. It would hang on a white screen and say dayz is not responding.

Now on this new install i am getting the same issue of FPS drop.

Im at my wits end and think i am going to try to uninstall win 10 and install win 7 and see if that makes a difference.