Frame rate question

[Esctasy]

Today is my 2nd attempt to try and resolve this fps problem I've been having. 50% of the time during game play my fps is fine sitting around 50. And then there is the other 50% when I fly around asteroids, making quick turns, ect. the fps drops below 30 and is unbearable.

Here is what puzzles me, my GPU1 is always between 50-60% load and my GPU2 is always between 30-40% load. Together my total GPU usage is always sitting around 50%. The times that my fps drops the usage load doesn't increase. Aren't the GPUs suppose to work harder when there is more processing to keep the performance the same? How can I get SC to use more of my GPU?

Here is what I've tried.
uninstalling and reinstalling the latest NVidia drivers
uninstalling and reinstalling Star Citizen (remembering to take out all the associated folders under local)
tried to look for fps setting in Star Citizen but couldn't find, maybe it is in a config file?
couldn't find any useful info on the net

Has anyone else encounter this problem they can give me some insight? I used to be really good at this hardware stuff 15 years ago, sadly not anymore. I really nope to get this resolved it kinda ruins the game in the current state.

 

[Wolfy]

The real question is this. 1. Are you using an SSD and 2. How much RAM do you have.

While yes, a good GPU does help SC is also an absolute beast when it comes to RAM consumption and loading in things which tends to cause sudden lag spikes and drops in frames. It may not be your GPU or it could just be SC is not yet optimized.

 

[Radegast74]

There is a bug currently...when your frames drop, unequip your helmet (make sure to save the change) and then go back to the game screen...it works fairly well.

Alpha...

 

[Esctasy]

The real question is this. 1. Are you using an SSD and 2. How much RAM do you have.

While yes, a good GPU does help SC is also an absolute beast when it comes to RAM consumption and loading in things which tends to cause sudden lag spikes and drops in frames. It may not be your GPU or it could just be SC is not yet optimized.

That's a good idea, I should do some research into memory usage for SC. Didn't think about that.
For Drives I do have equivalent to SSD. I have 2x PCI-E 2T setup to run at raid 0. I don't think my drives are the problem, I did do some read/write tests and they seem to be ok.
My computer memory and graphics memory are as below.

 

[Talonsbane]

Based on the stats you provided, my best guess as to your bottleneck is that your CPU is a quad core, which is the current minimum to run SC presently. Aside from that, the game is still being optimized & is considered to be in early alpha form. So it could be a combination of things.

 

[Wolfy]

Based on the stats you provided, my best guess as to your bottleneck is that your CPU is a quad core, which is the current minimum to run SC presently. Aside from that, the game is still being optimized & is considered to be in early alpha form. So it could be a combination of things.

I'm honestly just gonna put it down to the terrible optimization in SC right now, lets be honest, frame drops are nothing new during alpha testing and it's something we all have to get used to.

 

[Esctasy]

Based on the stats you provided, my best guess as to your bottleneck is that your CPU is a quad core, which is the current minimum to run SC presently. Aside from that, the game is still being optimized & is considered to be in early alpha form. So it could be a combination of things.

You could be right, computer is fairly old. Maybe I will have to upgrade it soon. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try out Wolfy's suggestion. Memory problems could be the cause, it is one thing I didn't research yet. I will let you guys know what i find, thanks!

 

[Wolfy]

You could be right, computer is fairly old. Maybe I will have to upgrade it soon. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try out Wolfy's suggestion. Memory problems could be the cause, it is one thing I didn't research yet. I will let you guys know what i find, thanks!

Overall your system specs look fine, I suspect it's the game, not your system.

 

[Talonsbane]

You could be right, computer is fairly old. Maybe I will have to upgrade it soon. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try out Wolfy's suggestion. Memory problems could be the cause, it is one thing I didn't research yet. I will let you guys know what i find, thanks!

Whatever helps you enjoy the game more makes me happy for you my friend. :)

 

[Esctasy]

OH man I owe you big Wolfy! I can't believe that i fixed the problem and it was so simple.
Last time I tried to fix this problem, I thought it was going to be time consuming with a lot of digging around with config and stuff. It was like a thorn in your finger that you had to get out. I think many might have the same problem as me so I'm going to post how I fixed it here.

First, I monitored my CPU, it didn't seem to be the problem. CPU was very consistent at 55% usage.
Then I monitored my memory usage, it was also very consistent at only 33% usage.

Then I did some SC memory searches and came by an article that I thought might work.
To start off, my computer has 4 drives. 2 of the drives are fast, and 2 of the drives are bigger but slow. I had my Virtual memory set on my slow drive. I never thought anything of it because I have enough memory so it shouldn't matter. I did some research on this and as it turns out it does matter, because no matter how much physical memory you have you are still writing some info to the Virtual memory.

I followed this article. And it does appear to work even though I don't have a high ram usage problem.

My fps didn't increase. It is still at 50 inside and 40 outside. But those rates are consistent, they don't drop by a lot. And I can also see my GPUs now hitting the 80% load, where as before they sat at 50% forever. I made other changes such as graphics settings but I don't believe they had anything to do with the fix because I played with those settings before. So my conclusion is that part of my memory is too slow (the virtual memory).

And last yes I also believe parts of the game are to be blamed. For example inside Lorville, fps just drops to 25 and stays there almost indefinitely. One big task crossed off my list for the month:)

 

[Printimus]

It's probably not you. Game is still in development. Things change about the way your hardware uses its software.

 

[Radegast74]

OH man I owe you big Wolfy! I can't believe that i fixed the problem and it was so simple.
Last time I tried to fix this problem, I thought it was going to be time consuming with a lot of digging around with config and stuff. It was like a thorn in your finger that you had to get out. I think many might have the same problem as me so I'm going to post how I fixed it here.

First, I monitored my CPU, it didn't seem to be the problem. CPU was very consistent at 55% usage.
Then I monitored my memory usage, it was also very consistent at only 33% usage.

Then I did some SC memory searches and came by an article that I thought might work.
To start off, my computer has 4 drives. 2 of the drives are fast, and 2 of the drives are bigger but slow. I had my Virtual memory set on my slow drive. I never thought anything of it because I have enough memory so it shouldn't matter. I did some research on this and as it turns out it does matter, because no matter how much physical memory you have you are still writing some info to the Virtual memory.

I followed this article. And it does appear to work even though I don't have a high ram usage problem.

My fps didn't increase. It is still at 50 inside and 40 outside. But those rates are consistent, they don't drop by a lot. And I can also see my GPUs now hitting the 80% load, where as before they sat at 50% forever. I made other changes such as graphics settings but I don't believe they had anything to do with the fix because I played with those settings before. So my conclusion is that part of my memory is too slow (the virtual memory).

And last yes I also believe parts of the game are to be blamed. For example inside Lorville, fps just drops to 25 and stays there almost indefinitely. One big task crossed off my list for the month:slight_smile:

Dude, I'm telling you, take your helmet off when your frames drop...

But yeah, you should have your paging file set to your fastest drive. Even with my paging file set to my regular SSD (6G), I was getting pop in a lot when first starting. I set it to my M2 SSD, and it is minimized (but the game is NOT optimized yet, so, there will always be pop-in).

Check out the list of Windows tweaks (and other tweaks) at this page:
http://www.boredgamer.co.uk/2018/03/20/windows-10-ultimate-gaming-tweak-guide/

 

[August]

This entire thread has too many words and I haven’t read it.

$14. $14 is the frame’s rate.

 

[Esctasy]

Dude, I'm telling you, take your helmet off when your frames drop...

But yeah, you should have your paging file set to your fastest drive. Even with my paging file set to my regular SSD (6G), I was getting pop in a lot when first starting. I set it to my M2 SSD, and it is minimized (but the game is NOT optimized yet, so, there will always be pop-in).

Check out the list of Windows tweaks (and other tweaks) at this page:
http://www.boredgamer.co.uk/2018/03/20/windows-10-ultimate-gaming-tweak-guide/

It's already fixed lol. I have to reinstall my OS to the fast drive though, it was a bad idea to put it on the slow drive.

 

[Radegast74]

It's already fixed lol. I have to reinstall my OS to the fast drive though, it was a bad idea to put it on the slow drive.

I believe all you need to do is have the OS on a decently fast drive (like an SSD). It is great to have the computer start up quickly, and once it loads, it will make relatively few calls to the disk.

You definitely want to have your paging file on the fastest disk possible, so getting an expensive and fast SSD (like an M.2 form factor, or on of those fancy new Intel thingamajigs--Optane) will be worth it...but you don't want to waste the 11GB of an OS on that drive.

 

[Phil]

I just swapped over to full SSD drives and the difference is huge, i have two Samsung 860 pro 1 tb drives and turning the computer on is night and day.

 

[Esctasy]

I believe all you need to do is have the OS on a decently fast drive (like an SSD). It is great to have the computer start up quickly, and once it loads, it will make relatively few calls to the disk.

You definitely want to have your paging file on the fastest disk possible, so getting an expensive and fast SSD (like an M.2 form factor, or on of those fancy new Intel thingamajigs--Optane) will be worth it...but you don't want to waste the 11GB of an OS on that drive.

I'm already running 2x M.2 raid zero. Just the OS and virtual memory were sitting on a slow drive. My SC is stored on the fast drives, here is the speed test which is like 10 times faster than my slow drives.

Edit: I had the same thought as you do. I wanted to use the full 2T of fast drive on my games so I put the Virtual memory and OS on a slow drive, bad mistake because it turns out that I'm not even using 40% of the fast drive. Time to reinstall windows :(

 

[Sirus7264]

You could be right, computer is fairly old. Maybe I will have to upgrade it soon. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try out Wolfy's suggestion. Memory problems could be the cause, it is one thing I didn't research yet. I will let you guys know what i find, thanks!

Don't upgrade due to SC yet wait till its closer to completion there are to many variables which may change in the future and some upgrades may not be necessary later.