A Reminder on how to Increase Performance and remove stuttering in Star Citizen

[VelvetDiamond]

This is a quick re-post/ reminder, to everyone Old and New to the game! You can improve the performance of Star Citizen quite a bit by simply tweaking some Nvidia and Windows settings an so on.

I made this video in June of last year and it is still 100% valid so I have not needed to make a new one: -

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsBP2O7AVBU&ab_channel=VelvetDiamond

Everything in this video is 100% safe to do and wont bugger anything up so long as you follow everything to the letter and you can always ask for help in Discord if you need it whenever I'm around.

Obviously the performance boosts you will get will vary between everyone depending on your System specs but this should help boost FPS anywhere between an extra 5 to in some extreme circumstances an extra 30fps.
With the added benefit that these improvements `can` pass on to all other games too.

View: https://youtu.be/AsBP2O7AVBU




- (IMPORTANT) -
one major thing to point out, you should only do these settings if you have 32GB of memory/RAM. If you attempt this with 16gb, it can cause a lot of crashes as some of these changes will unrestrict the game from using what it needs resource wise.





Some other things you may want to try to increase performance: - Turn shadow quality down in game by using the console command - "R_ShadowsPoolSize = 64" or /128 / 256 / 512

 

[Montoya]

This helped a lot of people!

 

[Vavrik]

This helped a lot of people!

Including me.

 

[Garonman]

Changed settings using the guide and will test the game to see if it improves things. Thank you.

 

[Garonman]

Changed settings using the guide and will test the game to see if it improves things. Thank you.

oooh.. ok ok. noticeably better. I need to test it out in the real heavy areas, but I have flown from CRU L4 to Area 18 and flown around the skyline of Area 18 with no stuttering. There was a bug though where I teleported to the station and received a crime stat. Set out a second time in my Scorpius and got teleported a second time.
Hopefully that's just the game being the game and nothing else.

 

[PlayWithMeOrDie]

Thank you! Definitely will try this!

 

[VelvetDiamond]

Glad its still helping :)

 

[Raycon]

Some other things you may want to try to increase performance: - Turn shadow quality down in game by using the console command - "R_ShadowsPoolSize = 64" or /128 / 256 / 512

Is this permanent or we have to paste this every time reboot - restart the client ?

 

[VelvetDiamond]

Is this permanent or we have to paste this every time reboot - restart the client ?

every time unless you add it to one of the client folders, forgot what one though

 

[wmk]

every time unless you add it to one of the client folders, forgot what one though

It could be added to user.cfg placed into
\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\StarCitizen\LIVE\

(user.cfg doesn't exist by default; it needs to be created with notepad or any simple text editor first)

 

[Vavrik]

(user.cfg doesn't exist by default; it needs to be created with notepad or any simple text editor first)

Yep you can also stack configuration in the user.cfg file like this (example only, for my preferences)
r_DisplayInfo = 3
r_ShadowsPoolSize = 128

My system works at least up to 512 without impact to the system performance (for my system). The value you use for r_ShadowsPoolSize is going to depend on personal preference, and your monitor settings too. If I go over 128, it still works just fine but the monitor is already set relatively dark. 128 seems to give me more realistic shadows this way. Play with it for you.

 

[RoosterRage]

Don't certain AMD cpus require gamebar be turned on like the 7900X3D and 7950X3D?

 

[VelvetDiamond]

Don't certain AMD cpus require gamebar be turned on like the 7900X3D and 7950X3D?

Yes supposedly. Or you can just turn off the non 3DVcache cores in the Bios and just never have an issue with the scheduler

 

[Mastersan]

Hey @VelvetDiamond and All!

Thank a lot for the guide. Followed it precisely (almost, please see below) and TESTed before and after, and have a question, if you could suggest something. I had a lot of stuttering and was looking for a performance improvement, which is how I found your topic.

Some TEST results:

Before:

• Used system defaults on balanced power, default settings etc.
• VSync, Grain, Motion Blur, Head Tracking etc, all ON.
• Graphics - all on Max possible settings.
• Results: FPS around 60 on average (with dips to 20-30), CPU load max about 60%, GPU load max about 60%, RAM max use 32-36GB.
• Problem: lots of stuttering. Even if FPS is e.g. 60, often the game turns into a slide show. SC Telemetry website confirms 60 FPS average, but playing, even walking inside a ship is challenging at times. When it doesn't stutter (e.g. may be a few seconds between slide shows), everything is smooth. This doesn't really seem to depend on how busy the area is, e.g. same performance in a busy place (e.g. NewBabbage) or on a remote moon. Tried lowest graphics settings, FPS number doubles, but the stuttering is the same. Tried a different lower spec PC, which gives 20-30 FPS on average - same stuttering and feel as on a higher spec PC.

After:

• Followed the guide exactly, except: 1) allocated more than 10-12 GB on hard drive (an M.2 SSD) for virtual memory, 2) my nVidia control panel doesn't have "Preferred Refresh Rate".
• VSync, Grain, Motion Blur, Head Tracking etc, all OFF.
• Graphics - all on Max possible settings.
• Results: FPS around 120 on average (with dips to 20-30 and max at 200+), CPU load max about 60%, GPU load max about 60%, RAM max use 32-36GB. So, really all the same, except FPS number. The game looks a lot more crisp, and overall it runs much smoother especially when FPS number goes high.
• Problem: still lots of stuttering. Even if FPS is e.g. 200+ the game turns into a slide show, so that even walking inside a ship is challenging at times. So, the game is literally showing high FPS number while being a slide show. When it doesn't stutter (e.g. may be a few seconds between slide shows), everything is very smooth. Like in the "Before" state, this doesn't really seem to depend on how busy the area is, e.g. same performance in a busy place (e.g. NewBabbage) or on a remote moon.

This is on a Live server, version 3.19.1.

The question: would you have any idea what may be causing the stuttering? While seeing high FPS number is great, earlier game versions/builds with average FPS of 30 and with no stuttering delivered a much smoother and enjoyable experience. Can this be anything to do with server sync and not the game/CPU/GPU config? Or is this something to do with the current build?


Also, question to All: do you have lots of stuttering no matter the FPS? Wondering if this is just me, or if this is a common problem?

 

[FZD]

The question: would you have any idea what may be causing the stuttering? While seeing high FPS number is great, earlier game versions/builds with average FPS of 30 and with no stuttering delivered a much smoother and enjoyable experience. Can this be anything to do with server sync and not the game/CPU/GPU config? Or is this something to do with the current build?


Also, question to All: do you have lots of stuttering no matter the FPS? Wondering if this is just me, or if this is a common problem?

While I don't know what might cause this in your case specifically, a way you can have a very high framerate and still stutter is if every once in a while you get a frame that is displayed for much longer than the others.

One thing you could try is setting a cap on the framerate. Start from a relatively low figure, like if you're getting 120 fps try 60 at first. Then if that works, try raising it until it stops working.
I think you can do this in game by just opening the console (tilde) and typing sys_MaxFPS = 60

 

[Mastersan]

While I don't know what might cause this in your case specifically, a way you can have a very high framerate and still stutter is if every once in a while you get a frame that is displayed for much longer than the others.

One thing you could try is setting a cap on the framerate. Start from a relatively low figure, like if you're getting 120 fps try 60 at first. Then if that works, try raising it until it stops working.
I think you can do this in game by just opening the console (tilde) and typing sys_MaxFPS = 60

Thanks for the above. I've TEST'ed it. Typing sys_MaxFPS = 60 (or any other number) does limit the max FPS. However, it doesn't solve the problem.

I have been TEST'ing the game by waling around Everus Harbor while looking at the system performance via Task Manager (no fancy monitoring apps). I've noticed something very interesting. In some areas of Everus Harbor the FPS is high enough and the game runs smoothly. In others areas the FPS suddenly drops down significantly. At first I thought this is because in these areas the load on the system is way too much, so that the PC is unable to handle it. It turned out to be the opposite! For example, near the Medical Clinic, just at the entrance, the FPS is good (about 90), the game runs smoothly, CPU load is about 60%, and GPU load is about 80%. But as soon as I step into the clinic, FPS drops down to below 10, CPU load goes up a bit to 70-75%, but GPU load drops to under 10%. Sometimes I had 2-7 FPS, and GPU load at 2%.

So, it's not that the PC doesn't have enough processing power, which causes stutter, but It appears that the game somehow selectively uses the GPU, depending on where you are. When the game uses the GPU, everything runs smoothly, but when it doesn't use it, the game turns into a slide show. Any ideas?

Also, raised an issue:

Issue Council - Sign in

Create an account or sign in to Issue Council. Track bugs on and vote on the issues to help the development team identify what to work on next.

issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com

 

[Mastersan]

Hi All,

Just wanted to leave this here, as it may be very helpful if you have Intel gen 12 and 13 CPUs.

I was still having a lot of stuttering, which made the game unplayable.

Then I've come across this video:

View: https://youtu.be/JCMt0n7BZGc


Apparently, if you disable the efficiency cores of your CPU when you run the game and only use logical cores the game runs smoothly. All you need to do is to modify the target of Star Citizen launcher to look like this (depends on the path where you have installed the game):

%ComSpec% /C Start "RSI Launcher" /High /Affinity FFFF "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe"

I've tried this and it makes the game run so much smoother and with no stuttering, so that the game is enjoyable again, a massive difference.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Hi All,

Just wanted to leave this here, as it may be very helpful if you have Intel gen 12 and 13 CPUs.

I was still having a lot of stuttering, which made the game unplayable.

Then I've come across this video:

View: https://youtu.be/JCMt0n7BZGc


Apparently, if you disable the efficiency cores of your CPU when you run the game and only use logical cores the game runs smoothly. All you need to do is to modify the target of Star Citizen launcher to look like this (depends on the path where you have installed the game):

%ComSpec% /C Start "RSI Launcher" /High /Affinity FFFF "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe"

I've tried this and it makes the game run so much smoother and with no stuttering, so that the game is enjoyable again, a massive difference.

For the GLORY of TEST!

 

[Halvix]

Hi All,

Just wanted to leave this here, as it may be very helpful if you have Intel gen 12 and 13 CPUs.

I was still having a lot of stuttering, which made the game unplayable.

Then I've come across this video:

View: https://youtu.be/JCMt0n7BZGc


Apparently, if you disable the efficiency cores of your CPU when you run the game and only use logical cores the game runs smoothly. All you need to do is to modify the target of Star Citizen launcher to look like this (depends on the path where you have installed the game):

%ComSpec% /C Start "RSI Launcher" /High /Affinity FFFF "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe"

I've tried this and it makes the game run so much smoother and with no stuttering, so that the game is enjoyable again, a massive difference.

Noticeable difference. Much smoother and getting a steady 65+ FPS in stations up from around 30 FPS. And also breaking 100 FPS in space now. Thanks for sharing!

Now if only they had a fix for the low server FPS like this one...

 

[Garonman]

Hi All,

Just wanted to leave this here, as it may be very helpful if you have Intel gen 12 and 13 CPUs.

I was still having a lot of stuttering, which made the game unplayable.

Then I've come across this video:

View: https://youtu.be/JCMt0n7BZGc


Apparently, if you disable the efficiency cores of your CPU when you run the game and only use logical cores the game runs smoothly. All you need to do is to modify the target of Star Citizen launcher to look like this (depends on the path where you have installed the game):

%ComSpec% /C Start "RSI Launcher" /High /Affinity FFFF "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe"

I've tried this and it makes the game run so much smoother and with no stuttering, so that the game is enjoyable again, a massive difference.

Is this for amd or intel?