I never get more than 30 FPS. please help!

[Rob8861]

Hi Guys,

 

I just bought a new All-AMD rig (always owned Intel b4) and I can never get more than 30 FPS in DCS. It gets even worst when I play DCS- Black Shark (mid 20s).

 

Hardware spec:

Windows 8.1

CPU: AMD FX-8320 OC'ed to 4.0GHz

Graphics Card: AMD R9-280 (not the X)

8 GB of RAM

1TB HHD Toshiba

 

Since I have a decent G.card, I figured I can set my DCS graphics options to HIGH (after all this is why I bought this PC :) )

but I noticed that my average FPS is always around 30. It gets worst if there are lots or AI' and/or if I fly in urban areas (lots of buildings and structures)

 

I also tried MEDIUM and noticed no significant difference in FPS gain (maybe 1 or 2).

I did disable cockpit shadows , vsync and TSSAA because everybody suggested that ;)

 

I'm also running the latest stable Catalyst drivers. 14.4?? i think :)

 

Is this normal for DCS? or is my PC just chocking up.

 

I ran some CPU/GPU usage tools and noticed that, my average GPU usage is around 80% and my CPU usage is around 40%-50% which is kinda low...

 

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

with 30 FPS, I can still enjoy DCS world, but when I get into big fight scenes with lots of stuff and AI's on the screen the game gets a bit choppy.

 

Thanks,

[gavagai]

Something seems wrong.

 

I have the same card and my GPU % goes to nearly 100% (though I have an intel cpu).

 

My in-game fps go to 60 much of the time, but it drops to the 50s or 40s over a big city or an airfield.

 

So long as you do not set the landscape visibility distance to high I think you should be seeing much better frame rates.

 

I have attached a pic of my DCS settings:

Edited July 22, 2014 by gavagai

[txmtb]

DCS only uses 2 cores on the CPU, one for sounds and the other for everything else. Check the individual core usage and you should see one pretty much maxed and another running high.

 

AMD GPU's have always taken a beating compared to Nvidia in DCS World. The drivers from 14.4 and after actually helped out quite a bit also. So you should be good there.

Check this affinity thread out and see if it helps a little. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=118535&highlight=core+affinity

 

This is older, but I still use it to check out driver releases just look at the FPS when the first aircraft is about to enter the runway.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=108231

[SkateZilla]

280 is equiv to a 7950, I was running 30 FPS Locked across 3 screens w/ my 7950.

 

Draw distance and presets are the key, you have to use the LOW Preset and customize from there, as the Presets seem to have some impact on things.

[alexej21]

Hi,

I'm sorry to say this but you bought the worst combination (AMD CPU + AMD GPU ) for DCS that you could...

 

You need Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU. Only the change of the GPU on the same performance level to Nvidia will give you more than 50% FPS.

 

I went from AMD 7970 3GB to Nvidia 770 2GB and FPS in Mi8 - free flight mission

25FPS -> 60FPS.

(Same CPU i5 2500K @ 4,5GHz)

 

 

Or you can hope for EDGE.

[Rob8861]

Hi Guys,

 

Thank you so much for your suggestions. will def look into the affinity and maybe adjust my settings. I do think my landscape visibility is set to much higher than gavagi.

Also, I am using MSI afterburner to monitor usage for my GPU, CPU 0 and CPU 1.

I noticed that at peak (when I fly near airfields, cities etc) my GPU goes to about 80% , CPU 0 at 50% and CPU 1 at 90% and it always fluctuate.

[Ninefingers]

Hi Rob, may be that you have the Vsinc. activated two times ? Take a look and try to activate it only in DCS and not in your graphics card settings. Or dissable completely to check. Just an idea...

Edited July 22, 2014 by Ninefingers

[SkateZilla]

Hi Rob, may be that you have the Vsinc. activated two times ? Take a look and try to activate it only in DCS and not in your graphics card settings. Or dissable completely to check. Just an idea...

 

That's not possible. Enable VSYNC is a General Driver Command, You cant "Double It" to go from 60Hz to 30Hz. Adaptive VSYNC can go from 30 to 60 Hz Dynamically, but that's something different.

 

Disabled VSYNC Altogether and see if you get any increase, but you'll likely get tearing.

 

However given the bugs I've found in the AMD Catalyst Drivers...... shrug.

 

Make Sure you dont have any MAX FPS Limits set in autoexec.lua.

[Thick8]

The 200 series cards will throttle down the clcok speed when temps go up. Have you tried monitoring your GPU temp with the MSI app?

[Rob8861]

Hi Guys,

 

I changed my settings to match Gavagi's and my FPS jumped from around 30 to 60.

So far I tested BS2 and FC3 and in both I get an average of 60.

The only time I noticed a huge drop in FPS, sometimes to as low as 15 or lower 20s, is when I directly face AI's on the screen. is this normal?

 

I know it sounds like a dumb question, but when ppl report their FPS, they usually refer to FPS in cockpit view right? because my FPS is way higher in F4 or F2 view.

 

I also checked my Graphics.lua and maxFPS is set to 120.

 

my GPU temp at 90% utilization was 58C and the clock speed was at the max 933MHz. shall I OC my GPU? will it make any difference?

 

Thanks again, you guys are really awesome. better than any tech support i've used in the past!

[gavagai]

Hi Guys,

 

I changed my settings to match Gavagi's and my FPS jumped from around 30 to 60.

 

Glad to hear it!:thumbup:

[Thick8]

my GPU temp at 90% utilization was 58C and the clock speed was at the max 933MHz. shall I OC my GPU? will it make any difference?

 

I have my 290 OC'ed 20% high but I have a DD series card and will be water cooling it soon and will try for at least a 25% OC. You coud try a modest 10% OC and see if it makes a difference.