Severe Framerate drops while in areas around large number of units - With Hotfix 2

[briguy3]

Hi. I can post attachments to frametime graphs if you want/need. Long story short, ONLY with hotfix 2 does this happen. I reverted my install to 1.5.0.45208 and the framerate issues go away.

 

It's so bad that on mission 2 of the cold war warrior campaign in the Su-25, the frame rate at the airbase dips to below 20 and stays there. It also dips to 30 or lower while in the target area over Krasnodar. Average while in the air is somewhere around 50. This DOES NOT HAPPEN with the older version. I think it has something to do with RAM or VRAM usage, but I can't be sure. I think I'm noticing that RAM usage tends to be higher with the older patch, which would somewhat explain the higher frame rates, but again, this isn't backed up by hard evidence, just my observations when looking at my performance monitor (msi afterburner). I haven't changed graphics settings from the day I installed 1.5, and the framerate with the latest patch fell through the floor for whatever reason. I also notice that for whatever reason the GPU usage falls from 50+ to a mere 20% while looking at these "intense" areas like airbases with many units. This did occur to some extent before hotfix 2 but not nearly to the same degree. Overall performance is down with the latest patch for me, and I won't be updating until it's addressed. It renders the sim unplayable for me, unfortunately.

 

Normal FPS before hotfix 2 was 60+ (generally 85-100 in the air) all the time except in incredibly intense scenes like CBU's, KMGU and the like.

 

System Specs

Windows 7 Ultimate

Monitor: 2560*1440 @ 100 Hz

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

CPU: Intel i7 3770k @4.5 GHz

GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980 (reference) overclocked to 1400MHz+

Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance & 8 GB G.Skill RipjawZ @ 1600MHz (24GB total)

DCS is installed on a 256 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD

Running the latest NVIDIA Driver 358.50 - Drivers were unchanged during this "testing"

Edited October 18, 2015 by briguy3

[xXNightEagleXx]

What is the command to revert to that version?

[briguy3]

What is the command to revert to that version?

 

I used this method here http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114030

 

you want version 1.5.0.45208 - I don't know the patch number for hotfix 1, if someone could post it that'd be swell.

[eyusuf]

... somewhere around 50. This DOES NOT HAPPEN with the older version. I think it has something to do with RAM or VRAM usage, but I can't be sure. I think I'm noticing that RAM usage tends to be higher with the older patch, which would somewhat explain the higher frame rates, but again, ... .

 

Since I'm no officianado on the subject. Can you, or someone explain to me the correlation between vram usage and framerate as it applies to DCS? You seem to suggest that there is somewhat of a correlation.

 

Thanks

[briguy3]

Since I'm no officianado on the subject. Can you, or someone explain to me the correlation between vram usage and framerate as it applies to DCS? You seem to suggest that there is somewhat of a correlation.

 

Long story short, the initial loading things from storage and keeping them in memory, whether it be RAM or VRAM, generally correlates to better framerates because those mediums, assuming the assets are loaded to them, are incredibly fast compared to loading the assets directly from the storage itself. The most common assets held in VRAM tend to be textures, but it's also the frame buffer for the GPU. In regular RAM, it could be anything. Point is, if it's initially loaded into memory it's going to be faster to load and faster to work with than if you had to go fetch it from the comparatively slow storage medium. The drawback is that not everyone has a lot of memory to go around. Some applications dynamically scale what can be put in to memory, but others just kinda give it a best guess as to what's the average for all the users then hard code that in. Dynamic anything tends to take a lot of man hours, whereas the hard coding tends to be simpler. I don't know which category DCS falls into, but I'd be curious to find out.

 

Speaking of slow storage... yet another thing I noticed with hotfix 2 is that the load time from when I double click the icon on my desktop to the main menu is actually significantly lengthened... I don't know why, but I think someone ought to look into this.

[red777]

Ok, there's definitely a problem with one of the hotfix I think.

 

If I update to either to 1.5.0.45208 or 1.5.0.45655 I have a significant drop of FPS.

for example in the mi8 Freeflight mission I have around 38 fps parked at the airport.

I monitored my GPU usage it doesn't go above 40%.

 

I reverted to version 1.5.0.45166 and did the same mission and some others where I had low fps, and my fps is 60 and stable (don't know how high it can go because I have vsync on).

GPU usage doesn't go bellow 50%.

So that's strange...

 

CPU : i5 2500k ; GTX 770 ; SSD ; 8go of RAM.

Edited October 18, 2015 by red777

[Rocky49]

I also noticed big drop in framerate with last hotfix. I was averaging around 120 fps at airports and cities, now down to 60 fps at these location, sometimes bottoming out in the 30s. Hope they go back up during next fix

[Jinks]

I also noticed big drop in framerate with last hotfix. I was averaging around 120 fps at airports and cities, now down to 60 fps at these location, sometimes bottoming out in the 30s. Hope they go back up during next fix

 

Same situation here. Using the method briguy3 linked to did a test between hotfix 1 and 2. Idle at airfield fps went from 120 to 45. Same map, same mission, same graphic settings.

 

Win7 64, i5 4670k, GTX 760

Edited October 18, 2015 by Jinks

[clanitho]

Same situation here. Using the method briguy3 linked to did a test between hotfix 1 and 2. Idle at airfield fps went from 120 to 45. Same map, same mission, same graphic settings.

 

Win7 64, i5 4670k, GTX 760

 

May be the cause is "Missing civilian road traffic restored."

Have you try to disable civilian trafic ?

[ram0506]

Also noticed those frame drops on airfields and situation got a little bit better, when i set civilian traffic from high to medium setting. The frame drops occurred, when I looked in direction of a nearby city.

With medium civilian traffic I have still lower frames, but situation is much better then on high setting.