[REPORTED]2.5.6 Performance

[Predator-78]

I confirm, I and my playmates too, have serious problems with FPS drops after the 2.5.6 update.

Absurd!!! :pazzo:

[Cornflex]

+1 yesterdays update did not change anything for me regarding performance.

 

Test to reproduce:

Start any mission (ramp start) from the F/A-18 aggressors campaign

[Charlie-1]

Disappointing FPS hit for me too with 2.5.6.. I've gone from smooth running/ Vsyncing at 60Hz down to 45 ish with the same settings from previous beta. GPU is only %60 used too.

 

Rolled back until fixed

[Knock-Knock]

For what its worth. Same mission, same settings (SSLR off in 2.5.6). 2.5.5 vs 2.5.6.

- 2.5.5 is the one with the highest framerate. Notice the simulation frametime in 2.5.6.

 

Edit: And no, its not related to the Ka-50. I can jump in any module and get the same result.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Knock-Knock

[-0303-]

The game starts in borderless window every time despite having fullscreen enabled in the settings.

Well known issue which exists as long as DCS itself. It does cost some fps but it isn't the cause for the recent performance loss under 2.5.6

 

Never seen borderless window ever (DCS 1 year) prior 2.5.6. I've lost 27% fps (weak system). Last patch, no difference.

Edited February 21, 2020 by -0303-

[DLEGION]

well, i was about to open a new topic, than i found this one.

 

with 2.5.6 i had a FPS drop, but apparently, if i start in air and just fy around, FPS are more or less the same as 2.5.5. (lets say 60-70fps range)

when i land, it gets slower and FPS drops to 30-35, i tried in a busy mission with lots of vehicles, and an empty map with just my plane, the result was exactly the same.

after i landed and FPS dropped, getting back in the air did not make fps go up again, that is even more weird.

 

i think a track its useless, as long it records also FPS (that i get from nvidia shadowplay).

[Art-J]

Never seen borderless window ever (DCS 1 year) prior 2.5.6. I've lost 27% fps (weak system). Last patch, no difference.

 

The game was switching to borderless by default between v 2.1 and one of late 2.5.xxx builds, then that annoying problem was fixed and full screen option worked properly for at least one year indeed.

 

During a few short tests of yesterday's version, however, I've noticed that the damn borderless might be hauting us again. I'm going to take a closer look at it today.

[Knock-Knock]

Some further looking into the performance problem.

Using the same mission as Ive used all along (all happens in the Krymsk, Maykop, Tuapse triangle), I added a client Ka-50 with takeoff from ground down in Turkey, so far far away. Now I have around 80 fps, compared to the 33 on the ramp at Gelendzhik (or any other place up there).

So could indicate some further LOD issue, maybe related to what is or isnt used for reflections, or maybe something completely different that turns 'off' at range to player.

 

I also tried setting all AI to 'AI OFF', made zero difference.

[speed-of-heat]

so i finally did a clean install of 2.5.6 and just did a simple straight and level test between 2.5.5 and 2.5.6 running VR FPS and i got this :

 

 

this was running the F/A18 instant action free flight in the Caucasus, so nothing exciting and all still in acceptable ranges for "OK" performance.

 

Three things struck me:

 

1) the CPU is doing a bunch more work albeit the maximum frametimes don't increase very much in this simple test its pretty clear that the average does and significantly, green is 10ms and as you can see in 2.5.6 its nearly always yellow. looking at the numbers that's a 30% hit.

 

2) the GPU usage has increase significantlyby something like 22%

 

3) and this one puzzles me it isn't using as much GPU RAM in 2.5.6 about 1.5Gb less... on the settings...

 

 

no conclusions, but a supposition, are we seeing increase CPU activity as result of decreased GPU memory usage or something daft like that?

[Wesjet]

The game was switching to borderless by default between v 2.1 and one of late 2.5.xxx builds, then that annoying problem was fixed and full screen option worked properly for at least one year indeed.

 

During a few short tests of yesterday's version, however, I've noticed that the damn borderless might be hauting us again. I'm going to take a closer look at it today.

 

 

I think this might be the case, my cursor is not constrained to the DCS window as I would expect with a "dedicated" full-screen application, I can freely move to my second monitor and work in another program where as before I required using ALT+TAB first.

[RentedAndDented]

well, i was about to open a new topic, than i found this one.

 

with 2.5.6 i had a FPS drop, but apparently, if i start in air and just fy around, FPS are more or less the same as 2.5.5. (lets say 60-70fps range)

when i land, it gets slower and FPS drops to 30-35, i tried in a busy mission with lots of vehicles, and an empty map with just my plane, the result was exactly the same.

after i landed and FPS dropped, getting back in the air did not make fps go up again, that is even more weird.

 

i think a track its useless, as long it records also FPS (that i get from nvidia shadowplay).

 

 

I get the same on landing. What I see in perfmon, I ran a quick trace, is that the core running what seems to be the DCS main thread just starts getting smashed at 100% at about the time I land and start to see the problem.

When I takeoff and fly away, the framerate comes back but it I turn back to the airfield or look at it, the framerate drops massively again.

Pagefile and memory usage looks quote consistent. The GPU is doing f-all, it's a Radeon VII so when it gets hot it tells me all about it.

[Bagpipe]

Try setting CPU affinity so that DCS does not operate on core 0/1(v). This often helps with another well known flight sim for me as it allows the first core to focus on background tasks and windows solely while the game runs on all other cores.

Haven't tested as not really got time now but worth a shot and a re-test to see if anything improves?

[ebabil]

during a night mission with some explosives in ka-50 cockpit, i saw 18fps. that's terrible

[speed-of-heat]

Try setting CPU affinity so that DCS does not operate on core 0/1(v). This often helps with another well known flight sim for me as it allows the first core to focus on background tasks and windows solely while the game runs on all other cores.

Haven't tested as not really got time now but worth a shot and a re-test to see if anything improves?

 

It's not a terrible idea, to 'get things working' if it works, but, what changed to cause it, I know I can get similar performance by doing a number of things changing the graphics settings, not using mirrors etc... This wouldn't I'm act game play, but it's hardly a plug and play change... I'll give it a shot later today ????????

[Heavydriver]

I think it’s obvious that the issues are terrain related, hence why people have issues on the ground, using TGP, IR etc. Now I hope ED have a plan, the logical step would be to get on Vulcan ASAP and stop slamming the Single Core. DCS has gone as far as it can in complexity on single core.

[Tippis]

I think this might be the case, my cursor is not constrained to the DCS window as I would expect with a "dedicated" full-screen application, I can freely move to my second monitor and work in another program where as before I required using ALT+TAB first.

It's been like that for years. “Full screen” and the limitations one would normally associate with it only applies to one screen — attach a second one and you get borderless behaviour at all times no matter what your settings are.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Anyway, glad I'm not the only one griping about stuttering in 2.5.6 :)

 

I have a decent rig, and framerates are great, but the stuttering sucks! Fix it ED!

 

Honestly, aside from the improved night lighting draw distance, I don't really see any improvement and the sim now runs poorly. Shadow draw distances are actually worse, giving the maps a rather bland look at altitude. That sucks because I really liked the older version of the sim, and got it running relatively stutter-free for quite a while.

 

Not any more, back to Stutter City!

 

AD

[bell_rj]

VR or non-VR, and singleplayer or multiplayer? No stutters in 2.5.6 (with latest hotfix) here on non-VR singleplayer.

 

 

I had minor stuttering in 2.5.x with 16GB of RAM. When I upgraded to 32GB it went away.

[Airhunter]

Excellent performance in 2.5.5 - unstable and much less FPS in 2.5.6. Please fix it or revert back to 2.5.5 if the new lighting is costing THAT much FPS.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Excellent performance in 2.5.5 - unstable and much less FPS in 2.5.6. Please fix it or revert back to 2.5.5 if the new lighting is costing THAT much FPS.

 

 

I don't find the framerates to be any worse (with SSLR turned off, of course) than 2.5.5. It's the constant stuttering.

 

 

It even stutters when I move the mouse around and look. Sometimes it stutters when I roll the aircraft. Weird & annoying.

 

 

AD

[Migo]

I am playing 2.5.6 with a 4670k at 4ghz, a 2070 Super and 20Gb DDR3 right now. My fps are solid if I don't turn my head. As soon as I do that, my fps drop significantly for a second until going back up again causing intense stuttering.

 

Even when I turn every setting to it's lowest level I get the same results. With my Rift S the fps drop from solid 80 to around ~45 and then back up again. Same without the Rift S on a full hd monitor, fps dropping from 170 to ~100 and back up again. This behaviour also doesn't settle after a while but is persisting.

 

Windows Performance Monitor shows constant full utilization of all four cores. Mind you, this is with every setting at it's lowest. Something is clearly going wrong here.

 

Might have to download stable to check if I have the same cpu usage problems there.

 

 

Edit:

It even stutters when I move the mouse around and look. Sometimes it stutters when I roll the aircraft. Weird & annoying.

@Aluminium Donkey: What does your CPU utilization look like?
Edited February 22, 2020 by Migo

[wilbur81]

Caucasus Map the Culprit?

 

I could certainly be wrong here, but after playing around quite a bit more with 2.5.6, it seems like the really significant performance loss is mostly relegated to the Caucasus Map.... and it is probably the good old tree shadows (or older map tech in general)... there are a LOT of them and performance in Caucasus is a lot worse (when low enough in altitude that the Tree LOD's start kicking in) than it was in 2.5.5. Persian Gulf has taken a small hit, but it other ways it is running smoother for me. Just some thoughts.

Edited February 22, 2020 by wilbur81

[Reflected]

No, I’m getting a massive hit on the Normandy map too. Looks like DCS has become a lot more sensitive to having lots of units around.

[Airhunter]

The 2.5.6 update feels like a total step back for DCS and should have been tested a LOT more by ED. The new lighting (bloomy HDR effect) looks way worse than 2.5.5. Everyone on the GS server reports massive lag and FPS hits across the board. Let alone that a lot of units and weapon ID's are all messed up as well. ED needs to step up their game or simply revert back to 2.5.5 and go again from there.

[Rowan]

I could certainly be wrong here, but after playing around quite a bit more with 2.5.6, it seems like the really significant performance loss is mostly relegated to the Caucasus Map.... and it is probably the good old tree shadows (or older map tech in general)... there are a LOT of them and performance in Caucasus is a lot worse (when low enough in altitude that the Tree LOD's start kicking in) than it was in 2.5.5. Persian Gulf has taken a small hit, but it other ways it is running smoother for me. Just some thoughts.

 

 

Massive fps hit at Nellis, 35-40 fps, poof, gone. Other places up north on the NTTR seem ok. Haven't tried McCarran but it's probably as bad there too.