FPS chart sawtoothing (sharp increases and gradual declines)

[72hundred]

Hi all,

 

Please see attached image. Each small box on the x-axis is approx 5 seconds. The frames per second start off good then gradually drop and drop and then shoot back up again. There's nothing else going on at the time on the PC and obviously I'm not moving my head/aircraft to such a prefect rhythm.

 

I would suspect something is going on though. The attached activity was observed on the F-18 aggressors campaign, the mission of guns against two Mirage 2000's. I was RTB after a re-fueling and there was nothing intensive at all going on, just normal level flight.

 

Any ideas on what might be causing this sawtoothing of FPS? And/or ways of addressing it?

 

I thought it might be nVidia shadowplay causing an issue but can't re-create it.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

BTW here are PC Specs;

CPU: 4770k @ 4.2

RAM: 32GB DDR3-2000

GPU: 970 GTX

Harddrive: Samsung 840 Pro - 512Gb

Harddrive (nVidia captures if saved): Multi Spiny Disk Array

Edited April 12, 2020 by 72hundred
Chart

[Mustang]

nvidia 445.75 driver causes this, roll back to earlier 442.74 or earlier and the problem will be solved.

 

edit: this is affecting other titles as well https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/445-78-hotfix-gpu-randomly-stuck-at-low-core-clock-while-gaming.431594/

Edited April 13, 2020 by Mustang

[Burt]

I've heard about the 445.75 issue. But my new machine came with this driver and I'm not getting that issue. Although I will check again this weekend , my rig never falls under 65-70 fps.

 

How do you rollback the drivers when this is the first set of drivers installed on a new machine.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Burt
oops

[BitMaster]

I've heard about the 445.75 issue. But my new machine came with this driver and I'm not getting that issue. Although I will check again this weekend , my rig never falls under 65-70 fps.

 

How do you rollback the drivers when this is the first set of drivers installed on a new machine.

 

 

Download an older driver from Nvidia and deinstall the current one in Safe Mode with DDU.

 

Link to DDU: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

[Burt]

Yikes BitMaster !!! I’m an FNG with this stuff. Okay so I need to double check my numbers/graphs before I attempt this... if everyone in DCS is having an issue with this than yeah I guess I gotta do it. But real quick you said download older drives first than go into safe mode and get rid of the 445.75 driver? Of course I’ll read the guru3d link info.thx for that. But was just wondering if this is correct.

Dang it !!! Why do they do sht like this to us. I’m not good at these type of things But I guess I’m gonna have to start. As always thx.

 

Take care all

 

 

 

 

Much thx as always and I ll do an update. Take Care all

[Bearskin]

This is a long winded process, but I prefer it to using 3rd party software.

 

 

Unplug your ethernet from the back of your PC or your router but make sure you have downloaded the nvidia driver you want to use before unplugging the ethernet cable

 

 

Go into control panel > Programmes and Features > Delete the Nvidia GFX driver

 

 

Restart as prompted,

 

 

Delete Nvidia Physx > delete Nvidia HD audio driver

 

 

Restart as prompted

 

 

Go into File Explorer on your task bar and click on your C drive, Delete all Nvidia folders in Program files, Program files (X86), Program data and any you find in user/name/appdata/local.

Right click the windows logo on your taskbar and click Run, type in "regedit"

 

 

Click Hkey current user > software and delete the nvidia corporation folder (sometimes there isn't one to delete)

Click Hkey local machine > software and delete nvidia corporation folder, then click wow64node and delete nvidia corporation folder.

 

 

Install the new driver, it will say it cant be verified as you are not connected to the internet, click run anyway, chose clean install and install the driver. Plug your ethernet cable back in when the driver has completely installed and you are good to go.

 

 

The reason for unplugging the ethernet cable is because unless you have gone into windows updates and chose to defer installing new updates, then it will automatically install an old nvidia driver.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Bearskin

[Burt]

Thx Bearskin ! wow great to have more than one option. I'm alittle neverous and intimidated about the wholw process but if I come to find it having the drop outs/ sawtooth pattern I'm definitely gonna attempted it. I always have bad luck doing that kind of stuff.

 

Thx again.... take care !

[Svsmokey]

Thx Bearskin ! wow great to have more than one option. I'm alittle neverous and intimidated about the wholw process but if I come to find it having the drop outs/ sawtooth pattern I'm definitely gonna attempted it. I always have bad luck doing that kind of stuff.

 

Thx again.... take care !

 

Beware: regedits can go very , very wrong . If you have little pc experience , better to let DDU do the work .

[Bearskin]

Thx Bearskin ! wow great to have more than one option. I'm alittle neverous and intimidated about the wholw process but if I come to find it having the drop outs/ sawtooth pattern I'm definitely gonna attempted it. I always have bad luck doing that kind of stuff.

 

Thx again.... take care !

 

 

 

I know exactly how you feel Burt, my first computer was back in the early to mid 90's when you had to start Windows (3.1) through a program called DOS (6.22) a black screen with a flashing cursor.

 

 

You had to type something like

 

 

Format c: /s/u to clear your hard drive of all files and make it like new again, c for your c drive, s to make it a system disk and u for unconditional format. So if your computer was stuffing up, you could format it and put everything back on again. I typed in Format c: /s/u and just sat staring at the screen for about 2 hours as I didn't want to hit the enter key as I didn't know if I would be able to get it back up and running again. I ended up pressing enter wiping the disk and reloading everything. Back then though it only took about 2 hours to get everything back up and running, whereas now it takes about 2 days.

 

 

Anyway mate, good luck and whatever you feel comfortable doing.

[Burt]

Beware: regedits can go very , very wrong . If you have little pc experience , better to let DDU do the work .

 

Thats me in a nut shell Bearskin, but I really appreciate your advice. I just ran a quick test on my fps in multi areas and actually im not getting the saw tooth/ low frame rate drops as described by 72hundred so I need to do alittle more before I jump in deep water with this. I had both afterburner and my 240hz monitor show frame rates and i did not have that affect. I need more time to compare. Thx Svsmokey thats some really great advice for me :thumbup:

 

Take care all.

[Burt]

I did another quick test yesterday evening with Afterburner in text and graph mode and had my monitor show framerates also. I'm running a rtx 2080 super with the 445.75 driver and rig set to High Performance/Thermal Performance and run a full tank of gas out of the F18 and I did see this sawtooth affect. My lowest fps was around 75-85. I will give it another go again this weekend just for curiosity.

 

Take care.

[Bearskin]

445.87 driver out yesterday, I have downloaded it but not installed it yet.

[Burt]

Yeah I've learned to wait and see the outcome on drivers now. haha!

[Nightstalker]

I never updated to the 445 drivers and I'm seeing those wild changes in frame rate since 2.5.6 so it's not just an Nvidia driver issue. I've notice massive drops (100 down to 18 or 19) when AI come into view. Even parked on the ground, when planes taxi by my frames will drastically drop for no reason. Kate mentioned that the new water textures are causing lower frame rates but I've seen these crazy drops when I'm 20-30,000 feet in the air.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

Intel 9700k, Asus 2080ti, 32 gigs DDR4, SSD.

[Bearskin]

Installed the 445.87 driver, see how it goes before the new DCS update comes out.

[72hundred]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I've installed the new drivers and still the same. Only happening in the aggressors campaign missions. No issues with free flight around Caucasus. I'll be honest I'm slow to go back in drivers as do use the PC for other gaming issues.

 

Hopefully, someone has a fix for this.

[Sn8ke_iis]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I've installed the new drivers and still the same. Only happening in the aggressors campaign missions. No issues with free flight around Caucasus. I'll be honest I'm slow to go back in drivers as do use the PC for other gaming issues.

 

Hopefully, someone has a fix for this.

 

AI objects and pathfinding is mostly CPU limited. Not sure graphics drivers will help much but it was worth a try.

 

When I've tested with uncapped framerate I can get high FPS in single player free flight missions but drops considerably when running a mission with wingmen and adversaries. Static ground objects not so much but a moving convoy for instance has a noticeable effect.

[72hundred]

Thanks, yea, it is certainly playable at the moment. Years ago I used play around drivers a lot, but tbh its too much work to be selectively applying updates and I play other games on the PC that benefit from new drivers.

 

I'll await a new PC build and/or a driver update.