[RESOLVED]Performance plummeted overnight - low GPU & CPU usage

[Althar93]

Hello all,

 

I am currently experiencing an issue with the game whereby my performance has dropped by ~half over the course of a day for no apparent reason.

 

Worth noting I was previously able to handle 60FPS with my settings in a majority of scenarios (including the ones I tested to compare), whereas today my framerate & overall performance has just plummeted.

 

I have based my tests on the SU-25T start up tutorial, which again I was able to run at a silky smooth 60FPS until not so long ago - now I barely get 30-40FPS and my GPU & CPU usage is extremely low (30% or less) : the CPU usage is 30% across the board with no core going above the 30% mark.

 

I tried switching to the open beta & back, updated my drivers but nothing has helped - worth noting I have not noticed any drop in peformance in any other of my games, DCS is the only application which seems to be affected.

 

My specs are :

• i7-4790 (~3.6Ghz)
  
• RTX 2060 / 6GB
  
• 16GB RAM
  
• Game installed and running off an SSD
  

 

See the MSI after burner readings for GPU & CPU usage, as well as the Resource monitor (hopefully the screenshots work).

 

https://ibb.co/rt97gwk

https://ibb.co/kx3SmNp

 

[Gierasimov]

See if you have DCS configured in MSI burner as accelerated game and remove it. Or try running without MSI afterburner

[Flappie]

Same thing if you use MSI Dragon Center: please remove DCS from it.

Also, please attach your dcs.log file.

[imacken]

See if you have DCS configured in MSI burner as accelerated game and remove it. Or try running without MSI afterburner

 

Out of interest, where are 'accelerated' games configured in AB?

[Althar93]

Tried running without MSI Afterburner and it didn't seem to make any difference (worth noting I only ran MSI afterburner in the first place after noticing the game under-performing).

[Althar93]

And my dcs log - can't see anything of particular interest in there : dcs.log

[Flappie]

Indeed, your dcs.log seems alright, and your pagefile size is good.

 

Since you've based your performance tests on the Su-25T (excellent idea btw since it's included in the core game), you may want to give Widows safe mode a try:

 

1. Press Windows key, type "msconfig" and press Enter.
   
2. In the General tab, tick "Diagnostic startup" and click "Apply" (you will see some other boxes get ticked, it's OK).
   
3. Click OK and choose to restart your computer.
   
4. Log into Windows as usual, then launch DCS. You will get several error messages since your PC network is disabled. Just click OK until you see DCS main menu.
   
5. Fly the Su-25T start up tutorial mission, and watch your FPS counter.
   

Once you're done with testing, just open "msconfig", tick "Normal startup", click OK and restart your system, and everything will be back to normal.

[BIGNEWY]

Please add a track replay showing performance loss, we can review and see if we get the same.

 

thanks

[...]

I also have MSI Dragon Center and I have no performance problems, but I could not do without it because it is the software that allows me to adjust the fans and cooling in game mode. If I didn't activate it, my PC would scorch. However, the latest NVIDIA drivers speed up my GPU like never before. On the other hand, there is the version of Windows 10 2019 that in my case works well, but there are those who have had problems. Bignewy opened a thread advising to restore the NVIDIA control panel to defaults after updating Windows 10 2019. Maybe this helps.

[...]

I have a much smaller PC than yours and it works without problems. Windows settings, (Privacy) all background tasks disabled) Power control, maximum performance. Antivirus, exclusion of DCS folders in program files and saved games. Virus scanning can slow down the simulator. Updates, advanced settings, (they do not allow downloads from other computers) With this you get that Windows does not use your bandwidth. Keep in mind that I am not a PRO of onformatics, so all this I have been collecting for three years and are advice from unofficial sources that in my case help DCS to function better. And lastly, use the presets from the simulator control panel. The default settings always work better than manual settings.

[BIGNEWY]

the problem with performance issues is there is never a simple answer, many have no issues, others have problems, what might work for one user may not work for another. There are so many different hardware and software configurations out there it feels like a minefield sometimes.

[Althar93]

I followed the advice to run safe mode using the 'msconfig' - Long story short, this didn't work and some strange Windows 10 bug led me to being unable to log back in (something about the PIN not working and it wasn't giving me the option to log in with my usual password) so I had to run a recovery (thankfully had a snapshot from just 2 days ago).

 

Lo and behold, I am back to running at full GPU/CPU usage & 100FPS+ with the SU-25T start up scenario.

 

Thanks for the help all - I would have liked to have had a more conclusive reason as to why / what caused the issue in the first place but I am not sure I am going to figure that one out, unless the issue sprouts up again in 2 days.

[Flappie]

Wow, I didn't think something could go wrong by simply going into safe mode ! However, you seem to have been struck by luck, since you got DCS performance back. :) It seems your system was faulty in some way, or that some software update was messing with DCS (it might come back in a few days, then).

 

Thanks for your feedback, and I hope your DCS will keep its 100 FPS+!

[BIGNEWY]

I followed the advice to run safe mode using the 'msconfig' - Long story short, this didn't work and some strange Windows 10 bug led me to being unable to log back in (something about the PIN not working and it wasn't giving me the option to log in with my usual password) so I had to run a recovery (thankfully had a snapshot from just 2 days ago).

 

Lo and behold, I am back to running at full GPU/CPU usage & 100FPS+ with the SU-25T start up scenario.

 

Thanks for the help all - I would have liked to have had a more conclusive reason as to why / what caused the issue in the first place but I am not sure I am going to figure that one out, unless the issue sprouts up again in 2 days.

 

Great to hear you have higher frames again, thanks for letting us know :thumbup: