Regular FPS drops when looking at the ground on Caucasus

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Hello

For many months (since around 2.8) I have had significant FPS drops, depending on where I am looking in the game. This happens a little randomly, sometimes everything is fine, and sometimes I have the problem (most of the time ). If I look up to the sky, I go up to about 65-70 fps. If I look down I'm only between 15 and 30 fps. Looking towards the horizon, I am also affected if I am low enough (we will say around 5000 ft). The higher I fly, the better it seems. I particularly have the problem on Caucasus (surprisingly big maps like Syria look better). I play in VR with a G2 reverb, my graphics card is a 3080, my processor is an i7 12700 KF, and I have 64 GB of RAM. Thanks if anyone can help me, I can't find any solutions. I would like to point out that I have also been subject to a lot of blocking from the game menu since 2.9, with 0 FPS when launching the game, even in windowed screen mode, and even after reinstalling the game. I managed to unblock myself Thanks to posts on the forum, I had to unpark all the cores of my processor, and I prohibit DCS from running on the efficient cores of my processor (I therefore only use the performance cores) via process lasso. However I still have the problem of unstable FPS when I am close to the ground on Caucasus. The use of the F10 map is also a factor which pushes me to a temporary drop in FPS. I've already lowered a lot of graphics settings, the only thing that seems to work is to set terrain detail to low, but why sometimes have I no problem ?,Why Syria works better than caucase ??

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dcs.log dcs.log.old

Edited May 31, 2024 by IRRE_Schwarzy
add logs

[speed-of-heat]

Add a track, and a log file...

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Logs added; For the track I will try, but in VR that is not easy

[Canada_Moose]

When you look at the ground are there objects in view? Airfields with AI on etc?

I notice a slow down at certain 'object heavy' areas like this.

[speed-of-heat]

48 minutes ago, IRRE_Schwarzy said:

Logs added; For the track I will try, but in VR that is not easy

why just save the track at the end of the mission ?

 

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

1 hour ago, Canada_Moose said:

When you look at the ground are there objects in view? Airfields with AI on etc?

No there is nothing special in the area, only the ground

[Mrgone]

In VR I have the same issue.  Extreme FPS loss while looking at my instrument panel, you could say while looking down however, it appears mostly while interacting with the flight panel.

For me, the problem began with the AH-64 and the F-15E upon their release, day one of each.  Only these two modules are affected.

I will drop from 65-72 FPS to 1-2 FPS and finaly DCS locks-up.  It does not crash.  If I [Alt-Tab] or [F10] for a moment the issue dissipates long enough to land or exit the sim.

It matters not where I am located nor the density of the surrounding objects and altitude.

Lowering my settings to the default VR option helps a little with the F-15E but the Apache still stutters a bit.

With all other aircraft I can run the same settings in VR as I do in screen-mode (maxed) without any issues other than a little drop in the more densely populated areas. 

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Here is a direct track of my headset, you can see the FPS on the open xr overlay (sorry for the quality, but you will undurstand what I see). I tried to bloc my fps at a maximum of 60, that is why it never go higher than 60 even when looking the sky.

Interesting thing : if I look in the task manager the utilisation of my GPU, my 3080 runs at about 65% when looking the sky, and 100% when I look the ground

 

Edited May 31, 2024 by IRRE_Schwarzy

[speed-of-heat]

That's a video... I meant a trk, track file..

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

1 hour ago, speed-of-heat said:

That's a video... I meant a trk, track file..

 

Training_Map_Caucase-20240531-202306.trk

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Any idea please ??

[speed-of-heat]

I couldn't repo your problem per-say ( i could see it a couple of times when you switched to external views)... maybe try disabling TAcview, also the Phantom is pretty new... so it might be more to do with that, a lot of people have said the radar is a hog for CPU ...

I also allow DCS to use 2 efficiency cores 

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Thanks for answer. I have already tried to disable tacview. The phantom is not the problem, I have the problem with all modules.
I attach you an other try of log and trk, it is a very short flight (quick mission F4 free flight caucasus. The performances are very very bad.

Do you think that is a CPU problem, and not a GPU one ? With the CTRL - PAUSE windows, I see CPU bound with my FPS, I dont know if it matters ?
Can you tell me more about the 2 ecore allowed ? I see you use the same CPU as me. I always see that e core are the problems. Which ones do you allow ?

dcs.log test perf caucasus.trk

[speed-of-heat]

I use a 12700kf. and a 4090 

when you see stuttering its likely to be a CPU problem... CPU Bound and Red is bad, CPU Bound and Yellow is "default", lowest FPS I got was 30 on the low pass.... it never dropped to 1-2fps (but 30 was pretty unusually low )  

 

I allow DCS to use cores 8-17 which gives it two Efficiency cores 

try putting shadows to flat and turning off mirrors.

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

OK thanks, my shadows are already flat, mirrors don't have a lot of effect on my fps. This afternoon, I tried the free flight mission on caucasus with F18, one time it is totally smooth with 50-60 fps non stop. If I restart the mission, the next time can be the same, or be a disaster with FPS between 10 and 25. There is no reason of these huge differences on the same mission, I can't understand.
The fact that my utilisation of GPU (3080) go from 60% to 100% when I have the fps issue is not for you a sign that it is a GPU problem (and not a CPU ?)
Roger that for the 8-17 cores, so you disable the 0-7 p cores ? Why do you do that ? It is interesting

PS : Just a stupid question : when you play my trk file, you are able to see exactly how many FPS I had on my computer ? Or is it your computer's performance ?
 Thanks for your support

Edited June 2, 2024 by IRRE_Schwarzy

[speed-of-heat]

I just see my fps not yours

I don't disable 0-7 I just make sure dcs doesn't use them, windows processes tend to default to 0-1 for example, and other processes can the use 2-6  I don't see an perf gains beyond allowing dcs to have access to 4 cores for rendering and twon(the e cores) for io

Edited June 2, 2024 by speed-of-heat

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

I have just tried your specified CPU affinity, with 8-17 cores, but again no difference in my test, always shuttering et low fps

[speed-of-heat]

My only other thought, is you gave a problem in your pc's environment, new software or updates outside of dcs, or cpu overheating or similar?

And if you have any mods, remove them.

[Schwarzy]

No mod. 

Do you have an idea of what Can cause that ? I have already make exceptions in my antimalware.

Do you think if it Can be options in the bios ? People always say to disable hyperthreading ?? Maybe cpu fréquence, but I never touch it. Maybe try with MSI afterburner ? I have never overclocked too. 

Last bios update did on december 2023, which resolved recent DCS crashs, but not these performances issues

 

[speed-of-heat]

I have seen lighting and fanconttrol software do it.. .basically anything running in the background... 

depending on how your BIOS is set, yes it could be that too, Disabbling hyper threading was true with 9th gen and earlier ... i f you have a 12700k and are not over clocking it you have left money on the table 

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Ok maybe, I tried to overclocke a little my cpu yesterday night, but as I expected, even if benchmark are better, always the freeze at 20 fps with the quick mission of the F4 on caucasus.

[speed-of-heat]

I really wouldn't test with the F-4 the module has just entered early access ... 

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

Yes it is right, but this was for me a good test because each time I have my shuterring et fps lost problem, whereas with other quick mission like F18, this is really random

[jurinko]

I have found that switching the ground shadows off cures the problem, introduced in the F-4 patch. 

[Loukuins]

Had this issue since 2.7.0 on 2 different rig, I had no issues for a while until the release of the F-4E, when this occurs I lose between 80-125fps, this is VERY annoying, the only thing that show the issue is present it looking at my GPU Power usage, when the issue is here my GPU is at 80-90W instead of the 250W meaning that something is wrong. This happened on 2 DIFFERENT PC so it's not a HARDWARE issue.