Which of these parts would you upgrade first?

[AceMcPlane]

.9900k
.3070

I’m getting serious stutter that happens 2 or 3 times each session that turns my VR into a slideshow. It happens when I switch views or open the map. It’s like the terrains get stuck loading or something or at least I thought so until it happened in the map editor too.

I have to put down the headset and leave it for at least 2 minutes for it to go back to normal. 

It might be the 8gb of VRAM not being enough on the GPU, but I really don’t want to do an upgrade and find out that I still have the bug.

Which upgrade would you do? Platform or graphics card?

Edited November 29, 2024 by AceMcPlane

[SharpeXB]

Does the in-game counter (Ctrl+Pause) say that you are GPU or CPU limited?

[AceMcPlane]

21 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Does the in-game counter (Ctrl+Pause) say that you are GPU or CPU limited?

It says that I’m CPU limited when there aren’t any stutters and says I’m GPU bound when it’s stuttering. This happens on the lowest game settings too. Seems like a bug when you change views or open the map to me, but I’d still throw money at fixing it in the short term

[speed-of-heat]

more likely to be an environmental problem 

[AceMcPlane]

1 hour ago, speed-of-heat said:

more likely to be an environmental problem 

Oh maybe it’s weather.

I’m working on a heavy thunderstorm mission. I think it happened in a different time though too with no weather. Yea I got it to happen while just flying around the Persian gulf map one time. It happened in the main menu too with no mission loaded so IDK what to think. 

[speed-of-heat]

apologies, by environmental i mean some problem in the configuration of your PC, its software, firmware or hardware that causes "unpredictable" pauses in games like DCS. as examples

• software that maintains LED's can and has (iQue) in my case really irritating problems
• memory timing issues can and does
• operating track IR and DCS when DCS is operating in no multiples of 60hz has caused problems in the past
• there have been issues caused by high mouse polling rates
• temperature management of components 
• software that runs in the back ground etc.... 

 

[AceMcPlane]

10 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

apologies, by environmental i mean some problem in the configuration of your PC, its software, firmware or hardware that causes "unpredictable" pauses in games like DCS. as examples

• software that maintains LED's can and has (iQue) in my case really irritating problems
• memory timing issues can and does
• operating track IR and DCS when DCS is operating in no multiples of 60hz has caused problems in the past
• there have been issues caused by high mouse polling rates
• temperature management of components 
• software that runs in the back ground etc.... 

 

Cool, I’ll try testing those. Thanks.  I do have 4 sticks of ram instead of 2. They are the same model number, but with different version numbers. Same timings though. I extensively tested that with memtest and it passed everything. Multiple overnight tests. I can’t rule out there being differences between the controllers or something. That’s the only thing that’s making me lean towards upgrading my platform instead of the GPU. I really have a feeling it is GPU related though just because I didn’t get this issue with a GTX 1080 but I was running an older version of DCS so there’s too many variables to know. The classic too many changes at once. 

[speed-of-heat]

so as a general rule of "huh maybe thats something i should look at" if it's a background software "issue" then check you CPU% usage at idle, just after boot, mines typically at 2% or less... but look for "spikey" behaviour, and it need not be a lot 

[Nightdare]

How much RAM do you have?

How large is your swap file (Is it on an SSD)?

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

8Gb VRAM sounds prety tight.

Whats your setting dcs max fps? It should be same fps as refresh of your headset or half of that

[SharpeXB]

3 hours ago, Ala12Rv-Tundra said:

8Gb VRAM sounds prety tight.

Probably true. Funny though that this is what the Recommended Specs list

[AceMcPlane]

10 hours ago, Nightdare said:

How much RAM do you have?

How large is your swap file (Is it on an SSD)?

32GB

Yea, my paging file is on a m.2 NVME drive. It’s on my system drive & DCS is installed to a different NVME drive.

[AceMcPlane]

10 hours ago, Ala12Rv-Tundra said:

8Gb VRAM sounds prety tight.

Whats your setting dcs max fps? It should be same fps as refresh of your headset or half of that

Nice. I’ll try that. It was set to 120 FPS. I can’t set it to the same as my headset though. I have the Quest in 72hz mode. I’ll have to try 75 FPS since the slider in DCS doesn’t go in smaller intervals. Might have to try 80hz mode if that doesn’t work.

[AceMcPlane]

19 hours ago, speed-of-heat said:

so as a general rule of "huh maybe thats something i should look at" if it's a background software "issue" then check you CPU% usage at idle, just after boot, mines typically at 2% or less... but look for "spikey" behaviour, and it need not be a lot 

I just checked it now. Seems good. It stays around 1-2% like you said. I’m very anti-bloatware so only what I need running.

[AceMcPlane]

I’m trying things suggested and so far not much is changing. Setting the max frame rate to 72 in the Nvidia control panel instead of just the game might have helped reduce it a little.

 Setting the VR bitrate to max in virtual desktop if you have a good 6E router is the number 1 step to reduce the problem. At least it’s still okay if you keep your head still while it’s happening with these 2 steps.

as for the CPU or GPU decision, I hear AMD’s X3D CPUs really help with this so I was about to upgrade…

and they’re all gone..

Oh well. I’ll wait. 

Edited December 2, 2024 by AceMcPlane

[AceMcPlane]

Never mind, the problem came back again just as bad as before so no solutions found so far. Drat.

[Jeb]

I have the 9900k and it runs mine just fine with the quest 2, I see 60fps all day even in MP with a busy enviroment

[AceMcPlane]

On 12/7/2024 at 8:45 AM, Jeb said:

I have the 9900k and it runs mine just fine with the quest 2, I see 60fps all day even in MP with a busy enviroment

Thanks for the input.

Update: I’m am leaning back towards GPU now so you might be right. The issue happens most often while switching to the map screen or changing views. I do that a lot because I’m making videos & recording with OBS. Luckily, I ruled out OBS as being the problem by getting the issue to happen without it running. That was one of the reasons I thought I might need a new CPU. I’m focused on thunderstorm carrier landings right now, but when I get a chance I’ll do more troubleshooting and update this. 

 

[Nightdare]

Is the PCIe set at the right speed in bios?

and a thing in personal experience after installing my 4080s: My riser cable was not perfectly connected, which knocked down slot-speed to 1x 

Have you tried a few benches to see if this issue is repeatable in other environments than DCS?

 

[Jeb]

you will never see fluid frames running a 3070, no matter what CPU you have. sell the 3070 and get a 4070tis or 4080s, even the 7900xt what i have is better then the 3070, and the 20G of vram is nice . i got mine brand new at best buy for 699.00 US.. mine is the MERC 310. amazon has them for 684 now.  Or you can spend another 500 and go with team green

 

[Nightdare]

9 hours ago, Jeb said:

you will never see fluid frames running a 3070, no matter what CPU you have.

 

So,... care to explain how I had fluid frames with my 3060ti/13600k?