Months of trying to sort performance issues

[Grubenstein]

Hi All, 

I have posted this before but. Since I did an update in Jan from a very smooth version back in Novemeber. I just cant get that performance back. 

Tried rolling back version. Now have re-installed windows and installed 2.5.6 version which stutters. I have since updated to 2.7.1.48335. Still stutters. 

Used to play Red Flag F16 campaign and get 72fps. Now 20 fps at start with constant slideshow stutters. 

Version 2.9.10.4160 was the last update that worked for me. Now cant get that performance back. 

Thanks

Hopefully files attached help but if u need more info let me know

Grubes

 

dcs.log DxDiag.txt

[BJ55]

Check this: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/372899-realtek-alc1200-audio-causing-simulation-speed-fluctuation/#comment-5640225

NVIDIA Display Driver Version 57602.r575_92

Try with a clean install of 552.44 or 566.36 drivers (use DDU if you don't know what files to remove manually), also delete shaders in C:\Users\***\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache and C:\Users\***\Saved Games\DCS.

Have you tried renaming the Saved Games\DCS folder? Maybe there are leftovers from current release causing performance issues.

[SOLIDKREATE]

What are you PC specs? If they aren't near what I have in my signature, you'll have issues. Wha resolution are you running? Keep in mind that my PC is kinda "mid tier" in 2025. I can run with everything turn all the way up (with rain/fog, and/or sand storms at 4K with no issues. I just don't do that.

You should never try and max out you GPU memory usage just because it says you have 'X' amount of Gigabytes. If you have an 8GB GPU, you need to be at 1080p gaming with a lot of stuff turned off, medium to low settings I'd venture to say. Check your "Pre-Load' radius of the world along with the grass and clutter settings. And as stated above the driver can really mess up you're experience. You GPU could also be on its last bit of life too.

[sleighzy]

@Grubenstein, this is a log file from DCS 2.9.1 , I'd recommend upgrading as there have been a number of changes, including around multithreaded performance. There may be more info in logs from later versions as well that may be more helpful. You've said performance is bad across all versions so upgrading to current shouldn't be an issue.

Nothing major jumps out in the logs, the DxDiag report however shows a number of issues when run through the DCS log analyzer.

 

Windows Error Reporting (WER)

Application Errors

bad_module_info: 00000000 (StackHash_0000)

Memory Timing Issues

• Remove any overclocking (XMP) from your RAM.

Microsoft Update / Store issues

• Make sure you have enough free disk space.
• Run SFC and DISM to check your Windows.
• Run wsreset.exe to reset the Microsoft Store cache.

 

For the SFC and DISM commands open a command prompt as administrator and run the below two commands separately. Restart your PC afterwards.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

sfc /scannow

 

Address the items above. Upgrade DCS. Replicate the issue again, with a full load of a mission, and then drop another log file here. When upgrading DCS delete the Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 folders. (In your case it appears to be looking in Saved Games\DCS.256)

Some additional items from the log analyzer:

• Set Water to Low.
• Disable civil traffic.
• Enable Full Screen mode.
• Windows 10 will be EOL Oct 14th 2025. Upgrade to Windows 11.
• Verify that this is configured correctly in Windows:
  • Game Mode disabled
  • Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling disabled

Edited May 11 by sleighzy

[Grubenstein]

On 5/11/2025 at 8:32 AM, SOLIDKREATE said:

What are you PC specs? If they aren't near what I have in my signature, you'll have issues. Wha resolution are you running? Keep in mind that my PC is kinda "mid tier" in 2025. I can run with everything turn all the way up (with rain/fog, and/or sand storms at 4K with no issues. I just don't do that.

You should never try and max out you GPU memory usage just because it says you have 'X' amount of Gigabytes. If you have an 8GB GPU, you need to be at 1080p gaming with a lot of stuff turned off, medium to low settings I'd venture to say. Check your "Pre-Load' radius of the world along with the grass and clutter settings. And as stated above the driver can really mess up you're experience. You GPU could also be on its last bit of life too.

My Specs are:

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz   3.60 GHz
Installed RAM    32.0 GB
Storage    477 GB SSD SPCC Solid State Disk
Graphics Card    NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB)
System Type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Running DCS in VR with Quest 2

 

[SOLIDKREATE]

Yeah that isn't a VR card. A 3080ti maybe but not that one.. Your specs seem pretty old. I bet the RAM is at 2000MHz. 8 cores just doesn't cut it anymore. You need at least 12 now. Some games however will run great on that. Yeah I'd turn down some setting to low - mid. More low than mid settings. 

[Mr_sukebe]

Take a scan here:

my immediate thought would be about VRAM.  As already mentioned, 8GB is a bit tight.  That thread has some thoughts about how to reduce VRAM use

[Grubenstein]

All sorted now. Updated to 2.9.460, 

Actioned some of the excellent points above

Most of my settings were on low anyway.

But getting 72-36 fps at the start of mission 1 of F16 Red Flag Campaign and 72fps FA18 BFM campaign

Thanks for everyone's help

[Temetre]

Am 11.5.2025 um 11:24 schrieb sleighzy:

Memory Timing Issues

• Remove any overclocking (XMP) from your RAM.

Btw, just wanna note that this is usually bad advice. XMP is technically 'overclocking', but realistically its manufacturer-defined and the speed your memory is supposed to run at.

If XMP causes issues, thats a deeper problem usually.

[Hiob]

11 minutes ago, Temetre said:

Btw, just wanna note that this is usually bad advice. XMP is technically 'overclocking', but realistically its manufacturer-defined and the speed your memory is supposed to run at.

If XMP causes issues, thats a deeper problem usually.

Some XMP profiles are just crap out of the box and the manufactures often don’t even guarantee they work in the first place.

Anyway it is good practice to have it disabled for troubleshooting.

But I agree that running on default forever, isn’t a solution.

[Temetre]

vor 1 Minute schrieb Hiob:

Some XMP profiles are just crap out of the box and the manufactures often don’t even guarantee they work in the first place.

Anyway it is good practice to have it disabled for troubleshooting.

But I agree that running on default forever, isn’t a solution.

Agreed with all.

I would consider memory that is advertised with XMP speeds, yet doesnt reliably run them to be defective. Idk whats the legal perspective about that is tho.

[sleighzy]

9 hours ago, Temetre said:

Btw, just wanna note that this is usually bad advice. XMP is technically 'overclocking', but realistically its manufacturer-defined and the speed your memory is supposed to run at.

If XMP causes issues, thats a deeper problem usually.

The removing of the overclocking, e.g. XMP profile, that comes from the log analyzer is because the error code in the stack trace (and DxDiag reports if they are there as well) in the log generally indicates a memory timing issue at the time. You can sometimes get timing issues with 4 sticks of RAM vs. 2 (overclocked and XMP), inconsistent RAM, overclocking, or other faults. Disabling the XMP profiles (or other overclocking) is a good way to initially troubleshoot this in case the memory timing issue is related to this and helps to rule it out. If not, or issue resolved by other means, then turn back on again.

Edited May 24 by sleighzy