New pilot Here - Bad performance problems.

[Stu MSD]

Hi guys,

Been itching to get DCS for a long time but not had chance, finally got some time to spend on the PC so bought it and installed Lock on - FC2 and FC3, and complimented it with Track-IR5.

 

Should have been a great day huh? Sadly not!

 

I am getting horrendous FPS - like, under 10fps with 3 cards, and still under 30fps with 1 card (7970HD).

The crossfire scaling is very negative and the whole thing is just unplayable. Are there so known bugs or workarounds at the moment for AMD cards perhaps?

 

I will upload some details and images soon to further illustrate my issues. As you will see, its certainly not the PC... there is some issue with the rendering engine and my spec... in fact, I was expecting 200FPS + with all settings to max. :(

[slowhand]

What are your Sys Spec's?

[Stu MSD]

Ok.. first, my system info.

 

Current Spec Is:

The system:

Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D

Mobo: Asus Maximus Extreme IV - Z

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.4ghz

GPU: 3 x Sapphire Radeon 7970's running 1200/1600

RAM: 8GB of Corsair Dominator GT 2133mhz

SSD's: 1x vertex 4 512GB for games and 1x Vertex 3 256GB for OS and apps

HDD's: 2x 1TB 7200rpm Seagates for video / movie / music storage

PSU: XFX Pro 1250w Black gamer Edition

 

Input / Output Items:

Mouse: Logitech G500 (Rat 9 on its way)

Keyboard: Logitech G19

Monitors: 3x BenQ 2420 120hz 3D versions running Eyefinity at 5760x1080.

Audio: Dolby 7.1 system.

Game Controllers: Razer Nostramo Keypad and Thrustmaster T500RS wheel & pedals

Flight Controllers: Saitek X52 Pro

Motion detection: Track Ir-5 and Pro clip.

 

 

Cooling & Monitoring

CPU Block: EK Supreme HF Plexi EN

Radiator internal: EK Coolstream XT 360mm Copper Fins - Single Circuit

Radiator external: Phobya Extreme Supernova 1260mm

Reservoir: XSPC Acrylic Dual 5.25 with pump inside

Pump: Alphacool VPP655 - D5 Pump

Internal Rad Fans: 3 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM - AP15s.

External Rad Fans: 4x 200mm Coolermaster Magaflow silents

Case Fans: 3x 140mm Noisetakers. (1 in, 1 out, 1 HDD bay.)

Coolant: EK EKoolant clear

Monitor and control: Aquaero 5 pro Computer.

 

External Backup:

Server: HPMediasmart with CPU upgrade & 4TB installed.

NAS: Thecus 5200pro with 5TB installed. (2TB raid & 1 spare)

 

 

Some images.

 

 

 

 

Currently keeping me in the top 5 of the UK HWBot benchmarking league. Pretty proud of this one, she flies. :)

Edited January 23, 2013 by Stu @ MSD

[Vitesse2l]

Is this thread an excuse to post those pics?

 

Actually, I'll be interested to see what the bottelneck is here.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Vitesse2l
spellunk

[Stu MSD]

Ok, So fired up DCS and configured everything to high. Result = horrendous.

Did some googling to find out how to display framerate direct from the rendering engine and got some screenshots.

 

This is with 3x 7970's enabled.

 

This is with 2x 7970's enabled.

 

This is with 1x 7970 enabled.

 

So thats the best it gets. 11fps average with totally negative X-Fire scaling?

 

As a point of interest, I fired up HAWX 2, a graphicaly far superior game I am sure you will all agree.

And I ran its internal benchmark with the same set of rules. Everything to max, 3, then 2, then 1 GPU. Results as follows.

 

3 GPU's

 

2 GPU's

 

1GPU:

 

 

So as you can probably understand, I am very dissapointed with the performance of DCS so far, considering how much it cost me to find the originbal lock on, then all the downloading and extra cash to upgrade it to DCS world then FC3. :(

 

Would really appreciate any advice anyone can give.

If we can get her up above 30FPS at least it will feel fluid, although still a kick on the balls on my system. :(

Edited January 23, 2013 by Stu @ MSD

[Stu MSD]

Is this thread an excuse to post those pics?

 

Actually, I'll be interested to see what the bottelneck is here.

 

No - Topics like this tend to spend the first 20 replies with people blaming hard drives - ram - GPU's - overheating - the list goes on. I just want my problem to be as detailed as I can make it so we can move forward with a solution before I give up and just ask for a refund which I dont want to do as I have wanted to get into some serious sims for years and just never had the time due to working 4 jobs for the past 12 years... now I have it nailed down to just 3 :D

 

Most of its just copied and pasted form the OC forum I use every day - for ease.

 

Sorry if its somehow caused offence. :(

Edited January 23, 2013 by Stu @ MSD

[slowhand]

Nice setup,Have you tried any other res besides that 5760x1080?What did you use as far as your in game setting? full/windowed everything and its sister turned on? With DCS its best to start low on setting and work to your liking..also you may want to ck out the section on muiti-monitor setups in the forums.

[ilikepie]

in the gfx ccc settings is every thing set to application controlled? if aa, af etc is been forced it will kill your frames.

[Stu MSD]

Nice setup,Have you tried any other res besides that 5760x1080?

 

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply.

No I havent mate, just that one so far.

 

What did you use as far as your in game setting?

 

Full screen then just vtapped the "high" button at the bottom so it auto configured it for me.

 

you may want to ck out the section on muiti-monitor setups in the forums.

 

Just going to make a brew then will browse around and do just that. :)

[Stu MSD]

in the gfx ccc settings is every thing set to application controlled? if aa, af etc is been forced it will kill your frames.

 

Hi,

I leave CCC absolutely standard as it installs out of the box as its a requirement for some of the benchmarking programs I use and it generally works just fine on anything unless I need to force alternate frame rendering for the Xfire or something.

 

If you guys have a set of settings that work well I will create a profile for it that auto launches when i fire up DCS. Just hoping you guys can save me a lot of triaol and error with your experience and of course kindness. :)

[Stu MSD]

Just set everything to low and a 4400 screen res.

Result - 39fps! :(

[Stu MSD]

Ok, had a play around on 1 GPU and have got at least "Playable" results with it set like this:

 

 

 

FPS are up in the low 40s now.

I would still appreciate any help to find the issue as the settings shouldnt need turning down to get a decent frame rate, so there is a conflict somewhere... just need to figure out where.

[pacotito]

Nice rig. I'm not sure how eyefinity is setup since I've never gone that route. Are you using the one camera in the options or the three camera? Another thing is if you have mirrors on that will kill your framerate. While hawx is more graphically appealing dcs has to do a lot more than hawx. Things like physics that hawx doesn't model as well. When you fire the gun dcs calculates the bullet(I think each bullet is calculated but I could be wrong) path with factors like wind,gravity,aircraft speed when firing, and so on for all the units in a mission so that really eats the CPU cycles. Add in the fact that dcs isn't multithreaded(sound is the only thing on a separate core) even an extremely high end pc can see low fps with enough going on in the mission.

[EtherealN]

Regarding multi-GPU operation, the problem is in large part AMD not having any support for DCS.

 

Low 40's is, depending on situation, acceptable since this may then become a CPU bottleneck, though still a bit on the low side for that CPU. This is a very complex simulation and thus graphics is not the only thing that can adversely affect framerates. If in an empty environment it might however still be something "going on". (Empty environment I get 50+ on one screen, windowed, with HD video playing on the other screen.) Can you check and compare with what you get on low? Also, could try running one monitor only. Try water to low as well, just to see what's going on.

 

Also, btw, you do know you don't need a camera to get screenshots? Just press Print Screen, it's what that key is there for. :)

[Stu MSD]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply?

Sorry, not sure what you mean by one camera or three? Where is that setting and what is it for?

 

No - I dont have mirrors checked, just mini HUD.

 

Understand the CPU is far more tasked than in HAWX as that is after all just a shoot em up.

My test was purely to show what my graphics setup can do, and a 3770K at 4.4ghz is hardly going to struggle compared to most peoples so I shouldnt be limited there either as I read of people on here with 50+FPS... it cant be totally CPU limited surely?

 

Nice rig. I'm not sure how eyefinity is setup since I've never gone that route. Are you using the one camera in the options or the three camera? Another thing is if you have mirrors on that will kill your framerate. While hawx is more graphically appealing dcs has to do a lot more than hawx. Things like physics that hawx doesn't model as well. When you fire the gun dcs calculates the bullet(I think each bullet is calculated but I could be wrong) path with factors like wind,gravity,aircraft speed when firing, and so on for all the units in a mission so that really eats the CPU cycles. Add in the fact that dcs isn't multithreaded(sound is the only thing on a separate core) even an extremely high end pc can see low fps with enough going on in the mission.

[Stu MSD]

Thanks mate, will do some more testing, and plot CPU performance while I am at it.

 

Yes, but my phone drops all images directly onto my server and allows me to link them at any res I link, no messing about uploading images from the PC first. ;)

 

Regarding multi-GPU operation, the problem is in large part AMD not having any support for DCS.

 

Low 40's is, depending on situation, acceptable since this may then become a CPU bottleneck, though still a bit on the low side for that CPU. This is a very complex simulation and thus graphics is not the only thing that can adversely affect framerates. If in an empty environment it might however still be something "going on". (Empty environment I get 50+ on one screen, windowed, with HD video playing on the other screen.) Can you check and compare with what you get on low? Also, could try running one monitor only. Try water to low as well, just to see what's going on.

 

Also, btw, you do know you don't need a camera to get screenshots? Just press Print Screen, it's what that key is there for. :)

[EtherealN]

"One camera or three" indicates whether the three screens act as a single screen (that is, game renders only one viewport for all three), or whether each screen gets it's own viewport.

[Stu MSD]

Ok, here are the results of a quick run.

 

(The above image is the summary spreadsheet)

 

CPU overall max usage 20%, but more importantly, the 2 cores in use peaked at 67%. 6+GB of spare ram too... so whats slowing it down I have no idea.

 

"One camera or three" indicates whether the three screens act as a single screen (that is, game renders only one viewport for all three), or whether each screen gets it's own viewport.

 

Ah I see, I just have it set to 3 screens so one big image that moves with my head. havent tried any of the other options yet.

[pacotito]

You could try turning hyperthreading off and see if that helps. As to the camera there should be a setting in dcs options that has a drop down and you can pick one camera or three camera. Unless its been removed. I haven't had time to sim lately. One camera renders on frame and displays it on selected resolution. 3 camera renders 3 frames and sends one to each monitor.

What mission are you using? Keep in mind a "busy" mission will tax even high end rigs

Edited January 24, 2013 by pacotito

[Stu MSD]

Hi,

HT shouldnt be "costing" performance nowadays and I really dont want to have to go into my bios to play 1 game. I will ry it though, for feedbacks sake. :)

 

I just use the Quick Action option and choose the F15 dogfight.

[lxsapper]

Ok I'm sorry if someone is going to be offended, but I have to say something.

This guy has a killer system tips like "turn off mirrors" and "set water to low" "because they are resource hogs" are just PLAIN STUPID! my system is not half of his but is not redered unplayable by water and mirrors, yes it does have an impact but not enough for the game to come to a screaching halt at 7fps (only rockets do that for me). Given that I don't run those resolutions, nevertheless I belive other people here in this forums do run them, and not everyone of them has a system quite this powerfull.

 

Now the multi-gpu wich should be a plus is most likely causing a big problem. How hard would it be for you to try and mount only 1 card? Just for testing?

[Stu MSD]

Thanks mate,

Thats why I went to the effort of being quite detailed about my system as tech support forum advice always tends to follow the same path. I still appreciate each and every members advice though as it allows me to quickly build a picture of what aspects are the biggest rescource hog in this engine.

 

The cards are all bolted together underwater so taking one out isnt an option sadly, but disabling Xfire as I have done in the examples early "should" do the same job.

 

 

Its a bit disheartening really as I really want to jump in and learn how to play these properly and invest in some more plugins like the Helicopters, but I dont want to do it if its going to run badly as it does now. I want the eye candy, rightly or wrongly, as thats why I have invested in the system that i have... Even really heavy games like Skyrim run at 200+FPS on this system, in fact, even the dreaded 64 player maps on BF3 are pulling 170+FPS. (naturally anything over 120fps is pointless on my system anyway- but Vsync set at 120 is nice.)

 

 

Ok I'm sorry if someone is going to be offended, but I have to say something.

This guy has a killer system tips like "turn off mirrors" and "set water to low" "because they are resource hogs" are just PLAIN STUPID! my system is not half of his but is not redered unplayable by water and mirrors, yes it does have an impact but not enough for the game to come to a screaching halt at 7fps (only rockets do that for me). Given that I don't run those resolutions, nevertheless I belive other people here in this forums do run them, and not everyone of them has a system quite this powerfull.

 

Now the multi-gpu wich should be a plus is most likely causing a big problem. How hard would it be for you to try and mount only 1 card? Just for testing?

Edited January 24, 2013 by Stu @ MSD

[lxsapper]

By the way, No Hawx 2 IS NOT graphicaly superior it's both graphicaly inferior and less complex! It does however lend it self well to delivering a cinematic experience that passes sometime as photorealistic, through some clever texturing and lighting.

[lxsapper]

Well I'm not that knowlageable but using the 3 cards actually brings your cards down to 8x right? Of course that bandwith migh still be enough to have 1 card deliver full power, but I'm just gessing I really don't know.

[Stu MSD]

By the way, No Hawx 2 IS NOT graphicaly superior it's both graphicaly inferior and less complex! It does however lend it self well to delivering a cinematic experience that passes sometime as photorealistic, through some clever texturing and lighting.

 

I can only compare what I have, and the DX11 version looks incredible to me. Admittedly, the normal version is probably not quite as good as DCS although obviously on my system is playing a lot smoother.