Stuck at 30 FPS

[Wayc00lio]

Hey guys,

 

Just wondering if someone out there could offer some advice. I've got a half decent rig and the max FPS I can seem to get out of the DCSW (specifically A10C) is 30.

 

I've got most settings up full whack and when I do minor tweaks like shadows to medium or water to medium I get no increase in FPS.

 

My config/graphics file is unchanged so maxFPS is set to 120.

 

Any ideas?

[BIGNEWY]

do you have vsync on ?

[Wayc00lio]

Not in game, but I have adaptive Vsync in the nvidia settings

[Cobra99]

turn off your adaptive vsync. Let your framerates go so you can see what your average rate is and then set it in the graphics.cfg

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Wayc00lio]

Thanks Tom.

 

The FPS is now up at 60. However, I now get lines across the screen. I presume this is due to vsync being off. That is annoying and will be an issue for me. Any workaround?

[Wayc00lio]

Well I tried the ingame vsync to see if that would improve things. FPS still up around 64-65 and the lines when I move my head around have gone (feint lines where the graphics are not lining up momentarily) but not as good a solution as the nvidia settings. That was much better. Still, I could probably live with it for a while.

[Wayc00lio]

OK, so now I've put vsync on in the nvidia settings (on - not adaptive), turned it off in game and the lines have totally gone and the FPS is around 61. Top banana!!!

[Bucic]

Here's an extensive (and simple) description of Vsync settings in DCS (DCS specifics are Black Shark 1 era though! ; I don't know whether something significant has changed in the game engine re Vsync), with links to other topics:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1221715&postcount=13

Edited April 18, 2013 by Bucic

[SkateZilla]

Disable VSync in the DCS nVidia Profile

 

And Change Graphics CFG and Set 60 as max.

[Wayc00lio]

Thanks Bucic. That's really helpful. Explains a lot and as such, nothing to be worries about :-)

[Wayc00lio]

Well if I disable vsync in vnidia setup, then I get the torn graphics. I've just tried it. The only way to get rid of those is to have vsync on. I set the MaxFPS to 60 too.

[SkateZilla]

oops, yeah, VSync should be on with Max at 60.

 

on my current system and my backup with eVGA card, i had to set max 60, even with vsync ON it would go way above 60 (on 60 Hz Screens). dunno why.

[msalama]

From the top of my head - works if your screen refresh rate is 60Hz, otherwise substitute MaxFPS with your rate:

 

1) Graphics.cfg MaxFPS = 60 (sim config parameter)

2) Vertical sync = force on (NVidia driver parameter)

3) Vertical sync tear control = standard (NVidia driver parameter)

[Wayc00lio]

So let me get this right. My screen rate is 60Hz. Therefore my FPS will be either 30ish or 60ish depending on the hardware needs at the time in the sim. Even if I had 50 graphics cards and a 1000 core cip with a billion GB of RAM, I couldn't get any higher than 60 FPS due to the screen refresh rate. What I'm trying to get at is that it's not my system, more the monitor.

[159th_Falcon]

So let me get this right. My screen rate is 60Hz. Therefore my FPS will be either 30ish or 60ish depending on the hardware needs at the time in the sim. Even if I had 50 graphics cards and a 1000 core cip with a billion GB of RAM, I couldn't get any higher than 60 FPS due to the screen refresh rate. What I'm trying to get at is that it's not my system, more the monitor.

 

True, but if you have 60 FPS, what's the point of having more?

The sim is playing just fine for me, event at 25 fps average.

[Wayc00lio]

I was mearly hinting at weaknesses in my system - not the fact that I want loads more FPS. I didn't know it was throttled back by the refresh rate.

 

Thanks for all the info :-)

 

Very helpful and has put my mind at ease.

[Wayc00lio]

3) Vertical sync tear control = standard (NVidia driver parameter)

 

I don't have this in my options.

[Axion]

Lock mine at 30 FPS, 1/2 refresh rate using Nvidia Inspector.

 

This avoids those micro stutters if you have the standard vsync enabled and your frames drop below 60 FPS.

[Wayc00lio]

Ah - nVidia Inspector. Never knew about that!

[Oznerol256]

Actually, the FPS arent locked by your screen refresh rate.

 

However, your monitor is all the time refreshing at the screen refresh rate. So if your gpu isnt synced with your monitor refresh rate something strange may happen: The graphics card has some piece of memory what holds the lastest rendered frame. The monitor fetches the data of this memory over the monitor cable and shows it. If your gpu isnt synced, the gpu may write a new frame into the memory while the monitor reads. If your monitor has fetched a part of the currently stored frame and a new frame get written into the memory, the rest of the frame that the monitor fetches will be the new frame. So your monitor will show fractions of two frames simultaneously. E.g. on the upper half the older frame and on the lower half a newer frame. If the frames differ somewhat you may see the break between the two frames. This is what people call screen tearing.

 

To prevent that from happening you have to make sure the monitor has read the whole frame before writing a new frame into the memory. So you just stop rendering and wait for the monitor to read. After that you render the next frame and write it into the memory. If your gpu is too slow the monitor will fetch a frame multiple times and show the same frame all the time. Once your gpu finally gets a frame ready, you still have to make sure that you dont write into the memory while the screen is reading the frame. If you dont, you may see screen tearing even when your gpu is only rendering 41fps or 17fps or something like that. Thats why Vsync (the "wait for the monitor feature") only allows integer fractions of the screen refresh rate. You must give your monitor the time to read the frame once (60fps) or twice (30 fps) or three times (20 fps) and so on. Not one and a half times (40 fps). This will cause screen tearing.

 

So if you turn on Vsync, your gpu waits for the monitor to read the frame from the memory before writing a new frame into it. This effectively causes the gpu to be synced with your monitor refresh rate. You have to wait for the monitor to read the frame at least once before writing a new frame into the memory.

 

 

 

Apart from that, i dont see any reason why you would want to have a monitor that refreshes faster than 60 times a second (except you need one refresh for each eye e.g. when viewing stereoscopic 3D). Your eyes wont see any faster than 60 times a second. Do you know that most movies are recorded in frame rates like 30fps or 29.97fps ? Actually, projectors and TVs specifically build to view movies usually cant refresh faster than that framerate.

[Wayc00lio]

A perfect answer Oz - thanks for that info :-)

[Oznerol256]

A perfect answer Oz - thanks for that info :-)

Thank you!

[Wolf Rider]

Well if I disable vsync in vnidia setup, then I get the torn graphics. I've just tried it. The only way to get rid of those is to have vsync on. I set the MaxFPS to 60 too.

 

 

With that sort of system you have listed there, which is similar to mine, you should be getting a whole lot better result...

WHat is your monitor, by the way?

 

From the top of my head - works if your screen refresh rate is 60Hz, otherwise substitute MaxFPS with your rate:

 

1) Graphics.cfg MaxFPS = 60 (sim config parameter)

2) Vertical sync = Use the 3D Application Setting (NVidia driver parameter) is what the setting should be using nV Control Panel

3) Vertical sync tear control = standard (NVidia driver parameter) ?

Edited April 18, 2013 by Wolf Rider

[msalama]

Use the 3D Application Setting

 

Went down that route once, didn't work for me. See http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=101079 for details. And the standard tear control only ensures there's no screen tearing, because I still get it from time to time if I use adaptive.

[Wayc00lio]

With that sort of system you have listed there, which is similar to mine, you should be getting a whole lot better result...

WHat is your monitor, by the way?

 

It's a Samsung monitor. 27". I'll get back to you with the model as I'm at work just now.

 

Just out of interest Wolf, what FPS are you currently getting?