2.5 Settings Comparisons and GPU Impact

OK,

Thanks to your inputs, I manage to get a solid 50 FPS. I've overclocked my i7 @4.7Ghz, tied DCS to realcore with Processlasso.

Big up guys !

The only setting overloading the CPU is the shadows ! (some annoying stuttering). is that has something to do with my mermory (only 16gb) ?

OK,

 

Thanks to your inputs, I manage to get a solid 50 FPS. I've overclocked my i7 @4.7Ghz, tied DCS to realcore with Processlasso.

 

Big up guys !

 

The only setting overloading the CPU is the shadows ! (some annoying stuttering). is that has something to do with my mermory (only 16gb) ?

nope, it has to do with cpu

Once your GPU runs at less than 98-100% load you definitely have a bottleneck somewhere else.

 

Likely it is the CPU but it could be other things as well. It pays to have a CPU Core graph open so you can see every core's load at any given time. If your fps drop happens while your CPU load also drops then you have a clear indication of some "other" I/O bottleneck, HDD-SSD-SWAP-RAM are then the usual suspects. If your GPU is at 85% while one of your cores is at max, then you have a CPU bottleneck.

 

MSI Afterburner, TaskManager are all the tools you need to read that. ProcessLasso will make it easier to tie DCS to real cores vs. disabling HT in Bios. Set it to use real cores only/single threaded mode in PL.

 

4.5.4.7 is my lower threshold iirc, if I drop beoow that with my CPU ( which I never do practically ) then my GPU load drops. 4.7 and up is pretty much 100% GPU with a 1080Ti

and High settings WQHD. This relationship changes with resolution and LOD. More details and res make it more GPU bound where as low LOD and low res favour fast CPU's to produce highest fps, for the price of less quality.

 

If your GPU is not at 100% and your CPU is tilt, crank up the LOD somewhere where you like it until the GPU is 100% too = perfect balance / hard to achieve.

If your GPU is 100%, it's all good.

If your CPU is heavily underutilised while GPU at constant 100%..well, then your GPU is way too slow and you could fire a better GPU to higher fps, the CPU to do it was there.

 

That's roughly how it goes ;)

I dont think is necessarily true in DCS all the time. Specifically in Multiplayer. I can max my GPU to 100% in SP, but if I join a loaded MP server it fails drastically. Im assuming this is because of the netcode and the stack. Just an observation I have made.

OK,

 

Thanks to your inputs, I manage to get a solid 50 FPS. I've overclocked my i7 @4.7Ghz, tied DCS to realcore with Processlasso.

 

Big up guys !

 

The only setting overloading the CPU is the shadows ! (some annoying stuttering). is that has something to do with my mermory (only 16gb) ?

Because of your resolution, it might be due to lack of VRAM. The 1080 has 8GB which is very good, but 4K (which is the same as 4 1080p screens) can certainly use a lot of that. If you can monitor your VRAM usage that might give you a clue. If it is pegged near 8GB all the time, that could be an explanation for the stutters. Other than getting a better GPU, all you can do is try to reduce VRAM by A) Reducing textures B) Reducing or turning off MSAA C) Reducing resolution.

Also, some people claim that SSDs will fix stutters, but SSD aren't that fast compared to VRAM. An SSD can reduce hitching (very noticeable pauses greater than half a second where a HDD would be loading information into memory) but I have my doubts about any effect on stutters.

Just to clarify, there are 3 types of "stutters".

Micro Stutters: Extremely short skips or jitters that may go unnoticed unless you are looking for them, clearest when watching very smooth motion (like looking down at the ground as you fly straight and level). This is usually a frame-time issue related to Vsync delaying a frame irregularly and is worse when between refresh rates. IE on a 60hz monitor... 31-59fps. 59fps with Vsync will cause a micro stutter once every second.

Stutters: Longer than micro stutters but still very short. Like the CPU or GPU had a hickup. Can be due to system resources, CPU at 100%, VRAM or RAM having to load lots of information suddenly.

Hitches: Basically big stutters. Can be a programing problem, greatly insufficient system resources, HDD trying to load lots of textures or other information suddenly (think quickly turning your view 180 degrees and FPS drops to 2 for a second). In the HDD scenario an SSD would reduce it to a small short stutter.

EDIT: Also noticing you are using a dome screen, FOV can put a greater load on your system. The wider the FOV the greater the CPU has to work to prepare the scene for the GPU.

no, i think 32gb is the new 16gb

Could you explain why? I recently put 16GB in my system to improve performance in 2.5 (8GB was sufficient in 1.5.8 at 1080p) as I was seeing 'Committed' usage of just under 12GB in 2.5 ...rarely over 7.5GB in 1.5.8. This is using Performance Monitor (not task manager) as it seems to give more accurate info. Task manager never showed usage over 4GB, which I don't believe.

No matter what settings or scenarios I throw at it (SP), the committed bytes remains at 12GB...which is obviously not even full usage of the 16GB. Under what usage would you need over 16GB of system RAM? From my testing, DCS is the only game that I have (over 140 games now) that even approaches the 8GB.

I am still seeing some stuttering (HDD usage when the stutters happen). VRAM never goes over 49%. Mostly high settings (Extreme vis) and 4X MSAA. I'm going to try and turn it to FXAA as suggested in this post and see what happens as I suspect I will need to turn some things down to compensate for my system.

Under what usage would you need over 16GB of system RAM?

Multiplayer.

Multiplayer.

Right, but only in DCS correct? Why does multiplayer use so much more than a large, object-rich SP mission? Does a simliar game environment like ARMA 3 also require huge amounts of RAM? Just asking, haven't played ARMA 3 multi.

This is an excellent thread that has really helped me tune 2.5 to my system, but something is still a problem. I have enough RAM and my GPU seems underutilized (in this game), so it may be my CPU? I get anywhere from 60 - 100fps, but still have stuttering when looking around (Trackhat) and external fly-bys. The HDD is thrashing when the stutters happen.

As I said before though, neither my RAM or GPU are being fully utilized. Why does the game not attempt to use system RAM fully before switching to the HDD? Could an SSD install actually help here?

I've seen benchmark videos of O/C G3258 like mine that have simliar performance to an i5. I know DCS doesn't use more than 2 cores, so isn't the CPU just limited by the raw speed (4.2GHz)?

I have the feeling performance got worse with the last patch.

I kan make my fps drop to 30 from 100 just by firering a Vhikr and every ground combat or explosion seems to tank fps even more then before.

(7700k, Gtx1070, most of the time windowed)

Yah, I'm also hoping by the time they release they will have ironed out all the performance issues, although it took a while to get to 1.5.8. It seems that certain objects may be causing some of the stutters as well.

Thank you, very useful comparison. I would need you to do things like textures in the cockpit and vehicles, civil traffic, explosion smoke, res of cockpit displays, if you can.

and let's hope for Vulkan:thumbup:

This topic is really helpful !

I have a new "mind blowing" performance issue with one of my sim. I use two simulators with the same hardware specifications apart from the cpu and the motherboard (one with a I7 8700K and the other one with on older I7 6700K).

as indicated previously in this topic, My I7 6700k rig is running perfectly now (thanks to your help)

The problem occurs with the one with the 8700K. I have allready tested every components, everythings seems OK.

But :

From time to time, the FPS seems to be halved, visually speaking. i.e, when I check perfs with MSI afterburner, it says that everything run at a solid 50FPS (GPU and CPU are at 85% max) BUT I can clearly see that that's not the case (25 FPS constant). 5 minutes later, it's again perfect...

A detailed inspection of MSI Afterburner's graph reveal nothing

WTF ?

I'd check temps, AVX offsets, CPU UEFI settings, and core frequency changes.

And check alt-tab with task manager 'performance' if not a windows background task kicks in (like indexing, defragmenting, updating) check disk read writes etc.

Gliptal, I've set the windows power management options to MAX (also in the bios). So no, there is no core freq changes. Temperature is fine. AVX offsets, don't know what is this thing ;-) I will check

Majapahit, nothing weird happen in the task manager.

To be perfectly clear, this is only observable "visually" : DCS and MSI afterbuner say 50FPS, but visually it's only 25FPS (estimated). And it happen suddenly for some minutes, then it's ok again, then it's bad again....

I've tested with another motherboard (another chipset) and another I7 (a coffee lake too). Same problem. My guess : it's in retlation with the coffee lake version. I don't have the same bug with my first rig (with I7 skylake !)

Check with another FPS counter (NVIDIA's or FRAPS). Either you're getting microstuttering, or something is at fault with the hardware. Have you tried switching the monitors around?

Check with another FPS counter (NVIDIA's or FRAPS). Either you're getting microstuttering, or something is at fault with the hardware. Have you tried switching the monitors around?

Same with fraps !

I have checked with other projectors, same things

Are core clocks constant during the slowdown?

Yep !

I haven't read the past 12 pages, so I might talk BS now, at the risc of doing so:

Win10 has a ton of features that do work in the background while you do something else, some are optional, some are mandatory and some might be halted in GameMode while you fly, others may not.

The typical processes I would check if they caused it:

Windows File Version History ( the new Win10 backup feature ): If that is enabled and runs on a hourly basis and you also dropped some new files on your desk, heavy files and/or apps, that can cause a slow down, dpeneding on much brute force your rig has.

Windows/Microsoft Store: As of 1803 and 1809, many many apps that you used to download yourself now come via MS App Store. For example, iTunes, Realtek Sonic Radar and Sonic Studio ( at least Asus motherboards use this ), and all other apps MS runs through it, they update when they feel like it, nothing you can do when afaik ( never checked tbh if they can be delayed ).

There are more tasks, depending on your config.

Maybe that can be a hint. If not, it still matters as it applies to all Win10 installs.

Are you guys sure the performance info that's displayed on top of the is the correct memory measure? If it's not commit charge it's not right.

I pointed it out and proved it when investigating a memory leak issue.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=234041

I haven't read the past 12 pages, so I might talk BS now, at the risc of doing so:

 

Win10 has a ton of features that do work in the background while you do something else, some are optional, some are mandatory and some might be halted in GameMode while you fly, others may not.

 

The typical processes I would check if they caused it:

 

Windows File Version History ( the new Win10 backup feature ): If that is enabled and runs on a hourly basis and you also dropped some new files on your desk, heavy files and/or apps, that can cause a slow down, dpeneding on much brute force your rig has.

 

Windows/Microsoft Store: As of 1803 and 1809, many many apps that you used to download yourself now come via MS App Store. For example, iTunes, Realtek Sonic Radar and Sonic Studio ( at least Asus motherboards use this ), and all other apps MS runs through it, they update when they feel like it, nothing you can do when afaik ( never checked tbh if they can be delayed ).

 

There are more tasks, depending on your config.

 

Maybe that can be a hint. If not, it still matters as it applies to all Win10 installs.

Except that I have disabled and forcefully removed almost all the bloatware. In my case the Windows Store is nonexistent as it has been erased from the registry completely, for example, so my Win10 can't compare directly, it runs more like Win7.

Great post! Thanks for all the overviews! Would be great if you could add the cockpit views and maybe also for other terrains as suggested? Furthermore some settings have changed so would a refresh be possible?

this guide for older versions and sadly it can hardly be applied to current ones. I hope he will make a new guide also

I wouldn’t mind doing some test, but I have no clue to to make my track replay stop at the exact same moment every time.

Use a simple mission everytime as benchmarking. Install a fps indicator like msi afterburner.

This is what I do