Stuttering every 4-5 seconds?

Hello everyone,

I'm going to ask this question here because I have no idea if it's related to the F/A-18 or more in general to DCS / my system, but I suppose the former. Feel free to relocate it appropriately.

Anyway, I have a MacBook Pro, early 2019, that I bought mostly for work, with a Vega 20 GPU (4 GB VRAM), 2,3 GHz i9 8-core and 32 GB DDR4 RAM.

I used to fly DCS with the default bootcamp drivers and low/medium settings, on a 1920x1080 external display downscaled to 1650, with not so good results. I have recently installed tweaked AMD drivers from bootcampdrivers.com and since then my performance has greatly improved, reaching 60 FPS with Vsync in external view and a solid 30 in cockpit view, with higher resolution (native 1920x1080) and more effects.

Now, the weird part: after a few minutes of gameplay with the Hornet, I get quite bad stuttering, every 4-5 seconds, to the point that flying it is puke-inducing, intervalled by 40+ FPS parts. This happens a lot on the Caucasus map, over the ground, but it also happens near the carrier group, albeit less intensively, with nothing but water in sight.

Steps I've tried:

- Bringing down VRAM usage by reducing various settings. I'm now around 3.5-3.7 GB, stutter doesn't improve.

- Setting CPU affinity to the last 6 physical cores. Nothing.

- Setting process priority to real time. Nothing.

- Enabling Windows High Performance mode. Nothing.

- Removing anti aliasing (No MSAA, SSAA 1.5 just to ease the rough edges a bit). Improved VRAM part a bit, but still stuttering.

- Reducing preload radius: Reduced VRAM usage as expected, but still nothing stuttering-wise. Note that this happens even on active pause (therefore preload shouldn't matter).

What I've noticed is that, while my GPU usage is constantly around 70%-80%, when I get that stuttering it peaks at 100%, and goes down again. This is EXTREMELY constant time-wise (again, every 4 to 5 seconds I get a spike), no matter what I do (no panning, no moving, no anything).

Why am I posting it in the Hornet section? Well, I have tried the same scenario with the F-14, which is much hungrier resource-wise, and even though VRAM gets filled easily (therefore there must be some swapping going on), frame rates are much more constant, and I don't get the same spikes.

Suggestions about how I could resolve this, anyone?

Hi

 

try disabling hotplug devices see if it helps

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=251377

Hello Bignewy,

Thank you for the tip! I'll attempt this fix as soon as I have the time. By looking at the symptoms of other users that solved it by disabling hotplug devices though, mine is the opposite (GPU spikes UP instead of DOWN), but of course it's worth trying.

Could also be the SA page on the hornet, it reportedly causes stutters

Hello Bignewy,

Thank you for the tip! I'll attempt this fix as soon as I have the time. By looking at the symptoms of other users that solved it by disabling hotplug devices though, mine is the opposite (GPU spikes UP instead of DOWN), but of course it's worth trying.

I also had this stuttering, as a VR user it was really off putting. It was the hotplugging issue for me. So much better once fixed.

Could also be the SA page on the hornet, it reportedly causes stutters

I just observed this behavior on a multiplayer server. Makes me lose about 30% fps (no stutters though)

Could also be the SA page on the hornet, it reportedly causes stutters

Now that I think about it, I notice it mostly when on the RADAR page. I'll check tonight if also this has something to do with the stuttering; still hoping that disabling the hotplug fixes it.

Thank you everyone for the help.

Regarding micro stutters after much trial an error it seems like the track file writing is creating issues (i use m2 so its not hardware limits) so currently the best thing i have found to do is disable track writing to improve micro stutters which are more noticeable in VR.

To help and assist this problem you need to have an auto exec file in your saved games\open beta version\config folder with the following line in

disable_write_track = true

I've attached my file i use daily for use if your unsure, it also has the disable USB line in their also for ease that big newy references above.

Hope it helps, made a big difference for me especially for players who are on servers with alot of combine arms units on the ground and pushing dcs to it's limits. I have had positive feedback's from several MP players who use VR and disable track file writing.

autoexec.cfg

Ps @bignewy i would also suggest that this is an option client side for this in the settings as not everyone wants track files especially when they can grow beyond 200mb in size for individual long MP sessions. Theoretically this is placing extra strain on the hard drive of players recording them and manually deleting them. Also it is common of knew players to not even know they are even accumulating in the saved games folder. I know examples of 50Gb + being stored in this location and from what i can see its not clearly referenced and no option within game settings to delete - which there should clearly be.

I had exactly the same problem, but without VR. The only thing that helped was to increase the virtual memory of Windows. I have 32GB DDR3 Ram which was only 3-5GB. But apparently it's really just the virtual memory, for whatever reason.

First I increased the virtual memory to 15GB on a SSD, after about 15-20 minutes it started to stutter. After I raised it to 60GB!!!!!, it still runs smoothly after 4 hours!

To help and assist this problem you need to have an auto exec file in your saved games\open beta version\config folder with the following line in

 

disable_write_track = true

First I increased the virtual memory to 15GB on a SSD, after about 15-20 minutes it started to stutter. After I raised it to 60GB!!!!!, it still runs smoothly after 4 hours!

Will try these suggestions too... I'm quite desperate :lol: Thanks!

I recently had the same problem. It turned out to be my virus scan software scanning the track files folder. I ended up excluding the DCS folder under saved games, and everything smoothed out.

Yea i have my page file set to 32GB (same as memory) on the SSD same drive. However this has been static for me disabling the track writing has helped micro stutters, fluidity of fps.

Alright, I played around with all these settings this evening, and in my case they all gave minimum improvements, if any.

Desperate, I tried installing a supposedly “less optimized” driver for my video card and... guess what? The stuttering is gone. It now only occurs in areas with dense tree coverage, but that’s okay, I can live with a little less trees but a 40+ FPS, I’ll just play around with the slider to find the sweet spot.

Thank you again everyone for your help.

Daniel