Stutters & pseudo-throttling

Hello everyone,

I have updated to the latest 2.5.6 stable on Friday, and I must say that it performs better overall than the old 2.5.5.

When playing on the F-18 Case I mission on SC today, though, I started noticing that, close to the carrier, I was getting heavy stutters every 4-5 seconds, about 5 minutes into the mission.

Thinking it was a bug/poor optimization in SC, I decided to leave it be for the meanwhile, and set up a quick 2 vs 2 BFM mission in Nevada from cold and dark.

Here as well, 5-10 minutes in, I start getting these awful stutters, with no specific events happening (usually still starting up or taxiing). And here is what I see on the Task Manager:

With cores acting up like this:

I know what you are about to say: throttling. Funny thing is, both ThrottleStop and Intel XTU say that no throttling happened, and temperatures were around 75°C. Still, the frequency of the CPU loading and unloading make me think something, somewhere, is throttling my system.

Now, about my computer: it’s definitely not a gaming one. MacBook Pro 15” 2018, i9 2.3 boostable to 4.8 GHz, AMD Vega 20 with 4 GB, 32GB RAM, running BootCamp on an SSD, thermal pad mod (helps reduce temperatures further), cooling pad. But the system could handle constant 60 FPS (capped) on 2.5.5, and it can even on 2.5.6, before this “throttling” occurs.

Things I have tried: Pagefile at 32GB on SSD, disabled Turbo Boost, disabled HyperThreading, set affinity on physical cores only (and vice versa), antialiasing from video card driver (not DCS), disabled intelppm.sys, disabled track file and hotplug from autoexec.cfg, fans set to max speed, alt+enter, high performance mode on windows, disabled game mode, made sure CPU Min and Max is at 100% under power settings.

I can’t understand if it’s a problem with DCS or my setup specifically, but considering that I can run for several minutes @60 FPS, with no CPU capping, and constant temperature, it makes me think about a DCS leak somewhere.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Daniel

Hey there!

Could be a vram issue. I see you only got 4 GB. That could be the bad boy here.

What are your settings in DCS? (graphics)

EDIT: Just had a look at your pictures and it seems that your GPU has no vram left at all. That could be the problem as I don't see anything else, maybe these CPU spikes could be a problem too. But I would guess it is a vram issue!

Hey there!

 

 

Could be a vram issue. I see you only got 4 GB. That could be the bad boy here.

 

 

What are your settings in DCS? (graphics)

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Just had a look at your pictures and it seems that your GPU has no vram left at all. That could be the problem as I don't see anything else, maybe these CPU spikes could be a problem too. But I would guess it is a vram issue!

Hello Squirrelmeister,

Thanks for your suggestions! Once I start it up under BootCamp I’ll check my graphic settings and post them here.

I didn’t think about VRAM because on 2.5.5 even passing the VRAM amount didn’t bring so much stutter, paging was rather quick. What worries me are those CPU spikes, that seem to be the biggest culprit, and I have no idea what may cause it.

I actually made a mistake yesterday and the pad wasn’t cooling as it should have, I will try tonight with higher fan settings, it might be some internal BIOS/UEFI throttling that isn’t seen by the OS.

If that doesn’t work, I’ll definitely try and lower those settings that are heavy on VRAM.

Daniel

I'm having the same problem, many times when starting a mission, mainly near SC, before I didn't have as many stutters as now!

It could be the NVdia drive, but I have already uninstalled and installed several other drives and it remains the same.

The settings I use are Hight with MSA off.

I have I7 4790K, 16gb ram, GTX 970

Little update after a 1-hour session today. This time I turned up the thermal pad under the laptop to its full power, and it made enough difference to keep a steady 60fps, without changing any graphic settings.

So, yes, it was mostly throttling, probably some low-level protection in the motherboard. I’d say that whoever has heavy stutters should check how their CPU behaves under a typical workload in DCS.

I still experience micro-stutters even if the FPS count is almost always at 60, but I guess this is due to the VRAM being full and needing paging, as Squirrelmaster mentioned; I can live with it though.

@Robsongois: I’d suggest you to check the CPU graph as I mention above, but keep in mind that my setup is so unusual that I may find bottlenecks in places where normal DCS users wouldn’t.

I’ll post my graphics settings for reference. I’ll turn up heat blur to low for the next session and see how it behaves.

Daniel

Little update after a 1-hour session today. This time I turned up the thermal pad under the laptop to its full power, and it made enough difference to keep a steady 60fps, without changing any graphic settings.

So, yes, it was mostly throttling, probably some low-level protection in the motherboard. I’d say that whoever has heavy stutters should check how their CPU behaves under a typical workload in DCS.

I still experience micro-stutters even if the FPS count is almost always at 60, but I guess this is due to the VRAM being full and needing paging, as Squirrelmaster mentioned; I can live with it though.

@Robsongois: I’d suggest you to check the CPU graph as I mention above, but keep in mind that my setup is so unusual that I may find bottlenecks in places where normal DCS users wouldn’t.

I’ll post my graphics settings for reference. I’ll turn up heat blur to low for the next session and see how it behaves.

[ATTACH]238085[/ATTACH]

 

 

Daniel

Hey there! Good to hear that it is working again. For performance purposes you could lower the "Clutter/Gras" setting all the way to the left. That should or could help with those microstutters.

Cheers

(I am waiting for more ram to arrive today. Hopefully this helps me out a little bit since my 16gb are always maxed out when playing DCS:joystick:)

Hey there! Good to hear that it is working again. For performance purposes you could lower the "Clutter/Gras" setting all the way to the left. That should or could help with those microstutters.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

(I am waiting for more ram to arrive today. Hopefully this helps me out a little bit since my 16gb are always maxed out when playing DCS:joystick:)

Thanks! I’ll try it. I set it about halfway because I heard that, once in the air, it shouldn’t be rendered anymore beyond a certain radius. But I’ll play with the setting and see what it gives.

Yes, 32GB is the optimal amount nowadays with DCS. It’s a good investment overall, even when Vulkan/true multithread comes out in the next months (years?), RAM will always be needed.

Happy flying!

Daniel

I've been experiencing lower frame rate and stutters along with lower GPU utilization in full screen mode in 2.5.6, that wasn't the case in 2.5.5. More of my experience here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=263428&page=37

2.5.5 seemed to have more consistent and steady GPU usage overall, whereas 2.5.6 has sudden dropoffs and associated in-game stutter.

I've been experiencing lower frame rate and stutters along with lower GPU utilization in full screen mode in 2.5.6, that wasn't the case in 2.5.5. More of my experience here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=263428&page=37

 

2.5.5 seemed to have more consistent and steady GPU usage overall, whereas 2.5.6 has sudden dropoffs and associated in-game stutter.

A healthy GPU usage would be always at full 100%, because that’s where you get your FPS from visually (unless you have capped your frame rate). If it stutters and doesn’t go to full 100%, it means something else is choking the system, most likely CPU usage. Sorry if I’m telling you something you know already, just covering all the basics.

Can you share your CPU graph, maybe with a per-core detail? (There’s an option to see those details on the bottom of the task manager, something about performance).

P.S. that thread you linked seems to suggest that, on 2.5.6, performance is better when going borderless window vs. full screen. Will try it this weekend and see if it improves anything.

Daniel

Daniel, I definitely appreciate the input. There's hardly any CPU usage, strangely. It fluctuates between 12 and 30%, sometimes reaching 50%, but does appear to be utilizing all cores. BTW, when sitting idle, the GPU and CPU temps are about 32C and usage is 1-3%.

Attached is a screenshot of task manager and the MSI system monitor. This is flying in the Hornet in the Black Sea "Free Flight" quick flight at about 2,500 feet AGL, framerate locked at 30 using autoexec (in an attempt to give the GPU some breathing room - not capping it will also introduce more stutters). The settings I'm using are also attached. So this would be a best case-scenario for me. What I have found to be the best balance of visuals and performance.

The GPU generally is near 100% usage most of the time. If, however, I use the fullscreen option via the tickbox in the settings, overall framerate is about 25% lower, and GPU utilization bounces between 60 and 80% utilization, sometimes dipping down to the teens and then shooting back up, (presumably causing the stuttering). Oddly it doesnt appear to matter what the load is on the hardware, meaning if I tank all the settings, it will still behave this way. This is the only game/sim that I have that acts this way, and, more importantly, it never did before 2.5.6.

I have AA and Vsync turned off in-game, and enforce them in the Nvidia control panel, along with max pre rendered frames set to "1", which also helps smooth out micro-stutters, but not the big ones we now have in 2.5.6.

Here's my computer specs: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4358864&postcount=349

Daniel, I definitely appreciate the input. There's hardly any CPU usage, strangely. It fluctuates between 12 and 30%, sometimes reaching 50%, but does appear to be utilizing all cores. BTW, when sitting idle, the GPU and CPU temps are about 32C and usage is 1-3%.

 

Attached is a screenshot of task manager and the MSI system monitor. This is flying in the Hornet in the Black Sea "Free Flight" quick flight at about 2,500 feet AGL, framerate locked at 30 using autoexec (in an attempt to give the GPU some breathing room - not capping it will also introduce more stutters). The settings I'm using are also attached. So this would be a best case-scenario for me. What I have found to be the best balance of visuals and performance.

 

The GPU generally is near 100% usage most of the time. If, however, I use the fullscreen option via the tickbox in the settings, overall framerate is about 25% lower, and GPU utilization bounces between 60 and 80% utilization, sometimes dipping down to the teens and then shooting back up, (presumably causing the stuttering). Oddly it doesnt appear to matter what the load is on the hardware, meaning if I tank all the settings, it will still behave this way. This is the only game/sim that I have that acts this way, and, more importantly, it never did before 2.5.6.

 

I have AA and Vsync turned off in-game, and enforce them in the Nvidia control panel, along with max pre rendered frames set to "1", which also helps smooth out micro-stutters, but not the big ones we now have in 2.5.6.

 

Here's my computer specs: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4358864&postcount=349

Very weird indeed; it’s pretty much my situation. My bigger stutters were definitely due to thermal throttling (NOT identified by ThrottleStop - is that even possible?) but I also get those micro-stutters and random, heavier stutters once in a while, even if luckily not every 10 seconds.

So do you feel that disabling “full screen” in the settings helps reducing micro-stuttering?

One tip I can give is to try and disable the Turbo Boost on your CPU, it seems like DCS will max out at least one core when given the chance, triggering the Turbo Boost and making everything hotter. Disabling it should level everything out, even though it doesn’t like it’s your problem by seeing your graphs. But it’s worth giving it a try.

Daniel

Quick update – disabled full screen under settings, and micro-stuttering seems reduced by much. Getting good FPS overall, with some random stuttering once every few minutes, but with my rig I can't ask for anything better.

Performance on SuperCarrier is still subpar (under 30 FPS, even though it's fluid, vs. 45-60 anywhere else), but that's another story.

Sorry, danidr, just saw you had asked me a question in your previous post. But it's interesting and hopefully a lead for ED, if they're investigating since we've heard nothing but crickets on this. Full screen definitely makes the gameplay more choppy for me as well.

Sorry, danidr, just saw you had asked me a question in your previous post. But it's interesting and hopefully a lead for ED, if they're investigating since we've heard nothing but crickets on this. Full screen definitely makes the gameplay more choppy for me as well.

Don’t worry! That was a test I had to do myself anyway le’ts hope ED is gonna have a look at it.

Daniel