Poor performance, not sure if its my system or not. | Kodera Software | Page 1

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 1:05 PM

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finally got home and was able to sit down for a bit to do some testing @echo igloo.
i can put the per core usage up on the screen again if you want, i only thought of it after taking a bunch of screenshots
for the record, ive got a dell lattitude 7490 with an i5-8250U, Intel UHD 620 Graphics (but i dont see it hit 100% usage) and 12Gb of 2400MHz ram
first is in the station, the next is the graphics settings, i switched the graph in the top left over to framerate instead of frame times in the second screenshot, it will be that from now on.
the third screenshot is in the kepler gap after astrogating to just past it and flying back.
fourth is travelling towards a propeller formation.
last is in the propeller formation doing some mining.
seems to be performing better than last time by a bit though

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i say as i alt tab back and see it at 6 and 7 fps

echo igloo Dec 27, 2022, 1:06 PM

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If you still have the logs and saved and settings from that dive, those would be useful to, if Koder tries to replicate conditions.

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 1:06 PM

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i do also have firefox open right now, forgot about it

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 1:07 PM

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echo igloo If you still have the logs and saved and settings from that dive, those would be...

still in progress, do i need to quit for those logs to be there?

echo igloo Dec 27, 2022, 1:07 PM

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I don't THINK so.

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 1:08 PM

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though i dont think ill continue with this, so ill just quit out and send them again in a sec

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oh, red.
great

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yeah no im not doing that right now with 6-10 fps and the autopilot freaking out

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📎 dV.7z

echo igloo Dec 27, 2022, 1:15 PM

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There's a fixed fps setting somewhere; set fps in game to 30 and fixed fps to 30, and the game slows down instead of skipping frames. It isn't immersive when it chops, but it would make the AP behave by not increasing the number of frames that one firing of thrust persists.

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Command line setting.

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 1:16 PM

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i understood half of that

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im also unable to do more testing tonight, ive got to be up early and will be working non stop until it gets dark again (probably longer) for the next few days

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messed up labeling what screenshot was what, apparently i didnt post the amount of screenshots i meant to and put one in that i forgot about

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fixed it

tacit fjord Dec 27, 2022, 7:41 PM

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Please check with 0.595.0

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it also contains modified profiler that was specifically made because your screenshots had some data missing 😓

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 10:21 PM

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Im guessing thats the experimental branch?

fair tusk Dec 27, 2022, 11:35 PM

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first off, ive got to say i like the new low graphics thruster plumes, thank you for that.

first screenshot is at the start of a dive.
second is with a pirate ship outside of the screen, probably after ive hit him with my mass driver.
the third is lasering that pirate.
and the fourth is in a propeller formation after breaking down a few big rocks.

📎 dV.7z

fair tusk Dec 30, 2022, 4:45 AM

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Anything you got from the logs?

fair tusk Dec 30, 2022, 12:18 PM

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ive got 12gb of ram, ive got a 4gb stick and an 8gb stick.
how dual channel ram works in this case is that 4 gb of each stick will be dual channel and 4gb will be single channel.
would ram usage going over 8gb affect performance as bad as im seeing?

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infact i can test this, i can remove the 4gb stick and just go into single channel mode for a bit

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gonna load the game up and get some sort of baseline first

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this has gotten worse

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neverind, that would be why

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had it on power saver while i wasnt home during Christmas

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one thing i did notice is that turning on lighting and shadows to the minimum level made no difference to the framerate

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i think the lowest level of rocket plumes only tanked it by a few fps

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in experimental

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ok good, this drop in performance means that my unusual ram setup is not likely the cause

fair tusk Dec 30, 2022, 12:58 PM

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Just realised i didnt put the overlay in those

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Or logs

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:00 PM

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this is getting ridiculous, why does it perform so badly at the station?

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:01 PM

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because the station is much more busy than the rings

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:02 PM

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gpu is not at 100% and its not performing physics calculations for a bunch of objects all the time.

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or at least i would think its not

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unless in a simulation in the equipment or tuning menu

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cpu is also not at a percent that would indicate a thread being fully used

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tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:06 PM

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measurements like these are just a subset and a simplification that puts thousands of possible bottlenecks into a single number. The in-game profiler tries to remedy that by displaying the resources game actually uses there.

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:06 PM

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sorry, forgot to include that

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ive mainly got that stuff up so i can keep track of temperature, power usage, clock speed etc.

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:07 PM

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how is your vram usage?

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:07 PM

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it doesnt have dedicated vram

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these settings didnt seem to change performance much in the rings

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might have lost a few frames per second to rocket plumes

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:09 PM

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does changing the resolutuin scale improve performance?

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:09 PM

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i dont think so but ill go test that right now

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ill take it back to potato settings

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with postprocessing off

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didnt notice that was on

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:10 PM

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when playing on that gpu, you'll probably benefit most from using the "hardware mouse" setting

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:11 PM

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that feels a lot smoother

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thank you

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:11 PM

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also. menu background running at 60 is probably not doing you any favours either; I'd put that at 30

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:12 PM

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before and after

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i didnt leave much time for those graphs on the right to settle in and show more data

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i can do that if you want, i didnt think of it until now

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:13 PM

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that looks like a pixel fill ratio right there; your GPU is just unable to draw all the pixels requested fast enough.

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:15 PM

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not entirely sure what pixel fill ratio means

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:18 PM

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Your GPU can draw a limited number of pixels in given time - and the game asks it to draw more that it can manage

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:18 PM

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right

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dont know if this would have been mentioned in the logs but i am not playing at 1080p

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i think the hardware mouse setting alone has made a massive difference in how this feels

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i wonder if it will make the station a lot less frustrating too

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may i ask why this isnt on by default or if it is and i for some reason turned it off?

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:27 PM

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fair tusk i wonder if it will make the station a lot less frustrating too

it has

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maybe having the station respect graphics settings, in the way that if someone has them really low, maybe dont render reflections on this guys eva suit?
just an example

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or the complicated background based on the fact that the background in a dive is pure black with post processing off

tacit fjord Dec 31, 2022, 1:33 PM

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You have option to turn that off completely

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 1:33 PM

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where

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 2:45 PM

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hm

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wtf

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it didnt say 12 when i took that screenshot

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oh

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the screen isnt updating for the screenshot

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anyway, it was saying 18 on that last spike in the graph and around 22 on the ones before that

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fps also goes down when i alt tab, im assuming thats either something you have done or something windows is doing

fair tusk Dec 31, 2022, 3:43 PM

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fair tusk where

dunno how i didnt see that before

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also just tried updating my graphics drivers

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they were a year old, figured it might do something

echo igloo Jan 2, 2023, 12:13 PM

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fair tusk the screen isnt updating for the screenshot

When you take a screenshot, on some systems, it shows the LAST screen you hit the button on, so you have to win-shift-S, esc out, then hit it again to get a screenshot from the first time you hit the combo.

fair tusk Jan 2, 2023, 12:14 PM

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yeah, i just hadnt realized that was happening until after i took them and sent them

echo igloo Jan 2, 2023, 12:14 PM

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fair tusk fps also goes down when i alt tab, im assuming thats either something you have d...

Switching video modes, if you're in exclusive fullscreen, is extra work for the GPU. Borderless shouldn't see a lot of trouble switching.

fair tusk Jan 3, 2023, 1:18 PM

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borderless fullscreen at minimum and full resolution scale

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real fullscreen at minimum and full resolution scale

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im also having my cpu clock speed increase noticeably when i alt tab, and lower when in game.
i dont know what would be causing this, a power limit, foreground processing kicking in causing thermal throttling?

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the more i use this laptop the more i realise how little effort dell put into actually letting this cpu run at its full potential

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its heatsink and cooling fan is shit

fair tusk Jan 3, 2023, 1:23 PM

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fair tusk im also having my cpu clock speed increase noticeably when i alt tab, and lower ...

see its still got the same amount of usage when alt tabbed out

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hmm

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the game is paused

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then i alt tab out while the game is paused and cpu usage spikes and frequency goes up

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wtf

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im starting to think that my laptop is just cursed

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looks like ive got some bloatware i didnt notice to prune

tacit fjord Jan 3, 2023, 1:34 PM

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fair tusk im also having my cpu clock speed increase noticeably when i alt tab, and lower ...

that actually sounds like it could be a huge contribution

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are you running a high-performance mode?

fair tusk Jan 3, 2023, 1:35 PM

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yes

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clock speeds went down right after those screenshots

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i think it could be a thermal problem

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which i cant do much about

fair tusk Jan 3, 2023, 2:03 PM

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i think im gonna just leave this here and let you focus on other things.
if i find anything concrete on what exactly is the issue here i might create another bug report, depending on if it is indeed a hardware, driver, dell being utterly incompetent issue or something that i can actually pin on being in this game
(deleted a lot of messages which didnt really show much.)

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 1:00 PM

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im guessing that the igpu and cpu are maybe fighting each other for power.
this is based purely on the fact that when the igpu is at 100% usage the cpu clock speed sits around 1.10 GHz and when it is around 50% (in game) the cpu sits around double that (sometimes higher which is making me not completely sure this is it)

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this is also with prime 95 using a core as much as it can along with hyperthreading on that core

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so its not a completely accurate test, but i feel its close enough that i can say that its probably a power limit.

tacit fjord Jan 5, 2023, 1:03 PM

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This might be thermal too, they reside in a single chip, right?

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have you tried the simple trick of cleaning up your air ducts?

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 1:03 PM

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might be thermal but im not entirely sure

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 1:04 PM

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tacit fjord have you tried the simple trick of cleaning up your air ducts?

ive given it new thermal paste and gave it a little clean out.
though ive not been able to spray compressed air into the fins as i dont have a can of it around.

tacit fjord Jan 5, 2023, 1:04 PM

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one trick I used to use for laptops was to undervolt the CPU a bit; that usually leads to much better performance, as most laptops are bound by their heat exchange capability.

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 1:04 PM

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i dont think i am able to undervolt it

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that option is locked in this tool i saw being used for it.

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ive still got it because it lets the cpu clock itself down as dell apparently forgot to make that actually work when turned on in the bios

tacit fjord Jan 5, 2023, 1:06 PM

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Well, fwiw, neither can I on this dell I'm working on now. But it's performing well enough.

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 1:10 PM

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seems to be a feature dell locked off

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apparently a factory reset will bring it back?

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worth a shot

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ayy, it worked

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wow, that worked really well

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an extra 200MHz

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that might actually be a pretty big improvement in game

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because this is pushing it a lot further than the game should be

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just a short test

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right at the start of a dive

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this is after spawning into a dense area and flying for a bit

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this is after shooting a lot of rocks.
i feel like this is running better than it did before

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ill have to do some more testing and play around with undervolting a bit more later

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ive got a lot of shit to do tomorrow.
thanks for the help and for putting up with me posting probably too many messages in here.

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wow

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nevermind im doing this now apparently

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no matter how many rocks i shoot it doesnt seem to drop that far

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wow

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even this cutscene isnt extremely laggy anymore

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the station menu is still surprisingly laggy even with the background animation turned off completely

tacit fjord Jan 5, 2023, 2:08 PM

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using hardware mouse pointer?

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 2:08 PM

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this

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oh yeah i didnt mention that.
with that on it feels a lot smoother

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may i ask why its not on by default?

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its more that the gpu is working harder and im getting less fps than i am in game that is surprising. (cpu is still working pretty hard)

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what would it be doing in the backgound with that animation off that would cause this?

echo igloo Jan 5, 2023, 5:38 PM

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Be aware (you probably know) that undervolting, as with any settings related to CPU clock, can cause instability. Too high gets you heat issues, as you saw, too low can cause crashes, stuttering, etc.

Probably best to inch it down but by bit over time, until you start seeing problems, then notch it back up a bit

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 11:25 PM

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Yeah i know, just trying to squeeze as much as i can out of it.

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I still think its a power delivery issue

fair tusk Jan 5, 2023, 11:27 PM

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fair tusk wow, that worked really well

I also just realised this test told me nothing as i used a different resolution than i did before in furmark.
Gonna have to do it again later

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But yeah i can probably stop using this thread and stop bothering you guys since ive figured out (probably) what the issue is.

fair tusk Jan 7, 2023, 2:08 AM

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last one.
with some really aggressive undervolting, im getting a lot better performance in dense areas.
thanks for the help and for putting up with me.

fair tusk Jan 20, 2023, 6:39 AM

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suddenly getting way over 30 fps after messing around with resolution settings through windows itself and not the game.
this is back at my screens native resolution by the way.
i was getting 22 before this in the same dive

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i was trying to compare the games inbuilt resolution scaling with just changing the resolution via windows.
the games resolution scaling seemed to perform the same but look a lot worse but when i changed back to my screens native resolution i got an extra 10 to 18 fps

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i have no idea why this has happened, which is why i thought i would mention it here.

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forgot to alt tab out and in again to get the correct bit in the screenshot for the graphs

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i think i figured it out

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it went into true fullscreen mode when i changed the resolution in windows but continued to say it was in windowed borderless, explaining why screenshotting didnt work some of the time.

cunning elk Jan 28, 2023, 4:48 AM

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I have no idea what any of this means but if I’m understanding it correctly you underpowered you cpu to increase performance in exchange for a higher risk of crashes and instability?

tacit fjord Jan 28, 2023, 8:19 AM

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Yes, but most CPUs are shipped with a large safe margin to account for individual variations. How much you undervolt and keep the rig stable will depend on the individual CPU, but in many case you can reduce power draw (thus both heating up and better battery life) while maintaining perfectly stable system.

#Poor performance, not sure if its my system or not.