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Severe FPS performance drop

Ydiss

Grizzled Veteran
Jul 9, 2013
56
0
Hi

I got RS about two weeks ago and have quickly fallen in love with it. I had no issues at all until about four days ago when my performance suddenly dropped, mid-game. I ran stat fps and saw that I had around 15fps.

My system specs:

CPU: Quad Core Q6600
Memory: 8GB DDR2
GPU: GTX 470
Solid State HD
W7 Ultimate

Whilst my PC isn't top of the range, it far exceeds the recommended specs and, indeed, when I first ran the game the performance was very good, as I'd expect, when playing on the High setting (default).

I have changed nothing with my hardware nor any software, the game just suddenly dropped FPS mid-game on Appartments, then remained awful after the map load. I thought something may have gone wrong with my system so I took the following steps:

1) Updated my GPU drivers (clean install). This seemed to do the trick, but it did not fix the problem; I loaded the game after reboot and it ran smoothly for about five minutes then bang, massive FPS drop again mid-game)
2) Checked GPU temp and usage: Both fine, I ran MSI Afterburner to ensure my temp was low, it runs about 60 whilst in game and doesn't move at all, even when this problem occurs.
3) Checked CPU temp/usage: Both fine; temp never changes from idle and the usage is normal, not even close to maxing out
4) Reduced settings to Lowest
5) Tried reverting to previous Windows restore point

None of the above remove the issue.

Other symptoms:

1) I sometimes cannot skip the introduction sequence, which indicates the problem is there. If the problem has "gone" the loading sequence skips fine
2) Map loading times have increased dramatically. The "running soldier" animation used to run smoothly until the map had finished loading. Now it suffers multiple "stutters" mid-load

The bizarre thing is, I can load the game up and it'll often be fine with my frame rate maxing out (62fps). It will then drop into the red after a very short period of time. This is seemingly random. However, once the problem occurs, it remains a problem until I restart the game and even that doesn't always fix it (it works perhaps 50% of the time).

For example I have just played Commisar's House and the performance was very poor from the very first moment. However, I restarted the game and loaded up Hanto and it was smooth as butter on my first spawn. This lasted until I'd gotten in line with Objective A and suddenly the FPS inexplicably dropped into the red. It then levels out to 20-30fps (which is barely playable) and drops into the red whenever anything happens on screen.

When this happens there are no changes to the charts on Afterburner nor my CPU monitoring software. So my system is not struggling and it is apparently managing fine (as I'd expect, the game's running on Lowest settings), so something else is happening.

It's maddening. It has cropped up from nowhere. The game should be running very smoothly for me on Lowest settings, but it often isn't. And, even worse, it was running smoothly for a couple of weeks and suddenly decided to start doing this to me.

I'm even considering a full Windows reinstall out of desperation, however I can't do that just yet as I'm having trouble with my USB keyboard powering up during POST/BIOS (unrelated issue, just happened recently... no idea why) so I'll need to buy a PS2 keyboard before I can get my DVD to boot Windows.

Anyone have any clues as to what is happening? I can't play the game at 15-20fps, it's way too frustrating.
 
I have nearly the same PC and I face the same problem, I think.

My PC:
[email protected]
460GTX
8GB DDR2
W7 64bits
Clean of malware, not overheating, not bloated (fresh OS installation), OC is stable and has been deeply tested.

All settings at low, as I just want to have the best possible frame rate.

I have very inconsistent frame rate. I can have 62fps (without vsync activated) in a firefight in a crowded area like it can drop to 35fps when I am alone in an empty area of the map.
My problem looks like yours, I have erratic frame rate, and it is true it drops when a few objectives are taken. The other thing is sometimes the frame rate just decreases with the time, even when map has changed. Like I begin on a map at 62 fps with inconsistent frame rate drops and after doing several maps and the first map is played again, I have less FPS and even more inconsistent frame rate drops (going in the 20fps or so).
I think it is running that gives me these frame drops, but I am not sure. The thing is it mostly happens when I run, but it doesn't happen all the time when I run. Otherwise, when I walk or stand I have a stable frame rate, with no drops.

The game was running quite well before the release of Rising Storm update. I was running RO2 in medium, and could get great, stable fps (62fps). Now the game runs worse at lower settings.

Also, sometimes I get a weird buzzing sound with a little freeze that last 1 second or 2 and then the game works again. Inconsistent too, it can happen in any situation, crowded or not, on any map. But it happens at least once in a session, often in the first few minutes.

I noticed something else too, which is also not related to the problem. Sometimes it is like the framerate smoothing goes away. I end up ending my sessions with 70/80fps (but still dropping randomly) when it is supposed to be capped at 62fps. I got this twice, but I can't tell what triggers that.

Also, sound still crackles a lot, if I remember well, it was a problem back then with RO2 which was solved. It reappeared with the RS update. I use realtek integrated sound chip, with latest drivers, channels at 32 and sound settings on high (crackles on both high and low anyway).

I will have the same conclusion as you too: it is frustrating. The game is good, but this kind of problems ruins the experience. I mean, it is hard to play when your FPS fluctuates that much.

Thanks for the great game, I can't wait to enjoy it again.
 
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Make some tweaks so you can skip the intro and your game starts faster,

no intro, My Documents\My games\RedOrchestra2\ROGame\Config\ROEngine.ini

Alter
bForceNoMovies=true
________________

Map loading,

Go to "my documents/my games/redorchestra2/ROGame/config/" and open ROEngine.ini.

Search for ISVhacks, and change:

[Engine.ISVHacks]
bInitializeShadersOnDemand=false to true

This can reduce map load time from 1-2 minutes to under 30 seconds.

Try this,


1.) Verify game cache at steam game properties.

if that doesn't work

2.) Exit steam, delete everything under your steam folder except

steamapps folder
steam.exe

after that restart steam, it will auto-update itself

Which motherboard and bios version do you have?
 
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Make some tweaks so you can skip the intro and your game starts faster,

no intro, My Documents\My games\RedOrchestra2\ROGame\Config\ROEngine.ini

Alter
bForceNoMovies=true
________________

Map loading,

Go to "my documents/my games/redorchestra2/ROGame/config/" and open ROEngine.ini.

Search for ISVhacks, and change:

[Engine.ISVHacks]
bInitializeShadersOnDemand=false to true

This can reduce map load time from 1-2 minutes to under 30 seconds.

Thanks, I'll try these (the movies thing I already knew about, but I let the intro movies play now because it gives me an indication if I'm suffering from the problem or not).

The only thing is, these seem to be symptoms rather than causes of my problem. So I'll try them but it's unlikely it'll prevent in-game frame issues.

It's literally like this:

Start the map: 62fps no matter what (to be expected with my system and lowest settings).

3-5 minutes in: 20-35fps (playable just, but you can feel the performance drop and you get frame stuttering)

Some time after that: 15-20fps (unplayable, remains this way indefinitely, the input/response is juddery regardless of what the fps is at).

This happens 100% of the time, without fail. It never happened until just recently.

Try this,


1.) Verify game cache at steam game properties.

if that doesn't work

2.) Exit steam, delete everything under your steam folder except

steamapps folder
steam.exe

after that restart steam, it will auto-update itself
I could try this as a last resort. Not sure why Steam would cause this (never had this issue and I've used Steam since its conception).

Which motherboard and bios version do you have?

ASUS Maximus Formula

I don't use the Realtek on board audio, I use my Creative card (can't remember the model right now but it's designed for gaming). Thinking on that, I haven't considered audio as a potential cause for the issue. I'm going to try the tweaks above and then see if I can play with the audio settings.
 
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As I thought, the suggestions above avoid the issues with loading screens (although all it really does is put it back how it was before I had these problems) but the performance of the game is still just as bad.

I wish I knew what was causing this. I don't recall any performance issues for the first two weeks of playing the game but now when I load the game it's either very bad to begin with or it starts ultra smooth then gets very bad over a short period of time playing the game.

The only thing left to try is a fresh windows installation. This is the first game that's ever caused me problems like this and I've been PC gaming since Quake :confused: I'd understand if my PC was under-par (been there before) or if I had a hardware issue but neither is the case.
 
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Did you check this? This has been an issue for others in the forum running quad core processors

Did you take a look at your motherboard manual, are all settings correct?
Do you have a recent bios version?

Did you have opened the case, look if there is dust on your gpu/cpu.
(this caused here a drop in fps)
Thanks for the suggestions.

I wasn't maybe concise in my first post but I did diagnose my CPU and my GPU performance thoroughly. All four cores responsive, GPU running no higher than 50% load, temperature no higher than 65 degrees, CPU core unchanged from idle to peak.

There is no visible change with load on CPU or GPU at any point during play. It remains solid and stable throughout, from when the game runs at 62fps through to 15fps. No more or less stress on the CPU or GPU or RAM at any time.

Not to mention that this issue has just suddenly occurred after having no problems for about 2 weeks. If the performance had always been this way I'd not know any better.

I'm going to try a Windows re-installation shortly. I just don't have time now.
 
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Sorry, can't edit my reply as it has yet to be checked by a moderator. My CPU core 0 runs 100% all the time and the other three fluctuate (overall usage never higher than 60%). But it does this at all times, when the game runs smoothly and otherwise.

If this is a problem then any suggestions to change it would be welcome. I'm just not sure my CPU is causing this problem as it appears to run the same way regardless of what is happening on screen.
 
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Huh. I've not changed anything my end but today the problem appears to have gone away. Whilst I'm happy (for now!) I am perplexed. There was a client side update but I can't see how that changed anything.

But anyway, seems OK now. And playing with 15FPS for a week has really made the game feel so much easier now :D

I'll come back if it happens again but for now... Fingers crossed.
 
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The latest drivers are 4 years old. I've got them.

It was working fine all day yesterday. Seems to have gone bad again today.

One thing I noticed that didn't happen yesterday and has started again today is when I load into the game, yesterday, everything is smooth. But today when I load into the game there is graphics lag/mouse lag at the beginning for one second. And whilst refreshing the server list, yesterday, it was super smooth (as you'd expect) but today mouse input is jerky and judders when the list is refreshing. These are symptoms I suffered before yesterday, too. But they happened all the time.

So the problem has returned today (I've played twice so far, very poor performance in both). Also, another symptom is on RO2 maps (particularly the snowy ones), I get graphics glitches sometimes, where if I look in a certain direction in certain points of the map, parts of the map disappear and I can see through walls/terrain. Now you might think that's a huge help but it seriously isn't because when this is happening my performance is very low and it glitches in and out constantly, flickering as I move my mouse. Not that I want that anyway, I want the game to run properly so I can enjoy it like I did yesterday.

This suggests an issue with graphics. Yet my card is running 75 degrees max. And max load in the last session was 53% GPU usage. And yesterday everything was 100% fine, like it used to be before all this started. So why would the graphics be fine two weeks ago, then bad for a week, then fine yesterday but not today?

There are so many symptoms, I'd be surprised if this was a generic issue. But pinpointing what it is has gone beyond me because there is no pattern to it and it's not chronic. The weirdest thing is I can have a full day (I literally played, on and off, throughout the day and into the night) and there were no problems whatsoever. Yet I switch my PC off, wake up today and try it again and here we go again.
 
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I've reinstalled windows and only installed necessary software on my system. The problem persists. I just played Iwojima and it started at about 60-120fps and I ended the round with a solid 15-25fps.

Ultra smooth, ultra playable (and significantly easier to play) and within minutes it's extremely difficult to kill anyone unless they're unaware of me. The only thing I can think it is would be my CPU struggling in the hot weather (readings around 80 degrees C) and under stress it gets hotter.

So maybe when the weather cools down it might go back to how it was before. The weather was cooler when I got the game and it might be that the ambient temperature is making the CPU struggle. This is probably the only game that this has happened to me before.
 
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Possible performance problems related to grass. In beta RS no grass, no problems.
Spoiler!
 
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