Huge FPS Drop with the IndyCar!

[FriendOfJah]

I purchased the Q1 2022 DLC today and installed it. I just couldn't wait to race at the Daytona Road Course with the IndyCar. I had everything installed, setup a quick race and went out on the track. Within 15 seconds or so my frame rate went from my normal 80-100 down to 20 FPS, unplayable. I exited rFactor 2 and rebooted my Windows 10 Desktop Gaming PC. After that, I verified I had the latest nVidia driver for my Asus RTX 2060 Super which I did. I then opened Content Manager for Assetto Corsa and ran the Video Benchmark. It was normal with everything on Ultra at an average frame rate of 156 FPS. I started up rFactor 2 again. I changed back to my previous Car (Porsche 911 GTE) and previous track (Indianapolis Road Course) that I had used just last night. I raced around with 24 AI with an average FPS of 80-90 fps, exact same as last night. I exited that session and setup another quick race at Daytona with the IndyCar. I went out first and did a lap by myself and the frame rate dropped down to 50-60 FPS. I crashed, went back to the pits and came back out with other cars on the track and the frame rate quickly dropped to only 20 FPS. Is this a problem with both the IndyCar, the Daytona track or both? Of note, I tried racing the IndyCar at Sebring and I had the same exact frame rate problem. However, I had no problem at all at Sebring with the Porsche 911 GTE. I feel like I just wasted $18.29 for unfinished work. HELP PLEASE!!!
Roger

 

[davehenrie]

The Porsche is one of the original DLC cars and as a result does not have the full PBR shader detail of newer cars like the 488 Ferrari or the new Indycar. You have posted this twice without mentioning your hardware, I tend to agree with Lazza, you may be running out of Vram. Give us a rundown of your cpu, videocard with vram and system ram. Then, be prepared to give up Ultra. If you insist on only ultra settings, then consign yourself to using mostly older content.

 

[FriendOfJah]

The Porsche is one of the original DLC cars and as a result does not have the full PBR shader detail of newer cars like the 488 Ferrari or the new Indycar. You have posted this twice without mentioning your hardware, I tend to agree with Lazza, you may be running out of Vram. Give us a rundown of your cpu, videocard with vram and system ram. Then, be prepared to give up Ultra. If you insist on only ultra settings, then consign yourself to using mostly older content.

Hi Dave. Thanks so much for the reply and explanations. When you say RAM usage are you talking about system RAM or Video RAM? If the latter, how would I be able to monitor my VRAM usage? Is there an app for this? It should be noted that I use AMS2 on Ultra settings with no problem, AC with Ultra Settings and almost all Ultra settings in ACC also with no problems. rFactor 2 is the oldest program in this group, so I was very surprised by the massive performance hit.

Here are my system specifications:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Processor (8x 3.60GHz/12MB L3 Cache)
Memory: 32 GB [8 GB x4] DDR4-3200 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance-LPX
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER - 8GB GDDR6 (VR-Ready) - Free Upgrade to GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ASUS DUAL EVO
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-H GAMING -- RGB, Gb LAN, USB 3.1 (6 Rear, 4 Front), 8-Channel HD Audio

Roger

 

[davehenrie]

Hi Dave. Thanks so much for the reply and explanations. When you say RAM usage are you talking about system RAM or Video RAM? If the latter, how would I be able to monitor my VRAM usage? Is there an app for this? It should be noted that I use AMS2 on Ultra settings with no problem, AC with Ultra Settings and almost all Ultra settings in ACC also with no problems. rFactor 2 is the oldest program in this group, so I was very surprised by the massive performance hit.

Here are my system specifications:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Processor (8x 3.60GHz/12MB L3 Cache)
Memory: 32 GB [8 GB x4] DDR4-3200 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance-LPX
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER - 8GB GDDR6 (VR-Ready) - Free Upgrade to GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ASUS DUAL EVO
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-H GAMING -- RGB, Gb LAN, USB 3.1 (6 Rear, 4 Front), 8-Channel HD Audio

Roger

Looks to be a rather stout system. I was indeed talking about Vram, usually there is an app with your drivers that allows you to activate the OSD(on screen display) and that should show you the various performance levels of your card. The temperature, the amount of Vram used, etc. Afterburner was mentioned over at the S397 forum, that too should provide lots of stats.
When S397 took over the sim from ISI, one of the first projects was to convert the original dx9 graphic engine to DX11. This added some demands on user's hardware. Also remember that rF2 has a physic engine that operates at a much higher rate than most, if not all, sims. (this usually affects the CPU however)
Then, after the upgrade to dx11, they began adding new graphic options via shaders. Each of these upgrades consumed more video ram, especially for the larger Laser Scanned tracks like Sebring, Le Mans, Nords & presumably Daytona.
So because of the layer after layer of graphic updates, the heavier load on the CPU via the physics engine, rF2 RARELY runs at the settings other sims can handle. An oddity though is that rF2 looks better at lower graphic settings. For me, with my older system, I find I cannot run ACC without huge graphic losses due to it's newer graphics engine, while, if I keep the graphics lower, rF2 doesn't drag down as much as ACC. Kind of a conundrum...
I would suggest testing at Silverstone and use that as a baseline. Use Afterburner or your Nvidia app to check Vram usage. Silverstone has all the S397 updates but isn't a super huge track. Then compare how well the sim handles the other tracks you are having issues with.

 

[Durge Driven]

Need to test new 4+ hour endurance replays again

I deleted my old ones because once past 4 hour mark they would just hang with rF2 @ 11/12GB of ram usage

 

[FriendOfJah]

Looks to be a rather stout system. I was indeed talking about Vram, usually there is an app with your drivers that allows you to activate the OSD(on screen display) and that should show you the various performance levels of your card. The temperature, the amount of Vram used, etc. Afterburner was mentioned over at the S397 forum, that too should provide lots of stats.
When S397 took over the sim from ISI, one of the first projects was to convert the original dx9 graphic engine to DX11. This added some demands on user's hardware. Also remember that rF2 has a physic engine that operates at a much higher rate than most, if not all, sims. (this usually affects the CPU however)
Then, after the upgrade to dx11, they began adding new graphic options via shaders. Each of these upgrades consumed more video ram, especially for the larger Laser Scanned tracks like Sebring, Le Mans, Nords & presumably Daytona.
So because of the layer after layer of graphic updates, the heavier load on the CPU via the physics engine, rF2 RARELY runs at the settings other sims can handle. An oddity though is that rF2 looks better at lower graphic settings. For me, with my older system, I find I cannot run ACC without huge graphic losses due to it's newer graphics engine, while, if I keep the graphics lower, rF2 doesn't drag down as much as ACC. Kind of a conundrum...
I would suggest testing at Silverstone and use that as a baseline. Use Afterburner or your Nvidia app to check Vram usage. Silverstone has all the S397 updates but isn't a super huge track. Then compare how well the sim handles the other tracks you are having issues with.

Hi Dave. Thanks so much the super detailed reply and history of the graphics updates that were made to rFactor 2. I’ll try turning the graphics level down from Ultra to High and see how my FPS changes. I’ll do my testing at Silverstone as you recommended. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for your feedback and assistance. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[FriendOfJah]

I made the change in the rFactor 2 Video Setup dialog box to High from Ultra. That did it! I never dropped below 70 FPS and it still looks terrific. Thanks Dave for your help with this.

I did have a question about whether or not based on my PC if I should turn on Sync or enable FXAA? What would you recommend? Please let me know your thoughts on this, thanks.

Roger