Low FPS, CPU bound, i7 8700k without changing anything

[Dirk Steffen]

Mod edit: These posts were extracted from the GBW Suite thread.

Are there any changes for version 2.0 that influence performance?

Since I installed version 2.0 I have SEVERELY reduced performance with Assetto Corsa without any other changes to Assetto Corsa than having removed the former version of gbwS and freshly installed v2.0

Before I had reliable FPS of ~100 - 120, now I have 60 - 75 with occasional substantial stuttering (FPS dipping as low as into the 40 FPS).

This is of course unusable for online racing :-(

I do not use reshade or any other visual mods.
I have compared those frame rates with the identical event setup (having loaded a saved preset from Content Manager.

As a workaround to those very bad FPS I am temporarily trying to reduce MSAA in Content Manager to only 4x as that gave a good boost in the past but preferably I would like to find out how to get back to the old performance without going back to gbwS v1.3.

 

[RasmusP]

Are you using sparse grid aa with the inspector?
Try to deactivate smoke. If smoke gets anti aliased it’s extremely heavy on the gpu. For me the performance stayed the same but l think I’ve seen something about smoke an spray!

 

[Peter Boese]

Are there any changes for version 2.0 that influence performance?

Since I installed version 2.0 I have SEVERELY reduced performance with Assetto Corsa without any other changes to Assetto Corsa than having removed the former version of gbwS and freshly installed v2.0

Before I had reliable FPS of ~100 - 120, now I have 60 - 75 with occasional substantial stuttering (FPS dipping as low as into the 40 FPS).

This is of course unusable for online racing :-(

I do not use reshade or any other visual mods.
I have compared those frame rates with the identical event setup (having loaded a saved preset from Content Manager.

As a workaround to those very bad FPS I am temporarily trying to reduce MSAA in Content Manager to only 4x as that gave a good boost in the past but preferably I would like to find out how to get back to the old performance without going back to gbwS v1.3.

Are you using gbwS Reshade?

 

[Dirk Steffen]

I dont have any reshade installed.
I had smoke set to a medium level and had 100 - 120 FPS.
I have the Nvidia inspector set at all default.

After finishing a steam file integrety check and trying both versions again I will report back.

Also: it is one of the CPU cores that is at ~ 95% load.
The GPU idles around at ~ 55 %

I didn’t pay attention to the monitoring before, so I do not know if these values are as before.

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

I dont have any reshade installed.
I had smoke set to a medium level and had 100 - 120 FPS.
I have the Nvidia inspector set at all default.

After finishing a steam file integrety check and trying both versions again I will report back.

Also: it is one of the CPU cores that is at ~ 95% load.
The GPU idles around at ~ 55 %

I didn’t pay attention to the monitoring before, so I do not know if these values are as before.

You need a new CPU

 

[RasmusP]

You need a new CPU

He has an i7 8700k, I might be wrong but I think the problem lies somewhere else

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

He has an i7 8700k, I might be wrong but I think the problem lies somewhere else

Well i didn't see that one coming

But still, 55% gpu usage is very strange

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Yes, unfortunately the issue seems to be not as easy to figure out it seems :-(

I have to apologize I posted in this thread as I have confirmed now that gbwS is NOT what caused the issue (I didn't find the cause yet).

I have deleted the entire weather folder and the system cfg folder and made a steam file integrity check (re downloaded those files).

Then I benchmarked without installing the mod, then with v1.3 and at last with v2.0.

All result in the same lower performance as I had before :-(

This is so strange as the very only change I made to the computer between proper performance and now has been:

- installing of the gbwS v2.0 (upgrade from v1.3 actually with prior removal of v1.3 files)
- installing of several car skins (none of which were used in the GT3 field I was running)

I have also Windows updates disabled (via group settings), so no Windows update interfered.
I am also not aware of any changes other than mentioned - at least not directly user initiated.

 

[RasmusP]

Could you run any other game and monitor your CPU usage please? Once we figured it out we can move/merge it into other threads but now it's here, let's try to solve it here. No need for an extra thread yet!
How's the CPU usage without games running?
Did you install any new apps or change the reflection frequency?

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

What are your "whole" specs of your PC build?

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Could you run any other game and monitor your CPU usage please? Once we figured it out we can move/merge it into other threads but now it's here, let's try to solve it here. No need for an extra thread yet!
How's the CPU usage without games running?
Did you install any new apps or change the reflection frequency?

I just tried a few other apps and every other app I tried behaves normal, smae FPS I used to get.
I re-installed recently ProTires and and ACTV, ran them on and off, testing them but still had normal performance before hiding the apps (not actively using them at all times. I don't know if they have any impact on performance when they are activated but hidden. Performance was normal though after having installed them.

Only after I updated gbwS 2.0 did I see these performance issues. It is for exacmple extremely bad when starting a race weekend at Nurburgring GP, starting out of the pits FPS are down to ~60 but feels VERY stuttery. I used to have in the same situation ~80 FPS and recovering later around the track to normal frames.
I did not change any of the graphics settings resulting in the bad performance I am getting now :-(
All settings are pretty much maxed out with few exceptions. I use smoke at a slightly lower level than max (it used to cause slowdowns in critical places and I hardly see the difference now.
Some of the graphics settings CM allows to further boost I have increased, such as 8x MSAA, reflections, shadows, etc - but again with all these settings performance was rock solid with fields of 30+ cars never slowing down below ~80 FPS and I never experienced any stuttering or slowdowns.

What are your "whole" specs of your PC build?

ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti GAMING
Intel Core i7-8700K
ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING
32GB Kingston 3600 DDR4 (4x8GB)
OWC SSD
3x Asus 27" 1950x1080 @ 60Hz
Fanatec CSW stuff

 

[RasmusP]

I just tried a few other apps and every other app I tried behaves normal, smae FPS I used to get.
I re-installed recently ProTires and and ACTV, ran them on and off, testing them but still had normal performance before hiding the apps (not actively using them at all times. I don't know if they have any impact on performance when they are activated but hidden. Performance was normal though after having installed them.

Only after I updated gbwS 2.0 did I see these performance issues. It is for exacmple extremely bad when starting a race weekend at Nurburgring GP, starting out of the pits FPS are down to ~60 but feels VERY stuttery. I used to have in the same situation ~80 FPS and recovering later around the track to normal frames.
I did not change any of the graphics settings resulting in the bad performance I am getting now :-(
All settings are pretty much maxed out with few exceptions. I use smoke at a slightly lower level than max (it used to cause slowdowns in critical places and I hardly see the difference now.
Some of the graphics settings CM allows to further boost I have increased, such as 8x MSAA, reflections, shadows, etc - but again with all these settings performance was rock solid with fields of 30+ cars never slowing down below ~80 FPS and I never experienced any stuttering or slowdowns.


ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti GAMING
Intel Core i7-8700K
ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING
32GB Kingston 3600 DDR4 (4x8GB)
OWC SSD
3x Asus 27" 1950x1080 @ 60Hz
Fanatec CSW stuff

Please try to disable reflections (yeah I know.. but just do it) and also:
did you delete these two files too?
\\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\texture\
'people_sit.dds' and 'people_stand.dds'
It's the only thing I could imagine other than that your PC has some different problem somehow.

Also try to use a different pp-filter. Maybe there's something broken with it...

I ran some tests yesterday to verify that MagicBloom effect is still a perfomance hog, and got exactly the same results as with previous version of GBW and Reshade
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gbws-reshade.149239/#post-2722829

Most likely the issue you are experiencing is somewhere else.
If you are using reshade, disable MagicBloom, that would give back around 15% of fps

Very true, but not with the CPU being the problem. It adds around 8% GPU load on a 1070. Quite a lot but nothing for the CPU.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

I will check these Rasmus and will report back once done.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Please try to disable reflections (yeah I know.. but just do it) and also:
did you delete these two files too?
\\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\texture\
'people_sit.dds' and 'people_stand.dds'
It's the only thing I could imagine other than that your PC has some different problem somehow.

Also try to use a different pp-filter. Maybe there's something broken with it...


Very true, but not with the CPU being the problem. It adds around 8% GPU load on a 1070. Quite a lot but nothing for the CPU.

PROBLEM SOLVED ;-)

Thanks Rasmus for the hint on the reflections!
I played just with the reflections a little bit - first switched them off entirely, then back to reasonable settings and I have now again the same solid performance as before (even with the very same settings I had issues with out of nowhere).

This really puzzles me - how can the exact same settings produce different results? Maybe there is a disconnect between changing settings in Content Manager and how they are applied to the ini files in Assetto Corsa - something went haywire ?

The GPU usage is also recovered, it hovers now anywhere from ~50% to ~80% which looks normal with Assetto Corsa to me - is it really ?

The CPU usage is back to where I remember it with Assetto Corsa - one core would usually be saturated but saturation would hop around between cores and not one core be nailed at saturation constantly.
So far I only did benchmark runs - still have to make the litmus-test itself and run a proper field at a heavy track (why is it that Nurburgring GP is SOOOOOO heavy on the graphics around the pitlane exit ?

In any case, I am back to rock solid performance - thank you guys for your great help!

Here is what I get with a combination of settings I am going to stick for now (btw - isn't Content Manager absolutely AWESOME !?):

 

[Deleted member 197115]

The default rendering distance (max you can set in AC launcher) is 500m, you set it to 2400, that might have impact on performance as well.
MSAA is 8x - huge performance killer
FXAA in combination with MSAA - blurry image and loss of FPS.
Smoke at maximum - it will choke even super rig.

Try these settings:

 

[RasmusP]

No idea about Nürburgring being so heavy. What do you mean with "heavy on the graphics" btw? Do you get a GPU spike or just a general fps drop (which is probably due to your reflection settings and the CPU!)

Reflections:
Most of them are calculated on the CPU and not on the GPU. You raised the distance where they are not only visible but also up to what distance you see reflections on your and all cars to 5x the default value.
This setting works exponential as you see reflections now in 2400m distance but also everything within 2400m will be reflected on your car!
You have a very powerful CPU with the 8700k but that's really too much in my opinion. Lower it so 500-800m!
Then on the other hand you use a very low resolution of said reflections while the maximum amount of refreshes.

So in other words: you have a massive overload on ugly reflections!

Try this:

If you can't live with "static", try "four faces per frame". If that stutters for you go up to five or even six but then you might need to lower the distance again a little!

Now to the rest that was mentioned above:
- MSAA: Not a problem for your GPU at all. It's GPU only so crank it up until your GPU load goes too high (50-70% currently? BUMP IT UP!)
- FXAA: yes it blurrs the image a little but MSAA doesn't really so it's the same as without any MSAA. I use FXAA and sharpen the image with the LumaSharpen.fx shader from ReShade afterwards btw. I can give you my modified GBW-Reshade.ini and explain how you can get the shader
- Smoke: honestly not a problem as long as you don't use transparency anti-aliasing such as SGSSAA etc. it's GPU only again so bump it up

My last advice would be to lower the shadows one click though. Not because of performance but because they are too detailed for me at 4096x4096 and flicker more without really looking nicer than 2048x2048.
Don't try too much. Just adjust reflections and maybe the shadows. Rest of your settings is totally well!

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Thanks guys, I give some further testing and will let you know what I found working best in the end.

The reflection resolution really was only a choice during testing - I had them generally one or two levels higher.
The reflection distance was a fluke - I saw what little impact it did performance wise (I didn't see any appreciable difference during benchmarking, so I just bumped them up without thinking too much about it) - I'll lower them again).

The AA settings really had my frustrated for a while.
I used 4x MSAA for years and never really was satisfied with AA performance (there always would be aliasing remaining in Assetto Corsa, especially on horizontal lines such as the edge of the hood in cockpit view or front wings, splitters and grilles on cars shimmering with aliasing.

Since the new computer I tried everything to really get rid of those issues and threw all AA options at the problem.

I found for me that the experimental 8x MSAA in Content Manager takes care of almost all AA issues.
I just experiment currently if additional FXAA sorts out the remaining rest of aliasing (and plan to fix the unsharpened effect FXAA creates with reshade settings at a later time (after this event packed weekend and the upcoming workweek to be sure).

I would very much appreciate any insight on how best to use reshade for that purpose.

I usually use smoke on the high setting as I found with large fields in some situations there would be slowdowns which I like to prevent entirely.
For benchmark testing it was still set at the maximum setting.
Smoke is usually the very first setting I cut down in search for stability as I find there is barely any difference visually between high and maximum.

Regarding shadow resolution - good point about flickering - I have to test this more.
I simply liked the much nicer looking cockpit self shading with the higher resolution and it didn't cause any performance issues unlike with the old computer ;-)

This whole thing clearly needs more testing and I will let you know what I come up with.

Now on to finding a little time to finally do a few practice sessions for the upcoming 4 (!!!) club racing events this weekend which I had so far zero chance to do!

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

No idea about Nürburgring being so heavy. What do you mean with "heavy on the graphics" btw? Do you get a GPU spike or just a general fps drop (which is probably due to your reflection settings and the CPU!)

Reflections:
Most of them are calculated on the CPU and not on the GPU. You raised the distance where they are not only visible but also up to what distance you see reflections on your and all cars to 5x the default value.
This setting works exponential as you see reflections now in 2400m distance but also everything within 2400m will be reflected on your car!
You have a very powerful CPU with the 8700k but that's really too much in my opinion. Lower it so 500-800m!
Then on the other hand you use a very low resolution of said reflections while the maximum amount of refreshes.

So in other words: you have a massive overload on ugly reflections!

Try this:
View attachment 253039

If you can't live with "static", try "four faces per frame". If that stutters for you go up to five or even six but then you might need to lower the distance again a little!

Now to the rest that was mentioned above:
- MSAA: Not a problem for your GPU at all. It's GPU only so crank it up until your GPU load goes too high (50-70% currently? BUMP IT UP!)
- FXAA: yes it blurrs the image a little but MSAA doesn't really so it's the same as without any MSAA. I use FXAA and sharpen the image with the LumaSharpen.fx shader from ReShade afterwards btw. I can give you my modified GBW-Reshade.ini and explain how you can get the shader
- Smoke: honestly not a problem as long as you don't use transparency anti-aliasing such as SGSSAA etc. it's GPU only again so bump it up

My last advice would be to lower the shadows one click though. Not because of performance but because they are too detailed for me at 4096x4096 and flicker more without really looking nicer than 2048x2048.
Don't try too much. Just adjust reflections and maybe the shadows. Rest of your settings is totally well!

Interesting.....gonna test this real soon.....

 

[RasmusP]

Interesting.....gonna test this real soon.....

For testing:
It's very important to monitor the GPU load constantly. The CPU load doesn't tell the real story, too many threads, cores etc. but as a rule of thumb:
If the GPU load isn't close to 100%, the CPU is limiting no matter it's load!

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

The "old" graphic settings i used were the following using CM:

Resolution: 2560x1080 75HZ
Rendering mode: Single screen
V-sync: Off
Limit framerate: Off

Quality:

MSAA: X4
Anisotropic filtering: X16
World details: Maximun
Shadows resolution: 4096x4096
Smoke generation: Maximum and is also shown in the mirrors

Reflections:

Reflections resolution: 1024x1024
Reflections frequency: Six faces per frame
Rendering distance: 2400 m

Post-Processing: On

Filter:_gbWSuite
Overall quality: Maximun
Glare effects: Maximun
Depth of field: off (who in the world is using this nowadays?)
Motion blur: 0 (same like above)
Saturation: 100%
Heat shimmering: On
Sunrays: On
FXAA: Off

Mirrors:

Mirror resolution: 256x1024
High quality: On

Not using Oculus so it doesn't matter

System:

Not using DX10
Skybox reflection: 100%
Mip LOD bias: 0
Max frame latency: Auto

The results:

• Average FPS: 91.0 (10.985 ms);
• Minimum FPS: 80.6 (12.405 ms);
• Taken: 74 samples;
• Test time: 02:28.000.


Now with the "new" graphic settings i did the following

I reduced the shadows resolution to 2048x2048
Increased MSAA to X8
Enabled FXAA
put the Reflection resolution to 2048x2048
reduced the faces per frame to 4
and reduced the rendering distance to 650 m

The results:

• Average FPS: 71.2 (14.043 ms);
• Minimum FPS: 63.8 (15.670 ms);
• Taken: 73 samples;
• Test time: 02:26.000.