Performance issues

shox

Hi,

I preordered NS2 a few months ago and played a bit in the beta, but I quickly lost interest because the fps ingame was really low, even on low settings and resolution.
I thought these were just beta problems, so I didn't play for a while.

Because of the Steam announcement today, I wanted to try the beta again, so I installed it and played a few hours. But the same performance issues are still there.
I set everything on "off" or "low", except the multicore setting, which I left on. In a resolution of 1280x720, my fps is between 10-15 fps! I have to set my resolution all the way down to 800x600 to get a fps of 20-40.

Here are the specs of my laptop, I have all the recent drivers:

CPU Type:
Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
System Memory: 8 GB
Video Card Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
Video Card Memory: 4 GB

I think this laptop should at least be able to run the game smoothly in low settings, because these are the recommended specs:

Processor:Core 2 Duo 3.0 ghz
Memory:4 GB RAM
Graphics:DirectX 9 compatible video card with 1GB, AMD 5770, NVidia GTX 450 or better

I know a desktop nvidia GTX 450 is probably faster than the 540M. But is it that big of a difference that I can't even run this game on such low settings?
I have tried the suggestions in the sticky already, those didn't help. Is there anything else I can try?

trillex

Same issue here. No matter the settings, I will always have around 20 FPS. Specwise I'm just about the same as OP but with a 560ti and a SSD.

Marty123

Same problem here. I can run most games fine, but the FPS is so low in this that I cannot even be competitive. I don't regret giving them my money because these are awesome devs., but sadly I'm thinking I won't be able to play this game until I fork over the money for a brand new computer (might be a while). I have an AMD triple-core 64 bit processor (2.1 Ghz). 4 Gigs of RAM, and an NVIDIA Geforce GT 545. Like I said, this is the first game that is unplayable for me with these specs. I can run Arkham City, Day Z (Arma 2), Just Cause 2, Skyrim, etc. at mid to high settings at high resolution without FPS hindering my enjoyment. Very frustrating for me because NS 2 is awesome.

Heroman117

The problem with NS2 performance wise is that your fps depends much more on your processor's clock rate than anything else. Obviously a decent graphics card is necessary, though right now any CPU's under 3 GHz is going to get lackluster performance. This is due to NS2's heavy usage of LUA, and has significantly improved over the course of the Alpha and Beta, so unless you were planning to upgrade your CPU anyways, probably may want to take a break and wait for further performance improvements to come down the pipeline. 3.4 GHz has been sufficient for me, though if your willing to overclock, then having the speed over 4 GHz best sustains a higher and stable framerate.

xbeanx3000

Yup, here too. There's a sticky that gives console commands so I'll try those this evening. My system is reasonably powerful so don't think speed is the issue. I was in the alpha years ago and that had the same 'unsmoothness' as this beta.

Also loading screens take 3-4 minutes.

Nvidia GTX570
4GB ram
32-bit Win 7
Intel i5 2500k 3.3GHz

My room is too dusty to dare overclocking!

Squirreli_

<!--quoteo(post=1972626:date=Sep 6 2012, 11:37 AM:name=xbeanx3000)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xbeanx3000 @ Sep 6 2012, 11:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1972626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Intel i5 2500k 3.3GHz

My room is too dusty to dare overclocking!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Overclocking that processor is childs play. You need to get an aftermarket cooler ($50 or so) and then tweak one setting. Internets is filled with good guides, and really, you can overclock to 4,5ghz with just one bios setting ;)

I'm running an i7 2600k @ 4,5ghz and if the server is on decent hardware (tickrate at 30 or so) my fps is usually over 60 (and my LCD can only do 60hz anyway) and in heavy combat stays over 30. That is starting to be playable ;) ... Oh, and I have ASUS GTX570 DirectCU II for the graphics card.

PS. Please make sure the server you are on has decent tick rate! Console -> net_stats 1 -> you see server tick rate and choke. Any tickrate near 20 will start causing problems, and any choke usually means problems. At around 15 server ticks the game is a slideshow, no matter the client side hardware!

xbeanx3000

<!--quoteo(post=1972632:date=Sep 6 2012, 09:50 AM:name=Squirreli_)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squirreli_ @ Sep 6 2012, 09:50 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1972632"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Overclocking that processor is childs play. You need to get an aftermarket cooler ($50 or so) and then tweak one setting. Internets is filled with good guides, and really, you can overclock to 4,5ghz with just one bios setting ;).

PS. Please make sure the server you are on has decent tick rate! Console -> net_stats 1 -> you see server tick rate and choke.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I did buy a cpu cooler but only for getting experience in installing one lol! Like I said, my room is too dusty to overclock things and haven't got around to buying a vacuum cleaner. Unclocked cpu temps are around 35*

With regards to the tickrate I've only been testing the game by the "Start Server" option, so don't think that applies.

UPDATE; This might sound strange but actually my fps is always above 45-50fps yet the gameplay doesn't feel 'right'. Nevermind though, I'll wait until the game gets more patches before playing again.

MOOtant

<!--quoteo(post=1972626:date=Sep 6 2012, 10:37 AM:name=xbeanx3000)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xbeanx3000 @ Sep 6 2012, 10:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1972626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My room is too dusty to dare overclocking!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Overclocking is for retards (nitrogenium ###### yeah!) and ricers.

shox

Thanks for the answers.

I've played other recent games on this laptop, like Sleeping Dogs. That game runs smoothly in 1920×1080, no lag at all. So this is why I think this issue is not purely because of the specs of my laptop that are not good enough.

I really hope UWE can look into this before the release, so people with the same problem can enjoy this game.

MOOtant

Client per frame code takes too long on processors that are not overclocked. It is that simple. You can "fix" the problem by overclocking (or getting CPU with automatically overclocked cores if only 1-2 are active) or you can change the code not to take 10-20 ms per frame by not running OnUpdate() on every client entity each frame.

NS2 is also very spiky. It calls LoadResource for various kinds of things like scripts, textures because not everything is precached and first use of such resource causes stall. I'd recommend what Valve did, assert or worse when resource gets used witihout being precached before, that motivates devs to code proper precaching quickly.

Get something with relatively fast processor (really fast ones get really expensive even more than in desktop PCs) and wait for UWE to optimize client code.