Bad FPS in latest patch

rehevkor5 · July 2012

As of the latest patch, I get about 5 fps at all times: even on the menus. Before it was at least playable. Now, it's even making my ping higher (110+, used to be 40-60). Looked at the profiler: it says ~94% of the time is spent in rendering. Noticed that my CPU is maxed out at 50%. My detail setting was already on "low"... not sure what else I can do to fix this. Would appreciate any help.

Obraxis · July 2012

We need your system specs, a dxdig would help. Also make sure you are on a server close to you geographically.

deathmonger · July 2012

Do you have steedstep/cool 'n quiet enabled? Might be something funky going on there. Not sure why there would be but it's an easy explanation for why you're only seeing 50%.

rehevkor5 · July 2012

Dell XPS 420 (desktop)
Windows Vista SP2 x32
Core2 Duo @ 3GHz
4GB RAM (only 3326MB available due to memory card/4GB address space limit)
GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Attached dxdiag results in a zip.

The server does not matter because I am getting the same framerate on the menus (before I connect to a server) as I am in-game: about 3fps. I tried to attach a screenshot, but attachments are limited to a paltry 30k.

The reason I see 50% CPU is that it's a multi-core CPU: therefore the only way to get 100% CPU is if both cores are being maxed.

Thanks for your help!

Kouji_San · July 2012

I just had a look at comparing my <a href="http://www.hwcompare.com/9756/geforce-gtx-550-ti-vs-radeon-hd-4850-512mb/" target="_blank">HD4850 with your GTX550TI,</a> it should be a bit faster then mine. This also has me stumped as I'm on 12-15FPS during heavy combat and ~20-30FPS just running around the map with 40-50FPS when nothing is going on. My FPS has gone down as well during these last few server optimisation builds. My minimum heavy combat FPS used to be around 22FPS.

I'm running a C2D E6420 @ 3.22Ghz, have 2Gb of RAM on Windows 7 Ultimate and have a HD4850 512Mb. So in theory your PC should have my performance and maybe even a bit better due to more memory and a better graphics card.

My graphics settings are as follows:
Quality is Low, resolution is 1280x720 running in a window. And the only thing I have checked in the option menu is Anti-Aliasing. However I've tried to use the other options as well, this does close to nothing to my FPS, ~3-5FPS less on average. Maybe you could try my settings and report back?

ViVnet · July 2012

I'm also having issues with the most recent patch.

My frame rates are about the same as with previous patches, fluctuating depending on how much action is occurring. However, what I've noticed is that my video card is not being utilized well.

For example, all other games perform above 100 fps on ultra settings, causing (naturally) the video card to heat up. In the current build of NS2, I'm only recording 55-60 degrees Celsius for the video card. This might sound good, but what it means is that it's just not being used to its full potential. The system is set to respond to temperatures 70 degrees Celsius and above, so I'm basically running this game on minimal power consumption and cooling.

The specs of the system are:

i5 2500k @ 4.0GHz
GeForce GTX 560 Ti @ Stock
8 GB 1333MHz RAM

I also have another system:

i7 720qm @ Stock
GeForce GT 240m @ Stock
4 GB 1333Mhz RAM

This system also has relatively the same performance on the same settings, with the same driver and operating system. This is cause for concern when you consider my desktop has a very significant GPU performance advantage.

V4NGUARD · August 2012

I've recently started playing and also noticed less than optimal performance, but its beta so I know its to be expected. Hopefully it can get optimized soon :)

My specs:

i7 2700k @3.5GHz (3.8GHz)
GeForce GTX 570 (1.5GB)
8 GB 1600MHz RAM

I get about 35-45fps running around as marines and as low as 25-30fps in heavy combat. While I get 60-70fps as something lower to the ground like a Skulk when running around and around 45-50fps in heavy combat.

AussieKid · August 2012

I am also noticing a considerable drop in performance however it is exaggerated with network latency.

Test 1 Method: On an empty server with a ping of 50 and server tickrate of 29.9, I did my own time-demo run through on ns2_summit.
Test 1 Results: average FPS between 24 and 37.

Test 2 Method: On my own empty dedicated LAN server with a ping between 0 and 5 and a server tickrate of 29.9, I did the same time-demo run through on ns2_summit.
Test 2 Results: average FPS between 65 and 73.

Specs are:
CPU - i5 2500K @ 3.3Ghz
RAM - 16GB 1333mhz
GPU - gtx580 3GB
Disks - SSD

The problem with this is that obviously there is such a huge difference in FPS simply due to an extra 50ms or so in latency. This seems consistent with servers I connect to with a ping higher than 50, it exponentially grows my FPS. This problem has also always been there in earlier builds however it wasn't until the latest build that it seems to have had the biggest impact.

I would be keen to see if others could conduct the same test.

Angelusz · August 2012

When the ping is higher and server tickrate lower, your client has to do a lot more in terms of prediction. This can be a great strain on your CPU. I think that's your biggest problem AussieKid.

Did you test on one of the australian servers, or a EU/US one?

It's interesting that the difference is that big for you, on an empty server. I can't explain that straight away.

AussieKid · August 2012

Hi Angelusz, yes I agree the problem gets even worse on a server with a lower tickrate however both these test servers I used had identical tickrates, the only main difference being my client's ping to each one. Tests were all done on Australian servers as my ping to EU/US is 200+

It just seems odd that the client's FPS is so reliant on response time from the server. For example comparing it to other FPS engines/netcode, when the latency is bad in other games the other player models and actions are updated less frequently however the actual FPS the client experiences is unaffected. i.e. even with a very bad ping, moving your mouse to change the view is still smooth and unaffected. From what I understand in NS2, when there is bad latency the CPU is strained a lot more as it has to calculate predictions to compensate for a low rate of updates from the server and in NS2's case it seems that even doing a task like moving the mouse to look around is affected by network latency.

Something about this just doesn't sit right with me...

Angelusz · August 2012

Yeah, that's definitely a matter of optimization. The CPU strain is simply too much at times right now, which renders your PC unable to keep up with the game, decreasing FPS in the process. Some people think FPS relies only on the GPU, but this is untrue.

I'm afraid I have no solution for you at this point. B216 is scheduled to be released soon, perhaps that'll alleviate some of the performance issues. It's not carved in stone though.

Kouji_San · August 2012

The thing how it is currently set up as I understand it, low FPS is caused by a number of things (Build 215):

<ul><li>CPU type (3Ghz seems to be the magic number for "acceptable" levels ~20-30FPS on older hardware C2D/C2Q), the iCore Intel CPU's seems to be able to cope with lower speeds to some extent (AMD seems to be having problems though)</li><li>Ping, the higher it is the more prediction the client has to do, eating away at CPU power</li><li>Choke, 100% means the client/server communication is over saturated I think. Forcing your client to do more prediction</li><li>Server tickrate, 20-30 is acceptable for now, 10-20 is barely acceptable and going below 10 is simply unplayable. The lower this gets the more predictions your client has to do once more</li><li>Materials/models loading into memory causing hitches. video cards with 512Mb VRAM or lower (heard it happens on more then 1024Mb as well sometimes)</li></ul>

So if you have any one of these or all of them, chances are you're going to experience low or unstable FPS currently (Build 215)

AussieKid · October 2012

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Aug 7 2012, 06:13 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1958570"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>The thing how it is currently set up as I understand it, low FPS is caused by a number of things (Build 215):

<ul><li>CPU type (3Ghz seems to be the magic number for "acceptable" levels ~20-30FPS on older hardware C2D/C2Q), the iCore Intel CPU's seems to be able to cope with lower speeds to some extent (AMD seems to be having problems though)</li><li>Ping, the higher it is the more prediction the client has to do, eating away at CPU power</li><li>Choke, 100% means the client/server communication is over saturated I think. Forcing your client to do more prediction</li><li>Server tickrate, 20-30 is acceptable for now, 10-20 is barely acceptable and going below 10 is simply unplayable. The lower this gets the more predictions your client has to do once more</li><li>Materials/models loading into memory causing hitches. video cards with 512Mb VRAM or lower (heard it happens on more then 1024Mb as well sometimes)</li></ul>

So if you have any one of these or all of them, chances are you're going to experience low or unstable FPS currently (Build 215)</div>

I know this is an old thread but would just like to confirm this has finally been fixed in build 224 and in the patch changelog notes they even admit that one of their optimisations is: "Decouple server updates from client framerate (this is big)"

This is exactly what we were describing in this thread, the direct relationship between server updates (network connection) and client FPS.

Bad FPS in latest patch

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