Terrible Performance With Gaming Computer

[-CM-Ruiner]

Hello everyone,

 

I seem to have some pretty weird FPS problems with Warframe. For example, just now I was hosting T3S, which lasted about 1h. Throughout the game my FPS was around 40-60 FPS (max settings @ 1080p), which never happens in any other game, except maybe Metro and Crysis 3 on the highest settings. I can run newer games like BF: HL, Evolve, CoD: AW, and Shadow of Mordor on ultra and get stable 60+ FPS. Far Cry 4 rarely drops below 60 FPS.

 

The strangest part is that when I'm playing Warframe my GPU just uses like 30-35% (about 1,2 GB of vRAM) of its total memory and the CPU sits at around 30-60%. Memory usage is similar - about 3 GB of RAM. So how is this possible? It's like my system is half asleep when I'm playing Warframe. Is there anything I can do to solve this? Cause I would really like to be able to enjoy this game even more than I have so far.

 

P.S. I also tried to unpark my cores. I'm not sure whether there was any improvement.

 

My system:
Intel, Core i5-4670 (3.4GHz, 6MB Cache, LGA1150);
MSI, GeForce GTX 970, 4GB, GDDR5, GAMING 4G
Crucial Ballistix Sport, 8GB, DDR3, 1600MHz, CL9, Single stick
Western Digital, 1TB, 7200rpm, 64MB, Sata III, Caviar Blu
Asrock, Z87M Pro4
Seasonic M12 II, 750W, 80+ Bronze

Edited March 25, 2015 by -CM-Ruiner

[Frawg]

3Kbytes and 1.2Kbytes? Are you sure you're looking at the warframe process? Warframe, for me, eats 1-2 G  (and 500-800M) for me.

 

I've noticed that Warframe uses the Northbridge heavily.

 

And turn off to see any performance gain:

Ambient Occlusion

PhysX

Adaptive Exposure

Runtime Tessilation

Anti-Aliasing

[Uberplayer]

Overall cpu usage is low, but warframe runs primarily on one core and that one core is fully utilized. Other cores can have some utilization too but you are limited by single core performance of your pc. You can overclock cpu and ram and gain fps.

[-CM-Ruiner]

3Kbytes and 1.2Kbytes? Are you sure you're looking at the warframe process? Warframe, for me, eats 1-2 G  (and 500-800M) for me.

 

I've noticed that Warframe uses the Northbridge heavily.

 

And turn off to see any performance gain:

Ambient Occlusion

PhysX

Adaptive Exposure

Runtime Tessilation

Anti-Aliasing

I meant K as in thousand MBs. I actually installed GeForce Experience just now and pressed "optimize". The only thing it has supposedly done is turned off MFAA at NVIDIA Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings (Warframe). I tried playing Draco after that and it seems that the overall performance might have benefited, although I will have to test how it works in the Void.

[-CM-Ruiner]

Overall cpu usage is low, but warframe runs primarily on one core and that one core is fully utilized. Other cores can have some utilization too but you are limited by single core performance of your pc. You can overclock cpu and ram and gain fps.

For me it doesn't. MSI Afterburner shows that each core runs at around 30 to 60% at various times. As far as I know, my CPU cannot be overclocked.

[Frawg]

I meant K as in thousand MBs. I actually installed GeForce Experience just now and pressed "optimize". The only thing it has supposedly done is turned off MFAA at NVIDIA Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings (Warframe). I tried playing Draco after that and it seems that the overall performance might have benefited, although I will have to test how it works in the Void.

the GeForce Experience is some type of bloatware, IMO. In the nvidia panel, for Warframe.x64.exe, (make sure it's running on the nvidia GPU), turn on triple-buffering (if you do vsync), threaded optimisation, shader cache and antialiasings to off. Anisotropic computation is pretty much negligable nowadays and everything else can be defaulted.

 

Also make sure that 64-bit mode and Threaded optimisation is enabled too, in the launcher. If you're doing fullscreen, make sure it's not the borderless type--there's an aditional layer of abstraction if it's windowed (rendering has to route/wait on the OS before drawing the screen)

 

Overall cpu usage is low, but warframe runs primarily on one core and that one core is fully utilized. Other cores can have some utilization too but you are limited by single core performance of your pc. You can overclock cpu and ram and gain fps.

It shouldn't--at least, there should be more than one thread going on with warframe. Warframe may eat a total of less than 100% of a core, but there's multiple threads (paticularly a thread that deals with GL calls). Is threaded optimisation on in your grapic control panel+Warframe launcher?

(if you're using AMD graphics, be aware of this thread: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/424479-crashes-on-amd-catalyst-1412-omega/ )

Edited March 25, 2015 by Frawg

[Uberplayer]

---

 

It shouldn't--at least, there should be more than one thread going on with warframe. Warframe may eat a total of less than 100% of a core, but there's multiple threads (paticularly a thread that deals with GL calls). Is threaded optimisation on in your grapic control panel+Warframe launcher?

(if you're using AMD graphics, be aware of this thread: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/424479-crashes-on-amd-catalyst-1412-omega/ )

 

I'm not saying warframe isn't using multiple cores, but work is not spread across all the cores.

I already made thread about warframe multithreading, you can see there my cpu usage.

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/398515-warframe-rendering-threads/

 

This is long going issue so recent problems with omega drivers certainly aren't the cause of it.

[-CM-Ruiner]

Unfortunately, the GeForce Experience did not solve my issue as Frawg already guessed. Well, I have Multi-Threaded Rendering enabled in the game launcher and Threaded Optimization is enabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel as well, so it should not be the cause of my problems.

 

I'm starting to think that this game is just poorly optimized because, as I already mentioned, I can run most of the new games on 60+ FPS without any difficulties. It just seems to happen in Warframe when a lot of stuff is going on at the same time - like in late Void survival. Not sure whether there is something I can do to fix this without losing the overall graphics quality.

 

Controversially, my GPU and CPU is still running pretty low even when the game starts to lag. Almost if they were not supposed to adjust accordingly. At the same time Battlefield: Hardline would eat away around 3 GB of VRAM and force the CPU to go all out as well, but the game would run fine on Ultra. How is this possible?

[Frawg]

I'm starting to think that this game is just poorly optimized because, as I already mentioned, I can run most of the new games on 60+ FPS without any difficulties. It just seems to happen in Warframe when a lot of stuff is going on at the same time - like in late Void survival. Not sure whether there is something I can do to fix this without losing the overall graphics quality.

I have a massively different experience than you (I think WF is very well optimised)--I had 10 fps in Evolve during that semi-open-beta weekend, could barely run Crysis 3 (20-30 fps), and yet I run Warframe at 60 fps easily. (I'm running some S#&$ty i5, GTX 540m)

 

I have two three more ideas:

 

in the Windows file browser, go to

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options

change plan settings (of the current active) -> Change adanced power settings -> navigate to PCI express -> link state power management, and change any/all to off (or maximum performance if available)

 

Turn off/put to the lowest every graphic setting in Warframe, and gradually increase them/turn them on to find the cause. (I have a hunch it has to do with the shadow/particle/geometry quality)

 

Reinstall Warframe, update Graphic/other drivers (Ew, yes, I know.)

Edited March 26, 2015 by Frawg

[Uberplayer]

I have a massively different experience than you (I think WF is very well optimised)--I had 10 fps in Evolve during that semi-open-beta weekend, could barely run Crysis 3 (20-30 fps), and yet I run Warframe at 60 fps easily. (I'm running some S#&$ty i5, GTX 540m)

 

....

You have different experience because games you mentioned use GPU heavily and notebook gpus are weak, that why you see low fps there. Warframe on the other end uses mainly cpu so gpu isn't that important. Proper way to make a game is to make it gpu bond, that's why you see new APIs (dx12, vulkan, mantle) that try to remove cpu bottleneck.

[-CM-Ruiner]

Sorry to revive this thread, but my issue still exists. I have tried re-installing the game and graphics drivers, I also upgraded my bios, played around with various options in bios (like enabling XMP), the game and the launcher. Nothing has worked for me so far - still if the room is filled with many enemies, my FPS will drop below 50, while my GPU and CPU stays half asleep.

 

One point that my clan mate brought up is that I don't use a SSD. Could it really affect the performance in Warframe in particular? I have Windows 8.1 by the way, forgot to mention it earlier.

[aim4it]

the GeForce Experience is some type of bloatware, IMO. In the nvidia panel, for Warframe.x64.exe, (make sure it's running on the nvidia GPU), turn on triple-buffering (if you do vsync), threaded optimisation, shader cache and antialiasings to off. Anisotropic computation is pretty much negligable nowadays and everything else can be defaulted.

 

Also make sure that 64-bit mode and Threaded optimisation is enabled too, in the launcher. If you're doing fullscreen, make sure it's not the borderless type--there's an aditional layer of abstraction if it's windowed (rendering has to route/wait on the OS before drawing the screen)

For forcing Thread optimization in the nvidia to anything other then Auto causes extreme frame stuttering in my experience.

[Uberplayer]

You said that you cant overclock you cpu but you could try overclocking your ram at least.

[Pythadragon]

Your fps range of 40-60 implies that you have vsync turned on.

 

My inferior system with an i5-3570k + gtx660 can easily push 100+ fps with vsync off at 1080p with most settings at max.

 

Diagnostic:

Turn off vsync in the game display options AND in the nvidia control panel (since you're using geforce experience, turn it off there too) and tell me your new fps range while playing.

 

Note:

in game vsync and nvidia control panel vsync are independent from eachother and do not play well together. Having vsync enabled in both systems caused a similar low fps situation on my system.

 

I like vsync so I keep it disabled in game and leave it set as 'adaptive vsync' in the nvidia control panel.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Pythadragon

[-CM-Ruiner]

For forcing Thread optimization in the nvidia to anything other then Auto causes extreme frame stuttering in my experience.

I have changed these settings as well. No improvements were observed.

 

You said that you cant overclock you cpu but you could try overclocking your ram at least.

Isn't that done by choosing the XMP profile in BIOS? I did that too, and didn't notice any changes.

 

Your fps range of 40-60 implies that you have vsync turned on.

 

My inferior system with an i5-3570k + gtx660 can easily push 100+ fps with vsync off at 1080p with most settings at max.

 

Diagnostic:

Turn off vsync in the game display options AND in the nvidia control panel (since you're using geforce experience, turn it off there too) and tell me your new fps range while playing.

 

Note:

in game vsync and nvidia control panel vsync are independent from eachother and do not play well together. Having vsync enabled in both systems caused a similar low fps situation on my system.

 

I like vsync so I keep it disabled in game and leave it set as 'adaptive vsync' in the nvidia control panel.

I got rid of the GeForce Experience, since it didn't help in any way. As suggested, I will experiment with VSync settings in the game and in the NVIDIA Control Panel and post my results. When I'm not using VSync, I get anything from approximately 80 to 120 FPS in Draco, Ceres (full party). However, it occasionally drops below 60 (or even 50) if the mobs start to gather in large numbers, same as with VSync enabled.

 

By the way, I have tried disabling NVIDIA PhysX and Runtime Tessellation (plus switching back to FXAA) to no avail. I'm starting to think that either Warframe really hates the 900-series graphics cards, or it is not hardware related (since I have seen other people with i7 and GTX 980 struggling as well), but some strange game mechanism/optimization issue that kicks in every time when many enemies are present.

Edited April 10, 2015 by -CM-Ruiner

[SlytexNL]

Warframe really does hate the 900-series, seen more threds about this.

 

It's weird though, I use an AMD card. Gigabyte Windforce HD7950 to be exact. All settings maxed out with only one thing I turned off, which is ambient occlusion, because it hurts my eyes. Running a stable 200+ fps almost everywhere and dropping to a minimum of 100 when I am in wave 40/40 minutes in an endless mission with molecular explosion vortexes spammed throughout the map, but that's ok.

 

With the exception (and that is the weirdest thing I can not understand) of running barely 40 fps when I am in the Liset... (-.-' )

[-CM-Ruiner]

Warframe really does hate the 900-series, seen more threds about this.

 

It's weird though, I use an AMD card. Gigabyte Windforce HD7950 to be exact. All settings maxed out with only one thing I turned off, which is ambient occlusion, because it hurts my eyes. Running a stable 200+ fps almost everywhere and dropping to a minimum of 100 when I am in wave 40/40 minutes in an endless mission with molecular explosion vortexes spammed throughout the map, but that's ok.

 

With the exception (and that is the weirdest thing I can not understand) of running barely 40 fps when I am in the Liset... (-.-' )

That is indeed really weird and unfortunate (at least for me). I wish for someone from DE's staff to actually provide me/us with an update regarding the performance of 900-series graphics cards. I remember that even my GTX 760 (2 GB) had better results (I had to disable NVIDIA PhysX though).

[SlytexNL]

Well I guess "more =/= always better" is true.

But having a massive drop in the Liset, no hosting, not many moving parts on the screen, no special effects except when looking out the front window...

I can also hear how my graphics cards' fans (Gigabyte's Windforce GPU's always come with 3 build in fans) (also the card is bloody huge...) are tyring to keep up. So for some reason, not only a fps drop, but my GPU also runs hot in my Liset. No dramatic temperatures but... why there? XD I just can't figure it out (>.<)

 

And also @ Ruiner, you're right, I hear more people talk about this issue stating that the 900-series gives them trouble, while 600-700-series runs just fine.

[Uberplayer]

I have changed these settings as well. No improvements were observed.

 

Isn't that done by choosing the XMP profile in BIOS? I did that too, and didn't notice any changes.

 

I got rid of the GeForce Experience, since it didn't help in any way. As suggested, I will experiment with VSync settings in the game and in the NVIDIA Control Panel and post my results. When I'm not using VSync, I get anything from approximately 80 to 120 FPS in Draco, Ceres (full party). However, it occasionally drops below 60 (or even 50) if the mobs start to gather in large numbers, same as with VSync enabled.

 

By the way, I have tried disabling NVIDIA PhysX and Runtime Tessellation (plus switching back to FXAA) to no avail. I'm starting to think that either Warframe really hates the 900-series graphics cards, or it is not hardware related (since I have seen other people with i7 and GTX 980 struggling as well), but some strange game mechanism/optimization issue that kicks in every time when many enemies are present.

Enemies are handled by cpu, when there is lots of enemies on the scren cpu have much more work to do. If it would be gpu problem you would see high gpu usage and i dont think its the case.

[-CM-Ruiner]

Enemies are handled by cpu, when there is lots of enemies on the scren cpu have much more work to do. If it would be gpu problem you would see high gpu usage and i dont think its the case.

You are probably right about CPU's role. However, my i5 doesn't seem to be under more load in these problematic situations - like it was capped at 60-70% at max. And this only happens in Warframe. I also tried forcing my CPU to run at 3.8 GHz (Turbo Boost frequency) instead of 3.4 GHz by adjusting CPU ratio and cache ratio values in the BIOS. Those 400 MHz did not offer much improvements either.

[Uberplayer]

In my experience cpu bottlenecing is dependent on game. In some games you can be cpu limited even with 70% cpu usage. I dont know if warframe is one of them because im limited by my sighlethread cpu performance (90+% usage on one core)

[-CM-Ruiner]

In my experience cpu bottlenecing is dependent on game. In some games you can be cpu limited even with 70% cpu usage. I dont know if warframe is one of them because im limited by my sighlethread cpu performance (90+% usage on one core)

It cannot be the CPU alone. Take a look at this thread: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/402851-very-low-gpu-usage-with-980-gtx-i7-4770k-any-980-owners-out-there/ The OP of that thread has i7 and GTX 980, but very similar issues to what I'm experiencing. For him the solution was changing his RAM profile to XMP in BIOS, but for me it did not seem to work.

[Uberplayer]

In some games DX11 is bottleneck. DX11 can only do limited amount of draw calls and than it became bottleneck. But im not game developer and i have no idea if draw calls are too high when there is it too much enemies on the screen.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Uberplayer

[-CM-Ruiner]

Just an update: I tried disabling VSync in the game and enabled Adaptive VSync (as well as Triple Buffering) in the NVIDIA Control Panel, as suggested by Pythadragon. This actually seems to have helped a bit. My FPS drops are not so noticeable, but they still occur if there are many enemies around. Should I just assume that this is normal for my rig, or maybe someone has other solutions that you'd like to share? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[g_ice]

Warframe really does hate the 900-series, seen more threds about this.

 

It's weird though, I use an AMD card. Gigabyte Windforce HD7950 to be exact. All settings maxed out with only one thing I turned off, which is ambient occlusion, because it hurts my eyes. Running a stable 200+ fps almost everywhere and dropping to a minimum of 100 when I am in wave 40/40 minutes in an endless mission with molecular explosion vortexes spammed throughout the map, but that's ok.

 

With the exception (and that is the weirdest thing I can not understand) of running barely 40 fps when I am in the Liset... (-.-' )

Thats strange, I have 7950 too. and i5 3690k processor and I have like 40-60fps in big battles. I would really like to have100+ like you. Any tips?