Gradual Performance Decrease On Entire System After Playing

[Jytra]

Just wondering if anyone else has run into this issue. After update 15 came out, I started noticing that playing Warframe for long durations starts to cause some instability, not just with the game, but with my entire computer. I've tried to monitor everything, from temps to GPU/CPU loads, memory usage, and I've even run a bevy of stability tests, but nothing can replicate what happens with Warframe. 

 

After about an hour or so of play, I start noticing more "hitching" with the game, where there are momentary pauses that last maybe 1-3 seconds. As these start to increase, the loading screens between levels start to experience a massive decrease, becoming incredibly choppy until the Liset or level finishes loading. Eventually, the game's framerate will "glitch" and drop itself to around 24 FPS and stay there, though it "waves" between 10 and 22.

 

The big problem is that this framerate drop doesn't end with Warframe. After exiting the game, my entire computer is stuck on that framerate, making menu transitions within Windows unbelievably slow, and in some cases, hanging the entire system. I can close every open program, but there is nothing indicating a problem from any monitoring tool in Windows. No changes in voltage, no changes in load, temps are fine (CPU doesn't exceed 55C, GPUs don't exceed 65C), and nothing reports an error. After restarting, everything goes back to normal.

 

I only started noticing this bug with Update 15, and Warframe appears to be the only game that causes this system-wide problem (even something as intensive as Shadow of Mordor seems to run just fine for long periods). I've tried different Nvidia drivers, including the latest 346.07 drivers, as well as different versions of the GeForce Experience program. I've reversed any overclocking, and have tested everything at stock, and this problem still happens after an hour or so, making it very inconsistent to test what has an effect.

 

Specs:

i7-4930k @ 4.5 GHz

Rampage IV Black Edition

32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3-1866

1TB Samsung 840 Pro (Raid 0)

EVGA Titan SC Tri-SLI (Perf Cap @ 104%/90C, +75 Core/Mem, Voltage +37)

Asus PG278Q + Dell U2414H

Antec HCP-1200

Soundblaster X7

Edited December 19, 2014 by Jytra

[Ketec]

More then likely buffering and memory leak - especially for GPU ( windows UI uses it aswell).

The video memory might get full of junk.

Could look for a  monitoring tool for gfx memory  -  like gpu-z

[Jytra]

I've had EVGA's Precision program opened on my second screen to monitor memory usage. Nothing really seems out of the ordinary. Desktop VRAM use floats between 400MB and 600MB. When Warframe is running, I hardly ever see it start to exceed 2.5GB.

 

The strange part about this whole thing is that I can find nothing with any monitoring tool that indicates a problem.

[Pythadragon]

Holy crap. You're running triple titans. Try disabling SLI on Warframe so you're only using one of them. That may be causing issues. One titan is more than enough for Warframe anyways.

 

Make sure you're ONLY using vsync from the game settings OR the nvidia control panel. Preferably use the nvidia option. They don't play nicely if both are enabled in my experience. Framerate getting locked at an usually low number (24ish in your case) was a symptom I noticed with this.

 

Try this too: Disable Windows Aero and see if it makes a difference.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Pythadragon

[Kasumi-]

Here are my specs:

 

ASUS M32-R14 (computer)

12gb DDR3 RNM, 1600mhz

Nvidia GTX 520

Intel core i5 4460S, quad core, 2.9ghz (OC-able to 3.4, but is currently at its stock 2.9)

1TB HDD

Windows 7 Home Premium OS, 64-bit. Windows Aero is disabled.

 

 

And I notice none of this.

 

However, I DO notice that, quite frequently, when I close the game the process remains dormant in the background. But it still eats up memory, starting at around 600mb, and slowly increasing if left unchecked. I can just kill it in the task manager and everything is ok, though.

[Jytra]

Holy crap. You're running triple titans. Try disabling SLI on Warframe so you're only using one of them. That may be causing issues. One titan is more than enough for Warframe anyways.

 

Make sure you're ONLY using vsync from the game settings OR the nvidia control panel. Preferably use the nvidia option. They don't play nicely if both are enabled in my experience. Framerate getting locked at an usually low number (24ish in your case) was a symptom I noticed with this.

 

Try this too: Disable Windows Aero and see if it makes a difference.

 

I'll try setting Warframe to Single GPU and testing it for a while. With Win 8.1, Aero can't be disabled.

 

The monitor I have, the PG278Q, is GSync enabled and runs at 1440p@144Hz, so the extra horsepower is sorta needed to drive the higher framerate. Sadly, Warframe is seriously underutilized on the system, not due to having too much power, but due to the game having low GPU usage when things start to pick up. Gets really obnoxious to see the game hit <48 FPS during a defense map while the shared GPU usage is only 13%. On top of that, thanks to the new and improved Apex PhysX that was introduced, only one card really gets to flex any muscle because the Nvidia control panel uses it to process the particle effects (non-dedicated). 

 

I've got this sneaking suspicion that what's actually happening is that the game causes an issue with the GPU driver, which in turn sends a faulty signal to the GSync module in the monitor, inadvertently locking the frame rate of the whole computer down. 

 

 

Here are my specs:

 

ASUS M32-R14 (computer)

12gb DDR3 RNM, 1600mhz

Nvidia GTX 520

Intel core i5 4460S, quad core, 2.9ghz (OC-able to 3.4, but is currently at its stock 2.9)

1TB HDD

Windows 7 Home Premium OS, 64-bit. Windows Aero is disabled.

 

 

And I notice none of this.

 

However, I DO notice that, quite frequently, when I close the game the process remains dormant in the background. But it still eats up memory, starting at around 600mb, and slowly increasing if left unchecked. I can just kill it in the task manager and everything is ok, though.

 

A friend of mine plays on a desktop with a Core2Quad and a 560 2GB, and he's never run into the issue either. Kinda bugs the crap outta the both of us that I've gotta restart every 3-4 missions and he's able to chug along just fine. 

Edited December 19, 2014 by Jytra

[Kasumi-]

 

I'll try setting Warframe to Single GPU and testing it for a while. With Win 8.1, Aero can't be disabled.

 

The monitor I have, the PG278Q, is GSync enabled and runs at 1440p@144Hz, so the extra horsepower is sorta needed to drive the higher framerate. Sadly, Warframe is seriously underutilized on the system, not due to having too much power, but due to the game having low GPU usage when things start to pick up. Gets really obnoxious to see the game hit <48 FPS during a defense map while the shared GPU usage is only 13%. On top of that, thanks to the new and improved Apex PhysX that was introduced, only one card really gets to flex any muscle because the Nvidia control panel uses it to process the particle effects (non-dedicated). 

 

I've got this sneaking suspicion that what's actually happening is that the game causes an issue with the GPU driver, which in turn sends a faulty signal to the GSync module in the monitor, inadvertently locking the frame rate of the whole computer down. 

 

 

 

A friend of mine plays on a desktop with a Core2Quad and a 560 2GB, and he's never run into the issue either. Kinda bugs the crap outta the both of us that I've gotta restart every 3-4 missions and he's able to chug along just fine. 

 

Honestly I think it's the 3 Titans you have. I can't possibly imagine more than two being stable.

 

I believe I read somewhere that more than 2 is redundant anyway, and that the computer won't even use the third. Though I could just be completely wrong and pulling that out of my arse.

[Jytra]

Honestly I think it's the 3 Titans you have. I can't possibly imagine more than two being stable.

 

I believe I read somewhere that more than 2 is redundant anyway, and that the computer won't even use the third. Though I could just be completely wrong and pulling that out of my arse.

 

It is a bit overkill, but games that have proper SLI support do scale pretty well up to 3 cards, like Shadow of Mordor for example. 4 cards is where you start to see diminishing returns. That being said, using this kind of setup can be very fickle to minor problems. Before, when my system was crashing more frequently, it turned out to be faulty RAM that was crashing the GPU. Once that was replaced, everything ran smoothly.

 

Also, just set to Single GPU mode for Warframe and the video driver reset without recovering during a solo Mars exterminate mission, which hadn't happened with SLI enabled. Arg...

 

EDIT: so I just ran RealBench from the Asus ROG forums for a total of 30 minutes non-stop, which puts a load of 100% on the GPU and CPU...despite sounding like someone put a hairdryer in my PC, there were no problems whatsoever. Everything passes.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Jytra