Irregular Framerate - Any Help?

[Meneliki]

So I'm using Vsync for the more stable framerate. I get a clean 60fps on my liset, and when im soloing for the most part. When things get hairy, it drops to 50.. then 40... sometimes during heavy waves of enemies i can drop to 20 or so. Playing with other players seems to make it alot worse.

 

Here are my basic system specs(which run alot of other high end games flawlessly at an uninterrupted 60fps)

 

Dual Core i5 3.2ghz (Hyperthreaded to 4 'cores', all unparked)

GTX 660

4GB DDR3 RAM

Win7 64 bit

 

I've done the 'optimize game cache' thing before, which did seem to help a little bit. That was right before the Sanctuary update. Should I do it again?

 

I REALLY dont suspect my video card. My gut feeling tells me it's either RAM or CPU. 

 

EDIT: Oh, I think it's worth noting that disabling DX10/11 and dropping the display options as low as they can go has NO effect on my framerate.

 

EDIT 2: I was wrong about my ram, it's DDR3

 

Anyone have any ideas for possible solutions? Something to do with my hard drive maybe? It's not fragmented atm. (just checked)

 

Thanks

Edited April 9, 2015 by Meneliki

[Decebalvs]

happens to me too...with 2 different GPUs....no idea what it could be, probably just game issues

 

in BF4 with explosions, sparks and smoke everywhere, very near to me also, it drops like 5-10 or something that's to be expected but in WF is ridiculous

Edited April 5, 2015 by Decebalvs

[Jeetza]

It typically fixes itself after your porn is finished downloading. I know mine fixes itself after that ;D

But in all seriousness, frame rate does seem pretty irregular. Mine drops from a steady sixty to a forty occasionally.

[Pythadragon]

1st thing: check your ram usage with the task manager while playing. You could very well be utilizing that entire 4 gb and then some depending on what you're running. Solution: buy more ram/disable other programs that are eating up ram.

 

2nd thing: check CPU/GPU temperature for overheating with a monitoring program (such as speedfan/hwmonitor). Anything over 75 C would be getting suspicious.

 

I have a similar setup and experienced a similar problem which was solved by the following:

i5 3570k + gtx 660 + 8gb ddr3 ram

 

3nd thing: set the 'vsync' under game display options to 'OFF'. Then enable 'adaptive' (my recommendation) or just 'normal' vsync in your nvidia control panel. If vsync is enabled in both the game display options and the nvidia control panel, they'll fight each other and reduce framerates very significantly.

 

Or just set 'vsync' to 'OFF' in both the game and nvidia control panel. You'll get 100+ fps but that won't have any actual benefit for you unless you have a special monitor that refreshes at greater than 60hz (60fps).

 

As far as hardware, your cpu and gpu should not be the issue unless faulty or overheating. Double check that ram type + amount. I'd be pretty surprised if DDR2 ram is compatible with your cpu chipset. Pending that, this sounds like a software/software configuration issue.

 

For checking ram:

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/systemscanner

Edited April 5, 2015 by Pythadragon

[Meatuchu]

OP I'd add more ram, honestly.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Meatuchu

[Meneliki]

OP I'd add more ram, honestly.

 

Yeah that's what I've been thinking. I think I'm going to go with 16GB DDR3. Just need to do some research on prices/brands. In the meantime I'll give the vsync thing a try.

[BrazilianJoe]

Go with the RAM upgrade. 8GB if you are in a pinch, but preferably 16GB. 

Don't even think in getting any less than 1600Mhz speed, the more the merrier. Check the astest RAM your MB+CPU supports that fits in your pocket.

 

You didn't say anything about storage, But you should also hop into the SSD bandwagon if you haven't already. 

Edited April 9, 2015 by -TP-BrazilianJoe

[Pythadragon]

Quick note:

 

Anything above 1600mhz for DDR3 ram is pointless for 99% of people and won't make a difference at all in gaming (brief reason being: higher mhz ram is faster, but also has increased latency [higher timing values]. These effects tend to cancel eachother out). The only exception for gaming is if you have no graphics card and are relying on an AMD APU, which doesn't apply to OP.

 

16gb ram is overkill for most people. 8gb is more typical. Might as well start out with an incremental upgrade and monitor your ram usage. You can always add more later if you have the slots on your motherboard (and it's not like you get a discount for buying ram sticks in higher capcities, anyways).

 

SSD won't help fps but will greatly assist load times. I do recommend this for Warframe if you have the disposable income.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Pythadragon

[BrazilianJoe]

Quick note:

 

Anything above 1600mhz for DDR3 ram is pointless for 99% of people and won't make a difference at all in gaming (brief reason being: higher mhz ram is faster, but also has increased latency [higher timing values]. These effects tend to cancel eachother out). The only exception for gaming is if you have no graphics card and are relying on an AMD APU, which doesn't apply to OP.

 

16gb ram is overkill for most people. 8gb is more typical. Might as well start out with an incremental upgrade and monitor your ram usage. You can always add more later if you have the slots on your motherboard (and it's not like you get a discount for buying ram sticks in higher capcities, anyways).

 

SSD won't help fps but will greatly assist load times. I do recommend this for Warframe if you have the disposable income.

 

Yeah they don't technically cancel each other out, but the performance gain is pretty marginal/unnoticeable in most cases. If you can get a low latency kit, such as a 1866 C9 you might get a slight difference.

 

8GB 1600Ghz C9 is your typical setup though, in the 'good enough' range. It all hinges on how deep your pocket goes, and desire to future-proof RAM-wise. 

 

If you plan to upgrade your computer to a Broadwell in the short term, I'd seriously consider sticking with 8GB DDR3 at most, because Broadwell can use both DDR3 and DDR4, and DDR4 is the most future-proof. Or you can just switch to the 32-bit executable for the game and bite it at the current performance levels and FPS fluctuation, and do the full jump to Broadwell and DDR4 later on.

 

Yes, SSD won't boost performance in terms of FPS, but faster load times and less stutter from texture loading, and general quality-of-life improvement of system responsiveness. You will notice and love it.