Warframe Optimization / LOW GPU usage during missions

[White_Matter]

Has anyone figured out why warframe doesn't utilize the full extend of GPU during a mission ? 

 

Here is my gpu usage graph  :

 

There is definitely something wrong about it. Not only it is fluctuating alot, it isn't fully utilizing itself. Now pay attention to the last quarter of the graph(right side) the GPU usage is at maximum for a timeframe. That is the time I was in liset. And before that was during the time I was in a mission.

And before someone says it is a problem on my end, my previous graphics card gtx 670(4-5 year old card) was fully utilizing itself and I hardly remember going below 60 fps. Now during missions I start out with 140(fps cap) and then it starts to go down to 80's and goes below 60 anytime there is heavy action. 

Anyone know how to fix this ? 

[MillbrookWest]

The CPU prepares frames for the GPU. If nothing is being sent, or the time it takes to send information is prolonged, the GPU can't 'magic' data to work with. Typical CPU bottleneck.

Having said this, Warframe goes beyond that with having relatively poor 'logic' which makes the engine itself struggle and not use the CPU very effectively.

[LSG501]

I've got a 1060 6gb and I never go down to below 60fps (at 1080p) and thats with physx active.... 

It could very well be a cpu bottlenecking the gpu. 

Edited December 19, 2016 by LSG501

[White_Matter]

The thing is, GPU usage is pretty consistent and above 90-95% in the liset or in solo games. LOW GPU usage occurs in public games.

Also like I said, I pretty much had the same rig I7 2600 3.4ghz(OC to 4ghz) 16gb ram with my old 670gtx GPU and it wasn't getting low FPS or anything. 

 

[Nedow40]

By my poor Nvidia GT630 being in constant 99% usage and my AMD FX6300 being at max 50% I can tell you that your CPU is bottlenecking your PC really hard.

 

[White_Matter]

Read the above comment.

[MillbrookWest]

19 hours ago, White_Matter said:

The thing is, GPU usage is pretty consistent and above 90-95% in the liset or in solo games. LOW GPU usage occurs in public games.

Also like I said, I pretty much had the same rig I7 2600 3.4ghz(OC to 4ghz) 16gb ram with my old 670gtx GPU and it wasn't getting low FPS or anything. 

 

I'd wager there is an element of placebo going on. You upgraded your GPU and are expecting a boost in performance, and this would be true in a title that leans on the GPU, like battlefield, Warframe does not. Your 670 would be running just as fine as your current 1060.

I have a 970, it's in a similar ballpark to the 1060 performance-wise. I get the same numbers, or worse, since i have an AMD CPU. I can dip down to ~40 in 4 man squad with lots of effects, and enemies walking about.

I don't mean this negatively, but you shouldn't use the Liset as a benchmark to compare to what you get in missions. As i said above, in a mission you get bogged down with AI and Game logic. None of that exists on the liset. Its just you, in a small empty box. The CPU has no complex routines to run, and the GPU similarly has nothing complex to render. 

That being said, if you haven't already, try this thread:

The Devs are looking at issues with the GTX 1000 series GPU's. However, from what i've seen, their performance drops off continously until they'd be running at ~30fps, and not get any higher. If this sounds like you, perhaps try and replicate the issue, and submit what you find.

[kaliazane]

After updates there is always danger of memory leaks that causes your fps to gradually decrease during missions. There was huge one after second dream for example, recently we had one with vauban and simulor. If everything is alright with your pc and other games are woking fine then all you can do is report it and wait. Thats 1 thing, other one are known issues with 1070-1080 idk if that might related to what you are having.

Edited December 20, 2016 by ViS4GE

[LSG501]

On 19/12/2016 at 6:31 PM, White_Matter said:

snip - just to alert you

 

2 hours ago, MillbrookWest said:

The Devs are looking at issues with the GTX 1000 series GPU's. However, from what i've seen, their performance drops off continously until they'd be running at ~30fps, and not get any higher. If this sounds like you, perhaps try and replicate the issue, and submit what you find.

This was basically put down to the geforce experience junk that can be installed... I don't have that installed, if White_Matter does it may be worth removing it.

[mob9221]

Is there a reason I get quite poor performance?

I7 4720HQ 960m 8gb ram

It lags a lot ;-;

[White_Matter]

4 hours ago, MillbrookWest said:

I'd wager there is an element of placebo going on. You upgraded your GPU and are expecting a boost in performance, and this would be true in a title that leans on the GPU, like battlefield, Warframe does not. Your 670 would be running just as fine as your current 1060.

I have a 970, it's in a similar ballpark to the 1060 performance-wise. I get the same numbers, or worse, since i have an AMD CPU. I can dip down to ~40 in 4 man squad with lots of effects, and enemies walking about.

I don't mean this negatively, but you shouldn't use the Liset as a benchmark to compare to what you get in missions. As i said above, in a mission you get bogged down with AI and Game logic. None of that exists on the liset. Its just you, in a small empty box. The CPU has no complex routines to run, and the GPU similarly has nothing complex to render. 

That being said, if you haven't already, try this thread:

The Devs are looking at issues with the GTX 1000 series GPU's. However, from what i've seen, their performance drops off continously until they'd be running at ~30fps, and not get any higher. If this sounds like you, perhaps try and replicate the issue, and submit what you find.

 

100% sure it is not a placebo effect. I pay attention to these things, the first time I ran warframe after I installed my new GPU(and new SSD drive so I made a clean install of everything including the game itself), I set the same settings as before. I used to have 120-140 FPS in the liset with my old GTX 670, and immediately I noticed that I was above 300 and I was like wow. Which turned into "wtf" as soon as I ran a mission. My FPS started dropping below 60, quite alot, which didn'T happen with my old GPU.

This thing doesn't happen as severely when I'm running a mission solo. That GPU usage graph is totally different in solo :

As you can see it is steadier. 

So it is not just the liset.

 

As for that thread, I posted in it, no one replied. I tried to replicate that 30-40 min survival mission experiement, I got bored at 25 and left. I still checked my frame time and it was the same in the liset. Althought I made a recording of this and during the mission it seems to increase over time. Starts out with 7 and it is around 11-12 in the same area after 20-25 minutes.

But like I said, the solo mission I ran, I hardly went below 60 fps(the lowest I saw was probably 70) and the GPU graph was pretty good.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2016 by White_Matter

[White_Matter]

I ran a public mission.

My FPS was 140-130 when I started out the mission. Frame Time 7

 

I took this screenshot just before the extraction  :

 

 

Frame time now 15.8, more than twice of what I started and FPS 64, less than half of what I started out with.

And the GPU graph was terrible as usual.

[White_Matter]

Update : 

I made some tweaks to my bios settings(got my overclock profile to X.M.P), tweaked some network adapter advanced settings in windows and installed the latest warframe patch and switched from SMAA + temporal(medium) to FXAA 8x.

Now the game runs better in public games. I've getting dips alot less often and it seems more smooth. MY GPU graph is still a bit spiky in certain tilesets, and I went down to 50 fps in that grineer tileset. But than that it feels alot better.

I wouldn't say it is fixed but there is definitely an improvement. Not sure what caused it though. It can be the new patch, or my bios tweak, or the network adapter tweak or all of them combined.

 

 

[White_Matter]

Regarding those dips, I wanted to make sure if my CPU was bottlenecking me, but my CPU also isn't fully utilized(it doesn't make a difference if I uncheck multi threaded rendering in the launcer or not) : 

 

Both my GPU and CPU graphs show neither of them is being utilized. I have my refresh rate set to 120 and in game fps cap set to 120. 

2700x1500 resolution everything maxed out.

Games starts with 119 fps and goes all the way down to 60's during activity. Sometimes climbs back, sometimes it doesn't and stays there.

 

When I'm playing solo, it stays at 119 fps. The most I saw it drop down was to low 100's in a very large area with dynamic lighting. 

 

Edited January 21, 2017 by White_Matter

[AerinSol]

I have a horrid laptop that used to be fine with this game. What I did was reset everything to defaults and then re-tweak the settings again.

[Tsunero]

That is strange, I roll with a 4th gen i5 and a GTX 970 and rarely dip below 60 (everything maxed out in 1080p except that I am satisfied with MSAA alone and turned off DOF and Motion Blur because I hate it). I only go under 60 on the new grineer fortress tile but that will be sorted out with time just like Earth was I guess and when there are lots of eximi at once in sorties.

Now then I don't think the 1060 is actually capable of stable 140fps at all times, maybe an 1080 with newer gen intel. You seem to be bottlenecked by your CPU. 2th gen kinda shows its age nowadays even if it's an i7.

My laptop on the other hand struggles quite a lot (2th gen i5m and GT555M) but since it's a 6 year old relic that explains it xD.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Momo93

[thadeusXX]

Old trick not related to Warframe, make sure vsynch is completely disabled if you're going to set an fps cap. I'd also try vsynch on w no fps cap, and finally, no vsynch and no fps cap.

[Francegeek]

I have a similar problem : I have a gtx690 which is two 680's GPUs put together. Now, the problem is that warframe only uses one GPU that is on 99% load at every moment and the other one is always at 0%. I have two monitors, vsync is disabled and fps is capped 144 even if I only get to 130 in the ship.  Cpu is usage sits a 50 to 60%.

Any idea why it's using only one gpu ?