Worse performance after coming back to the game with a slightly better setup

[MagnumBurst]

So to start off I started playing the game back in January 2014 on this same PC and generally, except for game bugs like falling into the void endlessly while using Ash's old 4th ability (I know there was plenty of other bugs back then but that's the biggest one I remember) and other dumb stuff like that for having a low-end PC, I was generally surprised at how smoothly the game ran and still looked good for me on low settings.

I played on and off (getting the new prime weapons and warframes I was interested in, quit the game until new update, you know the drill) and then decided to stop playing and uninstalled the game around 2015 after Chroma's release.

I reinstalled and returned to the game around 3-4 weeks ago now and with a slightly better GPU, upgrade from fisher price ADSL internet connection to fiber with around the same ping, I have no idea why I experience lots of freezes (not the ones with the game still running, actual complete freezes), constant host migrations followed with failures to do so, network not responding regularly and generally laggy sessions. With a slight improvement in my setup I have worse performance than I had before even on the same grineer tilesets I played when I started the game and I have absolutely no idea why.

Hardware :
CPU : Intel Core i5 3350P
GPU : Pre-2015 > NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 (OEM)
Now > GIGABYTE GT 730 2 GB
RAM : 8GB
Internet connection : 


Version : Steam, if that makes any difference

Settings :
Of course I do run the game on the lowest settings with all of the extra effects turned off, resolution scale on 50, however I tried multiple resolutions, from native 1600*900 to 800*600, disabling/enabling DirectX 10,11, both, turning off 64-bit and enabling it, but it seems running the game at 32-bit is the most stable for me, anything else doesn't seem to have any effects and ends up the same.

So current settings are :




 







Plains of Eidolon :
When I learned about the Plains of Eidolon update, I had pretty good expectations that even if I did come back to the game my PC wouldn't be able to run it, now that I did actually go to the plains,  firstly I was surprised I was even able to run this area, but my performance experiences have been pretty weird.

No matter what I do, I will freeze sooner or later during a session there and I accepted that, but the freezes are inconsistent and it's confusing me : it can go from pretty smooth FPS and general performance during an Eidolon Teralyst hunt with plenty of effects going on, or during a vault defense during a bounty with plenty of airship explosions ... to constant freezing when I break an iradite formation, switch weapons or catch a fish.

I'd really like someone to tell me what changed during all those years or figure out why is it I have generally worse performance than I did years ago even with the same, if not a slightly better setup.

Before posting suggestions :
- I do take care of my PC, clear the dust inside the PC case once a month, do defragmentations, clear temporary files/caches, malware/virus scans, drivers update, all of that maintenance stuff.
- I doubt it's any problem with the PC itself, otherwise I don't think I'd be able to run the game or any other games I play in the first place and had no "PC/PC part about to die" symptoms.
- I run as less background programs as possible, generally just discord, foobar2000 and firefox with very few tabs just for warframe wiki and warframe market
- I turned off RivaTunerStastisticsServer and MSI Afterburner OSD because it apparently has been reported to cause problems with the game here

- Verify and optimize cache every now and then
- I doubt reinstalling the game would do anything since I experienced those issues as soon as I reinstalled the game with low settings and low resolution.

Edited June 19, 2018 by MagnumBurst
Added further specifications to the GPUs and corrected misinformation on the old GPU.

[[DE]Linkski]

Hi MagnumBurst,

Thank you for providing us with so much information. When you installed the new GPU, did you use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to remove any traces of previous drivers? If not, it might be a good idea to try that first, then reinstall the latest GPU drivers. We have reason to believe this has been a helpful solution in the past.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

- If possible, it might also be worth trying the non-Steam version of Warframe for the sake of comparison.

If that does not help, then can you please provide some EE.logs in a support ticket? If these issues are related to something that is happening in the engine then your EE.logs should hopefully help us track it down. Your EE.log can be found here, and you can send us a support ticket here. Also, it would be helpful if you could type something in chat around the time you've experienced a freeze. Something simple, like "freeze", could help us pinpoint the issue in your logs.

Thanks!

[MagnumBurst]

Thank you for the answer, I will try DDU and reinstalling the latest GPU drivers. I also thought of trying the non-Steam version and will download it later and will give an update on if things settled down or not after playing for a few days. I'll also take the EE.logs instructions into account.

Edited June 18, 2018 by MagnumBurst

[Matheusmgas]

First of all, congratz on actually describing your machine and problem. This help a lot. I worked in the Helpdesk area and the lack of info when they call us to fix problems is heavy on our shoulders.

Hope your problem gets fixed.

Edited June 18, 2018 by [DE]Dmitri

[Ace_Kayo]

Usually the newer card you are using has better FPS in games, but that depends on the game. About the only thing the older card has better is a x2 Memory bus speed, but if you take a look here : http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GT-730-vs-GeForce-GT-630   you can see the older card performs 10 frames better than your newer card in Battlefield 3 (the newer card performs much much better in Metro however). Not to mention there are 3 different variations of the each of the GPUs you mention  (see https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-730/specifications & https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-630/specifications ) , one of them shows a variant of the gt630 that shows a PCIe 2.0 x16, which would be twice of all of the other ones listed for either GPU (x8).

Considering your had issues with Cetus, it could just be the amount of VRAM limiting you there, but in any case you should run a video memory test like this one http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/vmt_en

In conclusion, if DDU and this Video Memory Test didn't solve/show your problem, this might be a case where the older card just plays better with the specific kind of game and I would check your performance in other games to make sure there isn't some issue with the card itself.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Ace_Kayo
minor spelling edit

[FriendlyxD1]

I once had an amd quad core with a 1gb radeon 7450 or something like that, which needed all of these to run Warframe on 1024x768.

Fullscreen mode and lowest bearable resolution with Direct x 10 & 11 off in 32 bit mode will give you the most possible fps and lessen the freezing issues.

Test out the different configurations with fps showing in interface and test the things that cause the freezing issue to find the best settings for your hardware configuration. You should be able to find a perfect balance there. 

I have a friend on the opposite side of the country and whenever he is in the party random freezing happens in the plains. Try being host and try being client and maybe set a ping limit to see if this may be the issue.

Steam launch options may help squeeze more performance out such as -high -nod3d9ex -USEALLAVAILABLECORES

One time on my newer pc I got a virus that caused similar issues. It was a bitcoin miner that would turn off and hide itself if the task manager was opened. I would run a scan as well, and the latest Nvidia drivers can really improve performance like mentioned above.

Hope it helps

[MagnumBurst]

On 2018-06-18 at 8:41 PM, Ace_Kayo said:

Usually the newer card you are using has better FPS in games, but that depends on the game. About the only thing the older card has better is a x2 Memory bus speed, but if you take a look here : http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GT-730-vs-GeForce-GT-630   you can see the older card performs 10 frames better than your newer card in Battlefield 3 (the newer card performs much much better in Metro however). Not to mention there are 3 different variations of the each of the GPUs you mention  (see https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-730/specifications & https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-630/specifications ) , one of them shows a variant of the gt630 that shows a PCIe 2.0 x16, which would be twice of all of the other ones listed for either GPU (x8).

Considering your had issues with Cetus, it could just be the amount of VRAM limiting you there, but in any case you should run a video memory test like this one http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/vmt_en

In conclusion, if DDU and this Video Memory Test didn't solve/show your problem, this might be a case where the older card just plays better with the specific kind of game and I would check your performance in other games to make sure there isn't some issue with the card itself.

I used this site myself and other GPU comparison sites when deciding to buy a new GPU as the GT 630 (OEM) was dying, with a tight budget and is why I did specify the current one is the GIGABYTE GT 730 2 GB (included the link for more specifications, will do the same in the main post).
I also did a big mistake in saying that the old card was just a GT 630 and not a GT 630 (OEM) which will be edited in the main post.

For Cetus/Plains I do agree as I discussed with a friend that the VRAM might be the limiting factor in my performance there and is why I'm more understanding of freezes I experience there when I travel from area to area at high speed and other things that would require a little push from my current card, which is why I made comparisons between instances that to me don't make sense.
Also talking about Cetus, a solo or invite/friends only instance if possible would be great, even though selecting a calm channel is usually enough.

I'm still giving a couple days to test the performance but so far I had a better experience on the non-steam version, same settings after DDU and resintalling the most recent NVIDIA drivers, whether it's one or the other that has the most impact is part of the reason I'm giving a couple days before giving a definite answer (I'm more biased on the Steam version being the issue though as from my experience and from reviews of games on Steam, games having their standalone versions and being added to Steam tend to perform worse or have another kind of issue) . The only main issue I've experienced today is host migration lock in ESO, which is a common issue and I heard is already being worked on.
Although since host problems even outside of SO are pretty common for most people (host internet connection issues, crashes or just plain quitting put aside) I'd like to have an explanation on that as it's been an ongoing problem.
Also once again as I mentioned in the main post I don't experience confusing issues with other games and doubt it's an issue with the card itself as I don't have confusing issues with other games or programs and am pretty sure I would've realized and not made this post in the first place. Definitely will give a try to the video memory test though, cheers.

 

15 hours ago, FriendlyxD1 said:

I once had an amd quad core with a 1gb radeon 7450 or something like that, which needed all of these to run Warframe on 1024x768.

Fullscreen mode and lowest bearable resolution with Direct x 10 & 11 off in 32 bit mode will give you the most possible fps and lessen the freezing issues.

Test out the different configurations with fps showing in interface and test the things that cause the freezing issue to find the best settings for your hardware configuration. You should be able to find a perfect balance there. 

I have a friend on the opposite side of the country and whenever he is in the party random freezing happens in the plains. Try being host and try being client and maybe set a ping limit to see if this may be the issue.

Steam launch options may help squeeze more performance out such as -high -nod3d9ex -USEALLAVAILABLECORES

One time on my newer pc I got a virus that caused similar issues. It was a bitcoin miner that would turn off and hide itself if the task manager was opened. I would run a scan as well, and the latest Nvidia drivers can really improve performance like mentioned above.

Hope it helps

As mentioned in the main post I did try multiple resolutions and the different versions of Direct X but I will give another try to running the game with Direct X 9 and see if that makes any difference. I'll do more tests with fullscreen between 800*600 & 1024*768 again as well I guess. I always have FPS display on and generally always have above 60 FPS, the instances where the FPS dip below 60 are ones I understand where heavy action is on-screen, which is why I'm mainly talking about heavy sudden freezes and didn't mention FPS drops.

Even with the old GPU I know that if I am the host, it's guaranteed for me to freeze when someone joins the squad (it gets even worse in the plains), it sometimes happens too without being the host but to a much lesser extent so I avoid being the host as much as possible except if I just do a duo session with a friend or something similar. I do want to set the ping limit lower but as the game says itself it does make joining a session more difficult as I don't always play on "rush hours", I do notice when ping to the host is the issue of the session freezing a lot as everyone else in the squad will mention lag and want to confirm with the rest of the squad.

For the Steam launch options do they work with Warframe ? Since they aren't guaranteed to work with any game that doesn't come from Steam itself.

Also as stated in the main post I do all of the PC maintenance like malware/virus scans etc, I do also keep my drivers up to date but didn't mention that and will include it in the main post, I did not know about DDU though.

Edited June 19, 2018 by MagnumBurst

[MagnumBurst]

After a few days of playing it does appear I don't have unexpected freezes anymore after using DDU and playing on DirectX9, both Steam and non-Steam version. For some reason I seem to have better loading times on the non-Steam version though so I'll stick with that.