Hello there, i've upgraded my graphics card some months ago because I smelted the old one due to high temperatures. I thought, I could get better performance with an Zotac GTX 970 but seemingly, I'm doing it wrong. Everything is fine with small fights (i. e. let's say up to 48 people, maybe some more, maybe some less), framerate runs supersmooth at 60-120 fps, rarely, if any, drops beyond. That should be nothing special. BUT: as soon, as I join the larger fights (~48+) the framerate gets a bit unstable. If noone's near, I can get around 80 frames, but as soon as I'm in areas where lots of people are fighting, the rate drops at around 50 frames, which is nothing I'm worried about, but sometimes it gets even around 30-40 and that turns me quite annoyed. I've tried several things to fix that problem (e. g. using the optimizations from a member, which name I've forgotten on this forum, using this link: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3029182, changing the options in the UserOptions.ini as mentioned in the link, as well as experiment with the options in game which is smoothing, bloom, fog shadows, ambient occlusion, render distance etc.). The game is always GPU bound, very rarely it turns to CPU bound. The UserOptions.ini will be attached. So, the question is, what can I do better to get at least 60fps constantly. I know it's moaning at a high level, but as the graphics card is fairly good (and my other specs are not bad either; see below for more information), I'd like to use it to its full potential. CPU and GPU are working at a maximum of ~50% (CPU) and ~75% (GPU). System specs are as follows: i7-3930K, slightly overclocked to 4GHz Zotac GTX 970 (obviously), latest drivers 32GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM Windows 10 Pro 64bit If anything else is needed, please tell me, I'll try my best to help. Thanks in advance, MisterGaming Code: [Display] Mode=Fullscreen FullscreenMode=Fullscreen FullscreenRefresh=0 FullscreenWidth=1920 FullscreenHeight=1200 WindowedWidth=1008 WindowedHeight=729 Maximized=0 RenderQuality=1 [Rendering] GraphicsQuality=3 TextureQuality=0 TerrainLOD=4 FloralDistanceScale=2.000000 ShadowQuality=1 RenderDistance=2000.000000 Gamma=0.500000 MaximumFPS=250 UseLod0a=0 OverallQuality=-1 LightingQuality=2 EffectsQuality=3 TerrainQuality=3 FloraQuality=3 ModelQuality=3 MotionBlurQuality=4 BlurQuality=4 AOQuality=4 AmbientOcclusionQuality=4 ParticleQuality=4 VerticalFOV=74 FloralLOD=5 EffectsLOD=5 ParticleLOD=3 ParticleDistanceScale=2.000000 EffectsDistanceScale=2.000000 FogShadowsEnable=0 MotionBlur=1 VSync=0 AO=0 GpuPhysics=2 BloomEnabled=0 Smoothing=0 [Controls] CameraAutoAdjustment=1 ClickToMove=0 ClickToMoveRightButton=0 RailCamera=1 [Sound] Master=1.000000 Music=1.000000 Game=1.000000 Dialog=1.000000 UI=1.000000 UseFloat32Output=0 ExclusiveMode=0 HitIndicator=1 LowAmmoIndicator=1 VehicleChatter=1 IdleMusic=1 UseHighQualityReverb=0 MaxVoices=96 OutputDeviceName= [ImageCapture] OutputFolder=./Screenshots OutputFilePrefix=screenshot.png [VideoCapture] OutputFile=VideoCaptureOutput.avi Resolution=2 Quality=100 WorkingDir=Videos [VideoStreamer] Resolution=1 Fps=60 Kbps=0 MicRecordVolume=0.000000 SpeakerRecordVolume=1.000000 Username= [Terrain] RenderFlora=On [AutoRefuse] FriendInvitation=0 DuelInvitation=0 GuildInvitation=0 HideUi=1 TradeRequest=0 HousingInvitation=0 GroupInvitation=0 [Group] AutoGroupOnLogin=0 AutoGroupAsLeader=0 AutoGroupWithFriends=0 AutoGroupWithGuild=0 [Voice] Enable=1 ReceiveVolume=70.000000 OutfitVolume=50.000000 SquadVolume=50.000000 RaidVolume=50.000000 ProximityVolume=50.000000 MicrophoneVolume=50.000000 Ducking=0.900000 [UI] HudTiltAngle=0 CentralizedHudMode=1 HudTiltAnglePercent=0 DrawMission=1 DrawKillSpam=1 DrawLootDrop=1 ShowGroupNotifications=1 ShowOutfitNotifications=1 HideWarpZoneConfirmation=1 TrackedDirectives=2445^ SelectedChatChannel=General ShowVRTrainingTutorial=0 MapCurrentZone=6 MapZoomLevel=2 MapPositionX=-186.9666137451172 MapPositionY=141.7108154169922 MapCenterOnPlayer=0 ChatFontSize=18 TintModeFacility=3276875,8535,7929856 TintModePlayer=3276875,16773632,7929856 TintModeReticuleStyle=0 TintModeReticuleColor=0 PlatoonSquadColor0=3781962 PlatoonSquadColor1=10707465 PlatoonSquadColor2=9578383 PlatoonSquadColor3=65793 ShowDirectivesTutorial=0 ShowReticleIFF=1 LeaderboardTimePeriodFilter=0 LeaderboardSourceFilter=0 LeaderboardSortColumn=score MapActiveToggleView=0 MapStatisticsView=0 [General] AutoDetectPerformanceSettings=0 MouseSensitivity=0.251000 ScopedMouseSensitivity=0.500000 ADSMouseSensitivity=0.349000 VehicleMouseSensitivity=0.302000 FlightMouseSensitivity=1.000000 JoystickSensitivity=0.500000 JoystickDeadzone=0.100000 InvertVerticalLook=0 InvertVerticalFly=1 InvertTankSteering=1 MouseRawInput=1 MouseSmoothing=1 ToggleCrouch=0 ZoomToggle=1 SprintToggle=0 SprintLegacyToggleMode=0 DrawHud=1 ReduceInputLag=1 FixedMinimap=1 Profanity=0 GamepadSmoothing=1 GamepadInvertLook=0 GamepadInvertFlight=0 GamepadEasyFlight=0 DecloakOnFire=0 AbilityQueueSeconds=0.000000 VehicleGunnerMouseSensitivity=0.250000 [MinimapOptions] PathEnabled=0 [Emote] Favorites= [Guild] NotifyOnGuildPetitionRecieved=1 [Chat] HudChatInactiveOpacity=0.000000 CanShowHudChat=1 [Video] VideoCapturePrefix=PS2Video [VoiceChat] EchoEnabled=1 EchoVolume=0.500000 ProximityEnabled=1 ProximityVolume=0.500000 FactionEnabled=1 FactionVolume=0.500000 GroupEnabled=1 GroupVolume=0.500000 GroupLeaderEnabled=1 GroupLeaderVolume=0.500000 RaidEnabled=1 RaidVolume=0.500000 GuildEnabled=1 GuildVolume=0.500000 CustomEnabled=1 CustomVolume=0.500000 InputDevice= OutputDevice=
you are going to have to change that Smoothing=0 to 1 Not having smooting on is a really bad idea, even if you are paying on a monster pc, you are introducing input latency and micro stutters by rendering stuff you simply can't see. you don't need to draw a 50% LOD model of an infantry 300mts away... regardless of your resolution. might as well have Smoothing on and drop that 50% LOD to 20% and it will look exactly the same.
What is your monitor's native resolution? Your resolution is set to 1920x1200 and that's not a standard resolution unless you've got a different aspect ratio monitor. If its 1920x1080 you should switch to that and see if that helps. Ideally though.. the 970 shouldn't balk at that resolution. Other than that, I actually recommend deleting the useroptions.ini file, and then launch the game to create a new one. Then set your options to what 'look good' to you. If you're GPU bound, you can get away with setting the options to what your preference is. For example I recommend turning shadows off to see enemy players easier, but textures on players to ultra to be able to detect cloaked players a bit easier. Flora and Lighting, totally optional, I turn them off to prevent any stutters from happening in case something gets a little abnormal (never know when 30 Galaxys will crash in the same spot for example). And when I say change the settings, I mean from in game. Something in that file isn't setting well with PS2 to cause the issues. That's my guess. If that's not the issue then there's an external factor of some sort. Your CPU, GPU, and RAM shouldn't have an issue with PS2. Though your CPU is sort of troubling, but I didn't bring it up since the game says its GPU bound. If you do what I've said above, and it goes from GPU to CPU bound, and you still have issues, well then that will be the next thing to look into. But one step at a time.
Why did you buy zotac, if you're going to buy Nvidia go with MSI or Gigabyte. You dont really need smoothing and the game is CPU intensive. I have the 960 and I'm running in th he 70s in the 48+ fights with everything on high, no ambient occlusion
These statements seem to contradict. ~50% could easily be "full" CPU utilization, since most cores are not going to ever be able to be fully used. The GPU, however, should be at 100% if the game is in fact being GPU-limited. So it sounds to me like you are being CPU limited, and the game is simply incorrectly reporting otherwise. Which would be no surprise; lowered framerates in large fights due to CPU limiting is very common in Planetside 2.
Hello, thanks for the tips so far. I'll be testing those later today and keep you updated. It's a 16:10 monitor. Maximum resolution at 1920x1200. I'm not sure about that, but I've read somewhere, that GPU bound needn't to be 100% usage but could also mean, that the GPU cannot put more frames out 'cause it's doing it at maximum. But as I said, don't nail me on it. Greetings and thanks for your time.
Allright, deleted UserOptions.ini and reset the settings; Ultra preset, shadows low, Render Distance 6000, Bloom, Fog Shadows, Ambient Occlusion everything on. It turned out, that (in heavy fights; 48+ on each side), with smoothing enabled, CPU is the bottleneck at ~60fps; every CPU-thread is particially used. When running through enemy lines, fps drops at around 40 rarely beyond. Disabling shadows grants me constant 60fps (with smoothing). When disabling smoothing, GPU is bottleneck (~120fps), as before, fps don't seem to drop beyond 60 often from what I've seen and if they do, they'll stay at around 50. Monitoring the CPU/GPU usage turned 40%/50% (smoothing) and 40%/80% (without). So what can I do to get rid of the fps drops while CPU bound (shadows low)?
Smoothing will lock you at 60fps or your monitors refresh (haven't tested smoothing on a 144hz monitor, don't have one). Just keep that in mind. To get rid of the FPS drop, you need to upgrade your CPU. But in reality you're not going to see much more frames than that even if you did. You've effectively fixed the issue. With the best setup, you're going to run at 120-160+ fps. With dips in large fights. You're approaching engine limitation rather than hardware. Congrats, you've licked it. Now all you can do is wait for the devs to do another optimization pass.
Hi, well that sounds great to hear. I think, I'll leave it with the settings I've acquired now then. Thanks everyone for their help - especially Taemien! - MisterGaming
