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S9: Graphic max settings now making my GPU/CPU struggle

genemorphgenemorph Member Posts: 404 Arc User
edited October 2014 in Graphical and Sound Issues
I have to say that most of what I've seen of season 9 so far is good (especially saving power tray setup when switching ships), with the obvious exceptions of losing rep traits that I had earned and the graphics problems.

Before season 9 I always played with all graphics/cpu settings onmax with no problem, but now with maxed settings my PC appears to be struggling. I've messed around with the graphics settings but fps are causing things like movement to be a bit jecky in ESD and in busy space fleet actions (e.g. Starbase 24). Elite STFs that I've tried seem fine but fleet actions with a lot of ships on screen causes terrible lag.

I like the graphics revamp, the effects look even cooler than before, but something is causing lag and I don't believe it is my quadcore CPU or my AMD card.

Is anyone else getting the same effect with max settings in S9? If so did you find a setting in particular that is causing it? I thought it was Dx11, but it does the same on Dx9 as well.
Post edited by genemorph on
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    tpolebreakertpolebreaker Member Posts: 266 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Yes, I've noticed definite hitching in certain places while looking in certain directions on new ESD. The screen stuttered and FPS noticeably drops to single digits (normally in the 40fps range at max details) while looking at, moving towards or panning past those directions. I've been unable to identify any specific object or lighting detail that causes the problem. Framerate smoothing in the STO client has no effect, on or off, dynamic or not.

    I thought this might be just ESD, but then I zoned into AT from Sirius and saw the same thing... more hitching for several seconds in every direction. Maybe it was textures loading? Dont know... but the hard drive was not active/busy, perfmon showed no spikes, and it did the same thing when I zoned in on another ship. Same thing also happened zoning from ZA to BU.

    Maybe it is ship density. If BU and AT were busy at the time (around server up after the patch), could account for that. As for the issues on ESD 2.0, the hitching did tend to occur when looking towards where there might be ships in the background, although the hitching occured even when no ships were visible and I was just looking at a blank wall, so maybe something is off, it rendering stuff that's not visible.

    This all happened when the graphics device was set to Auto. Tested forcing it to DX11, same thing, so I assume Auto was using DX11. Forced it to DX9e and the issue seemed to go away. ** update, happens in all DX modes, just the impact seems less in dx9.

    Note that previously I had been using the client in DX11 for many months without any issues at all, and in fact performance was slightly better than DX9 mode.
    ___________________
    The doors, Mister Scott!
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    edgecrysgeredgecrysger Member Posts: 2,740 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    genemorph wrote: »
    I have to say that most of what I've seen of season 9 so far is good (especially saving power tray setup when switching ships), with the obvious exceptions of losing rep traits that I had earned and the graphics problems.

    Before season 9 I always played with all graphics/cpu settings onmax with no problem, but now with maxed settings my PC appears to be struggling. I've messed around with the graphics settings but fps are causing things like movement to be a bit jecky in ESD and in busy space fleet actions (e.g. Starbase 24). Elite STFs that I've tried seem fine but fleet actions with a lot of ships on screen causes terrible lag.

    I like the graphics revamp, the effects look even cooler than before, but something is causing lag and I don't believe it is my quadcore CPU or my AMD card.

    Is anyone else getting the same effect with max settings in S9? If so did you find a setting in particular that is causing it? I thought it was Dx11, but it does the same on Dx9 as well.

    Too bad they didnt fix the empty stations when switching ships.. :mad: and the loadout system fails. zzz

    Obviously cryptic did something to the way the engine is managing the graphics, and in some system the changes can be enormous. There are graphics issues everywhere. If not the same as yours, others. In my case , my screen is so bright that i cant even play, it hurt my eyes. The only solution i found is to deactivate the postprocessing but if i do that, the game turns out really dark and in some situations is not pleasant. So, i am also screwed up. Modyfing the brightness doesnt help either. For example, the desert on Nimbus III. That is a pain in the xxxs

    There is no difference between DX9 and DX11 talking about quality (at least not in this game), and in my case i get more performance (i think) using DX9 than using DX11. Have you tried to change any options on the advanced tab? the troubleshooting ones?
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    aureleusaureleus Member Posts: 175 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    There is an issue with CPU/GPU utilization in S9, in the Undine space battle zone particularly. My R9 270X with 4 GB of Vram was getting FPS drops as low as freaking 3 FPS while fighting the Undine ? WTF Really ? I have a quad core CPU at 3.8GHz with 8GBs of DDR3 at 1600MHz Cas 8, and I'm getting FPS hits like this ? That screams Extremely poorly optimized coding in the rendering engine plain and simple.
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    platewearingbirdplatewearingbird Member Posts: 455 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    aureleus wrote: »
    There is an issue with CPU/GPU utilization in S9, in the Undine space battle zone particularly. My R9 270X with 4 GB of Vram was getting FPS drops as low as freaking 3 FPS while fighting the Undine ? WTF Really ? I have a quad core CPU at 3.8GHz with 8GBs of DDR3 at 1600MHz Cas 8, and I'm getting FPS hits like this ? That screams Extremely poorly optimized coding in the rendering engine plain and simple.

    And it's not only your rig, my decent one also suffers huge FPS drops at the Undine levels only, doubly so when they launch rifts.

    Gtx 460 and Phenom 9500 2.2ghrz
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    colson15colson15 Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    aureleus wrote: »
    There is an issue with CPU/GPU utilization in S9, in the Undine space battle zone particularly. My R9 270X with 4 GB of Vram was getting FPS drops as low as freaking 3 FPS while fighting the Undine ? WTF Really ? I have a quad core CPU at 3.8GHz with 8GBs of DDR3 at 1600MHz Cas 8, and I'm getting FPS hits like this ? That screams Extremely poorly optimized coding in the rendering engine plain and simple.

    Extremely similar rig to yours and I am having horrid fps issues and hiccups as well.
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    fleischmanntvfleischmanntv Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Yes, I have major issues in particular in the Undine STFs
    One hour of FleischmannTV saves one square kilometre of precious peble wasteland.
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    timelord79timelord79 Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    edgecrysger wrote: »
    Too bad they didnt fix the empty stations when switching ships.. :mad: and the loadout system fails. zzz

    Obviously cryptic did something to the way the engine is managing the graphics, and in some system the changes can be enormous. There are graphics issues everywhere. If not the same as yours, others. In my case , my screen is so bright that i cant even play, it hurt my eyes. The only solution i found is to deactivate the postprocessing but if i do that, the game turns out really dark and in some situations is not pleasant. So, i am also screwed up. Modyfing the brightness doesnt help either. For example, the desert on Nimbus III. That is a pain in the xxxs

    There is no difference between DX9 and DX11 talking about quality (at least not in this game), and in my case i get more performance (i think) using DX9 than using DX11. Have you tried to change any options on the advanced tab? the troubleshooting ones?

    What's your bloom setting? I have mine at 20% and no blinding bright lights anymore.
    11750640_1051211588222593_450219911807924697_n.jpg
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    artfulmerkageartfulmerkage Member Posts: 294 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I am also having major graphical issues since the release of this season. Especially around Undine content and the new ESD.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Valdus | Charn | Costello | Typhus | Thyran
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    platewearingbirdplatewearingbird Member Posts: 455 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I found that when I turned off post-processing and cinematic field of view the FPS didn't get really terrible unless there was 15+ ships all firing on a planet killer at the same time.
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    aureleusaureleus Member Posts: 175 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    platewearingbird wrote: »
    I found that when I turned off post-processing and cinematic field of view the FPS didn't get really terrible unless there was 15+ ships all firing on a planet killer at the same time.


    This just proves my point, and that is that there rendering engine needs some Serious coding optimization done to it, I get higher, more consistent FPS in ESO during the Beta! then I do in STO now in the Undine related content. That's a huge red flag to me when playing a game that's been out for 4 fraking years. Get your ducks in a row Cryptic and start optimizing and fixing your Current Content,, BEFORE releasing new content >.>.
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    ragnar0xragnar0x Member Posts: 296 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Just tested dx9 on full all.......70fps?? so dx11 is broken or what? cant get more than 25 fps with gtx650TI :S


    i will now test in new woth zone. well i have 60 fps ion voth and 35 fps when fighting that big boss...but same thing happens, i cannot see my beams and torpedoes when my camera is turnet to target but when i turn it elsewhere i can see me shooting.....
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    jaxteboxlejaxteboxle Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I'm also having fps problems. Previously, max settings, 60fps virtually the entire time. Now it's all over the place. ESD it's gone as low as 27fps. Problems in sector space, ground missions, space missions. Everywhere. Even a simple cut-scene with no fancy effects, the fps will cut in half.

    I turned everything to the lowest possible, even the display resolution; the problems are the same regardless of settings.

    There are also lighting problems and very slow to load in textures in places.

    I have 2xgtx590, my system handled everything fine yesterday.

    Hopefully we get an official acknowledgment of this issue and it can be fixed. The game is currently unplayable for me.

    P.S> My system is also running a great deal hotter than previously.
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    aureleusaureleus Member Posts: 175 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    jaxteboxle wrote: »
    I'm also having fps problems. Previously, max settings, 60fps virtually the entire time. Now it's all over the place. ESD it's gone as low as 27fps. Problems in sector space, ground missions, space missions. Everywhere. Even a simple cut-scene with no fancy effects, the fps will cut in half.

    I turned everything to the lowest possible, even the display resolution; the problems are the same regardless of settings.

    There are also lighting problems and very slow to load in textures in places.

    I have 2xgtx590, my system handled everything fine yesterday.

    Hopefully we get an official acknowledgment of this issue and it can be fixed. The game is currently unplayable for me.

    P.S> My system is also running a great deal hotter than previously.


    Try running with 1 GTX 590 disabled in SLI, and if that doesn't work, if possible turn off one of the GPUs on a single 590 *Not certain on that since I don't use SLI or dual GPU cards :/*. For all we know your issue might be related to an issue with how STO uses SLI :/.
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    jaxteboxlejaxteboxle Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    aureleus wrote: »
    Try running with 1 GTX 590 disabled in SLI, and if that doesn't work, if possible turn off one of the GPUs on a single 590 *Not certain on that since I don't use SLI or dual GPU cards :/*. For all we know your issue might be related to an issue with how STO uses SLI :/.

    That was a good idea to turn off SLI, slipped my mind to try that. Unfortunately no good came of it, just standing still looking around with the camera on ESD (with only a handful of people in the area) fps would jump around, dropping to 12 even at one point. At the tailor with about 10 people standing still, it was at 34fps.

    Thanks for the suggestions though :)
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    aureleusaureleus Member Posts: 175 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I like others have also noticed a difference in GPU load, But most importantly in the amount of Vram being used. In the Tau Dewa Block going from New Romulus to the Dyson gateway I was using over 1.2GBs of my Vram, Usually during any given play through with STO I was averaging around 800MBs per session. So its not just a greater load on the GPU now but also the Vram aswell... and mind you I have even turned my View distances to 88% instead of the default 100% that the game wants to use. Also I am playing at 1920x1080p both before and after S9.

    *Face Palm*

    OK so went over my ingame settings Again, since the S9 update decided to mess with our settings I wanted to see if they forced AA on, And sure enough because of my video card they beefed up my MSAA to x8 >.> which by itself uses roughly 300MBz~! O.O...

    So if your using more Vram then usual Check the AA setting in the *Display* Tab, it may also help with FPS issues a lil bit :/.
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    ussprometheus79ussprometheus79 Member Posts: 727 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Well I thought I might have been the only one, but I'm glad there's an issue with the FPS in some parts of the game.

    Up until S9, everything has run super smooth for me. AMD 6-core 8Gb and a 270x 4Gb. Rarely would it ever drop below 30-40fps even when there was a lot on screen.

    Now in the new space BZ I'm getting 6-8FPS and in Starbase 24 I've seen it drop as lows as 2-3FPS. Something is not right. FPS on ESD will drop as low as 20-22.

    I'm not an FPS snob, as long as it's smooth, I don't care on the exact figure. But something is definitely up which I hope can be investigated.

    Just to add, I get this problem regardless of the MSAA level whether in game or within drivers.
    If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
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    genemorphgenemorph Member Posts: 404 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Well I've turned off all the graphics settings one by one to see it improved performance, but it didn't make any difference at all, the fps are still bad, in ESD and crowded space. Changed from Dx11 to Dx9ex and then to Dx9 to no avail. Hopefully they'll sort it out soon. Either the game now required much more resources than before, or it is not using all the resources that are available. At a guess I would say that it is the latter. It's possible the game is no longer utilising multi core CPUs and treating it as a single core. Could explain why high performance pcs may be struggling at max settings compared with pre-S9.
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    mazinger2010mazinger2010 Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Try disabling the UI and see if the FPS jumps back up. I'm running into the same thing. Game is unplayable without the UI and reducing to under 20FPS in SB24 even with all settings turned down WITH the UI so kinda at a stand still.

    Phenom X4 3ghz
    8GB Ram
    Radeon HD 6850 Video Card.

    Was running Mid to High settings and getting only RARE dips below 30FPS BEFORE patch.
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    luihimeluihime Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Yea I've struggled a WHOLE LOT with my graphics also... Before the release of this season, I was able to get up to 80FPS, now going from a 55FPS to 3 FPS during Starbase 24 and Crystalline Catastrophe, yea that just plain... sucks ><

    My computer: Alienware M14x R2
    Intel Core i7-3610QM @2.30GHz
    12GB RAM
    nVidia GeForce GT 650M (2048MB GDDR5)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000

    Here's my DXDIAG report just in case it could help something... But I suspect these graphic issues are due to poor code cleanup developer end.

    System Information
    Time of this report: 4/23/2014, 19:29:03
    Machine name: ALIENWARE-LUI
    Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130828-1532)
    Language: Spanish (Regional Setting: Spanish)
    System Manufacturer: Alienware
    System Model: M14xR2
    BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 03.72.24A14
    Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
    Memory: 12288MB RAM
    Available OS Memory: 12170MB RAM
    Page File: 6130MB used, 18208MB available
    Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
    DX Setup Parameters: Not found
    User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
    System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
    DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
    DxDiag Notes
    Display Tab 1: No problems found.
    Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
    Input Tab: No problems found.
    DirectX Debug Levels
    Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
    DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
    DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
    DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
    DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
    DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
    DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)
    Display Devices
    Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
    Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
    Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
    DAC type: Internal
    Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0166&SUBSYS_05521028&REV_09
    Display Memory: 4038 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 1990 MB
    Shared Memory: 2048 MB
    Current Mode: 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
    Monitor Name: Monitor PnP gen
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    aureleusaureleus Member Posts: 175 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Something else I have noticed is that with the UI opened up my FPS takes a Flying leap off a cliff, go's from an average 50+ to a steady 19 FPS when I press K for the skills UI. An that's in Sector Space O.O....this issue with the UI was actually present Before S9, but because nothing has been done to address the issues with FPS drops, its getting progressively worse.
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    ragnar0xragnar0x Member Posts: 296 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IBxpaqzU20


    gtx650TI .... same on min max settings cannot see what am I shooting, 90% ppl have same problem in voth space and crystalline elite.
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    phoeniciusphoenicius Member Posts: 762 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    i noticed that STO is being harder on the HD and CPU for some reason, i think the fix to that bug that caused the graphics of everything to become white/fail to properly load its causing it, now STO does load everything, but while its doing so, it brings my PC to its knees sometimes, also new ESD for some reason seems laggier than when it was up on tribble, even when there were 50+ people spamming disco balls near tacofangs/dancing around him/using party itens it didn't lag like this, same thing with the undine battlezone, it wasn't this bad, not when graphic were turned down.

    i don't know what cryptic did, but i think they broke the already frail code... again.
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    ussprometheus79ussprometheus79 Member Posts: 727 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    It'll be interesting to see if this is specifically addressed or not. But you would be hopeful given the various graphics/issues reported.
    If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
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    lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I don't know if this will help anyone, but thought I'd post it up anyway.

    I was having bad FPS issues as well. 3-5 FPS in Dyson space and Undine BZ. Maybe 20 max everywhere else. I found some options under the Advanced tab in the menu options. There was one for Framerate Limiter and Auto-Framerate Limiter. Or something close to those, I forget. Anyway, both of those had been turned on. I turned them off and everything went back to normal. I was getting my 40-60 FPS again. There's also an option for limiting CPU activity if you have overheating. Maybe check to see if that one is turned off too.
    JWZrsUV.jpg
    Mine Trap Supporter
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    cookiecrookcookiecrook Member Posts: 4,529 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I haven't had any issues with season 9 graphically. You do need to reset all of your graphics settings upon login and they seem to be stretched over 3 tabs now. I don't know who thought that was a good idea but I think they should all be on a single tab. I have tried the new content and have explored ESD a few times with no issues, slowdowns, or framerate drops. Have any of you tried different drivers? I am currently running the Catalyst 14.4 RC1 on Windows 8.1 at 1920X1200 under DX11 on the highest settings the game allows.

    CPU: Core i7 4770K @ 4.3GHz
    Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
    RAM: 16GB (2X8GB) G.Skill F3-2400C10
    GPU: MSI Radeon 7950 3GB
    <
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    >
    Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
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    mazinger2010mazinger2010 Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Still low FPS after trying even the catalyst beta drivers. Seems there is no real fix for this. I'm boxing the game till next patch or a dev response.
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    ussprometheus79ussprometheus79 Member Posts: 727 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I'm on the beta catalyst drivers, and the low FPS problems are still persisting. Something changed with S9 most likely inadvertently, but this does need to be looked at.

    Parts of the game are simply unplayable because the FPS dips so low.
    If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
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    greuceangreucean Member Posts: 111 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    no official word on this yet?

    seems to be something of a big issue, had no such problems with the game so far and suddenly S9 comes with a significant FPS drop...
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    benoliverwillockbenoliverwillock Member Posts: 99 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    This probably sounds obvious, but make sure that "World Texture Detail" and "Charater Texture Detail" are set to no more than 100%.
    I found after S9 patch these were cranked up to 300% for me and I was getting half the FPS I was before :eek:
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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