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Fairly high end machine, lackluster performance regardless of settings

fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
edited April 2013 in Graphical and Sound Issues
Edit: Problem mostly resolved. I was running the game through Steam. I downloaded it directly and am experiencing much smoother play. /Edit

I am running a fairly high end machine, and have been having issues with ST:O. It's a bit disheartening, as I can run every single other game I've tried at max settings with no hitches.
Basically, the game has somewhat smooth FPS, then just hangs randomly. Especially on the ground, or in space with anything in the background like an asteroid field. It's particularly strange, as my performance is nearly the same whether running the game at max, or at min settings.

If it helps, I was running an Ivy Bridge Quad core OCd to 4.4 and having heat issues, (never had a problem in any other game,) so had to actually lower the clock to 4.2 to remain stable. Only ST:O creates these heat issues for me.

Is there some magic setting I don't know about? Anyone have any idea?


Edit: Added specs, corrected typo on Overclock.

Microsel Intel Core i5-3570k 3.4Ghz OC to 4.2 currently. Was overheating at 4.4.

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Bundle i53570k-Z77X3-KIT

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GAR

HIS H785F2G2M Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Post edited by fearlessteapot on
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Comments

  • rattraps123rattraps123 Member Posts: 101 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Your computer is OVERCLOCKED, your going to have " Heat Issues " ... Sto is not causeing your computer to overheat. You also didn't even say what kind of video card you have. or any other details about your system build.
    cSLYSLc.gif
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Your computer is OVERCLOCKED, your going to have " Heat Issues " ... Sto is not causeing your computer to overheat. You also didn't even say what kind of video card you have. or any other details about your system build.
    I did, however, say that every single other game I tried runs fine, with no heat issues. ST:O is the only one that causes my processor to run hot. I provided the information to someone in the hopes that it would ring a bell, maybe there is a known issue with a particular setting or something.

    Judging by the tone of your post, I'm not sure you could really help, anyway. I'm not sure how I offended you; if I beat your dog in another life or something, I apologize.

    Here are the actual specs, for anyone who feels like being helpful.

    Microsel Intel Core i5-3570k OC to 3.2 currently. Was overheating at 3.4.

    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Bundle i53570k-Z77X3-KIT

    Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

    G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GAR
  • jbmaverickjbmaverick Member Posts: 935 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Also, one of the first things you do when you start encountering visual hanging like this is to update your drivers, particularly your video driver. Quite often I've found updating a driver removes performance issues.

    Edit (was writing this post while you responded): are you using an on-board graphics card, or do you have a PCI-E video card you didn't list in your system specs? On-board graphics cards are usually pretty weak when it comes to games. What other games are running "fine" that you aren't having issues with. If they're all more than a year old, I'd still say look into updating your drivers.

    Edit edit: I see you updated your OP with the video card spec, it's at least a fairly recent card so it shouldn't be having too many issues...

    The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    jbmaverick wrote: »
    Also, one of the first things you do when you start encountering visual hanging like this is to update your drivers, particularly your video driver. Quite often I've found updating a driver removes performance issues.

    I double checked that I am running the most up to date drivers. I am considering actually rolling back to odler drivers to see if they make a difference.
  • erockererocker Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    STO uses a lot of your CPU. More so than most games. I suggest getting better cooling for your CPU. Then again your computer might just not be stable. For a start, remove any and all overclocks and make sure your RAM is setup properly then try playing the game again.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • jbmaverickjbmaverick Member Posts: 935 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Looking over my system specs to see how they compare against yours, since I rarely have any issues. AMD FX4100 3.6 GHz procressor, NVidia GeForce GTX 660, 1x8GB RAM, so my system specs are only slightly better than yours other than the RAM (and nobody actually needs 16 GB of RAM right now :P). It could be something playing poorly with the Radeon driver, so a rollback might help, not sure what else I could suggest.

    The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
  • erockererocker Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    jbmaverick wrote: »
    Looking over my system specs to see how they compare against yours, since I rarely have any issues. AMD FX4100 3.6 GHz procressor, NVidia GeForce GTX 660, 1x8GB RAM, so my system specs are only slightly better than yours other than the RAM (and nobody actually needs 16 GB of RAM right now :P). It could be something playing poorly with the Radeon driver, so a rollback might help, not sure what else I could suggest.

    Actually his specs are better than yours and has nothing to do with the Radeon driver. Did you bother to read?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • jbmaverickjbmaverick Member Posts: 935 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    erocker wrote: »
    Actually his specs are better than yours and has nothing to do with the Radeon driver. Did you bother to read?

    Why are you even bothering to turn a help thread into an insult? My processor is faster than his without overclocking and the GTX 660 generally outperforms the Radeon 7850 in 3D rendering. And unless you're some sort of psychic I doubt you actually KNOW the issue. Yes, he said he's getting some overheating issues but he ALSO said he's having some graphical stuttering, which is what I was addressing, and it could be a driver issue or one of several other issues if the overheating isn't directly related.

    Years ago I had a fairly decent laptop that I expected to perform reasonably well on any game that came out around the same time. But only a few minutes into most games I'd suddenly get ratcheted down to something like 10 FPS, hardly optimal. It wasn't a driver issue or an overheating issue, it was a poorly designed bios CPU limiter that was engaging and not disengaging. The issue isn't always obvious.

    The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    That was my next consideration. It's relatively easy to drop the clock on this motherboard, which should drastically lower temps. I can then try the game at low settings and see if that is the problem. I have my doubts though, as I have no issues in other games, and this processor is very commonly clocked at 4.4. My temps get up to 80C or so with current settings and clock (4.2), which is around the same as I get with GW2 or SW TOR at 4.4.

    Beyond that, I suppose trying older drivers is the best option I have.
  • erockererocker Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Sorry you feel insulted by facts. I did however misread his GPU as a 7950, so your card is better. Your CPU's architecture is a bit behind his Ivy Bridge CPU however... No matter what it is clocked at.:rolleyes:

    I am trying to help, but when people come in and give useless information it doesn't help at all. As I previously said, OC's should be removed and it is important that the RAM is setup correctly.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • erockererocker Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    That was my next consideration. It's relatively easy to drop the clock on this motherboard, which should drastically lower temps. I can then try the game at low settings and see if that is the problem. I have my doubts though, as I have no issues in other games, and this processor is very commonly clocked at 4.4. My temps get up to 80C or so with current settings and clock (4.2), which is around the same as I get with GW2 or SW TOR at 4.4.

    Beyond that, I suppose trying older drivers is the best option I have.

    You really shouldn't have to lower the settings for this game.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    To jump into the debate, I'm pretty sure the 3570k benches way higher than the AMD chip. Not that it should matter at all for this game, though.

    The performance I'm getting here is very confusing.
  • erockererocker Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    If it's overheating, it's going to throttle the CPU. STOL is very CPU heavy and I like to use Starbase 24 as a bench/stress test for my system. So yeah, start with putting your system at stock.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • the1tiggletthe1tigglet Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Your computer is OVERCLOCKED, your going to have " Heat Issues " ... Sto is not causeing your computer to overheat. You also didn't even say what kind of video card you have. or any other details about your system build.

    Actually you're quite wrong there. STO is the only game that has ever been a post release game on two computers over the course of three OS's using three different graphics cards using both DX 9 and DX 11 that has ever pushed my cards temp over the top. I have never overclocked any of my rigs.

    As a player that's been here since beta, I can tell you it's been a persistant issue the entire three years. Granted it became much more manageable as time has gone by however at this point three years later we should not be experiencing this on any computer overclocked or not. It's been a problem since launch that they've never buckled down and fixed, just like the flickering problem in instance backgrounds.
  • akurie666akurie666 Member Posts: 289 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    My video card burned out a while back and I discoved a decent config for my video options...
    http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o691/akurie369/video_zps36c686bb.png
    Try turning things down and then working your way back up all the while checking for problems.
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    akurie666 wrote: »
    My video card burned out a while back and I discoved a decent config for my video options...
    http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o691/akurie369/video_zps36c686bb.png
    Try turning things down and then working your way back up all the while checking for problems.

    Thanks for the reply. I've actually set everything at minimum, and the performance is similar to if everything was set on High.
  • crusty8maccrusty8mac Member Posts: 1,381 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    STO runs my GPU way hotter than any other program I run. It always has. There are some places, that make no sense to me, that would shut down my card, until I upgraded it.
    __________________________________
    STO Forum member since before February 2010.
    STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
    I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
  • jcswwjcsww Member Posts: 6,822 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I don't have any issues with STO currently other than DX11 missing textures that are simply the fault of lazy workmanship and no motivation for the devs to fix them. My system is also overclocked. What ATI drivers are you using?: I am running hte 13.1's with no issues. Before I installed them, I did a clean removal of the old Catalyst drivers with AMD's Clean Up Utility. Your CPU cooler should be swapped out to something good by Noctua if you want to run at good temps while overclocked.

    Two things to be aware of in STO that are annoying. On ATI cards, 16x AA causes the game to crash. Loading screens also cause insane framerates that will head up your system if not properly cooled. There are two ways to aproach the second of the two while running full everything under DX11 on 8x AA. Lock the framerate int eh options at 60FPS. This prevents the loading screens from jumping to 1,000+ FPS. My settings though are based on a Radeon 7950 3GB and a Core i7 860 running at 3.8GHz (stock is 2.8GHz). My rig can run Far Cry 3, Crysis 3, and BioShock Infinite at the best settings the games have to offer at 1920X1200.
  • thesavage0nethesavage0ne Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I can run most games without any problems with lag/chopiness like fallout NV, fallout 3, black and white 2... and the ones that do have a low framerat have at least a regularly slow framerate like skyrim. i have problems when i'm sprinting on ground missions where it will just stop mid stride and wait a bit also when i am changing directions on the ground and moving camera. in space it dosen't happen at all in combat only when i am going fast speed or whatever its called. but then i can't turn the warp speed off because of how choppy it is. its not internet, and it not my pc. or at least it shouldn't be.
    Here are my specks.
    Intel (R) HD graphics
    (4x)Intel (R) Core(TM) i3 CPU
    not sure you need sound but both Intel(R) Display Audio and Realtek High Definition Audio
    4gb ram
    Windows 7 x64

    I have tryed changing litterially EVERY graphix setting, please help! at level 1-30 it wasn't so bad... missions were easy enough but now i can hardly complete one at level 44
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    For anyone following, I dropped my core temps by 20C, and still experiencing the large lag spikes. My only options appear to be either waiting for a new video driver, or rolling back to a previous one.
  • mokshahmokshah Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Do you have good quality PSU that has a good amount of Amps? Amps not watts are the more important criteria. I had issues years ago that a single rail corsair with double the old psu's amps fixed. My pc is less than yours and I dont have issues.
  • moutoku343moutoku343 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I did, however, say that every single other game I tried runs fine, with no heat issues. ST:O is the only one that causes my processor to run hot. I provided the information to someone in the hopes that it would ring a bell, maybe there is a known issue with a particular setting or something.

    Judging by the tone of your post, I'm not sure you could really help, anyway. I'm not sure how I offended you; if I beat your dog in another life or something, I apologize.

    Here are the actual specs, for anyone who feels like being helpful.

    Microsel Intel Core i5-3570k OC to 3.2 currently. Was overheating at 3.4.

    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Bundle i53570k-Z77X3-KIT

    Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

    G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GAR

    first nice specs, mine is the ordinary i5 with 8 gb ram

    second: are you playing sto on a pc or a laptop?

    third: the overheating issue might be caused by the graphics card trying to handle so much graphical information at once. (i sometimes have this issue as well). furthermore your computer might be running things in background, adding undue stress to your ram and video card.

    one solution is to put an electric fan beside your computer and hopefully this will help in keeping your computer cool and fresh for online action.

    i hope that helps.

    yours sincerely,

    moutoku
  • maddog0000doommaddog0000doom Member Posts: 1,017 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Your computer is OVERCLOCKED, your going to have " Heat Issues " ... Sto is not causeing your computer to overheat. You also didn't even say what kind of video card you have. or any other details about your system build.

    STO is the worst game ive ever played reguarding heat/performace.

    its the engine they use and drivers.

    nothing u can really about this, try changing some options, limit frame rate helps abit,

    i know how u feel as i can run crysis metro2033 and other games no problem o max settings yet a little game like sto causes more heat and terrible performance.


    best advice i can give is keep rolling back drivers til find one that sorta works with sto
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    moutoku343 wrote: »
    first nice specs, mine is the ordinary i5 with 8 gb ram

    second: are you playing sto on a pc or a laptop?

    third: the overheating issue might be caused by the graphics card trying to handle so much graphical information at once. (i sometimes have this issue as well). furthermore your computer might be running things in background, adding undue stress to your ram and video card.

    one solution is to put an electric fan beside your computer and hopefully this will help in keeping your computer cool and fresh for online action.

    i hope that helps.

    yours sincerely,

    moutoku
    Thanks for the reply. I'm playing ona desktop. I've tinkered with the motherboard, lowerign the voltage and at the same time dropping my core temps by 20C, and still experiencing the issue. Even so, this game still runs hotter than any other, I'm pretty sure it's going to regardless.
  • fearlessteapotfearlessteapot Member Posts: 33 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    STO is the worst game ive ever played reguarding heat/performace.

    its the engine they use and drivers.

    nothing u can really about this, try changing some options, limit frame rate helps abit,

    i know how u feel as i can run crysis metro2033 and other games no problem o max settings yet a little game like sto causes more heat and terrible performance.


    best advice i can give is keep rolling back drivers til find one that sorta works with sto

    That's what I'ms ettled on. I get hiccups on the ground and in many places in space. Especially somewhere like Starbase 24 - I don't even bother with that map anymore. It's not unplayable, but it's unenjoyable. When I get the time, I'll have to sit down and start the process of rolling back/testing older drivers.
  • huesoparkerhuesoparker Member Posts: 37 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I find this thread to be super interesting, because I play STO with a stock laptop from ASUS. It's an i5 processor, and just a plain jane on board video card. It gets slightly warm, but it doesn't hang or act up. I've played for several hours consecutively, and no problems.



    Don't ask me for the specs. I couldn't care less. I'm not gonna play "My computer is bigger than yours". I have other and better things to do.
  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Your computer is OVERCLOCKED, your going to have " Heat Issues " ... Sto is not causeing your computer to overheat. You also didn't even say what kind of video card you have. or any other details about your system build.

    Lol. Overcloaking doesnt necessarily mean you are going to have heat issues, it just means you are running your CPU out of factory defaults. My old Quad core cpu could overclock from 2.6GHz all the way to 3.6GHz without any significant voltage bumping or added heat.

    Ofcourse, if only this game is giving him heat issues, it simply means his CPU cooling is not adequate, this game doesnt even bring a CPU to its limits in terms of load, its impossible. And even if it would, a CPU should be able to handle it even taking it to the limits, otherwise it simply means his cooling is not adequate.

    For the OP, im running an i7 3770K at 4.5GHz, a 670GTX Nvidia card and the game is very badly coded and only uses a fraction of your total CPU/GPU resources.

    The worst setting I could find to turn up are Dynamic Lightning, which is enabled by default. But it seems 99% CPU bound and since this game really doesnt utilize all of your 4 cores (although it seems to be in task manager) its just TRIBBLE.

    Try turning that off.

    There is almost no way to retain a steady 60 fps with alot of spam in the screen, reticles, objects, etc not even on the recommended (High but not absurdly high) quality settings.

    Try going into a 20 man Starbase and see your FPS plummet with only 40-50% cpu usage and 30% gpu utilization lulz.

    Going to DirectX11 beta improves FPS somewhat, but still unacceptable for a simple game like this.

    If it helps any, i will say in all fairness that the best FPS gain i got was by upgrading my CPU, thats it.
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • aexraelaexrael Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013

    Is there some magic setting I don't know about? Anyone have any idea?

    At the very bottom of the graphics settings, there's an in game Frame Limiter you can use to set the FPS cap to 60. It may or may not help you, depending on whether you are running vsynch or not.

    Also disable the Intel GPU in the CPU, you can find the option for it in the EFI settings at startup.
  • roman1229roman1229 Member Posts: 185 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    erocker wrote: »
    Actually his specs are better than yours and has nothing to do with the Radeon driver. Did you bother to read?

    So it was that necessary to insult someone huh? No wonder people don't like to post their problems or concerns in this forum. People like you just ruin it for everyone.
  • spork87spork87 Member Posts: 239 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    jbmaverick wrote: »
    Why are you even bothering to turn a help thread into an insult? My processor is faster than his without overclocking and the GTX 660 generally outperforms the Radeon 7850 in 3D rendering. And unless you're some sort of psychic I doubt you actually KNOW the issue. Yes, he said he's getting some overheating issues but he ALSO said he's having some graphical stuttering, which is what I was addressing, and it could be a driver issue or one of several other issues if the overheating isn't directly related.

    Years ago I had a fairly decent laptop that I expected to perform reasonably well on any game that came out around the same time. But only a few minutes into most games I'd suddenly get ratcheted down to something like 10 FPS, hardly optimal. It wasn't a driver issue or an overheating issue, it was a poorly designed bios CPU limiter that was engaging and not disengaging. The issue isn't always obvious.

    first off no your FX will compete with an i3 not even in the same leauge as an i5, I'm sorry but thats dreaming.

    Now for the issue at hand, if you overheated at 4.4ghz backing down to 4.2 will not really help the situation, and the simple fact you overheat at that speed tells me your using the stock heatsink, as any aftermarket heatsink for 1155 will run these chips at 4.5-5ghz comfortably or your using excessive voltage.

    If your using the stock heatsink, remove your overclock right now until you can afford a better cooler, at minimum a hyper212+ will get you to 4.7ghz easy if your goal is to overclock.

    Graphics stuttering without visable artifacts is caused 99% of the time by a CPU bottleneck and this happens because it is throttling down to save itself from burning up
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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