25% FPS loss out of the blue

[Billy Pilgrim]

I'm looking for a bit of help.

A week or so ago, I started getting 20 to 30% fewer FPS when using AC. I wondered if it was Dynamic Shaders so uninstalled it but that doesn't change much, if anything. I can't figure it out. (the fps drop didn't come just after installing Dynamic Shaders anyway)

Wondering if a Windows update may have done this. I can't think of any graphics-type mod that I installed a week ago either.

I've got a 1080 ti and an i7 4770k (with an overclock). Triple screens. But there has been no hardware change recently that could have caused this.

 

[Stereo]

If you're on Windows 10, it has its own setting to allow/disallow apps to access mic. Unless you've checked this already, it might be worth checking.

I love when they add things like this default-disallowed for all apps, but then add websearch to the start menu with no way to turn it off.

 

[Case_]

I love when they add things like this default-disallowed for all apps, but then add websearch to the start menu with no way to turn it off.

One word - privacy. I know we could argue web search also has its concerns, but way less than the mic thing. I'm actually glad they did this, way too many unintentionally open mics on people's systems nowadays.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

@Billy Pilgrim Realtek, eh? Almost unnecessary to connect the microphone anyway, then, it will sound like crap, they have absolutely terrible input quality

But sadly there's not much I can help you with, I guess. If you've recently had a Windows update to a new version of Windows, they tend to swap your audio devices around (as they're making some ongoing changes to sound settings in the last few big updates). So I would plug the mic to get that popup, make sure everything is set correctly on the soundcard side (be sure to have your microphone boost set correctly for your mic if you do have that function, I believe some Realtek drivers do and some don't), then head over to Windows sound settings, make sure your microphone is set as input device (not mandatory, I believe, but might help, also you can i.e. tap the microphone and see on the input bar if it responds) and as default communication device (that can only be done in the old sound panel you access by clicking Sound control panel on the right of the Win10 sound settings window, then heading to Recording tab there), and finally, once everything is set correctly here, also verify the settings of your application - for example Teamspeak has an annoying tendency to keep the previous non-existing input device set for use if some changes to audio devices happened.

If while doing all this the microphone doesn't even respond in the Windows settings, then I'd suspect either soundcard issues (perhaps reinstall drivers or check you're using correct ones, there's bazillion of them for Realtek cards) or connection issues (if you're for example using the front panel input, they develop issues fairly quickly), provided the microphone does indeed work in other PCs. And if it does respond in Windows settings and not in your app, then it would suggest a misconfiguration of your app.

But I guess you already tried all this, so probably not much help. But it's much easier to troubleshoot this in person rather than over a forum

Thanks for all these tips Great!
I have tried nearly all of the things you mention.

For the drivers, what I did was (in Device Manager), right click on "Mic in at rear panel" (I've plugged it in to rear panel now) and chose "Update driver". But the result tells me I have the latest driver updated. Is there another way to check for drivers?

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

- Mirrors

Turning down quality and resolution of the mirrors eases things for the cpu?

 

[RasmusP]

Turning down quality and resolution of the mirrors eases things for the cpu?

Not that much but in content manager you have the possibility to set the distances for mirrors (and reflections too btw).
Shortening the distance directly lowers the amount of geometry to compute and lowers cpu load.
Lower them and test every time if you can live with it. Reflections are at 450m for me and mirrors at 550m. Popping in cars and holes on the bonnet reflection are really strange to look at so lower the distances until you notice this too much and then raise about 20m

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Not that much but in content manager you have the possibility to set the distances for mirrors (and reflections too btw).
Shortening the distance directly lowers the amount of geometry to compute and lowers cpu load.
Lower them and test every time if you can live with it. Reflections are at 450m for me and mirrors at 550m. Popping in cars and holes on the bonnet reflection are really strange to look at so lower the distances until you notice this too much and then raise about 20m

Thanks. Your help is precious.
I've put reflections rendering distance to 400m and I'll see how it looks. For mirrors in Content Manager (in Settings, Assetto Corsa, Video) , I don't seem to have a distance, just Mirror Resolution and High Quality or not.

 

[RasmusP]

Thanks. Your help is precious.
I've put reflections rendering distance to 400m and I'll see how it looks. For mirrors in Content Manager (in Settings, Assetto Corsa, Video) , I don't seem to have a distance, just Mirror Resolution and High Quality or not.

Not at the PC at the moment but while reflection distance is directly next to the other reflections settings, the one for the mirrors is in "miscellaneous" or something like that. Totally unrelated to the rest of the settings!

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Not at the PC at the moment but while reflection distance is directly next to the other reflections settings, the one for the mirrors is in "miscellaneous" or something like that. Totally unrelated to the rest of the settings!

Thanks
Found it! It's in System, just under Miscellaneous.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Here is just a very small anecdote that I want to share.
It sounds like such a stupid little thing but I ran into it and others may too:

Make absolutely certain that your CPU cooler is properly thermal pasted and is PROPERLY mounted on the CPU.

Verify this physically AND most importantly benchmark the CPU extensively and compare to known results for your CPU / heatsink combo.

I had my current computer built in a shop as I didn't want to deal with the hassle and time spent.
The computer seemingly worked fine and as of it being a substantial upgrade over the replaced unit I didn't suspect anything wrong.
BUT - it turned out the CPU cooler was wrongly assembled and worse it was not properly seated on the CPU. This lead to ever deteriorating CPU temperatures, leading to the CPU throttling and ultimately to shutdowns.

I only found this accidentally after weeks of trouble shooting when I re-checked cooling fan connectors on teh mainboard and accidentally knocked against the CPU cooler WHICH MOVED.
I had ~40deg C lower CPU temperatures after assembling the CPU cooler properly and MUCH improved performance.

Check your CPU cooler!

 

[Kek700]

And while you are at it, keep an eye on your GPU temperatures, not so easily corrected.!
Any over temp will cause the GPU to throttle back on its frquency. This will reduces it's
performance, your fps and possibly stuttering.
To increase my GPU’s performance, in the hope of keeping up with the ever increasing
“cost” of nvidia GPU’s.
I have turned to water cooling at a cost of £60, Better than the £750 gpu replacement.
My temperatures have dropped by Some 20 deg centigrade, enough to stop my gpu throttling.

 

[Case_]

With the shader patch's custom font rendering apps are a lot better! They still eat the fps they really need to calculate with but it's much better with the custom font rendering!
As said, substanding's draw is now about 6 fps instead of 20+!

Just remembered I wanted to try this. Well, that's 20 more fps for me

 

[RasmusP]

Just remembered I wanted to try this. Well, that's 20 more fps for me

Awesome

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

18 months later and I seem to have this problem back.

Maybe. Or maybe it's something else.

Since last night, out of the blue, (after no update as far as I'm aware, no change in any setting as far as I'm aware, no CSP update), I have lost around 30% of my fps.

I have fiddled about, checked the overclock, re-started the computer several times and realised that I get back all the lost fps seemingly at random. Last night one hour after finding the problem (and fiddling about but not really doing anything purposeful), I get my fps back, then I lose them again after another restart. Then I get all the fps back again late at night, go to bed, wake up this morning, check my fps and I've gone back down to 70 fps (from what they "should" be: 100fps) .

I had thought the problem was cos the overclock was resetting to default but then realised that that wasn't causing the problem.

I'm always using same exact grid (and skins), same track, to benchlmark.

I've checked with OCCT: everything seems ok in there. I've also used the Task Manager performances tab and it seems ok in there too (but I'm no PC expert, I know my way around enough to get by in most circumstances).

One clue I have which may be significant: when the fps is bad, the race takes much longer to load. So I no longer have to really start the race and look at my fps counter to know if the problem will be there or not; I know if I'm going to have low fps or not by how long the race take to load from the launcher.

Anyone got a clue?

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Another clue:

I just reloaded a race (ten minutes after trying a race where fps were good, at 100fps) and now it's bad again (70 fps) . I used the Task Manager performances tab and see that the GPU is running at 55 to 73%, but this was running at 95 to 99% when my fps were good.

Would that mean the problem has something to do with my GPU?

 

[Case_]

Not really, no. You have very little data to draw any real conclusions. If anything, it kinda sounds like an issue with your CPU - overheating or something. Possibly even some kind of virus/malware slowing your CPU down randomly. Or even some legit software. Hard to say.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Hi Martin, thanks for your reply.
Re virus/malware or other software, I am checking in the Task Manager very frequently and there don't seem to be any unusual demands being made of RAM or te CPU.
How would you check for virus/malware or other software being the culprit?
Should I just run Malwarebytes?

 

[Jempy]

Strange anyway .... as nearly at the same time there are 2 rather different problems but with similar results just after a session without any problem.

Have a look at this recent thread

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Strange anyway .... as nearly at the same time there are 2 rather different problems but with similar results just after a session without any problem.

Have a look at this recent thread

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll have a look.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

So I think I've fixed this problem.

I thought about why (when the fps were low) was a race taking so long to load. That made me wonder if the problem had something to do with the disk. So I installed a second instance of AC on my other hard disk (the non SSD hard disk).

That seems to have fixed it. I'm now up at 100fps which is not quite what I was getting on the solid state disk version when things were good (110 fps maybe).

Fixed! (spent over 18 hours on this in the last couple of days though)

To check if the problem had come from just needing a clean install of AC, I installed another instance of AC on the SSD. And the problem came back. So this does seem to have something to do with the SSD.

Anyone got a clue what this problem could be? I haven't noticed any other SSD-type problems happening though - programs open up nice n fast, I don't seem to have problems saving files and so on.

 

[MrBraindown]

Interesting solution, I’m going to give that a try!

I ran a couple of VR races last night and it behaved itself. Happy days, but I know the problem is just going to resurface soon.