PC1 Horrible optimization?

Richard Eriksson · May 14, 2015

Ok, so i've been a long time Team Member and today used my discount and got the release version...

To my horror the horrible optimization is still there.

My GPU sits at 55% usage at the start of the race some times, with CPU load around 80% max, but framerate takes a dive into low 40s...

Something is stalling in the rendering still.

And still, if you add rain, it kills performance without taxing the GPU, something is wrong in the code. Been like this for at least a year now. Still there in release.

Too bad.

Hardware:
GTX 980 SuperClock 1342MHz. 4Gb. VRAM
16Gb. RAM
CPU@4.2 GHz. 4 core

Problem is worse on some tracks, Spa being a notorious problem maker.

Changing settings does little, as you would expect, since both GPU and CPU is underutilized.

Don't go for screenshot quality for PR, if you can't code the damn thing to run properly in motion.

As for the feel of the sim itself, it's still only so-so, but the immersion is nice. Shame it has problems still.

Any ideas on settings?

Else i'll wait, like i've done since being one of the first sponsors on WMD... Because it still feels unfinished.

Rob Simms · May 17, 2015

Most games on high and ultra have no significant visual difference between the settings. Everything doesn't need to be on ultra.

Vladimir Antic · May 17, 2015

Richard Eriksson said:
Specs on your setup?

I have an i5@4.2 and 970gtx.

You really dont have to do al those tests, the game looks similiar on al settings, check this comparison and see.

Galin Dimov · May 17, 2015

I am experiencing big FPS drops but only during MP. With 20 AI, I have no problems but even with 10 players online, the performance is horrible.
970GTX

Any ideas?

Richard Eriksson · May 17, 2015

@Vladimir Antic, yeah i know... It looks good on lower settings as well. So yeah, you can still enjoy it, but the topic is more to highlight possible technicl issues in the game engine...

Vladimir Antic · May 17, 2015

ok, sure. From what I have seen its well optimized.

Richard Eriksson · May 18, 2015

William Wester said:
@Richard Eriksson, here you go. Talking about optimization, I have had more problems with rFactor 2 than any of my other sims, Project CARS included. But, after trying different settings I have rFactor 2 looking good enough. Each sim has one or two settings that can drain performance, most of the time related to shadows or reflections. pCARS doesn't need every setting at Full/Ultra to look good.
I have also included my nVidia Inspector settings for Project CARS but I don't think I changed much at this point in time.
View attachment 93075

View attachment 93076

Tried these settings.

I still get some drops below 60fps with only 19 AI starting from the back on Le Mans for instance.

Interesting thing, setting all graphics to full on max except MSAA gives me around 41 fps, but GPU is only used to 68%

With your settings, GPU usage is only 54% but still drops in framerate.

CPU usages are high though, at around 85-88% on all cores.

Is some setting in visuals really CPU intensive? Seems like it. I mean with 50% use of the GPU only, you should not have rendering stalls (fps drops) unless you render something on the CPU...

Can someone with an actual I5 CPU tell me some usage numbers, like in above scenario (19 AI, start at the back, thunderstorm, le mans)?

And for the record, i enjoy the game, very much. But being a software developer, i tend to focus on the game engines a lot

UPDATE:

Seem to have found some oddity... Changing the particle density to higher values leads to LESS cpu congestion. So i seem to have found a sweet spot for my hardware, that seems to alleviate some of the FPS drops.

But still... Only 50-55% GPU usage but still sometimes close to 60FPS. limit.

Seems like rendering is done partly on the CPU, and on multiple threads. Makes sense in a console view, as consoles have limited GPUs, but nowadays many threading cores...

townnet · May 18, 2015

Track detail low ~ ultra graphically they are same, but i found that Track Detail at low setting have object pop up issue, Ultra setting no pop up issue.

Andy_J · May 18, 2015

Has anybody seen the technical issues thread on the Pcars forum?

It's unbelievable that all those 80,000 investors didn't pick out the bugs and get the devs to fix them during the extended pre alpha/beta era. Amazing.

Anthony Hodges · May 19, 2015

Could it be your cpu is bottlenecking your gpu? Recommended specs are i7 3700. Your i5 could be holding you back.

http://www.projectcarsgame.com/faq.html

Ace King · May 19, 2015

His CPU is probably the bottleneck.

Ace King · May 19, 2015

Galin Dimov said:
I am experiencing big FPS drops but only during MP. With 20 AI, I have no problems but even with 10 players online, the performance is horrible.
970GTX

Any ideas?

I use a MSI GTX-970 & AMD Phenom 965 (3.8 Ghz-overclock) with 32 AI or 32 humans and it's been running great.

Anthony Hodges · May 19, 2015

You could ask an i7 user to turn off multithreading and see what happens. I think the only real difference between the i5 and i7 is multithreading right?

gamer19 · May 19, 2015

I said it before and I said it again, you can't really test it this way, some of you give all the data but don't write on which track it's been tested. There's a HUGE difference (and I don't think it's up to me) for different tracks in Pcars, which is really sad.

For instance - try max settings+night race 20 or more grid+thunderstorm on Monza then on that (fake) Suzuka, Sakitto that's it. Or... Willow Springs vs Oschersleben, Donnington vs Le Man. That's some from the top of my head.
My game even crashes on some, I guess, most demanding tracks like Spa, Nordschleife, or that (once again) fake Monaco - Azzure. But ok I got, for now, minimum required GPU.

Haven't notice this at ANY other game, as much at this one, that quality and frames per second differs from one to another tracks. Sadly.
Optimisation or something else... don't have a clue. I'm not an expert at this field.

Ace King · May 20, 2015

Tracks with more eye candy will be more fps intensive and i have also experienced this in AC. Though the better your GPU the less difference your fps impact between different tracks.

Richard Eriksson · May 20, 2015

Ace King said:
His CPU is probably the bottleneck.

Maybe. But is it reasonable to have the game rendering affected on a CPU that runs 4 real cores at 4.2 GHz. ? No. That is just poor code tbh. At that processing power you could run proper dynamics sims and what not but not a game? So if a CPU like mine is not enough to run the render loops then the programmers responsible should take a course in optimization asap.

And yes, the only difference from an I7 is virtual threads as the I7 also has 4 cores except the very latest ones that have 6. So in terms of speed my CPU destroys a contemporary I7 in pure core speed.

But apperantly this title is coded to thread on lower speed virtual threads, like for consoles with less power but more cores (8 in PS4 for instance)

As a reference to a different recent engine i tried The Witcher 3 on my rig. Has vegetation and hair dynamics and graphical candy superior to pCars and a huge render distance putting strain on the render loop. Probably the most visually and logically computation intensive title in recent years. Yet it is flawless 60fps at ultra.

That is the difference in optimization for you.

Still, pCars i great fun despite of the technical flaws. A bit like ARMA-series to me in that regard.

Played a bit of the carreer and it is a well structured single player experience.

Richard Eriksson · May 20, 2015

Anthony Hodges said:
Could it be your cpu is bottlenecking your gpu? Recommended specs are i7 3700. Your i5 could be holding you back.

http://www.projectcarsgame.com/faq.html

See my post above. At my current core speeds i have more throughput than on a friends standard I7. I can easily bring the GPU to 100% usage in other titles if i turn off VSync etc. So no throughput issues i guess.

Anthony Hodges · May 20, 2015

If the game supports Hyper Threading the i7 will be faster. 4 cores at 4.2 would not be faster than 8 cores at 3.8.

The above is only true to games that are programmed to use HT.

I'm sure the game will become more optimized after a few patches.

M Theory · May 20, 2015

Richard Eriksson said:
Ok, so i've been a long time Team Member and today used my discount and got the release version...

To my horror the horrible optimization is still there.

My GPU sits at 55% usage at the start of the race some times, with CPU load around 80% max, but framerate takes a dive into low 40s...

Something is stalling in the rendering still.

And still, if you add rain, it kills performance without taxing the GPU, something is wrong in the code. Been like this for at least a year now. Still there in release.

Too bad.

Hardware:
GTX 980 SuperClock 1342MHz. 4Gb. VRAM
16Gb. RAM
CPU@4.2 GHz. 4 core

Problem is worse on some tracks, Spa being a notorious problem maker.

Changing settings does little, as you would expect, since both GPU and CPU is underutilized.

Don't go for screenshot quality for PR, if you can't code the damn thing to run properly in motion.

As for the feel of the sim itself, it's still only so-so, but the immersion is nice. Shame it has problems still.

Any ideas on settings?

Else i'll wait, like i've done since being one of the first sponsors on WMD... Because it still feels unfinished.

Frame rate, especially at Spa, drops on the XBox One as well. The problem is in the code - i.e. not release ready.

gamer19 · May 20, 2015

Ace King said:
Tracks with more eye candy will be more fps intensive and i have also experienced this in AC. Though the better your GPU the less difference your fps impact between different tracks.

I also rely on that. I'm planing to buy second hand GTX 770 (now I have 260

) and I really hope that this difference will become much smaller. Processor is ok, I believe it's the same as this thread starter have.
But I can't really agree with you regarding the same issue in Assetto Corsa. I never really notice this disbalance. I mean... isn't "the Ring" one of those "most demanding" tracks ? It is imho and it's the biggest one, just over 1G in size. Result ? Smooth as silk. Now... that's a good coding. Or whatever it is...

Ace King · May 21, 2015

All the tracks in AC & Pcars are as smooth as silk even though the fps can be quite different between some tracks.
I think Pcars has good optimization since i can race against 32 AI or humans with night conditions with rain and thunderstorms and it will still be smooth as silk.

Richard Eriksson : I find it strange that i'am only using a AMD Phenom 965 (overclock to 3.8 Ghz) with a MSI GTX-970 and i can run this game as i stated above and you have these issues! Don't forget the motherboard, memory and power supply play a big role to ensure everything works at it's best.

Perhaps Pcars will improve their optimization further to help those who have these issues.