HUGE drop in fps after crash + constant crashes at dark settlements....

[Rogue 23SOC]

Ok before I drop a bug report, I thought I'd just chuck this one out there incase I've missed something....

So lets start with the fps drop. When I say huge fps drop, I mean around 50%. I've gone from a steady 144 in space to struggling to keep 70, and on foot a steady 80 to barely touching 35. And this happened directly after my first crash to desktop of the night. Logging back in I noticed huge stuttering and the fps drop, also cpu(Ryzen5600x) usage was up 20% over normal and same goes for my gpu(5700xt) usage. Temps on the cpu obviously had also risen from 65-70 degrees to close to hitting 85 at some points. Ok so lower the the graphics and see if that made a difference? Nope it didn't, dropped it all the way to low quality with no change in fps or cpu usage or temps. Ok so it's a problem with my system? Elite can't be using 50% of my cpu alone on low settings? Open up task manager, and there sit Elite at the top of the list using 47%. Now to me that seems very high, but then I'm not overly wise when it comes to things like this, so what do you guys think?
So I shut down Elite and fire up cinebench to see if I and crash the system outside of Elite confirming my system is at fault. But cinebench ran for 15 minutes, maybe too long but I sat there ready to quite if it got too hot before it crashed. But there wasn't a crash, temp stayed between 75 and 80 the whole test. Also ran a couple of other games like War Thunder and EFT with no problems.

Next up is crashes. I had 6 crashes to desktop tonight, trying to do restore power missions, all happening while trying to disembark. 1 at a settlement in day light, which worked after a relog with the fps drop. The other 5 at a dark settlement, at which point I rage quit and came to you guys. Could the crashes be related to the star system I'm in (29 e Orionis)? I've heard that, that is actually a thing Elite. Or could it be related to my fps drop and my pc, even though I put it through a cinebench wringer?

It's now 1:20am and I'm done. Any help, pointers or things to try, I'm all ears. Use laymen's terms though, I'm only a mechanic and I'll get on it tomorrow after work.

Thanks guys.

 

[Morbad]

Elite can't be using 50% of my cpu alone on low settings? Open up task manager, and there sit Elite at the top of the list using 47%. Now to me that seems very high, but then I'm not overly wise when it comes to things like this, so what do you guys think?

There are virtually no setting in the menus that have a direct impact on CPU usage and if you were GPU limited before, reducing quality settings will increase CPU utilization along with frame rate. So, nothing abnormal here.

So I shut down Elite and fire up cinebench to see if I and crash the system outside of Elite confirming my system is at fault. But cinebench ran for 15 minutes, maybe too long but I sat there ready to quite if it got too hot before it crashed. But there wasn't a crash, temp stayed between 75 and 80 the whole test. Also ran a couple of other games like War Thunder and EFT with no problems.

This suggests that the performance problem in Elite is with corrupt game options/caches.

Try the following:

• In the AMD Settings application find "Graphics", scroll down to the "advanced" menu, expand that, and click "perform reset" on "reset shader cache".
• In the directory where the main game product is installed (search for EliteDangerous64.exe if in doubt) find "GPUWorkTable.xml" (just searching for this will probably work as well) and delete it (only that specific .xml file, nothing else).
• Also delete the entire contents of game's display option directory ("%LocalAppData%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\") then manually reconfigure the game's display and graphics options next time you launch it, then restart the game again.

See if that addresses the performance issue.

Next up is crashes. I had 6 crashes to desktop tonight, trying to do restore power missions, all happening while trying to disembark. 1 at a settlement in day light, which worked after a relog with the fps drop. The other 5 at a dark settlement, at which point I rage quit and came to you guys. Could the crashes be related to the star system I'm in (29 e Orionis)? I've heard that, that is actually a thing Elite. Or could it be related to my fps drop and my pc, even though I put it through a cinebench wringer?

If the above restores performance, it's likely that the same corrupt settings were responsible for some of those crashes. However, this does not explain the initial crash to desktop and Cinebench is hardly a comprehensive stability test. It's entirely possible that there is some underlying instability in the system that was only revealed by Elite. At the very least I'd make sure the system was capable of running a few loops of 3DMark Time Spy (the free test is fine) and passing a couple hours of y-cruncher's component stress tester, without error.

 

[Fixitman]

I'm "only" a mechanic as well

I've been working with computers as a hobby for close to 30 years now. It drives the guys at work nuts when I start talking about all the "complicated" stuff I fool around with.

I suggest you follow what Morbad has suggested. Morbad is the guru here when it comes to this stuff IMO.

I'd also suggest you verify your game files via the launcher, just in case. It might have been coincidence, but doing that has appeared to help me in the past.

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

There are virtually no setting in the menus that have a direct impact on CPU usage and if you were GPU limited before, reducing quality settings will increase CPU utilization along with frame rate. So, nothing abnormal here.



This suggests that the performance problem in Elite is with corrupt game options/caches.

Try the following:

• In the AMD Settings application find "Graphics", scroll down to the "advanced" menu, expand that, and click "perform reset" on "reset shader cache".
• In the directory where the main game product is installed (search for EliteDangerous64.exe if in doubt) find "GPUWorkTable.xml" (just searching for this will probably work as well) and delete it (only that specific .xml file, nothing else).
• Also delete the entire contents of game's display option directory ("%LocalAppData%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\") then manually reconfigure the game's display and graphics options next time you launch it, then restart the game again.

See if that addresses the performance issue.



If the above restores performance, it's likely that the same corrupt settings were responsible for some of those crashes. However, this does not explain the initial crash to desktop and Cinebench is hardly a comprehensive stability test. It's entirely possible that there is some underlying instability in the system that was only revealed by Elite. At the very least I'd make sure the system was capable of running a few loops of 3DMark Time Spy (the free test is fine) and passing a couple hours of y-cruncher's component stress tester, without error.

Thanks for the advice fella. Here's a update of tonight's fun and games.

I've done all the resets and file deletion you suggested. And it brought down the cpu usage 20%-25% and temps 65-70 degrees. levels they were before the crash. And maybe it's highlighted a problem with the gpu. Because now the gpu usage is fluctuating between 5% and 60% with fps averaging 25-30.

Tomorrow I'll put the system through the stress tests you've mention and see how it goes. I'll update again tomorrow night.

Again. Thanks fella.

 

[Morbad]

I've done all the resets and file deletion you suggested. And it brought down the cpu usage 20%-25% and temps 65-70 degrees. levels they were before the crash.

What does per-core CPU utilization look like?

And maybe it's highlighted a problem with the gpu. Because now the gpu usage is fluctuating between 5% and 60% with fps averaging 25-30.

Something odd is definitely going on here. Assuming you've played enough for shaders to be regenerated, low GPU utilization should only be occurring if you're running a frame rate cap of some sort, the card is running out of memory, or the CPU (or memory subsystem) can't keep up.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

any mem munch unrecognised apps snuck onto the task manager details tab?
as for the disembark crashes that could be just severs not chatting to each other very well pending current system

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

What does per-core CPU utilization look like?

Sorry that was my bad grammar. The CPU utilization has gone back down to 20-25%, from the 45-50% I had after the crash.

Something odd is definitely going on here. Assuming you've played enough for shaders to be regenerated, low GPU utilization should only be occurring if you're running a frame rate cap of some sort, the card is running out of memory, or the CPU (or memory subsystem) can't keep up.

I played for about 45 minutes to an hour before I gave up on it last night. I'm not running any fps cap or v sync.

I have run 3Dmark Time spy a few times and to me the results seem ok. No hiccups or problems I can see. Included screenshots for you to check.

y-cruncher I'm a bit scared to use, I ran the stress test and temps went upto 75- 80 degrees for the first 2 parts of the test, when it started the 3rd it went almost straight to 95 degrees and sat there. So I closed y-cruncher before I killed my cpu.

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

as for the disembark crashes that could be just severs not chatting to each other very well pending current system

Thats what I was thinking, but then with the fps drop happening at the same time got me second guessing. And need to sort that out before I can go in and retry the crashes.

any mem munch unrecognised apps snuck onto the task manager details tab?

Task manager was the first place I checked. Nothing wrong there.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

if it where me id test again on an older gpu driver as part of my process of elimination

 

[Morbad]

Sorry that was my bad grammar. The CPU utilization has gone back down to 20-25%, from the 45-50% I had after the crash.

I get that.

The utilization figure you're reporting is the total CPU usage. Knowing the utilization of each core is much more relevant for identifying a CPU bottleneck.

I played for about 45 minutes to an hour before I gave up on it last night. I'm not running any fps cap or v sync.

If you've verified game files and CPU utilization isn't an issue, I'm at a loss as to where the problem is.

I have run 3Dmark Time spy a few times and to me the results seem ok. No hiccups or problems I can see. Included screenshots for you to check.

y-cruncher I'm a bit scared to use, I ran the stress test and temps went upto 75- 80 degrees for the first 2 parts of the test, when it started the 3rd it went almost straight to 95 degrees and sat there. So I closed y-cruncher before I killed my cpu.

3DMark looks fine.

y-cruncher isn't going to kill your CPU unless you've disabled all of your temperature and power limiters then run it for protracted periods of time. 95C is where a 5600X should sit at maximum load.

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

The utilization figure you're reporting is the total CPU usage. Knowing the utilization of each core is much more relevant for identifying a CPU bottleneck.

Ok understood. So last night I recorded a couple of clips in different situations with rivatuner running. In one clip the overall usage went up to 50+%, but cores 1&2 stayed low and the others went quite high too. Also included a warthunder clip showing everything behaving. They are chaptered so you don't have to watch the whole thing.

Source: https://youtu.be/3P63Pjc0oEQ

If you've verified game files and CPU utilization isn't an issue, I'm at a loss as to where the problem is.

I've verified the game files before and after the update. I'm thinking maybe try a clean install of elite?

y-cruncher isn't going to kill your CPU unless you've disabled all of your temperature and power limiters then run it for protracted periods of time. 95C is where a 5600X should sit at maximum load.

Ok I'll give it another run.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

wow that is bad I have an old GTX nvidia 970 that out performs that 1920x1080
send a dx diag to support see what they say did you try an older driver too
hope you root out the cause...….
just using the launcher validate files should be enough usually the game wont work at all with files missing anyhoot
another thing to try is disable/renable any game record software it has beern kown to cause stutters fps drops in past so rule that out too

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

I know my old 1060ti done better than this! Something has seriously screwed up. And ever since the first crash.

try an older driver too

I've gone back on drivers as far back as a year ago and it's still the same.

send a dx diag to support see what they say

Dumb question. How do I get a dx diag?

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

type dxdiag in pc start

 

[Fnord Velkor]

type dxdiag in pc start

Or (since they mucked about with the desktop) - click WIN+R and type dxdiag in the "Open" box.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

running ddu(3rd party) between driver installs may help
I also like to disable card from sys with driver removed (device manager)
boot pc which will boot to a safe mode low res generic display
then reinstall latest driver package and renable card
so everything is fresh irq reg entries ect
(game record software removed and gpu monitors )
which may seem excessive but I have my reasons as the game is supposed to run fine without them
which is a back to basics aproach
when retrying also try full screen vs borderless in game gfx options
(elite is a strange beastie it pushes gpu's in ways other games cannot reach)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-VUlXl0wUQ&ab_channel=TheHallofAdvertising

good luck!

 

[Morbad]

Ok understood. So last night I recorded a couple of clips in different situations with rivatuner running. In one clip the overall usage went up to 50+%, but cores 1&2 stayed low and the others went quite high too. Also included a warthunder clip showing everything behaving. They are chaptered so you don't have to watch the whole thing.

GPU utilization being very low while every core is frequently below 50% is very odd and should only happen with major driver issues (not necessarily GPU), or an extreme system memory performance bottleneck. The Cyclops fight looks almost normal, but it's hard to tell with only physical cores shown. War Thunder has a frame rate cap at 144, but otherwise looks normal.

What else is running while playing? Can you show a process list with something like Process Explorer?

I've verified the game files before and after the update. I'm thinking maybe try a clean install of elite?

If the options folder was deleted and the game files verified, reinstalling isn't likely to do anything, but it might be worth a shot, if all else fails.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bNLCWHFNs&ab_channel=ProfessorK

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

running ddu(3rd party) between driver installs may help

I always run ddu when updating my gpu.

What else is running while playing? Can you show a process list with something like Process Explorer?

Other things running while Elite is on are things like Target for my sticks, EDMC, ED Discovery, Octopus and AI Track for head tracking, and EDHM-UI. I took a few screen shots with Process explorer running, Don't know if you can make more sense of them than I can.

Two thing I did notice though though...
1- When ever I open something over the top of Elite, the fps shot up to 130-140, the gpu usage leveled out to to around 40-50% and the game ran smooth in the background. Was it measuring everything on the screen, causing it to peak and level out? or still just measuring Elite?

2- In the last pic you can see on the top graph showing usage when I had something open on top of the game. But more importantly I think is the gpu memory is tanked out at nearly 8Gb, which is all the memory available on a 5700XT. So is that my bottleneck? If so then I need to find out what's causing it.

Thanks for your time and help fella.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

nothing really jumps out at me target gui maybe plus a few uncerted apps there
so kill em they will always reload next boot (bare bone it can reveal things)
my next step would be rma even though it works (intermediate random crashing works a treat)
see what morbad says though hes top guru round here