Upgraded from GTX780 to GTX980 - Comments

[mr71mb0]

Hi,

Just in case this is of any interest to anyone thinking of doing the same.

I started out with the DK2 using a GTX780. Elite (through the various P Beta, Beta & Gamma) versions the performance has been pretty similar with full settings resulting in frame drop round stations to the point where LP mode gets turned off and you get significant judder, which breaks the immersion.

To combat this I was dropping detail down to low. But with the Candy off and especially shadows to low / med it found that broke some of the immersion too. Also you'd still get frame drops round Asteroid belts and stations.

When the Beta update (I think Beta 2, but can't remember) came out that included the Oculus Quality settings, I used to up the ingame detail and drop the Oculus Quality settings 3 or 4 points from max. This obviously had a great improvement on FPS and I could set max detail on everything bar the shadows, which I kept to Medium (but this still gave the cockpit self shadowing so I was more than happy). The visual impact of reducing the Oculus Quality slider was bothersome though, more aliasing, and txt was near unreadable, but I found it the best compromise (with a bit of leaning forward to read panels).

Now, putting a 980 in, it's transformed it all. I've set details to max (shadows still medium) but now I have the Oculus Quality slider all the way up. It's Sooooo smooth, FPS never seems to dip below the magic 75fps. No judder in stations or approaching the opening, like I used to get. Also the textures seem to load in much quicker when you start.

Anyone looking to make what doesn't seem to be a huge upgrade from a 780 to a 980, I can say it makes all the diff.

 

[jabokai]

I have a GTX 980 (OC 1.5Ghz) and have all settings max except AA set to OFF and the Oculus quality slider set halfway plus 1 click. I had to turn this down to achieve 75fps in stations. I'm using a resolution of 2560x1440 - I found this to be preferable to 1920x1080 with the Oculus quality slider set to max.

I still get micro-stuttering but it's not related to GPU power I don't think, as it never seems to be struggling for breath - just the game I guess.

 

[mr71mb0]

Do you even find AA makes a diff in ED? Doesn't matter what setting I use, it never looks like it works anyway, on Oculus or direct on monitor.

 

[jabokai]

With my old PC I used to use AA on a monitor and if definitely helped. However, since getting the 980 I use DSR as it produces much better results than AA, IMHO... both on the Rift and on a normal monitor.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I ordered a 980 on friday (black friday scan deal). Alas it has still not shipped yet, apparently they got swamped and are struggling to get stock out.

but this is all good to hear. 1st thing I will be doing is trying to get the boost up to 1.5ghz and the memory up to 7.5 or 8ghz

it will be cutting it fine but I am hoping this card will even be ok running CV1.

 

[mr71mb0]

I ordered a 980 on friday (black friday scan deal). Alas it has still not shipped yet, apparently they got swamped and are struggling to get stock out.

but this is all good to hear. 1st thing I will be doing is trying to get the boost up to 1.5ghz and the memory up to 7.5 or 8ghz

it will be cutting it fine but I am hoping this card will even be ok running CV1.

I hope it will be. If not then hopefully by then, Nvidia will have VR-SLI working and adding a second card will be an option.

 

[Foxis]

I have a GTX 980 (OC 1.5Ghz) and have all settings max except AA set to OFF and the Oculus quality slider set halfway plus 1 click. I had to turn this down to achieve 75fps in stations. I'm using a resolution of 2560x1440 - I found this to be preferable to 1920x1080 with the Oculus quality slider set to max.

Interesting! I experimented with this last night (also with a 980) and my conclusion was that supersampling to 1440p and lowering the Oculus Quality slider left me with the same result as just sticking with 1080p in the first place. Granted I did not spend too much time comparing, but that was my first impression.

From what I have read, the Oculus slider in ED simply lowers the internal render resolution, so in the case of supersampling with a lowered value on the Oculus Quality slider what happens is:
- you set the GPU target resolution to 1440p
- lower Oculus Quality = ED renders at a lower resolution
- ED upscales render to 1440p
- GPU downscales to Rift native 1080p again.

Is it not better to just stick with 1080p then....?
Or is there something else going on I am missing...?

 

[Psycho Fox]

Hi, does anyone know whether the R9 290X copes with the demands of an Occulus Rift? I would rather not buy another graphics card.. Ta!

 

[jabokai]

Or is there something else going on I am missing...?

I honestly have no idea of the ins and outs and had no clue that the quality slider was doing that!

From memory, my primary impression on the difference was that there was less shimmering/fizz around text. The view out of the cockpit seemed little different between 1440/0.6 OR quality and 1080/full OR quality... but I will try again tonight and see if I can perceive anything else going on! It may all have been my imagination, or even the position of the Rift on my face!

 

[rennarda]

Do you even find AA makes a diff in ED? Doesn't matter what setting I use, it never looks like it works anyway, on Oculus or direct on monitor.

Definitely. It improves the look of distant objects a lot - so for instance, a station in the middle distance. With AA off you get chunks and blocks appearing and disappearing as various details are rendered or not. With AA on, it all gets smoothed out a lot more, and looks more natural (although, you'll always get the screen door effect).

Just park a few km from a station and experiment turning it on and off (you have to back right out of the pause menu to see the full effect). Works for me.

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Hi, does anyone know whether the R9 290X copes with the demands of an Occulus Rift? I would rather not buy another graphics card.. Ta!

I have the 270 and it's copes well if you spend some time tweaking - have a look in the 'Rift settings' thread for my post - I have everything High, and quality about 9/10s of the way up.

I considered getting the best card I can right now, but decided it's better to wait for the consumer Rift, and get the best card to drive it then. I suspect we'll see Rift specific card features too.

 

[Psycho Fox]

Definitely. It improves the look of distant objects a lot - so for instance, a station in the middle distance. With AA off you get chunks and blocks appearing and disappearing as various details are rendered or not. With AA on, it all gets smoothed out a lot more, and looks more natural (although, you'll always get the screen door effect).

Just park a few km from a station and experiment turning it on and off (you have to back right out of the pause menu to see the full effect). Works for me.

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I have the 270 and it's copes well if you spend some time tweaking - have a look in the 'Rift settings' thread for my post - I have everything High, and quality about 9/10s of the way up.

I considered getting the best card I can right now, but decided it's better to wait for the consumer Rift, and get the best card to drive it then. I suspect we'll see Rift specific card features too.

Ok thanks, Rennarda will do

 

[Foxis]

I honestly have no idea of the ins and outs and had no clue that the quality slider was doing that!

From memory, my primary impression on the difference was that there was less shimmering/fizz around text. The view out of the cockpit seemed little different between 1440/0.6 OR quality and 1080/full OR quality... but I will try again tonight and see if I can perceive anything else going on! It may all have been my imagination, or even the position of the Rift on my face!

The comparisons are not that easy, it is easy to have the mind playing tricks on you.
My first impression of the supersampling was that it improved the text a lot, it was superior. But I got sever judder in the stations. So the next thing I did was lower things and came to the conclusion that with everything on low and shadows off I could run it with the Oculus slider at full. However, that looked bad (no shadows and low AO looks a bit bland).
The next thing I did was try the Oculus slider and lowering that allows running with options maxed out (as you wrote). I then took a look at the text and went "hmm...did it not get worse again...?". I then upped the Oculus quality again and indeed, it does make a difference with the text.

I too have to experiment more. I also have to try overclocking the 980, it is still in stock mode. Please let us know how you get on, this is an interesting topic.

 

[DaHunn]

hard to believe, the change from 780 to 980 is about 10% in fps,
I have a 780 ti and frame rates on 5760x1920 hardly ever drops below 60, even in stations with gamma 1.04.
In beta it did drop to about 40 or 30 in stations. Everything maxed out.

 

[jabokai]

hard to believe, the change from 780 to 980 is about 10% in fps,
I have a 780 ti and frame rates on 5760x1920 hardly ever drops below 60, even in stations with gamma 1.04.
In beta it did drop to about 40 or 30 in stations. Everything maxed out.

We are in the VR forum here so the 75fps is the minimum and is vsynced.

 

[brumster]

Hi, does anyone know whether the R9 290X copes with the demands of an Occulus Rift? I would rather not buy another graphics card.. Ta!

Put it like this, I play on a DK2 on an R9 280X and it's perfectly playable. It might not be 75fps everywhere (certainly not in stations), but out in space/combat it's great. So I would think a 290X would be perfectly playable. Again, I wouldn't want to commit to 75fps in a space station with max details on, but realistically you don't need that responsiveness so much in-station, and it will certainly be playable (ie 25fps+).

 

[freehotdawgs]

I upgraded from a 670 to the 980 and I went from all the settings on mid/low with stuttering in stations no matter what to all settings on max except for AA (which I set to smaa and blur to off since it's pointless in VR) at a rock solid 75fps all the time, even in stations. The only time there is stuttering it's from the netcode, or bugs, or something software related for a second or two sometimes.
I'm using an overclocked i7 3770k and 16gb ram.

 

[tommywright]

It's strange becaue 2x780s should outperform 1x980. I have 2x780s and I can't run anything at "high" in the DK2 without frame drop. Must be a driver issue.

Have you guys tried running the 980 supersampled? It makes a big difference for me but I'm not using any AA. To be honest, I don't see any difference when switching around AA or even turning it off but this supersampling thing works great...

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2cnas5/supersampling_the_dk2_2560x1440_in_elite_dangerous/

Let me know if there is a hit on performance if one of you 980 guys try this out.

*Edit
After reading more about the 980, this nvidia article is basically saying the Maxwell GPU is made for VR! Maybe the 980 being a Maxwell is that much better?
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/ar...us-the-only-choice-for-virtual-reality-gaming

 

[Foxis]

It's strange becaue 2x780s should outperform 1x980. I have 2x780s and I can't run anything at "high" in the DK2 without frame drop. Must be a driver issue.

One 980 will beat 2x780 right now. It will also beat 2x980. The reason is that SLI at the moment does not work well for VR, it introduces latency and stutter. Apparently VR drivers are in the works which will enable VR-focused SLI where each card will take responsibility for one eye and these will be kept in sync with minimal latency. When this happens, supersampling should not be a problem with two modern cards.

 

[jabokai]

The comparisons are not that easy, it is easy to have the mind playing tricks on you.
My first impression of the supersampling was that it improved the text a lot, it was superior. But I got sever judder in the stations. So the next thing I did was lower things and came to the conclusion that with everything on low and shadows off I could run it with the Oculus slider at full. However, that looked bad (no shadows and low AO looks a bit bland).
The next thing I did was try the Oculus slider and lowering that allows running with options maxed out (as you wrote). I then took a look at the text and went "hmm...did it not get worse again...?". I then upped the Oculus quality again and indeed, it does make a difference with the text.

I too have to experiment more. I also have to try overclocking the 980, it is still in stock mode. Please let us know how you get on, this is an interesting topic.

Okay, experimented more last night and here are my (highly subjective no doubt) findings...

Scenes - Inside Jameson Memorial hangar, on the launch pad of said station, outside in the middle of the station under the rotating bits looking back, further out from the station looking back at a 45 degree rear angle.

Settings - 3840x2160, quality slider set to minimum. 1920x1080, quality slider set to maximum. 2560x1440, quality slider set halfway. Blur and AA off, everything else set to max.

All the above gave me a "stable" 75 fps in all scenarios except the degree of stuttering (despite the card not being maxed out) was greater with the higher DSR resolutions.

So my personal views on the above is that the DSR settings gave less sparkle, particularly in the rear 45 degree view and inside the station... basically distant objects are "better" because they don't twinkle so much. The 1080p setting with max quality was sharper, but more sparkly... quite a lot more so in the scenes I just mentioned. The "compromise" setting was just that - something in between. Memory use on higher resolutions was much greater, perhaps contributing to the stutter where fps drops 1 - 3 for no apparent reason. Whatever sort of resolution reduction voodoo the quality slider uses it doesn't seem to be so memory intensive and results in less stutter (and less quality IMHO).

Although the sparkliness of 1080p/max quality is annoying I've settled on that for now as the stuttering is markedly less and it's way more irritating than anything else.

I also played with AA but couldn't really discern much difference although I left it on in the end so maybe my subconscious picked up on it! It didn't impact frame rates.

My current 980 OC settings are no change voltage, 115% power, +225 core, +450 memory.

 

[JMC002]

I finally caved and preordered a 980.