Low Frame-Rate with GTX1080 + i7 6700 + HTC Vive

[SDSUsnowboards]

Low Frame-Rate with GTX1080 + i7 6700 + HTC Vive [SOLVED]

System:
MSI M3 Gaming Motherboard
Intel i7 6700k
EVGA GTX 1080 SC
16gb DDR4 Ripjaw
EVGA Supernova 850W B2
Windows and Elite dangerous running on a solid state drive.
Windows 7

VR:
HTC Vive

Problem:
Elite dangerous judders at ANY setting, in VR. I would estimate the perceived frame-rate to be in the vicinity of 30fps, however I have verified that the game is in-fact running at an acceptable actual 70+ fps when I perceive judder.

Facts:
I last played Elite dangerous before 2.2, when I first obtained my 1080. It ran smoothly with some custom settings and Chaperone super sampling at 1.5.

I installed 2.2. I am playing without Horizons. I observed the problem described above.

I am obtaining the expected performance in other games for the most part--both VR and non-VR. It is only Elite Dangerous on which I am having this issue.

Using Afterburner, I see that the GPU is working at 99%, and the temperature is holding at 80c, in Elite Dangerous. My CPU cores vary between 40-60% with low temperatures.

Looking at the timing graph, I can see spikes elevated off the screen every few frames, and re-projection is on pretty much all the time.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Could anyone guide me through troubleshooting this? I feel like this is a problem with Elite Dangerous, and there are a small number of people reporting a similar or identical problem with the same GPU.


Things we have checked/done:
Super sampling settings are confirmed within ED & Steam
Video drivers up to date
Installed Steam VR Beta
Verified no background processes running using CPU and memory.
Verified Windows Update is not running/downloading.
Clean Installation of video drivers
Reinstalled windows
Reinstalled Elite Dangerous
Verified network performance
Disabled 'IR' in VR settings
Disables always-on reprojection
Install 375.70 drivers
Installed 368.25 drivers
Updated bios to most current
Turned off Intel Cstates.
De-clocked card to lower than stock clocks.
Vsyn off + forced off via control panel
Main screen window settings changed to lowest resolution and lowest refresh.
Windows power settings for max performance
GPU power settings for max performance
SS set to 1.0 and HDM quality set to 1.0


Things I need to try/check:

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Hmm, odd. Decent hardware like that should be pulling at least 50+fps in stations and

Make sure the new HMD Quality setting is at 1.0, and the Supersampling is also set at 1.0

Your video drivers are up to date, possibly a Vive driver glitch? There is a new Vive beta driver set which gives much better reprojection.

Also in 2.2, VR High previously became VR Medium, so even on the same settings as before, the frame rate will likely have dropped a bit.
But a 1080 should be fine. Mine is.

VR often shows lower GPU utilisation if you're not able to pump out frames quick enough. The card will get some time to 'rest' between frames if reprojection is running heavily.

 

[Globusdiablo]

...Could anyone guide me through troubleshooting this?...

I've read that some get there SS (super sampling) settings muddled for whatever reason. Double check in-game settings, and if you're using external SS as well, double check those too.

Good luck.

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

Hmm, odd. Decent hardware like that should be pulling at least 50+fps in stations and

Make sure the new HMD Quality setting is at 1.0, and the Supersampling is also set at 1.0

Your video drivers are up to date, possibly a Vive driver glitch? There is a new Vive beta driver set which gives much better reprojection.

Also in 2.2, VR High previously became VR Medium, so even on the same settings as before, the frame rate will likely have dropped a bit.
But a 1080 should be fine. Mine is.

VR often shows lower GPU utilisation if you're not able to pump out frames quick enough. The card will get some time to 'rest' between frames if reprojection is running heavily.

On your advice, I obtained the Steam VR Beta. I must admit, the reprojection does a fantastic job masking the low FPS, however the game is still unplayable, and I can tell it's still running at the same low FPS that it was at before. No actual improvement.

I've read that some get there SS (super sampling) settings muddled for whatever reason. Double check in-game settings, and if you're using external SS as well, double check those too.

Good luck.

I double checked the super sampling settings by observing the actual config file. The settings are proper.

I also checked the in-game settings and found the super sampling setting at 1.0. I did not see any setting for HMD quality.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

On your advice, I obtained the Steam VR Beta. I must admit, the reprojection does a fantastic job masking the low FPS, however the game is still unplayable, and I can tell it's still running at the same low FPS that it was at before. No actual improvement.




I double checked the super sampling settings by observing the actual config file. The settings are proper.

I also checked the in-game settings and found the super sampling setting at 1.0. I did not see any setting for HMD quality.

Hmm, very odd. Is the GPU overheating for some reason?
Can you pull one card just to fully disable SLI and see if that improves the frame rate?

 

[Globusdiablo]

Btw, FD have bumped up GPU requirements, so you shouldn't expect to run vr smoothly with the same settings as a couple of months ago.

Oh, and definitely disable sli.

 

[MikeMart]

Hi. I've got the same problem....I'm running a GTX 1080 G1 Gaming (GIGABYTE) and now the game is unplayable.... I'm near 30 fps even on VR low with Steam VR, and with SteamVR Beta, it's smoother but can't play correctly... what a disappointment !!!!!!! In order to hit 80 fps I must be in VR low and SS 0,5 and HMD quality 0,5, which is ridiculously unplayable.... I don't understand, before 2.2 I was able to play in VR High (which is now VR medium) with 90 fps, even pushing up some options....

How frustrating !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

 

[TorTorden_VR]

If steamvr and Vive can't get stable 90 fps, with enough headroom!. It will throttle to 45.
And it seems to be happier to do this with asynchronous reprojection.

The rift often reaches 90, but when I tested the vive and asynchronous reprojection it would NEVER go over 45 fps.
Not even in empty supercruise.

What however seems to kill performance for both though is network activity, a busy instance and it seems I can barely get 30 fps, with async that becomes a broken useless mess on either headset.
And this happen regardless of quality settings.

 

[MikeMart]

If steamvr and Vive can't get stable 90 fps, with enough headroom!. It will throttle to 45.
And it seems to be happier to do this with asynchronous reprojection.

The rift often reaches 90, but when I tested the vive and asynchronous reprojection it would NEVER go over 45 fps.
Not even in empty supercruise.

What however seems to kill performance for both though is network activity, a busy instance and it seems I can barely get 30 fps, with async that becomes a broken useless mess on either headset.
And this happen regardless of quality settings.

So you think it may be a server issue ? Indeed, when I'm in VR, opening the galaxy map is a torture (lasts maybe 30 sec to appear), and going to the main menu too.....actually even my SteamVR crashed yesterday...I hope we'll hear something from the dev team....at least that it's a known issue

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

Hmm, very odd. Is the GPU overheating for some reason?
Can you pull one card just to fully disable SLI and see if that improves the frame rate?

I am running a single gtx 1080. Per OP, temperature is holding at 70c.

Btw, FD have bumped up GPU requirements, so you shouldn't expect to run vr smoothly with the same settings as a couple of months ago.

Oh, and definitely disable sli.

It is not running smoothly with any setting. In fact, there is no perceptible difference in frame-rte between VR Ultra and VR Low.

If steamvr and Vive can't get stable 90 fps, with enough headroom!. It will throttle to 45.
And it seems to be happier to do this with asynchronous reprojection.

The rift often reaches 90, but when I tested the vive and asynchronous reprojection it would NEVER go over 45 fps.
Not even in empty supercruise.

What however seems to kill performance for both though is network activity, a busy instance and it seems I can barely get 30 fps, with async that becomes a broken useless mess on either headset.
And this happen regardless of quality settings.

Even if the Vive were throttling the frame-rate, I should be experiencing well over 90fps with VR Low. I do not believe this is a throttling issue.

Seems like you're on to something with network activity being the cause. I am curious how that works. Isn't the image being rendered from local data on my ssd?

 

[shadragon]

Time to look at other (Non-Elite) causes.

Are you running file sharing software like BitTorrent or streaming? Any high bandwidth applications running while playing. (CTRL + ALT + DEL then task manager will tell you what is eating up your CPU and MEM. Windows Updates? Someone streaming Netflix while you are playing? What is your modem and or router model?

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

Time to look at other (Non-Elite) causes.

Are you running file sharing software like BitTorrent or streaming? Any high bandwidth applications running while playing. (CTRL + ALT + DEL then task manager will tell you what is eating up your CPU and MEM. Windows Updates? Someone streaming Netflix while you are playing? What is your modem and or router model?

No BitTorrent or streaming services are running (or installed).

CTRL + ALT + Del shows no other processes using CPU. Lots of memory use, but I still have many GB's of memory free. I can't recall if pagefile memory was being used.

Windows update is disabled.

I live alone and, as far as I know, no one else has access to my wifi/internet. I periodically check my internet speed using speedtest, and I've never found evidence of my bandwidth being used by an unauthorized user. I didn't check it last night when I was attempting to play ED. I'll give it a try tonight and verify my bandwidth is OK.

I'll get back to you with modem/router information. It's the standard unit AT&T gives you with DSL--it is the same unit I was using when Elite Dangerous used to run acceptably.

 

[macvirii]

Having the same problem
EVGA 1080 FE (Tried overclocking to 2ghz boost)
I7 4770k @4.2ghz Watercooled
Windows 10

I was running ED with no retroprojection whatsoever, and now, even at vr low 1.0ss/1.0hmd still droping frames... lots of late start cpu on frame timing.
Honestly, I'll have to wait for a update to play... VR nNausea hitting hard even with steam beta and asynchronous projection.
Even overclocking the cpu and gpu no deal...
And I just bought some passenger cabins =(

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

Using display driver uninstaller caused my computer to enter into an infinite reboot process. As a result, I did a reformat and reinstall of Windows, and a clean installation of Elite Dangerous AND Windows 7 Ultimate.

I also verified I am not experiencing heavy network load.

The problem persists. Any other ideas?

 

[Kapow]

Using display driver uninstaller caused my computer to enter into an infinite reboot process. As a result, I did a reformat and reinstall of Windows, and a clean installation of Elite Dangerous AND Windows 7 Ultimate.

I also verified I am not experiencing heavy network load.

The problem persists. Any other ideas?

In Steam VR beta in the settings - are you running only one of the Reprojections? - In other words we now have Asynchronous reprojection and Inter.. Reprojection. If both reprojections are on it can cause issues in same cases and turning one off might help you solve the issue. Otherwise your issue seems rather system specific - Did you try to contact the Frontier Support with your DX file? Something is definatelly not right as the new version ED 2.2 didn't introduce any stutter to me or anybody I know on a scale you talk off

PS CTRL+F will show you the FPS running in ED. On my system with GTX 980ti I'm running mostly on high excluding shadows at medium and bloom with ambient off and super samplng 1.25 and HMD Quality at 1.25 and I get FPS 90 in space and around 60-80 in stations.

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

In Steam VR beta in the settings - are you running only one of the Reprojections? - In other words we now have Asynchronous reprojection and Inter.. Reprojection. If both reprojections are on it can cause issues in same cases and turning one off might help you solve the issue. Otherwise your issue seems rather system specific - Did you try to contact the Frontier Support with your DX file? Something is definatelly not right as the new version ED 2.2 didn't introduce any stutter to me or anybody I know on a scale you talk off

PS CTRL+F will show you the FPS running in ED. On my system with GTX 980ti I'm running mostly on high excluding shadows at medium and bloom with ambient off and super samplng 1.25 and HMD Quality at 1.25 and I get FPS 90 in space and around 60-80 in stations.

I have both boxed checked: AR and IR. I will disable IR and try again. I am hopeful this will work.

I recall an instance on the DK2 where the FPS were fine, but there was the perception of lost FPS because frames were being skipped for a software reason. Given that I see now difference in perceived FPS between VR low and VR Ultra, I feel like something similar is happening here.

 

[Padapolis]

I'm just throwing my hat into the "VR is terrible after 2.2" now.
I have a pair of 980ti cards (NOT IN SLI, come on FD let me use both cards!)

Before 2.2 I ran with custom settings mostly a mix of high and medium. Now after 2.2 even VR low is dropping frames everywhere, it's hard to play.

 

[Ermintrude]

Yeah, me too. AMD R9 Fury X with the Vive and I've got huge problems. My SRV got in a firefight at a surface base and frame rate was so low it became unplayable (5 fps) with brief freezes. It's jerky simply looking around the cockpit at a station, and motion sickness quickly kicks in. I used to happily play with default high VR settings, now I find it difficult to play at all, I can't find settings that work.

 

[Woodles]

OMG thank GOD I am not the only one!!!
Its really, really bad!! I used to run at literally every setting at max in Vive with not one problem. Ever. Until 2.2...
Now I have massive frame drops, constantly, at even the low settings. And my rig is even better than yours as I JUST built one:

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Edition 10
CPU: 8-Core Intel Core i7-6900K overclocked to 4.2GHz
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ 128GB DDR4 clocked at 3200MHZ 14-14-14-34
GPU: SLI (x2) EVGA GTX 1080 Founders Edition
HDD: Samsung 850 Evo 2TB SSD
Operating System: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition
GeForce Drivers: 375.70
Headset Media Device: HTC Vive

I have done every iteration of the VR graphics settings trying to fix it. I do not know what Frontier has done in 2.2 to cause this, but its unacceptable.
All I really play is this game, and now I can't despite a literally TOP of the top of the line gaming computer. I have done EXTENSIVE benchmarking and stability testing and proven THIS ONE GAME to be the only game with a problem.

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

OK, I disabled Interlaced Reprojection and experienced no improvement.
I used ctrl + f to view framerate and found that my framerate is an acceptable 60 fps in stations. I used to play on the DK2 which looked fluid at that frame rate, therefore I conclude low FPS is not the cause. Instead, it appears frames are being dropped.

I see that Nvidia just released a new driver: 375.70. I will install that and try again.

EDIT: An update to 375.70 drivers did not fix the issue.