ALT-TAB FPS drop - any reason?

Comandante

Comandante
Hi CMDRs,

sometimes in a station, I ALT-TAB to a browser to do some reading/checking up on things.

When I return to EDO, the FPS drops to 10-15 (in the red), then climbs back to 'normal' (read: EDO normal).

I am assuming (but would like confirmation) it's because the game is not rendering so takes a back seat - i.e. no need to do any drawing, such that when I ALT-TAB back, it climbs back to normal.

Anyone else experience this?

Not a game programmer, does anyone have any idea why this happens and is it natural?
 

pelorat

P
Might be GPU memory starvation. Modern web browsers use the GPU for rendering. Chrome et al can eat up a significant amount of GPU memory depending on what you're doing, which means some game assets might have been kicked back to system RAM. Try closing the browser completely (make sure it's not in the system tray).
 

colprice2002

C
On my system (using the nVidia performance monitor) Odyssey is CPU bound - ie the CPU is running at 90-100% at times.
Opening another window will use some CPU resource, as there's overheads to managing the window and the app running in it.
 

Comandante

Comandante
pelorat said:
Might be GPU memory starvation. Modern web browsers use the GPU for rendering. Chrome et al can eat up a significant amount of GPU memory depending on what you're doing, which means some game assets might have been kicked back to system RAM. Try closing the browser completely (make sure it's not in the system tray).
Click to expand...
Having read your suggestion, I opened up Notepad maximised and ALT-TABbed between that and the game - same issue.
Elfener said:
Do you have the game as fullscreen or borderless? Fullscreen can cause things like that.
Click to expand...
Full screen.

Note that all this testing has been done in the concourse of the station.

It looks like the game starts using the GPU more when I've tabbed out to another application, which is strange. Don't know any game programming, but would have (perhaps incorrectly) assumed that when the game detects it's not full screen any longer that it wouldn't put so much effort into displaying.

Sometimes after tabbing back to the game, if I don't touch the controls at all, it sits there, looping between 10 and 40 FPS repeatedly. Once I walk around and do other things, sometimes it goes back to normal - sometimes doesn't. Game becomes very choppy.

Using an NVidia 1070.
 

[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_

[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_
Have you tried Borderless?

I've had no noticeable issues using borderless and have never used full screen for Elite.

Full Screen in other games has caused me problems in the past. It can cause ETS2 to crash on occasion, for example.
 

Comandante

Comandante
boppa_ said:
Have you tried Borderless?

I've had no noticeable issues using borderless and have never used full screen for Elite.

Full Screen in other games has caused me problems in the past. It can cause ETS2 to crash on occasion, for example.
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I've not tried it yet, but that's definitely on my list of things to test. Will try that next.

I've opened Task Manager to check the performance - oddly (as I expected), GPU usage shoots up when I am tabbed out of the game. So the FPS drop isn't because the game has decided to display less; it's genuinely getting into a fit.

The cycling/looping for 10 to 40 FPS happens about 25% of the time once I tab back to the game. Once it gets into that loop, the GPS cycles between 80% and 100% usage repeatedly. If I don't tab out of the game, this never happens - however, tabbing out is second nature for me!
 

zombieapocalypse

zombieapocalypse
I've noticed the same thing with regard to alt-tabbing. I used to always play ED in borderless but since EDO, I've found that running fullscreen gives me a small FPS boost. So now I use my iPad while playing if I need to browse the internet 😀
 

Comandante

Comandante
I tried Borderless, didn't seem to make a difference.
zombieapocalypse said:
I've noticed the same thing with regard to alt-tabbing. I used to always play ED in borderless but since EDO, I've found that running fullscreen gives me a small FPS boost. So now I use my iPad while playing if I need to browse the internet 😀
Click to expand...
OK, glad it's not just me suffering from this!

My graphics settings are set to Medium, I would have thought that a 1070 wouldn't have had any problems.

The most confusing part is why GPU usage increases when tabbed out to a different application - even when that application is just the Task Manager itself. That is crazy behaviour.
 

zombieapocalypse

zombieapocalypse
Comandante said:
I tried Borderless, didn't seem to make a difference.

OK, glad it's not just me suffering from this!

My graphics settings are set to Medium, I would have thought that a 1070 wouldn't have had any problems.

The most confusing part is why GPU usage increases when tabbed out to a different application - even when that application is just the Task Manager itself. That is crazy behaviour.
Click to expand...
I have a 2060 but don't think the issue is our GFX cards, EDO is simply very poorly optimised at present, not to mention buggy. Fingers crossed for update 7!
 

Widrow

Widrow
Just to throw this in - it could be for the same reason, I often find that while in borderless mode I will move between the game and a second screen and then sometimes moving between station interior and my ship and back again I see an FPS drop of about 50% (55-60fps down to 25-30) - this continues until I go back to the main menu - hit continue and the framerate returns to normal. I haven't tracked down the exact sequence that makes this happen though. using i7 with 2070.
 

Comandante

Comandante
Widrow said:
Just to throw this in - it could be for the same reason, I often find that while in borderless mode I will move between the game and a second screen and then sometimes moving between station interior and my ship and back again I see an FPS drop of about 50% (55-60fps down to 25-30) - this continues until I go back to the main menu - hit continue and the framerate returns to normal. I haven't tracked down the exact sequence that makes this happen though. using i7 with 2070.
Click to expand...
Sadly, this didn't work for me.

As soon as I quit ALT-TAB out of EDO, the GPU usage jumps to 100%, dropping down to 90% at most - always rising back quickly to 100%. Just doesn't make any sense.

I've taken some screen shots of the Task Manager Performance tab, will probably post back here later at some point.
 

Comandante

Comandante
Widrow said:
Just to throw this in - it could be for the same reason, I often find that while in borderless mode I will move between the game and a second screen and then sometimes moving between station interior and my ship and back again I see an FPS drop of about 50% (55-60fps down to 25-30) - this continues until I go back to the main menu - hit continue and the framerate returns to normal. I haven't tracked down the exact sequence that makes this happen though. using i7 with 2070.
Click to expand...
Actually, I am running in Full Screen mode; when I run in Borderless, I get less FPS.

Anyone know the difference between Full Screen and Borderless?
 

Mogen Teras

M
If there's one thing about Odyssey that is kind of pointless to inquire about, it's the framerate. It's unoptimized, that's all there is to it. No one knows why the fps is so low, but it is.
 
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