Assistance with Graphics

[Polideseus]

Kia Ora (Hello),

I just bought the Deluxe version of Elite Dangerous on PC, however, the graphics look very 'grainy' and the text is hard to read. My PC is running the game at high, and surprisingly runs ultra good too. I did find a bit of lag when doing the tutorial which makes me think maybe the game has selected the wrong GPU?

I have a Ryzen 9 CPU with Integrated AMD graphics, a dGPU which is Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 2TB SSD, 32GB RAM, and a total of 8GB VRAM.

Any ideas how I can make it run better? Looks like a solid game and would hate to ask for a Steam refund before seeing if someone can assist.

Cheers

 

[FurryFailure]

Longshot, but, if it's enabled, turn off any upscalers, and set the Anti-Aliasing to FXAA, the game seems to look far better in my eyes, if not, then use SMAA. I can't log into the game right now to give specifics, but, hope that helps.

 

[GroG79]

Double check what resolution the game is running!

 

[Rat Catcher]

As suggested above...
Open Options - Graphics - Display
Set resolution to your native one for your monitor.

 

[anShpan]

Any ideas how I can make it run better?

Couple of weeks ago I've assembled a new PC for EDO on Ryzen 9600X and RTX 4060 and had the same problem - for some reason ED picks its default setting based on integrated graphics.
I've disabled it in BIOS and set ED to run on RTX and then all is fine.

Also we have to remember to that those High, Ultra, etc. are possible on any resolution, so check that Adapter is set to RTX and resolution matches that native of monitor first, then we can play with anti-aliasing, upscaling, etc.

 

[aRJay]

Check in the PCs display(?) settings and ensure that it is using the 4070 to run the game.

 

[varonica]

Turn off FSR in graphics settings. That will make everything look worse on a PC with decent hardware.

 

[Polideseus]

Thank you all, I have now got the right resolution which has made the text much clearer on the main screen, haven't jumped into the game yet to test. I also did what Furry suggested and it looked a lot less 'grainy' when playing which is great. It's running the right GPU. What's FSR? Should I have V-Sync enabled? Do I need to limit the refresh rate or FPS?

 

[varonica]

I have a 4070 Ti Super running at 144fps at 2560x1440, you unfortunately only have the standard 4070 with only half the VRAM at 8gb (that seems strange as the standard 4070 should come with 12gb), I am limiting my FPS to the screen refresh rate at 144hz, so 144fps, you should do the same and see how it goes then make decisions then on whether to make changes after testing. So are you sure you only have 8gb vram? 12gb would be much better for this game.

 

[Polideseus]

I have a 4070 Ti Super running at 144fps at 2560x1440, you unfortunately only have the standard 4070 with only half the VRAM at 8gb (that seems strange as the standard 4070 should come with 12gb), I am limiting my FPS to the screen refresh rate at 144hz, so 144fps, you should do the same and see how it goes then make decisions then on whether to make changes after testing. So are you sure you only have 8gb vram? 12gb would be much better for this game.

I have only 8GB of VRAM sadly. I think 12GB is extremely high for any game, let alone Elite Dangerous, I only know one other game that requests that much VRAM and that's Ark: Survival Ascended. I can play No Man's Sky on Ultra and it's similar in a way to Elite Dangerous. I'll try set the refresh rate to 144hz.

 

[Polideseus]

I have a 4070 Ti Super running at 144fps at 2560x1440, you unfortunately only have the standard 4070 with only half the VRAM at 8gb (that seems strange as the standard 4070 should come with 12gb), I am limiting my FPS to the screen refresh rate at 144hz, so 144fps, you should do the same and see how it goes then make decisions then on whether to make changes after testing. So are you sure you only have 8gb vram? 12gb would be much better for this game.

Sorry for the double reply. I asked ChatGPT to just confirm why I haven't got 12GB of VRAM as they originally said you're right, 12GB of VRAM should come with the 4070 GPU, however, they've now said the reason I have 8GB is due to playing on a gaming laptop and not a desktop.

 

[varonica]

Sorry for the double reply. I asked ChatGPT to just confirm why I haven't got 12GB of VRAM as they originally said you're right, 12GB of VRAM should come with the 4070 GPU, however, they've now said the reason I have 8GB is due to playing on a gaming laptop and not a desktop.

Ah of course yes, that does make a difference. It has some lower specs than the 4070 desktop but you should still be able to get decent performance out of it. I would really consider 8Gb vram minimum these days and 12Gb optimal.

 

[Neilski]

Ah of course yes, that does make a difference.

Yes indeed.
I think it has been a good few years now since laptop GPU names became indistinguishable from the desktop variant, which is unbelievably deceitful.
Way back, you'd buy a laptop with a "XYZ mobile" or "XYZ M" GPU in it and there would be no confusion. (E.g. GTX 970M was a laptop GPU...) Nowadays, this can and does cause confusion and this thread is a perfect example.

A relative was recently weighing up building a desktop gaming PC against buying an upgraded laptop, and was stunned when I told them to be cautious about comparing the GPUs between desktops and laptops...

I guess the blame for the deceit here lies pretty squarely with Nvidia. It seems to me that they've taken the opportunity to do just about every dishonest and disreputable thing that has occurred to them for the last decade. (Caveat: I don't recall if AMD's GPU naming conventions for laptops were still clear before they kinda vanished from the laptop GPU market...)

My understanding is that a desktop 4060 will trade blows with (and often beat) a 4070 laptop variant, with a big variation on the laptop side for various reasons including the laptop maker's choices for power limits.
An underperforming laptop can also be an indicator of a buildup of dust/fluff in the cooling system (typically the heatsink fins).

 

[varonica]

I guess the blame for the deceit here lies pretty squarely with Nvidia. It seems to me that they've taken the opportunity to do just about every dishonest and disreputable thing that has occurred to them for the last decade. (Caveat: I don't recall if AMD's GPU naming conventions for laptops were still clear before they kinda vanished from the laptop GPU market...)

Yeah, when the RTX series came out they were big that the laptop GPU was the same GPU you get on a desktop, they just didn't bother to mention it would be underspecced compared to the desktop!

AMD are going big on integrating the RDNA 3 series into the GPU. The top gaming laptops will come with the AMD Radeon 610M, but it's not clearly differentiated from the naming of the old series, I mean I had a laptop with the GTX 970M when I first started playing, which played Horizons ok but would probably die if you pointed Odyssey at it, but the naming convention is silly, some people would think the 970M was more powerful than the 610M and be fooled into buying an out of date laptop, but of course they are entirely different architectures and the 610M is miles in from of the 970M.