How to force GPU profiling

[MPL3D]

Hi,

When Elite starts for the first time, or if the GPU is replaced and/or GPU drivers are updated, there is some sort of GPU profiling that the program executes.

Now it happens that a got a new a new Windows 10 PC and I'm experiencing GPU peaks every 10-15 seconds causing framerate drops from 60 to 10 for a couple of seconds.

So I've been trying some different GPU drivers etc., and I have noticed that framerate seems to be stable just the first time, when the GPU profiling is performed.

After that first run, the GPU peaks come back again and the game is almost unplayable.

So, lately, I'm re-installing the GPU drivers each time I play, trying to get that stable framerate.

Do you guys know if there is a setting somewhere in the file system that I can just edit before running the game, so I do not have to re-install the drivers everytime?

Just temporarily I hope.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DNA-Decay]

Worse than voodoo that stuff.

Get a lock of it’s hair and a piece of it’s dress, and bury them with a cane toad underneath it’s back porch by moonlight.
Whisper your desire into the hole in the tree by the swamp road out of town, and that’s how you make the Love-Me-Or-Die.

Rock solid frame rates above 85 if you get it right.

 

[Pablo-Diablo]

I have the exact same feeling that ED starts to lag in VR after I launch the game again.
If you are "team green" then delete this folder before launching Elite:
C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache

I think there might also be a setting in Nvidia control panel to disable shader cache but I didn't mess with that.

 

[MPL3D]

Worse than voodoo that stuff.

Get a lock of it’s hair and a piece of it’s dress, and bury them with a cane toad underneath it’s back porch by moonlight.
Whisper your desire into the hole in the tree by the swamp road out of town, and that’s how you make the Love-Me-Or-Die.

Rock solid frame rates above 85 if you get it right.

Well, I get like 112 fps if the framerate limit is off, but what's the point if the monitor hardware is capped at 60Hz. Even with that the framerate drops drastically every few seconds anyways.

I have the exact same feeling that ED starts to lag in VR after I launch the game again.
If you are "team green" then delete this folder before launching Elite:
C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache

I think there might also be a setting in Nvidia control panel to disable shader cache but I didn't mess with that.

Yes I found a shader cache under C:\ProgramData\ I'll try later today if clearing it makes any change. Thanks!

And yet, any ideas to force GPU card profiling when Elite starts please. Thank you.

 

[B1rdy]

How about some details of your system, before we start guessing around aimlessly?
Have you checked Task Manager in order to figure out, which program is actually causing GPU load spikes?

 

[MPL3D]

Have you checked Task Manager in order to figure out, which program is actually causing GPU load spikes?

Elite Dangerous.

 

[sgurr]

Hey OP, there are so many variables that could affect this, hardware/drive access, what else is running, ED's priority etc. B1rdy's question about details is a good one, more detail would be useful.

However, I'm wondering if by GPU profiling you're talking about the shader caching on startup, where you twice see a % going to 100?
If so you can force that by turning Shader preparation On in graphics settings, just under display.
By default it will run once and then cache the shaders for a quicker startup.

 

[MPL3D]

Hey OP, there are so many variables that could affect this, hardware/drive access, what else is running, ED's priority etc. B1rdy's question about details is a good one, more detail would be useful.

However, I'm wondering if by GPU profiling you're talking about the shader caching on startup, where you twice see a % going to 100?
If so you can force that by turning Shader preparation On in graphics settings, just under display.
By default it will run once and then cache the shaders for a quicker startup.

Yes thank you, I appreciate every comment.

However, I don't want to enter the common never-ending questions about if my anti-virus is running in the background or if I have a batch process accessing my solid state hard disk while I'm playing the game. I already reviewed all that.

To make a long story short I can say that Elite Dangerous was running steady in a computer with lower specs and Windows 7 running as O.S.

Now the question I'm asking is irrespective of the computer config, how to force GPU profiling when E.D. starts.

Yes I know about the pre-load shaders option under Display options.
I'm talking about a different thing. It is some sort of benchmark profiling that only takes place the very first time. There must be a flag somewhere in a .xml file.

Many thanks all along.

 

[znôrt]

However, I don't want to enter the common never-ending questions about if my anti-virus is running in the background or if I have a batch process accessing my solid state hard disk while I'm playing the game. I already reviewed all that.

To make a long story short I can say that Elite Dangerous was running steady in a computer with lower specs and Windows 7 running as O.S.

just to make sure, you did disable w10's 'game mode' thing, right?

 

[MPL3D]

just to make sure, you did disable w10's 'game mode' thing, right?

Yes I did, thank you very much.

 

[Nick Sticks]

Try this.
In the elite-dangerous-64 install folder there is a file called:
GpuWorkTable.xml

Rename it and then start ED.

I just tried this and it looks like what you are after.

 

[MPL3D]

Try this.
In the elite-dangerous-64 install folder there is a file called:
GpuWorkTable.xml

Rename it and then start ED.

I just tried this and it looks like what you are after.

Well that's something, thank you.
Yes it seems it could be related, I'l give it a try this afternoon.

Meanwhile I also found an entry called 'HardwareSurveyPerformed' with values <True|False> under C:\Users\manpe\AppData\Local\Frontier_Developments\ in a file called 'user.config'. Not sure but it seems like another 1st run stage config setting, so I'll be giving it a try as well.

 

[Nick Sticks]

Interestingly the new GpuWorkTable.xml was bigger than than the old one and some of the entries had different values.

In the same folder is GraphicsConfiguration.xml but a quick search of it didn't find anything that might be related.

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

Worse than voodoo that stuff.

Get a lock of it’s hair and a piece of it’s dress, and bury them with a cane toad...

I’m in Perth. Cane toads haven’t migrated this far south, yet.

Perhaps I should drive up to the Pilbara to collect some? Arduous. Worse than hunting Pharmaceutical Isolators. And almost as bad as supercruising to Hutton Orbital. Or perhaps I should wait until cane toads infest the Perth metropolitan area? This is madness. Sorcery, I tells ya!

 

[MPL3D]

Interestingly the new GpuWorkTable.xml was bigger than than the old one and some of the entries had different values.

In the same folder is GraphicsConfiguration.xml but a quick search of it didn't find anything that might be related.

Thanks for the feedback, yeah I agree GraphicsConfiguration.xml doesn't seem to be related.

 

[amadeus1171]

Run the following program in the ED install folder:

HardwareReporter.exe

 

[MPL3D]

Try this.
In the elite-dangerous-64 install folder there is a file called:
GpuWorkTable.xml

Rename it and then start ED.
I just tried this and it looks like what you are after.

Yes that works as requested, many thanks!

However, I'm afraid that I still had to re-install the drivers oh well.

So, regarding the framerate, I still have pending to find a pattern, because it doesn't make sense that, when I finally got it running steady, I play and I change nothing, then I come back the next day and I got it running badly again, without performing any changes as I said. The only difference was that the GPU profiling was not running again, but it seems that there must be some other reason.

 

[babelfisch]

Yes that works as requested, many thanks!

View attachment 135793

However, I'm afraid that I still had to re-install the drivers oh well.

So, regarding the framerate, I still have pending to find a pattern, because it doesn't make sense that, when I finally got it running steady, I play and I change nothing, then I come back the next day and I got it running badly again, without performing any changes as I said. The only difference was that the GPU profiling was not running again, but it seems that there must be some other reason.

So the issue is not 'solved' by running GPU Profiling but only by re-installing drivers?

Now might be the time to share some information about your system if you still want help...
When you re-install drivers, are you doing a clean installation?

 

[MPL3D]

Hi,

Although off-topic just wanted to comment that I got the main problem solved.

Problem causing the framerate drop was thermal throttling.

Thermal throttling comes with latest PCs architectures as a protection system and it cannot be prevented as far as I know.

When the computer temperature is too high the system automatically limits the performance for a while, until it reaches safe values again.

In my case this was happening every few seconds.

I was trying to overclock the system when I realized about thermal throttling being the issue. So I did the opposite, I down-clocked the CPU and lowered the voltage. After all it is not needed six cores to run the game. Also improved the cooling system.

The game runs steady now and thermal throttling does not happen anymore.

Originally I was mislead, maybe because the GPU profiling and the drivers reinstall operation were just cooling the system.

Many thanks all.

 

[Nick Sticks]

Interesting, thanks for the feedback.