Stuttering, FPS drops, etc

Andromeda456 · Nov 16, 2019

I've already send a Support ticket to Frontier but I figured I might ask here for some help/advice.

Recently my game has started to stutter and suffer from significant FPS drops, particularly in conflict zones and RES. Not only that, but in supercruise the game starts to randomly stutter, dropping from 60fps to 55fps for no reason whatsoever.

First off the FPS drops. This was the first issue I came across. According to task manager this is my CPU using all it's power to run Elite. According to Afterburner and HWMonitor my CPU is fine, meaning not using 100% of it's resources. Regardless if it's my CPU or not, this did not happen before. I ran the game on 60fps pretty much always. I've been desperately trying to fix this but nothing helped. The only temporary fix was launching Elite without Steam, but it did not fix the issue completely. It still persists.

At first the FPS drops were only in RES, but then they expanded to conflict zones, and now they're also happening in Planetary Outposts. (the latter being combined with stutters)

Second, the stuttering. This is another issue entirely. According to task manager my CPU and GPU are not used a 100% yet the game starts to stutter with randomly dropping frames. I use VSync if you haven't already guessed, which is necessary, since without it my game suffers from very bad tearing. Turning off VSync does not fully get rid of the stuttering, but it does not drop below 60fps.

Elite is the only game that I have this issue with, I have still yet to find out what causes it. Yesterday the game stuttered and lagged like a motherf*cker to the point I got kicked out of the game twice with error messages "Purple Python" and "Taupe Cobra". Reinstalling the game didn't help, verifying the game's integrity did not help, my PC is on permanent high performance mode, all my cores of the CPU are working, my temperatures are not too high, I have the latest Nvidia drivers and Windows updates. I never had problems until recently, even on my older PC which had significantly inferior hardware.

System specs before I get a ton of people saying it's my hardware:
Core i5 9400f 2.9Ghz (3.89GHz when boosted and playing Elite)
16GB 2133MHz RAM
Gigabyte GTX 1070 8GB
BX500 480GB SSD (Elite is installed on this one)

Internet speed is 250Mbps/30Mbps download and upload.

Most settings are on ultra, I play 1080p without VR or anything fancy. Decreasing the graphics settings does not seem to fix the issue.

STRONTIUM DOG · Nov 16, 2019

I would suggest trying a slightly older driver one you know you did not have a problem with utilizing its clean install function
and deleting the gpuworktable.xml (could try just this first)
C:\Users\yournamegoeshere\AppData\Local\Frontier_Developments\Products\elite-dangerous-64
at least if anything it will rule out it being a driver issue and the above a caching issue

Alkibiades · Nov 16, 2019

Hey you are not alone. If you know how to use google you are going to find a couple of threads about this problem.

I, however, am from the other team regarding the gpu. I have a rtx 590.

I did a lot of things... really a lot.. I even bought 3dmark (perfect and as to expected results for my gpu). Deleting the gpu table xml worked for 1 or 2 jumps, besides that it is getting worse. My major problem is that the screen just freezes. I dont have stuttering, I have a total lack of frames. This is realy bad if you jump to a neutron star or white dwarf and then you dont see where you are flying. Besides the freezes any input doesnt work. So every now and then I lose control over the game.

The problem started after the september patch. It started out in the black when I landed on a planet on november 2nd. It did not happen before for me but for others. Current conclusion is: its the game. Or the servers.

Since you do have a ticket please tell them that others have the same problem. I think there a lot of people but we simply dont tell the internt. I just stopped playing. Others might as well.

Morbad · Nov 17, 2019

Jorge Marston said:
I've already send a Support ticket to Frontier but I figured I might ask here for some help/advice.

Recently my game has started to stutter and suffer from significant FPS drops, particularly in conflict zones and RES. Not only that, but in supercruise the game starts to randomly stutter, dropping from 60fps to 55fps for no reason whatsoever.

First off the FPS drops. This was the first issue I came across. According to task manager this is my CPU using all it's power to run Elite. According to Afterburner and HWMonitor my CPU is fine, meaning not using 100% of it's resources. Regardless if it's my CPU or not, this did not happen before. I ran the game on 60fps pretty much always. I've been desperately trying to fix this but nothing helped. The only temporary fix was launching Elite without Steam, but it did not fix the issue completely. It still persists.

At first the FPS drops were only in RES, but then they expanded to conflict zones, and now they're also happening in Planetary Outposts. (the latter being combined with stutters)

Second, the stuttering. This is another issue entirely. According to task manager my CPU and GPU are not used a 100% yet the game starts to stutter with randomly dropping frames. I use VSync if you haven't already guessed, which is necessary, since without it my game suffers from very bad tearing. Turning off VSync does not fully get rid of the stuttering, but it does not drop below 60fps.

Elite is the only game that I have this issue with, I have still yet to find out what causes it. Yesterday the game stuttered and lagged like a motherf*cker to the point I got kicked out of the game twice with error messages "Purple Python" and "Taupe Cobra". Reinstalling the game didn't help, verifying the game's integrity did not help, my PC is on permanent high performance mode, all my cores of the CPU are working, my temperatures are not too high, I have the latest Nvidia drivers and Windows updates. I never had problems until recently, even on my older PC which had significantly inferior hardware.

System specs before I get a ton of people saying it's my hardware:
Core i5 9400f 2.9Ghz (3.89GHz when boosted and playing Elite)
16GB 2133MHz RAM
Gigabyte GTX 1070 8GB
BX500 480GB SSD (Elite is installed on this one)

Internet speed is 250Mbps/30Mbps download and upload.

Most settings are on ultra, I play 1080p without VR or anything fancy. Decreasing the graphics settings does not seem to fix the issue.

Some of these issues are problems with the game client that you are unlikely to be able to fully resolve and disconnections with colored ship errors seem to be server side matchmaking/authentication problems.

Anyway, there are a few adjustments you can try that may help mitigate things.

Firstly, increase your "terrain work" slider (try something between 75 and 100%) in the game's graphics options. This can sometimes help with stuttering while approaching planets.

Secondly, in the NVIDIA control panel, go to manage 3d settings, program settings, then find Elite Dangerous. Try adjusting the "threaded optimization" setting; set it to off first and see if that resolves any issues, if not force it on. Also, setting vsync option to "fast" should allow the internal frame rate to run uncapped, without introducing tearing, as the most recent frame rendered will be synced to each refresh.

Thirdly, if all else fails, try opening the game's AppConfig.xml (in the main game director, same location as GPUWorkTable.xml) and change the section called "Threads" to look like this:

XML:

    <Threads
        RenderThreadStackSize="2097152"
        WorkerThreadStackSize="1048576"
        NumWorkerThreads="6"
        RenderJobQueueSize="20480"
        KernelJobQueueSize="20480"
        MinSpareCores="0"
        OptimiseForPerformance="1"
        UseThreadPriorities="1"
        PerformanceScaling="0"
    />

Edit: updated to better take into account the i5-9400F

Neutronium · Nov 17, 2019

Morbad said:
Firstly, increase your "terrain work" slider (try something between 75 and 100%) in the game's graphics options. This can sometimes help with stuttering while approaching planets.
Secondly, in the NVIDIA control panel, go to manage 3d settings, program settings, then find Elite Dangerous. Try adjusting the "threaded optimization" setting; set it to off first and see if that resolves any issues, if not force it on.

I've tried various combinations of the above to reduce the momentary freezing / stuttering upon 1st impact of mapping probe on planet surface. Unfortunately it still persists. Subsequent impacts (on the same planetary body) don't produce this momentary stutter.

Morbad said:
Also, setting vsync option to "fast" should allow the internal frame rate to run uncapped, without introducing tearing, as the most recent frame rendered will be synced to each refresh.

Thank You once again Sir Morbad! At least this one is out a the way!

Morbad · Nov 17, 2019

neutronium said:
I've tried various combinations of the above to reduce the momentary freezing / stuttering upon 1st impact of mapping probe on planet surface. Unfortunately it still persists. Subsequent impacts (on the same planetary body) don't produce this momentary stutter.

I don't do a whole lot of surface mapping...will have to pay attention for similar issues.

On a side note, I fixed some audio related hitching that was added sometime in 3.5 by updating my sound drivers.

Neutronium · Nov 17, 2019

Morbad said:
I don't do a whole lot of surface mapping...will have to pay attention for similar issues.

It is not yours, mine or anybody else's obligation to test every single aspect of the game. I, for e.g., haven't visited a RES or CZ lately.
We are the paying customers and play the game the way we choose to. But there is a group of people who have this obligation and we all know who they are..

Morbad said:
On a side note, I fixed some audio related hitching that was added sometime in 3.5 by updating my sound drivers.

I always use latest audio and graphics drivers anyway so I never noticed.

Morbad · Nov 17, 2019

neutronium said:
It is not yours, mine or anybody else's obligation to test every single aspect of the game. I, for e.g., haven't visited a RES or CZ lately.
We are the paying customers and play the game the way we choose to. But there is a group of people who have this obligation and we all know who they are..

I'm out to get the best experience I can. So, if I find an issue I might be able to fix, I try to fix it. Waiting for Frontier would mean I'd have a tangibly worse experience than I do now.

neutronium said:
I always use latest audio and graphics drivers anyway so I never noticed.

Latest official ones for my board are four years old and Realtek stopped publishing OEM ones, so I had to get ones published for a different board.

Regardless, unless something in the game changes, which it apparently did, drivers that once worked should continue to work.

Old Duck · Nov 17, 2019

FOVPOP!!!!! Grrrrr.....

Stuttering and hitching after updates

Am I the only one noticing stuttering and hitching after these updates? Before the September update, I could lock my FPS at 60 or even 72 (vsynced with my refresh rates), and the game was buttery smooth regardless of where I was or what I was doing. After the update I'm seeing stuttering and...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Morbad · Nov 17, 2019

neutronium said:
I've tried various combinations of the above to reduce the momentary freezing / stuttering upon 1st impact of mapping probe on planet surface. Unfortunately it still persists. Subsequent impacts (on the same planetary body) don't produce this momentary stutter.

Checked things on my end and I am definitely not getting this stutter, don't think I ever have.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJVZ2Yn8zQ8

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlpXGElWQPo

You'll have to excuse the audio desync...a side effect of the new drivers I'm using. I'll have to figure out what the precise offset is so I can have OBS compensate for it.

Neutronium · Nov 17, 2019

Morbad said:
I'm out to get the best experience I can. So, if I find an issue I might be able to fix, I try to fix it. Waiting for Frontier would mean I'd have a tangibly worse experience than I do now.

Yes but you are not the average Joe like the rest of us and especially those on consoles - sorry no offense intended console guys

Morbad said:
Checked things on my end and I am definitely not getting this stutter, don't think I ever have.

Ok sorry its my fault here are detailed steps in order to reproduce it:
1. Fire the probe and then exit DSS mode before the probe hits the surface - this is very important step.
2. Accelerate towards the planet and wait (but without going too slow i.e. the position of the planet is visibly changing) till the probe hits the surface while you have the planet in view.
3. Only the very 1st probe is producing the stutter. Subsequent ones do not.

Zieman · Nov 17, 2019

neutronium said:
exit DSS mode before the probe hits the surface

Why would you want to do this?
Apart from testing the stutter that happens within very spesific parameters, that is.

STRONTIUM DOG · Nov 17, 2019

ya don't exit dss before the probe hits might cure it lol

Neutronium · Nov 17, 2019

Zieman said:
Why would you want to do this?
Apart from testing the stutter that happens within very spesific parameters, that is.

When you are mass-dss/mapping system after system during exploration you have to do this (after you master the skill of efficient probing that is

) otherwise it would take ages before you finish and move on to the next system.

Rick6549 · Nov 17, 2019

Alot of times if your hard drive is close to being full stuff runs bad, maybe try that ?

Morbad · Nov 17, 2019

neutronium said:
Ok sorry its my fault here are detailed steps in order to reproduce it:
1. Fire the probe and then exit DSS mode before the probe hits the surface - this is very important step.
2. Accelerate towards the planet and wait (but without going too slow i.e. the position of the planet is visibly changing) till the probe hits the surface while you have the planet in view.
3. Only the very 1st probe is producing the stutter. Subsequent ones do not.

I'll give this a shot.

Morbad · Nov 18, 2019

@neutronium

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoJJ3cbT1Ko

I do encounter a small stutter in the scenario you describe, but it's not something I'd really have noticed if I wasn't looking for it.

Alkibiades · Nov 18, 2019

Morbad said:

XML:

    <Threads
        RenderThreadStackSize="2097152"
        WorkerThreadStackSize="1048576"
        NumWorkerThreads="6"
        RenderJobQueueSize="20480"
        KernelJobQueueSize="20480"
        MinSpareCores="0"
        OptimiseForPerformance="1"
        UseThreadPriorities="1"
        PerformanceScaling="0"
    />

I tested these settings. More freezes, but shorter duration. Besides that you can literally hear how something in the pc stops working. A high pitch electric humming stops during the freezes.

Morbad · Nov 18, 2019

Alkibiades said:
I tested these settings. More freezes, but shorter duration.

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

Alkibiades said:
Besides that you can literally hear how something in the pc stops working. A high pitch electric humming stops during the freezes.

That's not the cause, that's a side effect. What you hear is almost certainly coil whine, probably coming from your GPU or PSU, and it can change pitch or amplitude with current draw. During a freeze, the there is less load on some relevant component, which means less current draw, which means a change in the noise the power delivery components make.

Old Duck · Nov 18, 2019

My issue isn't stutter, it's FOV-pop, which I first mistook as a stutter but then realized the FOV is "pops" for a quick millisecond, which is very jarring. This started after the September update and happens regularly now. ED is the only game I see this, so it's not my PC (nor my router).

Any ideas what this could be?