Question Game not getting full performance

[FliP0x]

Hello,

As the title suggests, I am assuming that something might be preventing the game from accessing my PCs full potential while the window is active.

To elaborate the issue in detail, I am currently actively playing the TH Beta for Ascent: Infinite Realm. Upon starting the game, I get excellent performance for the first few minutes of playing, but my FPS keeps dropping from contant 60-90 FPS until it reaches about 17-22 FPS and it stays within that range.

Thermals are in order and my hardware is not thermal throttling. The wierd thing is that if I tab out, GPU performance goes up to 95+% and FPS in game rises, but as soon as the window is in focus again, FPS goes back down.

Therefore, my assumption is that something is blocking the game/process from accessing my PCs full potential. Changing the priority in task manager has no effect. NVIDIA Control Panel settings are set to performance in general and the game also has its own profile to maximize performance.

My Specs are the following:
i5-6600k OCed to 4,3
16GB RAM DDR4 Dual Channel OCed to 2999 (not exact number, something around that)
Samsung 850 EVO M2 Boot Drive
1 TB Storage HDD
1 TB Sata SSD (from which the game is running from)
Corsair CX650M
Asus Z170-P
GTX 1070

Does anyone know or have an idea what might be the cause of my issue?

 

[geofelt]

You have the symptoms of thermal throttling.
Performance is good, the processor runs full blast.
Heat builds up.
CPU throttles.
when load diminishes, cpu ramps up again
and so on.

What is your cpu cooler?
What is your temperature at idle?
I expect to see 10-15c. over ambient.

What is your case and fan setup?
If you take the case covers off and direct a house fan at the innards, does that fix things?

 

[FliP0x]

That's why it is so strange. The symptoms are of thermal throttling, but thermals are within the safe area and the frequency is not decreasing. All other games run fine without any performance issues, it's just said game that I have problems with.
I have a Arctic Freezer i32 Air cooler. My case it a NZXT S340 with 2 beQuiet Pure Wings 2 140mm fans in the front and both exhaust fans (1 in the back, 1 on the top) are also functioning. The case does have a wierd design in which the front fans are covered with a alluminium front panel and there is a roughly 4-5 cm gap in which air can come in, so it is not optimal.

Current temps on idle are 28C on CPU, 19C on Motherboard and the GPU is idling at 47C currently. I still have MSI Afterburner logs and the max temperature I reached during my last gaming session was 73C.
This max temperature was achieved after I tabbed out of the game and GPU usage increased. In-game, the GPU runs in the range of 60-65C with a frequency of 18xx MHz while the idle frequency is 1518 MHz. It is worth noting that at the idle temperature of 47C the fans are not spinning. If I force the fans to spin at 25% speed and let the temperature stabilize for a few minutes, I get to 41C idle.

Now, upon launching the game, while in the background and not focused, GPU temps go up 74C with a frequency 1911 MHz to then drop down to 1885 MHz. However, this is just in the server selection screen that runs at 180 FPS because the game is on maintenance. Fan speed started at 48% and is now 54% after a few minutes.

Based on this data and proper research, this seems to be a GPU thermal throttle. However, what I am wondering right now is how does 40-50 MHz on the GPU clock make a difference of 40-50+ FPS? I could give the GPU a little dust cleaning, replace thermal paste etc to see if that will prevent it from thermal throttling. Also, changing the graphic settings in game do not impact performance so I have no idea how to keep the temps down from the game itself, because no other game is overheating my system (except ArcheAge used to do that after long gaming sessions).

 

[FliP0x]

Since posting my previous post, I have been busy cleaning my PC. There hasn't been much dust, except on the intake case fan filter.

I completely disassembled the GPU, gave it a proper cleaning and applied MX4 Thermal paste. At first, idle temps started at 38C but after a few minutes stabilized at 46C so there does not seem to be any improvement.

In-game temps still reach 73C and the frequency drops from 19xx to about 1898, FPS is terrible due to about 20 MHz lost.


EDIT: I let the game run for 30 minutes and frequency dropped to 15xx and 50C, which is idle, even though the game is running and focused. As I mentioned previously, when I tab out of the game, temps, gpu usage and frequency go up and so does FPS. So there seems to be another issue that the game idles the GPU and therefore performance suffers because it is running at idle frequency.

 

[geofelt]

If your problem is only with one game, it is likely a defect in the game and a game patch will be needed.
A beta release smacks of that.
A coding error can, over time build up a blockage of resources.

 

[FliP0x]

That is without question. The game currently also has a memory leak and needs optimization.

However, I am comparing to a system, which has:
Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.20GHz
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080
32 GB DDR4

I am trying to match this system as close as possible. CPU clock is done and stable, there is a difference in GPU but the gap can be closed with a +150 core clock and +350 memory clock OC which also runs stable and within acceptable temperatures.
I am currently still missing 16GB RAM which will arrive on monday, but I doubt the issues are due to lack of RAM because the game does not use over 4 GB RAM even with the memory leak.

The above mentioned system runs the game perfectly fine. I also checked the NVIDIA driver with the system owner and we both use the latest drivers released on 05/09/19.