Nonsensical Inconsistent Framerate: Settings Agnostic

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Draco18s

6 Dec, 2024 @ 3:36pm

Nonsensical Inconsistent Framerate: Settings Agnostic

At this point I've pretty much tried everything, to the point that even on minimum settings with 25% resolution scaling, it would still choke at random times in random places, and peg the GPU to 100% (CPU never seems to go over about 30%). I even went and found that mod that supposedly fixes the framerate problems.

Thing is, I can even crank the settings up to Epic and uncap the frame rate, yank everything up to max, and... 50 FPS and at 70% GPU utilization. Not a great frame rate and not buttery smooth, but I expect that. Point is that the game CAN run at 50 FPS on Epic settings at all: I would expect the GPU to choke at having to handle the high resolution textures and full render resolution if it couldn't handle it at quarter scale and low resolution (it's, what, 8x the texture size and 16x target resolution?).

There was one time that I was going through the settings with the GPU pegged at 100% just trying to see if there was anything I could reduce more and then just suddenly... it was back to running smooth. Nothing changed, game's paused, didn't alter any settings.

And oh yeah, it happened while I was recording. It jumps from 10 FPS to 30 (the set cap) just after I hover over the frame rate cap slider.

https://youtu.be/vbVY8XiXoP0

So, basically, whatever the problem is, it isn't something that's affected by any of the settings because it doesn't matter what the settings are: the game chokes whenever it feels like it no matter what settings I use.

Number of enemies has had no effect (I've had it choke with no enemies while staring into the void, I've had buttery smooth combat with a dozen enemies). Number of emissive lights doesn't matter (same). Number of particles (same). How far into the map I've gotten doesn't matter (same). I can't adjust the fog and foliage in any way, but given that it'll choke on the same room at some times and not others, I don't think its those either.

It's not my RAM utilization either. I had buttery smooth gameplay while I was waiting on Unity to import a dozen models after doing a sync with the remote (art apparently pushed some changes last night) but as soon as Unity was done and I shut it down, I started having issues (and the Unity editor isn't exactly light).

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Showing 1-15 of 16 comments

Jtn7

6 Dec, 2024 @ 6:32pm

You didn't say your hardware was .
CPU, GPU, RAM, you dont say what you're actually using ?

Like most GPU's cannot even run Ray tracing, yet are you using that or not ?

I think its always relevant with this sort of post.

Last edited by Jtn7; 6 Dec, 2024 @ 6:33pm

Draco18s

6 Dec, 2024 @ 8:30pm

No raytracing capability (funny how that setting is even visible in the video).

I mean, obviously a problem that fixes itself while the game is paused and graphics settings have no effect on performance is definitely because of my hardware specs, but sure.

i7 9700K
GeForce GTX 1660
64 GB of RAM (2133 MHz)

DruminFoo

6 Dec, 2024 @ 9:23pm

Originally posted by Draco18s:
No raytracing capability (funny how that setting is even visible in the video).

I mean, obviously a problem that fixes itself while the game is paused and graphics settings have no effect on performance is definitely because of my hardware specs, but sure.

i7 9700K
GeForce GTX 1660
64 GB of RAM (2133 MHz)

If performance is going up and down from entering menus, that's software. This doesn't answer everything, but a gtx 1660 is very weak for this game. And from your previous post, 20%-30% cpu usage is very normal for games. I don't know if there are even any games that will fully use a low-core cpu.

Jtn7

6 Dec, 2024 @ 10:04pm

Originally posted by Draco18s:
No raytracing capability (funny how that setting is even visible in the video).

I mean, obviously a problem that fixes itself while the game is paused and graphics settings have no effect on performance is definitely because of my hardware specs, but sure.

i7 9700K
GeForce GTX 1660 - 6 GB RAM,
64 GB of RAM (2133 MHz)

CPUis old even if K. Upgrade to a 12th gen K at least.

GPU i think is so so. try for 12GB at least for a GPU.

the ram should be okay depending.

for this game you're just coming up against a performance wall. Returnal is not programmed well. its engine i think is not efficient. so you need to brute force it a bit more.

Last edited by Jtn7; 6 Dec, 2024 @ 10:09pm

Jtn7

6 Dec, 2024 @ 10:05pm

you could get better upgrades today if you get one part at a time, and up the generation a little bit. but its risky if you dont have the cash. i would just try other games. Returnal is not that great to warrant the effort in my view.

For now try opening the GPU and reapply the thermal paste if its not been done in a while. same with cpu.

Last edited by Jtn7; 6 Dec, 2024 @ 10:06pm

Draco18s

6 Dec, 2024 @ 11:36pm

Originally posted by Jtn7:
for this game you're just coming up against a performance wall. Returnal is not programmed well. its engine i think is not efficient. so you need to brute force it a bit more.

Uh huh. That's why I can run it on the highest settings until it chokes, then restart the game, and its fine again.

Jtn7

7 Dec, 2024 @ 4:13am

Originally posted by Draco18s:
Originally posted by Jtn7:
for this game you're just coming up against a performance wall. Returnal is not programmed well. its engine i think is not efficient. so you need to brute force it a bit more.

Uh huh. That's why I can run it on the highest settings until it chokes, then restart the game, and its fine again.

could be thermals . did u try to open the gpu ? see temps using:
CPUID HWMonitor software. free

Last edited by Jtn7; 7 Dec, 2024 @ 4:14am

Jtn7

7 Dec, 2024 @ 4:14am

Originally posted by Draco18s:
Originally posted by Jtn7:
for this game you're just coming up against a performance wall. Returnal is not programmed well. its engine i think is not efficient. so you need to brute force it a bit more.

Uh huh. That's why I can run it on the highest settings until it chokes, then restart the game, and its fine again.

you cant Uh huh ur way through this,. just physical properties of nature.

Draco18s

7 Dec, 2024 @ 1:06pm

Originally posted by Jtn7:
you cant Uh huh ur way through this,. just physical properties of nature.

No, its called "the game has a memory leak" or similar and my physical hardware isn't the problem.

Jtn7

7 Dec, 2024 @ 4:33pm

Originally posted by Draco18s:
Originally posted by Jtn7:
you cant Uh huh ur way through this,. just physical properties of nature.

No, its called "the game has a memory leak" or similar and my physical hardware isn't the problem.

welp thats not going to get fixed.

so your hardware is all you can change. I know because i had exactly the same hardware you have .

I had to upgrade now its all good.

Last edited by Jtn7; 7 Dec, 2024 @ 4:34pm

#10

Draco18s

7 Dec, 2024 @ 5:17pm

Right.

So then why don't changing the settings have any impact on performance?

#11

Jtn7

7 Dec, 2024 @ 5:52pm

Originally posted by Draco18s:
Right.

So then why don't changing the settings have any impact on performance?

because the game sucks .

Could be driver, could be a few conflicts too. could be thermal throttling.
curious what your temps are generally using CPUID HWMonitor.

But best all around cure is brute force . Upgrades.
Get more ram. Like some crucial or kingston.

I only use Returnal for its benchmark bottom right of Graphics settings page.
That results can change depending on even graphics drivers. Or how you set your system up. But mainly hardware. ( regardless of how bad the games engine itself is )..

Last edited by Jtn7; 7 Dec, 2024 @ 5:55pm

#12

Draco18s

7 Dec, 2024 @ 6:31pm

Originally posted by Jtn7:
I only use Returnal for its benchmark bottom right of Graphics settings page.
That results can change depending on even graphics drivers. Or how you set your system up. But mainly hardware. ( regardless of how bad the games engine itself is )..

I expected the exported CSV to have...more in it than it does, but with my framerate capped it does just fine; GPU bound as expected with most impact from volumetric fog (not a real surprise). I ran it again with VSYNC turned on and got FPS between 49 and 59 (again, volumetric fog being the main culprit and the only time the FPS fell below 59).

Ran it again after adjusting a few things for looking better (eg. bringing emissive lights back up) and pushing resolution scaling to 50%, had very similar results other than not keeping the GPU maxed at 99%.

Screencap for that one:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3380387513

#13

Jtn7

9 Dec, 2024 @ 1:07am

Originally posted by Draco18s:
Originally posted by Jtn7:
I only use Returnal for its benchmark bottom right of Graphics settings page.
That results can change depending on even graphics drivers. Or how you set your system up. But mainly hardware. ( regardless of how bad the games engine itself is )..

I expected the exported CSV to have...more in it than it does, but with my framerate capped it does just fine; GPU bound as expected with most impact from volumetric fog (not a real surprise). I ran it again with VSYNC turned on and got FPS between 49 and 59 (again, volumetric fog being the main culprit and the only time the FPS fell below 59).

Ran it again after adjusting a few things for looking better (eg. bringing emissive lights back up) and pushing resolution scaling to 50%, had very similar results other than not keeping the GPU maxed at 99%.

Screencap for that one:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3380387513

cap it at 60 fps?

#14