Performance problem? This might help!

[-ETU-Daedalus]

I don't know if this problem occurs (FPS drop) to anyone else or if this problem is addressed but I thought it is worth an post. (also emailed it to CD)

I experienced a performance bug I can reproduce precisely.

I discovered at some scenes and possible unspecific points at the game a huge frame drop (from 35 to exact 13FPS –everything in the graphics options at maximum except for AA; I use FXAA–). I tried everthing, from cleaning my system, updating every driver, reinstalling and reupdating Tomb Raider. Nothing helped. But at the TR-benchmark I discovered a 5FPS boost since the latest nvidia beta driver.

So I came to the conclusion that my problem is not a general problem rather than a very specific one which I might able to address. I thought it may be the scene/checkpoint I am currently at. So I set EVERYTHING on low in the graphics options except for the resolution –kept it on 1920x1080– and got 150FPS at that very scene. Then I switched everything back on BEGINNING with TressFX. After setting it all back on the maximum I got my 35FPS instead of 13.

Then I tried to reproduce it and set everything again on low (got my 150FPS) and afterwards everything on maxium again EXCEPT for the TressFX feature which I triggered at LAST back on. And here we go, I got 13FPS instead of 35FPS.

So my conclusion is: so long TressFX is being activated as first graphical feature everything runs fine. But do I activate all other features before and TressFX as the last one, my FPS drops as described. This is the reason but deactivating TressFX for a FPS-boost and try to activate it again doesn't help, because it is the last option enabled this way.

Maybe you all can give it try! Pls give feedback if it works for you!

My system:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3,4Ghz
Nvidia GTX 570
8GB DDR3RAM
nothing oc'ed

Regards from Germany,
-D

[Tuskan GA]

Might be helpful for some people. I'm not experiencing your specific issue. My frame drops are tied to cutscenes and other close ups of Lara's hair with TressFX enabled along with AA of some sort.

[userax]

Ok, at first I thought this was completely stupid. Just switch everything to low and then change it to high? But god damn it works. I went from 22fps average to 55fps average on a GTX 680 running 314.21 on 2560x1440. That made a stuttery unplayable experience to a silky smooth one.

Thanks a ton!

[StupidBunnySuit]

That's very strange, but amazing if it works. Do you mean that, after you put your settings on low, you turn tressFX on first, click apply settings and then do everything else?

[userax]

My process was to turn everything to low. Then only TressFX on. Then everything else to the settings I had originally. It's strange because when I first played TR on release day, the performance was decent ~30fps average. Then after a day or two, the fps suddenly got way worse possibly due to bad patches.

I tried updating to 314.21 which supposedly fixes performance problems but it was no good. Finally, I tried this technique and got a huge boost. I don't know what's the reason, but it's possibly just resetting a setting that got corrupted during an update? Either way, it works.

[Tuskan GA]

Originally posted by userax:

My process was to turn everything to low. Then only TressFX on. Then everything else to the settings I had originally. It's strange because when I first played TR on release day, the performance was decent ~30fps average. Then after a day or two, the fps suddenly got way worse possibly due to bad patches.

I tried updating to 314.21 which supposedly fixes performance problems but it was no good. Finally, I tried this technique and got a huge boost. I don't know what's the reason, but it's possibly just resetting a setting that got corrupted during an update? Either way, it works.

So when you say "then" you mean you hit apply after turning everything to Low, again when you turn on TressFX, and then again when you set everything back to what it was?

[userax]

All Low. Apply. TressFX only. Apply. Everything else. Apply.

[Tuskan GA]

Originally posted by userax:

All Low. Apply. TressFX only. Apply. Everything else. Apply.

Gotcha. That's what I thought, it just wasn't crystal clear.

[eveband]

Amazingly, this worked better then all the patches and updates. Great find and thanks for sharing. This game is the best in 3D!

[Snow Villiers]

Нормально все.

[-ETU-Daedalus]

I'm glad it worked out for you both!

[Thuan]

This actaully worked how did you figure that out

[-ETU-Daedalus]

Originally posted by Thuan:

This actaully worked how did you figure that out

Great! Well, as I pointed it out in my post I didn't believe in a general problem with my system/performance with Tomb Raider so there had to be another "thing" which caused the problem. As I mentioned, I thought at first there is a problem with the savegame. But since I had that issue at different scenes, too, I wouldn't be able to nail it down precisely; there would be to many hypotheses, too many unknown variables and too few facts for certain. And as one should solving (logical) problems formaly I began with the easiest hypothesis to (dis)prove or try.

And there HAD TO be a solution ingame because sometimes it was fine and sometimes not. And the next simplest thing to try (the simplest thing was activate and deactivate TressFX –but that didn't work out) was to set ALL settings to low. And then, activate one after one to see which feature causes this problem.

That's how could pinpoint down the problem since I can reproduce it. And If I (big i) can reproduce I have to try if OTHERS can reproduce it (which is necessary to nail it down to a game problem, not a system one).

[The Tony Show]

It's funny you mention this, because I've been wondering how my dual core CPU and GTX470 runs this game so well while people with 680s are complaining, and I did something similar. Started off with everything in low, then raised it up and was surprised when the performance stayed strong. Launching the game with TressFX enabled causes a horror show @ 5fps, but enabling it in game with everything on low, then cranking settings back up makes it run fine.