DoW2 low framerate on strong PC

[Neuronode]

Hi everyone,

I bought DoW2 with its addons today, installed, tried it... aaaand I've got a technical problem. The problem is precisely with low fps on my pretty powerful (especially for DOW2) PC rig.
The specs are:

CPU: intel i7-6700 3,4GHz
GPU: nvidia GeForce GTX 980Ti 6GB
RAM: 16GB
PSU: 850W
cooling systems are ok
OS: Win 10
drivers are up-to-date

I can comfortably run other games including contemporary ones. Recently played CoD: Infinite Warfare and Titanfall (in fact as well as many others which are more graphically advanced compared to DoW2) give out a way over 40 fps, high to ultra settings on.

As for DoW2 (I checked both basic game and Retribution addon - all the same), the game gave me stuttering in CGI videos (sound is ok) and low perfomance when the actual gameplay starts. I tried different in-game video configs, as well as ran in-game vide perfomance tests with various settings. The difference was negligible.
On the lowest settings it was 17-26 fps with 23 fps at the average.
On the auto settings (the game set them to high to ultra) I've got 4-26 fps with 21 at the average.
So the figures completely puzzle me. It's a game back from 2009 and I have quite strong doubts my rig is insufficient to run it 40+ fps.
Also, I tried to look up a solution in google but to no avail. At the moment I'm seriously considering a refund.

So, may be someone has a similar problem and developed a solution to it? All help will be much appreciated

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

First of all, my apologies for bombarding you with the Great Wall of Text, but rattling off everything I can think of, gives me a better chance of helping.


So, here we go.

The only thing I can think of in your specs listing that could be a potential culprit is Windows 10. WIndows 10 is required for your 6th Gen i7, as well as the latest AMD CPU's and for all future iterations of Intel and AMD CPU's, so there is not much that can be done there. Windows 10 is know to have compatibility issues with older Apps/Games, and in some cases blocks them completely. (Eg: CD/DVD games with SecuROM or SafeDisc DRM).

You could try setting "Windows XP (SP3)" or "Windows 7" Compatibility mode for the DOW2.exe, assuming Windows 10 allows it.

Are all your drivers (CPU, GPU, other hardware peripherals) up to date, and digitally signed? I have heard people having issues on Windows 10 if drivers aren't digitally signed by Microsoft but, as I don't use W10, I can't confirm that myself.

Does Device manager show any issues in yellow triangles with ! marks in them, for any listed hardware devices?

It's also always advised keep on top of your PC's security. Scan your system in safe mode weekly with both Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware programs, to remove any potential Malware/Viruses that could slow down the game or eventually the system. "MalwareBytes Anti-Malware" is a great companion to your Anti-Virus programs. The free version Kills Malware, the paid version also stops Malware from infecting your PC in the first place. Also make sure DOW2 is set as "Allowed" for both Inbound and Outbound rules in your Firewall. AdwCleaner is a great tool for killing annoying Adware embeded in your registery/browsers/shortcuts and files. and is now owned my Malware-Bytes meaning it can be trusted.

Avoid so-called one click optimizers or fix programs as quite often they will state you have 1,000s of critical errors with your system but won't fix them untill you pay. Some of these programs are also bundled with malware to slow your PC down further as part of their tactic for your credit card details.

Have you tried D3DOverrider to force Tripple-Buffering and Vsync, while disabling ingame vsync. (Nvidia Control Panel's/Nvidia Inspector's Tripple-buffering only applies to OpenGL games) so D3DOverrider is required for TB in DX9,10, 11, 12. Without Tripple Buffering (which I will refer to as TB from now on) being disabled a lot of performance is lost as a small FPS drop becomes a big FPS drop. Not all D3D games have in-game TB settings, and older games like DOW2 would not have TB built in at all. Not everyone has a shiny new G-Sync or Free-Sync Monitor, so here enters D3DOverrider.

Eg:

Vsync on, TB off, 60Hz FPS drops below 60FPS < 30FPS.
Vsync on TB on, 60Hz FPS drops below 60FPS < 58-59FPS.

Quite the difference huh.

D3DOverrider helped with isues with uber-demanding games, on my 120Hz Monitor + GTX1080 setup, so I did not drop from 120FPS right down to 90FPS at a small hitch.
I could not recommend this software enough!

Limiting your framerate in the Riva Tuner portion of MSI Afterburner is also a good place to start, just in case the game is trying to do a gazzillionFPS and bottleneck your CPU/RAM. Nvidia Inspector also has a FPS limiter, but Riva Tuner has a better algorithm for it with less stutter and the ability to use it on AMD cards too. When installing Afterburner make sure Riva Tuner is selected BEFORE install.

I don't OC with Afterburner (My Card comes with it's own OC utility) I just use the Riva Tuner to cap my FPS to 120FPS, as Nvidia Inspectors FPS cap gives me stutter and increased input lag.

Have you also checked your hardware diagnistics for indiscrepencies?

IF GPU usage is low and CPU/RAM usage is very high you may have a CPU or RAM bottleneck hindering your experience.

Also underclocking your RAM a bit in BIOS Might help. I underlocked my 32Gb of Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400 DDR3 down to 1866mhz and my system has had an increase in both performance and stability. This is by far not a guarantee though.



I hope you find something in this wall of text that solves your problem. Best of Luck,

Wolfe.

[oldrocker99]

If Windows 10 is the problem, dual boot with Linux. It runs great on my lesser machine (AMD 8320E, GeForce 960, 16GB RAM) on Ubuntu MATE.

Just sayin'.

[Wstr]

Well, it runs great for me in Win10 but i have and AMD GPU so it could be your GPU's settings or something.

Go to Nvidia settings and set Power management to Maximum performance. I've heard this alone can fix a lot of issues Nvidia users are having with weirdly low fps. Also if you have a G-sync monitor turn G-sync off for this game.

[Neuronode]

Well, first of all, thank you everybody for your replies! Especially to Wolfe's wall of text which steered me into the direction of checking TB, fps cap, hardware load etc.

I customised nVidia control panel's settings (max perfomanse, TB, vsyc, others - tried on and off), run the game in compatibility modes (Vista/7/), validated the game's files via Steam. Curious thing is that GeForce Experience software does not recognise DoW2 on the PC at all (and it cannot be added manually), so I wasn't be able to use it to change DoW2 settings.

I used RivaTuner, MSI Afterburnber and D3DOverrider to limit framerate upper cap to 40 and to force TB and vsync on.

Also, monitoring showed that my RAM/CPU/GPU load was never at the max level, but rather below 50%.

I even reinstalled DoW2 from HDD to SSD.

Since my monitor doesn't have g-sync/free sync support, I opted that factor out.

I installed RivaTuner SS , but it helped me only in a way it shows its frame-meter on top of the game (here, no need to spend several minutes to run in-build perfomance tests anymore).
All of it didn't help a bit, really.

I killed awfully large ammount of time doing all of the above and at this poit I was thinking if I should set up a virtual machine with Win 7 (even Ubuntu may be) or assebmle my older PC with Win 7 installed.

But then I downloaded another version of DoW2 from somewhere else and installed it on my current rig. And it ran with 50-60 fps smoothly. I was bewildered. I then ran the Steam version and to my surprise it also showed a higher framerate.
Why so? I cannot say for sure, but have a couple of suggestions. Alternative version of DoW2 also installed DX9 and Microsoft Visual C++ 2013. May be that was the case, although it's strange. Win 10 should have DX files preinstalled, not to saying about Steam version should include both of those software packets mandatory (if they're so critically needed to run the game).

Conclusion of my situation in a nutshell:
- Win 10 has nothing to do with the trouble.
- my best shot was to istall non-Steam DoW2 client with DirectX9 and Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 that came with it. After that Steam version also started to run smoothly.
- I'm not sure precisely of what has solved fps issue

Man, I should ask for that refund anyway as nobody should go through such obstacles to play a game comfortably. It's abnormal xD

[plumboby]

run the gw live file witch comes with the original windows vista xbox 360 its a file that will allow you to play olkder microsoft games on 10 had this issue with a few older titles till i found the solution on a steam forum saying how to fix running older gen games on 10 it will load up as a windows live set up first log into ur windows account when it prompts it let it load up close it boom fire up in steam shud be no isues had this issue with a few games my stepson was running have any issues pm me privatly i can dig out the file i saved incase i have this issues again it be a file called gwlive u gota download it threw xbox live under a support page but with this installed can play any old school games with out fps drop & stability otherwise 10 will over ride it

[Neuronode]

Originally posted by plumboby:

run the gw live file witch comes with the original windows vista xbox 360 its a file that will allow you to play olkder microsoft games on 10 had this issue with a few older titles till i found the solution on a steam forum saying how to fix running older gen games on 10 it will load up as a windows live set up first log into ur windows account when it prompts it let it load up close it boom fire up in steam shud be no isues had this issue with a few games my stepson was running have any issues pm me privatly i can dig out the file i saved incase i have this issues again it be a file called gwlive u gota download it threw xbox live under a support page but with this installed can play any old school games with out fps drop & stability otherwise 10 will over ride it

thanks for info and offer, but all is ok now. No need for windows live or a similar crap ;)

[Wstr]

Good to hear you sorted it out mate. Have fun playing!

[Neuronode]

Originally posted by Wstr:

Good to hear you sorted it out mate. Have fun playing!

Already enjoing it, thanks!

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

Glad you got it working.
Enjoy the game.

[Neuronode]

Originally posted by Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979):

Glad you got it working. :D:
Enjoy the game. :ss13ok:

ty for your effort!

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

Originally posted by GuiltySpark:

Originally posted by Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979):

Glad you got it working.
Enjoy the game.

ty for your effort!

No problems!

[Kamikazae]

"my best shot was to istall non-Steam DoW2 client"


This is probably a stupid question but where did you get the non-steam DOW2 client?

[4sng_Respawnz]

Originally posted by GuiltySpark:

No need for windows live or a similar crap ;)

PREACH IT, Far and Wide !!!!

[Cute Blackness]

Holy moly. Why i can't find this topic early? Need try this recommendations for high fps.