FPS Drops when looking at Wwater surface

[chaosspieler]

I have constant 40 FPS running around anywhere but the moment I look at Water my FPS drop to 15. But the Problem is specifically the surface of the water. When i go diving everything goes back to normal with 40 fps. I tried deactivating the Water Reflection but that didnt help either. I also deactivated the Cloud but still no better.

[xXBulletJusticeXx]

without specs and running version nobody can help you

[🅸🅲🅴🅸🅲🅴🅱🅰🅱🆈]

hey there, press the ` key to enter console and type r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0

[chaosspieler]

Originally posted by woosh:

hey there, press the ` key to enter console and type r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0

I already did that and nothing helped

[Powerferret]

I have this same issue. everything turned down to low , fluid physics off, reflections off, clouds off = High frame rate until I am close to and look at water, but underwater instantly fixes the issue, until I look up, and it does the same. I think its whatever filter is making the view looking through water ripple and wave. anyone know a way to turn that off?

[Naxirian]

What GPU do you have, if you don't mind me asking? I have an AMD Radeon VII running the latest drivers available and I also have this issue. I get 50-70 fps running around in the jungle but if I go near the surface of water I can drop to 7-15 fps.

[chaosspieler]

Originally posted by Naxirian:

What GPU do you have, if you don't mind me asking? I have an AMD Radeon VII running the latest drivers available and I also have this issue. I get 50-70 fps running around in the jungle but if I go near the surface of water I can drop to 7-15 fps.

I have a Radeon RX 580 Series with the latest drivers

[Decrepit]

I have the same issue, so do 2 other friends. All running RX580's. Bad luck us i guess, hope there is fix for this soon. Other AMD Cards have issues with this too, even some of the way more modern ones. We need to just keep bumping these post's whenever we see them and just hope it gets attention.

[ADkuxl]

i have the same issue, also with a RX580. I'm getting around 45fps underwater and above water but when I'm in the shallows I'm getting around 8-10 fps. my friend has a vaguely equivalent gpu of a different brand (I can't remember what sorry) and he isn't having any problems with the water.

strangely, I only have issues with the ocean and the rivers, any water inside caves does not give me the frame drop. I have gone through almost all of the r.volumetric, lumen, transparency, translucency, shadows, reflections etc console settings one and by one and have only managed to scrape 1 or 2 extra frames.

[Naxirian]

My brother has a 6600XT and he's fine. It seems to be the Vega and pre-Vega GPU's that have the issue with the water surface. 5000 and onwards (RDNA based GPU's) don't seem to have the issue with the water. It may just be that there's something in their water surface that our cards are too old to deal with. It is a brand new engine (Unreal Engine 5) after all. It's extremely annoying though. You can "fix" the problem by using "r.Water.SingleLayer 0". This will turn the surface of the water off entirely and it will become as though it isn't there *until you get into it*. It's not really a solution but it does solve the framerate problem from above the water surface.

[Martin]

The biggest fps gain for me is r.fog 0
Removing clouds, reflection helps alot, but the fog is the game killer. I'd also suggest shadows, but it makes the game look horrible.

I upgraded from a Strix RX580 to 6650XT. About a 25% increase in fps, better tech support for fsr etc. Ingame Ark clouds, water surface, textures in general are very pixelated, makes the game look really ugly, after a few hours the game will stutter to death and crash. Removing clouds, reflection makes the game feel alot clearer and cleaner. Removing Fog whilst it does feel abit cheaty, as you remove alot of visual difficulty, it seriously improves the gameplay, removing/reducing foliage can help as well, but it makes everything look ugly and empty. Again, doing this removes visual difficulties and on pvp servers is considered cheating.

[Vaantora]

I know this isn't ideal for everyone, but I did find my own solution with the water issue while playing single player, for the more casual players who need a quick fix:
r.Water.SingleLayer 0 ('1' turns it back on)

This turns off the surface of the water completely. Makes sharks look like they're flying in nothing. r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0 is a good FPS boost, but whatever they are using for the water's surface sucks. It'll retain the water splashes, SFX, the water line on rocks, and physics, and will still give you the effect when you go under the water, but this makes the surface of the water transparent and allows you to see the ocean floor. Saved my FPS, and I'll just turn it on if I really need it.

[chaosspieler]

I bought a NVIDIA GeForce 4060 TI and now there are no frame drops near water. I know it is a big upgrade but i dont get any fps drops near water so i think it is a problem for amd only

[dashu31]

It seems like our Rx580 is too old to handle the ripples and waves, having same issue when facing any body of water fps drops crazy.

[Aiizem]

I had the same problem with 4060ti 8gb, what solve the problem was changed everything and nothing works.

What solved the problem for me: `verify integrity of the game` clicking in the Ark Survival Ascendend on steam, Properties, (Verify Integrity of the Archives).

100fps on water now, I hope this help you guys.

[Arachia]

UNFORTUNATELY r.Water.SingleLayer 0 Doesn't seem to work on the official servers. The key to the problem seems to be the reflection on the water surface. it wasn't a problem originally for me but they changed something now i get about 0.2-0.5 fps if i look at to much water surface. the problem is less laggy if i don't look at to much water surface. the water surface create this huge lag from above and below. i am running a ryzen 7 2700 and an amd rx 580 special 16gb with 32gb ram with the game on a samsung 1gb m.2 ssd. Again when the game came out anf for the first couple months I had no issue with the water then they changed something that broke the water now i have to wait a good minute to adjust my view away from the water surface every time i go under water or come up and if i need something right on the or near the surface it is like 5-10 minutes of fighting to get the camera at the right spot to open a bag or access a pet that is there.