Dark Souls 3 Optimization Guide

[SpacePirate]

I published this as a guide and tweaked some of the formatting please respond there with your comments.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=681951133



I've discovered some pretty simple ways of increasing overall FPS and smoothness in Dark souls 3 so i thought i would share them.

Unparking CPU

What is CPU unparking ?

Cores are unparked by default. Parking is something that an operating system can do to put a core to sleep when there's not enough work to do to justify keeping it powered up.
When threads (and/or processes depending on the operating system's model) become ready for execution the operating system has a decision to make. If one or more cores are parked it can wake them up and load the thread/process onto the logical processor representing that core. However, this causes the microprocessor to consume more power. Alternatively it can keep the cores parked and simply throw the thread/process onto the ready queue. This causes the thread/process to wait longer in the queue than it would normally, but avoids waking the core.

I'm not certain what mathematical model Windows uses by default to determine when to unpark cores, but it's most likely some sort of moving average of utilization or queuing delay. In fact, it may be faster to simply wait in the queue and run on a logical processor that's already unparked rather than wait for one that is parked to be awoken. Once the utilization level rises above a certain threshold (where utilization is the fraction of time spent running processes other than the idle process) or the mean time spent in the ready queue exceeds a certain value it would make sense to wake a core up. Various power settings most likely just move these setpoints around. It is possible to configure the operating system to never park cores at all but it already does a very good job of handling this on its own.
Source - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2166508/unparking-cpu-cores.html#13425539

Using software like CPU core parking manager will Unpark your CPU cores for you but you can do it manually though it can be a little difficult for non-techsavy people.

How to use CPU core parking manager: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fKxZ1mq9KA

Unparking your CPU cores give you a small but worthy FPS boost as shown here:
Parked(47.7FPS) http://i.imgur.com/JeHnrxo.jpg
Unparked(53.6FPS) http://i.imgur.com/bjtc5cU.jpg

Unparking your CPU cores definitely increases FPS at least on AMD CPU's. Remember FPS increases will wary depending on your system but primarily your CPU. Some report getting higher increases on AMD CPU's and Intel CPU's so keep this in mind.
Keep in mind that Unparking your CPU's will only help if your CPU is bottlenecking the games performance.

CPU core parking manager: http://coderbag.com/programming-c/cpu-core-parking-manager


Overclocking your CPU and/or GPU

Overclocking your CPU/GPU can be scary but it's actually quite enjoyable of a task when you do it right and see the performance gains from it. I won't go into too much details on overclocking because making a guide on how to do that is frankly just stupid since there are a lot better overclocking guides out there than i can possible make. Just be careful when overclocking it can/will reduce the lifespan of your CPU/GPU. There is also the risk of permanently destroying your CPU/GPU though these are uncommon they do happen from time to time if you're not careful.
Intel CPU focused overlocking guide http://lifehacker.com/a-beginners-introduction-to-overclocking-your-intel-pr-5580998
AMD CPU focused overlocking guide http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-overclock-athlon,2161.html

For GPU's the guides are pretty similar on both the Nvidia and AMD end so thiswill do: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-2749337/safe-gpu-overclocking-guide-2015.html


Game "Boosters"
No just don't. Yes they can be beneficial for systems with 4-6GB of RAM but the effects are pretty minor. I've personally tested Razer Cortex and it's decent though it messes with the Steam overlay FPS counter and doubles the original value which is strange. It doesn't install any malware/spyware as far as i could tell.
Keep in mind that you have to register an account to be able to use the boost function.
Razer Cortex - http://www.razerzone.com/cortex


Capping the game at 30 FPS
If you can't reach the golden 60 FPS mark in Dark Souls 3 and are experiencing stuttering you should consider capping the game at 30 FPS. This is most likely reduce the stuttering you experience dramatically since your CPU/GPU don't have to work overtime do get the next frame ready. This will make the game appear less choppy and hopefully smoother. Since Dark souls 3 doesn't support capping the FPS we will need to "Trick" it into that we're running a 30Hz monitor. This can easily be done in your GPU provider's control panel.


For Nvidia users:
Go to Nvidia Control Panel(Search for it in the start menu) then Manage 3D Settings then click on Program settings. Find darksoulsiii.exe and click add. Now find the feature Maximum pre-rendered frames and set it to "2" . For the last setting scroll all the way down until you find Vertical Sync set it to "Adaptive half refresh rate". Next click the apply button and you're done.


For AMD users:
AMD users can cap their FPS to 30 FPS by RadeonPro program and go to the Tweaks tab. Set VSync control to "Always On (Double Vsync)".

-Thanks to Void of Entity for pointing that one out.-

My system
CPU: AMD FX-8320(4.4GHz)
GPU: GTX 960(4GB, +200 Core, +200 Memory)
Dark Souls 3 on SSD: Yes
RAM: 14 GB(1688 MHz)
Post below if you have any questions or tests i can do.

[Baka Baizuo]

I like your guide mate!
By the way, AMD users can cap to 30fps by using RadeonPro. It has a feature for "Always On (Double Vsync)" on the tweaks tab, thus capping to 30fps

[Dorsal]

geforce 600 series does not have that vsync option dude

[Baka Baizuo]

huh, weird, the option should be at nr1 on the image on this page
http://www.radeonpro.info/manual/contents/the-tweaks-tab

[VicenarySolid]

damn, that all works on mine gtx 560) got alomost ~10 fps, tnx u so much)

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by Berggknight:

geforce 600 series does not have that vsync option dude

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync/supported-gpus?field_gpu_type_value=All&page=1

Adaptive VSync is supported in the 600 series, sure your drivers are up to date ?

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by VicenarySolid:

damn, that all works on mine gtx 560) got alomost ~10 fps, tnx u so much)

That's awesome man !

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by Void of Entity:

I like your guide mate!
By the way, AMD users can cap to 30fps by using RadeonPro. It has a feature for "Always On (Double Vsync)" on the tweaks tab, thus capping to 30fps

Thanks dude updated the guide :).

[Aryend]

Originally posted by VicenarySolid:

damn, that all works on mine gtx 560) got alomost ~10 fps, tnx u so much)

Not sure if this info is still up to date as I think the new Nvidia drivers increased performance, but back when the game launched the old 314.22 drivers worked a lot better with the 5xx series, for a friend of mine who also had a 560 the game was unplayable, then he rolled back and he could play it.

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by Aryend:

Originally posted by VicenarySolid:

damn, that all works on mine gtx 560) got alomost ~10 fps, tnx u so much)

Not sure if this info is still up to date as I think the new Nvidia drivers increased performance, but back when the game launched the old 314.22 drivers worked a lot better with the 5xx series, for a friend of mine who also had a 560 the game was unplayable, then he rolled back and he could play it.

Nvidia did release a new driver for DkS3 a while ago so it should have what the previous drivers(except 314.22) didn't have or had. That is of course if they aren't "gimping" their graphics card like some people have reported.

[TheMetalCorpser]

In all honesty you should make this into an actual guide so it doesn't get lost within the hundreds of threads.

[Aryend]

Originally posted by Dangerous Beef:

Originally posted by Aryend:

Not sure if this info is still up to date as I think the new Nvidia drivers increased performance, but back when the game launched the old 314.22 drivers worked a lot better with the 5xx series, for a friend of mine who also had a 560 the game was unplayable, then he rolled back and he could play it.

Nvidia did release a new driver for DkS3 a while ago so it should have what the previous drivers(except 314.22) didn't have or had. That is of course if they aren't "gimping" their graphics card like some people have reported.

Yeah, that's why I said I',m not sure if it's still up to date info, but my friend did indeed see an fps increase rolling back to the 314.22 driver when the game and the first driver for it released, would be nice if someone confirmed if the new drivers work better with the older nvidia series.
For me the newest driver fixed the few areas that still had some dips, but then again I'm on a series 9xx gpu, not a series 5xx

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by UnbornCorpser:

In all honesty you should make this into an actual guide so it doesn't get lost within the hundreds of threads.

Trust me i tried, i couldn't publish it for some reason.

[TheMetalCorpser]

Originally posted by Dangerous Beef:

Trust me i tried, i couldn't publish it for some reason.

Did it give any reason in red letters when you tried?

[SpacePirate]

Originally posted by UnbornCorpser:

Originally posted by Dangerous Beef:

Trust me i tried, i couldn't publish it for some reason.

Did it give any reason in red letters when you tried?

Nope the publish "button" wasn't anywhere to be found. I'll try again now to see if it appears.

[TheMetalCorpser]

Originally posted by Dangerous Beef:

Nope the publish "button" wasn't anywhere to be found. I'll try again now to see if it appears.

That's odd...well hopefully it goes through this time.