Low fps/more drops than expected with good specs: AMD RX-480, i5-2500

[zpalmtree]

I'm getting lower fps than expected on this card.
I'm running ultra settings.

When I boot up the second level I'm getting about 90 fps, which sounds ok.
After the airlock opens I get about 80, which again is OK.
However, after going into combat I get drops to as low as 30.
It is very noticeable when I kill lots of enemies with a grenade. My fps goes to about 30, sometimes even lower, and stays like that for quite a few seconds, I assume till the gibs are no longer rendered.

Using MSI afterburner it reports my cores are generally about 90% usage.
This made me think it could be a cpu bottleneck, but I have seen other people with worse cpu's getting better performance, and some review sites have shown that they only lose about 10 fps with a worse cpu.
Furthermore, vulkan is supposed to use less cpu?

I did see another report on the forums with someone using one of those high clocked dual core pentiums getting a lot better fps after upgrading to an i4690k, but I think that cpu is a lot worse than mine, and the i4690k is not much better than mine. Unsure.

My friend with an overclocked i5-2500k and a 380 gets worse static fps than me (i.e. doing nothing, no combat), but in combat he never gets drops like mine, and while on all low he never went under 60fps which I do regularly.

I'm not sure how to take screenshots short of taking a photo of my screen, as they come out all black under vulkan.

I'm currently on argent energy tower, and the fps drops are very frequent, so i'm somewhere between 40-50, with very choppy gameplay.


Specs:

MSI AMD RX-480 8GB

Intel i5-2500 (non k)

8GB RAM

750W PSU


Thing's I've tried:
Using both vulkan and opengl:

I get worse fps on opengl. I am currently running vulkan.

Installing latest graphics drivers:

I have tried both the "latest 400 series" from amd's website and their auto detect and install driver.

Running everything on low:

While my fps is slightly better I still get drops into the 40's and sometimes as low as 30's.

Lowering resolution:

If I run the game in 640x480 I do get better fps but even sometimes get drops into the 40's. Makes me thing it might be a cpu bottleneck, but I did see the GPU going into the red on the performance graphs.

-USEALLAVAILABLECORES launch option:

Didn't seem to effect fps.

Temps:

My temps are fine while playing, cpu never goes above 70C, and gpu never above 60C.

Light overclock:

I overclocked my GPU slightly, didn't seem to change anything.

Reinstalling windows:

I was previously running windows 7 embedded, I installed standard windows 7, nothing changed.

Reinstalled game:

No change.

Moving onto ssd:

No change.

Closing background programs:

I have tried running the game with nothing on in the background, it gains me 5 fps, if that.

Viruses:

I am 100% sure I have no viruses. Aside from reinstalling, I download very little onto my pc.

Windowed/Borderless/Fullscreen:

No difference between different window options.

FOV:

I run on 110 fov, I notice very little change of fps between 90 and 130.

GPU Power Saving:

I no longer have the AMD Settings program installed, but when I did, it had power saving off (by default), and my core clock stays at solid 1303 when in game as it should.

VSYNC:

I have it disabled, but neither setting appeared to change fps.

-high launch option:

No change.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this issue. Thanks!

[Salamand3r-]

Try disabling vsync, if you have it enabled.

For Doom to function well, swap file must be set to system managed. Manually set sizes will cause poor performance, crashes, or both in many cases.

[ShocksVR #AirLink]

Babylon was built on fire původně napsal:

electrifying původně napsal:

cpu bottelneck gpu

I was thinking this is possible, but lots of people with, say, a i5-4690k are getting way better frames, and it's what, 10-15% better?

And isn't vulkan meant to improve the performance of older cpu's a lot?

Your Sandy Bridge CPU (2000 series) may be getting old (seriously that CPU launched 6 years ago; I know as I have a Sandy Bridge laptop). As someone else pointed out, the tech then was also slower, w/ decreased bus speeds and slower ram speeds.

While your GPU is current tech your CPU isn't. Maybe just lower your settings for now; can't expect Ultra settings/experience on "Minimum" hardware.
Hopefully you can get it to work.

Lastly, I just bought a new desktop w/ a i5-6400 (current Gen, 4 threads, 2133 mhz bus) and the exact same GPU of AMD RX 480; my game is fine.

[zpalmtree]

Swap file is indeed system managed. I guess we've concluded it must be a cpu bottleneck. Thanks for the advice.

[JT]

1. I don't think vulkan is supposed to use less; hell, I think the whole thing about it was to let the API start using more of the CPU to do whatever it needed if it had cores running idle

2. I'm split on what the issue is TBH. I run an i7-2600k OC'd to 4.0GHz paired with a 970 just fine on Ultra @ 1080p, so I can't really say 'oh it's ur CPU its old and garbage' when I'm running one right out of the same series you know (granted, Vulkan takes advantage of the 4 extra threads I have on mine)?

>are your PC power settings set to "High Performance" or whatever under the Control Panel power options? Are ALL drivers (mobo related ones, GPU, etc) up to date?

EDIT: also I have Depth of Field stuff and Motion Blur turned off because I just dislike those effects, FPS stays well above 60 except during 'cutscenes'

[Nomster]

I highly doubt your problem lies with your hardware. I have an AMD FX-6300 slightly overclocked to 4.2GHz with a Geforce GTX 1060 3GB and I am getting 70+ FPS on ultra/full-hd in every single scene. I did however have a problem with that particular scene you said, where the door opens and after that you get fps drops (with the smoke and all) but that was fixed by clearing my GPU cache and installing the newest graphics drivers.

I suggest you clear your cache (should be an option inside the radeon software, if I remember correcly) and see if that helps.

[zpalmtree]

TehGuy původně napsal:

1. I don't think vulkan is supposed to use less; hell, I think the whole thing about it was to let the API start using more of the CPU to do whatever it needed if it had cores running idle

2. I'm split on what the issue is TBH. I run an i7-2600k OC'd to 4.0GHz paired with a 970 just fine on Ultra @ 1080p, so I can't really say 'oh it's ur CPU its old and garbage' when I'm running one right out of the same series you know (granted, Vulkan takes advantage of the 4 extra threads I have on mine)?

>are your PC power settings set to "High Performance" or whatever under the Control Panel power options? Are ALL drivers (mobo related ones, GPU, etc) up to date?

EDIT: also I have Depth of Field stuff and Motion Blur turned off because I just dislike those effects, FPS stays well above 60 except during 'cutscenes'

I do have motion blur and depth of field off as well, I dislike them too. I do have power settings on high performance, and I can confirm that my cpu is ramping up to it's correct multiplier under high performance.

Overload původně napsal:

I highly doubt your problem lies with your hardware. I have an AMD FX-6300 slightly overclocked to 4.2GHz with a Geforce GTX 1060 3GB and I am getting 70+ FPS on ultra/full-hd in every single scene. I did however have a problem with that particular scene you said, where the door opens and after that you get fps drops (with the smoke and all) but that was fixed by clearing my GPU cache and installing the newest graphics drivers.

I suggest you clear your cache (should be an option inside the radeon software, if I remember correcly) and see if that helps.

I'll have a go clearing the cache.

Interesting to know you're performing so well on that setup. I think my cpu has higher single threaded and multi threaded performance so unless vulkan just works a lot better with amd cpu's there must be something wrong with my game.

[Jonnypanic]

I'm running on an i7 920. They came out in 2009. Age isn't the problem, and neither is your CPU the bottleneck. This is an i5 2500 running Ultra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhDVr0y0Yr4

[zpalmtree]

Really don't know what the issue is then. Really frustrating.

[Kaizen]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/379720/discussions/0/152393186492749915/#c152393186492793072

[Jonnypanic]

Sounds like a driver problem. Have you tried doing a clean install? Completely wiping and reinstalling drivers manually? Don't rely on the amd installer. I have had lots of trouble with it in the past. You didn't mention you had in the post.
You should be getting similar performance to me, on a gtx 1060 3gb, 60 fps on Ultra (high shadows).

[zpalmtree]

Aside from having installed the drivers from fresh after reinstalling windows, I just used display driver uninstaller to reinstall the drivers. I'm reinstalling the game again so I can't report back until that's done, which takes a while on this internet unfortunately.