The ONE thread for Squad's performance tuning (or Tentative)

[Bait]

I posted this a while ago in another thread, but it made sense to make it a thread of itself. Please note these are from August (v3.2, I guess?) but should still be at least 90% accurate as of 3.4.

Reference system is my laptop of course:
i7-11800H
RTX 3070 Laptop, 8GB VRAM
32GB DDR4-3200 Dual-channel (2x16GB)
@1440p
Obviously an SSD (2TB Samsung 980 Pro)
Win10 x64 LTSC '21, further debloated naked with NTLite

In the following posts, I'll describe the precise settings I use, which get me in the 70-90fps range most times. Quick links:
Drivers: https://steamcommunity.com/app/393380/discussions/6/5595187488992499832/#c5595187488992500814

Steam's Settings: https://steamcommunity.com/app/393380/discussions/6/5595187488992499832/#c5595187488992501233

Squad's Settings:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/393380/discussions/6/5595187488992499832/#c5595187488992501597

OS and BIOS tweaks: https://steamcommunity.com/app/393380/discussions/6/5595187488992499832/#c5595187488992502006

All of these warrant me stable ~70fps @1440p native on most maps, eventually dropping to 50 and very rarely to 40 when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan in-game *and* the laptop is close to thermal and/or power throttling (mere 230w PSU). On a desktop with decent cooling and PSU, you should be good for close to 90fps stable.

With NIS on, it's good for high-70s to 90s, as I mentioned in the beginning.

Of course, this is for my system. Adjust it to yours' relative performance, particularly your CPU's single-threaded performance. Mine is an oddball that reaches about 3250 (instead of the usual low-3100s) on Passmark:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

or, if yours isn't listed there, like mine:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
then click on your CPU and look for "Single Thread Rating", on the right.

but you should be fine with anything above 3100; less than that and you'll have degraded performance. More info here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/393380/discussions/6/5595187488988153268/

So fiddle and adjust according to your specs and good luck! ;)
Cheers!

[Bait]

Drivers (nvidia Control Panel):
*Note: I use nVidia's "Studio" drivers, which are allegedly more stable than gaming drivers. You might have different results with gaming drivers, so always test and adjust these settings for your specific system(s).

App-specific for Squad.exe (Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings):

1. Anisotropic filtering: app-controlled
   
2. Antialiasing-FXAA, Transparency, and Gamma Correction: OFF
   
3. AA Mode: App-controlled
   
4. Background Max frame rate: 30fps
   
5. Low Latency Mode: Off
   -> (setting it to anything else will wither lower FPS or increase stutters)
   
6. Max Frame Rate: Off (limited in-game)
   
7. MFAA: off
   
8. Power management mode: Normal
   -> only use Max Performance if you have an otherworldly cooling system and PSU, NEVER the case with laptops
   
9. Texture Filtering - Anisotropic optimization: Off
   
10. Negative LOD Bias: allow
    -> Might be best to disable, see Holden's note below.
    
11. Quality: High Quality
    
12. Trilinear Optimization: On
    -> May actually be best to turn off, see Holden's note below. Haven't tested
    
13. Threaded Optimization: auto
    
14. Triple Buffering: Off
    
15. Vertical Sync: Fast
    
16. VR pre-rendered Frames: 1

Global Settings:

1. Image Scaling: Off (but will experiment with it on soon)
   
2. Ambient Occlusion: OFF
   
3. Shader Cache size: Disabled <- this is CRUCIAL!
   
4. Shadow Play and GeForce Experience not even installed
   
5. PhysX set to CPU (switch to GPU if you notice your CPU is regularly close to maxing out on all cores.

NIS (Nvidia Image Scaling)
I also use NIS, which is a poorman's DLSS but works with any game or fullscreen application. To set it up:

1. open nVidia Control Panel;
   
2. go to "Adjust desktop size and position";
   
3. set "Perform scaling" to GPU.
   * Note: if it fails to enable after clicking "Apply", that's usually on laptops whose primary screen is set to the Intel GPU and you're on an external display. Disable the internal display (usually #1) then return to this menu an it should work.
   
4. go to "Manage 3D Settings", Global Settings;
   
5. set Image Scaling to "on.

If it works, you'll see a "NIS" indicator on the top-left corner:
- blue means it's enabled, but inactive;
- green means it's active.

Set Squad's resolution to anything lower than your display's native resolution, and the driver will auto-scale it to full-res.

E.g. for my 1440p display, I use 1600x900 resolution inside Squad, and may try FHD at times, performance allowing. The driver will always upscale it to 1440p.

Over time, I'll start marking settings that should work for most people, settings that I've never tested enough and just left at default, and settings that bring mixed results depending on the system. Please be patient until then. ;)

[Bait]

Steam
Broadcasting disabled
Downloads not allowed during gameplay
Steam Overlay disabled globally (Settings -> In-Game): or at least disable it for Squad, as below
Controllers disabled globally
Shader Caching disabled

Squad-specific Options (Library -> Right-click Squad --> Properties):
disable all settings in "General"

Add -useallavailablecores to "Launch Options"
* also try -dx12, see if it works for you (gives me glitches of all kinds; thanks but nope)
Updates: Never allow background downloads
Controller: Disable Steam Input (yup, redundant but one never knows...)

[Bait]

Squad's Settings
Game -> Field Of View: 95
(good balance between local awareness, zoom, and performance)

Graphics (take a deep breath):

1. Window Mode: Fullscreen
   -> (switch to Borderless if too much stuttering)
   
2. Resolution: 1440p
   
3. Resolution Scale: 100
   
4. Max FPS (Menu): 60
   
5. Max FPS (In-game): 90
   -> (Helps A LOT with stuttering)
   
6. Vsync: unchecked
   -> will be forced by the driver to Fast and limited by the limiter, helps against both stutters and tearing, might induce minor input lag on some systems
   
7. Support GPU Occlusion: checked
   -> (not to be mistaken with Ambient Occlusion, which degrades performance)
   
8. Graphics Quality: Custom
   -> (will become "custom" as soon as you start tweaking anyway)
   
9. Enable AA: checked
   
10. AA Quality: High
    
11. AA Samples: 8
    
12. Dynamic Mesh Quality: medium
    
13. Low Quality Environment: unchecked
    -> (never check it unless you have NO other option, which shouldn't happen unless you're on a GT 750 as I did back in the day)
    
14. Material Quality: Medium
    
15. Tesselation: unchecked
    -> (only check it if you're hitting much higher FPS than you need - or if you're a true masochist)
    
16. Texture Quality: Medium
    
17. Anisotropic Filtering: 8
    
18. Uncap Texture Poolsize: checked as I have 8GB VRAM;
    -> uncheck if you have 4GB or less
    
19. Shadow Quality: Medium
    -> (Contact Shadows will be forced on)
    
20. AO Quality: Low
    -> doesn't really matter as it's disabled in the driver - allegedly. Otherwise, this may severely impact performance, depending on your GPU
    
21. Screen Space AO: unchecked
    
22. Particle Quality: Medium
    
23. Lens Flares: obviously off
    
24. Motion Blur: obviously off
    
25. Screen Sharpening: off
    -> (shouldn't impact on performance, it's mostly preference)
    
26. Color Grading: indifferent performance-wise, set brightness to your preference and to match your display's contrast. You'll probably want to increase it for non-HDR OLED displays.

[Bait]

OS and BIOS tweaks:

• Enabled GPU-controlled scheduling (Windows -> Display Settings -> Graphics Settings);
  -> May cause issues with some systems. It works on mine (meaning: doesn't cause any issues but I haven't tested thoroughly) so I just left it on.
  
• Disabled Vsync interrupt control (not sure it works in W10)
  
• Process priority set to background services (Windows Settings -> System -> Advanced -> Advanced)
  
• Power Management fine-tuned for highest performance
  
• Resizable BAR enabled in BIOS
  
• XMP profile set in BIOS to match my slowest DDR stick
  
• Disabled or removed lots of unneeded services, scheduled tasks, and components
  quite a few other tweaks I don't even remember (mostly straight to the registry or Local Policies through install-time scripts)

[Fencer94]

GPU controlled Scheduling will also wreak havoc with other applications. Streaming on Discord becomes a power point when it's turned on, at least on my rig.

[Bait]

Originally posted by Holden:

Originally posted by Bait:

• Negative LOD Bias: allow
  
  
• Shader Cache size: Disabled <- this is CRUCIAL!

Just 3 things I wanted to point out.

- LOD bias clamp is better option in squad - picture a bit more sharp when camera is moving and reducing blurriness.

- Why shader cache disabled? I have opposite - unlimited

- Trilinear Optimization: I have it off. This is getting in a way imo with single-thread programs

Yo! LOD Bias and Trilinear are just how they're set, I'll admit I've never looked much into them nor did extensive testing, so just left at default. Thanks for the insights, I'll benchmark them when I can.

Most of my system settings have been exhaustively benchmarked with a number of programs over the years, but not all. So feel free to ask further questions.

Shader Caching, I always disabled to save space and prevent file corruption (it's always brought me more trouble than benefits) since the dawn of times. I also kept them disabled after a couple weeks of testing with it on, that resulted in an awful lot more stutters with all games I played (including Squad), thus long after I went full SSD.

I know, quite counter-intuitive, and I have no idea why. I suppose that when it's disabled the system keeps them in memory instead of disk - or else it somehow suffer more from DPC latency - and that's maybe why we have less stutters. This is my third machine in which it occurs.

[Bait]

Originally posted by 𝖋𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖗94:

GPU controlled Scheduling will also wreak havoc with other applications. Streaming on Discord becomes a power point when it's turned on, at least on my rig.

True that, keywords highlighted. It can indeed cause issues in some systems (not exactly GPU-dependant, but rather some combination) and I should add a note regarding that.

It works on mine (meaning: doesn't cause any issues but I haven't tested thoroughly) so I just left it on. I also use nVidia's Studio drivers - which are allegedly more stable - so it might be a reason as well. But for some systems it breaks stuff. Folks should be warned.

Thanks for your comment, I'll add a note there.

[Bait]

Yo @Holden, don't you mean Threaded Optimisation (as opposed to Trilinear)? "Threaded" does make sense to interfere with single-threaded uses, "trilinear" not so much imho...

I'll also expect both to have different results depending on how PhysX is set, and also on the application. Now that I think of it, I'll just have to bench them some day. :)

[Bait]

Originally posted by Holden:

[...]
I know that I've tweaked system again from ground up and I set LOD to clamp and threading off and now (only when playing fullscreen) I got around 100 fps stable with occasional dip to 85 min sometimes but image ... sharp, crisp, and no smudging at all or edges shimmering (this is big for me)
[...]

Oh wow, less smudging and shimmering is enough for me to want it. :)

About PhysX, I did quite a bit of testing back in the day and the difference is never clear-cut. Depending on the game and situation, it may be best to have it on the GPU (e.g. when the GPU is usually free and the CPU is under load) or the CPU (e.g. when the GPU is under load and the GPU is free), and as this varies a lot during gameplay there's always a compromise.

For Squad, it may seem counter-intuitive to set PhysX to CPU then because the CPU is usually the bottleneck, but remember that's because Squad mostly uses 1 core. Unlike Squad and other UE4 games, though, PhysX does support multicore, so *if* it's used it will usually balance itself among the other cores, freeing up the GPU. I don't recall now if Squad specifically does use PhysX (and won't reinstall it just to check it :P and IIRC it does ), but other games do, and as I usually run them maxxed at 1440p it's usually the GPU who's suffering. Then PhysX on CPU makes sense.

Also, setting PhysX for me results in less frame-time instability (a.k.a. stuttering) in the most intense scenes. I don't think it'll influence general FPS otherwise.

[Bait]

@Holden: nice feedback, thanks.
I wouldn't expect PhysX to make much of a difference with materials on Low, but particularly on Chora - which isn't a heavy map, but I haven't tested that much recently either. I'll make a note for the next time I'll reinstall the game.

Regardless, that's a quite stable performance there, and quite fast for a 1060, even on Low - fast single-threaded performance making its point. I'm just bugged on why didn't you get any FPS improvement nor visual degradation by setting Resolution Scale to 50. o.O For me it becomes instant Doom '94, and FPS boosts by about +70%. Maybe the fullscreen bugs are back?

I remember that exactly 1 year ago (v2.11) Fullscreen only saw any changes if I changed resolution as well, otherwise it made no difference. Also 4k Borderless was faster than 1440p fullscreen. Maybe that's back...

I'm also curious about:
- are you sure the additional crispness doesn't come from your forced AA in driver settings?
- have you noticed any practical change with RAM OC?

Legit interest here. Thanks again for sharing.
P.S.: nice trigger discipline too. :)

[Bait]

Nice, thanks again for your time.

[Bait]

know what?

UP!

[Bait]

wondering if this still applies on 4.0