Framerate cap. I'm shocked!

[Orophen]

Hi guys, I just wanted to share with you my experience, it could be useful to someone.
I have a laptop with a gtx 960m, not the best for modern games, as you can understand. Nonetheless I am able to play many 2018-2019 games, with low details, and it is fine by me.
Many games, but not this one. I had to turn to small unit scale and low settings, and I still had problems.
Today I downloaded the nvidia profile inspector and I capped the framerate to 30: it is like I'm playing with another pc! I started a new campaign with medium unit scale (impossible in the past) and it runs perfect, even better than before with small unit scale!
Next campaign I will try with big unit scale, I feel it could be doable now!
So, if you have performance issues, try this trick!

[Chibbity]

As I understand it Nvidia profile inspector has several unique flags for certain games that it changes to make them potentially run better.

Just capping you frame rate wouldn't have much effect beyond making it "smoother" and more consistent looking.

[Orophen]

Origineel geplaatst door Chibbity:

As I understand it Nvidia profile inspector has several unique flags for certain games that it changes to make them potentially run better.

Just capping you frame rate wouldn't have much effect beyond making it "smoother" and more consistent looking.

I don't know, the only thing I did was:
frame rate limiter ---> 30 fps
frame rate limiter mode ---> limiter V2 force off

I didn't touch anything else, but I witness a HUGE improvement, really huge.

[TheAlmightyProo]

It can help for 'better' laptops too, especially newer, thinner, Apple trend-a-likes.

Mines an Asus ROG Strix Scar; i7 8750H, GTX 1070, 16 Gb RAM, 1080p 120Hz etc...
Even with undervolting aso it gets damn hot, at least 80-85C, and comparably noisy running my usual high/ultra tweaked mix of settings at 65-70 fps.
Limiting fps to 30 gains me a lot; max heat 70-75C, way less noise and smoother/less jarring drops in game. 30 fps, even 45, has no loss of quality or enjoyment in gameplay imo... it's just not the kind of game that needs or relies on higher frames to enjoy or win tbh.
On the bright side, limited heat and noise means I don't constantly wonder if it's about to take off or combust. Or both...

As for similarly older specs, my now retired laptop was somewhat closer to yours; i7 4720HQ, GTX 970m, 16 Gb RAM, 1080p 60Hz etc...
I never tried, never occurred to me, to limit fps on it... as the best balance of performance I could get on it was 30 fps medium preset with units on high anyway (after losing 10 fps or so from The Queen and the Crone DLC) Maybe capping would've smoothed what performance there was? I wouldn't be totally surprised but I'll never know now...
Heat and noise wasn't ever as much an issue on the older laptop. It was thicker and bulkier though, and weighed near twice as much, so way less portable even within the house.

Also, the other main difference between the two laptops was that the newer one has G-sync. That's an improvement to smoothness all it's own tbh (have tried with and without it)

[Lady MacBeth]

I mean essentially you are forcing it to render at 1/2 vysnc. So yes, this can make it easier on struggling hardware. Its the reason many console games are capped at 30fps.

[Orophen]

Origineel geplaatst door Ming:

I mean essentially you are forcing it to render at 1/2 vysnc. So yes, this can make it easier on struggling hardware. Its the reason many console games are capped at 30fps.

Yes, I think it's that!
What is absolutely incredible is that before I had a lot of frame drop in battles, with small unit scale, now it runs smoothly with medium unit scale.

[Chibbity]

If you had frame drops before, but don't now; then they were frame drops from above 30 fps.

You're just limiting how many frames can be displayed, that won't actually improve performance, besides maybe as a tack on effect of making the laptop run a bit cooler sometimes?

But yes, most people would agree that a solid 30 fps looks better than constantly fluctuating between 30-45ish fps. That feeling of the game constantly slowing down and speeding up can be very distracting.

[Orophen]

Origineel geplaatst door Chibbity:

If you had frame drops before, but don't now; then they were frame drops from above 30 fps.

You're just limiting how many frames can be displayed, that won't actually improve performance, besides maybe as a tack on effect of making the laptop run a bit cooler sometimes?

But yes, most people would agree that a solid 30 fps looks better than constantly fluctuating between 30-45ish fps. That feeling of the game constantly slowing down and speeding up can be very distracting.

No I can assure that I used to go well below 30 fps. Now it does't happen, and I am using medium unit scale. it is unbelievable.
maybe it is like a side effect, I don't know, but it works.

[Chibbity]

Origineel geplaatst door Orophen:

No I can assure that I used to go well below 30 fps. Now it does't happen, and I am using medium unit scale. it is unbelievable.
maybe it is like a side effect, I don't know, but it works.

To be fair, heat can have a huge effect on performance, and laptops have notoriously bad cooling.

I wouldn't expect such a noticeable improvement, but who knows.

Does your laptop get really hot to the touch while playing? Putting it up on something so air can circulate under it is always a good idea. You can even use a USB keyboard so you don't have to have it on your lap.

[Orophen]

Origineel geplaatst door Chibbity:

Origineel geplaatst door Orophen:

No I can assure that I used to go well below 30 fps. Now it does't happen, and I am using medium unit scale. it is unbelievable.
maybe it is like a side effect, I don't know, but it works.

To be fair, heat can have a huge effect on performance, and laptops have notoriously bad cooling.

I wouldn't expect such a noticeable improvement, but who knows.

Does your laptop get really hot to the touch while playing? Putting it up on something so air can circulate under it is always a good idea. You can even use a USB keyboard so you don't have to have it on your lap.

Hot yes, but I don't know if it is too much honestly... maybe as you said the fact that now it is blocked at 30 fps causes less heat, it could be a reason. By the way, I played long enough today to be sure it wasn't just the first 10 minutes when the pc is still cool, it runs smoothly even after 2 hours of total war warhammer.
But yeah, I'm going to follow your suggestion, good idea.

[Chibbity]

Origineel geplaatst door Orophen:

But yeah, I'm going to follow your suggestion, good idea.

They make special cooling stands with fans built in, but if you want a quick and cheap solution; any old box fan laid on it's back will do the same job, you just want as much air flowing over and under the laptop as possible. You an even just point a small fan at it from the side.

[Orophen]

Guys, a little update.
I tried to use large unit scale, it works flawlessly.
I'm trying also huge unit scale...and it works perfectly.
I am really shocked, finally i can enjoy this game. apparently my pc has always been able to run it like this but there was something wrong.
just capping the framerate now it goes as it should.
wow.

[Bishop-Six]

Every game reacts different to fps changes, but Warhammer II is very sensitive when fps isnt constant.

Im playing on 45 fps capped with SLI 970GTX (i know sli is dead, but warhammer has support) and its way more fluent, especially on the campaign map.

So yeah, Op is right and its worth a try, maybe 30 fps, maybe 45 fps, depends on the system.

[Orophen]

Origineel geplaatst door O.Gefr.Löring.363VD:

Every game reacts different to fps changes, but Warhammer II is very sensitive when fps isnt constant.

Im playing on 45 fps capped with SLI 970GTX (i know sli is dead, but warhammer has support) and its way more fluent, especially on the campaign map.

So yeah, Op is right and its worth a try, maybe 30 fps, maybe 45 fps, depends on the system.

Yeah, I think you are right. It was a disaster before, unplayable already at medium unit scale, now it runs wonderfully with hue unit scale! I'm really satisfied, given all the money spent on this game eheheh.