Performance / Framepacing / Stutter Fix - Nvidia users.

[Smokey]

This is aimed at having a smooth 60 fps experience with no hitches or stutters on a 60hz monitor without the need of using the SpecialK tool. Do not expect to go from 20 fps to 60 fps because it won't happen. It's aimed at having a consistent smooth frame rate/pacing going on. I advice to remove the SpecialK tool before you try this. Not that its not a great tool,because it's a great tool,but i have no need to use it currently with these settings and it's better to start doing these tweaks without having other tweaks applied,remove the SpecialK tool properly. Installing SpecialK ontop is something you can always do after if you want or still suffer from performance issues.

If you have a beasty GPU with 6 or 8gb mem and let's say a 120hz or 144hz monitor you might want to set the game to use 60hz before you try any of the following since i'm not sure if you will gain the same effects as i do on 60hz aiming for 60fps,but feel free to try.

Make sure you're on the latest Nvidia drivers,version 441.87. Since i'm basing this on using these drivers.

And as always make sure you have Power Management Mode set to Maximum performance in the Nvcpl and enable Threaded Optimization.
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First of all you need to set your ingame settings to the following.

1)
*Ingame Options*
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Set the Ingame Vsync to OFF
Framerate - 120 fps <-- Do Not lock this at 60,no matter what your brain tells you. Ingame frame limiter is bad !
Model LOD - Average
TRAM - High
Aniso Filtering - High
Geomap - On
Lightning - High
Shadows - High
Ambient Occlusion - Average
Anti Alias - TAA
Motion Blur - Off
Filtering - Highest
All the Nvidia stuff - Off

Save these settings and exit your game.
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2)
*FFXV Config*
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Now you locate your Final Fantasy Config file located in "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XV\Steam\76561198031027116\savestorage"

In the Savestorage folder you open up "GraphicsConfig" by double clicking on it
and look for the following line "TextureStreamingMemory".
We're gonna change this to 1200 so the line will look like this

TextureStreamingMemory=1200


Edit: Changed the value from 1800 to 1200 for better performance with no noticable loss in quality.
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Save and close the file. No need to set it to read only unless youre changing TRAM from the ingame options menu,which you should not touch after these changes. You can experiment with this value by lowering it for increased performance,suggest to do it in steps of 100 and don't go below 1000.





3)
*Nvidia Inspector*
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Next step,download Nvidia Inspector from here - https://www.guru3d.com/files-get/nvidia-profile-inspector-download,1.html

When it's done downloading you open up the tool and look at the bottom of the screen,Click on New version - Update.

When that's done Click on the small Nvidia Icon next to Driver Version
This will open up the Nvidia profile settings.
In the Top Profile menu look for "Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition"
In this profile you will look for "Sync and Refresh" and under that section you will change the following.

Set Vertical Sync to - Force ON
*Do not touch the other Vsync settings in there like "Smooth AFR behaviour" which is only meant for SLI systems and dont touch the tear control neither. Only Enable Vsync to Force ON.*

Now in that same section set "Maximum pre-rendered frames" to 2 <-- Important step

Now here comes the magic. Scroll all the way down to the "Other" section and look for "Silk Smoothness and set this to "0x00000002".

Save the settings by pressing Apply and close it.
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Some information about Silk Smoothness here.

"SILK Smoothness
Silk reduces stutters in games caused by variable CPU or GPU workloads by smoothing out animation and presentation cadence using animation prediction and post render smoothing buffer.
• Off – Silk is disabled.
• Low – Moderate smoothing is enabled and most microstutter is eliminated.
• Medium – Many stutters and hitches are removed in typical games.
• High – More smoothing is applied and may result in observable input lag.
• Ultra – Maximum smoothing is applied and most stutters and hitches in games are eliminated. Lag may be unacceptable in some games."

We've just set it at "0x00000002" meaning we're using the "Medium Silk Smoothness" setting,you typically do not want to up this,leave it at Medium for best results.

You can try to play with this seting if Medium isn't any good for you. Try setting it to "0x00000001" for Moderate smoothing. I would not go to High or Ultra at all since it will increase noticable input lag or decrease your FPS.



4)
*Disable Full screen optimization*
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Quote
"With the release of Windows 10, we added Fullscreen Optimizations – which takes full screen exclusive games and runs them instead in a highly optimized borderless windowed format that takes up the entire screen. You get the visual experience and performance of running your game in FSE, but with the benefits of running in a windowed mode. These benefits include faster PC commands such as alt-tab, multiple monitor set ups and overlays. We have extensive performance data that indicates that almost all users who use Fullscreen Optimizations have equal performance to Full Screen Exclusive."

Note the "almost all users", in many cases as you can find when you google around and as ive experienced myself it's the opposite and actually decreasing performance.

Disabling Full screen Optimization will make your game run in Exclusive Fullscreen mode.

Locate your FFXV.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XV

Right click and go to Properties. Check Disable full screen optimization. Press apply and close


Some info about FSE https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/




5)
*Sharpening*
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Extra Sharpening tweak:
Open up Nvidia Control panel and go the Final Fantasy XV Profile under 3d settings where you're gonna enable "Image Sharpening" and set the Value at 0.10 Sharpening. This is only to fight the excessive blur created by TAA and Filtering. Depending on your monitor and resolution,you might want to experiment with this setting. 0.10 seems good to me,its not overly sharp but removed a great deal of blurring. This setting is different for everyone,since its based on the monitor you have aswell. Some monitors already have amazing sharpening from their build in menu and some don't, So to find the perfect setting for you is something you need to test, just starting at 0.10 is a good base.


------------------------------Advanced Tweaks----------------------------------------------------

1)
*MSIX*
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Advanced tweak for overall system performance which can greatly improve your latency and stability. This is Only for Nvidia users.

Nvidia users can try enabling MSIX for their GPU's with msi_util_v2 ( Message-Signaled Interrupts Utility v2.0 ).

Highly suggest to read through this thread i post below to know what it is youre exactly changing,i am unable to explain it better myself.

Information about shared IRQ's: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/w...ge-signaled-based-interrupts-msi-tool.378044/

Quote
"Shared interrupts are often the cause of high interrupt latency and can also cause stability issues. They are typically undesirable and a side effect of the limited number of physical interrupt lines on a computer."


You can download the tool here https://github.com/CHEF-KOCH/MSI-utility/releases


How to use https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/ans...rror-when-using-multiple-gpus-on-motherboards

"Simply fire it up (with admin rights), it will list all hardware in your system and the irq's assigned. If its a positive irq number then its using legacy aka line interrupts, and you should see the MSI box unticked.
If its using MSI it will show a negative number and should have the MSI box ticked.
SImply Check the box next to your GPU driver , press apply and reboot your system"

Do not start enabling it on all your drivers,since not all drivers are compatible with this setting ! Only do this for your GPU.

Note,everytime you install new drivers you have to tick the MSI box again.



2)
*Disable HPET*
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This is a tricky one,only recommended to do if you know what youre doing. But highly recommended if your feel your system should perform better than its currently doing,or have issues with crackling audio every now and then for e.g.

Download DPC Lat to check your current Latency.
https://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml

If your latency is all in green and not jumping up down youre good and you dont have to change anything.
If its in yellow or even in red theres something not right which can create all sorts of problems.

In this case it can be recommended to disable HPET. You have to go into your BIOS for this , look for HPET and disable it. If you cant find it,dont worry because not all BIOS are showing it and if thats case just do the below.

Now you also need to disable it in Windows with the following commands used in CMD being ran with Admin rights.

bcdedit /set useplatformclock No

Press enter and type

bcdedit /set disabledynamictick Yes

Press enter and restart your system.

Check your Latency again with DPC Lat,it "should be improved. If it's worse or just didn't improve anything, revert the settings by typing.

bcdedit /set useplatformclock Yes

bcdedit /set disabledynamictick No

Restart your pc again.


Also use this tool after disabling hpet. https://vvvv.org/contribution/windows-system-timer-tool

Have DPC Lat open,and set the ms to 0.5 with TImerTool and see if your latency improves even more,the change is instant. This setting is only active when the program is opened. Your latency should be greatly improved now.

Here's another tool that gives some more information about whats going on with your latency and what driver might be causing your problems. https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
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Note,an abnormal high latency or inconsistent latency ( jumping from green to yellow to red and back down ) can and usually is also an Driver issue. If you cannot seem to get your latency in the green with the above mentioned suggestions i recommend to uninstall All your drivers with DDU,including mobo/internet/audio/storage/usb drivers,all of it and reinstall the newest version properly.
When installing new drivers i Highly recommend to Unplug your internet cable because Windows 10 likes to install new drivers before you can even get the chance of doing so,messing up your driver installations.

And if you do install your new drivers because you still have latency issues. I recommend to install your mobo drivers first,and check your latency. Install your Storage drivers,check your latency. Do this for every driver you install so you know the driver you currently installed is not creating the latency issues.
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Final tweak for Ryzen users:

Do not overclock your system manually ! The auto oc does everything better. Set your voltages and clock speed to auto.
Disable all power features in bios like c state/ cool n quiet etc. Look for these settings in your bios.

Enable - Precision boost Overdrive
Enable - Game boost

For me this made my Vcore go from a jumpy 1.4 - 1.48 to a stable 1.312 on a Ryzen 2600x.

I also recommend to use XMP memory profile for best stability.

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Hope this helps !

My system:
Ryzen 2600x
970GTX FTW+
16gb
60HZ Monitor

[DAVracer]

Nice guide. I followed it and it's definitely improved my game stuttering. I still get it, but it's noticeably reduced. Thanks!

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di DAVracer:

Nice guide. I followed it and it's definitely improved my game stuttering. I still get it, but it's noticeably reduced. Thanks!

Awesome ! Great to hear.

You can maybe further improve this by lowering TextureStreamingMemory in steps of 100 to see if your performance improves even more. Do not go lower as 1000 though.

So for e.g try TextureStreamingMemory=1700 then set it to 1600 etc.

If it doesn't improve anything just bump it back up to 1800

[Gawain]

Good stuff, I applied the settings as per your recommendation and the performance is better. It still stutters sometimes but it's definitely a better experience now!

Thanks for this.

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di Hello There:

Good stuff, I applied the settings as per your recommendation and the performance is better. It still stutters sometimes but it's definitely a better experience now!

Thanks for this. :pixelgladio:

What GPU + CPU do you have ? Any other performance issues you might have after applying this tweak might be related to still using settings that are too high for your system. In that case play around with the TexTureSteamingMemory value a bit. Also want to add im running on 1920x1080 resolution.

If you or anyone ever has bad performance in other games you might try the same tweak as i put up in here,ive seen it help improve performance by a great deal in most games i tried using it on. That is forcing Vsync through Nvcpl + using Max frames at 2 + enabled Smooth silk at 2. It seems to perfect the framepacing,even reducing motion blurring aswell and completely removing microstuttering and hitches. I'm not sure why this isn't an option yet in the Nvcpl but only doable with Nvidia inspector.

[Tetsuo9999]

I'm about to give up on this game. I tried this and it made it run worse somehow.

RTX 2060
i5-8400
16 GB DDR4RAM

The stuttering reduced but now the game runs terribly regardless of what the graphical settings are.

[charleswolfheart]

Messaggio originale di Tetsuo9999:

I'm about to give up on this game. I tried this and it made it run worse somehow.

RTX 2060
i5-8400
16 GB DDR4RAM

The stuttering reduced but now the game runs terribly regardless of what the graphical settings are.

Tetsuo, I tried everything and then some to get ride of the stuttering. Downgrading to version 1.25 (on top of everything else I did) seems to have done the trick, after a 1 hour long test in the initial area.

[Tetsuo9999]

Messaggio originale di charleswolfheart:

Messaggio originale di Tetsuo9999:

I'm about to give up on this game. I tried this and it made it run worse somehow.

RTX 2060
i5-8400
16 GB DDR4RAM

The stuttering reduced but now the game runs terribly regardless of what the graphical settings are.

Tetsuo, I tried everything and then some to get ride of the stuttering. Downgrading to version 1.25 (on top of everything else I did) seems to have done the trick, after a 1 hour long test in the initial area.

I'm still getting stuttering and terrible framerate in the Comrades expansion. Should I increase the texture streaming memory limit? I have a 6GB RTX 2060. The stuttering and performance issues are almost completely in combat, even after downgrading to the earlier version.

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di Tetsuo9999:

Messaggio originale di charleswolfheart:

Tetsuo, I tried everything and then some to get ride of the stuttering. Downgrading to version 1.25 (on top of everything else I did) seems to have done the trick, after a 1 hour long test in the initial area.

I'm still getting stuttering and terrible framerate in the Comrades expansion. Should I increase the texture streaming memory limit? I have a 6GB RTX 2060. The stuttering and performance issues are almost completely in combat, even after downgrading to the earlier version.

With an 2060RTX ? Jeez. Sucks to hear.. Are you unable to hold 60fps at all ? What Cpu do you have ? Did you make sure all the Throttling is disabled ? Did you make sure your GPU runs at the proper speed,being x16 pcie speed ? Reseating your GPu in it's Pcie slot can fix this. And is your game installed on an SSD ?

https://imgur.com/a/66axLqm


Do you have a Gsync monitor or Freesync ? And whats your monitors Refreshrate ? Maybe try using 60hz - 1920x1080 resolution on your desktop before playing. I had an MSI Optix monitor with a max refreshrate of 165hz. I could not get my games to play smooth,period. I had weird stutters in most games i played and had to eventually send it back. And am currently on my old 60hz monitor again which is butter smooth.


You also might want to try and push certain settings higher as i listed here so your GPU load will hopefully be better aswell. My Gpu,the 970GTX just isnt up to the task of running everything maxed out,yours might be able to and your gpu load can increase. And playing around with Texturestreaming is something you can also try,either lowering or upping the value. I believe the max value is 4000. Just remember when you play around with the ingame settings . TRAM is linked to the Texturestreaming option from the config file. So if you touch that one,it will change the value youve set in the file.

If youre on Win 10, disable Game DVR, head to Settings > Gaming > Game DVR. Ensure the “Record in the background while I’m playing a game” option here is set to “Off”.

If the above doesnt help and you made sure your GPU is running at the correct pcie speeds. I would google around and dig into your GPU having stutter issues,it seems to be a pretty common issue on certain RTX cards. Im getting tons of results from people having the same issue as you have on the 2060RTX.

And as last resort you can try setting "Smoothsilk"" at 0 again and leave only Max Pre rendered frames at 2 while keeping the Vsync enabled aswell. It might be that it plays different on the type of hz you use or if you have Gsync or not.

[Tetsuo9999]

Messaggio originale di Smokey:

Messaggio originale di Tetsuo9999:

I'm still getting stuttering and terrible framerate in the Comrades expansion. Should I increase the texture streaming memory limit? I have a 6GB RTX 2060. The stuttering and performance issues are almost completely in combat, even after downgrading to the earlier version.

With an 2060RTX ? Jeez. Sucks to hear.. Are you unable to hold 60fps at all ? What Cpu do you have ? Did you make sure all the Throttling is disabled ? Did you make sure your GPU runs at the proper speed,being x16 pcie speed ? Reseating your GPu in it's Pcie slot can fix this. And is your game installed on an SSD ?

https://imgur.com/a/66axLqm


Do you have a Gsync monitor or Freesync ? And whats your monitors Refreshrate ? Maybe try using 60hz - 1920x1080 resolution on your desktop before playing. I had an MSI Optix monitor with a max refreshrate of 165hz. I could not get my games to play smooth,period. I had weird stutters in most games i played and had to eventually send it back. And am currently on my old 60hz monitor again which is butter smooth.


You also might want to try and push certain settings higher as i listed here so your GPU load will hopefully be better aswell. My Gpu,the 970GTX just isnt up to the task of running everything maxed out,yours might be able to and your gpu load can increase. And playing around with Texturestreaming is something you can also try,either lowering or upping the value. I believe the max value is 4000. Just remember when you play around with the ingame settings . TRAM is linked to the Texturestreaming option from the config file. So if you touch that one,it will change the value youve set in the file.

If youre on Win 10, disable Game DVR, head to Settings > Gaming > Game DVR. Ensure the “Record in the background while I’m playing a game” option here is set to “Off”.

If the above doesnt help and you made sure your GPU is running at the correct pcie speeds. I would google around and dig into your GPU having stutter issues,it seems to be a pretty common issue on certain RTX cards. Im getting tons of results from people having the same issue as you have on the 2060RTX.

And as last resort you can try setting "Smoothsilk"" at 0 again and leave only Max Pre rendered frames at 2 while keeping the Vsync enabled aswell. It might be that it plays different on the type of hz you use or if you have Gsync or not.

144Hz GSync monitor. Every other game I play runs fine so I just assume this is a bad port.

[Smokey]

And your resolution ?

Try to disable Vsync alltogether and only use Gsync On 120 or 60hz. Or you can try enabling Fast Sync instead while disabling Gsync or using them in combination

Or do the opposite,disable Gsync and only use Vsync.

The game does has issues though,thats for sure. Its about framepacing and Gsync monitors handles that differently than a non Gsync monitor,as i have.

[Tetsuo9999]

I turned off GSync and it still runs terribly. Comrades is unplayable and that's the only reason I bought this game, so I'm quite frustrated.

Monitor resolution is 1440p 144hz.

[Smokey]

Try using 1920x1080 as a test to see if the stutters are still there.

You might want to read this aswell https://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/14/

https://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/15/

I think for Gsync monitors it's just about finding the correct combination that works for you. And it can differ in every game you play. Also limiting frames with RTSS is recommended when you use Gsync.

I really can't help you much with that since i don't own a Gsync monitor myself anymore and dont know the right combination for your exact monitor neither besides googling around.

Blurbusters is a great forum to get some help with that or otherwise Guru3D.

[Tetsuo9999]

Messaggio originale di Smokey:

Try using 1920x1080 as a test to see if the stutters are still there.

I don't get why it runs so terribly; just turning the camera makes it stutter like crazy, let alone the combat. What the hell is wrong with this game? If I got it from Steam itself I'd just refund it, but now I'm stuck with a digital coaster. Why can't my PC handle it? My CPU is an i5-8400. Downgrading didn't help either.

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di Tetsuo9999:

Messaggio originale di Smokey:

Try using 1920x1080 as a test to see if the stutters are still there.

I don't get why it runs so terribly; just turning the camera makes it stutter like crazy, let alone the combat. What the hell is wrong with this game? If I got it from Steam itself I'd just refund it, but now I'm stuck with a digital coaster. Why can't my PC handle it? My CPU is an i5-8400. Downgrading didn't help either.

Tbh,i had this issue you describe when i bought a 165hz Msi Optix monitor. The thing is i had it in Every game,and i could not get the framepacing to work properly even when changing hz to 144 or 120 or 60,i did have best results setting hz at 60hz,but still not great. I send it back and am on my 60hz 1920-1080 monitor again and all those issues dissapeared. It is related to your Hz + Gsync and the need of Vsync or not. I tried all sorts of combinations without a proper fix.Id suggest to go into a forum like blurbuster or guru3d and ask for people with a similair setup + yours And your exact monitor aswell to find the right settings. At this point,i doubt the issue lies within the game. As im on a 2600x ryzen and 970GTX running the game solid at 60fps with the occasional drop here and there in certain areas but overall i have zero stuttering or hitches.

Im not sure if your CPU is the bottleneck here,it can be though. You might want to look into that aswell.

[Thyhel]

Have you tried fighting vs the Nagas to see if their frog spell will still lock frames @ 10 for long periods of time?