[FIXED] [Vulkan] prefer layered on DXGI swapchain causes stuttering and freezing

[TyranT⨁]

When playing CS2 using the Vulkan API by adding "-vulkan" to the launch options, the game will start to freeze for a couple seconds in random intervals. Then after playing for sometime, the game will totally freeze and have to force quit with task manager.

I found the setting that causes this is "Vulkan/OpenGL present method: prefer layered on DXGI swapchain" under NV Control Panel. When using "prefer native", the game plays fine with no freezing.

Using "engine_low_latency_sleep_after_client_tick 1" does not fix the issue.

Windows 11 26252
i9 13900kf
NVIDIA RTX 4090
552.79 vulkan beta drivers | https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver
CS2 build: Jul 22 16:56:73

[TyranT⨁]

I still get freezing and stuttering when using "prefer layered on DXGI swapchain".

Windows 11 27686
553.00 NVIDIA Vulkan beta drivers
CS2 build: Aug 22 13:46:91

[trustNoOne(all muted)]

I don't see such a dependency with this setting. I advise you to set the process to use only p-cores in the task manager if new intel processors are used (the first 16 threads in your processor, 8 cores + HT, the remaining 16 cores are energy efficient), this makes the frame time much more uniform. It is visually convenient to test the presence of friezes by displaying the frame time graph in rivatuner, for example.

[TyranT⨁]

I have E-cores disabled in BIOS and also have Hyper-Threading disabled in BIOS. Im using the latest 553.00 NVIDIA Vulkan beta drivers. What drivers are you using?

https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver

UPDATE:

I also just tested with the new stable 560.94 drivers, and the stuttering and freezing does NOT occur using "prefer layered on DXGI swapchain". This only happens when using Vulkan beta drivers.

[trustNoOne(all muted)]

I have the latest stable drivers. The biggest difference in friezes is disabling the use of e-cores by the game (on new processors with a hybrid architecture), for cs2 this is inexcusable since the game is new and should be able to use new technologies, and such a difference with older processors is puzzling if a person not familiar with the topic buys a new processor for cs2 (thoughts aloud). However, this cannot be said about all games and applications, so I do not turn off the e-cores completely. But disabling ht makes little sense with modern software, moreover, in some situations, disabled ht can cause regression in performance and underutilization of cores.

P.S. thanks to volvo, at least the patch from August 20, 2024 fixes some indirect problems with e-cores and some performance problems at the end of the round, based on my letter, apparently. However, globally, the problem of freezes when using the entire processor has not gone away, and vulkan still has strange frame time jumps at the end of each round (you can check it yourself). Everything is smooth on DX at the end of the round.

[TyranT⨁]

This appears FIXED as of the following updates.

Windows 11 27695
NVIDIA Vulkan beta driver: 553.02