Disabling Ambient Occlusion Causing Low Frame Rate??

[SolidScientist]

People may say I'm crazy for assuming this, but I've been having some issues with a few of my games (Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim) where the fps drops significanty when I'm moving around in a tight or confined space, and it appears to be due to having Ambient Occlusion disabled.

For example, the fps drop only occurs when exploring hallways, small rooms, or when I'm close to walls.

I should note that this does NOT occur when I run either game in 1080p. The low fps only occurs on lower resolutions. However, running either game in 1080p does cause general slowdown which is why I started using lower resolutions in the first place.

I've spent hours tinkering with various settings in the Nvidia control panel but nothing seems to work. So far the only thing that works is turning Ambient Occlusion up to High or Ultra, which eliminates the fps drop in confined areas but replaces it with a general fps drop for the whole game.

It's maddening.

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 740M
CPU: Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.4GHz
16GB RAM
Driver Version: 335.23
Windows 8.1

I'm using a high-end laptop, so the graphics card is the notebook version.

[PLANTROON]

On the places where you get FPS drops, do you have more FPS with AO enabled ?
Is there any chance that an integrated GPU is being used?
AO is one of the most GPU hungry gfx effects. With AO enabled, you are getting FPS drops all the time but with AO disabled they're just more significant - could it be this? A video of the behavior would help but it's probably what I said above.
Also, GT 740M isn't that much of a gaming card :D but it seems to be good enough

More things that could help:
Downgrade your gfx driver
Try to use a FPS limited and disable Vsync if you have it enabled
Is there any option regarding ambient oclusion in nVidia control panel? Disable it from there

[_I_]

the intl 4600 igp is not far off from the gt740

for a gaming laptop, you got a good cpu, but the gpu is still lacking

turning off the ao, might make it use the intel igp instead of the nvidia card

[SilentHorizon]

Can you tell me why _|_ that the igp is faster than the gt740M? Because it would be redicious for the notebook company to put in a dead weight gpu if the hd graphics 4600 is faster than the dgpu.

Try reinstalling the graphics drivers for nvidia, if that doesn't work then set all the nvidia control panel settings to default, there should be one button that does this.

[_I_]

the gt740 is about 20% faster

they did it for a selling point, but gt =/= gtx

check with the optimous driver settigns to make sure its using the gt card with the game

[SolidScientist]

PLANTROON eredeti hozzászólása:

On the places where you get FPS drops, do you have more FPS with AO enabled ?
Is there any chance that an integrated GPU is being used?
AO is one of the most GPU hungry gfx effects. With AO enabled, you are getting FPS drops all the time but with AO disabled they're just more significant - could it be this? A video of the behavior would help but it's probably what I said above.
Also, GT 740M isn't that much of a gaming card :D but it seems to be good enough

More things that could help:
Downgrade your gfx driver
Try to use a FPS limited and disable Vsync if you have it enabled
Is there any option regarding ambient oclusion in nVidia control panel? Disable it from there

Did a few tests yesterday and it's starting to look like what I thought was low frame rate is actually stuttering brought on by my fps EXCEEDING 60. So when I move towards corners or walls it's almost like the monitor can't handle the high frame rate, and responds with what just seems like low fps.

As per the advice I did attempt using a limiter (with vsync both on and off) which reduced the issue but not enough to make a big difference while playing.

_I_ eredeti hozzászólása:

the intl 4600 igp is not far off from the gt740

for a gaming laptop, you got a good cpu, but the gpu is still lacking

turning off the ao, might make it use the intel igp instead of the nvidia card

I actually thought this might be the case. I feel like even doing something as minor as lowering the resolution of the game might be causing it to switch to integrated. Unfortunately I don't really know how to check that. And if it is switching to Integrated, how to make it stop.

HBZK100 eredeti hozzászólása:

Can you tell me why _|_ that the igp is faster than the gt740M? Because it would be redicious for the notebook company to put in a dead weight gpu if the hd graphics 4600 is faster than the dgpu.

Try reinstalling the graphics drivers for nvidia, if that doesn't work then set all the nvidia control panel settings to default, there should be one button that does this.

I attempted resetting the Nvidia Control Panel settings to default early on, but the automatic function is for the system to auto-select between integrated and dedicated, which I wanted to avoid. So right now it's on default settings but with the 740M preferred.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just don't expect too much from 740M
U can barely run most games at high visual quality and such on a single 755M @ 1080p
Kinda need 760M or higher for 1080p, or 750M/755M SLI

[SolidScientist]

Bad-Motha eredeti hozzászólása:

Just don't expect too much from 740M
U can barely run most games at high visual quality and such on a single 755M @ 1080p
Kinda need 760M or higher for 1080p, or 750M/755M SLI

Oh definitely, I was never expecting to run anything in 1080p. The problem is that 1080p is the only way I can play games like Bioshock Infinite. playing on any lower res just causes pronblems when ambient occlusion is disabled.

[Tusken GA]

Bad-Motha eredeti hozzászólása:

Just don't expect too much from 740M
U can barely run most games at high visual quality and such on a single 755M @ 1080p
Kinda need 760M or higher for 1080p, or 750M/755M SLI

Honestly, running a game on a laptop at 1600x900 is completely acceptable. The pixel density of a 1080p screen can easily make up for the slight bluriness that would result.

And if you hook the laptop up to a TV for a little couch gaming, it's STILL acceptable since you're now sitting much further back.

The only time it isn't acceptable would be if you tried to hook the laptop up to a proper monitor for desk-based gaming.

Which would be a weird thing to do.

[SilentHorizon]

Tuskan GA eredeti hozzászólása:

Bad-Motha eredeti hozzászólása:

Just don't expect too much from 740M
U can barely run most games at high visual quality and such on a single 755M @ 1080p
Kinda need 760M or higher for 1080p, or 750M/755M SLI

Honestly, running a game on a laptop at 1600x900 is completely acceptable. The pixel density of a 1080p screen can easily make up for the slight bluriness that would result.

And if you hook the laptop up to a TV for a little couch gaming, it's STILL acceptable since you're now sitting much further back.

The only time it isn't acceptable would be if you tried to hook the laptop up to a proper monitor for desk-based gaming.

Which would be a weird thing to do.

That is exactly what I do, I hook up my laptop to my monitor and it runs all my games at it's native resolution.

[Tusken GA]

HBZK100 eredeti hozzászólása:

Tuskan GA eredeti hozzászólása:

Honestly, running a game on a laptop at 1600x900 is completely acceptable. The pixel density of a 1080p screen can easily make up for the slight bluriness that would result.

And if you hook the laptop up to a TV for a little couch gaming, it's STILL acceptable since you're now sitting much further back.

The only time it isn't acceptable would be if you tried to hook the laptop up to a proper monitor for desk-based gaming.

Which would be a weird thing to do.

That is exactly what I do, I hook up my laptop to my monitor and it runs all my games at it's native resolution.

Well, to each his own.

[SilentHorizon]

Yeah, my laptop screen isn't that great either so that is why too.

[SolidScientist]

I'm starting to think it's primarily a V-Sync issue. After doing a few tests I realized that the lag/stutter was only occuring when my FPS hit or tried to exceed 60. Turning V-Sync off fixes that but causes ridiculous tearing.

Tried setting a FPS limit of 59, 58, and a few others. No success.

Tried disabling it in-game and forcing it on in the control panel with triple buffering. No success.

Starting to think there might not actually be a real fix for this.

I can still get rid of the lag/stutter by turing Ambient Occlusion back on but it's just such a big hit on the gpu. Also, the lower the resolution, the higher it needs to be set to fix the lag. So performance wise it just ends up evening out, no matter what resolution I play on.

[SilentHorizon]

Do you have adaptive v-sync? That fixes the framerate issue people were having aswell as no screen tearing.

[SolidScientist]

HBZK100 eredeti hozzászólása:

Do you have adaptive v-sync? That fixes the framerate issue people were having aswell as no screen tearing.

Nah, the GT 740M doesn't support it unfortunately.

[SilentHorizon]

Bummer, my gt 540m doesn't either. :(