34 replies to this topic

[Jiffy]

Vxheous Kerensky, on 06 March 2016 - 05:21 PM, said:

The overclocking from 3.4Ghz to 4.4+Ghz typically increases MINIMUM fps, while only affecting max fps very little. This means less overall dips on framerates giving a much smoother experience. I can't explain why the laptop performs better than your desktop other than perhaps checking drivers, clearing cache, etc. Others have already suggested checking Intel speedstep.

Yeah, I think that's what I'll be doing, as soon as it's convenient. This is probably the most useful information I've received so far. The laptop actually performs incredibly well, and I'm wondering if the fact that it's got a G-sync display has something to do with it. It usually doesn't dip below 50 FPS, with all settings very high (except AA).

[SamsungNinja]

Xeon is a server CPU, it's not engineered for MM or games.

There's a difference between speed and throughput. You may have a faster CPU, but it may be engineered with a lower bandwidth capacity, hence higher FPS on your laptop. Think of packets of information like cars on a freeway. If I have 2,000 cars and I put them on an 8-lane freeway going 65mph, they can disperse and move along at speed. If I take those cars and put them on a 2-lane highway in Idaho @ 85mph, the cars out in front are going 85mph, but as the congestion stacks up further back down the road, their speed slows to a crawl.

Essentially, this is what happens when your CPU cache, bus speed, or threading isn't good enough to handle all the information your system is throwing at it, despite the clock speed being higher.

MWO is a CPU-bound game, because CryEngine loves to nom on your CPU for everything it can. Turn the environment slider in advanced settings down a tick and watch your framerate jump. I play on max @60fps and I've only got a GTX 760 (not even a Ti). Why? Because Intel i7.

That Xeon isn't doing you any favors when it comes to handling CPU-bound games. You should've saved and spent the extra for an i7. Not meaning to rub your face in it, just saying that you can toss 4x 980Ti GPUs in that rig and you won't see any real difference when it comes to CPU-bound engines. Now, that thing will scale like crazy in a GPU-bound engine. Until, of course, you reach your CPU's saturation limit again.

Speed and throughput = performance. Any compromise on one or the other and you'll see dips. Hope that was helpful.

Cheers!

[Jiffy]

Again, the Xeon E3-1231 v3 is basically an i7 sans integrated video chip. I'm not too worried about the CPU at all, I did do my research. The consensus on this CPU (at least at the time of purchase) was that in the price range you'd have a hard time finding anything much better.

[xWiredx]

Well, yes, its sufficient -most of the time-. Please forgive me if these have been answered, its been awhile since my reply and I don't have much time atm.

Have you tried turning hyperthreading off?
Have you logged temps, CPU utilization, and CPU clock speed while playing?
Have you done that weird system timer fix for Win10 (found elsewhere in the forums here, too, I think)?
Do you have anything modified in the user.cfg?
What do you have using system resources in the background?

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Jiffy, on 06 March 2016 - 07:09 PM, said:

Again, the Xeon E3-1231 v3 is basically an i7 sans integrated video chip. I'm not too worried about the CPU at all, I did do my research. The consensus on this CPU (at least at the time of purchase) was that in the price range you'd have a hard time finding anything much better.

Thing is I looked at that CPU I like to tweak and test but ultimately decided against it. Because from the information out there it performs worse overall in CPU bound games than an overclocked I5.

Tests have been done to death in this forum that the game likes CPU cycles and over clocking to a higher frequency improves minimum FPS which is exactly what your looking to improve.

You may get better results with some tweaks like suggested by wired above, but make no mistake you'd be getting better gaming performance out of an I5

For example my system is similar to yours

I5 4690K@4.6ghz
16Gb DDR3 1866
KFA 970 4GB

I play at DSR 1440p no vsync and no FPS limit in the user.cfg and obtain 50-65 FPS

If I reduce my clock speed back to default my minimum FPS drops.

If you can I would look to borrow/purchase a K series I5 and test to see if the FPS rises then you'll know where the issue is.
If you can't or won't do that, start working your way through speedstep, temps etc etc

MWO is so poorly coded on an old cryengine, that it's performance is all about brute force.

Edited by Oderint dum Metuant, 07 March 2016 - 10:21 AM.

[Jiffy]

Thanks for the input, I think I have a few things to look at now. Either way, I'm still just kind of baffled about the difference in performance between my laptop and desktop. That's pretty much the source of this irritation. I mean, better specs should = better performance, right? Just trying to figure out why the laptop seems to be doing better. I can't complain, since they both run the game well enough at very high settings, but it just doesn't make sense.

[Vxheous]

Jiffy, on 07 March 2016 - 11:17 AM, said:

Thanks for the input, I think I have a few things to look at now. Either way, I'm still just kind of baffled about the difference in performance between my laptop and desktop. That's pretty much the source of this irritation. I mean, better specs should = better performance, right? Just trying to figure out why the laptop seems to be doing better. I can't complain, since they both run the game well enough at very high settings, but it just doesn't make sense.

It could be the G-sync on the laptop giving you stutter free play which makes it feel better, but I can't explain why your minimum framerates are still better on the laptop (which is why I suspect either a driver, or corrupt install issue). Depending on how much you value smooth performance vs graphics quality, you could just turn down the graphics settings. I personally run everything on low except environment and textures so I can see better, but then I'm in Tier 1 where every little advantage helps.

[Goose]

… Teh notebook is DDR4-2133 …

[el piromaniaco]

Xeon, that's all I have to say.

[Jiffy]

Goose, on 07 March 2016 - 11:36 AM, said:

… Teh notebook is DDR4-2133 …

No, I had the model number wrong. It's this notebook: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834232849

[H A S T A]

Xeon is not causing problems, gtx 980 is better even the gtx980m is better than the 970

another thing to check is the OS, and i saw a performance drop on gtx970 since a 2-3 driver update , i was playing at very high before, and i dropped to high for that reason , im playing in 1080p and i use a i7 extreme at 4.6Ghz (hexacore) on a high end motherboard , my fps is arround 120fps, but in some map it drop to 60-70 sometimes (even with particles at low, no AA, no damage glow, no vsync).. that game is terrible with nvidia drivers sometimes..

[B21 Raider]

Word has it the next gen Nvidia Pascal GPU's GTX1080 and GTX1070 will be released end of May. The entire range will blow the current GPU's such as the 970 out of the water, so they should be the answer to your FPS problem.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Conde D A, on 19 March 2016 - 11:57 AM, said:

Word has it the next gen Nvidia Pascal GPU's GTX1080 and GTX1070 will be released end of May. The entire range will blow the current GPU's such as the 970 out of the water, so they should be the answer to your FPS problem.

If the game really cared about your GPU you would be right, but it doesn't

[lpmagic]

No offense OP, but is there a different setting on your lap top? because a 2. something cpu in this game will not react like a 3.3 or 3.4.

I'm now running my 4790k OC'd to 4.4 24/7 and can honestly say that I have no dips, i have v-sync on of course because, well, 60hz monitor. I had a 3770 not too long ago, it would go up to 100fps and dump to 40 in big battles at times. this game, and cryengine specifically is cpu bound, and your xeon is a tractor Vs. a bunch of sprint cars


It would be nice if someone like Goose could put together some kind of a settings guide....

I finally have crossfire stable in game (occasional driver crash though ) and am getting a new monitor (144hz, 1440p (fee sync))

any thoughts would be handy

Hope your desktop gets better OP

[Golrar]

The Xeon and the i7 a practically identical when it comes to architecture and throughput. The only difference is clock speed and cache. The Xeon has more of both. Single thread performance (which MWO lurvs) is much better with the Xeon, so I also believe there has to be something else going on with the desktop.

I don't recall, did you list the mobo specs? Any chance that could be causing it? Try turning off the turbo in the BIOS and setting Windows to max performance maybe? Definitely something to dig into because it doesn't seem right. Speaking purely from comparing the desktop to the laptop that is, not in your perceived expected minimum fps. The Xeon should be performing much better in MWO even with a lesser GPU.