GPU vs CPU Upgrade for VR

Discussion in 'Technical & Support' started by JFRacing, Dec 28, 2018.

  1. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    Hi,
    I just upgraded to a1080 ti from a 980 and I can't see any significant difference in VR performance. I thought that I would at least be able to add some eye candy but nope. I'm still stuck at 45fps asw.

    The new card is 2X faster in other games.

    Would upgrading the CPU make a difference?

    Current system:
    i7 4770K @ 4200
    ASUS Z87-PLUS motherboard
    16Gb RAM
    Oculus Rift



    Thanks!
    JF

    Edit: I need to specify that my goal is 90fps with AI cars; at least 7. I can get 90fps alone.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2018
  2. OlivierMDVY

    OlivierMDVY Registered

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    I have solid 90fps with my OCed 1080 Ti.
    My CPU is different: i7 8700K@5Ghz.

    What are your graphics settings?

    My gfx settings are (in the rFactor 2 video Setup DX11)
    VR: HMD+Mirror
    Sync: None
    Anti Aliasing: Level 3
    Post Effects: Medium
    Resolution: 1920x1080
    Mode: Windowed

    In Game settings:
    Circuit Detail: Full
    Player Detail: Full
    Opponent Detail: High
    Texture Detail: Full
    Texture Filter: X16
    Special Effects: Medium
    Shadows: Medium
    Shadow Blur: Fast
    Soft Particles: Low
    Rain Drop: Low
    Road Reflection: Low
    Environment Reflection: Low
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2018
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  3. Mark Fuller

    Mark Fuller Registered

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    You don't say which VR set you are using and this can make quite a difference. I run Oculus Rift on a 980 Ti with an i5 4690K and run at 90 FPS. Run most settings at medium, but still looks very good. Perhaps you could consider turning ASW off [I don't use it] and ensure that PCIe 3 is enabled in the BIOS.
     
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  4. Jego

    Jego Registered

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  5. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    My gfx settings are (in the rFactor 2 video Setup DX11)
    VR: HMD+Mirror
    Sync: None
    Anti Aliasing: Level 3
    Post Effects: None
    Resolution: 1920x1080
    Mode: Windowed

    In Game settings:
    Circuit Detail: Medium
    Player Detail: Full
    Opponent Detail: High
    Texture Detail: Full
    Texture Filter: X4
    Special Effects: Off
    Shadows: Off
    Shadow Blur: Off
    Soft Particles: Off
    Rain Drop: Off
    Road Reflection: Off
    Environment Reflection: Off

    SS: 1.0

    AI: between 7 and and 19 GTE depending on performance I can achieve at specified track

    But Kicking: SimXperience Commander 4 (This eats up some performance)

    Worst track that I tried other than Sebring: Road America

    Best tracks that I tried: Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen 1.02

    I tried to put everything at minimum without much difference. One thing that makes a big difference is turning the mirrors off. Reducing the rear view back clip to 100 helps a bit but not enough to justify the annoyance of seeing stuff disappear from the mirrors. Turning the shadows completely off made a big difference.
     
  6. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    VR is Oculus Rift.
    PCIe 3 is a good point but it's already enabled:
    upload_2018-12-28_10-22-44.png
     
  7. Eddy

    Eddy Registered

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  8. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    Whoa!! I was considering upgrading to a 2700x or 2600x. They seem to be bad choices for RF2 then. I would have to choose the CPU with the fastest single thread score like the Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz?

    Which affordable CPU upgrade do you think would make a significant difference for RF2?
     
  9. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    Cool site!
    upload_2018-12-28_10-43-24.png

    But it makes me wonder even more why I can't get 90fps...
    Maybe my expectation to be able to race against AI cars at 90fps is too high?
     
  10. Eddy

    Eddy Registered

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    @JFRacing first thing i would try is use S397 content only. Dunno if you own GT3 package but they are great fun and a little heavy on your hardware so you stress the system a little. Try to set the amount of AI and grphics setting to your liking without going sub 90 fps. The amount of visible AI also (like shadow settings) have a rather high influence on fps and cpu usage. I run 12 AI visible.
     
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  11. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    Thank you for all the advice so far.

    The GTE cars are from S397. I do own the GT3s as well.

    I was able to race at 90 fps at the Glen (Because this is where I wanted to race today ;-) ). Here are the changes that I made:

    Overclocked CPU to 4.5Ghz instead of 4.2.
    Reduced number of AIs from 19 to 12 (More beneficial than just limiting number of visible to 12)

    So, I wasn't too far for the Glen.

    But the question that sticks to my mind is why I'm not getting better results with a GPU that is twice as fast as my previous one. My tests at the Glen with the 980 delivered very similar results... And I can't even add eye candy! This is frustrating considering the amount of money invested in this 1080ti.

    Cheers!
    JF
     
  12. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    @JFRacing You might want to test one more thing before upgrading the CPU. rF2 is known to be heavy on the CPU and PCI-E bus. Especially the latter often became a bottleneck for those that targeted high FPS.

    However, few days ago I accidentally made a discovery that the latest Nvidia driver reduces bus usage in rF2 by a massive 90%. Before my bus usage was never under 30%, now it's hoovering around 3%. I have no idea how this did happen, but it seems that even on my entry level GTX 1050 Ti FPS has improved by 10% from this bus usage reduction. I'm not 100% sure which Nvidia driver version did this, so you may already have it in use, but make sure you have the latest drivers to see if you can get closer to 90 FPS.
     
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  13. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    !!!!!

    Have you reverted to older versions to confirm this?
     
  14. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    @Lazza Just went back to a September driver and the PCI-E usage is back to over 30% on a 20 car grid. Latest driver back installed and it drops to single digits. I will investigate more tomorrow, but it looks like this PCI-E thing may have been an issue of Nvidia all along.
     
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  15. Eddy

    Eddy Registered

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    @stonec what driver version are you running? I think i'm on the latest but just to be sure
     
  16. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    Interesting find. I'm looking forward to the results of your investigation.

    I reverted to version 399.24 (Sept) because the 417.x versions didn't wake up after the screens had been turned off due to inactivity. The monitors turn on but the screens stay black and I have to hard reset the computer. I can hear that the computer is live when clicking around. Same behavior with both the 980 and 1080ti.
     
  17. JFRacing

    JFRacing Registered

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    I gained more performance by applying the following steps found in this thread (https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/stuttering-came-back.61889/):

    1. Changed Windows' Power Settings to High Performance instead of Standard Use
    2. Disabled background programs from Windows' Privacy > Allow Background Apps (I deactivated everything in Privacy...)
    3. Installed CPU Core Parking Manager 3 to make sure that all cores are always enabled. It fixed a registry corruption that may have caused issues.

    All this fixed the last issue I was experiencing; 3 to 4 stutters per lap. I raced for 1 hour without stutters at 90 fps!

    Thanks guys!
    JF
     
  18. Jego

    Jego Registered

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    This would assume that rfactor uses all cores which it doesn't.
    You can't rely on such a calculator for this stuff.
     
  19. Mark Fuller

    Mark Fuller Registered

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    @stonec Do you have any update on this? I am currently using the latest driver and does seem to be working well. Could I also ask how you are measuring the PCI-E usage - GPU-Z?
     
  20. Ari Antero

    Ari Antero Registered

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    https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner
     

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