my problems with the overall performance seem to be an issue of the cpu. while having smooth gameplay for the first 2 or 3 minutes, the cpu then starts to go to about 80% utilization for a few seconds, giving me a huge drop in fps to about 3 or 4. this happens every minute from then on... no matter which car and which track i choose, and the graphic settings don't make a difference as well. cpu: intel q6600 @ 2,4 ghz graphics: nvidia gtx 560 ti i also switched the graphic card to an ati 4870 for testing and had the same problems, only that the issues started from the beginning of a racing session and it was like 10 sec smooth gameplay (even on high settings), 10 sec massive drop and so on. i had expected that the fps would be just low all the time with this card, but now i wonder if it is the cpu that causes the main trouble here... edit: solved. the cpu got too hot, so i installed a new cooler and it works fine now.
is this cpu utilization rfactor related or is it a program on your pc turning on and off? though you have a game running, there are programs outside of your game that are still running.
it is rfactor related, i did some monitoring and also checked that yesterday, after suspecting my antivirus program. those drops also seem to be recorded to the replay, so when it happens, it can bee seen afterwards and everything is slowed down and stuttering there as well.
hmm... i thought of that also but didn't find the option to turn them off completely. i'll have a look again this evening when i'm home. i'd really like to do some laps and get a lap time that's not too embarassing
thanks. didn't solve the problem though... i noticed that it only happens if I drive myself, so when i let the ai take control, the problem never occurs. and the purple bar in the cpu graph (meaning physics utilization, i think) is barely at about 10%. while if i drive, the bar is always at minimum 50%. and when those fps drops occur, the bar just goes up to the full 100%, meaning that the physics thread can't catch up with its calculations, if i got that right...
yes, i also tried that yesterday after finding out that there are similar problems with some g25 wheels (i also own one) ... but no difference. the physics utilization is always above 50%, regardless to which input device i use... unless i switch to ai control. i unplugged my wheel and changed all of its assigned controls to keyboard, but maybe that's not enough. i think i'll reinstall rf2 and try it again tonight, maybe there is still a reference to the wheel somewhere at the moment. btw: i also installed the newest drivers for my g25 and had set "skip updates" to a higher value in the control files, but that didn't do anything as well.
I tend to agree with your point of view. My PC is based on Phenom II 840 + AMD 6870 1GB + 12 GB DD3 ram + Logitech G27. I run a triple screen Eyefinity setup with bezel compensation at 4000x1024 I did nearly all the optimization suggested in the various threads and the problem is NOT the framerate BUT the stuttering and this is connected with CPU utilization. Yesterday I was offline with the meganes at Malesia and I had a mean framerate of 60fps (HDR on everything high or max EXCEPT AA which I don't mind to set to zero and rearview mirrors off) then I switched my car to AI and, to my surprise, mean fps jumped to 90+. Then I set rfactor2.exe affinity to core 0 and 2 and rfactor2.exe priority to HIGH (tried "realtime" also but this freezed my computer) and my mean fps jumped to 100+ with my car controlled with my G27 (HDR on RAIN and everything...) Stuttering is still there but now is more a "microstuttering" that doesn't bother me too much. Then I tried online in a server with nearly 20 people (F1EVE at SPA) and I would say that my driving experience was nearly "stuttering free" except some hiccups ONLY in the box area, with mean fps near 80 and minimum always over 60. What to do next? I believe that ISI could do something (in fact needs...) to optimise CPU utilization in the next releases (I hope). By my side I could try another AMD CPU with an higher clock (maybe a black edition that can be overclocked). Bye
this sounds interesting, i'll give it a try, thank you. when switching to ai control my fps stay about the same, it mainly affects the physics utilization on my system. yeah, i'm pretty sure ISI are very busy at the moment ... should be another two weeks until the next update arrives, if they stick to the plan of releasing monthly, like i heard they would.
after launching rfactor 2 itself, looking at the main menu for car and track selection, press alt+tab to switch back to windows. then press ctrl+alt+del to bring up the task manager and look for the process "rfactor2.exe". right-click it and you should see the entries for priority and affinity. can't exactly tell you how they are called, because my windows is in german i would not do it while on track, because alt+tab then caused my rfactor2.exe to crash. it didn't do anything for me, regarding performance and those fps drops. still the same issues. i have an old windows xp on another hard drive, which i used yesterday and set up a fresh installation of rfactor2, but exactly the same problems occured. seems like it is the same slowing-down-effect that other people experience as well (see http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/1522-Software-is-jerky-falls-out-of-realtime-CPU-is-100), but it is not related to my wheel or video card, but most likely to my cpu, i think. edit: i also noticed that rf2 is using around 30% cpu utilization in the main menu, while probably not doing anything. is this normal?
The same here on a i5 2500k. 30% utilization @ 1100 frames per second. You could be right with your consideration that your problem is related to the CPU. The Q6600 is not a real Quadcore CPU, because it contains two dualcore dies (2 E6600 chips) in a package. Those dies comunicate to each other via the front side bus (FSB) wich is much slower than the "on die" communication. This can cause slowdowns in a multithread enviroment (as far as i know, rFactor2 is split in 2 threads). Possible solution: - Set the rFactor affinity to CPU-cores on the same die (core0 and 1, core2 and 3). - Raise the front side bus speed (FSB overclocking). My old Q6600 runs at FSB 1600 (standard is 1066) for years without problems.
Correct answer...in W7 english is "affinity" and "priority" Of course there are some utilities that one could use to set affinity and priority automatically every time you start a program. First two that I found: http://bitsum.com/prolasso.php and http://www.outertech.com/en/how-to-speed-up-your-computer Interestingly enough these two utilities explicitly claims they could fix in-game "lags" and "stuttering" I will give them a try tonight. Is possible to overclock your CPU? If yes you should try: the main difference between your CPU and mine is the clock speed...3.2 GHz versus 2.4.
i see... i'll try that out. didn't know those things about the architecture, thanks. me too, thank you.
Would this have any impact on an i7 at all? Is there any benefit of setting affinity on a 'proper' quadcore?
In this case I have read somewhere that you should set the affinity to 2 physical core (cores 0 to 3) in order to not use the hyperthreaded ones. Is the CPU utilization high even in your more than optimal (i7@4,4GHz!!!) case?
I found another one. Is it possible that the Windows Power Management kicks in? What is your active power scheme? Should be high performance. In german Windows search for "Energieoptionen". How to Set Processor Affinity to an Application in Windows 7
