Game Optimization and avoiding FPS drops?

A

aren

Registered
Hey everyone. I'm new to RF2 and PC's in general.

Been spending a decent amount of time trying to optimize RF2 for my Hardware (R5 3600, GTX 1650 Super (4 GB Vram) , 8 GB DDR4 - 3200 RAM, 1080p 60 Hz non-gsync monitor), and monitoring FPS,CPU/GPU usage using Ctrl + C in game.

Recently, I was experimenting with a 20 car grid of Taatus at Monaco and found the game to be unplayable with huge FPS drops down below 30. Not sure why, with tracks like Le mans, NOLA etc. there were no such issues. I noticed my VRAM usage was @94% and my computer RAM usage was @6 GB/8 GB, with the CPU being quite underutilized.

Any thoughts on what the issue could be? Is it due to the GPU's high VRAM usage, or the fact that the PC itself has only 8 GB RAM, or do I need to lower a setting? New to this, so sorry if it's a stupid question!

My settings are:

Video: AA - level 5; post processing - high; sync - video (assume this means vsync?)
circuit detail - high
player detail - full
Opponent detail - medium
max cars visible - 12
all other settings were left default
 
you are thin on Vram and system ram. AI at a heavily graphic track like Cote de Azur or Portland will really bog down your system. Try dropping down to 12 to 15 AI, (even tho only 12 are visible, the textures get loaded into vram.) Don't race at the twilights or rain and don't cycle time fast. Drop your Post Processing, disable rain particles in your player.json
Get more system ram(make sure a 2nd stick matches your first exactly), and start saving for a new vid card.
 
Try. AA - level 4: Post processing - medium. Switch off vsync if you can live without it, vsync is an FPS killer, you loose about 30%. I never use vsync, some people notice tearing more than others.
Circuit detail - medium. You only loose some of the objects around the track. Also try different settings for shadows, high reflection settings can reduce FPS. My CPU usage never goes above about 45% and that's with max settings every where and running up to 60 cars at Le-Mans, so don't worry about that you need headroom for CPU usage. 4-GB Vram is the limit more would be better. RF2 is quite computer and graphics card intensive. Hope some of this may of help.
 
i have a ryzen 3 3200G and 8gb of ram, in theory on my computer it should run much worse.
but as they say above the Vram is quite important in this game, my video card has 8GB of Vram, and in the same conditions as you with everything at full graphics, I get limited 60Fps without any problem.
try lowering the post processing to medium, the AA to 4, medium level textures and all low effects.
 
Hey guys really appreciate the advice.

I edited a couple of these settings at Le Mans and Monaco in both rain and dry. Rain was def. still an issue, with dry being okay with occasional FPS drops in Monaco especially. Settings are below:

upload_2020-7-28_23-7-37.png



upload_2020-7-28_23-7-53.png



I could set the shadows to effects and shadows to low too, but I don't know if that will really solve the frame drop issue significantly?

I do have an option to return my GPU and maybe get a 1660 with 6 GB VRAM if that's the only solution.
 
It would be a much better option, I had the GTX1050TI 4GB a long time ago, and although the 1650 is better, it is still not enough, the 1660 should be much better than the one you have, apart from that it has more Vram that should help you
 
To give you an idea at the moment. I also had a GTX1060 the 3GB and the fps were horrible, I changed it for an RX480 the 8GB, this RX had less power in the nuclei but more Vram, and to this day with 3 monitors I have not had any problem.
 
aren said:
Hey guys really appreciate the advice.

I edited a couple of these settings at Le Mans and Monaco in both rain and dry. Rain was def. still an issue, with dry being okay with occasional FPS drops in Monaco especially. Settings are below:

[removed image from quote]

I could set the shadows to effects and shadows to low too, but I don't know if that will really solve the frame drop issue significantly?

I do have an option to return my GPU and maybe get a 1660 with 6 GB VRAM if that's the only solution.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I'm new to rF2 and I have the same GPU as you. Mines the ASUS overclocked version. My CPU is quite old now, an i5 4670 3.4 Ghz quad core but I also have 8GB's of RAM. I find I can run ok in the day but night can cause issues. For me the framerate killer seems to be Ai being visible in my mirrors, especially with headlights on. I usually get a stable 60fps but this can drop to 47-55fps at the start of night races with 20 or so Ai. When monitoring the performance of my PC during this time none of the components are maxed out. How can 4GB VRAM not be enough, as some suggest if not all of it is being utilised anyway?

I have come over to rF2 from Project Cars 2 and before that Forza 7, both of which are visually more advanced than rF2 and offer much better performance (except the Forza 7 car selection screen, who thought it was a good idea to load over 700 car models and textures just to select one car). The top tip for improving fps in rF2 it seems is to reduce how many Ai you race against and then to reduce the number of them that are visible. I understand that the more Ai in the race the more CPU load is needed for their physics. But to reduce the amount that are visible to single figures points squarely at a complete lack of optimisation. Do they not use LOD's and texture mipmaps?

Aren, I see you are using borderless window mode, does that offer better performance to Full screen? I am running with no sync in the rF2 settings but I have set vsync mode to adaptive in the Nvidia control panel. This caps my fps to 60 but reduces tearing if it drops below. Apart from that my setting are very similar to yours, medium Post Effects, level 3 AA and 8xAF. I read somewhere that reducing Texture Detail to High instead of Full can have a positive impact on VRAM usage, maybe something to try. I have also reduced the rearview mirror clip distance to 65m in the player.json file. Its a pity the number of visible headlights setting does not work anymore as that would improve things a lot.

I tried the other day using the Auto Detail FPS setting, I set it to 60fps and when tested with a night race start parts of the Ai cars vanished but framerate did improve, unfortunately the graphics quality didn't return to normal for the next race which was in the day. So it seems to reduce your settings behind the scenes but not restore them when able.

Hopefully Studio 397 will at some point find a way to improve performance and those that create circuits will think of the lower spec PC racers out there because compared to Project Cars 2 and obviously Forza this Sim has something quite special about it.
 
the Vram will never reach the maximum unless it is less than 4GB, with my 1050ti it was always around Vram's 3GB, when I went to the GTX1060 3GB the game reached 2.8 2.9 GB and was jerking infinitely and the FPS did not go up from 20, when I bought the RX480 8GB the game started consuming up to 6GB at some moments.

Unfortunately this is a game that demands both Vram and processor almost equally.

To see where it fails, it would be a good idea to see a complete monitoring and see that when the down the fps, then compare that with the data obtained from the components and see which one had a variation in its behavior. the components will not always reach their maximum.

I know that the game is not the most optimized in the world, but for now it is the only thing that occurs to me.
the simracing is somewhat expensive...
 
DiggerHawk said:
Hi,
I'm new to rF2 and I have the same GPU as you. Mines the ASUS overclocked version. My CPU is quite old now, an i5 4670 3.4 Ghz quad core but I also have 8GB's of RAM. I find I can run ok in the day but night can cause issues. For me the framerate killer seems to be Ai being visible in my mirrors, especially with headlights on. I usually get a stable 60fps but this can drop to 47-55fps at the start of night races with 20 or so Ai. When monitoring the performance of my PC during this time none of the components are maxed out. How can 4GB VRAM not be enough, as some suggest if not all of it is being utilised anyway?

I have come over to rF2 from Project Cars 2 and before that Forza 7, both of which are visually more advanced than rF2 and offer much better performance (except the Forza 7 car selection screen, who thought it was a good idea to load over 700 car models and textures just to select one car). The top tip for improving fps in rF2 it seems is to reduce how many Ai you race against and then to reduce the number of them that are visible. I understand that the more Ai in the race the more CPU load is needed for their physics. But to reduce the amount that are visible to single figures points squarely at a complete lack of optimisation. Do they not use LOD's and texture mipmaps?

Aren, I see you are using borderless window mode, does that offer better performance to Full screen? I am running with no sync in the rF2 settings but I have set vsync mode to adaptive in the Nvidia control panel. This caps my fps to 60 but reduces tearing if it drops below. Apart from that my setting are very similar to yours, medium Post Effects, level 3 AA and 8xAF. I read somewhere that reducing Texture Detail to High instead of Full can have a positive impact on VRAM usage, maybe something to try. I have also reduced the rearview mirror clip distance to 65m in the player.json file. Its a pity the number of visible headlights setting does not work anymore as that would improve things a lot.

I tried the other day using the Auto Detail FPS setting, I set it to 60fps and when tested with a night race start parts of the Ai cars vanished but framerate did improve, unfortunately the graphics quality didn't return to normal for the next race which was in the day. So it seems to reduce your settings behind the scenes but not restore them when able.

Hopefully Studio 397 will at some point find a way to improve performance and those that create circuits will think of the lower spec PC racers out there because compared to Project Cars 2 and obviously Forza this Sim has something quite special about it.
Click to expand...


Hey I'm actually in the exact same situation! Coming from PC2 to RF2 and have the Asus 1650S OC.

Risto Kappet's guide was of great help (https://forum.studio-397.com/index....rmance-guide-on-how-to-prevent-low-fps.61265/)

I had the same thoughts/questions as you, but based on my experimenting, and even trying Performance power settings and OC mode on GPU tweak, rain and night are still not as stable. I am considering returning the 1650S since it hasn't been 30 days yet, and getting a 1660 or 1660S. Maybe worth it with next gen. games coming up.

I really want to make RF2 work as the FFB and immersion is top class!
 
DiggerHawk said:
How can 4GB VRAM not be enough, as some suggest if not all of it is being utilised anyway?
Click to expand...

Because textures occupy a certain number of space especially since they are often stored in raw and uncompressed format. It's simple maths, it's the same reason certain tracks are now several GB in compressed size and latest Call of Duty if I remember correctly is a 150 GB download. If the game would only use 2k textures, no problem, but the standard is now to use 4k textures. Add all those textures up on a 12 mile circuit like Nordschleife and it's pretty simple, you need VRAM.

Then obviously there is a really easy way to reduce VRAM usage in rF2, which is to lower "circuit detail" setting. My tests with Le Mans showed the following reduction in VRAM with different settings:

Full texture details: 3800 MB
High texture details: 2700 MB
Medium texture details: 2100 MB
Low texture details: 2000 MB
 
stonec said:
Because textures occupy a certain number of space especially since they are often stored in raw and uncompressed format. It's simple maths, it's the same reason certain tracks are now several GB in compressed size and latest Call of Duty if I remember correctly is a 150 GB download. If the game would only use 2k textures, no problem, but the standard is now to use 4k textures. Add all those textures up on a 12 mile circuit like Nordschleife and it's pretty simple, you need VRAM.

Then obviously there is a really easy way to reduce VRAM usage in rF2, which is to lower "circuit detail" setting. My tests with Le Mans showed the following reduction in VRAM with different settings:

Full texture details: 3800 MB
High texture details: 2700 MB
Medium texture details: 2100 MB
Low texture details: 2000 MB
Click to expand...
And I'm assuming that is just the track, without any AI added in. Anyone know how much vram is consumed by cars...especially the new Ferrari? And can measurements be made of a rainy track vs dry vs night?
 
aren said:
Hey I'm actually in the exact same situation! Coming from PC2 to RF2 and have the Asus 1650S OC.

Risto Kappet's guide was of great help (https://forum.studio-397.com/index....rmance-guide-on-how-to-prevent-low-fps.61265/)

I had the same thoughts/questions as you, but based on my experimenting, and even trying Performance power settings and OC mode on GPU tweak, rain and night are still not as stable. I am considering returning the 1650S since it hasn't been 30 days yet, and getting a 1660 or 1660S. Maybe worth it with next gen. games coming up.

I really want to make RF2 work as the FFB and immersion is top class!
Click to expand...
If you can afford it go for it. The GTX1650 Super 4GB was all I could justify buying, but it was to replace an old GTX 750ti 2GB. So the several generation upgrade was worth it. It seems though the more VRAM you can get the better.
 
stonec said:
Because textures occupy a certain number of space especially since they are often stored in raw and uncompressed format. It's simple maths, it's the same reason certain tracks are now several GB in compressed size and latest Call of Duty if I remember correctly is a 150 GB download. If the game would only use 2k textures, no problem, but the standard is now to use 4k textures. Add all those textures up on a 12 mile circuit like Nordschleife and it's pretty simple, you need VRAM.

Then obviously there is a really easy way to reduce VRAM usage in rF2, which is to lower "circuit detail" setting. My tests with Le Mans showed the following reduction in VRAM with different settings:

Full texture details: 3800 MB
High texture details: 2700 MB
Medium texture details: 2100 MB
Low texture details: 2000 MB
Click to expand...

That's the table I was referring to. I thought you were describing Texture Detail but its actually Circuit Detail. I have it set to medium, I don't think I have tried High or Full so I cant miss what I haven't seen. I wonder how Le Mans compares to the updated Silverstone in terms of memory usage.

The point I was making about VRAM not exceeding my 4GB was that I was getting fps drops below 60fps at the start of a race a night, even though according to the monitoring overlay I was running the CPU, GPU, VRAM and RAM was not at 100% usage.

I think I must be one of the few people interested in motorsport that's not really a big fan of the Nordschleife. I think its too long, too many corners and too demanding on a PC! I have yet to get the track for rF2 but have avoided racing it on Gran Turismo, Forza and Project Cars 2 over the years.
 
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