Hello rFactor community, I have a system that works really well when playing games, except when playing modern sims. I’m having input lag, and it’s driving me crazy. These are my specs: CPU: Intel i3-6100 GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti RAM: 8GB DDR4 Wheel: Thrustmaster T150 In rF2 and AC I can easily reach over 100 fps on medium settings, and the amount input lag decreases if I lower the settings further down. I find it strange that I need an insane amount of fps for a good driving experience. I used MSI afterburner + RivaTuner to monitor my system, and I noticed that the GPU is constantly maxing out on games that I experience input lag with (rF2 and AC), while it does not max out on games where I don’t experience input lag (rF1 and LFS). I tried capping the framerate to relieve the GPU, but that has no effect on input lag. So i’m getting high fps, but also input lag. Is my CPU too weak? I know the i3-6100 does not meet de recommended specs of both rF2 and AC, and that these sims are CPU intensive. I tend to upgrade my CPU, but I would just like to know if that’s really the problem, or if there is an other solution. I’d like to get some advice before I choose to spend lots of money on an i5 or i7. Cheers,
The answer is that your CPU meets well the recommended specs for rF2, because rF2 only uses two cores (one for rendering, one for running the physics engine). Because of this, the only limiting factor becomes single core performance, which is a function of CPU frequency and IPC. Modern Intel CPU's have very good IPC, so you are better off than most people on CPU front. AFAIK single core performance of an i3 is as good as i5's or i7's, minus some small variations due to clock frequency. The real issue is rF2's heavy graphics engine and your GPU. A 1050 Ti works well as baseline GPU for rF2 (I have one), but you have to lower things like post FX and reflections quite a bit. The input lag I don't personally experience, but it can be almost from anything, like running the game in windowed/borderless instead of fullscreen.
@stonec: Thanks for the explanation. I have looked at things like whether i’m running borderless or fullsceen. Also tried all the tweaks that I could find on the forums. Seeing the CPU as the problem is really my last bet, but yeah maybe I overlooked something. I find it hard to believe that my GPU would be the limiting factor here, since I’m already using medium settings without post FX and reflections. I think you should also not be having to lower the settings all the way down on a card that meets the recommended specs. Today I noticed a new thing while testing: I’m only suffering input lag while using my T150 steering wheel, and not when using my wireless X360 controller as input device. How does the use of a wheel relate to input lag? Is my processor having a hard time handling both the game and wheel input/ffb? Maybe in this case I would benefit from 2 extra CPU cores? Just some random thoughts, I don’t know.. @ebeninca: Purple bar does not go over 50%
Interesting information here.... There's a configuration in controller.JSON file about force feedback rate and threading, i dont remember exactly the names. https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/lag-in-corners.59405/#post-935745
You can switch FFB commands to own thread by changing the "use thread" parameter to true in Controller.JSON. i3 has hyper threading which gives four usable threads, so it might benefit from this, as it then can run the other threads faster, assuming that your controller is the cause of the lag.
