1.07 FPS Decrease (Video)

[prince_of_nothing]

OK tested this in the same area as the OP but everything was normal for me. I have GTX 980 SLI FTWs, 4930K @ 4.5ghz and 16GB of DDR3 2133. Settings are 1440p, everything on max settings.

To the OP I would suggest if you haven't already done so, putting the PhysX in the driver panel to CPU and not GPU. Also, make sure your power management mode is set to maximum performance and pre-rendered frames set to 1 in the Witcher 3 game profile..

Thats what I have on my machine and I haven't had any issues whatsoever..

 

[sno0ks]

OK tested this in the same area as the OP but everything was normal for me. I have GTX 980 SLI FTWs, 4930K @ 4.5ghz and 16GB of DDR3 2133. Settings are 1440p, everything on max settings.

To the OP I would suggest if you haven't already done so, putting the PhysX in the driver panel to CPU and not GPU. Also, make sure your power management mode is set to maximum performance and pre-rendered frames set to 1 in the Witcher 3 game profile..

Thats what I have on my machine and I haven't had any issues whatsoever..

This didn't fix it on my rig. (Not testing in Novigrad, testing on the cliff atop the entrance to this cave west of pellar's hut. (left icon)
http://imgur.com/bfU7Jw1

Also, I don't know if OP's problem is, but my problems only occur at certain times of day. (lighting?) Rain worsens it.

For example, the area round Pellar's Hut, most notably the cemetery next to it, chugs pretty bad, but only at sunset. Fixed by turning foliage from Ultra to High, but if I walk some distance away and return, it will start chugging again. Once it starts chugging, a pretty large area surrounding the hut suffers, including the nearby village. You have to go pretty far before it normalizes. Again, this only happens around 7PM, maybe 8 or 9 as well.

The issues with the above mentioned cave to the west of the Pellar's Hut occurs in the early morning hours, anywhere from 1- 4 AM.

MSI GTX 970 SLI @ 1080p
i5 4460 3.2ghz
16 GB RAM

---------- Updated at 05:53 AM ----------

I do have a theory though; that particular area is the part of Novigrad where you can get into the sewer system. Its directly over where you clear the tunnels with the Doctor during Carnal Sins amongst others. Maybe the game is loading not only the world above ground, but also trying to load in the underground network as well and eating twice the resources?

I actually came to this conclusion myself regarding the cave west of pelllar. But it's not such a big cave that it should be that bad. Are there any underground areas beneath the cemetery next to pellar's hut? it lags the worst for me, but only at sunset.

 

[Brogan80]

Dont think it has anything to do with underground passageways.

Like I said, I think this is a common issue with all games this big. There are areas that need to be optimized, need to be looked at with software were not going to have, so hopefully they do so. I'd be willing to bet there are more than just these 3 spots we've found.

 

[D@tChM@n52]

OK tested this in the same area as the OP but everything was normal for me. I have GTX 980 SLI FTWs, 4930K @ 4.5ghz and 16GB of DDR3 2133. Settings are 1440p, everything on max settings.

To the OP I would suggest if you haven't already done so, putting the PhysX in the driver panel to CPU and not GPU. Also, make sure your power management mode is set to maximum performance and pre-rendered frames set to 1 in the Witcher 3 game profile..

Thats what I have on my machine and I haven't had any issues whatsoever..

Same no problems here with my gtx 980 sli the gtx 970 lacks the true 4 gb vram thats why u get shit fps when entering new arena,s thats the truth sadly.
Some folk just never understand, how technology works haha xD

 

[sno0ks]

Same no problems here with my gtx 980 sli the gtx 970 lacks the true 4 gb vram thats why u get shit fps when entering new arena,s thats the truth sadly.
Some folk just never understand, how technology works haha xD

Except you don't get shit fps until you leave the area and come back to it, which to me would make no sense if it were purely a resource or optimization issue. Also this seemed to only happen post 1.07, likewise pointing to an engine problem and not weak hardware. We should be seeing shit fps across the board if it's for a lack of vram, not weird drops in specific areas linked to time of day that are affected by leaving and returning and meditating.

 

[D@tChM@n52]

Except you don't get shit fps until you leave the area and come back to it, which to me would make no sense if it were purely a resource or optimization issue. Also this seemed to only happen post 1.07, likewise pointing to an engine problem and not weak hardware. We should be seeing shit fps across the board if it's for a lack of vram, not weird drops in specific areas linked to time of day that are affected by leaving and returning and meditating.

Well tell me then why dont i experience those problems ?

 

[sno0ks]

Well tell me then why dont i experience those problems ?

Luck? Drivers? Maybe your extra horsepower makes these issues unnoticeable, but they still exist underneath the surface. Maybe it IS hardware related, but that doesn't mean it's hardware caused. If 970 SLI was just shit it would've happened pre1.07 and would be more ubiquitous than what we're experiencing imo. The patch decimated console performance. Why is it a stretch to think it had a negative impact on some PCs performance? Especially when you have dozens of pc users reporting various performance drops since 1.07.

 

[D@tChM@n52]

Luck? Maybe it IS hardware related, but that doesn't mean it's hardware dependent. If 970 SLI was just shit it would've happened pre1.07 and would be more ubiquitous than what we're experiencing imo.

I am not saying the gtx 970 is shit, but everybody knows right now that nvidia made a big mistake by saying those cards are true 4gb vram 900 series while they just 3.5, some games have problems with that when it fills up u get stuttering.

 

[sno0ks]

I'm not getting stuttering. It's framerate degradation.

What's more, the frames are slowly going down one by one. That screams some kind of leak, doesn't it? (im sort of a noob when it comes to those)

---------- Updated at 12:36 PM ----------

Also hairworks has zero effect on it.

970s do appear to be a common denominator in a lot of these problems, but that doesn't mean the issues can't be patched out.

 

[Gallarian]

Same no problems here with my gtx 980 sli the gtx 970 lacks the true 4 gb vram thats why u get shit fps when entering new arena,s thats the truth sadly.
Some folk just never understand, how technology works haha xD

This is a CPU issue, not a GPU issue. In fact, this game uses no where near 3GB of VRAM on my settings @1080p, let alone 3.5GB.

In the area shown in the video, GPU usage stays below 80% all the way through the video. The FPS drop is caused by extra load on the CPU, which see's its load go from 46% when I get 85fps, to 100% when I'm getting 50fps or lower. So, evidently this a CPU related bug and nothing to do with the lower speed of the final 0.5GB of a 970's VRAM.

The irony of your comment is outstanding, don't you think?

 

[sno0ks]

I'm glad you isolated that it's cpu and not gpu. Do you notice framerate slowly degrading one by one? Or does it hit a static lowered framerate? If it's CPU usage that would point to a memory leak, no?

Edit: sorry, cpu isnt ram, so it wouldnt be a leak right

 

[D@tChM@n52]

This is a CPU issue, not a GPU issue. In fact, this game uses no where near 3GB of VRAM on my settings @1080p, let alone 3.5GB.

In the area shown in the video, GPU usage stays below 80% all the way through the video. The FPS drop is caused by extra load on the CPU, which see's its load go from 46% when I get 85fps, to 100% when I'm getting 50fps or lower. So, evidently this a CPU related bug and nothing to do with the lower speed of the final 0.5GB of a 970's VRAM.

The irony of your comment is outstanding, don't you think?

Thats allot of dogfood to read, i know better just saying

 

[sno0ks]

Guys! You're tearing this family apart!

 

[Gallarian]

Guys! You're tearing this family apart!

Haha, its 2015, every family is dysfunctional!

 

[sno0ks]

Haha, its 2015, every family is dysfunctional!

That's the realest shit I've heard in a while.

 

[prince_of_nothing]

This is a CPU issue, not a GPU issue. In fact, this game uses no where near 3GB of VRAM on my settings @1080p, let alone 3.5GB.

I agree, it's likely not a GPU issue. It's either a bug in the engine, or your CPU might be struggling with the new streaming algorithm due to the lack of hyperthreading.

Patch 1.07 increased streaming performance significantly, and streaming performance is partly dependant on the CPU.

Witcher 3 gains a lot of performance with hyperthreading, especially in Novigrad.

 

[sno0ks]

Meanwhile I had zero streaming issues before this "optimization." There's no way this can be permanent.

 

[Gallarian]

+1 ^

 

[cyberpunkforever]

set foliage densitiy and foliage range visibility and shadows quality to lowest setting

 

[sno0ks]

Actually I'm getting drops in pretty much that entire area of Velen, but only at dusk and only in the thickly-wooded areas. Seems to just be taxing on my GPUs, but if I meditate to early morning or afternoon I'm getting solid 60. I can't imagine some sunset lighting being so demanding when it still looks amazing at other times of day as well.

Lowering settings does get rid of the fps drops, but I'm just going to live with it for now. It only seems to happen at dusk or dawn, when the sun's casting orange light or when it's just starting to light up the night. Hopefully it gets fixed in a patch.