New Patch Micro Pauses

[ChileMike]

Waited until the patch was on STEAM. Been flying the last official version until then. Since installing the patch I've noticed more "micro pauses" while flying. Not a stutter as you get when flying low over terrain, although that is still there to some extent. Before patch never had these pauses. Testing different scenarios I found it does not matter if I fly alone at altitude or in formation with several other planes. Was just wondering if any one else has had this. Thanks



2500K @ 4300
EVGA GTX 580 1.5 mb
8G Ram
Falcon Northwest FragBox
TRackIR5
Saitek X 52
CH Pro Pedals
1920 X 1080 Res

[ATAG_Colander]

Hi Mike,

Most likely what you are seeing is the loading of new objects.
This happens once you get close to a set of objects that where not loaded before as they where to far.

[ChileMike]

Thanks for the reply. Been playing with some settings and trying to see if there was a pattern or maybe the video driver not liking this version.

[Stublerone]

Not really sure, but I think, that they played around again with some "level of detail" settings and that the are also influencing the ground objects texture loading.

So, it could already help a bit to get a new ssd drive instead of hdd, if you are still using normal hdd
Otherwise have a look over your ram usage on the graphics car. If it runs out, this could also cause it, bit these are most commonly named "stutters". Just a possibilty as I am not sure, what the difference between stutters and pauses are? The duration? I think, they all have the same probles behind it. -> means: Low vram on card, low hdd speed or low normal ram(which I haven't ever seen in clod.

[ChileMike]

Still using the old standby HDD. I can tell that the textures load a bit different now. When rolling down the runway for takeoff the grass will render closer and more in the "pop-up" fashion as the building do. Only have a 1.5 gb 580. The pauses sometime will stop the propeller and using the frame counter will bring the LOW to 0. I have adjusted some settings in the Nvidia control panel and have reduced these. SSD and 3 gb card may be in the future...seems the way to go. Didn't realize the HDD would have an effect in game but reading more about it on these forums I see that it does. Thanks again for the replies

2500K @ 4300
EVGA GTX 580 1.5 mb
8G Ram
Falcon Northwest FragBox
TRackIR5
Saitek X 52
CH Pro Pedals
1920 X 1080 Res

[TonyD]

Hi Mike

Before you go spending money on new hardware, why not check how much VRAM you are using with your current settings? I use MSI AfterBurner, and was surprised to see how much VRAM CloD needs for various levels of detail – more than 2GB with everything on max. With some settings reduced, my usage varies between 1.20GB and 1.80GB.

I have tested CloD on a couple of machines with different configurations, and found that as soon as the VRAM is exceeded the stutters start, even at fairly high frame rates. With your card you should be able to run quite high settings, just not maximum.

The stutters seen when first loading scenery is normal, but these should reduce once they are cached. If these continue, I would say you’re exceeding your available VRAM.

[Bikerjack]

Originally Posted by TonyD

I have tested CloD on a couple of machines with different configurations, and found that as soon as the VRAM is exceeded the stutters start, even at fairly high frame rates. With your card you should be able to run quite high settings, just not maximum.

Tony,

Something I don't understand is that, if the 2Gb VRAM on one card is maxed out, why do I have the same issues with stutters/temporary screen freezes as mentioned here with two cards linked by Crossfire? Effectively 4Gb?

Also, why do we need 16Gb of DDR RAM when only 15% (on average) seems to be used when running the game?

Regards

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Bikerjack

Tony,

Something I don't understand is that, if the 2Gb VRAM on one card is maxed out, why do I have the same issues with stutters/temporary screen freezes as mentioned here with two cards linked by Crossfire? Effectively 4Gb?

Also, why do we need 16Gb of DDR RAM when only 15% (on average) seems to be used when running the game?

Regards

Hi BJ (sounds vaguely rude )

When running X-Fire you still only have the VRAM available on one card – each frame rendered has to fit into the available VRAM on each card, it isn’t shared. For ‘alternate frame’ rendering, the cards take turns in rendering successive frames, so whatever detail is being rendered is done by one card at a time, taking turns.

And you don’t need 16GB of RAM for any game – most are 32-bit and therefore couldn’t use more than ~3GB, although I have never seen CloD use more than ~1.30GB (even when VRAM usage reaches nearly 2GB). Having more RAM than you need won’t improve performance; it will make your machine a little slower since all the memory will still need to be mapped by the system, even if it is not in use. The actual difference is negligible, though.

[Stublerone]

Streaming engines are always difficult to handle. Most effective changes in arma 2 e.g. Which is also streaming engine is to use a faster hdd. I went from 7200 rpm to veloci raptors with 10.000 rpm and in raid config. Afterwards I bought a samsung 830 ssd, which was one of the best in all day usage. Although I still only have sata 300 and cannot use its whole speed, it was a good step, which I do not want to miss anymore. All steps used to reduce performance problems with arma 2.

Now in clod, you have the additional high texture load, more details and even higher viewing range than arma has. Also the fact , that sims generally are also cpu consuming, it gives you even more probs.

My first steps: Bought (also for future purposes) a 3 gb graphics card with good performance and a high vram interface -> so the only chance was a ati card! Additionally I overclocked my old i7 920, which is still fast enough for most actions, up to 4ghz. Raw Ghz power do the trick in many games. They are not quad optimized perfectly, so some additional performance increases of new cpus are not that much. Tje only thing, that makes a newer intel cpu cool to have is the overclocking. Raw power can be encreased even more with them. 4.4 air cooled is quite nice to have.In clod, this means: raw power increase of a quad up to 4.4 e.g. prevents to run directly into an additiinal cpu bottleneck.

I personally have my bottleneck still on my cpu at 4 ghz. But on my resolution, performance is okay on high details.

Sli and xfire do not double vram, which is the most annoying problem with it, especially drivin games on triple monitors on high res. No matter how much fps the cards in sli are creating, you always have the problem of vram. Those with 2 x 3 gb cards are closest to solve that problem. So my 7970 performs good on high res and xfire ( with a profile ) should perform best for triple monitors. Doing an sli with slower 680's with a small vram interface and with only 1.5 gb is the worst you can do. And those guys will underperform in every game, who needs or uses much vram.

A casual game programmed for multiplatform is out of scope here. Any graphics card can play bf3. Just the small eyecandy is using graphics power. But it is optimized to run also on a ps3 with 512 mb vram. Please never use such games to validate your graphics card. Use high scaling games, mostly pc games, and games with high detail textures, e.g. Skyrim WITH HIGH TEXTURE MOD or crysis, which can use much vram. Crysis 1 with texture mods on ultra could use up to 4gb vram, if the card has it. Sometimes more.

Just some words to explain again, what is important, what is not and how games of today behave. Much eye washing and not much development on core graphics, except increasing details/polygons and implementation of tesselation. Graphics evolution is not so fast anymore. They are concentrating to feed the majority and there is no need for revolutions for all of them.

[AngryHatter]

This game is a great example of crummy code.
Optimized for nothing and nobody.

The voices are awful, the graphics while wonderful are anything BUT immersive since a cray can't run it without stuttering.
In short, the game is bad.

Further I am disappointed that there is a collaboration in the works. The best engine fused with the worst? I for one am incredibly disappointed.