Extremely bad performance, please help.

Hello,

I am running I7-8700k with GTX 1070 and 16GB of DDR RAM.
PoE is installed on SSD.

Yet, I am unable to get any steady FPS, even 60!

You can see what I am talking about. This is with RivaTuner caped FPS to 60:
http://tinyurl.com/y6ptww2j

The map has no density even. On every small pack of mobs with not more then 10 mobs I cast vortex and the FPS drops to 30, sometimes below 20.

I have latest nvidia drivers.
Win 10 with disabled game bar and aero.
RivaTuner to CAP fps, because I am running 140hz
Top priority set for PoE_64 via affinity (task manager)
Also tried to disable reverb (saw a topic on that) in the sound configuration.
Uninstalled nvidia experience and any overlays.

Tested with both VERY LOW on everythig, Medium and HGIH.. I can`t find much of a difference. The FPS screenshot is with the following config:

http://tinyurl.com/y4yoq54h


I am literally mindblown. CPU usage never exceeds 60%. I even monitored what is happening when FPS spike appears and neither CPU or GPU are above 50-60.



Exiles, DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!

Also.. worth mentioning is the fact that I was not having such a performance catastrophe before the patch last night...

tl;dr You want to use Vsync/Gsync/Free Sync/Enhanced Sync for POE


My personal recommendation after playing around with a lot of settings


This is limited to my setup 1080p budget. My DXdiag: https://pastebin.com/FEvZS2kd
- i5-8400 (Coffe Lake), RX580, SATA3 SSD, 16GB RAM (page file 3x RAM)
- monitor with 75hz FreeSync PL2530H

I am under the impression (my own experience and looking into it) that the FPS behaviour in POE, like a seismograph, is a combination of the POE custom engine[0] + modern PCs - gfx card, and the settings (no sync = want to push maximum amount frames at all times to the detriment of smoothness/stability[1]).

(1) POE is not competitive First Person Shooter in a LAN environment. Thus letting POE run amock with unlimited frames per second, is not a competitive advantage, especially when the FPS graph looks like an earthquake is happening (seismograph). I think you will gain an advantage over Uber elder with a smooth fight (steady frames) -vs- choppy frame rate (+200 to as low as 30 FPS).

(2) Due to the lockstep protocol, there is a doubling of input lag/responsiveness because of the check state. If you have 30ms on your latency graph. Make 60ms of that because of lockstep: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Networking_mode

"

When the player performs an action, it is sent to the server for confirmation before it is shown to the player.

(3) Then depending on the Sync variant you use, you will incur additional input/response lag. Add you monitor, and people have enough material to make 30-minute videos[2] about this and comparing different sync options with different monitors and different settings.

With my budget setup and some testing. I settled on:

- AMD Enhanced Sync[3]
- Frame Rate Target Control 75FPS with (with 75Hz set on my monitor). If I had a better monitor with higher Hz I would pick 100Hz. For more, I would need to buy a better gfx card.
- AMD gfx quality settings are as they come out of the box (standard/reset settings)
- AMD video profile: enhanced
- POE gfx quality MAX everything, except shadow quality - Medium.[4] and in POE settings Vsync ON.


@ minimalismm In your case, enable Gsync (if you read the info in the panel, this requires fullscreen) and the Frame Rate and the Hz (via Advanced Display control settings: W10, Settings > search Change display settings > scroll down the middle "Advanced Display settings") to an FPS/Hz rate you think your system can run casually.

If you want higher FPS/Hz, lower the quality settings (in POE and in the GFX drivers) to run it.

Hope that was somewhat helpful/informative.



[0] POE custom engine started 10 years ago is not comparable to a triple-A engine like Frostbite that EA uses for most of its titles, with its ongoing development and improvement work is shared across several dev teams using it. It's like David vs Goliath ( https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=EA+frostbite+engine&page=&utm_source=opensearch ).

[1] I tried to find the video from AMD Radeon where they explained that without the sync, the gfx is free to push as many frames per second every time as possible, with this comes the choppieness when the conditions change: you standing in hideout still - will have no smoothness problem gfx trying to much as much frames as possible, but running around in maps with varying demands (eg exploding packs) will create problems because of the buffer. If the buffer is full (pushing max fps, 100% utilisation), and now the exploding pack scene comes with more demand, the FPS drops. ... I hope I remembered that correctly. Thus the sync options to no let that happen and have a smoother experience.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/user/xFPxAUTh0r1ty/search?query=input+lag

[3] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx15eYqzJifdRO7s5u4e9BJEQlzuD5RDN

[4] With shadow quality ultra I experience too many light glitches https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2333602

"

minimalismm wrote:

Hello,

I am running I7-8700k with GTX 1070 and 16GB of DDR RAM.
PoE is installed on SSD.

PS: In case your SSD is connected via SATA3

If you have a modern motherboard that has an M.2 or U.2 slot or has an extra PCIe 4x or 8x slot free, please consider buying an NVMe SSD drive.

An SSD connected through the SATA3 (AHCI) protocol is a bottleneck. Bottlenecked because of the SATA3 AHCI protocol from two decades ago.

If you want more, consider buying an Intel Optane card for its superior 4K random reads, which are close to system RAM latency.

"

RPGNoobANKA wrote:

tl;dr You want to use Vsync/Gsync/Free Sync/Enhanced Sync for POE

[...]

Update:

Battle(non)sense just release a new video about THAT!

How To Fix Stutter In Games - Frame Rate, Frame Time & RTSS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsXFUVYPIx4

Please pay attention to the "frame time." If you have Free Sync/Gsync on, pay attention to the Frame Time graph (F1 telemetry) to gauge if your PC can keep up even in 'lots of action' scenarios.

If the Frame Time graph acts like an earthquake is happening, lower the quality settings or your FPS/Hz target.