Dark Souls 3 PC performance thread
- Thread starter JaseC
- Start date
Booting the game in Big Picture mode gets rid of the framerate issue I had (without alt+tab or removing USB devices).
Low lighting solved crashing at a bonfire.
In Big Picture mode I do experience micro-stuttering when I'm moving the camera at times. I'm going to try reducing the sensitivity back to default and see if that fixes it.
Low lighting solved crashing at a bonfire.
In Big Picture mode I do experience micro-stuttering when I'm moving the camera at times. I'm going to try reducing the sensitivity back to default and see if that fixes it.
TheThunder
Member
So I finally went back to see what's the performance on different drivers on my aging 670. These are my specs from my previous post.
314.22: The trick that someone on reddit discovered and it seemed to help a lot of people (mainly old Fermi cards it seems). In my case though, the game crashed 2 mins after running it, couldn't even take a screenshot to compare and it was running 1-3fps lower on average.
350.12: The driver I've been playing with for ~12 hours of my playthrough
***SPOILER WARNING***
Screenshot from the second "real" area of the game
364.72: I was pleasantly surprised that a new nvidia driver actually improved performance on my aging card, especially since every time I install a newer driver it always causes stability issues with firefox and flash, constantly crashing and sometimes black screens forcing me to reboot. Anyway, I'm rambling, here is the screenshot from the same area
Like I said I'm very impressed, especially since I wasn't planning on installing it and just going back to 350.12, I even saw slightly better performance in Firelink Shrine (the location where you stand behind the king's throne and look towards the entrance of the shrine)
Here's hoping this driver behaves better than the newer ones I tried right around XCOM 2's launch. I'd hate to have to choose between a better performance in DS3 or a stable internet browsing experience.
314.22: The trick that someone on reddit discovered and it seemed to help a lot of people (mainly old Fermi cards it seems). In my case though, the game crashed 2 mins after running it, couldn't even take a screenshot to compare and it was running 1-3fps lower on average.
350.12: The driver I've been playing with for ~12 hours of my playthrough
***SPOILER WARNING***
Screenshot from the second "real" area of the game
364.72: I was pleasantly surprised that a new nvidia driver actually improved performance on my aging card, especially since every time I install a newer driver it always causes stability issues with firefox and flash, constantly crashing and sometimes black screens forcing me to reboot. Anyway, I'm rambling, here is the screenshot from the same area
Like I said I'm very impressed, especially since I wasn't planning on installing it and just going back to 350.12, I even saw slightly better performance in Firelink Shrine (the location where you stand behind the king's throne and look towards the entrance of the shrine)
Here's hoping this driver behaves better than the newer ones I tried right around XCOM 2's launch. I'd hate to have to choose between a better performance in DS3 or a stable internet browsing experience.
That stuttering is because of auto-saving and there is nothing you can do about it.
Kenzodielocke
Banned
I hope that is fixable, because the game saves a lot.
Do you know what driver version he is using? I'd be very interested to know to see if we have more options beyond 314.22 which is quite old. Because if he is using the newest Nvidia driver on his 560Ti (as I was), he is not having a good experience
Just following up on this. He is using 364.72, which looks to be the latest driver, and happens to be having a flawless experience. 30fps, mid-high settings.
I am running:
980ti oc'd
I7 6700k @ 4.7
Win 10
Nvidia 361.75
16 gig ram
4k
Working on settings ATM. Currently running high/medium getting mid high 50's ATM. Running on all high is is about 45. Haven't had time to dig in a full PC playthrough, but finished PS4 JPN release last week and this is glorious in comparison.No more running through pudding! Pop ins make me sad, but I played the console version so I can live.
Should be able to tweak 4k to 60fps getting rid of bells and whistle from initial run's and most definitely can lock 1440 at 60. I haven't checked , but if experience holds, "everything to the right" settings should be 30ish in 4k. No crashes.
We will see how busier levels fair. I am ok playing in 1440 if need be. Early days, but wildly excited to shelve my PS4 copy except for coop with my console bros.
980ti oc'd
I7 6700k @ 4.7
Win 10
Nvidia 361.75
16 gig ram
4k
Working on settings ATM. Currently running high/medium getting mid high 50's ATM. Running on all high is is about 45. Haven't had time to dig in a full PC playthrough, but finished PS4 JPN release last week and this is glorious in comparison.No more running through pudding! Pop ins make me sad, but I played the console version so I can live.
Should be able to tweak 4k to 60fps getting rid of bells and whistle from initial run's and most definitely can lock 1440 at 60. I haven't checked , but if experience holds, "everything to the right" settings should be 30ish in 4k. No crashes.
We will see how busier levels fair. I am ok playing in 1440 if need be. Early days, but wildly excited to shelve my PS4 copy except for coop with my console bros.
ChetWilson
Banned
There is a lighting/shadow problem with certain items/gear in the game, and that's what causes the crash.
Change your gear.
It's not just "helmets." I ran 0 crash max settings for ~7 hours wearing my starter armor only on a GTX680. The moment I began trying out some of the new armor sets that started dropping, that's when I began getting crashes like the plague. No bonfire was safe.
Going back to my original starter armor (thief) eliminated them.
Obviously a terribad bandaid for tank builds, but there may be armor sets that don't cause the problem.
daninthemix
Member
Fascinating! Was wondering why I've had flawless performance with no problems. It's because I'm still in the Knight's starting gear!
roadrunn3r
Member
Nah, I change gear all the time. No crashes still.
Downsample from 1440p for stable 60fps or 4k for 30.
Spikematic
Member
The game's running great on my 980 ti, i7 6700k rig. Playing it in big picture mode on my 42" Bravia TV. I do get that weird hitch that a lot of people are getting (something to do with the auto saves I think) but it's not that often so doesn't bother me.
So is there a way for me to further improve the graphics of the game without fucking up the frame rate? Any sweet fx setups or something maybe?
So is there a way for me to further improve the graphics of the game without fucking up the frame rate? Any sweet fx setups or something maybe?
ISee
Member
Sure there is. It's called downsampling/oversampling. Just set a custom resolution for your Monitor/TV via the Nvidia control panel.
I'd recommend trying 2400x1350 and 2880x1620 for native full HD screens.
You can also use the Nvida dynamic resolution solution, but I personally don't like it as some ratios are a bit weird.
On my 980 I'm able to go for max settings and to downsample from 2400x1350 @ 60 fps (AA turned off).
Area I'm currently in (location spoiler).
ChetWilson
Banned
The bonfire crash only affects nvidia cards prior to the current generation. So 500/600/700 series.
Putting on master's attire alone causes me to crash at bonfires on a GTX680.
j0hnny_385
Member
Other than the annoying microstutter on item pickup and occasional pop in (still on High Wall), runs like charm on maxed out 1080p (sans Motion Blur).
i5 4690K, 16GB RAM, Gigabyte G1 970, SSD.
I actually *still* can't get used to 60fps fluidity since I played all of DS games on PS3 on launch.
i5 4690K, 16GB RAM, Gigabyte G1 970, SSD.
I actually *still* can't get used to 60fps fluidity since I played all of DS games on PS3 on launch.
Stevey
Member
Are you sure?
I only get stuttering when menus are on the screen and when picking up items.
It doesn't stutter when it autosaves after a cutscene for example
Just out of interest, why are you using old drivers?
SeeNoWeevil
Member
Because?
I noticed a small hitch *once* yesterday when closing a player's message. I've never seen it hitch when saving, closing my inventory.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
Enable DSR so you can downsample from higher resolutions to give a much cleaner picture.
Kudo
Member
Funny thing that me and my friend bought same exact parts last year except GPU (He got 980Ti and I'm still on 780) and I'm getting the save stutter and crashes unless Lightning is Low, but hes experience is flawless, no stutter or crashes.
He's running it on native 1440p and I'm using 1080p, but we have same monitor etc. kinda weird that GPU would the reason for the save stutter issue?
He's running it on native 1440p and I'm using 1080p, but we have same monitor etc. kinda weird that GPU would the reason for the save stutter issue?
SneakyStephan
Banned
There must be something you can do about it because I don't get that stutter when autosaving, at all.
I'm super sensitive to frametime variations so I would notice if there was any kind of stutter.
Cannon Goose
Member
Other players gliding around with no animations in co-op and pvp really sucks.
Shub-Niggurath
Member
What are your specs? Because I get it no matter what I tweak in game and in NVCP. heck I even tried to lock the refresh rate of my monitor from 144Hz to 60Hz but the stutter is still there
Yes, this is the worst.
I'd love to do this, but none of the DSR ratios nets me 1440p... is there another way?
Edit: Disregard, I didn't know it would down sample from a custom resolution.
Hmm that's weird, because I heard there are frame time issues, even with a 'locked 60fps'.
SneakyStephan
Banned
gtx 970 (asus strix at stock clockspeeds)
i5 4690k at 4.3ghz
8gb ram
the game is installed on a samsung evo 250GB SSD
I have a regular 60hz 1080p benq monitor
If you get stutters when the game autosaves it can't be related to your refresh rate (otherwise you'd always have them, not just when the game is saving)
Things you can try: force maximum performance in your nvidia control panel instead of the balanced energy profile
turn off intel turboboost in your bios (that fixed all my issues for me)
Check your cpu useage in msi afterburner, if your cpu core 1 is always at 90-99 percent cpu useage and the other cores are also always at about 90/90+ then you might have the same issue I had (which is that my cpu seemed to throttle down to desktop mode clockspeeds all the time while ingame)
I'm not sure if there is an overlay that shows your cpu clockspeed ingame, msi afterburner only shows percentage of cpu useage, not clockspeed
no frametime issues on pc, a lot of people do however get a half second stutter/framedrop when the game autosaves (which is a different issue)
I don't have the autosave drops thankfully
So after two days of desperately trying everything imaginable, I guess I've narrowed my constant stutter down to using a controller.
I saw someone mention it on reddit and as soon as I unplugged my controller it stopped. Everything is silky smooth with a KB/M but as soon as I pluf the control back in the stutter returns. Tried using XBO and DS4 with DS4windows, different usb ports, different usb cables... everything results in the stutter. Found some old threads with people having the exact same issue with DS1 but none of those solutions have helped. After years of playing these games with a controller Im not sure I can acclimate to KB/M.
I saw someone mention it on reddit and as soon as I unplugged my controller it stopped. Everything is silky smooth with a KB/M but as soon as I pluf the control back in the stutter returns. Tried using XBO and DS4 with DS4windows, different usb ports, different usb cables... everything results in the stutter. Found some old threads with people having the exact same issue with DS1 but none of those solutions have helped. After years of playing these games with a controller Im not sure I can acclimate to KB/M.
piratepwnsninja
Member
980Ti w/347.62
6700k
Last night my game just started crashing. Like, completely rebooting my system crashing. It didn't do this launch day, but it seems like an update to the game happened yesterday. At least when I launched it yesterday, it had to apply something and get ready to play. This was just me walking around, not switching equipment or using bonfires.
6700k
Last night my game just started crashing. Like, completely rebooting my system crashing. It didn't do this launch day, but it seems like an update to the game happened yesterday. At least when I launched it yesterday, it had to apply something and get ready to play. This was just me walking around, not switching equipment or using bonfires.
You tried booting the game in Big Picture mode?
I had a serious frame rate issue with my USB headset plugged in. Big Picture mode doesn't appear to suffer the same issue. And I don't know why.
Thanks for the tip, Ill give that a shot when I can.
It doesn't happen on all autosaves but it certainly is because of it. Everytime it stutters I look at the top right corner of the screen and I can the tiny flame meaning the game is saving. But yes it doesn't happen on every autosave it only triggers from specific ones, dunno which though.
Well, that's nuts. I guess I'm glad I updated when I did.
I saw this once, the voice chat sounded like he was from Japan so I assume it's just a network thing. I ended up restricting the matchmaking after that, haven't seen it since.
Krusenstern
Banned
See? You're getting it too. The game autosaved in the moment you closed the player message. The hitching happens to everyone, even SneakyStephan up there. Whether he notices it or not.
SneakyStephan
Banned
I haven't had any in the past 6+ hours I've played (since I turned off turboboost and my issues went away)
I think I had ONE single (literally like one skipped frame) mini stutter at one point when I closed one of the npc vendor windows in the hub. That's in 6+ hours of gameplay and countless autosaves and countless times of talking to npcs.
Tbh if you have issues just wait for a patch man, I had issues before and it was fucking miserable to play with stutters. Now that it's 100 percent smooth the game is infinitely much more enjoyable.
They don't release these games very often, might as well wait till it's properly playable instead of powering through a shitty experience.
No, I would definitely notice, hitches drive me up the wall.
In every game I play that doesn't have an fps cap I lower my settings till I can average well over 100 fps just to make sure I don't get framedrops under 60, I had to stop playing witcher 3 because the inconsistent frametimes in that game ruined it for me.
Idk why you're being condescending, I didn't try to dismiss anyone's issues, I just said not to lose hope as it clearly is possible to get a stutter free game.
I think this is the same problem that's affecting people using controllers. All of the entries in the log file mentioned there (millions of them) are all from "DINPUT". Hundreds of times per second, it's logging entries for "Foreground" and "NonExclusive", whatever that means. That would definitely explain the stutters, if the hard drive is trying to constantly write information to this log file while simultaneously trying to load information from a different part of the drive for the game itself. That's some bullshit.
Iorv3th
Member
People are skeptical because everyone that has the same system or better than you still have the stutter when picking up an item or reading messages etc. You said you noticed it once at an NPC which is exactly what it is, it's not always as bad though.
I find it odd that you disabled turbo boost and it fixed it. That should in theory make the game run worse as your cpu will run at a lower clock rate without it. I wonder how many cores this game utilizes.
I will look at mine when I get home and see what my log file size is at. But from the replies in that thread it seemed like it was happening more frequently than just items/menus for those people.
JRW
Member
Interesting, I'm using a 360 controller and even after trying the overlay trick the issue remains.
Removing the Steam Overlay files didn't have any effect. There was no "in-game" stutter that I could see, but it still hiccuped a bit whenever it saved something (always coincided with the little save icon in the corner). My overlay log file was about 50MB, incidentally. Took a while to open so I could actually read it.
The game is saving way the hell too often... these sorts of things should be saved just to memory, not to your cloud save. Lock that in when the user quits, not every time they take an action. It's actually saving my game every time I read a message. Really? That's silly, there is no reason whatsoever to save then.
My theory is that it's some kind of network-related thing, that when the game saves, it's it's waiting for some kind of confirmation from the server that the save was successful, or something silly like that. I don't think we'd be seeing noticeable pauses like that if it were just saving locally.
The game is saving way the hell too often... these sorts of things should be saved just to memory, not to your cloud save. Lock that in when the user quits, not every time they take an action. It's actually saving my game every time I read a message. Really? That's silly, there is no reason whatsoever to save then.
My theory is that it's some kind of network-related thing, that when the game saves, it's it's waiting for some kind of confirmation from the server that the save was successful, or something silly like that. I don't think we'd be seeing noticeable pauses like that if it were just saving locally.
Iorv3th
Member
The game doesn't have cloud saving at all.
SneakyStephan
Banned
What turbo boost fixed (i think , idk what else fixed it) was that my cpu was throttling down (going into idle clocks) constantly, which made my fps go up and down like a rollercoaster and caused tons of stuttering and frame drops (including when it was autosaving)
my cpu useage was always at 90-99 percent on cpu core 1 and 90+ percent on the other 3 cores (so a clear cpu bottleneck)
I turned off turboboost (as I read it can interfere with overclocks) and my cpu useage went down to 60-75 percent on core 1 and 40-70 on core 2-4
The only change I made was turning off turboboost and a 200 mhz OC on my cpu (which is a 5 percent overclock)
So you tell me why my cpu useage dropped so drastically and why the game has been flawless since, while it ran like shit before. Your guess is as good as mine.
So what does it mean when it says "Saving data to the Dark Souls III game server"? Sounds an awful lot like a cloud save to me.
Burgess_101
Member
Got my 390x and it seems to be working fine now, temps seem to be stable under load at 80c. Happy with that, now to see if I can get a refund on this 390 and keep the 390x...
New hotfix driver released by Nvidia
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4086
Noted improvements on older cards in DS3 are mentioned in the forum.
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4086
Noted improvements on older cards in DS3 are mentioned in the forum.
Kamina
Golden Boy
They have to add a draw distance slider