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Watch_Dogs PC Performance Thread

DSN2K

Member
didnt realise Uplay had a offline mode....the new AMD drivers help alot, my frame-rates are much more consistent.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
After reading the OP I'm under the impression that the game can be locked at 60fps if i turn down shaders, shadows, and textures to high. is that fair to say?

GTX 780 OCed
8 GB RAM
3770k stock clocks.
 

sunnz

Member
Seems like my performance took a random dump, like I had to lower everything to medium and still got FPS drops to 40 when driving.

Got to a point were the graphics are pretty bad, by bad I mean sleeping dogs actually looks better ( not a dig against Sleeping dogs, that is great looking game, I mean a 2014 game isn't much better than a 2012 game)

Not sure what is happening with this game, so weird.
 

bastian

Banned
Summary:

  • My SLI 780Tis are hurting at 1440p, and it's got nothing to to with VRAM usage;
  • 3GB isn't enough for the next few years, it seems. I hope the 6GB 780Tis become a reality;
  • uPlay continues to be garbage.

3GB is enough if you use post-AA options, like SMAA or Temporal SMAA. Temporal SMAA looks better than MSAA in motion and in many cases static.

MSAA is irrelevant if a game supports SMAA/Temporal SMAA.
 

stufte

Member
Specs:

i5 3570K @ 4.4Ghz
32GB 2400Mhz DDR3 Ram
GTX 690 +100 boost clock
Windows 8.1
SSD (Tried with Ramdisk as well)

Game hovers around 60 FPS when I turn down LoD and Shadows to High, the rest on max. Textures on High.

But man, this stuttering. Goes away on low settings and medium textures, but ain't nobody got time for that. Tried locking the game to 30 FPS, but the stuttering has no relation to FPS, happens here as well. I think I'll buy this on PS4 as well unless they fix this. Had a look at this video on DF, and maaaaan, that's some smooth 30 FPS.

Yah this is pretty much my setup as well. I can live with some lower settings, I can't live with the stuttering.

Feels bad man.
 

Netboi

Banned
How do you guys get SweetFX to actually work? It just won't show up in my game. Not at all.

This is my settings for Ultra settings at 1080p on a single card. You don't need super sampling to make it look good. Super sampling just bogs down the framerate, and it's pointless unless you have SLI.

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB OC (1200/1800)

You need to download Sweet FX 1.5.1 Configuration
http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/

Download the Sweet FX Watchdogs preset. There are a few but I chose this.
http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/1675/

Load the watchdogs.exe on the Sweet FX configurator. Then load the preset. Some people might have trouble viewing the preset, but close it, and reopen it.

Once you see the preset configuration, simply click add sweet fx on the right column then save config.

Use the Reddit PC tweak guide here
http://www.reddit.com/r/watch_dogs/comments/26c3ew/deferredfxqualityconsole/

DeferredFXQuality= PC
PostFXquality = off
Resolution= 1920 x 1080
(Adjust to your liking)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you are done with the settings, this is what you should have.

AA: OFF (Sweet FX has it's own SMAA)
AF: 16x (Through Nvidia Control Panel)
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+ High
Shaders: High
Shadows: High
Everything else Ultra

You'll get at least around 45 AVG fps.

id444Cf.png

Here
 
MSAA and TXAA take up all your VRAM so Temp SMAA is the best to use.

TXAA 2x is very forgivable in this game if your GPU supports it, that is why I was shocked that more people are not experimenting with it, I think people should experiment with it and see how many frames they really lose compared to lesser settings.
 
I think their V-ram specifications ingame are actually optimistic. Might actually want to turn textures down to medium for 2gb cards and high for 3gb.

One thing I have to say is that I like the daytime lighting much more than in the videos I have seen. Together with the crisp PC image I do think it looks nice.
 

jimmypop

Banned
3GB is enough if you use post-AA options, like SMAA or Temporal SMAA. Temporal SMAA looks better than MSAA in motion and in many cases static.

MSAA is irrelevant if a game supports SMAA/Temporal SMAA.

Thanks; of course I maxed everything out, and that top TXAA selection makes a huge difference here (moreso than with other titles, in my experience).
 

bastian

Banned
TXAA 2x is very forgivable in this game if your GPU supports it, that is why I was shocked that more people are not experimenting with it, I think people should experiment with it and see how many frames they really lose compared to lesser settings.

TXAA adds blur, not as much as FXAA, but it takes away sharpness. Temporal SMAA has the advantage of lower VRAM and keeps the image sharp. The jaggies are not as clean, but I would rather of lower VRAM and better performance and a sharp overall image.

Thanks; of course I maxed everything out, and that top TXAA selection makes a huge difference here (moreso than with other titles, in my experience).

TXAA will have better performance and lower VRAM than MSAA, so at least it has that going for it.

Please, again, everyone: THERE IS NO POINT IN USING MSAA!
 

Smash88

Banned
No stuttering at all? Even driving around fast?

I have an i7 3770k @ 4.4ghz, 16GB of ram, 2x GTX 780s in SLI and I get stuttering when driving around fast on ultra, even w/ the newest nvidia driver.

Zero stuttering so far. It is installed on my SSD and I do have 6GB of VRAM - whereas you are restricted to 3GB of VRAM. Both of those could be limiting factors.

Wow the TXAA has a huge hit, but it does look beautiful in motion.

TXAA is blurry garbage. FXAA is definitely the way to go - unless you head down the MSAA route.
 

bastian

Banned
Zero stuttering so far. It is installed on my SSD and I do have 6GB of VRAM - whereas you are restricted to 3GB of VRAM. Both of those could be limiting factors.

The SSD is probably helping the most. You would only get stutters and lower performance if you were actually going over your VRAM. With everything on Ultra, 1080p, Temporal SMAA I never go over 3GB of VRAM, but there is the occasional stutter. I however have the game installed on a 7200rpm hard drive.

No doubt the stutters and general performance will improve in later patches.
 

knitoe

Member
Computer Spec:
2600K@4.5GHz
16GB Ram
SLI Titans
2X256 Samsung 840 SSD Raid 0

Game Settings (max):




Standing:


Running:


Driving:


30-50 fps. I need to play with the setting to try to get locked 60fps. And, I hate blurriness so going to disable TXAA, DOF and motion blur while playing.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
Is there a way to install the game to my main SSD (C:) while everything else of Steam (the program and my other games) are on my other HDD? (D:)
 

Deepo

Member
TXAA is blurry garbage. FXAA is definitely the way to go - unless you head down the MSAA route.

I find that TXAA is great when I play a game on my TV, as the blur isn't really visible, but the improvement on aliasing sure is. TXAA on my monitor however is just horrible.
 

yeah, I'm really not understanding the hate for TXAA. Isn't the whole point of AA to remove the sharp, jaggy lines? FXAA and MSAA seem to just sharpen them, making them worse imo, unless you go to 8xMSSA. TXAA remove the sharpness AND the jaggies. Win/win for me.
 
Zero stuttering so far. It is installed on my SSD and I do have 6GB of VRAM - whereas you are restricted to 3GB of VRAM. Both of those could be limiting factors.

Maybe the 6GB of vram is helping you out, then. I also have the game installed on a SSD.

(samsung 840 evo)
 

ktroopa

Member
ok so i discovered something odd whilst messing with the borderless window and full screen setting in display options in game. i have vsynch turned on in NCP and also vsynch set to 1 in the options. Now when i start the game my fps is locked to 30fps but goes upto 45-50 in parts.

once the game has loaded i toggled the window mode first to borderless and then full screen. now my fps stays steady at 45-50 right at the start when you leave the locker room for the first time. before the toggle it stayed rock at 30. weird but im happy as its a bit smoother :) no idea why this is happening but my guess is a vsynch bug/glitch
 
yeah, I'm really not understanding the hate for TXAA. Isn't the whole point of AA to remove the sharp, jaggy lines? FXAA and MSAA seem to just sharpen them, making them worse imo, unless you go to 8xMSSA. TXAA remove the sharpness AND the jaggies. Win/win for me.
FXAA blurs the entire image. TXAA has a very similar effect. MSAA is one of the best types of AA outside of super sampling.

I guess soft edges wouldn't be that bad but textures and far off objects are affected by the blurring process.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
Is there a way to install the game to my main SSD (C:) while everything else of Steam (the program and my other games) are on my other HDD? (D:)

steam gives you the option to have multiple install locations. if you haven't downloaded it there is a section that allows you to pick what drive you want to install it on once you added a folder in it.
 

R_Deckard

Member
They're both blurry garbage.

This there are both horrible.

I am getting around 32 ona 7870 with a 8350, but on my Nvidia set-up with a 760 I get around 45, this is Ultra with SMAA and High Textures.

I have looked at Textures on PC High and they are LOWER than PS4 version which is a surprise
 

Akai__

Member

So, does this really work? Because, I'm experiencing some stuttering on Ultra, with these specs:

i7-4770K @ 4.4Ghz
GTX 780Ti 3072MB
8GB DDR3 RAM @1600Mhz

Is this how it's supposed to look?

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Watch_Dogs\bin\watch_dogs.exe"- disablepagefilecheck


I also have 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 RAM lying somewhere arround here, should I install those, too?
 
FXAA blurs the entire image. TXAA has a very similar effect. MSAA is one of the best types of AA outside of super sampling.

I guess soft edges wouldn't be that bad but textures and far off objects are affected by the blurring process.

I still have some tweaking to do, but imo TXAA looks the best by far to me, in terms of removing jaggies. Even 8xMSSA doesn't look as good, plus I get better performance when using 2xTXAA
 
Has anyone run into a bug where you can't get any sound/audio playing?

The opening menu has sound but when I start the game the sound disappears completely.
 

noomi

Member
isn't TXAA the most demanding form of AA in Watch Dogs, I'm pretty sure that's what the nvidia guide said...
 

Nivash

Member
Anyone who's better at tech than me that's got an explanation for this? I'm not getting any performance gains from changing resolutions. Not a single frame. Tried switching from 1080p all the way down to 800x600. Nothing. I've never in my life seen that before.

Generally speaking no change in graphics = no performance changes imply a CPU bottleneck, right? But like I said, my 3570K should be able to deal and it isn't even reaching above 75 % load.

This game is driving me insane.
 
Specs:

i5 3570K @ 4.4Ghz
32GB 2400Mhz DDR3 Ram
GTX 690 +100 boost clock
Windows 8.1
SSD (Tried with Ramdisk as well)

Game hovers around 60 FPS when I turn down LoD and Shadows to High, the rest on max. Textures on High.

But man, this stuttering. Goes away on low settings and medium textures, but ain't nobody got time for that. Tried locking the game to 30 FPS, but the stuttering has no relation to FPS, happens here as well. I think I'll buy this on PS4 as well unless they fix this. Had a look at this video on DF, and maaaaan, that's some smooth 30 FPS.

Some dude/dudette on Reddit said he eliminated stuttering by using borderless window mode, haven't tried it though. Let me know if it works.
 

Summ

Neo Member
The SSD is probably helping the most. You would only get stutters and lower performance if you were actually going over your VRAM. With everything on Ultra, 1080p, Temporal SMAA I never go over 3GB of VRAM, but there is the occasional stutter. I however have the game installed on a 7200rpm hard drive.

No doubt the stutters and general performance will improve in later patches.

I don't think that is the case.

I'm currently running Watch Dogs on my 4670K/770 with 8GB of RAM and a 250 GB Samsung EVO SSD and I'm experiencing a lot of stuttering unless I turn down the texture setting to medium and the rest of the graphics options to high.

I get about 40 ~ 60 fps with no way of getting it stable.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
This there are both horrible.

I am getting around 32 ona 7870 with a 8350, but on my Nvidia set-up with a 760 I get around 45, this is Ultra with SMAA and High Textures.

I have looked at Textures on PC High and they are LOWER than PS4 version which is a surprise

Where did you see this? I've got my laptop runnign it on high textures and my friend's PS4. High looks identical for the most part, however they are inconsistent. On PC a sign might look lower rez, but then you walk a block and a part of the street on the PS4 looks lower rez.

Ultra on PC is undeniably better than PS4, but you need a big fat GPU buffer.
 

oti

Banned
Nvidia Geforce experience seems to be down, I can't optimize the game automatically. Oh well, it took me all day to download and install this game, not gonna touch it until tomorrow anyway.
 
Watch Dogs is a huge outlier, as is modded Skyrim. Guru3D have gone as far to say that there are some major programming issues in the game that needed to be patched.

Max Titanfall settings requires 3+ as well, how many games need to come out that can't be done with 2gb before you guys see the light? Telling people "2 is fine for the foreseeable future", which gets done constantly in the PC thread, is just wrong.

But Skyrim is a 32bit program... it can only address 4GB of ram... total. That means vram and system. If you're pushing beyond 2GB of vram in skyrim, you're probably crashing every 30-60 minutes as the game hits it's overall limit and crashes.

Wrong. Skyrim IS a 32 bit application, which means it can see and use 4GB of RAM and at least 4 GB of VRAM. Not 4GB total, 4GB of EACH. Also it is just the opposite, if you are modded even remotely with 2GB of VRAM you are done for you'll be crashing regularly. At 3 you have to be careful(1k textures outside, 2k inside), and I've personally never seen it reach or go past 4(I had a 7970 6GB that I got up to 3.9GB with 8k textures) but there is a guy in the Skyrim thread who says he saw his Titan hit 5GB. ENB also helps you go around the VRAM limit by doing a large chunk of the graphics processing itself and it has no limit on VRAM.

This thread is just proof positive that you need to be doing your own research when you go to purchase parts or a PC and no matter how helpful someone maybe that doesn't mean they are correct.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
isn't TXAA the most demanding form of AA in Watch Dogs, I'm pretty sure that's what the nvidia guide said...

No. MSAA 8x is the most demanding. TXAA 2x is about on par with MSAA 2x and TXAA 4x with MSAA 4x.

The difference being that MSAA only samples geometry. Texture and transparency aliasing are not treated.

So you have nice anti-alised edges on everything except things like shapes on textures and chain link fences.

I personally don't mind TXAA's blur too much, so it's my preffered AA method, if I can turn it on without too much issue. Otherwise SMAA is best, temporal even better, because as much as static jaggies detract from the scene, even the most obscure jaggies will dance cry out to you merrily the moment the camera/your perspective moves.
 
2500K@4.5, 8GB, 780.
Maxed out SMAA@1080p, AKA the exact settings Nvidia recommends. Stuttering, freezing mess when driving. The framerate is perfectly fine, seems to be all about the VRAM. Will probably have to bump textures down to high to make it playable. Hopefully future titles will cool it on the VRAM or this will have been the worst GPU I've ever bought.
 
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