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Watch_Dogs PC Performance Thread

jimmypop

Banned
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.

Started a reply as a rebuttal, but I see someone beat me to it.
 
Also running a GTX 780 ti, I've checked it - it's not the VRAM. Overall I get wildly differing fps, it hovers around 60 for the most part but dips hard into the 40s whenever I drive. Then there are some spots that are even worse. I did some testing on one of the worst - conveniently located just outside the safehouse. All tests were done at 1920x1080 and with temporal SMAA.

First: everything at lowest possible, vsync off (obviously)
yuEkZVe.jpg



57 fps. VRAM at ~2500. GPU load 45 %. Oh, and a funny thing happened - the GPU strain was so low that it automatically clocked itself down to 901 MHz! But still not even 60 FPS! CPU load didn't get included in this picture but it was about the same as the rest, 60-70 %.
Wait, I don't get how you're getting 57 fps on the lowest settings. There is literally nothing stopping the game from getting higher frames unless it's because of your hard drive but that should hardly be the case.


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.



TXAA is blurry garbage. FXAA is definitely the way to go - unless you head down the MSAA route.
But both are blurry and TXAA kills temporal aliasing. Looks beautiful in motion.
 

Axial

Member
The v-sync implementation in Watch_Dogs is just awful, the input lag makes the game unplayable
Anyone know how to optimally set up driver side v-sync through nvinspector to cap the game at 50fps or 30fps? Is nvidia's adaptive v-sync any good?
 

mkenyon

Banned
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.
It absolutely isn't. No one buying a $250 video card should ever expect to completely max out a new game. The GPU on the 760 or 770 wouldn't be able to keep up to justify the additional memory. You're kind of ridiculous.
 

ruxtpin

Banned
Read the first page of impressions... Anyone mind chiming in here on my sys specs? Not sure if I should go PS4 or PC.

i7-3770k @ 3.5GHz
16GB of RAM
GTX 670 with 4 GB of RAM
Game would be installed on SSD
Monitor maxes out at 1080p
 

Nivash

Member
Wait, I don't get how you're getting 57 fps on the lowest settings. There is literally nothing stopping the game from getting higher frames unless it's because of your hard drive but that should hardly be the case.

I wholeheartedly agree, I'm completely stumped. I'm running it off a 7200 RPM HDD right now and that shouldn't cause a problem. I'm going re-install it on the SSD and see if it makes a difference anyway. Otherwise I've no idea what's up. I'm growing worried that it might be the PSU but in that case Watch_Dogs would be the only thing giving me that kind of headache.
 

Nokterian

Member
PS4 version it is then..reading that it's running ok sometimes but holy shit this is ubisoft all right. Optimization is pretty horrible last game they did just right is Blacklist.
 

knitoe

Member
It absolutely isn't. No one buying a $250 video card should ever expect to completely max out a new game. The GPU on the 760 or 770 wouldn't be able to keep up to justify the additional memory. You're kind of ridiculous.
People aren't talking about maxing out. They are referring to the fact, at least in this game, 4GB cards makes a huge difference vs 2/3GB since you need it for Ultra texture setting. The Nvidia Watch Dog performance guide table clearly shows this.
 

Deepo

Member
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.

Didn't work, but thanks for the tip anyway!

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.

I agree with this. Seems like the only stutter cure. Which is just plain ridiculous.
 
I'd agree with this statement.

Which is a bit insane, but medium textures don't look too bad so I might actually roll with it.

Reflections: High
Hbao+ low
Temp SMAA
Everything else ultra.

Getting pretty much a locked 60 with my 680 OC and 3770K.

Textures are causing all the stuttering for me I think. Need to do a bit more testing though. Gonna try the reddit hack now.
 
It absolutely isn't. No one buying a $250 video card should ever expect to completely max out a new game. The GPU on the 760 or 770 wouldn't be able to keep up to justify the additional memory. You're kind of ridiculous.

You're implying, by induction, that the 280X is faster than the 770. Since it can handle Ultra textures just fine, and can use the 3GB memory.
 

Yiorgos

Member
Hi guys. Evga gtx 780 ti acx owner here. Still can return it to amazon. Is it worth it though? Return this to get a r9 290x with 4GB of VRAM? Playing in 1440p all ultra ( no aa). Its horrible. Any thoughts? Is it better on the 290x just because of more VRAM? Wait for EVGA step-up if they come out with 6gb Tis? So many first world probelmsThanks anyway!
 

bastian

Banned
Hi guys. Evga gtx 780 ti acx owner here. Still can return it to amazon. Is it worth it though? Return this to get a r9 290x with 4GB of VRAM? Playing in 1440p all ultra ( no aa). Its horrible. Any thoughts? Is it better on the 290x just because of more VRAM? Wait for EVGA step-up if they come out with 6gb Tis? So many first world probelmsThanks anyway!

Well its a nVidia optimized game, so going AMD would get you less performance no matter what, unless AMD releases new faster cards.

Use SMAA/Temporal SMAA if you are playing in 1440p. What is your CPU? A newer i7 would be best.

Performance will improve through patches.
 

knitoe

Member
Hi guys. Evga gtx 780 ti acx owner here. Still can return it to amazon. Is it worth it though? Return this to get a r9 290x with 4GB of VRAM? Playing in 1440p all ultra ( no aa). Its horrible. Any thoughts? Is it better on the 290x just because of more VRAM? Wait for EVGA step-up if they come out with 6gb Tis? So many first world probelmsThanks anyway!
Check my post in the previous page for some benchmarks. At 1440p, you are going to need more than 4GB for Ultra Textures. And, I am only getting around 30-50 fps with SLI Titans with max settings @1440p. Personally, I would get the 6GB TI.
 

Aesius

Member
Kind of shocked to see that I may actually be able to play at 1080p at medium/high settings and get a solid framerate with my old chunk of coal rig (AMD x4 965 @ 3.8 ghz, 7850 2 GB).
 

Jeremy

Member
Wish I wouldn't have spent all this money on 780 Ti SC w/ acx. Three days past step-up program but I don't even know that they're making a 6gb version of the superclocked w/ acx fans.

This is my first big PC build. Do used video cards have a big resale value after a new line is released? What do you estimate the used price to be once the new line comes out?

The stuttering is just so off-putting while driving mostly but also in other moments that I'm genuinely finding it hard to immerse myself into or enjoy. Maybe it's a feature that's supposed to go along with the tech theme.
 

Yiorgos

Member
Well its a nVidia optimized game, so going AMD would get you less performance no matter what, unless AMD releases new faster cards.

Use SMAA/Temporal SMAA if you are playing in 1440p. What is your CPU? A newer i7 would be best.

Performance will improve through patches.

Thanks. My cpu is i7 2600k at 4.5Ghz.
 

Uff duh

Banned
Game wants to run really well... but the ultra textures make the game stutter so bad when driving. I tried the stutter fix in the OT but I cant get the game to launch with the short cut. I have to launch it from uplay. Anybody know how to launch it strait from the shortcut?

FX 8320@4.4
Evga 780Ti 3gigs
win 8.1
16gigs ddr3 @1866

if that stutter stops performance would be excellent
 

Yiorgos

Member
We have the same CPU and OC speed. It's more than fine. You just need >4GB VRAM, and even, SLI if you want to try 60fps max settings @ 1440p.

Thats good to hear:) Problem is even with high textures and no aa I still get stutters:( Hopefully evga will have a step up for 780 Tis 6GB before my 3 months end:)
 
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.

It did for me but introduced this weird form of micro stuttering which I can't really explain, and it really bothered me and never felt smooth. But if you guys want to try it, definitely go ahead. It got rid of stuttering in the 15 minutes I tried it. But I just had to go Fullscreen because it didn't feel smooth at all, and then I got some stuttering again.
 

Rip

Member
Playing on 3440x1440 with a 780 Ti everything ultra except textures on high and i capped the framerate at 30 and the game runs real good and never dips except for the god damn hitches everytime i drive down the street or turn a corner. arrrrrrrggghhhhh
 

Deepo

Member
Just found out SLI is broken in the game with my GTX 690. DIsabled SLI and the game got less stutter.

I had problems with microstutter on my 690, but that was fixed by setting frame limit to 60 in MSI Afterburner. I'm having the same stutter with or without SLI now.
 

dr_rus

Member
Read the first page of impressions... Anyone mind chiming in here on my sys specs? Not sure if I should go PS4 or PC.

i7-3770k @ 3.5GHz
16GB of RAM
GTX 670 with 4 GB of RAM
Game would be installed on SSD
Monitor maxes out at 1080p

I'm running everything on Ultra/High here in 2560x1600 with SMAA on i7 3820 / 32GB / GXT 770 4GB and getting 30-50 fps.
I think you will be fine in 1080p on your config.
 

ymmv

Banned
Read the first page of impressions... Anyone mind chiming in here on my sys specs? Not sure if I should go PS4 or PC.

i7-3770k @ 3.5GHz
16GB of RAM
GTX 670 with 4 GB of RAM
Game would be installed on SSD
Monitor maxes out at 1080p

I bought the PC version and my advice is: get the PS4 version. The game ran like crap on my GTX 680 SLI setup. It's another pisspoor PC port from Ubisoft and you need a monster PC and a couple of game/driver patches to get it ro run as smooth as the PS4 version.
 
This game is total dung.

Uplay can't login, finally does, can't sync saves, game has crashed 4 times so far I am still on the first mission.

On High settings it looks OK, on Ultra it looks decent.

I am using i5 3570k, 8GB ram, 3GB AMD 7950 and it's installed on my SSD.

So far it's worse than an MMO launch.
 
FX-8350 4.0Ghz
16GB RAM 1600
R9 290 4GB VRam
Win 7 SP 1 64-bit

Running the game on Ultra setting 1080p FXAA and im getting 45-60FPS during gameplay. It averages around 50FPS. It seems that the game takes more of a hit while you are driving. My FPS dips down to the mid 30s to 50FPS during driving.

Uplay makes this game unplayable about the moment online, so Im just playing offline,
 

bbd23

Member
well performance is all over the place

fuck my life.

AMD drivers didn't really do much for me

its always the driving where it starts to mess up.

guess ill wait
 
I have an interesting rig for this game in particular so I figured I'd do a gameplay video with the FRAPS counter turned on so I can help anyone with a similar setup... here are my specs:

PC specs:
Intel Core i7 920 @2.7GHz (stock speed)
Nvidia Geforce 660ti @ 1246Mhz turbo core clock & 3348MHz memory clock
6GB DDR3 RAM @1333MHz
Windows 7 Professional

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_U79REUvkY

The game performs excellent in my opinion actually, considering the only recommended spec I have is the video card. This is actually maxed out with 2xMSAA on top, textures on High is the only thing I had to turn down. It's constantly at 30fps or above it (disregard the readings when it stutters) and if I lock the framerate it'll be even better, except for the occasional stutter that many people have reported even with the highest end rigs. In this video it stutters a little bit more because of the recording (and the PC bordering on maxing out the RAM) but you have my word that's it's smoother if I'm not recording anything. I honestly recorded more than a dozen videos but couldn't get it done stutter free (or at least like 90% stutter free). It does not stutter nearly as much when I'm not recording, Shadowplay doesn't have an impact on performance but RAM usage goes up a bit which in my case is enough to make it perform worse while recording.

I have 6GB of RAM and I need to clear up room by shutting down Chrome and other programs to get a good experience as well. Also, I recorded in 1080p, but I play on my trusty 22" 1680x1050 monitor, so I actually get better performance FPS wise than that, but I know most people use 1080p.

With more RAM, a different AA solution, either overclocking or a better processor, and with at least a video card equivalent to mine, you should be good to go at 1080p and nearly max settings except for AA. That's not bad at all, but the game has a myriad of problems and feels like it's not optimized in many areas despite the fact I consider my PC is performing above what I thought it could on this game.

If you need to push your graphics card a little further and need to overclock it, and you own either a 660ti, a 670 or a 680 (I don't know if other cards will work), try unlocking and modifying the card's BIOS to overclock it further than you ever could by normal means. My 660ti performs at a stock 670 level on 90% of either games and benchmarks. I have a full guide on how to do this, it's quick and easy and you can push your card further than you normally would with a stock Power Target: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp0ZpkakAJ8 Edit: I don't take credit for any of this, I merely have a tutorial with the links so it's a good place for you to get it done quickly and trouble-free.

GPU info:

Untitled.png


Bear in mind since I have unlocked and modified the BIOS, GPU-Z does not report the correct GPU and boost clocks.

Hope this post has been helpful!
 
Hopefully Ubisoft continues to patch this game for better performance. I have to say the game is sporting some next gen graphics. Its not as good as the 2012 video but Im still enjoying the visuals.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
Which is a bit insane, but medium textures don't look too bad so I might actually roll with it.

Reflections: High
Hbao+ low
Temp SMAA
Everything else ultra.

Getting pretty much a locked 60 with my 680 OC and 3770K.

Textures are causing all the stuttering for me I think. Need to do a bit more testing though. Gonna try the reddit hack now.

so you have to hack this game to get it to work properly? ironic. Ubisoft is definitely fucking with us. Seriously tho, i think half of us get some kind of masochistic pleasure out of trying to figure out how to fix the problems with these kinds of games. a game unto itself. inception
 

mkenyon

Banned
People aren't talking about maxing out. They are referring to the fact, at least in this game, 4GB cards makes a huge difference vs 2/3GB since you need it for Ultra texture setting. The Nvidia Watch Dog performance guide table clearly shows this.
I'm not saying that textures are all there is to maxing out, as we both know that is not true. But you can have it on high. High textures. On a budget $250 card. Increasing the price of that card to get a version with double the memory is ridiculous when you'll get more out of a better videocard. Like the 280x.

pn0lEKG.png


Like, I flat out don't get why 2GB cards are now dead. Shit, you can run it at 1080p on ultra without running out of memory.
You're implying, by induction, that the 280X is faster than the 770. Since it can handle Ultra textures just fine, and can use the 3GB memory.
Not really. I've *always* stated that the 770 is a bad buy in its price bracket, and always stated that if buying NVIDIA, get a 760 or a 780, not a 770. I then explain that the 280x/7970 is the card to buy at its price range due to the higher memory bandwidth and more memory.
 
so you have to hack this game to get it to work properly? ironic. Ubisoft is definitely fucking with us. Seriously tho, i think half of us get some kind of masochistic pleasure out of trying to figure out how to fix the problems with these kinds of games. a game unto itself. inception

I do actually enjoy figuring these things out.

But not with this game. This game has been incredibly frustrating. What a mess. Now that I'm done with it it's actually looking/performing better than what I expected coming into it, but it's a fucking mess. It's been a long time one game has had such an incredibly huge PC Performance thread and with so many people and so many random variations of errors, bugs and performance issues.
 

maneil99

Member
I'm not saying that textures are all there is to maxing out, as we both know that is not true. But you can have it on high. High textures. On a budget $250 card. Increasing the price of that card to get a version with double the memory is ridiculous when you'll get more out of a better videocard. Like the 280x.

pn0lEKG.png


Like, I flat out don't get why 2GB cards are now dead. Shit, you can run it at 1080p on ultra without running out of memory.

Not really. I've *always* stated that the 770 is a bad buy in its price bracket, and always stated that if buying NVIDIA, get a 760 or a 780, not a 770. I then explain that the 280x/7970 is the card to buy at its price range due to the higher memory bandwidth and more memory.
Your arguing in a thread where people seem to believe mroe memory = faster when they don't realize you could have a 760 with 20gb of vram and the case would be the same, any game that needs that much vram for a card that doesn't have enough likely wouldn't run well even with it.
 
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