How to not obsess over performance?

[brandnewcardock]

Curious if anyone else faces this issue. I don't play a lot of games but the ones I do I tend to get very into. I play exclusively on a budget PC, which is generally perfectly fine for my needs (as in it can run older game maxed out at 1440p no problem). I generally don't really care about more modern games, mostly because I know my PC can't run them and it's not worth my time.

In comes Death Stranding, a game I've been dying to play because I'm a huge MGS/Kojima fan. I wasn't going to get it (because of my PC), but it was on sale last month, and a quick look at YT showed that it ran surprisingly well on my GPU, so I grabbed it. Ever since, I've been having nothing be trouble getting it to run at a stable 60FPS at 1080p. I've spent so much time tinkering around with settings, using monitoring software, researching online as well as various other things it's definitely taken away from the game, which I was having a blast with at one point.

My system: GTX 1650 Super, Ryzen 5 1600AF, 16GB 3200 RAM, M.2 SSD

I feel like I've tried everything and I'm at the point of almost giving up. I've tinkered with settings, disabled Steam input/overlay, tried using the FidelityFX CAS setting (worse performance with it on at 1080p), disabled full-screen optimizations, updated my motherboard BIOS, tried it with and without v-sync (no v-sync has better FPS, but massive amounts of tearing), bought a DP cable for G-Sync and other things, but no matter what I do I still get drops at completely random times. The weirdest part is that settings don't seem to matter, I get better overall performance when I drop things down, but I still get drops even if ALL the settings are turned all the way down or off. It makes no sense.

1080p, All Settings turned down to lowest or off, V-Sync on via NVCP, gettings drops as low as 53fps, which seems crazy to me.

Everytime I tell myself "just give up and try playing" I end up having another setting combination idea and then I dive right back into testing mode. It's odd, I remember playing things like GTA IV on PS3 back in the day, which had horrible framerates and I didn't even notice. It just feels different here, every little drop is jarring, despite G-Sync being enabled. Am I just completely off-base on what my system can handle? It's even odder because looking on YT, people are playing this game on "Very High" at well over 60FPS at 1080p with my GPU and I can't get it to maintain a stable 60, and the "GeForce Experience" keeps telling me to turn things up.

Budget PC people, are you able to put this stuff aside and play games that maybe don't run well on your system?

EDIT: Yes, I understand I wouldn't have this issue on console, but I don't own any consoles. Also, if anyone has any advice on my situation with DS specifically any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mentok15]

Find recommended settings for you're specs and just use those. This is why I prefer console gaming, I spend more time with the settings than playing the game.

 

[Stacey]

I'm gonna be brutally honest here.

You can't escape it, it's in a pc gamers nature to get the most out of their equipment.

Ive tried for 17 years to not give a shit, nothing works.

 

[Salient_Lion]

This was one of the things that pushed me back to using consoles as my primary way to game. I know that what I'm playing is optimised for my exact hardware by the developers, even if it'll never hit the same highs as on a nice PC.

Even when my PC was able to run a game at max settings, I'd still get anxious if there was a slight hitch or stutter and jump into the settings or pcgamingwiki to make sure I had everything set up optimally.

 

[ChoklitCow]

Performance all comes down to confidence in these situations. And you know what? If you're having fun and the PC is having fun, you'll find that just the right amount of performance will get you a long ways.

 

[Medze]

Play on console is the solution. You just accept the game as it is.

 

[Rhaknar]

by playing on console where you have no control over it

 

[Taco_Human]

Play older games you know will have better performance than new ones lol

 

[BadWolf]

Never cared about this stuff personally, as long as the game is playable I'm good.

Have no problems turning settings, resolution etc. down to make that happen.

Just focus on playing the games instead of wasting time tinkering.

 

[nsilvias]

i just check what my hardware is capable of on youtube and then run it one setting lower and lock the frame rate at 60 or 75 if its a demanding game.

 

[Zutrax]

The only way you escape it is by either:

1. Playing console games to force yourself with whatever they give you.
2. Spend so much money that you pretty much can just get away with max settings without any issue.
3. Never play new games, and always play old stuff that your PC can clearly handle without any issues whatsoever.

Otherwise it's a ferocious cycle that never ends. PC gaming is great because of it's versatility, but also can really hurt perfectionists.

 

[DreamRunner]

I would just buy a console if I were you, OP.PC gaming isn't worth it if you don't have at least $1.5 for a PC, imo.

 

[smart patrol]

Turn off statistics in-game so you aren't always monitoring them.

 

[ApeEscaper]

You probably already have but just in case did you enabled XMP for your RAM in BIOS?
Also you could try stuff like put your CPU in high performance mode through Windows Power Plan, disabling as much third party and windows software running in background etc won't help much maybe very slight. Also could try overclocking the GPU etcetc

 

[Spacejaws]

Yea I'm having this problem with GTA V.

Single player is 75 fps+ (have a 75hz monitor) on my gaming laptop. I remember online being close before but I've went back to it and I'm getting like 48fps online. Dropped everything to low, changed direct x versions, toggling Vsync and fullscreen modes, tried all on high to try and relieve the CPU a bit and nothing. Barely any fps change in either direction and it's infuriating, especially as most of the gfx settings you need to restart the damn thing and it takes forever to launch.

60fps AC Origin all medium-high fucking 40-50fps in GTA V in online mode only. It's driving me mad but eventually I just gave up and play that way now but I understand your pain. Think more games should have a benchmark feature where it runs through the game on different settings and picks the best one for you. Even if it was 20 mins long I wouldn't give a shit would be nice, especially with some games where you think you have good settings, then walk into a new area and the framerate tanks and you need to tweak it all again.

 

[N1corex]

ye i never really cared i also have a 1650 super with i5 9400f as long as it looks ok and has stable frames 60+ is ok for me to play. death stranding its been awhile since release but im pretty sure i had mostly high settings 60-70fps at 1080p. i just used this guide https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...-pc-performance-how-to-get-the-best-settings/

 

[Cyclonesweep]

It was part of the reason I mostly play on console. On PC if I'm getting rough performance I do whatever I can to fix it.
On console I know there is nothing I can do, and just live with it and move on.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Disable the FPS counter

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Turn off any FPS counter in the corner. Turn em all off.

 

[Grifter]

I went thru this - bought a Macbook and switched to consoles.

 

[Firefly]

Uninstall in-game monitoring software or just disable overlay. If the performance still bothers you, switching to console won't help.

 

[Clowns]

play at 900p.

 

[EvilBoris]

I stopped playing on Pc, I just couldn't help but tinker and it was never good enough

 

[Speevy]

Think of your greatest gaming moments of the PS1, PS2, PS3, N64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Wii, Wii U, Xbox, and Xbox 360.

There's a good chance that you weren't aware of some massive framerate drops.

 

[brandnewcardock]

You probably already have but just in case did you enabled XMP for your RAM in BIOS?
Also you could try stuff like put your CPU in high performance mode through Windows Power Plan, disabling as much third party and windows software running in background etc won't help much maybe very slight. Also could try overclocking the GPU etcetc

Click to shrink...

Yep, XMP is enabled (even disabled and re-enabled to make sure) and also switched the Windows Power Plan to High Performance. Nothing extensive is running while I play.

ye i never really cared i also have a 1650 super with i5 9400f as long as it looks ok and has stable frames 60+ is ok for me to play. death stranding its been awhile since release but im pretty sure i had mostly high settings 60-70fps at 1080p. i just used this guide https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...-pc-performance-how-to-get-the-best-settings/

Click to shrink...

It's really odd, yeah. I'm not sure that guide is great though, the entire paragraph about the 'Memory For Streaming' settings is just flat out false.

 

[snausages]

I think rain murders performance in Death Stranding, that could be the cause. Similar with Witcher 3, when I was playing that on my 2060 it would drop to 30s and no graphics setting would resolve it. You just have to put up with that tbh.

Also tbh if you can get near enough that 50fps level of performance on a setting higher than low I wouldn't really be bothered by that, at least on a gsync monitor. That's what it's for. I played a lot of Cyberpunk on a 3070 at around 40-55 fps with the graphics turned way too high and no ragrets, sometimes perfect smoothness is overrated.

 

[Ra]

This is really why I push my budget to be able to afford a GPU that allows me to not have to fight for acceptable performance.

But I found this Death Stranding + 1600AF + GTX 1650 Super gameplay on YT w/ overlay, and this person is running the game on Very High and averaging over 60fps:



If this is possible with the same exact config you have, there has to be some other hardware/software issue for you to be getting far worse performance on minimum settings.

 

[brandnewcardock]

I think rain murders performance in Death Stranding, that could be the cause. Similar with Witcher 3, when I was playing that on my 2060 it would drop to 30s and no graphics setting would resolve it. You just have to put up with that tbh.

Also tbh if you can get near enough that 50fps level of performance on a setting higher than low I wouldn't really be bothered by that, at least on a gsync monitor. That's what it's for. I played a lot of Cyberpunk on a 3070 at around 40-55 fps with the graphics turned way too high and no ragrets, sometimes perfect smoothness is overrated.

Click to shrink...

Yes, rain and encounters (MULES, terrorists, BTs) are generally the cause of these drops, but I still find it very odd that adjusting the settings don't seem to affect it. Also, could something possible be wrong with my G-Sync settings, because any drop is jarring? I enabled it via the NVCP and turned on v-sync globally. Is there anything else I had to do? The monitor has Freesync, but I was able to enable G-Sync no problem when I connected a DP cable.

This is really why I push my budget to be able to afford a GPU that allows me to not have to fight for acceptable performance.

But I found this Death Stranding + 1600AF + GTX 1650 Super gameplay on YT w/ overlay, and this person is running the game on Very High and averaging over 60fps:



If this is possible with the same exact config you have, there has to be some other hardware/software issue for you to be getting far worse performance on minimum settings.

Click to shrink...

Agreed, something seems really odd here.

 

[yaffi]

Get rid of Geforce Experience.

 

[iceblade]

Why not just use the recommended settings from Geforce Experience and go from there (in your case turn them down)? This is the kind of situation where it can be helpful: giving you settings so you don't have to spend so much time trying to figure them out for yourself.

Also, people could be playing with better settings on that same GPU but have a faster CPU, and 1080p is more often a res where you're CPU bound.

 

[brandnewcardock]

Why not just use the recommended settings from Geforce Experience and go from there? This is the kind of situation where it can be helpful: giving you settings so you don't have to spend so much time trying to figure them out for yourself.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, this is where things get weird. GeForce Experience recommends that I pretty much max out at 1080p, but as you can see above I'm struggling to maintain 60FPS with everything turned all the way down.

 

[Clowns]

so how sustained are these drops? if you're averaging around 60 you're naturally going to hit points where it's going to drop below that when you hit more graphically intense areas.

 

[brandnewcardock]

so how sustained are these drops? if you're averaging around 60 you're naturally going to hit points where it's going to drop below that when you hit more graphically intense areas.

Click to shrink...

They're not sustained, just very jarring drops for a few seconds and then back up to 60FPS. I agree, drops are expected, but should I still expect them even with ALL the settings turned down to as low as they can go?

 

[Rodney McKay]

I got pretty obsessed with performance after I built my first PC, which wasn't great since it was kind of a low-medium budget build, which meant I was constantly tinkering with games to get them running well.

This was also back around 2008/2009 when console ports were just getting decent, had controller support, and didn't run like crap, but there were still a bunch that weren't well optimized.

Honestly, what broke me out of that phase and actually enjoy games was taking a bit of a break from PC gaming and I played a ton of 3DS games.

Eventually i got somewhat used to the massive jaggies and lower framerates of 3DS games so ehne I finally did go back to playing stuff on PC it was such a massive improvement that I didn't mind if I wasn't running them with the best AA or if the framerate wasn't a locked 60. Just being 1080p and higher than 30fps made them look amazing.

 

[digit_zero]

Geforce Experience is almost assuredly targetting 30 fps, rather than 60 fps.

Really though, just don't have an FPS counter at all times, and your tolerance and how much you notice drops should really go down. The counters are useful in diagnosing issues and picking out settings, but once you find something comfortable for a few minutes, turn it off and don't look back.

 

[ss_lemonade]

I find small drops between 50 - 60 to not be an issue as long as gsync was properly engaged, so I find it interesting to see it bothering you so much even when you have VRR.

 

[KhandoleezzaRice]

What's your target performance? If you're getting drops with the game set to the lowest it goes then aside from maybe tinkering with config files or dropping the resolution even further then I think it's a matter of acceptance unfortunately. I found removing any monitoring tool was a good step in moving the mental focus from performance onto the game. If the drops were small enough I wouldn't notice, and if the drops were occasional but noticeable I would ultimately ignore them because they weren't critical to my enjoyment of the game.

 

[Deleted member 1003]

Playing on console helps. Usually you don't have a choice and just deal with it, or not.

 

[brandnewcardock]

I find small drops between 50 - 60 to not be an issue as long as gsync was properly engaged, so I find it interesting to see it bothering you so much even when you have VRR.

Click to shrink...

Agreed, that was the entire reason I bought a DP cable. It could be mental, but even a slight drop is noticeable (the game stutters). I've tried every combination of G-Sync related settings in the NVCP (low-latency mode, triple buffer) and they all don't seem to fix the issue.

 

[zXe]

Could something possible be wrong with my G-Sync settings, because any drop is jarring? I enabled it via the NVCP and turned on v-sync globally. Is there anything else I had to do? The monitor has Freesync, but I was able to enable G-Sync no problem when I connected a DP cable.

Click to shrink...

V-sync must be disabled in the actual games video settings as well as being set to fullscreen mode. V-Sync should be set to ON in NVCP as you have already done but also check that enable for fullscreen mode is ticked under the g-sync section (should be by default when g-sync is enabled - but worth a check). Also set power to 'Prefer maximum performance' under 3D Settings. Check CPU/GPU clocks when running the game and try using high performance in Windows power settings.Check task manager to see if any other processes are running - don't have chrome running for example. Check DRAM is running at correct speeds also, cpu-z can do this.

 

[Clowns]

They're not sustained, just very jarring drops for a few seconds and then back up to 60FPS. I agree, drops are expected, but should I still expect them even with ALL the settings turned down to as low as they can go?

Click to shrink...

if you're usually hitting 60-70 frames otherwise, I'd think so. but i can't speak with firsthand experience for DS.

 

[Logan]

brandnewcardock

You can always limit fps to 50. :)

Anyways, try Process Lasso:

 

[Deleted member 9330]

G-Sync/other adaptive sync. Frame drops could be occurring and I have no idea, so who cares!

 

[brandnewcardock]

V-sync must be disabled in the actual games video settings as well as being set to fullscreen mode. V-Sync should be set to ON in NVCP as you have already done but also check that enable for fullscreen mode is ticked under the g-sync section (should be by default when g-sync is enabled - but worth a check). Also set power to 'Prefer maximum performance' under 3D Settings. Check CPU/GPU clocks when running the game and try using high performance in Windows power settings.Check task manager to see if any other processes are running - don't have chrome running for example. Check DRAM is running at correct speeds also, cpu-z can do this.

Click to shrink...

V-Sync is disabled in the game and it's set to fullscreen. V-Sync is on in the NVCP and G-Sync in enabled for both windowed and full screen modes. Prefer maximum performance is on under 3D Settings and so is High Performance in Windows. Nothing extensive is running at the same time. DRAM is running at the correct speed. Could the monitor not actually support G-Sync even though it says it's enabled? The G-Sync Compatible Indicator shows up in game when I check that off.

 

[KillLaCam]

Unless it's a competitive game I just turn off the FPS counter

 

[hoserx]

Get a 3090 and then you don't have to worry as much.

 

[Cats]

If it's stuttering that bad through gsync to where theres huge drops for just a second or so on the lowest settings, that sounds like a memory, cache, loading, CPU, or rogue code issue. Sadly, there generally isn't much you can do and even having a 3090 wouldn't help. It might just be an incompatibility with the hardware too, it happens.

That's just my guess anyways and I could be wrong, but I'm going by the little bit you've wrote here.

 

[Deleted member 12833]

Turn the overlay off.

Play online games where you can pause to mess with settings.

 

[bing]

brandnewcardock I know that you have 3200 mhz ram but is it set to 3200 mhz in your motherboard BIOS? It's very important to have fast ram with Ryzen CPUs

Edit: Nvm, just saw that you already checked that it was at 3200 mhz. Try running the game in safe mode and see if the performance issues persist. That will tell you if you have a software issue or a hardware issue.

 

[JudgmentJay]

My solution is to build extremely powerful PCs. That way I rarely have to tweak settings and when I do it's usually only a small decrease in resolution and/or knocking 1 performance-intensive setting down a tick. I can't remember the last game I played on PC where I was unhappy with the performance. Not really a viable solution for many people, but yeah, that's how I don't obsess over performance.

You say you have a g-sync monitor but are you 100% sure you have it set up correctly? It may be a silly question, but I've seen people on this forum with gsync monitors who didn't even have gsync enabled at first. In regard to this specific game though it sounds like you have a CPU bottleneck in which case there's not a whole lot you can do. Maybe cap it at 50 fps with RTSS or NVCP and call it a day?

EDIT: Just saw your post a few above mine. It definitely seems like you have Gsync set up correctly so yeah, I'd try capping it at 50.