[#3692] The game is "unplayable" on Nvidias new 5000-series due to removed PhysX 32-bit support

[Naraz79]

I recently built a new computer & figured I would try out the new X4 7.5 update.

My new 9950x3d, 64GB RAM a Samsung 9100 4TB with a 5080 Astral OC have been completely shredding everything I throw at it.

Starting up X4 running everything at max in 4096x 2160 on a 48" inch OLED TV was an awesome experience getting 90-100 FPS. Until I decided to visit an astroid field.....
That's when my FPS hit rock bottom.

14-15 FPS....

With the FPS counter turned on you can cleary see the FPS severely starting to tank as you get close to dense astroid fields.

Things are running slower then on my old 9900K with the 1080TI that was released 8 years! ago.

It's pretty damn clear physX 32-bit that was removed from the new Nvidia 5000-series is involved.

It's great that you have added DLSS support & a lot of other things but as things stand now parts of X4 suffer unplayable FPS where the PhysX 32-bit calculations are involved.
I can go from a 80-100 FPS space battle where things run like a dream to unplayable 14FPS.

It's extremely easy to test this. Just turn on a FPS counter on a computer with the new 5000-series Nvidia card. Start in open space then fly closer & closer to a dense astroid field while watching the FPS tank.

Please do something about this.

[CBJ]

Please provide the information requested in the very first thread at the top of the forum. Without it we can't give any relevant advice.

Since the game doesn't use PhysX and isn't 32-bit, the absence of that clearly has nothing to do with it.

[Naraz79]

Thank you for your quick response & sorry for my assumptions & also missing the top post.

Here is the info:

Version and language: 7.5 (553255), English

Mods?: No mods

Game start being played: Stranded

Exact nature of the problem, where and when it occurs and what you were doing at the time:
Severe FPS drops near dense astroid fields. Just simple flying & mining crystals alone with nothing else even close. Sector: Heretic's End

Any possibly relevant changes you have made to your game, system, or software before the issue occurred:
Always been like this. Fighting & other things have not been an issue. Noticed something was off when trying to mine some crystals so turned on FPS counter.

Where appropriate, additional symptoms, error messages, links to saves *, screenshots and crash dump files (see this Wiki entry):
Should not be relevant.

Your system specifications in the form of a DxDiag report and vulkaninfo (see this Wiki entry):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qajv1hrh ... uezhb&dl=0

[CBJ]

Thanks for the DXDiag. The drivers for your AMD integrated graphics could do with updating, as could those for your sound device. The former may not seem relevant, but Vulkan is surprisingly sensitive to drivers being up to date for all devices, not just the one you are currently using. On that note, I assume you've checked that the game is actually using your shiny new 5080 and not the on-board AMD!

Could you also provide your config.xml file, so that we can see what settings you're using and see whether that has any bearing on the rather extreme performance drop you're seeing?

[Naraz79]

Here is the config:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rtpzloyx ... c9aub&dl=0

I will try with the AMD GPU drivers installed even if they are not used. I removed them to get rid of bloat & everything have been working flawlessly without them.
There is also no question that the 5080 is being used . I'm having a very hard time seing a iGPU doing 100FPS+ in X4.....

As for sound I already saw that it could be an issue so I disabled everything not being used in the device manager (something I saw in another post here).
I'm running the latest driver I found on the motherboard page. Will check if Realtek had something even newer.

[Naraz79]

I installed the AMD GPU driver (driver only) and there is no difference.
I also checked for newer drivers for my sound & can't find any that are newer (This for the X870E-E WIFI gaming mobo)

I gave the machine a reboot after all that and tried again. No difference.

I start flying a bit from the astroid field starting at 60FPS and flying closer it steadily tanks until reaching 14-15FPS when I'm inside the field.

I'm having 0 other problems in other games.

This system also hit a world record in Steel Nomad Dx12 for the 9950X3D + 5080 combo a few days ago (since surpassed by a few points so now I'm 2 but I don't care. I want to play X4 and not in 14 FPS =( )

https://www.3dmark.com/sn/4646745

[CBJ]

Thanks for the additional info. Could you also provide a savegame in the specific location where performance is worst for you? Even if you just fly there right after you start a game, this gives us an exact pinpoint on where you are so that we can see whether the performance you're seeing is reproducible on a different system, or whether it's something specific to yours.

[Naraz79]

Here is the savegame:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sh0tpzid ... jmbvp&dl=0

Right after the save is loaded I have 50FPS with the settings provided in that exact location.
Turn on full normal throttle (no traveldrive) straight forward.
FPS went up to 53 like half a second after then steadily drops like a rock.
When I finally get as far as inside the field flying past one of the bigger rocks the FPS already hit 14-15.

[Naraz79]

I turned on OSD in GPU Tweak 3.

Here is a screenshot from inside the game with CPU/GPU clocks & stats:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gdretsev ... adh9z&dl=0

[CBJ]

Excellent. Thanks for all the info. It may take a little time for someone to investigate, so please leave the files up until you see a number appear in the thread title, or until you get further replies to the contrary.

[Naraz79]

No problem about the info. Also just to be crystal clear: After I have exited the astroid field going forward on normal throttle the FPS normalizes around 100FPS. In other sectors I see well above 100FPS like 150FPS+
This is what made me suspect PhysX. I have no problems in combat, near large stations or other things from what I have noticed so far.

If it would help I could try to record a video but not sure how huge that would be in this resolution....

Anyway thank you for your tireless work & give my best regards to the team. This title truly deserves the labour of love award.

[Daemonjax]

The 9950x3d has two CCD's.

Figure out which 8 real cores have access to the 3d v-cache, and try restricting the game from using any of the others (with process lasso)... so that the game is running only on the one CCD that has access to the 3d v-cache.

That's what I would try, anyways.

Additionally, you can also try disablling CPPC Preferred Cores in BIOS, but I dunno how that affects dual CCD chips. Some say for dual CCD chips, you want to set windows performance profile to balanced instead of high performance. I dunno about that. I would avoid dual CCD chips for gaming.

Also, AI is telling me that this cpu has 4 CCX per CCD, which sounds bonkers to me.