[Performance] Memory & FPS

System specs:

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor @ 3.4GHz
4096MB RAM
ATi Radeon HD5670 2678 MB GDDR5
1920 x 1080 (32 bit) @ 60Hz HDMI

Software & Drivers:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (up-to-date)
ATi Catalyst 12.3 (up-to-date)
DirectX 11 (up-to-date)

PoE settings:

Window mode
Resolution: 1078x768
VSync on
Variance Shadow Mapping
Antialiasing off
2x Anisotropic filtering
Post processing on
Screen shake on


Issue 1

It seems the frame rate isn't very stable at certain times. I experience these frame rate issues mostly during the usage of an area of effect spells or when many spells (in a party) occurs on screen.
On idle my frame rate fluctuates between 29 and 83. With AoE spell casts it can go down to 4 fps. I have tried a few combination of settings and it works best when I have:
- Post processing off
- Shadows off
- VSync off
- Trilinear filtering

But even with these settings I still experience these big frame fluctuations during a game session. The longer the session the more it occurs. Also when a rare monster dies and the loot drops, the frame rate seems to drop until loot animations are on the ground.
I have included some screenshots with the FPS/MS monitor turned on and experimented with some settings after a 3 hour game session (had some issues to capture the screenshots).
The location is at the waypoint of 'Metadata/Terrain/Act2/Area9/Graphs/macro_bandit_camp2.tgr' (Alira's Camp)

Screenshots:


Issue 2

It seems the PoE requires a lot of RAM:
~653 MB @ launch
~659 MB @ character select
~1069 MB @ in game (forest encampment)

This will go up to 1.5-1.6 GB of RAM during a game session with global chat turned on. The more chats and/ or items have been linked in the global chat. The more memory the client requires. However, I have read an older topic which has been said, the chat buffer has been limited and therefor lowered some of the memory issues. However, I do notice at times people tend to have issues when a lot of items get 'spammed' in global chat, this due to the chat buffer/log getting filled or the item reference. I have not 'tested' or experienced it mainly because of 'issue 1'.

PackCheck?

I ran the tool 'PackCheck.exe' on 'Content.ggpk' and it did not showed me any errors.

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davros70 a écrit :

Alright

1; Frame Rate will be capped at a later date.
1b; Poison arrow has always been a giant lag cloud IMO.

2; Ram useage is currently a Ram Fragmentation issue that they are aware of and have plans to fix - though its not an easy fix!

1: Frame rate cap; that's something I did not know about it yet, thanks for informing me. Although hope they'll up the frame rate to a stable 60 instead of the current 30.

1b:"However the screenshots I have taken is indeed on my ranger with poison cloud and rain of arrow as an example. This also happens on my witch with Spark/ Ice Nova and etc. Although I must admit slightly less than with poison arrow.

2: I have read some of the topics about RAM fragmentation before I posted this, to see if there is any optimization fixes. Although, I do notice they free the RAM pretty good when you swap zones and a zone takes roughly only like 100-200 MB from what I can see and guess. It is just hard to kite and survive when you're playing a squishy build/class when the RAM fragmentation goes up to 1.5-1.6 GB and you die because of this +1 second delay in processing the things within the PoE client.


Also on an added note, try to stand idle in a zone for +20 minutes and you will notice the PoE client taking in more (~200 MB) RAM with global chat on. The client log on my computer is merely 10 MB in size for now. Which contains some information along with the global chatter. So as a random guess: it seems the chat is also processing all the item links in chat which result in the PoE client requires more RAM for faster item access in case a player hovers over it.

"

Rory a écrit :

As a temporary way to improve your ram fragmentation, you can add -gc 2 to the end of your Path of Exile Shortcut target, after the quotation marks, like this:

...Grinding Gear Games/Path of Exile/Client.exe" -gc 2

Thanks for this optimization 'fix' this indeed helps a bit with the RAM fragmentation. I noticed without the extra parameter command line the client behaves like this:

idle @ Shore encampment ~937 MB RAM
idle @ Prisoners camp 1156-1220 MB RAM


With extra '-gc 2' parameter:

idle @ Shore encampment ~937 MB RAM
idle @ Prisoners camp 1131-1152 MB RAM


It seems with the extra parameter it does indeed take less RAM and frees it up pretty well. However with this parameter it makes the frame rate fluctuate even more.

I have included new screenshots tested with the same default settings as mentioned in the start post 'with' the '-gc 2' parameter. Even tested with turn off certain settings to see if there is an improvement or not.


Screenshots


Results

Extra parameter doesn't allocate a lot of RAM and cleans it up nicely at an overall performance and maybe gameplay cost. Although tested with the following setting:

- VSync on
- No Shadows
- Antialiasing Quality off
- 2x Anisotropic filtering
- Post processing on

It nicely stabilizes the frame rate and the RAM usage. However this might not work for PC with a different setup.

With the combination of Poison Arrow, Rain of Arrow and regular attacks. The frame rate fluctuates around 30 FPS but doesn't go dramatically down to 2 FPS. Although I have not had the chance to test this thoroughly with a group and more things happening on screen.

But for me, this is a definitely improvement. :)

Frankly I'm quite amazed that your graphics card even manages the FPS you show. Of my two GTX460 a single one couldn't hold up stable 60, and it's a good bit more powerful than then HD5670. Only in SLI I get full stable 60 FPS at all times.

"

lhs a écrit :

Frankly I'm quite amazed that your graphics card even manages the FPS you show. Of my two GTX460 a single one couldn't hold up stable 60, and it's a good bit more powerful than then HD5670. Only in SLI I get full stable 60 FPS at all times.

That is interesting and awkward. However do note, I am running PoE in window mode and at 1078x768 resolution with HDMI as output.

On some graphic cards, a (slight) lowered resolution will perform better regarding FPS. But that depends on several factors like: drivers, resolution (i.e. HD quality 720 or 1080), graphic card output (VGA, DVI, HDMI), PC hardware setup and the game client coding.

But the screenshots I made, were with the default settings when I installed it, unless stated otherwise.
Hopefully this gets sorted out or you are able to find a better performing setting on your Geforce SLI GTX460. :)

As for the FPS issue, I would try a much older driver.