EXTREME performance issues in zones with many avatars

You can see my user specs below. I was getting about 3 FPS when in Ordinis Mortis to participate in the pvp tournament.

I was experiencing 3 fps on average with hitching up to 10 seconds. I was participating in a tournament to win a +23 shield from Attenwood, but was unable to meaningfully participate in my fights.

When I was experiencing this, the game was using 2.4 gb of ram (about 10% of total) - I had 75% ram free. 20% CPU load. 71 degrees average on my board and gpu - SotA was running at 3 FPS. I was hitching for 10+ seconds at a time.

I won round 2, but when it came to dev fights, I was unable to respond as my client would hitch for 10+ seconds.

Do I need to buy a Ryzen processor in order to be competitive in pvp?

How can you scale to 10,000+ concurrent players when you can't have .5% of that number in the same scene without the majority experiencing performance issues?

User Specs:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (8) System RAM: 24487
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU RAM: 8110
SotA.EarlyAccess.LIVE.Win.64.626.Date.07.05.17
Area: POT_grassland_metropolis_01_template/Ordinis Mortis
Area Display Name: Ordinis Mortis
Loc: (-124.1, 46.8, 236.6)

 

@Chris @Attenwood - Seriously, what is the recommended hardware to have 5+ fps in these situations, I will buy it.

 

Your computer is completely fine Kor.

This is all about optimization in specific scenarios. POT and NPC towns has a huge dynamic lights and deco items load, and some tech stuff not ready yet (like LODs for character models/gear), some spells too (aoes maybe?), etc.

All this directly affects to the performance and if we get 40+ players together, the framerate is going down really quick.

Any computer with 4gb+ of vram, a decent i5/i7 and 12gb+ ram should move the game at 30 fps in all scenarios, thats must be their goal now.

 

He made the Ryzen comment simply because it's what I run, and I didn't have performance issues. He's understandably upset.

 

Even using ryzen cpus you will find same issues in these scenarios. We have tested overclocked AMD and Intel cpus in some past events with 50-60 players and no one in the scene managed to have more than 20-25 fps (with max settings at 1080p). With r43 we got an improvement but POTs and NPC towns with lot of players are still giving big problems.

To make a good test you need to stay in the scene for some time (vram and ram consumption) and see how many players are login and leaving the scene, while they fighting, casting spells, etc. This is important because if you just check your framerate after your first 5min, you will not have any issue. In fact I was playing in Ordinis Mortis with 35 fps in the first hour, full settings until we had a looot of people playing emotes, fighting, casting spells, etc.

Chris "Atos" said several times they are gonna continue working on this until they can get the minimum standards.

 

Okay so let me check chat logs - back to the point where I asked everyone in zone what their fps was.

I grep'd my logs for "fps" from tonight :

[7/6/2017 6:42:49 PM] Kor: lol I have 2 fps
[7/6/2017 6:46:22 PM] Ravnos FelRidden: woot, 10fps
[7/6/2017 6:46:36 PM] Kor (To Zone): 4.4 fps for me
[7/6/2017 6:49:04 PM] Caree Death (To Zone): Oh man, the artifact instrument is killing my fps!
[7/6/2017 6:51:53 PM] Kor: T_T 1 fps lol
[7/6/2017 6:53:36 PM] Ravnos FelRidden: solid 6fps nice
[7/6/2017 6:53:55 PM] Gix Vargach: Ugh yeah FPS is rough ><;;
[7/6/2017 6:55:24 PM] List Rostov (To Zone): If yall could not /smoke too, I think there is an issue with sprite bounds too, lame i know, but might help fps
[7/6/2017 6:55:32 PM] Kor: 3 fps
[7/6/2017 7:01:38 PM] Ravnos FelRidden: whoa, reloaded and now have triple the fps and can move again!
[7/6/2017 7:21:43 PM] Valor Bastagio (To Zone): 15 fps in 1280 720
[7/6/2017 7:22:27 PM] Ravnos FelRidden: 12 fps in 2650x1440
[7/6/2017 7:31:32 PM] Kor (To Zone): who here has the most fps?
[7/6/2017 7:32:19 PM] Juvir Shadowborne (To Zone): I have 20 fps... still don't know how 11 wins
[7/6/2017 7:32:22 PM] Arkah EMPstrike (To Zone): *everyoen ignores juvir's fps*
[7/6/2017 7:32:23 PM] Rada Torment (To Zone): look at sky, and win the fps content
[7/6/2017 7:32:35 PM] Juvir Shadowborne (To Zone): i'm looking at the people in the stands for 20 fps
[7/6/2017 7:37:29 PM] List Rostov: 2 fps fight
[7/6/2017 7:46:47 PM] List Rostov: i am at .5 fps
[7/6/2017 7:47:55 PM] Justyne Kayse (To Zone): *feeling pretty good about his fantastic 5 fps*
[7/6/2017 7:51:33 PM] Ancev hands List Rostov more fps.
[7/6/2017 7:54:50 PM] Kor: Kor is on the 3 fps level
[7/6/2017 7:55:11 PM] Alexander John: oh **** ...17-21 FPS here
[7/6/2017 7:55:17 PM] Juvir Shadowborne (To Zone): 1280? 20 fps at 1440p ftw!
[7/6/2017 7:55:20 PM] List Rostov: i have 1-2 fps
[7/6/2017 7:56:11 PM] Stu Gotz (To Zone): wow my fps just hit7
[7/6/2017 7:56:31 PM] Alexander John: Hey Guys, Stare at the floor, your fps will improve
[7/6/2017 7:58:20 PM] Krullen: 8 fps on the floor.
[7/6/2017 7:58:57 PM] Kor: 0fps for about 8 seconds there at the end hooooooray for performance update lol
[7/6/2017 8:02:48 PM] Ancev: I'm at 13-14 fps
[7/6/2017 8:03:04 PM] DevilCult: 18fps
[7/6/2017 8:04:04 PM] Valor Bastagio (To Zone): I changed all resolution and had same fps for all them
[7/6/2017 8:13:29 PM] Kor: gtx 1080 i7 2700k 3.5 ghz 24 gb ram I am getting 3 fps at 70c temperature and 2.4 gb memory usage and about 20% cpu load
[7/6/2017 8:18:01 PM] Galaford Skullreaper (To Zone): this was definatly alot of fun even withthe slow fps
[7/6/2017 8:19:14 PM] Kor: I want to go to a basement and get 100 fps
[7/6/2017 8:26:43 PM] Kor: ok I am off to play something with more than 3 fps T_T



The people with good fps in the zone had a ryzen or i7 7700

 

In this scene there was approximately 60 avatars, a heavy exterior light load near the town entrance (which causes bad frame lag when your alone), the lot the PvP was occuring on was constructed compeltely out of granite blocks, fences, and wooden walls (City lot arena with elevated stadium seating)

 

Change that "good" for "bit better than mediocre" xD

20 fps with a AMD ryzen cpu is far from being good or decent performance IMO. So I would say nobody was there with a decent framerate today in Ordinis Mortis. When we talk about only 2-3 years old hardware, I could not consider anything good or decent under 30 fps.

 

When the i7s were getting 9-11 FPS, I think that says something.

 

I wasn't just there for 5 minutes. Also, you can't compare an overclocked AMD FX chip to a Ryzen, it's not even a close comparison. Seriously, not even close, the architecture is way different. My ram consumption was normal, ~6.7GB. VRAM was also normal, ~3-4GB of the 11 available. I showed up about 15 minutes before the first round ended, and was there until everyone left. So I was there when the mass of people began to show up, and when they began to leave.

 

Yes, something less mediocre. And we don't know their ram, gpu, OS, etc.

If you have a high end computer playing at 10-20 fps, thats what I would consider mediocre framerate. Just imagine anyone trying to play with a low-mid computer, they literally can't. And those 10 fps difference are not coming from the cpu only. GPU matter a lot in scenarios with many players and spells.

In gaming the difference between those super AMD cpus and best i7 is nothing big. In fact there are some games where you will get higher fps using a good i7 (check the video). AMD cpus gets advantage in multitasking and some other heavy things (sota its not one of them, working with renders, video editing, working with 4k-8k resolution photos, etc, are some examples). In these scenarios your cpu is really good and makes a difference compared to Intel.

We can say they are a bit cheaper, but not better for gaming than i7. If you got 20 fps and best framerate yesterday, congrats! you have a really good rig, but you know its not all about the cpu.

PD: I was talking about a 1800x running at 4.4 ghz, not FX

 

Try something not from March Rada, since the motherboards have caught up, so has windows.


Or even:


Or how about:



With ram speeds finally caught up as well as bios revisions, the argument about the i7 being a better processor is gone. There are games where one performs better than the other, and different situations will cause different performance benchmarks in gaming. Release benchmark video links will get you nowhere in a debate about this, especially with someone who has a Ryzen system, and his wife is running an i7 7700k.

The infinity fabric on the Ryzen is starting to be able to stretch it's legs now that ram speeds are catching up. Also, the claim that the CPUs were 4.4ghz overclocked Ryzens I find hard to believe, considering how even with water cooling I haven't seen that accomplished yet.

 

Yeah...we're not taking a "everything is fine, it's you, not us" stance whatsoever. I think Chris covered this topic nicely during the telethon. This is very much a work in progress. A part of troubleshooting is eliminating all possible machine issues of course, but we know things are not supergreat when there are a lot of people in the zone.

 

If I am upgrading my PC, what do you guys recommend for me to reliably get 5+ fps in these situations? It wasn't just this one event. People have performance problems all the time during Virtue League PvP tournaments, which happens every Wednesday.

 

Yes, I am aware of Virtue League. And you're right, last night wasn't an isolated event - it's on the known issue list until we've made some changes for the better.
The best person to answer this would be Chris or The Attenwood, but it also probably depends on the pending optimization work on our end. With RTX underway this weekend I will have to get back to you @Kigu Starfish (Kor) . Hardware is not my specialty

In the meantime, people with kickbutt machines please share what upgrades have worked best for you. I know a lot depends on the entire machine, not just the video card but motherboard and more...

 

Maybe 4.2Ghz at 1.55v, can't remember now exactly the speed my friend was using in his rig. I trust you if you tell me these cpus are not very friendly to OC.

Even with bios and memory speed improvements there is not real difference in gaming, thats my basic point (difference I mean as something big and remarkable). I'm not saying Intel is better than AMD in 100% of the cases, but I could find more games giving better performance using Intel than AMD, and thats a real fact. AMD wins the race of multi-tasking, but in gaming the difference is the one you put there in those videos, minimum and sometimes even better with a good i7 (just because for gaming ghz > cores anytime). Before Ryzen, nobody was asking which cpu was better for gaming.

My recommendation is always, if you already have a decent good CPU (any i5 or i7), get a better GPU or more ram (only if you are under 12gb) for gaming. Even the old 2500k, six year old cpu, is a good cpu and can run any modern game at full settings with a 1070. So, if any of you have a good computer and get low framerates in sota, wait, its not about your hardware and IMO no worth to spend a dollar for just 8-10 more fps. We must wait, that's all.

For the price and performance, now with Ryzen, AMD is a very good choice, specially if you work (like my case) with heavy tasks. Ryzen is something "new", so now we must wait and see what Intel is doing for the next generation cpus.

pd: sorry for the off-topic

 

The rig that I went with, and has done me a ton of good thusfar:

AMD Ryzen 1800x @4.02ghz
Asus Crosshair VI Hero motherboard
Corsair Dominator 3200 32GB
EVGA Geforce GTX 1080ti SC2 11gb
Corsair H110i Extreme AIO CPU cooler

I'm not running @4k, i'm using a 37" Ultrawide 1440p monitor @3440x1440, and I never drop the resolution on it for my testing/playing in SotA.

Since R43 my load times have all been <50% of what they were in R42, and my FPS has been at the very least 30% better (in heavy deco areas like Ardoris, Central Brit) and in some cases even better (the POT of Crossroads I live in i'm getting upwards of 95FPS on good settings, 70s on fantastic). In hunting areas the FPS naturally will climb to the VSync limit of 100 due to the lack of decos.

There are likely more compatible ram chips for the Ryzen platform out, I bought these months ago at this point, but higher speed > lower latency with Ryzen platforms (due to the way the infinity fabric works) @kigustarfish if you're seriously considering upgrading your rig. So 3600mhz ram at CL16 > 3200MHZ ram at CL14, and is actually ~$20-$30 less expensive, and will allow the processor itself to perform better.