My device specs:
Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU (>minimum, <recommended)
RTX3060 GPU (=recommended)
6gb dedicated video memory (game uses 3100~4600mb)
16gb RAM (=recommended)
79gb remaining space (>50gb required)
With DLSS performance mode:
With 60fps cap and “low” graphics preset (which already nukes lighting quality),
The game is unable to maintain a stable 60fps and drops to as low as 38fps in combat.
With DLSS performance mode and FSR3.1 frame generation:
Under the same “low” graphics preset, now targeting 40fps cap (which is multiplied into 80fps via frame generation):
The game is unable to maintain stable 80fps and drops to 72~76fps in combat at times, with bad stutters.
FSR3.1 frame generation also has issues with visuals (listed in a previous post of mine, still not fixed, unaffected by turning v-sync on).
GPU utilization maintains <80% so it’s not the GPU’s problem.
CPU utilization remains <50% in vast majority of situations, so it’s not a CPU problem either.
The only background apps active are Discord and Steam.
Neither CPU nor GPU is experiencing any kind of thermal throttle.
I’ve now tried every method including the ones posted in this forum:
Lowering texture quality (no noticeable improvements)
Lowering Mesh LOD quality (no noticeable improvements)
Turning off Ambient Occlusion (no noticeable improvements)
Lowering lighting quality from Medium to Low (destroys visual quality, no noticeable improvements)
Turning off ragdoll and gore settings (no noticeable improvements)
Lowering global illumination and using settings config file to disable rt related settings (this is what I already had)
Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Screen Space Reflections, Bloom, Lens Flare are all off
Turning off fullscreen optimization
Using DLSS-to-FSR3 frame generation mod (actually ran worse)
Lowering resolution below native (1920x1080) to 1366x768p (actually ran worse for some reason)
Turning on Nvidia Image Scaling in the Nvidia app on top of in-game DLSS (no noticeable improvements)
Raising worker threads from 8 to 13 (no noticeable improvements)
Vizra’s 2 recommendations (game ran less stable with more crashes)
Installing FXlimiter and I_wanna_see mods (no noticeable improvements)
None of them seem to address the horrible frame time inconsistency.
With 80 target fps, I should have ~12.5ms frame time in a consistent manner, but in reality, it fluctuates between 10.8ms to 22.9ms, making the overall experience worse.
There’s not a single instance of gameplay longer than 3 minutes I can find where my game is not experiencing some sort of frame time fluctuation.
I refuse to believe this is some sort of engine limitation because 40fps should not be a hard target to hit.
Have you tried forcing the new DLSS 4 via the updated drivers and nV app (and/or DLSS Swapper)? You’re likely to get more benefits even at 1080p (?). And you might be better off uncapped FPS w/ DLSS 4 but no FSR; try it.
Just a side note, Frame Generation rule of thumb as always been minimum required is 60 FPS, it’s not a magic frame multiplier as if it were native, so don’t cap at 40 and expect miracles, nowadays it’s more often referred to as “frame smoothing” which is probably for the best. What’s your uncapped average FPS without FSR?
Yeah, FSR is going to have image quality issues most likely more noticeable on low base fps. A tool like DLSS Swapper can now update FSR DLLs too now, so that may also help.
I’m using DLSS4 override via Nvidia app.
I’ve listed the uncapped framerate above. At 60fps target, without frame gen, the game struggles to maintain a stable framerate despite not having any component running into bottlenecks. This is why I resorted to a lower target fps for frame gen because targeting a higher framerate would result in even more unstable frame pacing.
GPU utilization not maxed.
CPU utilization <50% most of the time.
Dedicated video memory not fully used.
No thermal throttle for either CPU or GPU.
That’s average CPU % utilization right? The % on the active cores the useful metric., 50% can’t be the real % unless you’re GPU/SW bound right?
When you look at the cores it’s likely some are being maxed, you may have a bit of GPU % (is it always < 80%?) to turn up some settings or not use DLSS or use it with better quality (YYMV). It sounds like the mobile CPU (H) and DT engine are the limiting factors, but FSR FG might be making things worse due to low min and consistent FPS.
You could try the usual long-shot hail marys like setting CPU core affinity to the “real” cores, core 0 and every other one. Try 4 worker threads and set CPU affinity to 1st CCX, and only real cores.
Othe: setting exploit protections CFG exemptions for DT etc, maybe reduce stutters? Other games in the past beneifed from CFG off for said game but I don’t think DT is one of them. Overlays off?
There’s a very recent beta MSI afterburner to use for monitoring, you can log to a file and view later, try to keep.
FWIW, framerates and times fluctuate in DT for me too on 5800x and 3080, but it’s less painful and apparent as average FPS and lows are higher from beefier GPU and CPU and g-sync; there may be limits here due to engine and HW. I don’t think this is unusual for DT.
And again, your own target of 80 FPS with FG might be unrealistic, see why 60 fps is the min recommendation, your cap at 40 might be making things worse.
Supported hardware: AMD’s FSR 3 is compatible with a wide range of GPUs, but to make sure that your system supports it, check the requirements here.
Minimum FPS: It’s recommended to run the game at a baseline of minimum 60 FPS before enabling Frame Generation for it to work properly. At lower frame rates visual artifacts might be more prominent, you might also experience frame pacing issues.
Monitor refresh rate: It’s strongly advised to play on a high refresh rate monitor (120 Hz and above). Using a lower refresh rate monitor can lead to frame time issues.
Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling: Needs to be enabled in the operating system. In Windows 11 this option is turned on by default. Enabling Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling in Windows 10:
Leave overlays, and specifically FSR (updated DLLs?) out of the equation till dead last; keep the testing clean. I think you may be overestimating its value in your case and/or it’s making things worse, the low min might be causing frame pacing issues as the articles suggest and leading to stuttering.
I could be dead wrong and YMMV but read up more on it.
P.S. you keep using the term “target”, what does this mean to you? Capping a a framerate is not the same as a “target” FPS some other games may have, where they dynamically adjust settings to try (not always succeed) to hit that target FPS.
GPU is under 80% in vast majority of situations and never goes above 90% even in the most extreme.
I’ve tried 60fps cap with FG (=120fps) before which was essentially the same thing as what I have right now with worse frame time fluctuations, that’s why I’ve kept to 40fps.
“Target” just means the framerate I want the game to stay at consistently. I would be going for higher fps if they were more stable but from my tests they weren’t.
I’ll try changing CPU core affinity when I’m home later, thx
using a ryzen7 5800x this steam post was the only fix that worked for me.
i tried almost every other solution like reBAR, disabling CFG, tweaking config files, etc.
nothing of this had a real positive impact on fps stability.
turn off msi afterburner or any other monitoring software!
this instantly eliminated the bad 1percentile fps for me
(and find the sweetspot of worker threads that works best for you, i am currently on 9)
Interesting. Will try this soon (turning off MSI afterburner).
I’d still like to monitor some basic stats though.
I’m not sure if Nvidia’s built in overlay will have the same issues?
If turning off MSI afterburner works. Open MSI afterburner’s settings, go to the Monitoring tab, and uncheck the power monitoring metrics, and every other metric you’re not displaying.
