How to fix AMD GPU stutters and improve clarirty | Streaming settings config fix

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Performance Feedback
42

Heads up for anyone who normally manually updates their FSR by swapping DLLs:
FidelityFX 2.0 is out and they’ve changed it by splitting the DLL into three DLLs

  • amd_fidelityfx_loader_dx12.dll
  • amd_fidelityfx_upscaler_dx12.dll
  • amd_fidelityfx_framegeneration_dx12.dll

The loader DLL is basically the old amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll but instead of having everything included in that one file, will now load upscaler and FG content from the other DLLs as needed. I may try renaming the loader file to be the same as the old one and see if it still works but if not it would require the devs to update the game to load the new one by name

43

Small correction: “amd_fidelityfx_upscaler_dx12.dll” is the equivalent of the old amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll" so you should overwrite the old one using that file.

Loader one is for developers actually implementing it into their games.

44

seems like the ini file resets every update and its sad because I and a few others think this helps, is there a solution?

45

Once I noticed this I started keeping a copy of my most current inis and configs and just updating the values in the new file when needed.

46

I really appreciate your effort you spend in this. But after three years since launch, given the severity and how widespread this issue with AMD hardware is … this is not ok from Fatshark imho.
Something is really off with the game or the driver and this should be much higher on their priority list.
I am disappointed, because I really love playing Darktide and the severe stuttering and bad performance is sucking the fun out of the game for me.
@FatsharkJulia

47

yee vizra is a beast, its really sad I encounter a ton of people who get crazy lag after not a few matchs and sometimes even 1

48

Close but not really. Read these two lines:

amd_fidelityfx_loader_dx12.dll: A small loader DLL, not containing any effect code. This DLL only manages the loading of effect type DLLs to provide the effects to the calling application. It is compatible in interface and behaviour to amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll

Applications previously loading amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll (or linking with amd_fidelityfx_dx12.lib) need to load amd_fidelityfx_loader_dx12.dll (or link to amd_fidelityfx_loader_dx12.lib) instead

And Optiscaler 0.7.9 even did exactly what I was going to try

  • Added support for FidelityFX SDK 2.0.0 and FSR 4.0.2/3.1.5 - renamed the loader file, should work from our testing, Upscaler DLL now contains FSR 4.0.2, had to bundle the unsigned DLLs because some games didn’t like the signed ones for RDNA4 specifically

And sure enough it just works. All you need to do is get it loaded into the game and the loader dll handles the other two. The game currently expects “amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll” and renaming the loader file to that is all it takes for the game to see it

49

Oh that’s clever. It’s basically doing the same action but instead of changing dlls for frame gen and upscaling separately, you just change the loader and let it handle both.

Basically I did it the long way around :smiley: Thanks for the clarification.

Quick edit: This approach does not work on Linux for now because loader tries to load FSR4 instead of 3.1. I am on an RDNA3 GPU so that’s causing issues. If I rename the other dlls though, it works fine. Just a reminder for Linux users.

50

ohhh interesting edit. I guess if you’re on RDNA3 you could just stick with 3.1.4 as 3.1.5 just has a few bug fixes.

Or you could try Optiscaler and make sure this setting in the ini is off

; Enables updating of FSR3.X to FSR4
; true or false - Default (auto) is depends on GPU
Fsr4Update = auto

Plus you can force RCAS instead of the games default sharpening. It’s a subtle but positive difference

51

I am on Linux so don’t want to fiddle with Optiscaler just yet. It requires a specific Proton version which I don’t really want to try yet as it may or may not break the game. Happy with the stability at the moment so don’t want to jinx it :smiley:

52

Hi,

PC Specs of mine:

AMD 9800X3D
Nvidia RTX 5080
64 GB CL30 6000mhz DDR5
NVME storage
4k240Hz G-Sync Monitor

I had terrible issues (all settings maxed, rtx on, native 4k, fullscreen) after few minutes into any map. The only thing that helped me was this fix.

Thanks a lot!!

Fatshark should do something about this..

53

The problem with that fix is, the textures are low quality sometimes until they load (or something). Sometimes it’s pretty glaring issue, sometimes it’s not visible..

54

Idk how the devs haven’t made a fix based on this findings or at least acknowledge and have a look…. AMD support in this game is completely cooked, they just couldn’t care less as we can clearly see from the complain people have made over the years. This is the last game i’d buy from this studio, i guess.

55

My guess is that the team which is working on the game currently is the artist and gameplay team - they add new classes, assets, maybe maps. And the team which has expertise in engine internals/optimizations is no longer working on this project. It’s a 3 years old game right now. Imo there is plenty to fix (reddit and this forum posts confirm it). But they aready provided the minimal viable product (definitely the case if it comes to performance) and now it is profiting time. A bit sad - to see all this great new content in very rough frame pacing and stutters.

The fix that I use which makes this problem less painfull (but not disappear entirely) is to change values in settings_common.ini (…\Steam\steamapps\common\Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE\bundle\application_settings\settings_common.ini)

feedback_buffer_size = 2
staging_buffer_size= 1
tile_staging_buffer_size = 1

(from 4,4,4 to 2,1,1)

9800X3D and 9070xt BTW, so this quite old game should FLY even on ultra with FSR4 and FSR FG

56

I used to use this config, but found it produced inconsidtent results. I’ll do more testing and update my guide if I notice a difference.

Update: I tried this personally and found framepacing issues.

57

This did not help with stutters on my end I’m afraid. 9070xt 25.11.1, 5800x3d. SMT on and off, no help :frowning:

58

Same here, basically no performance improvements on a RX6600 XT 25.11.1, Ryzen 5 4650g PRO no matter what I did

59

I think disabling anti-lag might have been the thing that made it better, give that a go maybe.

60

Everything is already disabled on my end (aside from Smart Access Memory but that was off even before I looked into solutions) so I’m truly stumped until Fatshark actually does something

61

This has definitely improved the overall performance on my 6950XT.

And i see no difference in visual fidelity either.

They should apply this as an official fix. That’s the least they could do at this point.

This workaround appears to work for most of us AMD GPU owners.

P.S.

Kudos to the OP! Much obliged!

“You’re credit to team!”