I noticed particularly low frame rates, despite low graphical settings. I checked task manager, and it said Darktide wasn’t using any GPU power! Maybe blips of 3% at most. I check my HDMI cable - it’s plugged into the graphics card, as is proper. I download new NVIDIA drivers. I checked the “power management mode” of my GPU, and it was in the setting recommended by a post about this issue from years ago.
The darktide_launcher.log file says:
[SysInfo] AdapterId: 0 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER) OutputId: 0 CurrentResolution: 1920x1080
which would imply that it is using the GPU. But it isn’t using the GPU, because GPU usage is very low. Right?
I changed “worker threads” in the launcher to 8, 16, 14, 15, 13, none of these options worked.
I open up Vermintide 2, which causes around 20 to 45% GPU usage depending on the scene, so this proves my GPU actually works.
I recently saw a post on the Steam discussion forums that mentioned “low FPS” and it was also a user with a AMD Ryzen 3700X, though this guy had a NVIDIA 30-something.
I just want Darktide to use my GPU to render the game, instead of “integrated graphics” from the CPU. It’s difficult to get through Maelstrom at 20 FPS.
Edit: added darktide_launcher.log. Curiously, there is this line that I didn’t notice the first time:
[SysInfo] !! DirectX returns no valid monitors attached for adapter 1 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER)
That sounds pretty important. But I do have a monitor attached, and like I said, it’s connected to the GPU directly.
Right, I just edited to fix that. Thanks - taking another look at the log helped me realize something important, though understanding it is a little beyond me.
!! DirectX returns no valid monitors attached for adapter 1 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER)
I understand you’ve already checked the HDMI is connected to the correct port. Could it be a bad cable - do you have another you could experiment with?
I don’t have another monitor, but I could use a different cable. I’m currently using an HDMI cable, but my GPU supports a “Display” cable, which I currently don’t have. I’ve been meaning to get one anyway, since this monitor doesn’t do over 60FPS with HDMI, but it can with display cable. Would changing the cable help at all?
If not, I could try to see if I can borrow a monitor from a friend.
Okay, I swapped out for a display cable instead of HDMI. a few things do look better even outside of Darktide, but darktide_launcher.log still states “directx returns no valid monitors” on the latest/bottom-most log in the file. Task manager says, while in the mourningstar, still 2% GPU usage or lower for Darktide despite FPS of 40 to 60. I didn’t play a mission to test it out. I definitely made sure to swap the cable before starting the game.
Also I just realized your previous recommendation was to replace the cable. I thought you recommended replacing the monitor, which is why I kept mentioning the monitor in the previous reply. I should read more carefully…
But now I’m back to not knowing what to do, and not having any clues to help out.
That just can’t be correct. No way a 2070 is pushing 40-60 fps at 2% usage. I suspect there’s something wonky going on with your system. It looks like your OS is thinking you have two 2070’s. Adapter 0, and Adapter 1. Can you take a screenshot of the performance tab in task manager showing your GPU(s)?
You may want to use DDU to remove all traces of the nvidia drivers on your system and then reinstall them.
Did this start happening around the Windows 11 December update? They changed a few things:
[Display and Graphics]
-Improved: Performance has been improved when apps query monitors for their full list of supported modes. When this happens it could previously lead to a momentary stutter on very high-resolution monitors. This work should help prevent and reduce stuttering in these scenarios.
-Fixed: All-in-one PCs might experience issues with their brightness slider, where it unexpectedly reverts to the original brightness when interacting with it.
-Fixed: Recently certain games might display the message Unsupported graphics card detected, although a supported graphics card is used.
They fixed some issues with GPU/monitor detection but I guess it just as easily could have broken it more (or just for Darktide)
no, it’s actually been a problem since I bought the game in october. It’s just that I haven’t posted about it until I truly ran out of ideas / got too fed up with it. I’m using windows 10, but I think some visuals / performance did get a little better in the december update? Didnt fix the problem though.
I built my PC myself in 2019, so it’s entirely possible I made a mistake then. But I’m pretty sure my motherboard only had space for one graphics card. Is there a way to check if it’s in the “correct” spot without opening up my machine?
If this really is the main problem, I will feel like a fool for not using my computer to its full potential. And yet, I will also be excited to finally experience what the GPU is actually capable of.
user_settings.config says “ adapter_index = 0 “ on both counts. Should I change it to 1 in that file, or do I need to do something physical about plugging my GPU in differently?
I don’t get it. User settings says it should look at adapter index 0. launcher log says adapter ID is 0. And yet, it says “OMG theres no valid monitor for adapter 1!” Why bother looking at adapter 1? What is even going on?
Also, it might be worth noting that with both RTX settings on “low”, I get around 30 FPS (sometimes higher sometimes lower) during missions, while with those settings off, I get 50 to 100 FPS (depending on whats going on in-game of course). Is this just normal and I should expect awful performance from ray tracing? I played Dying Light 2 some years ago with ray tracing on and I remember getting pretty good performance.
Your VRAM does get filled and like silentbob mentioned the GPU is 75C so it does seem to be getting used despite what Windows is reporting so maybe it’s just an issue with Windows?
If it was any other game it might be something to worry about more but Darktide seems to break all conventional knowledge around PC games/hardware
Try just RT global illumination. Imo it adds a lot more than RT reflections and should perform better without them. Except you can’t just have one on without the game setting it to off next time you boot up. Emphasis on the Darktide seems to break all conventional knowledge around PC games/hardware
Hallelujah, now we know that adapter_index = 0 is accepting changes from the game and that makes your issue more of a cosmetic in nature than a real problem.
For a second i was afraid that the game just skips the adapter = 0 and goes for adapter = 1 with some forced default ultra setting
So good news on that front, the game in fact uses your GPU correctly!
Now, the RTX 2070 will never run the game with Raytracing in any remotely acceptable fashion, not gonna happen no matter what we do in this thread. Even on my 3070 the Raytracing is a luxury i prefer not to afford!
On the other hand, the 2070 is perfectly capable of running the game pretty well while still looking well, got enough overhead to make use of the FSR framegen and can take decent amount of tweaks that make the game run so smooth on variable FPS it makes vsync look like a joke…but then again what isn’t a joke when it comes to DT optimization, right?
I get 50 to 100 FPS
If you want you can post your entire user_settings.config (the entire file like you did the logs) and we can look what’s what and maybe get you to 60 to 120 FPS
Okay, so what you’re saying is that task manager is really just working improperly, and there’s nothing wrong with the game? And the only reason it’s slow is because ray tracing is just… slow?
I guess I spent all this time fussing over nothing. I suppose it would have been a better idea to ask what sort of performance people get with a 2070S in general.
I only assumed that ray tracing would work because, well, it’s an RTX 2070. I guess NVIDIA overstated the power of their technology back then, but I’ve played other ray tracing games with acceptable performance. I’ve attached my user settings file, but I turned off ray tracing last time I played. If there are some neat tricks to get good visuals with high performance, that would be appreciated. I’ve played some games before (usually Bethesda crap) that have an abundance of necessary tweaks to config files to get better visuals and performance.
Thank you for the help and information, and of course have a blessed Christmas.
