Unplayable lag

Issue Description (Required):

Still have unplayable lag with ‘Processor: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-12700KF (20 CPUs), ~3.6GHz’.

From what I’ve read and from what I’ve tried, apparently it’s because of Windows 10 CPU handling with newer generation hybrid CPUs.

I’ve tried using Process Lasso to only use a certain amount of processors, and it definitely gave me periods of smoothness between the stuttering.

Are my only options?:

  • Upgrade to Windows 11
  • Try turning off certain CPU options in the BIOS

Also is there any plans from Fatshark to do anything about this issue (if they can)?

thx.

Attempted Solutions (Optional):

Every optimisation setting in terms of performance, low everything, worker threads, etc etc.

Process Lasso to turn off certain cores, which got the best results, but the game was still unplayably laggy.

Platform (Required):

PC - Steam

[PC] PC Specifications (Optional):

Processor: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-12700KF (20 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
Windows Version: 10

Its could also be the new driver update from Nvidia, try rolling that back ! I have bad lag since updating the drivers as well, which i reported.

1 Like

mb. I’ve never been able to play DT on this pc because of that lag.

1 Like

Adding your console logs could pinpoint your specific issue, but the PC specs you listed should be able to handle Darktide with no problemo.

1 Like

I’ve posted them all before and nothing works. The issue of CPU handling by Windows 10 and Darktide is what I found from another thread with the same CPU.

1 Like

Yup, Windows 10 not so e core aware as Windows 11

Using process lasso to make Darktide process exclude E cores, won’t be same as turning it off completely in BIOs. Best to turn off E cores in BIOs. Benefit is that it pushes up your ring clock automatically which leads to latency improvement by doing BIOs way and gives thermal benefit to P cores to hold clocks for longer.

That way Windows 10 completely will see it as normal hyperthreading 8 core CPU

I use process lasso but not to interact with Darktide. I use it to set background non windows apps like MSI Afterburner, Dropbox etc to use only the last vCPU. But I leave Darktide as it is and I also turn off that Pro Balance feature in process lasso. I’m using it to prevent background non windows apps from interfering, rather than trying to prioritise the game.

Next in graphic settings. All those sliders from Scatter Density onwards. Put them to lowest. They are CPU impact.

When you move to Windows 11 next year or so. Then can re-enable E Cores.

1 Like

Thx. Is doing that beneficial for anything else (e.g. will it just improve my performance completely due to W10 not handling the CPU well in general)?

I read it’ll probably just make my PC less good at multitasking, but still be fine.

Windows 10 even latest feature version, still lacks Windows 11 thread director to handle E Core I’m afraid.

I only used process lasso because MSI Afterburner was causing game stutter. So I set MSI Afterburner to use the last vCPU only. But I turn off pro balance in process lasso and never change game processes with it.

Just don’t turn off E cores in windows 11. Causes performance loss when hyperthreading is still enabled. When you upgrade to windows 11 turn on E cores.

You’re correct. It will hurt performance in other multi-threaded CPU intensive games like real-time racing, simulation, flight, paradox games, large environments. Games like Last of us 2 can even scale to 16 core.

Basically games that actually take advantage of additional cores.

So really it is for small environment first person shooters. Probably would hurt performance in Battlefield games due to large environment and very multi threaded game. Depends what other games you play.

1 Like

Thanks for the info. I’ll just try it out, but most likely it will still be good in those games too, as I usually set settings up for perfomance anyway.

Update:
Sadly, playing with legacy game compatability mode (turns off e-cores) didn’t make the game playable.

It did improve things slightly though. Giving up until I can be bothered to switch to Windows 11.

Ok no harm to try:

Turn off E Cores and turn off Hyperthreading.

Also in addition. Check out below person he has i5-12600.

Note the sections about XMP and RAM Gear 1. RAM sub-timings part, if you want to try and prepared to reset BIOs if boot fails.

How do I optimize my game even further? - Warhammer 40,000: Darktide / Performance Feedback - Fatshark Forums

1 Like

I ended up upgrading to Windows 11.

Took me 1 hour 20 mins to fully install it and delete all of their garbage. Game runs extremely smoothly now.

Thanks again for your help.

Personally I’ve used Win11Debloat. But running strange power shell scripts you find online with admin rights isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do.

1 Like