Bad FPS and stuttering in newer GZDoom

[Nevander]

It seems like with every next version of GZDoom I update to I end up getting worse performance, only this time on 2.4.0 it seems to be at its worst. Even playing casually in a non-intensive mapset I get these tiny annoying stutters to 59/57 FPS every once in a while. I have no idea why since all my graphics settings are already pretty low. I don't use any of the effects and I can't even use texture filtering anymore because it's apparently broken on AMD (at least anisotropic filtering is).

The stuttering and FPS takes a major hit when I fire a lot of rockets with particles enabled. For example just loading any map and setting fastweapons to 2 and firing rockets I get bad FPS dips to around 20 when firing a lot when before this was never an issue. I also tested playing Holy Hell which used to run mostly 60 FPS with dips to steady 50s here and there (but smooth dips) but now runs like total ass at like 40-50 FPS with constant stuttering.

I noticed in 2.2.0 I got lots of lag when I had gl_renderbuffers set to true, so I set it false and got better performance there (about equal to before it was added). I tried setting it back to true for the hell of it in 2.4.0 and it somehow seems to have helped a little, mostly in regard to the particles. I tried turning on some features like bloom but quickly turned them back off because I got more stuttering.

I should be able to play Doom in GL mode without any stuttering. I find this to be rather annoying to have to constantly deal with stuttering, not just in GZDoom. Many games over the course of having this computer I always end up noticing bad performance and small hitches like this. It's not even that I can't run things but rather something is just fucked somewhere and I don't know where to start because I keep seeing new issues that only I seem to get. Google is no help, hardware forums are no help, and I'm at a loss. The only thing I can think to do is buy a new CPU and GPU and hope for the best.


Be honest, is my computer shit? Anything I can do that will actually help?

Specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Intel Core i7-4820K Quad-Core 3.70 GHz
16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1866MHz Quad Channel Memory
GIGABYTE X79-UP4 ATX
AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 (Driver Version 16.200.1010.1002)
2TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (2x)
Standard 80 Plus Certified PSU 800 Watts

MSInfo32 / DxDiag:

reports.zip

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[Rachael]

First off, why aren't you using 3.2.0? Have you even tested it? I will make this clear: We offer no support for older versions, especially prior to 3.0.0!

Secondly, what background programs are you using? It sounds like you may have inundated your computer with too much crap that it has to run simultaneously. A setup like that should be sporting a consistent 60FPS at almost all times, unless there is a driver issue (as often the case with AMD's unfortunately).

[Nevander]

The only things running at time of that particular instance that prompted the post to be made were SLADE and Microsoft Security Essentials. They've never been an issue before. Usually it's just MSE running though and that's on all the time. I wouldn't doubt a driver issue, the kind that doesn't actually cause serious issues but just turns out to be annoying as hell but how can I know? Seems that AMD's drivers aren't getting any better and it might be time to switch to nVidia for good.

[Rachael]

AMD has had driver issues from day 1. Their CPU's are solid proof that the hardware itself is rarely the issue, however their software engineers do not put the kind of care and dedication into the drivers that NVidia's engineers do. That's not to say NVidia never has problems - they do, quite frequently in fact, it's just that the issues tend to be of shorter duration, less severity, and less frequently than AMD's.

The easiest way to tell if it's a driver issue is to simply run in software mode. The driver is accessed much less frequently this way, and if you have a smooth framerate it's definitely bottlenecking in the OpenGL calls, themselves. In software mode the biggest bottleneck is the pixel fill rate, itself, and most modern GPU's are literally snoozing while waiting for the CPU to finish its drawing, which is still pretty speedy all things considered.

[Nevander]

Yep I see a definite improvement in software mode. The movement is kinda jittery but it's not the same kind of stuttering, but we can attribute that to the fact I was playing on Holy Hell MAP05 UV (what I'm testing with for these issues). I was able to fire a ton of rockets with particles, practically solid 60 FPS with some dips due to everything happening but not due to some kind of other issue. I think AMD is taking the piss again with OpenGL stuff. I've heard from many people that AMD and OpenGL don't mix.

EDIT: Lol everything is smoother in software.

[Rachael]

Try updating your AMD driver. If that doesn't fix things, use historical driver versions. I am normally against the latter recommendation, but in AMD's case it turns out to be necessary quite frequently.

If an older driver version works, you can *try* copying your AMD ICD libraries to your GZDoom folder and upgrading back, but this may not always work. The ICD's include atioglxx.dll and several other files that you'll need. (There may be some internet posts about this which can help you do this cleanly - I'd Google it)

And yes, AMD's OpenGL support is piss poor.

[Nevander]

Thank you for the help. I am going to try a driver update here in the next couple days. I would do it right now but, to be honest I'm paranoid of driver updates. Had bad experiences with them back in the 2000s. I also need to backup some stuff anyway so I will do it after I do that. I will get back to you if there's an improvement or if things get worse. Although at this stage if they get worse, this video card will become target practice and I'll be buying nVidia.

[Rachael]

You are right to be paranoid about driver updates. Drivers run in ring 0 of the system (with the kernel) - if they fuck up, the entire system goes with it.

However, even AMD has *some* quality control on their drivers (hard as it may be to believe) - generally non-betas tend to be tested and will run more reliably, so if anything stick with the release versions. It's likely they'll pull any releases that have serious issues, anyway.

Modern versions of Windows allow a system roll-back if things go really astray. Create a system restore point before installing the drivers. That should be enough to pull your system back into a usable state if things really fuck up.

[Graf Zahl]

This sounds a bit strange. But correct me if I'm wrong: Is that driver from last year? In that case an update should be done soon before exploring other options to solve it.

[Nevander]

Yes I'm bad about not updating them but I really don't see why it's completely necessary to always keep them updated. It's a lot of hassle most of the time and I never needed to stay on top of them until a few years ago when I got this PC. My old PC perhaps one update over the course of many years, this one has had like 4 and I got it in 2013. Do modern engines and software really require drivers to be that up to date to even run smoothly?

[Rachael]

I can tell you from personal experience, my laptop's factory installed driver could not run Fallout 4 with more than 40 FPS, often dipping to 15-20 in some places. After I updated the driver, it ran smoothly with at least 50 FPS almost everywhere, and 60 FPS most of the time, even during intensive scenes.

So yes, updating your drivers does make a difference.

[Nevander]

That reminds me I still haven't even installed Fallout 4. I bought it when it came out, never installed it.

[Nevander]

I have gone back to 2.2.0 for now at least until I get around to updating my drivers and praying AMD doesn't destroy my PC. Any idea what exactly would cause 2.4.0 to be so unstable on my computer or with this driver? Something major had to have changed between 2.2 and 2.4 in the engine for it to perform so differently. It's amazing the difference I get. Luckily I'm not in on the mod craze, so 2.2.0 is perfect for me just to play normal megawads and mods that don't depend on newer features. I might not ever use the latest GZDoom until I get new hardware that can actually manage to run it flawlessly. If there's one thing to make me downgrade it's stuttering in games. I hate. that. shit.

[Rachael]

2.2.0 is from before when render buffers were introduced.

"gl_renderbuffers false" should "fix" your speed problems in newer GZDooms if that's the case.

[Nevander]

I tried setting it to false and true in 2.4, it still happens although true stops the particles from making the frames drop. 2.2 actually does have the render buffers thing but it seems to behave differently since setting it to false there does help and keeps things smooth.