FPS Drop - Settings normalizes FPS
Hello! I recently upgraded to Windows 11. I have also upgraded my CPU and ram. Sims ran amazing before these upgrades, but it's been acting strangely lately. I'm running at a constant 60 fps (vsync)...
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@escalusia This is a known issue for some players:
You can try the suggestions later in the thread—I'd suggest reading backwards starting with the newest post—but there's no guarantee anything will help more than the workarounds you've already found.
It's also not clear at all why some players are affected and others are not. If you'd like, I can take a look at a dxdiag from your computer and see if anything jumps out. But it's entirely possible that nothing will, that there isn't a good explanation for your issues either.
https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
If you have a desktop with an Nvidia graphics card, it may also help (or it may not) to set vertical sync to "adaptive" in the Nvidia Control Panel. This setting applies v-sync when framerates would otherwise be over the refresh rate of your monitor but doesn't limit them when fps drops below that threshold, as opposed to "on," which can drop fps to a fraction (e.g. half or a third) of the refresh rate. So your fps drops could be exacerbated when using the "on" setting. I realize this doesn't explain the drops themselves; I'm just saying they might not need to be quite as severe.
Hey again! Sorry for the delayed response!
I tried to check out what you sent, as well as changing my Nvidia back to its original vsync setting (I'll try and setting it to adaptive if that also doesnt work, as my Overwatch was having problems, the vsync was set to Fast)
I have attached the DxDiag below!
@escalusia Have you tried running the game with only one monitor? It looks like each monitor is using up to 8k Mb of shared (main) memory. 8K Mb + 8k Mb = 16K Mb of memory. You only have 16k Mb of main memory. When the main memory gets swamped virtual memory (page file) is used which is space on your main storage device (ssd) and that is slower (main) then shared memory. The fps goes up after the memory swapping settles down Even if you increase your main memory I think you will still get a fps hit BUT it won't be as bad as your getting now. As resolutions get higher more memory is going to get needed to create the video frames. IMO 32Gb of main memory may soon be the new morn (my opinion) BUT DDR5 main memory is also soon to be the new norm for motherboards (maybe).
Hey! I will try this, but what I dont understand is that it was working completely fine as is before Windows 11. So I wonder why Windows 11 changed that? I also dont know if this means anything, but the only change I can think of, is when I got new ram, my brother went into BIOS and basically perma overclocked them. I'm not sure what that means, but could it have something to do with it?
@escalusia Your dxdiag shows a number of errors related to the Nvidia graphics driver, so the place to start is by doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver. Here's how:
You can get a fresh copy of the newest Nvidia driver here:
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/187304/en-us
Restart after installing the driver and before trying to play. You'll also need to redo all your Control Panel settings, but it's worth testing once without changing anything just so you know how the game behaves on default settings, both in the Control Panel and in-game. I'd also try disabling post processing in-game: I've seen it produce smaller fps drops for no apparent reason.
You can also undo the RAM overclocking to test, if you want. Basic memory overclocking is just enabling XMP in BIOS, which you can do or undo with one click, so it's easy to switch back and forth. (There's literally a button that says XMP.) Just boot into BIOS and disable it, see what happens, and then reenable it if you don't get any results.
If your brother went further than that, you can probably export his settings, since Asus boards tend to have a way to do this, and then restore to defaults. But in that case, you should check your motherboard's manual and probably consult your brother too before doing anything.
@roberta591 wrote:
@escalusia Have you tried running the game with only one monitor? It looks like each monitor is using up to 8k Mb of shared (main) memory. 8K Mb + 8k Mb = 16K Mb of memory. You only have 16k Mb of main memory. When the main memory gets swamped virtual memory (page file) is used which is space on your main storage device (ssd) and that is slower (main) then shared memory.
@roberta591 This is completely false. Monitors don't use VRAM or main memory, the computer does. The memory numbers listed in Display Devices are for the graphics card, and they reflect what the GPU can use, not what it's currenly using or has reserved. Also, there isn't two times anything here: the data is listed twice because there are two monitors, but there's only one set of data and one device (the graphics card) that could potentially borrow 8 GB from main memory.
Additionally, the GPU won't borrow from main memory until it's exhausted its own VRAM, and Sims 4 won't come close to using 6 GB of VRAM at 1080p even on ultra settings.
There is no evidence that main memory is full or close to it while this person is playing. Even if it is, Windows should prioritize keeping Sims 4 data in physical RAM and instead swap out other processes that are less demanding or haven't been accessed recently. That's part of the OS's job.
@puzzlezaddict If you disconnect one of the monitors that will be 8Gb of main memory NOT USED by the video system for frame buffer. I stand by my statement that I think the system is using main memory for video frame buffer. That is what shared memory is. Each monitor has it's own shared memory. The math tells it all. When you run out of main memory that's when the operating system pages blocks of main memory to virtual memory which is surprise called the page file. The operating system manages this movement of data. The operating system does not know what the data is other then a block of data which could be part of the frame buffer or not. Even if it is not part of the frame buffer other data will get moved and that requires cpu time. Again if you remove one monitor from the system that will returns 8Gb of memory back to the system which may or may not solve the issue and while it may not solve it issue completely it will probably lessen the problem. It is a quick and simple test.
@puzzlezaddict And when you run out of dedicated video memory where does the shared memory come from - the memory fairy? This person has a machine that should play this game and the only difference from a basic gaming system is there are two monitors.. When you have an issue the FIRST thing you do is disconnect ANYTHING that isn't required to see if some hardware is causing an issue. If you want to rule the forums be my guest.
BTW You are right the monitor does not directly use the memory - the video card uses the memory to create the frame buffers and if you disconnect one of the monitors the video card will require less memory!!!
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