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BIOS Update Broke ESO Performance
jrgray93
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Not looking for help per se, just not sure where else to put this. Just a heads up for those running Intel platforms.
Recently did a reinstall of Windows 10 to get rid of the constant-update funk that usually seems to settle in and cause various bugs and performance issues. Thank you, based Microsoft. I did a 100% clean install, all latest drivers, everything clean and neat.
Anyway, I also took the time to update to the latest bios on my motherboard and restore all bios settings from before. I use an Asrock X299 Taichi XE. I've had no problems with it prior to this. I upgraded from the 1.50 bios to the latest 1.60 release.
Windows felt maybe a tad more sluggish. Barely something anyone other than the extremely picky (me) would notice. Other games seemed fine, although I mostly tested titles that weren't constrained to few cores. The real problem was ESO. I also took the time to install and configure all of my addons from a blank slate, rather than using the copied and pasted backups I've been recycling for four years. I figured this was a good choice to clean up any old files and potential issues.
ESO was usually showing framerates similar to what I saw before the reinstall, but it just didn't feel as smooth. Combat and cities in particular tanked performance and it felt significantly less smooth than before. Stutter was introduced. FPS was mostly-okay, but 1% frametimes were in the dumpster. I tried countless ini tweaks, addon tweaks, addon removals, driver reinstalls, etc. Nothing fixed it. I even tried swapping back in my old ESO documents folder, old addons and config files in all. I suffered roughly a 10 fps hit with the old settings. Success on the addon reinstall part of the project, at least.
What makes this so frustrating is my system is about as good as it gets for ESO. I'm running a 7820x at 5 GHz and a 1080 Ti. In the past, I used to play on an Ivy Bridge (or so) i3 system. Performance felt better on that system than it did on this one after the update.
Anyway, I finally decided to read into the bios update. The 1.60 bios included CPU microcode updates, presumably to combat the recent Intel security goofs. I rolled back to 1.50, got my overclocks configured again, and fired up ESO. Problem solved. Roughly a 50% performance improvement over the 1.60 bios. Instead of wildly-fluctuating FPS, dipping to sub-60 in cities, I'm averaging 100 in Mournhold and holding much more steady numbers in the roougher parts of town. The relative fluidity (this is ESO) has returned.
tl;dr
Basically, watch what happens if you ever update your bios. It may be possible you'll experience similar problems. Hope this helps someone.
Recently did a reinstall of Windows 10 to get rid of the constant-update funk that usually seems to settle in and cause various bugs and performance issues. Thank you, based Microsoft. I did a 100% clean install, all latest drivers, everything clean and neat.
Anyway, I also took the time to update to the latest bios on my motherboard and restore all bios settings from before. I use an Asrock X299 Taichi XE. I've had no problems with it prior to this. I upgraded from the 1.50 bios to the latest 1.60 release.
Windows felt maybe a tad more sluggish. Barely something anyone other than the extremely picky (me) would notice. Other games seemed fine, although I mostly tested titles that weren't constrained to few cores. The real problem was ESO. I also took the time to install and configure all of my addons from a blank slate, rather than using the copied and pasted backups I've been recycling for four years. I figured this was a good choice to clean up any old files and potential issues.
ESO was usually showing framerates similar to what I saw before the reinstall, but it just didn't feel as smooth. Combat and cities in particular tanked performance and it felt significantly less smooth than before. Stutter was introduced. FPS was mostly-okay, but 1% frametimes were in the dumpster. I tried countless ini tweaks, addon tweaks, addon removals, driver reinstalls, etc. Nothing fixed it. I even tried swapping back in my old ESO documents folder, old addons and config files in all. I suffered roughly a 10 fps hit with the old settings. Success on the addon reinstall part of the project, at least.
What makes this so frustrating is my system is about as good as it gets for ESO. I'm running a 7820x at 5 GHz and a 1080 Ti. In the past, I used to play on an Ivy Bridge (or so) i3 system. Performance felt better on that system than it did on this one after the update.
Anyway, I finally decided to read into the bios update. The 1.60 bios included CPU microcode updates, presumably to combat the recent Intel security goofs. I rolled back to 1.50, got my overclocks configured again, and fired up ESO. Problem solved. Roughly a 50% performance improvement over the 1.60 bios. Instead of wildly-fluctuating FPS, dipping to sub-60 in cities, I'm averaging 100 in Mournhold and holding much more steady numbers in the roougher parts of town. The relative fluidity (this is ESO) has returned.
tl;dr
Basically, watch what happens if you ever update your bios. It may be possible you'll experience similar problems. Hope this helps someone.
EP: Slania Isara : Harambe Was an Inside Job
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qbit✭✭✭✭✭The microcode update did it. Affected the server industry pretty bad too depending on the kind of workload running.0 -
Shadowshire✭✭✭✭@ZOS_BillE @ZOS_JessicaFolsom
IMHO, you all should make this discussion remain permanently at the start of the most recent forum page. That is, it should have the same status as the "Please Read Before Posting" Forum Guidelines and FAQ. Sad to say, pehaps Intel has become no better at maintaining its microcode than ZOS is at maintaining the megaserver software, or Bethesda maintaining their network and hardware. Upon whom can we rely any more?
--- Shadowshire .......... ESO Plus on PC NA with Windows 7 Pro SP1
nil carborundum illegitimi0 -
RinaldoGandolphi✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭You do know you can set the following Reg key to disable the Spectre and Meltdown patches without having to roll back your BIOS
1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. On the right, create a new 32-Bit DWORD value FeatureSettingsOverride.
Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value.
4. Set its value data to 3 in decimals.
5. Now create a new 32-Bit DWORD value FeatureSettingsOverrideMask and set it to 3, too.
Restart Windows 10.
I find a hard time believing the BIOS update caused this, as i have ran two Kaby Lake CPU's side by side in ESO with the same RAM, Motherboards, and Storage, one with the BIOS update, and one without, and both performed exactly the same. (Unless you got buggy firmware which I will not rule out)
the Spectre Meltdown patches only had an averse performance on applications with a lot of I/O and programs doing lots of transitioning memory wise between kernel land and user land (neither of which ESO does)
I would never use a system that wasn't patched for these security holes.
Also, you still have the Spectre/Meltdown patches installed even if you rolled back your BIOS because Microsoft rolled them ouit as Windows Updates awhile back and you can not uninstall them. These updates are included and part of the Windows 10 1809 Fall Update.
If you want to disable them you will have to use the registry instructions above to actually turn them off.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4093836/summary-of-intel-microcode-updates
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4100347/intel-microcode-updates-for-windows-10-version-1803-and-windows-serverEdited by RinaldoGandolphi on December 18, 2018 10:01PMRinaldo Gandolphi-Breton Sorcerer Daggerfall Covenant
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"Here in his shrine, that they have forgotten. Here do we toil, that we might remember. By night we reclaim, what by day was stolen. Far from ourselves, he grows ever near to us. Our eyes once were blinded, now through him do we see. Our hands once were idle, now through them does he speak. And when the world shall listen, and when the world shall see, and when the world remembers, that world will cease to be. - Miraak0 -
jrgray93✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭RinaldoGandolphi wrote: »You do know you can set the following Reg key to disable the Spectre and Meltdown patches without having to roll back your BIOS
1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. On the right, create a new 32-Bit DWORD value FeatureSettingsOverride.
Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value.
4. Set its value data to 3 in decimals.
5. Now create a new 32-Bit DWORD value FeatureSettingsOverrideMask and set it to 3, too.
Restart Windows 10.
I find a hard time believing the BIOS update caused this, as i have ran two Kaby Lake CPU's side by side in ESO with the same RAM, Motherboards, and Storage, one with the BIOS update, and one without, and both performed exactly the same. (Unless you got buggy firmware which I will not rule out)
the Spectre Meltdown patches only had an averse performance on applications with a lot of I/O and programs doing lots of transitioning memory wise between kernel land and user land (neither of which ESO does)
I would never use a system that wasn't patched for these security holes.
Also, you still have the Spectre/Meltdown patches installed even if you rolled back your BIOS because Microsoft rolled them ouit as Windows Updates awhile back and you can not uninstall them. These updates are included and part of the Windows 10 1809 Fall Update.
If you want to disable them you will have to use the registry instructions above to actually turn them off.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4093836/summary-of-intel-microcode-updates
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4100347/intel-microcode-updates-for-windows-10-version-1803-and-windows-server
Interesting info. Curious what motherboard manufacturer you were using? It could be an issue with ASRock. I have an X299 Taichi XE. The performance was night and day between the BIOS revisions. I tried changing it again and saw the same pattern, so I'm permanently on the earlier version.EP: Slania Isara : Harambe Was an Inside Job0