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Terrible FPS

dandistorted
dandistorted
Soul Shriven
Hi there,

I've been a subscriber since release. During the beta, I had awesome fps with my system at 1440x2560. My system specs are as follows:

CPU: AMD FX-8320 @ 4.8Ghz
GPU: 2 Radeon 7950s at 1050Mhz
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengence @‌ 1600
Display: 27" 1440x2560 monitor
SSD with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 drivers.

Now, I haven't been playing in months. Can't say the exact date, but it's been since at least July since I've been playing. The changes in my system have been an added Radeon HD 7950, upgraded OS from Win 7, multiple drivers from AMD.

I have abysmal fps. In areas like Deshaan in the middle of nowhere I'm getting 25 fps at best. The weird part is, this is regardless of resolution, regardless of driver (went back to 14.4 and no difference at all), and regardless of particle and distance settings.

What is going on? I thought it was caused by my OS being Server 2012 R2, but this is the only game that has suffered any fps issues. I've tried multiple drivers and literally have had NO change as far as fps. I've disabled crossfire and played with a single card, no change. I went so far as to change any/all overclock settings to default and playing with a single card. I installed windows 8.1 and still had the same awful frame rate.

Is there something I've missed in the forums? I can't think of a single thing I've not already completed. I've tried every setting in ESO imaginable and it's pretty much nonstop terrible. I've unplugged GPUs, re-seated GPUs, used different PCIe slots and no dice. How can I play a game in beta with a lesser system and get worse fps?

Please, tell me there is something stupid I've missed. I've paid for this game since release and can't play it now that I want to...
  • ZOS_GaryA
    ZOS_GaryA
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hey there @dandistorted,

    Reading through this, something we didn't see mention of was the display mode for the game. It is important that you run the game using Fullscreen as your display mode as opposed to Fullscreen (Windowed) or just Windowed. This will make the most use of your system's hardware.

    There are also a few settings in the Usersettings.txt file that you can change to improve your performance. Please close ESO first, then make these changes. This file is located at Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\Live.

    As with any document change, we advise creating a back up of the original file in an alternate location. This will allow you to restore your usersettings to their old values in case the new ones are less optimal.

    Simply open the file with Notepad and make the following changes:

    Change:
    SET GPUSmoothingFrames "10"
    To:
    SET GPUSmoothingFrames "3"

    Change:
    SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "0"
    To:
    SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1"

    Find this section and Change:

    SET RequestedNumJobThreads "-1"
    SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "-1"
    To:
    SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0"
    SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0"

    Let us know if these changes help, and if not we'll be happy to continue helping!
    The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - ZeniMax Online Studios
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  • Elf_Boy
    Elf_Boy
    ✭✭✭
    ZOS_GaryA wrote: »

    There are also a few settings in the Usersettings.txt file that you can change to improve your performance. Please close ESO first, then make these changes. This file is located at Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\Live.

    Could you be so kind as to post a guide to all the options in the .ini file?

    Not being as young as I used to be I dont have the energy to go try then all to figure it out ;)

    Thanks
    ** Asus Crosshair VI Hero, Ryzen 1800x, 64GB DDR4 @ 3000, GTX 1080 ti, 4K Samsung 3d Display m.2 Sata 3 Boot Drive, m.2 x4 nvme Game Drive **
  • dandistorted
    dandistorted
    Soul Shriven
    I actually fixed it by uninstalling a windows 8.1 partition and installing windows 7. Now I'm getting 60fps pretty much everywhere on ultra at 1440p. Maybe AMDs Windows 8.1 drivers aren't very good?
  • mra4nii
    mra4nii
    ✭✭
    SET GPUSmoothingFrames 0-10
    Crossfire/SLI related settings. If you don't have SLI, set it to 1. Mine is set to 0, also because of lags. Works better after. With this one i'd suggest to test: set to 3,1,0 and see which is better.
    SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen 0 or 1
    Before first patch, TESO wasn't really fulscreen. After patch, with this new option set to 1, you enable real fullscreen mode.
    RequestedNumJobThreads, RequestedNumWorkerThreads -1 or 0
    Is about how game will use CPU cores if there is more that one. -1 enable Multi threaded worker threads, Multi threaded job threads. Many users have issues with this enabled, so safest is to set them to 0.

    Edited by mra4nii on October 16, 2014 7:51PM
  • Elf_Boy
    Elf_Boy
    ✭✭✭
    mra4nii wrote: »
    SET GPUSmoothingFrames 0-10
    Crossfire/SLI related settings. If you don't have SLI, set it to 1. Mine is set to 0, also because of lags. Works better after. With this one i'd suggest to test: set to 3,1,0 and see which is better.
    SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen 0 or 1
    Before first patch, TESO wasn't really fulscreen. After patch, with this new option set to 1, you enable real fullscreen mode.
    RequestedNumJobThreads, RequestedNumWorkerThreads -1 or 0
    Is about how game will use CPU cores if there is more that one. -1 enable Multi threaded worker threads, Multi threaded job threads. Many users have issues with this enabled, so safest is to set them to 0.

    Than you.

    I still hope to see everything else explained as well one day. When everyone at Zen is bored and looking for something to do. :)
    ** Asus Crosshair VI Hero, Ryzen 1800x, 64GB DDR4 @ 3000, GTX 1080 ti, 4K Samsung 3d Display m.2 Sata 3 Boot Drive, m.2 x4 nvme Game Drive **
  • rosconeko
    rosconeko
    ✭✭
    Elf_Boy wrote: »
    Than you.

    I still hope to see everything else explained as well one day. When everyone at Zen is bored and looking for something to do. :)

    SET MouseRawInput 0 or 1 // Reads DPI directly from mouse, skipping Operating System intervention.
    SET MouseSensitivityFirstPerson // Mouse sensitivity for first and third person. Best kept at 1.
    SET MouseSensitivityThirdPerson // Best to set both to "1.00000000" or at least set both to the same value.
    SET MouseSmoothing 0 or 1 // Mouse interpolation. Eliminates jitter if you have any. Best to leave off in most cases as it's a lot less accurate, at least when accuracy is most important like in first person shooters.
    SET InvertMouseWheel 0 or 1 // Inverts mouse scroll, up = down. down = up. 0 is enabled.
    SET InvertMouseY 0 or 1 // Inverts mouse Y, up = down. down = up. 0 is enabled.
    SET InvertMouseX 0 or 1 // Inverts mouse X, left = right, right = left. 0 is enabled.
    SET MULTI_GPU_CHECK 0 or 1 // Pre-game check if using multiple graphics cards.
    SET DisableFXPrecaching 0 or 1 // Precaching is usually loading things into RAM before they are needed so it doesn't need to be streamed on the fly. Usually done on the load screen. This seems to sometimes break some addons for some reason, which I noticed with Pawkette's Pawksickles font changer.
    SET CachedRLREnabled 0 or 1 // This cooks the shaders (shadows) and stores in a cache file so that it never has to cook them again. Load times are super fast afterwards. Delete it and try log in, it will take a long time. It will grow in size as you visit more zones and each time you change your Shadow settings between Low and Ultra. Fresh size is usually 5.7MB and grows to 20-30MB.
    SET CachedReflectionResolution // Resolution of reflections. Lower = more pixelated. Usually 2, 4 or 6. Must be set to read-only otherwise game forces 2, 4 or 6 depending on Quality chosen.
    SET CachedShadowFiltering // Game seems to ignore it and use shadow setting either way. Tried setting read-only but still seems to be 6 in-game. Cache is same size. Performance is the same.
    SET ScreenshotFormat BMP or JPG // Set to JPG to have lower quality screenshots 400-500KB instead of 7MB or whatever bitmap is.
    SET PregameGammaCheckEnabled 0 or 1 // The gamma/brightness calibration when you first run the game. Set slider so that the middle icon is barely visible.
    SET HardwareCheckEnabled.2 0 or 1 // The hardware check when you first run the game. Auto sets your graphics settings according to your hardware.
    SET SUB_SAMPLING 0-2 // * The internal rendering resolution of the game. 2 renders at your chosen resolution. Lower numbers will render at 3/4 and 1/2 of your resolution and then upscale.
    SET REFLECTION_QUALITY_v3 0-3 // * Quality of water reflections. Determines cached resolution.
    SET PARTICLE_DENSITY 0-3 // * Limit of particles (animated effects such as fire, spells, weather) on-screen.
    SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS 0 or 1 // Blob, fuzzy shadows or perfect shapes.
    SET SHADOWS 0 to 4 // * Shadow draw distance and quantity drawn. Ultra renders all shadows, up to fog distance, and has zero fade-out on camera pan. High has a limit on shadows drawn and has NASTY fade-out when you pan the camera away from a shadow.
    SET GAMMA_ADJUSTMENT "113" // * Gamma adjustment. Default is 113. Calibrate your monitor rather than use the in-game option.
    SET VIEW_DISTANCE 0.4 to 2.0 // * Distance at which objects turn from low poly, low resolution to normal.
    SET GPUSmoothingFrames 0-10? // Seems to be pre-rendered frames / flip queue size? If it is, it's usually best set to 1 on a single card, minimum of 3 for multi-gpu (crossfire/SLI)
    SET MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS -3 to 3 // * Textures have 6 resolutions, depending on how far away or close you are to the mesh/model. Native/max resolution is -3 (the high resolution you see in NPC conversations). Altering this changes what the base resolution is. High in-game is 0. -2 is recommended for no pop-in.
    SET RAIN_WETNESS 0 or 1 // Wetness effect on armour when swimming or in the rain.
    SET LENS_FLARE 0 or 1 // Camera lens effect when looking at the sun.
    SET GOD_RAYS_v2 0 or 1 // * Rays of light from the sun.
    SET ANTI_ALIASING_v2 0 or 1 // * Post-processing Anti-aliasing. Blurs the whole image to reduce aliasing (staircase effect on edges). Seems to be FXAA or SMAA.
    SET AMBIENT_OCCLUSION 0 or 1 // * Adds small shadows to everything pretty much. Far bigger image quality impact than the shadow setting and less performance hit.
    SET COLOR_GRADING_v1 0 or 1 // Leave at 0. Screen is black at 1.
    SET BLOOM 0 or 1 // * Very subtle glow effect on armour. Very noticeable on lava with a thick orange glow (goes through objects lol).
    SET DEPTH_OF_FIELD 0 or 1 // * Basically just blurs mountains and anything beyond fog.
    SET COLOR_CORRECTION 0 or 1 // On is brighter and bland colours. Off is darker and a lot more saturated. I like it off. If using tonemapping 3 or 5 using ESOMod or ESOLauncher, keep on 1.
    SET SOFT_ALPHA 0 or 1 // No idea. Saw zero difference. Possibly transparency anti-aliasing by softening/blurring the alpha channel.
    SET DISTORTION 0 or 1 // * Wobbly distortion effect above fire.
    SET CHARACTER_LIGHTING 0 or 1 // Light sources on your character.
    SET DIFFUSE_2_MAPS 0 or 1 // The main texture that wraps around the mesh. Expect all models to be pink if set to 0.
    SET DETAIL_MAPS 0 or 1 // Tiling textures that add details to walls, buildings, roads, etc. Expect black patches everywhere if set to 0.
    SET NORMAL_MAPS 0 or 1 // Fakes lighting on a mesh to give dimension such as bumps and dents. Like turning a completely flat cobblestone road into a bumpy, real looking road. Expect everything to look incredibly flat if set to 0.
    SET SPECULAR_MAPS 0 or 1 // Shininess of objects. Expect dull, boring armour and skin if set to 0.
    SET CLUTTER_2D 0 or 1 // * Grass.
    SET SIMPLE_SHADERS 0 or 1 // No idea. Saw zero difference.
    SET WATER_FOAM 0 or 1 // Beach water foam.
    SET VSYNC 0 or 1 // * Syncs frames with the refresh rate of your monitor. Stores the frame to be displayed in the backbuffer until the monitor is ready to display it, fixing any "tearing" caused by monitors refreshing top-to-bottom.
    SET MAX_ANISOTROPY 0 to 3 // Anisotropic Filtering. Improves quality of textures at oblique viewing angles. Basically the ground ahead of you.
    SET PreferMaximizedWindow 0 or 1
    SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen 0 or 1 // Choose 1 depending on if you prefer borderless Window mode (pre-craglorn patch) or exclusive/true fullscreen.
    SET FULLSCREEN_v5 0 to 2 // * Display mode: Windowed, Borderless or Fullscreen
    SET FullscreenHeight // * Internal rendering resolution. Doesn't make your monitor operate in this resolution. Easy supersampling/downsampling if you make custom resolutions.
    SET FullscreenWidth // * Internal rendering resolution. Doesn't make your monitor operate in this resolution. Easy supersampling/downsampling if you make custom resolutions.
    SET WindowedHeight // Window size if you choose to play windowed mode
    SET WindowedWidth // Window size if you choose to play windowed mode
    SET SOUND_ENABLED 0 or 1 // * Enable/disable game sounds (footsteps, voice actors, user interface, ambient, sfx)
    SET FOOTSTEPS_VOLUME "80.00000000" // * Volume control for footsteps
    SET FOOTSTEPS_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable footstep sounds
    SET SPEAKER_SETUP "0" // Don't know. Probably tune for speaker or headphone. Probably was never implemented. Just leave it at 0.
    SET BACKGROUND_AUDIO 0 or 1 // * Enable/disable sound when minimized
    SET VO_VOLUME "80.00000000" // * Volume control for voice actors
    SET VO_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable voice actors
    SET UI_VOLUME "80.00000000" // * Volume control for user interface
    SET UI_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable user interface sounds
    SET AMBIENT_VOLUME "80.00000000" // * Volume control for ambient sounds (birds, etc)
    SET AMBIENT_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable ambient sounds
    SET SFX_VOLUME "80.00000000" // * Volume control for sound effects (spells)
    SET SFX_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable sound effects
    SET MUSIC_VOLUME "70.00000000" // * Volume control for music
    SET MUSIC_ENABLED "1" // * Enable/disable music
    SET AUDIO_VOLUME "50.00000000" // * Master volume
    SET AUDIO_ENABLED "1" // Enable/disable audio completely
    SET TooltipFilter -1 ? // Don't know didn't test. Just leave it at -1. Doesn't sound like anything that needs to be changed.
    SET TooltipNumOptions "2" // Same as above. Just leave at 2.
    SET EffectsLookupViaBinarySearch 0 or 1 // Didn't see any difference visual or performance wise. Just leave it alone at 1.
    SET Language.2 // Language in-game. en fr de
    SET GraphicsDriver.7 // Renderer D3D11 (DirectX 11), D3D9 (DirectX 9) or OGL (OpenGL). Keep it on D3D11. D3D11 seems to actually be DirectX 10 using a DirectX 11 wrapper, according to RadeonPro and eFX.
    SET PatchDataPath "game:/GameData/" // Leave it alone.
    SET CacheDataPath "machine:/Cache/" // Leave it alone.
    SET GameCameraFirstPerson 0 or 1 // First or third person upon login.
    SET AcceptedEULAVersion 0 or 3 // Accept TOS when you first run the game.
    SET DirectionalDamageIndictorVisibleInThirdPerson 0 or 1 // No idea didn't do anything. Thought it might be red bordering depending on direction hit.
    SET CameraFramingTransitionEnabled 0 or 1 // Camera transition when opening a menu. 1 smoothly swings around to view your character, 0 is instant.
    SET SkipPregameVideos 0 or 1 // Skip the zenimax videos when you open the game.
    SET HasPlayedPregameVideo 0 or 1 // Opening cinematic where you get killed by Mannimarco and wake up in Coldharbour.
    SET RangedKillCamera 0 or 1 // No idea. Leave at 0.
    SET PlayerKillCamera 0 or 1 // No idea. Leave at 1.
    SET LastMonsterKillCamera 0 or 1 // No idea. Leave at 1.
    SET MinFrameTime.2 0 to 1 // Engine framerate limiter. Default 0.01 (10ms or 100fps). Calculated by 1 divided by desired framerate limit. Limit it to your average fps for the best results. Engine fps limiting is far superior to driver-level fps limiting such as Nvidia Inspector, RadeonPro, Afterburner, etc.
    SET ParticlesEnabled 0 or 1 // Spell effects and fire. 0 is static fire and no spell effects.
    SET RequestedNumJobThreads -1 or 0 // Multi threaded job threads. 0 to disable. Doesn't cause stutter.
    SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads -1 or 0 // Multi threaded worker threads. Job threads requires worker threads to get the job done. 0 to disable. -1 causes stutter on a lot of machines, set to 0 is highly recommended.
    SET FreeUnusedGrannyFileSections.2 0 or 1 // Don't know, leave it alone at 0.
    SET IsTrustedMachine 0 or 1 // * Shows or hides the Remember Account Name tickbox on the login screen.
    SET RememberAccountName 0 or 1 // * Tick or unticks the Remember Account Name tickbox on the login screen.
    SET AccountName // * The remembered account name
    SET LastRealm NA Megaserver or EU Megaserver // The realm you log in to.
    SET CustomUIScale 0.1 to 1 // * Custom user interface scaling size. 0.9 something is default. Lower numbers = smaller UI and font
    SET UseCustomUIScale.2 0 or 1 // Enables or disables your custom UI scale.
    SET RollDodgeDoubleTapEnabled 0 or 1 // * Double tap direction button to dodge.
    SET RollDodgeDoubleTapTimeWindow.2 // * Time window in milliseconds for what is registered as a doubletap for dodging.
    SET MonsterTellsEnabled 0 or 1 // * Combat cues. Yellow/red sparks
    SET CameraZoomDistancesSynced 0 or 1 // Thought 0 would disable syncing and allow different tuning with below settings, but didnt do anything.
    SET SiegeCameraZoomDistance "6.00000000" // Doesn't seem to work.
    SET WeaponsOutCameraZoomDistance "7.00000000" // Doesn't seem to work.
    SET WeaponsSheathedCameraZoomDistance "7.00000000" // Doesn't seem to work.
    SET MaxNetworkWriteBuffer "10485760" // 10MB network write buffer. I assume higher values would result in higher latency if too many packets get stuck in a queue (bufferbloat). If you want input to not get dropped, raise this value. If your router isn't tuned to handle packet queuing well, it may result in added delay though.
    SET MaxNetworkReadBuffer "10485760" // 10MB network read buffer. I assume higher values would result in higher latency if too many packets get stuck in a queue (bufferbloat).

    Source
  • Elf_Boy
    Elf_Boy
    ✭✭✭
    cool and thanks
    ** Asus Crosshair VI Hero, Ryzen 1800x, 64GB DDR4 @ 3000, GTX 1080 ti, 4K Samsung 3d Display m.2 Sata 3 Boot Drive, m.2 x4 nvme Game Drive **
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