Performance for triple monitor and newer graphics cards

kaithuzar · June 2016

@ZOS_GinaBruno & community

I've consistently played ESO since beta on my triple monitor setup. During this duration I've upgraded video cards from 2x 460's, to 1x 760 & now to 1x GTX 1080 SC
I'm seeing huge increases in numbers via benchmarking, but the improvements in ESO seem minimal. Let me explain this a bit better.
Running my 760 (triple monitor) with tweaked usersettings file, the game looks really low resolution but it's not terrible & I get an average of 30-40 FPS in PVE & 25-35 in PVP , 10-15 in heavy lag situations.
If I try the same user settings file tweaks, the game looks absolutely terrible. I get only slightly better performance of approx. 40-45 FPS in PVE & 30-35 FPS in PVP, & 15-25 FPS in heavy lag.
If I boost the graphics quality of the game in the user settings file, I get roughly the same numbers as I got with my 760 only the game looks a TON better.
I don't understand how to get the game to look decent with this newer card & still have decent FPS in a triple monitor setup.
So my question to @ZOS_GinaBruno & others is "will there be any future performance optimizations done to account for newer video cards & triple screen monitor setups?"
My question to the community is "Is anyone else running a triple monitor setup or experiencing similar results? What have you guys tweaked things to for having the best of performance & looks?"

FYI: When I say triple monitor I'm using nvidia surround 5760x1080 with 3 asus vs229h-p all connections are using display port to dvi cables to connect from card to monitor.

Granted my motherboard, processor, & hard drives are fairly old, so it may be a situation where I just need assistance with finding the "bottleneck" to drastically improve performance.
My network is 110 mb/down & 5 mb/up with all gig internal connections/switch/firewall.

Night_Watch · June 2016

I'm probably not going to be of much, if any, help here but I too use triple monitors.

I have 2 x AMD R9 270x running the game in 'eyefinity' with an Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU @ 3.4GHz OC'd to 4Ghz. My main-board is an MSI Z87-G45 Gaming and memory is Corsair Vengence [LP] 4x4 - 16GB. Though I have Windows 10 on an SSD, I run ESO from a Seagate Barracuda ~1.5TB.

I have all the latest drivers available (non BETA) with profiles set in AMD Radeon settings for both the 32Bit and 64Bit game clients.

In truth, I have been meaning to do some comparison study to try to see any performance differences between the two game clients but have not got round to it - only been trying 64Bit for around a week now. I use the 64Bit client as I think, without proper testing, that it runs smoother, looks better and returns a moderately better FPS. I cannot get in game properly just now to check FPS as it keeps dropping connection today. If memory serves, I get FPS 50~75 (+) in regular 'wild' environment, 30~45 (+-) in cities and in solo 'instances' FPS can be as much as 100 (+). I cannot verify this as I do not have any screen caps with in game FPS - as I wrote, I have not really got round to any sort of proper testing and the figures given are from memory of the in game FPS (/fps) without using a third party FPS tool.

Back on issue; I know that AMD 'eyefinity' is different to Nvidia surround - I have used both. As my Nvidia rig is currently being used as a secondary computer for doing other tasks while I use the AMD rig in the main, I cannot really give any advice about Nvidia surround - long time since I used it!

When you write 'If I boost the graphics quality of the game in the user settings file', do you mean you are manually altering the file or that you alter the settings in game? I know from experience that altering game files manually can be problematic! Not inferring that you have done something incorrectly but it could be an idea to check the file is as you want it - a simple '0' or ',' misplaced could cause any amount of unwanted bother. Please know this is not an attack!

Also, 'all connections are using display port to dvi cables to connect from card to monitor' caught my eye! It has been a long time since I used Nvidia surround and I cannot remember just now the constraints regarding cables or cabling. I would think that you are using the same cables and cabling routes as you have previously so this should not cause issue. Maybe you could check the cabling - just to remove it from the list of possible problems! I know that with 'eyefinity', I need to use at least one display port or, as in my case, a display port adapter and the first adapter I got was the wrong type (passive) and I had to replace it (active).

It may also be silly to suggest this! But have you checked for any conflict or poor wiring regarding your network? I'm sure you have but I mention this as I have, on many occasions, solved connectivity problems (other peoples networks) by simply replacing a worn RJ45 cable or renewing its connectors. Further, I recently had network issues due to a really old switch I was using. I replaced the switch and got the network back to good!

One last thing! You write 'Granted my motherboard, processor, & hard drives are fairly old'. As I understand it, ESO is more CPU 'heavy' than GPU 'heavy'. Of course, I'm not suggesting that the beefier GTX 1080 will not give better performance. It could be that your CPU, main-board (AKA motherboard) or even memory are the main factors of the problem or bottleneck! I may be missing such in your post but I do not see your setup stats - such as main-board or CPU.

Best of luck sorting the issues - maybe someone that uses Nvidia surround will pop into this thread and be of some help.

Kindest regards.

kaithuzar · June 2016

I feel like I'm in a better place now.
Overall I'm getting roughly 60 FPS & occasionally it dips down to 35 in heavy areas like rawl'kha.

usersettings.txt

SET GamepadPreferredEnabled "0"
SET MouseRawInput "1"
SET MouseSensitivityFirstPerson "0.50000000"
SET MouseSensitivityThirdPerson "0.86000001"
SET MouseSmoothing "0"
SET InvertMouseWheel "1"
SET InvertMouseY "1"
SET InvertMouseX "1"
SET DistantFoliageEnabled "1"
SET PFX_SUPPRESS_DISTANCE_v2 "35.00000000"
SET PFX_GLOBAL_MAXIMUM "768"
SET MULTI_GPU_CHECK "0"
SET CachedRLREnabled "1"
SET CachedReflectionResolution "0"
SET CachedShadowFiltering "3"
SET ScreenshotFormat.2 "JPG"
SET PregameScreenAdjustEnabled "0"
SET PregameGammaCheckEnabled "0"
SET HardwareCheckEnabled.3 "0"
SET SUB_SAMPLING "2"
SET REFLECTION_QUALITY_v3 "1"
SET PARTICLE_DENSITY "2"
SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "0"
SET SHADOWS "1"
SET GAMMA_ADJUSTMENT "115"
SET VIEW_DISTANCE "0.80000001"
SET GPUSmoothingFrames "10"
SET MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS "-2"
SET RAIN_WETNESS "1"
SET LENS_FLARE "0"
SET GOD_RAYS_v2 "0"
SET ANTI_ALIASING_v2 "1"
SET AMBIENT_OCCLUSION "0"
SET COLOR_GRADING_v1 "0"
SET BLOOM "0"
SET DEPTH_OF_FIELD "0"
SET TONE_MAPPING "1"
SET COLOR_CORRECTION "1"
SET SOFT_ALPHA "1"
SET DISTORTION "0"
SET CHARACTER_LIGHTING "1"
SET DIFFUSE_2_MAPS "1"
SET DETAIL_MAPS "1"
SET NORMAL_MAPS "1"
SET SPECULAR_MAPS "0"
SET CLUTTER_2D "0"
SET SIMPLE_SHADERS "0"
SET WATER_FOAM "1"
SET VSYNC_INTERVAL "1"
SET VSYNC "1"
SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "3"
SET PreferMaximizedWindow "0"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "0"
SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2"
SET FullscreenHeight "1080"
SET FullscreenWidth "5760"
SET WindowedHeight "768"
SET WindowedWidth "1024"
SET ShowPetsAtCharacterSelect.2 "1"
SET TrialAccountType3SeenVersion "0"
SET TrialAccountType2SeenVersion "0"
SET TrialAccountType1SeenVersion "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPetDoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPetDamageEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPointGainsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingStatusEffectsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingHoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingHealingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingDoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingDamageEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetHoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetHealingEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetDoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetDamageEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingStatusEffectsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingHoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingHealingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingDoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingDamageEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextEnabled "0"
SET SiegeCameraChoice "0"
SET IsServerSelected "0"
SET SelectedServer "0"
SET OverscanHeightAdjustment "0"
SET OverscanWidthAdjustment "0"
SET OverscanYOffset "0"
SET OverscanXOffset "0"
SET CharacterSelectForceAllCharacterPreloads "0"
SET PlayerStandInsMaxPerFrame "8"
SET PlayerStandInsEnabled.2 "0"
SET FOVChangesAllowed "1"
SET AgreedToPEGI "1"
SET LuaMemoryLimitMB "512"
SET GamepadSensitivityFirstPerson.2 "0.72000003"
SET GamepadSensitivityThirdPerson.2 "0.85000002"
SET GamepadInvertX "0"
SET GamepadInvertY "0"
SET GamepadVibrationEnabled "1"
SET SOUND_ENABLED "1"
SET FOOTSTEPS_VOLUME "60.00000000"
SET FOOTSTEPS_ENABLED "1"
SET SPEAKER_SETUP "0"
SET VOICE_CHAT_VOLUME "65.00000000"
SET BACKGROUND_AUDIO "0"
SET VO_VOLUME "60.00000000"
SET VO_ENABLED "1"
SET UI_VOLUME "60.00000000"
SET UI_ENABLED "1"
SET AMBIENT_VOLUME "60.00000000"
SET AMBIENT_ENABLED "1"
SET SFX_VOLUME "60.00000000"
SET SFX_ENABLED "1"
SET MUSIC_VOLUME "30.00000000"
SET MUSIC_ENABLED "1"
SET AUDIO_VOLUME "32.00000000"
SET AUDIO_ENABLED "1"
SET TooltipFilter "-1"
SET TooltipNumOptions "2"
SET Language.2 "en"
SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"
SET PatchDataPath "game:/GameData/"
SET CacheDataPath "machine:/Cache/"
SET ViewedAddOnEULAVersion "5"
SET AcceptedAddOnEULAVersion "5"
SET AcceptedCodeOfConductVersion "1"
SET AcceptedPrivacyPolicyVersion "2"
SET AcceptedTOSVersion "2"
SET AcceptedEULAVersion "3"
SET DirectionalDamageIndictorVisibleInThirdPerson "0"
SET CameraFramingTransitionEnabled "1"
SET SkipPregameVideos "0"
SET HasPlayedPregameVideo "1"
SET AssassinationKillCamera "1"
SET MinFrameTime.2 "0.01000000"
SET ParticlesEnabled "1"
SET MaxCoresToUse "6"
SET RequestedNumJobThreads "-1"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "-1"
SET FreeUnusedGrannyFileSections.2 "0"
SET IsTrustedMachine "1"
SET RememberAccountName "0"
SET AccountName ""
SET LastRealm "NA Megaserver"
SET CustomUIScale "1.00000000"
SET UseCustomUIScale.2 "0"
SET RollDodgeDoubleTapEnabled "1"
SET RollDodgeDoubleTapTimeWindow.2 "185"
SET ClampGroundTargetEnabled "1"
SET MonsterTellsEnabled "1"
SET CameraZoomDistancesSynced "1"
SET SiegeCameraZoomDistance "8.00000000"
SET WeaponsOutCameraZoomDistance "10.00000000"
SET WeaponsSheathedCameraZoomDistance "10.00000000"
SET MaxNetworkWriteBuffer "15728640"
SET MaxNetworkReadBuffer "10485760"

I may keep playing to turn down:
SET GPUSmoothingFrames "10"
as I think it's a little higher than it needs to be (1 is lowest, 10 is max) & I can save a few FPS here.

I turned off specular maps because I don't like the shiny effect on everyone/everything.
I personally like anti-aliasing because it takes away the staircase effect on my character's armor, however as my buddy EagerSkeaver pointed out it makes barrel's & other items look like junk by blurring them.
Turning VSYNC on in windowed mode caused screen tearing, however in full screen mode helped things look correctly & no tearing.
The 3 things that helped the most were:
turning down particle effects (PFX_SUPPRESS_DISTANCE_v2, PFX_GLOBAL_MAXIMUM, PARTICLE_DENSITY)
turn down/off shadows (CachedShadowFiltering, HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOW, SHADOWS)
turn off (AMBIENT_OCCLUSION, BLOOM, DEPTH_OF_FIELD) - this was really messing me up, typically the blur

Also we figured out VIEW_DISTANCE is not really needed, everyone can turn that down to about 20 & be ok; it has nothing to do with character view distance it's only "some" in game inanimate objects.

Setting this helped get 5-10 extra frames (which per our understanding is the opposite of what it should do?)
MAX_ANISOTROPY "3"

I could probably turn my shadows up slightly for a little better graphics quality & my nvidia control panel settings are only set to: texture filtering - quality - quality (maybe i can set them to high quality, performance, or high performance)???

All other nvidia settings are:
Multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration: multiple display performance mode
power mgmt mode: prefer max performance

Physx settings:
processor: GeForce GTX 1080 (take off the auto-select, don't want to use my cpu at all b/c it's old)