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Dragon Age: Inquisition PC performance thread

Ew, why would anyone want a Dragon Age game more "action-ey?"

lol who are these people who want DA3 to be *more* action oriented??

Different people, different strokes. Moreover, it doesn't mean more action, it's just eliminating the need of holding right mouse click for camera movement. Gamepad/console players won't have this problem though, as it's covered with right analog stick.
 

Van Owen

Banned
What's up with Redcliffe? Place is a lag fest. Running settings on Ultra with Resolution Scale - 100, Mesh - High, Tessellation - Off, Shadows - Low, SSAO, and Post-Process AA - Low; 60 FPS throughout The Hinterlands (With the exception of the big camp location - 40+), that something Mire location with the undead mofos, The Storm Coast, and drops to around 45-55 in Val Royeau and some spots in Haven. Turned down everything to the lowest settings/off and Redcliffe runs at ~20 FPS still. I presume this may be due to an issue regarding NPC rendering, yeah?

Far Cry 4: Redcliffe.

That and the farm are fps killers for sure.

I've also found I need to restart my computer when switching between Mantle and DX11 or else I only get like 20-30 fps. No idea why.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
I get locked 60ps everywhere with everything maxed except MSAA 2x (instead of 4x) at 1080p... except in Redcliff, it drops to the 40s there, I assumed it was because of the amount of npcs so I didnt even bother changing more settings (I dropped MSAA to 2x when I got to hinterlands because I couldnt get 60fps), no other place in any zone so far has dropped from 60fps 49hours in
 
I get locked 60ps everywhere with everything maxed except MSAA 2x (instead of 4x) at 1080p... except in Redcliff, it drops to the 40s there, I assumed it was because of the amount of npcs so I didnt even bother changing more settings (I dropped MSAA to 2x when I got to hinterlands because I couldnt get 60fps), no other place in any zone so far has dropped from 60fps 49hours in

You have an SLI set up right? There was talk of SLI glitches earlier in the thread. Are they still around?
 
Damn. I'm just going to wait until those are dealt with then. I haven't even start playing beyond screw around in the character creator. I don't want to deal with graphical glitches like that when I know they will be fixed.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
You have an SLI set up right? There was talk of SLI glitches earlier in the thread. Are they still around?

very rarely do I get clitches (like flickering). happened a few days ago again when I was in western approach, all the bushes would flicker, I restarted the game and it stopped tho.

its been pretty much smooth sailing on every zone, except redcliff like I said. youre not there alot anyway

As in, glitchy textures and bright white fog effects? I still get those. =/

oh is the fog not supposed to be so white? I thought that was weird but just thought it was a shit effect, not a glitch. are there pictures of what its supposed to look like?
 

Renekton

Member
The game now near-locks 60fps even at crowded areas (initial brief LOD lag) after I reduced the resolution scale to 90 with ultra texture, no MSAA, SSAO, motion blur off, rest at high. Ultra texture is probably not worth now at that blurrier res scale derp. i5 4690 and HD7970 Mantle.

Now searching thread for 290X benchmarks to see if it's worth it to grab one :'(
 
I've also found I need to restart my computer when switching between Mantle and DX11 or else I only get like 20-30 fps. No idea why.
This might be a bigger problem than just switching between Mantle and DX11. I can't use Mantle (have a 660 Ti), and the other day I was switching back and forth between windowed fullscreen and fullscreen and playing around with graphics settings, and my performance degraded really badly. It was so bad I actually fresh installed my drivers, DX, and repaired all 3 Visual C++ versions that come with the game. Stopped messing with the settings and everythings been fine since.
 
oh is the fog not supposed to be so white? I thought that was weird but just thought it was a shit effect, not a glitch. are there pictures of what its supposed to look like?

I have no screens, but I know I'm not alone, based on complaints around the interwebs.

My fiancee has an r9 290 and her fog looks like, well, fog. Whereas I get bright-as-fuck cardboard cutouts. Haven't tried disabling sli to see if it fixes it, tho.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
I have no screens, but I know I'm not alone, based on complaints around the interwebs.

My fiancee has an r9 290 and her fog looks like, well, fog. Whereas I get bright-as-fuck cardboard cutouts. Haven't tried disabling sli to see if it fixes it, tho.

well that sucks. I did think it was a shit effect from the start. oh well, not going to restart 49 hours worth of game just for that even if/when its fixed
 
Has anyone experienced a problem where the game just doesn't open from the Origin Client? I've played the game for about 50 hours so far with no real problems (apart from some bugs) but today my game just wont even open :(

Edit: Nvm fixed.
 

Arkanius

Member
I'm running everything maxed at 1080p with my 280X (except for MSAA of course which is off)
I'm using Mantle already and I feel I should dial something down to get a stable 60 FPS since the game is such a fantastic joy when it's at 60 frames per second. (I really notice the stable 60 when I'm inside caves vs the 40ish minimum of the outside areas)

Which settings should I dial down with no noticeable quality decrease?
 

AndyBNV

Nvidia
Anyone noticed any performance hit between textures ultra and fade like?

It's simply a larger texture cache for GPUs with more VRAM using Ultra textures. Should mean less frequent loading of textures into memory, which may result in smoother gameplay and quicker mid-level streaming loads.
 

Static Jak

Member
It's simply a larger texture cache for GPUs with more VRAM using Ultra textures. Should mean less frequent loading of textures into memory, which may result in smoother gameplay and quicker mid-level streaming loads.
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it's the same textures as Ultra, it's just loading more textures at once? Sort of.

If so, how much VRAM are we talking about for it to be useful?

I'm on a 970 with Ultra on without any framerate issues but I notice a little bit of texture pop in from time to time.
 

Kurtofan

Member
I've gotten two DPC Watchdog violation something like today which got me a blue screen and a reboot;

Anything I can do to stop this?
 

KePoW

Banned
I've gotten two DPC Watchdog violation something like today which got me a blue screen and a reboot;

Anything I can do to stop this?

DPC Watchdog?

Not making any definite accusations, but are you possibly running a pirated version or something?

I've never heard of DPC Watchdog error before
 

Kurtofan

Member
DPC Watchdog?

Not making any definite accusations, but are you possibly running a pirated version or something?

I've never heard of DPC Watchdog error before

Got the game on Origin so no.

google search told me it might be hardware related (apparently my hardware might be out of date???) but I've played 50 hours with no problems and now this.

Should I lower settings/resolution?
 

KePoW

Banned
Got the game on Origin so no.

google search told me it might be hardware related (apparently my hardware might be out of date???) but I've played 50 hours with no problems and now this.

Should I lower settings/resolution?

ah okay, weird dunno

Haven't heard of DPC Watchdog error before. Maybe it was just two random bad luck errors today, if you never got it before in previous 50 hours
 
DPC Watchdog?

Not making any definite accusations, but are you possibly running a pirated version or something?

I've never heard of DPC Watchdog error before

DPC Watchdog violation is a somewhat common cause of BSODs. It wouldn't indicate that it's a pirated copy.
 

prophecy0

Member
I finally got a chance to try out Inquisition last night. Here are my specs:

i7 4790k @ 4.4Ghz
2x GTX 680 2GB
8GB RAM
1080p monitor

I have most things set on High, with a few items set on Ultra (LoD, texture detail, and mesh quality IIRC).

I only played far enough to gain control of my character. My FPS counter was showing that I was getting between 50 and 80 frames per second. However, whenever I swung the camera around the game felt REALLY choppy, even when the FPS counter stayed north of 60. I also noticed the SLI flickering issue.

Even though I have a 120Hz monitor, I think I'm going to cap the game's framerate at 60 and turn vsync off to see if I get more consistent performance. I'm also considering disabling SLI because the texture flickering is annoying as hell.

My rig runs BF4 on Ultra at 80+ FPS consistently. I was hoping for similar performance from Inquisition, so I'm a little disappointed. I'm sure with some tweaking and driver improvements things will get better though.
 

KePoW

Banned
My rig runs BF4 on Ultra at 80+ FPS consistently. I was hoping for similar performance from Inquisition, so I'm a little disappointed. I'm sure with some tweaking and driver improvements things will get better though.

I ran BF4 last night just for comparison, and it runs much faster than DA3

However, to me the graphics in BF4 looked noticeably worse so I can't complain. I love the graphics in DA3, they are awesome
 

komorebi

Member
I finally got a chance to try out Inquisition last night. Here are my specs:

i7 4790k @ 4.4Ghz
2x GTX 680 2GB
8GB RAM
1080p monitor

I have most things set on High, with a few items set on Ultra (LoD, texture detail, and mesh quality IIRC).

I only played far enough to gain control of my character. My FPS counter was showing that I was getting between 50 and 80 frames per second. However, whenever I swung the camera around the game felt REALLY choppy, even when the FPS counter stayed north of 60. I also noticed the SLI flickering issue.

Even though I have a 120Hz monitor, I think I'm going to cap the game's framerate at 60 and turn vsync off to see if I get more consistent performance. I'm also considering disabling SLI because the texture flickering is annoying as hell.

My rig runs BF4 on Ultra at 80+ FPS consistently. I was hoping for similar performance from Inquisition, so I'm a little disappointed. I'm sure with some tweaking and driver improvements things will get better though.

Not sure how 2x 680s will perform but you need to play well into the Hinterlands, specifically
The Crossroads and Redcliffe,
to really fine tune your settings. Those areas brought a reality check to my card (770) and the settings I was playing with up to that point.

I agree that the performance will probably improve with patches though.
 

Kurtofan

Member
Now I get the following message (no blue screen so far though) "display driver has stopped functioning and has recovered" from nvidia.

the game is a white screen, can't close it, but no blue screen.
 

Kevyt

Member
Not sure how 2x 680s will perform but you need to play well into the Hinterlands, specifically
The Crossroads and Redcliffe,
to really fine tune your settings. Those areas brought a reality check to my card (770) and the settings I was playing with up to that point.

I agree that the performance will probably improve with patches though.


What settings were you playing at and what framerates were you getting?
 

Ketch

Member
So, some repeat advice. I know most of you did, but...

Remember to CLEAN install your video card drivers if you want the smoothest experience in DA:I.
For those with Mantle, clean install seems to alleviate MOST loading and stuttering problems you may encounter.

Turn off ALL overlays. This includes FRAPS, MSI Afterburner, Geforce Experience/Shadowplay, Raptr and ORIGIN (Don't use Steam either if you forced it on for DA). They seem to conflict with the game and cause massive fps issues.

These are the most common command line arguments to implement when running DA:I single player to get a "smoother" experience (it WILL break multiplayer if you use it.).
60 FPS Example (because your monitor is most likely not 60Hz exactly):
Code:
-GameTime.ForceSimRate 59.94+ -GameTime.MaxVariableFPS 59.94 -GameTime.MaxSimFps 59.94

It seems like animations in cutscenes were recorded at 30fps, therefore it will always seem like it's stuttering if you're used to 60fps. Removing ForceSimRate will make the cutscenes smoother, but all the animations will be sped up to compensate.

EDIT: For those who wish to use SweetFX SMAA and effects... Use the version listed near the bottom of this topic http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=390465&page=4. As of now, it is only compatible with DirectX11. Just remember to edit the settings because the default one has HDR and a bunch of other settings activated that might skew your perception of the game. Also, it seems to crash your game if you do not cap the FPS with the above settings or similar.

Hey this is great advice, thank you. I was wondering if anybody knows an easy way to do a clean driver install the nvidia experience program? It doens't look like there is one.

Edit: nvm, I figured it out. The answer is to just do it the old fashioned way.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
Thanks.

I already have something called Geforce Game Ready Driver, but I did not do a clean install, is it the same thing?

I always chose just custom install never clean install unless I get a new card. Is clean installing regularly a good thing? I thought clean install just remove custom settings for games you may have. Or like in the above, if you have a problem with the drivers.
 

KePoW

Banned
I always chose just custom install never clean install unless I get a new card. Is clean installing regularly a good thing? I thought clean install just remove custom settings for games you may have. Or like in the above, if you have a problem with the drivers.

It never hurts to choose the Clean option during the Nvidia driver installation

Unless you have a bunch of different settings for specific games, but I never both with that anyway
 

Sohaim

Member
so, i have a question, tesallation high vs ultra is just a difference in radius or also in quality? i cant spot the difference at all
 

komorebi

Member
What settings were you playing at and what framerates were you getting?

I had everything on high with no AA. The frame rate was never a steady 60 and personally I find that jarring in a game like this. Once I got to Redcliffe I realized it was never going to happen so I started making compromises to keep it as high as possible.

I've had mixed results and ultimately couldn't keep it capped at 30fps either because it looks janky as hell despite having a smooth frame rate. Now Im at the Storm Coast and its in the low 50s with constant adaptive tearing.

I bet this will be more and more common the further I get.
 
I'm running the game completely maxed out here, every setting on the highest - which I always do despite frames but I never really experience frame drops as it is - anyway, the game occasionally drops a few frames here and there (most noticeable in red cliff like everyone else says.

I'm running 2x7970 and i7-3930k processor. I've got to read up about mantle because that's the new AMD tech isn't it? I've been running DX11 this whole time. Is mantle supposed to be better? It doesn't really say anywhere (I only skimmed the first post).

I must say this game is amazingly gorgeous and big ups on EA sharing around the frostbite engine and especially big ups to DICE for building the thing. There are some seriously powerful engines out there now. I can't say whether I think this or CryEngine produces the better graphics.

Playing this has really REALLY put me in the mood for the Witcher 3. I am expecting the graphics in that to outshine this but my setup is only just barely keeping up now so I'm scared. There's no way I'm not playing W3 maxed out.

So, I am thinking of putting a third 7970 or a 7950 in my comp because they're getting relatively cheap now... But I just don't know if that's going to make the difference. $200 marginal upgrade or sell my current cards and spend up to $1000 buying two new cards? Anyway off topic.
 

Sohaim

Member
there's no visible difference that I can tell, so just set to High

i was reading in the DF article that on pc it only changes the radius, ive been doing some testing and i cannot see the difference at 1080p up close, if i look far way sure i see it.
 

Pancakes

hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here so maybe GAF can help.

I got a new GTX 970 replacing my old 660 and I did a clean install for the GeForce Drivers. I have:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (Left at stock)
GTX 970
8 GB RAM
1080p display

With everything maxed out besides MSAA (turned off) and tessellation turned to high I'm only getting 30-40fps with dips into the 25s for NPC heavy areas. Surely this can't be proper performance for a modern graphics card. Right?

I was using the ingame console commands for FPS so I know it's not an overlay issue or anything like that.
 

KePoW

Banned
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here so maybe GAF can help.

I got a new GTX 970 replacing my old 660 and I did a clean install for the GeForce Drivers. I have:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (Left at stock)
GTX 970
8 GB RAM
1080p display

With everything maxed out besides MSAA (turned off) and tessellation turned to high I'm only getting 30-40fps with dips into the 25s for NPC heavy areas. Surely this can't be proper performance for a modern graphics card. Right?

I was using the ingame console commands for FPS so I know it's not an overlay issue or anything like that.

What resolution??

I literally just received a 970 from Amazon today, so I'm about to install it. I have a 3570k so I'll report back in one hour
 

Pancakes

hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
What resolution??

I literally just received a 970 from Amazon today, so I'm about to install it. I have a 3570k so I'll report back in one hour

Running at 1080p, 100% display scale.
 

IceIpor

Member
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here so maybe GAF can help.

I got a new GTX 970 replacing my old 660 and I did a clean install for the GeForce Drivers. I have:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (Left at stock)
GTX 970
8 GB RAM
1080p display

With everything maxed out besides MSAA (turned off) and tessellation turned to high I'm only getting 30-40fps with dips into the 25s for NPC heavy areas. Surely this can't be proper performance for a modern graphics card. Right?

I was using the ingame console commands for FPS so I know it's not an overlay issue or anything like that.

If you're in NPC intensive areas.... It might be? Is your CPU maxed out in those places?

I think DA might be one of those games that actually benefits from more than 4 cores. (Try overclocking it?)
 

Corpekata

Banned
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here so maybe GAF can help.

I got a new GTX 970 replacing my old 660 and I did a clean install for the GeForce Drivers. I have:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (Left at stock)
GTX 970
8 GB RAM
1080p display

With everything maxed out besides MSAA (turned off) and tessellation turned to high I'm only getting 30-40fps with dips into the 25s for NPC heavy areas. Surely this can't be proper performance for a modern graphics card. Right?

I was using the ingame console commands for FPS so I know it's not an overlay issue or anything like that.

You might want to OC. I have pretty much the same rig, everything cranked up except MSAA on X2 and I get mostly 60 with dips into the 45ish range in heavy areas like Redcliffe. But I also OC my 3570k and have my GPU slightly overclocked too.
 

Pancakes

hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
If you're in NPC intensive areas.... It might be? Is your CPU maxed out in those places?

I think DA might be one of those games that actually benefits from more than 4 cores. (Try overclocking it?)

I fiddled with some settings without compromising too much on the visual quality and now manage to get 50fps while exploring and 30-40 in NPC heavy areas which I found much more acceptable. Still would prefer 60 but I can't tell the difference between low 50s and 60 anyway.

As for overclocking. I'm running on stock cooling but I ordered a 3rd party cooling fan so I'll try experimenting with overclocking once I get that.

You might want to OC. I have pretty much the same rig, everything cranked up except MSAA on X2 and I get mostly 60 with dips into the 45ish range in heavy areas like Redcliffe. But I also OC my 3570k and have my GPU slightly overclocked too.

I overclocked my 970 slightly with 150 MHZ main clock and 450 MHZ memory clock with 106% power percentage via MSI AB.
 
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