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BioShock Infinite PC Performance Thread

RedSwirl

Junior Member
if that Q6600 is a G0 revision you can overclock it to 3+ GHz for "free"... apart from that you'd be fine playing in high-ultra as long as you lock the framerate to 30, that CPU can't deliver a smooth 60 fps experience since the dips are too frequent and huge, my brother has the same setup as mine but I upgraded to a 3570K... on the other hand my bro is so stubborn he loves his old Q6600 and say it can still run anything, we both have some 7950 Boost 3 GB, the game runs beautifully in my system , with the loading stuttering of course... but his same system running the Q6600 looks like a roller coaster with the framerate all over the place, time to upgrade that CPU ! for 1080p 30fps locked it's fine though as far as I've seen, that CPU got indeed some legs when overclocked.

It's a pre-built Dell. Can't overclock and can't change the CPU without changing the whole motherboard. I'm stuck with it as-is until I get a whole new system.

It's run almost everything on high settings really well except specific instances. I think I got a lot of frame drops on Dishonored most recently. But I don't use FRAPS or anything to track framerate.

I'll probably just keep it on high. Plus, I usually keep AA down to 2x because I don't really care that much about it beyond 2x.
 

Ce-Lin

Member
It's a pre-built Dell. Can't overclock and can't change the CPU without changing the whole motherboard. I'm stuck with it as-is until I get a whole new system.

It's run almost everything on high settings really well except specific instances. I think I got a lot of frame drops on Dishonored most recently. But I don't use FRAPS or anything to track framerate.

I'll probably just keep it on high. Plus, I usually keep AA down to 2x because I don't really care that much about it beyond 2x.

well that CPU at stock speed is a major bottleneck for gaming, is it 6 year old now ? it's fantastic value for light-weight office tasks though, I think that Q6600 G0 at 3.6 GHz was the CPU that served me the longest until I went for the impressive 3570K, specially for the major increase in framerates, specially for framerate dips, the lowest framerate with a stock 3570 is comparable now to the average framerate I was getting with the Q6600 @3.6 !!

also more on-topic:

with latest BI Steam updates the DX11 post-processing setting can cause micro stuttering that wasn't there at launch, I resorted to the default XEngine.ini instead of the tweaked one and DX11 stutter is gone, but split-second loading areas' stuttering is worse... ugh, seems I can't have the best of both worlds now, so I re-installed and didn't update the game, with the tweaked XEngine.ini it runs better than the updated game... when are they going to try and fix it ? seems like they just need to update that decompression plugin for UE3 they're using.
 

Shaneus

Member
How latest is latest? The one around a week ago?

And any chance of posting the original XEngine.ini file (even a pastebin would be fine, I guess) for those of us who downloaded it straight from Steam?
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Wait, so the only AA is FXAA? That's what I'm seeing in the XEngine ini. I was trying to find a way to drop it down to maybe 2x or something.
 

hlhbk

Member
So the Irrational forums are getting ugly. Bunch of people talking about how PC gaming is dead and how all PC games are crap with issues like the stuttering in all games.

I may have to take a break from that stupidity until a patch is finally released.
 

Shaneus

Member
So the Irrational forums are getting ugly. Bunch of people talking about how PC gaming is dead and how all PC games are crap with issues like the stuttering in all games.

I may have to take a break from that stupidity until a patch is finally released.
Hah yeah, I saw that. Apparently you're a what... condescending douche?
 

hlhbk

Member
Per a twitter conversation I had with Kline the fix was submitted to 2k for testing/certification before Kline went on vacation. Irrational can do nothing to speed up the release. I have asked Kline for the best means to contact 2K.
 

Shaneus

Member
Per a twitter conversation I had with Kline the fix was submitted to 2k for testing/certification before Kline went on vacation. Irrational can do nothing to speed up the release. I have asked Kline for the best means to contact 2K.
Is there a reason they don't give people access to the beta on Steam to test it for themselves?
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
So on the "PoolSize" cvar thing in the OP, if my GPU has 1GB of VRAM, what should I set it to? The default seems to be 400.
 
I finished the game on my X51 Gtx660 tonight and other than the loading transition puase I had a very hard time noticing any stutter the only time I had any was in an elevator where it looked like it dropped the framerate by half. I was playing on 1280x800 Ultra and it was 60fps with vsnc on felt way better though I have been gaming on consoles all my life the breif loading stutter did not bother me though.

Also I was running the drivers the pc came with so 310 or so range.
 

t-ramp

Member
Also, what exactly is the "ReadTexturePoolFrom Ini" cvar thing? Is that a file itself or a line in the XEngine ini?
also ensure that the -ReadTexturePoolFromIni cvar has been added to the game's launch options (right-click -> Properties -> Set launch options; may cause instability)
You have to open BI's properties in Steam and add the parameter to the launch options for the game.
 

hlhbk

Member
Hah yeah, I saw that. Apparently you're a what... condescending douche?

So the one guy kept bitching about how he has to configure his pc to run games, said I didn't have a life and such. I finally got annoyed enough to go off. You might want to check my response out! :p
 

ref

Member
The fact there hasn't been a patch yet leads me to believe nothing is going to get done. I want to be proven wrong, but I'm guessing they think we'll all eventually just forget about it.

I still haven't played more than an hour or so into the game because of the stuttering, I've tried to look past it but I'm too fixated on it now.
 

hlhbk

Member
The fact there hasn't been a patch yet leads me to believe nothing is going to get done. I want to be proven wrong, but I'm guessing they think we'll all eventually just forget about it.

I still haven't played more than an hour or so into the game because of the stuttering, I've tried to look past it but I'm too fixated on it now.

I felt the same way prior to my twitter conversation with Chris Kline from Irrational. The fixes are done, 2k just needs to release them.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Game runs far more smoothly after the tweaks. Now I only get a bit of stuttering when the game loads, and even then it doesn't happen all the time.
 

Shaneus

Member
I felt the same way prior to my twitter conversation with Chris Kline from Irrational. The fixes are done, 2k just needs to release them.
What's your Twitter ID so I can have a look at the convo?

PM it to me if you like, I'd just like to see what he said. No way it should take this long to test, especially when the game's on something like Steam which is basically designed for pushing out patches ultra-quickly.
 

hlhbk

Member
LOL @ Shaneus.... :) FYI to everyone:

@korkyplunger Another question for you that maybe you can pass along? Why not release fixed as beta on Steam to verify it fixes issue?


Christopher Kline‏@korkyplunger @HLHBK Good idea. I'll pass it along but doubtful it will happen since it's already partway through test.
 

MaLDo

Member
I felt the same way prior to my twitter conversation with Chris Kline from Irrational. The fixes are done, 2k just needs to release them.

I asked the same to Chris one week ago.

Chris said:
as I mentioned in the same post, it must go through the 2KGames testing process. It's in their hands now. Thanks for your patience

MaLDo said:
Does that mean the problem is fixed and the Holy Patch is in testing/approval process?

Chris said:
we are testing changes that improved the issue on our test PCs in Boston; 2K is doing wider testing. That's all I can say.


So, it's not clear that the patch is finished. It's not clear the future patch will fix the problem either (only "improve") :(
 

pa22word

Member
I felt the same way prior to my twitter conversation with Chris Kline from Irrational. The fixes are done, 2k just needs to release them.

2K's PC support staff is pretty infamous for shitting the bed on stuff like this, though. BioShock 2 for example had numerous support staff promising up and down about the audio getting fixed. It never did.

The Darkness 2 and it's field of view slider where 2K's support staff blatantly lied to consumer's about a fix not being possible, followed by a community modder hacking the game to prove them wrong is also another hilarious example of their shitty support.

I really wouldn't expect anything out of them, tbqh. If it happens then awesome, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.
 

Ce-Lin

Member
I'm not optimistic a 1 week patch can fix a 5 years coding effort, the focus of the engine was on consoles, for us PC users they "gifted" amazing textures but didn't optimize the engine, proof is they didn't even have a simple VRAM detection tool to fine-tune the poolsize variable for smooth performance, that's lazy and/or oblivious... we know consoles got fixed specs, not so for PCs... also as explained here before there's something going on with files decompression deep inside the modified Unreal Engine 3 code, maybe a third party plugin, that can be tweaked for better performance but I'm not expecting the stuttering to be completely gone.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I'm not optimistic a 1 week patch can fix a 5 years coding effort, the focus of the engine was on consoles, for us PC users they "gifted" amazing textures but didn't optimize the engine, there's something deep inside the modified Unreal Engine 3 code, maybe a third party plugin, that can be tweaked for better performance but I'm not expecting the stuttering to be completely gone.
As I said earlier, it's inherent to data streaming with Unreal Engine 3 on the PC. They won't be able to completely solve this on most PCs.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I'm not optimistic a 1 week patch can fix a 5 years coding effort, the focus of the engine was on consoles, for us PC users they "gifted" amazing textures but didn't optimize the engine, there's something deep inside the modified Unreal Engine 3 code, maybe a third party plugin, that can be tweaked for better performance but I'm not expecting the stuttering to be completely gone.

If nothing else, the stuttering would have been labelled an issue that'll get addressed where possible later in development but clearly kept getting pushed further and further down the To Do list. Not unlike Valve's PC build of Portal 2 and the "Don't turn off your console" message when saving.
 

hlhbk

Member
2K's PC support staff is pretty infamous for shitting the bed on stuff like this, though. BioShock 2 for example had numerous support staff promising up and down about the audio getting fixed. It never did.

The Darkness 2 and it's field of view slider where 2K's support staff blatantly lied to consumer's about a fix not being possible, followed by a community modder hacking the game to prove them wrong is also another hilarious example of their shitty support.

I really wouldn't expect anything out of them, tbqh. If it happens then awesome, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

Then they better prepare to give refunds to a lot of people.
 

Shaneus

Member
I had a bit of a chuckle at this just then:
9E0TzT4.png


In case you were wondering, that post they linked to is two weeks old. How long does it take to test a fucking patch?!?
 

Ce-Lin

Member
How long does it take to test a fucking patch?!?

most probably the patch failed to fix the issue ? I really can't see how they are going to fix Unreal Engine 3 data streaming and Bioshock Infinite at the same time, heck if the patch works I might try it on Batman Arkham City (DirectX 11 mode) and the annoying split-second stuttering when gliding around even with some fast SSD, 16 GB of RAM and 4 GB of VRAM at 1080p...
 
My system setup has an i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3 1333, and EVGA 560 2GB SC. I am running into screen tearing, any good way to fix that? I went from having my settings to High to Normal which I am seeing screen tearing. Is it my videocard? I am going to be upgrading it this month with a new one.
 
My system setup has an i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3 1333, and EVGA 560 2GB SC. I am running into screen tearing, any good way to fix that? I went from having my settings to High to Normal which I am seeing screen tearing. Is it my videocard? I am going to be upgrading it this month with a new one.
Yes, force triple buffering using D3DOverrider.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
My system setup has an i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3 1333, and EVGA 560 2GB SC. I am running into screen tearing, any good way to fix that? I went from having my settings to High to Normal which I am seeing screen tearing. Is it my videocard? I am going to be upgrading it this month with a new one.

You can enable the "Limit framerate" option in-game to enable vsync, but note that as this ties your framerate to your monitor's refresh rate, it will cause the former to drop by half whenever the scene is too demanding to be rendered at a higher framerate (e.g. 120fps becomes 60fps, 60fps becomes 30fps and so on) and also introduce slight input lag. Another method, that isn't tied to your monitor's refresh rate and shouldn't introduce any noticeable input lag, is triple buffering, which you can force via D3DOverrider (included with RivaTuner), however while this initially worked just fine for me, the recent stealth update broke things and I had to resort to traditional vsync to conquer tearing -- you may have better luck, though.

Edit: Beaten.
 

Maxim726X

Member
I'm so fucking frustrated with this game (and actually all recent releases) with this goddamned screen tearing. There is a constant, gigantic horizontal tear right through the game. All of the time.

I have a good card (Sapphire 7970), good CPU (i5-3570) and a sweet ass monitor. Shit never looks like it should... I updated the driver to the most recent official iteration, and I've tried to play around with Catalyst Controls and the game's settings.

What the fuck? What am I not doing correctly?
 

Eyothrie

Member
I'm so fucking frustrated with this game (and actually all recent releases) with this goddamned screen tearing. There is a constant, gigantic horizontal tear right through the game. All of the time.

I have a good card (Sapphire 7970), good CPU (i5-3570) and a sweet ass monitor. Shit never looks like it should... I updated the driver to the most recent official iteration, and I've tried to play around with Catalyst Controls and the game's settings.

What the fuck? What am I not doing correctly?

vsync enabled?
 

Shaneus

Member
Have you used RadeonPro before? I'd highly recommend it, and enabling Dynamic Framerate. I can't remember the last time I saw screen tearing in a game (that was continually above 60fps).
 

hlhbk

Member
Just posted the following on the 2k forums, and tweeted the link of the post to Christopher Kline, 2k's games and support twitter accounts. Please note the reason I brought up piracy was someone had supported pirating the game a few posts back:

I haven't heard anything in about a week. At this point all I am going to say is the next time I hear anyone from 2k or Irrational (or anyone in the gaming industry in general) say that its hard to justify focusing on PC development due to not making as much money due to lack of sales I want them to remember this. These are the reasons day 1 sales suck on PC, not piracy (which I would never do nor do I agree with anyone doing it), not consoles, things exactly like this drive the consumer to not buy your product.

So mark one person down for never EVER buying an Irrational developed game day 1 or full price. I will wait until a summer or winter Steam sale and I wait until the game is at least half off. I won't budge from this until: 1. A patch is released that fixes all stuttering issues, and 2. We are given compensation for the crap we have been putting up with the last 5 weeks. You aren't doing us a favor by fixing the issue, you released a broken product!
 
I hope they fix this game because the random framedrops sucks ass. When playing the game in intense scenes my frames drop yet both of my 670s are only running at 980mhz showing me my cards aren't even being pushed because those are stock speeds, my cards can run upwards to 1189mhz yet they don't even go past 980mhz.
 

hlhbk

Member
Got some replies back today on Twitter:

So I have heard back from 2k and Irrational today. Their responses doesn't make it better at all:

Origional message sent on 5/4/13:

@HLHBK4 May
@korkyplunger @2KInternational @2KGames @2KSupport http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...on-high-end-PC-hardware&p=3008136#post3008136 …
Please read. BI stuttering has gone on to long.

2ksupport teams response today 5/6:

2K Support @2KSupport25m
@HLHBK Hi there, the team is investigating this issue and working on a fix.

My response to them just a few minutes ago:

@HLHBK1m
@2KSupport Like my post said the standard responses aren't gonna cut it. Its been 6 weeks as of tomorrow! Give us a timetable for patch!


Got another one earlier from Irratational. Here is what I had sent them earlier today 5/6:

@IrrationalGames Can we please get an update on the patch for stuttering on PC? Been 6 weeks now and day 1 supporters are being screwed.

Irrational's response:

Irrational Games‏@IrrationalGames1h
@HLHBK Patch is still being investigated/tested. We'll update everyone once there is more news.

My response to them:

@HLHBK1h
@IrrationalGames Can we please have a time table? 6 weeks is unacceptable! Why not release beta patch on Steam?

EDIT some more responses from 2k:

2K Support‏@2KSupport2m
@HLHBK I do not have an ETA on a new patch, but I know that the team is working to address this. Sorry for the frustration.

I sent them the following:

@HLHBK44s
@2KSupport So what can we as paying consumers expect to make this right? We have been waiting 6 weeks to play a game we bought day 1!
 

Shaneus

Member
Tops work, tiger. You have a talent for tenacity and persistence that I couldn't ever hope to have. Keep fighting the good fight!
 
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