• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Project CARS PC Performance Thread

Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
I figured we needed a thread like this. This game has to be the worst PC optimization that I can remember, and that includes AC Unity. I'm having such a hard time making this game playable on my 4590/970 G1.

First of all, it looks nothing like the bullshots even with everything on Ultra. Game is jaggy as fuck, but you can't jack it with AA because it's a such a huge performance hog. Second, the performance is completely different for dry and wet weathers. I had tweaked everything to get a somewhat steady 55-60fps on dry, but then if it's raining the framerate drops almost in half (35-40). I then decided to remove almost every AA option and just leave the basic MSAA. And I also changed everything from Ultra to High. Still can't get a steady framerate above even 50fps on the rain unless there are no cars in front of me.

What the hell is wrong with this game? Am I going to have to play with everything on medium and zero AA on a goddamn 970? This is insane. Anyone else having these issues? I'm surprised nobody made a Performance Thread for this game yet, makes me wonder if it's just me.
 
M

MJLord

Member
Sounds like it's just you.

I can't tell you what settings since I'm at work, but I have but I'm running a 4570k and a 970 with no problems whatsoever.
 
K

Kama_1082

Banned
I'm on a i5 4690 with a GTX 970 and I'm above 70 fps with everything mostly set to high and ultra (per nvidia experience recommended settings) with 12 cars. Looks and plays wonderfully.
 
T

T.O.P

Banned
Defenetely not just you, as i'm waiting for the AMD drivers i'm looking around the Steam forums and there a shitload of people having graphical problems on their rig as well
 
K

Klossen

Banned
I'm using a 670 Windforce OC'd into basically a 680 and the game remains 60+ fps on me on High with MSAA on. I haven't tested with more than 20 drivers though. Seems optimized just fine from what I've played.
 
K

Kinthalis

Banned
Hmmm, yeah nto having the same experience as the OP at all here:

i7 3770k
GTX 780ti
1440p

I'm getting a pretty solid 60 FPS (only played with under 20 opponents so far though). With everything on Ultra. I'm using SMAA for anti-aliasing, also set to Ultra.

Game looks amazing, IMHO.
 
B

Beautiful Ninja

Member
There are legitimate issues with this game using an AMD GPU, it's horribly CPU limited on AMD cards. Saw a post on SA saying it's because the game uses an optional command lists in DX11 for its multithreading, which AMD doesn't support outside of a one shot in Civ 5.

http://pclab.pl/art63572-7.html
 
K

Korezo

Member
I don't know the jaggy problem, I temember people had a jaggy problem with shadow of mordor also while I never had that issue. Pcars looks smooths as hell for me with Dx6 and Smaa medium and everything maxed out. Only problem is in the rain or if I hit the dirt fps takes a big hit. 970 sli 2600k
 
Jessie.Bristol

Jessie.Bristol

Member
Are you running with an AMD card? I guess there are performance issues with AMD graphics cards and Slightly Mad Studios provided AMD with 20 keys.

We’ve provided AMD with 20 keys for game testing as they work on the driver side. But you only have to look at the lesser hardware in the consoles to see how optimised we are on AMD based chips.
We’re reaching out to AMD with all of our efforts. We’ve provided them 20 keys as I say. They were invited to work with us for years, looking through company mails the last I can see they (AMD) talked to us was October of last year.
Click to expand...

http://wccftech.com/slightly-mad-studios-boss-nvidia-paid-penny-amd-working-fix-performance-issues/
 
Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
I wonder if it's my CPU? It's a 4590 @ 3.30GHz. But if people are managing 1440p at solid 60fps it can't be just a CPU bottleneck. Can it?

Are you guys racing on the rain with no problems? Same performance on all weather conditions?
 
M

_machine

Member
AMD is working on the driver side issues at the moment.

As a tip though, the environment map and reflection settings are probably the heaviest of them all and the Ultra settings are something aimed at the very, very high end of devices as well as future hardware so I wouldn't recommend putting them on Ultra straightaway.

Ultra Environment Map and Reflections on Ultra are aimed at cutting edge hardware like GTX 980 and above. Same with DSAA over 4X
 
H

heyf00L

Member
Salty Hippo said:
I wonder if it's my CPU? It's a 4590 @ 3.30GHz. But if people are managing 1440p at solid 60fps it can't be just a CPU bottleneck. Can it?

Are you guys racing on the rain with no problems? Same performance on all weather conditions?
Click to expand...

Pull up a resource monitor and if one of your cores is around 100%, it's a CPU bottleneck.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
I'm getting anywhere from 60-80 fps in dry conditions and 35-50 fps in wet conditions, both dependant on the TOD. That's with everything on ultra, 1080p, SMAA, no AA, vsync off. Not tried anything higher than a 20 car grid though. Can't be bothered to tweak for now as I'll be upgrading my GPU's in a few weeks.

Specs:

i5 3570k @ 4.6 ghz
16gb ram
660 sli (3GB variants)

Turn off vsync BTW if you haven't already. That was causing all sorts of framerate issues when I had it on before. Iv not experienced any tearing with it off either. Also use SMAA and turn off the regular AA setting.
 
K

Klossen

Banned
Salty Hippo said:
I wonder if it's my CPU? It's a 4590 @ 3.30GHz. But if people are managing 1440p at solid 60fps it can't be just a CPU bottleneck. Can it?

Are you guys racing on the rain with no problems? Same performance on all weather conditions?
Click to expand...

It's slightly more demanding with rain on but nothing that pulls it below ~60 fps. I would try to lower some settings if I was you. I'll post some gameplay videos later of how the game runs on my PC.
 
M

m_shortpants

Member
i5 4690k, 970 here. Had trouble getting the AA settings just right.

Frames dropped by half in the rain to around 30-45. What AA settings are you guys using? That's the main area where I'm having trouble, probably also because you have to restart the game every time.
 
E

Esqueleto

Banned
The problem for me is that neither my CPU(3770k at 4.3) or 7950 (1050 core, 1300 men) are at 100 percent. Only time I can get the game to use all of the GPU is setting some stuff to ultra which kills my frame rate anyways.
On high, it stutters a bit at 75 to 80 percent almost getting a locked 60 fps on track. In the rain, it sits about the same but the fps drops to the low 40s on the pit lane. Then it goes almost back up to 60.
As soon as I start a race my GPU sits at 50 percent while the game runs at 30 fps and then slowly it goes up back up to 80. Enabling hyperthreading helped my minimum fps by 10 but I still sit at 80 % GPU usage. Gotta play on low to mid settings for now but the pit lane and corners where I can see the pit lane stutter a lot.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
m_shortpants said:
i5 4690k, 970 here. Had trouble getting the AA settings just right.

Frames dropped by half in the rain to around 30-45. What AA settings are you guys using? That's the main area where I'm having trouble, probably also because you have to restart the game every time.
Click to expand...

Turn all AA off apart from SMAA.

I find that SMAA ultra works well and doesn't sacrifice much in the way of performance. The other AA settings don't seem to even do as good a job and the performance hit is quite big.
 
M

MaLDo

Member
Already posted but big grid under storm conditions at 2880x1620 + MSAA + FXAA. Good enough for me, 2700K + 680GTX trisli, locked 60 fps.

Btw, my illness has always been frameratitis, never ultratitis.





pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-42-33-64.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-42-36-26.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-42-59-08.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-43-11-62.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-43-16-34.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-43-38-86.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-44-05-62.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-25-51-36.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-30-03-42.png

pCARS64%2B2015-05-03%2B23-30-05-84.png
 
R

RP912

Banned
Yea the AMD driver issues needs to be resolved. For the time being I just cut down on the extra stuff like environmental and reflection. I usually get like 40 to 60 fps depending on the magnitude of the race. The lowest fps I get is about 30.

It's way better than before when my game was a damn slideshow.
 
Yaska

Yaska

Member
Tried with SMAA ultra and aa set to dq9x (whatever that is) and got the framerate to go to 25-30. With MSAA and SMAA ultra it was 35-60 fps, and without SMAA it was locked to 60. Tried it on nürburgring GP, with thunderstorm and 31 opponents from different classes.
My rig is i7 2600k and gtx 980 (on pci-e 2.0). For me it feels pretty optimized, so OP might want to try different driver or changing settings.

Edit: But yeah, the framerate dips a bit when there are multiple cars ahead.
 
Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
Man, those screens are insane.

I managed to get a decent framerate on the rain (except at the start with 10+ cars in front of me where I get around 45). Put reflections on medium, grass on low, everything else on high, MSAA only and motion blur off. The problem is that on dry races it's always +100fps, which is a complete waste of performance. If I want to get the most out of the graphics I'll have to tweak settings back on forth depending on weather conditions. which is absurd.
 
B

Bradd12

Member
Im getting 60fps stable on a single 680.
Drops as low as 45 in thunderstorms or with cars on track.
I agree though it looks like it requires fiddling with settings depending on what kind of race you want to do.
 
A

adamantypants

Member
Full disclosure I haven't played in the rain yet. I'll post again in this thread when I do. I've been all dry and under 20 cars too.
780ti, 4670k @ 4.6
 
Methos#1975

Methos#1975

Member
Here is a vid I made of it on the Alienware Alpha. All settings on med, except for textures which is set to high and car detail set to ultra. All post processing, bloom, etc enabled. I get between 50-60 fps dependent on number of cars, and around 45 fps in rain. Not to bad I guess considering the hardware.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=iqkF6MFk5vY
 
S

Skyzard

Banned
Rain is worse, so is night time with the lights (with rain).

I found turning down shadows, particle density, environment map, reflections all helped a lot. Probably track and grass detail too.

For a 4770K@4.4 and 780ti, I think these settings are pretty optimal:

(I set V-sync and AF in control panel out of habit)
UwLdMsD.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
Ok, I think I found my sweet spot.

For constant near-60fps on rain:

1920x1080
Texture: High
Anisotropic 16x
V-sync: off
AA: MSAA
FXXA: Off
SMAA: Ultra
Reflections: Medium
E. Map: Medium
Car Detal: Ultra
Track Detail: High
Shadows: Ultra
MBlur: Off
Grass: Low
Particle Level: High
Particle Density: High
Stretch Reflections: Yes

For similar performance on dry:

Same settings except DS4x or 6x depending on the track. This improves the IQ quite a bit (though I still think it's too jaggied), maintains the performance and it's very easy to change back and forth since it's just one setting.

It seems Grass, reflections, Environmental Map and motion blur are the most significant performance hogs.
 
M

m_shortpants

Member
GHG said:
Turn all AA off apart from SMAA.

I find that SMAA ultra works well and doesn't sacrifice much in the way of performance. The other AA settings don't seem to even do as good a job and the performance hit is quite big.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll try that
 
dugdug

dugdug

Banned
Jsev75 said:
Here is a vid I made of it on the Alienware Alpha. All settings on med, except for textures which is set to high and car detail set to ultra. All post processing, bloom, etc enabled. I get between 50-60 fps dependent on number of cars, and around 45 fps in rain. Not to bad I guess considering the hardware.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=iqkF6MFk5vY
Click to expand...

Link didn't work for me, but, which Alpha do you have? I just bought it, and, I'm planning to run it on my i7 Alpha.
 
T

T.O.P

Banned
R290X Vapor
I5 4690K
16Gb Ram

pcars2015-05-0918-17-wmkjh.jpg
Click to expand...

This gives me most of the time 55-60fps on clear with 20+ cars on track

Heavy Storm/Thunderstorm conditions destroys my rig, 30fps with cars on the track

I still get 60fps solo but that means nothing

Need those new AMD drivers BADLY :|
 
I

icecold1983

Member
Salty Hippo said:
I figured we needed a thread like this. This game has to be the worst PC optimization that I can remember, and that includes AC Unity. I'm having such a hard time making this game playable on my 4590/970 G1.

First of all, it looks nothing like the bullshots even with everything on Ultra. Game is jaggy as fuck, but you can't jack it with AA because it's a such a huge performance hog. Second, the performance is completely different for dry and wet weathers. I had tweaked everything to get a somewhat steady 55-60fps on dry, but then if it's raining the framerate drops almost in half (35-40). I then decided to remove almost every AA option and just leave the basic MSAA. And I also changed everything from Ultra to High. Still can't get a steady framerate above even 50fps on the rain unless there are no cars in front of me.

What the hell is wrong with this game? Am I going to have to play with everything on medium and zero AA on a goddamn 970? This is insane. Anyone else having these issues? I'm surprised nobody made a Performance Thread for this game yet, makes me wonder if it's just me.
Click to expand...

this is all known. did you not play it prerelease at all? their have been benchmarks every few months showing exactly what you describe
 
bee

bee

Member
T.O.P said:
Ok saw this on Steam, is this shit even possible? :lol



20fps difference without the HUD showing?
Click to expand...

can't see the pics but its definitely possible, quake 4 multi used to drop to like 45fps (from 90) when u displayed the scoreboard before they fixed it in a mod, happens in a lot of other games too although not quite as extreme as the quake example
 
P

Pifje

Member
I agree with the game looking way worse than the bullshots that have been around for a while. The environment especially looks incredibly plain. Like from a game 10 years ago plain.

And I'm using 970 as well with everything possible set to max. Sorry, but the game just looks very disappointing.
 
Cheeseman Battitude

Cheeseman Battitude

Member
i5 3450 and an AMD R9 290 Vapour X
1920x1200

Just tried it with everything on highest settings with AA and vsync off with thunderstorm weather in the BMW 1 series with just me on track.

Monaco - Virtually a slideshow. Maybe 15fps.

Imola - Very playable. At least 30fps. Could've had a session on that track for the rest of the night.

Dubai - Somewhere between the previous performance. Could play it but it wasn't right.

Changing settings doesn't do a great deal for it. Obviously will be much worse with a full grid.

Heard about AMD problems so I hope there's a driver update soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Starfield 1.8.83 beta patch offers significant performance improvements on PC
2
63
5K
Gaiff replied
PC game specific features and trailers thread.
26
2K
hlm666 replied
  • Poll
2024 PC Screenshot Thread of No Compromises | "The Last Hope for Image Quality"
|OT| 2 3
143
14K
zephiross replied
Star Rail, and iPhone gaming/cooling
0
540
LordOfChaos replied
[Prima Games] Starfield Should Have a 60 FPS Performance Mode
Opinion News Drama 2 3 4 5 6
275
14K
Kenneth Haight replied
Top Bottom