• 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.

Watch_Dogs PC Performance Thread

R_Deckard

Member
Eh, they look identical. It seems you have motion blur turned on ont he PC and it's softening the textures a bit, that's all.

That was exactly one of the scenes we tested. It looked the same... well, they looked the same at first, then we forced AF on Nvidia contorl panel (for the love of god do the same!) and then the PC version looked a lot better.

Here's a screen shot, textures high, everythign else ultra, TXAA.

2543296-watch_dogs_2014_05_28_07_46_34_144.png

No it is off plus the scene is static on movement AND the PS4 has the motion blur so would affect both versions

Also the screen here is not running SMAA is it?, what rez was it running at?
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Ubisoft crap port confirmed yet again?

This is getting ridiculous, spending hard earned money on something that refuses to run on a high end pc, I mean it is literally unplayable with the fps tanking like that, drive around then suddenly BOOM 15 fps a second later its back up to 60fps...

Couple of questions on what your settings are:

  • Vsync Setting?
  • GPU Max Buffered?
  • Textures?
  • Shadows?
  • AA?
  • Desired FPS? (30 or 60, because it seems right now 30 is the only steady option)
  • If you have SLI on, disable it.
 

Ashour

Member
I'm sorry if this isn't the right place for this, but this is driving me mad

I can log in Uplay but when I try to start the game it gives me this error.

"Unable to start the game check if your game is installed correctly"

Same thing when I try in offline mode.

I uninstalled the whole game and re-download it again but I'm getting the same error

Someone please help
 

xBladeM6x

Member
I'm sorry if this isn't the right place for this, but this is driving me mad

I can log in Uplay but when I try to start the game it gives me this error.

"Unable to start the game check if your game is installed correctly"

Same thing when I try in offline mode.

I uninstalled the whole game and re-download it again but I'm getting the same error

Someone please help

Try uninstalling / re-installing a fresh Uplay. (You won't need to re-download your games)
 
Getting ridiculous stutters on GTX 690 and 3970x with SSD and 32gb ram.

Framerate is totally fine then every so often the game will pause for 1-2 seconds like its loading something in but my framerate will tank to like 2-13 fps, this is following the settings guide by Nvidia.

Ridiculous and unplayable.

Turn off SLI until Nvidia fixes it. Also what settings do you have the game on?
 

Deepo

Member
I caved and bought it for PS4 as well. I suspect that was Ubis plan all along. Twice the sales from weak-minded idiots like me!
 

NBtoaster

Member
Just don't bother with the vsync/max buffered setting. Disable vsync and make it run in borderless fullscreen and there will be no tearing, as long as your desktop is also vsynced (which it is if Windows Aero is on).
 

Smokey

Member
Yeah...

Redownloaded the game and went in full speed:

I7 2600k@ 4.6ghz
2x 780Ti @ 1163mhz
16GB RAM
Evo 750GB SSD
Samsung 4k monitor

Crazy stuttering with SLI just as others have stated. At one point my 1st GPU downclocked as far as 700ish mhz. Never experienced anything like it.

I haven't tweaked anything this was just a quick play thru the tutorial before work. I tried it at 4k Ultra with no AA. Looked really good. I was monitoring my precision x during gameplay and I don't think it's related to VRAM. Seems to be something else. Either way its pretty terrible in its current state.

Will mess around more after work now that it works for me.

When SLI was running at 90%+ it was really smooth. And pretty.
 
Getting ridiculous stutters on GTX 690 and 3970x with SSD and 32gb ram.

Framerate is totally fine then every so often the game will pause for 1-2 seconds like its loading something in but my framerate will tank to like 2-13 fps, this is following the settings guide by Nvidia.

Ridiculous and unplayable.

Don't forget your card only has 2GB of RAM.
 

UrbanRats

Member
Started the game, and, how come i can't change the Texture detail? It's grayed out.

The game hovers around 40 FPS, but has significant dips and stuttering, very often, so i wanted to try and lower the texture detail, for starters.

I'm on a 780 and an i5 2500k (3.30ghz).
 

neilka

Member
I guess -disablepagefilecheck effect is placebo because is not a parameter than watch_dogs.exe seems to recognize. That parameter is exclusively for Dawn of War 2 games.
You're absolutely right there, the whole thing seems to have stemmed from one person on Guru3D thinking that because Dawn of War 2 has that option, every game has it. (Even for that game it doesn't disable the pagefile, just forces the game to run even if there isn't a 1.5GB pagefile present.)

So any improvement attributed to -disablepagefilecheck is actually caused by people restarting the game and/or not messing with the settings before starting to play...
 
Started the game, and, how come i can't change the Texture detail? It's grayed out.

The game hovers around 40 FPS, but has significant dips and stuttering, very often, so i wanted to try and lower the texture detail, for starters.

I'm on a 780 and an i5 2500k (3.30ghz).

Exit out to main menu to change textures
 

Gojeran

Member
This game is really odd. Changes to the settings have very little impact on framerate. My setup is:
II5 2500k@4.2
SC gtx 780
8gb ddr 160
Windows 8.1
Installed on corsair force gt ssd.

I ended up running the game with no form of v sync on. I tried to force adaptive from ncp but it didn't work. Running high textures even with a 3gb card as stuttering was terrible with ultra textures ddespite never running entirely out of VRAM. It's funny I lowered to game from 1080p to 720p and it still couldn't hold a locked 60fps. Running with v sync off I get between 45 to over 100fps. Tried using the option to lock at 30 but would have huge periods where it would cap itself to 20fps despite rarely ever dropping below 45 with v sync off. Can't wait for a g sync monitor. Glad I got this game on the cheap. All the performance issues aside I have been having fun with it.

Oh the settings in game are 1080p with most options on high and one or 2 on ultra. Running 2x MSAA. I was using temporal smaa but wanted to actually lower my framerate closer to 60 when I turned v sync off so I upped the AA a bit.
 

UrbanRats

Member
Exit out to main menu to change textures

Yup, thanks, brain fart on my part.

Anyway, With textures at high (even though i do have 3gb of VRAM) it's pretty good, the framerate, and with all other aspects at either high or ultra.

The game hovers between 30 (31 being the minimum i saw driving through downtown really fast) and 60 (79 being the max i saw, walking around the city) usually staying in the 40s and 50s.

I would like to cap at 30 though.

However, i still get some stuttering even when i'm running at 60, which is annoying.

Also, GPU Frame Buffer: What is the ideal here? What should i set it at?
 

sgs2008

Member
Got major stuttering on 780 ti sli. Turned sli off, barley any stutter. This on ultra 1440p and txaa 2x. So it seems its not a vram issue
 

Dave_6

Member
Exit out to main menu to change textures

I was wondering about this as well. Thanks.

After the three crashes I had last night (in the same spot on the map, in a vehicle each time), I booted it back up and played for an hour with no issues whatsoever. Played a couple of the digital trips, one side mission etc. I still have no idea what caused it to crash like that either.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
No it is off plus the scene is static on movement AND the PS4 has the motion blur so would affect both versions

Also the screen here is not running SMAA is it?, what rez was it running at?

TXAA 1440p. Should have turned off TXAA since that softens the textures a bit too.
 
Is it possible that all this stuttering could be related to the pc bus in anyways? Could it be that no matter how much memory and processing speed we have on either end, that we are hitting some limit to how much data can be passed through at one time?

/edit:
Looking at this link: http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/

So in theory, a pcie 3.0 card can transfer ~ 15 gigs per second. Is that enough? I'm not techie enough to figure this out myself.
 

Summ

Neo Member
Hence why I am running it on high textures...it's not a vram issue, people with Titans are complaining about the stuttering, this is a Ubisoft "We do crap ports" issue.

2 GB is not enough to have textures on high, even though the game says so.

Try setting them to medium. It made my game stutter a lot less.
 

Netboi

Banned
Here is the weird part. I had a few issues with retail with crashing, and stuttering performance. But the pirated version that was 13GB works perfectly. Played the game for 5 hours with zero crashes. Though there are minor stutters when you pass by heavy traffic, but overall still plays with Ultra settings.

I'm guessing that minor patch is causing the issue or uplay authentication servers or Maybe I'm just lucky.

I used an Nvidia GTX 770 4GB.
 
I was getting pretty good performance on my rig:

680 2gb
2500k @ 4.2ghz
8gb RAM

A pretty solid 60 fps indoors and then about a 45 average outside, with everything at ultra apart from shadows and Temporal AA. No stuttering, but a slight bit of screen tearing. About to try it out with my new 780ti, so we'll see how it goes.
 

FLAguy954

Junior Member
Watch Dogs crashes at launch if I have RadeonPro running in the background. Doesn't matter if I toggle the 32/64 bit option or not, it crashes every time.

Do you have full access to the folder that the Watch_Dogs exe is in? That can cause issues with RadeonPro is the folder needs administrative privileges.
 

Netboi

Banned
Is it possible that all this stuttering could be related to the pc bus in anyways? Could it be that no matter how much memory and processing speed we have on either end, that we are hitting some limit to how much data can be passed through at one time?

/edit:
Looking at this link: http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/

So in theory, a pcie 3.0 card can transfer ~ 15 gigs per second. Is that enough? I'm not techie enough to figure this out myself.

In reality it can transfer a lot of bandwidth over 2.0 but don't expect it to do any big performances on games.
 

Netboi

Banned
As I said earlier, with Ubisoft games, just go console and save yourself some time/frustration

After seeing how Watchdogs looks on Ultra settings with PC above 30fps. NEVER!

Then again I paid 52 bucks for my deluxe copy so I got best of both worlds.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Assume everyone has disabled their AV? Not a PC owner but virus scanning large textures on read could be a problem?
 

Netboi

Banned
You can always try installing it on your SSD, I had it on my 7200rpm and installed on SSD and the loading times were faster. I did see quite a bit more improvement when it came to gameplay.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Played for an hour or two last night... I'm pretty much still just sucking up the performance/stutters to play at max settings for the moment :p I don't consider it unplayable at all, though in very intense chases the stutters can be over a second which is very annoying. Average performance (basically everything on foot) is actually pretty great. If a patch or new drivers could reduce the stuttering at some point I would certainly be happy.
 

Nethaniah

Member
So here's a weird issue, i wanted to see how it would look / play on my tv and according to my tv the game's resolution is 1080i, i immediately tried some other games and those including the desktop all say 1080p, so i wonder, anyone else have this issue or might know a way to make the game display 1080p instead of i.

Specs are :

Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
Intel Core i7 2600K
16,0GB Dual-Channel DDR3
MSI P67A-GD55
GeForce GTX TITAN

And obviously hooked up to my tv with HDMI.

It's weird cause i don't recall ever having this issue and now that i've tested other games it appears to only happen with this one.
 
1. GTX 690 has 2048mb of VRAM, now I just tested the game with the following settings whilst monitoring my VRAM usage with MSI afterburner and my VRAM usage never went above 2026mb and that was in HEAVY situations at night, multiple cars crashing etc.
Try it again with textures set to medium then.
 

UrbanRats

Member
tried to cap it @ 30fps with the 2 frames VSync, but the lag in the controls is just unplayable, so i'll keep it capped at 60, with it going from 30 to 60 freely.

It never goes under 30 anyway, so whatever.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
As I said earlier, with Ubisoft games, just go console and save yourself some time/frustration

900p, jaggies, 30 FPS and STILL have to put up with occasional sub 30 FPS hitches?

Nope.

I'll take my 1440p goodness at (mostly) 60 FPS, thank you.

As bad as Ubisoft's optimization is on PC, the game is still better on PC.
 
Do you have full access to the folder that the Watch_Dogs exe is in? That can cause issues with RadeonPro is the folder needs administrative privileges.

I think I do... maybe. Windows 8 has been weird with some permissions regarding the Program Files folders.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep tinkering with it.
 

dsk1210

Member
Already on my SSD

Drop down to medium textures, I had to drop down to high with 3gb of VRAM on a 780ti, it helped performance immensely.

Also if you are only going to be using one of the gpu's for the time being I suggest turning reflection from ultra to high as they hit hard.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
I would take 30, but even at 30 it has drops....

Vsync setting is 1 (also tried 2 to no avail)

GPU Max Buffered is 1 (again tried other options to no avail)

Textures high

Shadows Ultra

AA temp SMAA (also tried others)

Also tried setting NVCP to single gpu rather than SLI again, makes no difference.

Make these changes:

Shadow: High
AA: TXAA x2
Vsync: 2

In the NVIDIA Control Panel, make sure that you're on Maximum Performance. Also, try to use the large page file edit. http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=389072 Just be sure to restart the PC after you do it.
 
Having trouble trying to find the sweet spot on my rig; I would be fine running this at a solid locked 30 FPS, but I'm trying to cut back on graphical options as little as possible.

FX-8350, 8 cores, ~4.3 GHz
R9 280X Vapor-X, 3 GB VRAM
16 GB RAM, 1600 MHz

And the game is installed to my SSD drive. Wish this game would have a benchmarking tool similar to Tomb Raider or Arkham Origins. Made it so much easier to find optimal settings.
 
Anyone know if there is a way to disable auto aim when using a mouse? Between this, the mouse accel, and the menu sensitivity, it is really like no one tested the m/kb controls for this game at all.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Having trouble trying to find the sweet spot on my rig; I would be fine running this at a solid locked 30 FPS, but I'm trying to cut back on graphical options as little as possible.

FX-8350, 8 cores, ~4.3 GHz
R9 280X Vapor-X, 3 GB VRAM
16 GB RAM, 1600 MHz

And the game is installed to my SSD drive. Wish this game would have a benchmarking tool similar to Tomb Raider or Arkham Origins. Made it so much easier to find optimal settings.

PM'd you my settings, since I'm stable at 30 FPS right now. (Just ignore the NVIDIA stuff) Even though you're AMD, it's still worth a try.
 

Netboi

Banned
Having trouble trying to find the sweet spot on my rig; I would be fine running this at a solid locked 30 FPS, but I'm trying to cut back on graphical options as little as possible.

FX-8350, 8 cores, ~4.3 GHz
R9 280X Vapor-X, 3 GB VRAM
16 GB RAM, 1600 MHz

And the game is installed to my SSD drive. Wish this game would have a benchmarking tool similar to Tomb Raider or Arkham Origins. Made it so much easier to find optimal settings.

Watch Dogs gimped AMD users since Nvidia crew took over the project for design optimizations. In other words AMD can only do so much in performance because Nvidia will not let them dig deeper into Watch Dogs to see what makes it perform better.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Anyone know if there is a way to disable auto aim when using a mouse? Between this, the mouse accel, and the menu sensitivity, it is really like no one tested the m/kb controls for this game at all.

Wait, there's auto aim on mouse? As dumb as it sounds, you could try to disable it in the controller settings and see if that makes a difference.
 

Netboi

Banned
Anyone know if there is a way to disable auto aim when using a mouse? Between this, the mouse accel, and the menu sensitivity, it is really like no one tested the m/kb controls for this game at all.

Wasn't the option disabled in menu? Mine is not set to auto aim.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Also, I should mention that if people are judging their performance based on right when the game loads up, as stable as my experience is, if I fast travel, I get tons of stuttering for about 5 seconds, but it goes away almost immediately as soon as I spin my camera around a couple times.
 
PM'd you my settings, since I'm stable at 30 FPS right now. (Just ignore the NVIDIA stuff) Even though you're AMD, it's still worth a try.

Thanks. I was wondering if I would have to tone textures down to Ultra, even though I have 3 GB of VRAM. This game is in need of a patch, desperately.

Anyone know how textures compare from High to Ultra?
 
Wait, there's auto aim on mouse? As dumb as it sounds, you could try to disable it in the controller settings and see if that makes a difference.

Yeah, even with it set to 'minimal' in controller options it looks like there is no way to get rid of it unless I am missing something. You can test it by getting your gun out (not aiming) and moving the crosshair close to an enemy, then when you go into aiming mode the crosshair will snap to them. Really annoying and unnecessary.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
...Also when the stuttering and framedrops happen the VRAM usage did not fluctuate whatsoever so let's get this VRAM argument off the table entirely...

Why? You're frametime is probably dropping out of its arse (and causing the stuters) with only 2GB of VRAM. We know the game is a RAM monster for both card and system.
 
Top Bottom