Occasional slowdowns in PC2 and AC (1 Viewer)

[karoliens]

It is me again. I am still struggling with VR on my system.
I have not been playing racing sims for quite a while now. Just recently I tried to play AC and PC2 and I encounter this weird issue.
When I start the race does not matter online or offline it is smooth for one lap without any issues. But then I get those occasional slow downs when everything stops for a moment and then back to normal speed after couple of seconds. It is very frustrating as I got either wall, loose control or hit opponents of that reason.
I have already tried to reinstall steam, Oculus, both games. I have updated windows, Nvidia drivers, all the other drivers.
Using DebugTool I noticed that when this happens FPS drops to around 20. But could not figure out what could cause this. It was working fine before. So I would assume it is software hardware compatibility issue?
I am using gamermuscle recommended settings for both games and running them on i7, 1070 gtx, 16 GB ram, ssd laptop.
This drives me crazy as I can't play those games anymore with these occasional slow downs.
I would really appreciate your help.
In addition I tried to scan for viruses as well.
Next I have an idea of monitoring my CPU, GPU utilisation when playing the games but if they would be bottlenecking I would have had this problem before and and all the time when I racing.

 

[Cluck]

Sounds very much like CPU throttling due to heat but that's only one of many things it could be. You've written 'laptop' in the specs, are you running on a laptop? If so, then the first port of call is to make sure Windows is set to 'High Performance' in the advanced power settings (on Windows 10, Start -> Settings -> System -> Power and Sleep -> Additional Power Settings). If you're on a desktop PC and overclocking your system, try running at stock clock speeds and try again.

 

[Puffpirat]

I’ve read in the oculus forums that there are problems with the latest Nvidia drivers. They suggest using 388.59

I just had massive stutters with the current one. Might be worth a shot

 

[karoliens]

Sounds very much like CPU throttling due to heat but that's only one of many things it could be. You've written 'laptop' in the specs, are you running on a laptop? If so, then the first port of call is to make sure Windows is set to 'High Performance' in the advanced power settings (on Windows 10, Start -> Settings -> System -> Power and Sleep -> Additional Power Settings). If you're on a desktop PC and overclocking your system, try running at stock clock speeds and try again.

Yes, I run my games on Alienware laptop. And I always use ''high performance" plan. Thank you for suggestion though.
 

I’ve read in the oculus forums that there are problems with the latest Nvidia drivers. They suggest using 388.59

I just had massive stutters with the current one. Might be worth a shot

View attachment 4443

That's worth a shot since I always update the Nvidia drivers as soon as they come out. I will try to roll back to 388.59.

 

[CatchAGlimpse]

I used to have random framerate drops / slowdowns - I found moving the PC2 files to an SSD fixed the issue and I haven't seen it since.

This may be completely unrelated just thought I would mention it just in case!

 

[karoliens]

I used to have random framerate drops / slowdowns - I found moving the PC2 files to an SSD fixed the issue and I haven't seen it since.

This may be completely unrelated just thought I would mention it just in case!

It is already on SSD.

 

[karoliens]

I've tried to roll back to 388.59 Nvidia drivers. It did not help. Using HWMonitor I have checked what was my maximum CPU and GPU utilization when I ran the PC2. CPU around 40% and GPUaround 70%. That seems to be OK to me. Any other suggestions?

 

[karoliens]

I have reinstalled the windows and the problem persists. In addition what I have noticed is that when I use Oculus Debug Tool and set ASW to Force 45fps, ASW enabled (to check if it helps with slow downs) and monitor my performance using HUD I could still see that it goes to 90fps just fine. Why the rule is not enforced?
Also could you suggest how I could monitor and record my CPU and GPU utilisation while I am playing in VR. It would help to troubleshoot since I could check what is happening with CPU and GPU when I encounter those slow downs.

 

[karoliens]

Here is the graph showing CPU (blue) and GPU (red) load when I play PC2. I circled the peaks of GPU and I think these are the point where I am experiencing slow downs.

 

[Hujkis]

That's pretty hot. You might want to consider:

• better thermal compound ( I can advise on that )
  
• active cooling pad
• undervolting

 

[karoliens]

Thanks for all the replies. O have been investigating this issue quite a lot. I remembered that it was working just fine before BIOS update. But since I always try to keep my system up to date I have updated BIOS as well. Alienware pushed those updates due to Intel meltdown? And now I could not roll back. There number of people complaining about the performance loss due to BIOS update but AW does not offer any solution. It seems the only option is to wait for new BIOS which will work properly. At the moment I opened the support ticket with AW as the laptop still has warranty.

 

[karoliens]

After monitoring my CPU temperatures with HWiNFO64 I have noticed that my CPU temperatures are not normal. They climb above 90 degrees C while playing. @Cluck and @Hujkis you were right I am probably experiencing thermal throttling. I have ordered Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut and some Gelid thermal pads. I am looking forward to see some serious decrease in temperatures.
After reading the same DELL forum I found you that it is pretty common for these machines to start thermal throttling due to bad thermal compound application.

 

[Ashnoom]

@karoliens do you run a stock cooler or a aftermarket cooler?

 

[karoliens]

@karoliens do you run a stock cooler or a aftermarket cooler?

It is a laptop I am not sure if there is an aftermarket cooler.

 

[SteveO916]

It is a laptop I am not sure if there is an aftermarket cooler.

(the actual picture is a Desktop fan, but I've made it smaller.....)

 

[Jonno]

Have you not tried turning all the graphic settings down tbh iv played it on ultra and low settings and theres not too much diffrence apart from a few jagged edges but when you whizzing round you dont see them anyway.

 

[karoliens]

It has been resolved as I mentioned before. The CPU was experiencing thermal throttling therefore the game stuttered. Today DELL has replaced the heat sink and re pasted and all is good now. Later on I will be upgrading to liquid metal and better thermal pads.

Thread could be closed.

 

[Cluck]

Thread closed as per OP request. Glad to see you got it sorted