Shadows Causing Extremely Low FPS

[Remamian Takashi]

Scenario: Playing Secondlife (Full graphics no issues 60fps) and Darksiders (via steam, also running at 60fps but). Darksiders is running full-screen, I alt+tab to check chrome for a recent email, load back into Darksiders and suddenly its got terrible lag, hardly playable. So i save close, and notice SL(Secondlife) is running extremely slow. So i close everything open up, still slow.

Attempted fixes: At this point somethings not working, i restarted and still nothing. I took drastic measures at this point. Uninstalled SL, and all of my graphics drivers, restarted, re-installed, and restarted again. Not sure why but still terrible FPS even with only SL loading. So messing around with setting i can get 60+ FPS just fine with all settings at absolute max save one. If i enable shadows of any kind, my FPS goes from 60+ down to hardly 10.

Performance levels across the board look fine, nothing spiking, no super high usages.

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CPU TEMPERATURE
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36c / 96f

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GPU TEMPERATURE
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52c / 125f


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System Information
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Time of this report: 12/18/2014, 22:32:30
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140706-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7917
BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/06/14 15:31:33 Ver: V1.8B0
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32716MB RAM
Page File: 5002MB used, 60427MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled


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Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_118E&SUBSYS_84771043&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4095 MB
Dedicated Memory: 3008 MB
Shared Memory: 1087 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: ACER X223W (Analog)
Monitor Model: Acer X223W
Monitor Id: ACR0050
Native Mode: 1680 x 1050(p) (59.883Hz)
Output Type: HDMI
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.4475 (English)
Driver Version: 9.18.13.4475
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 11/12/2014 19:20:36, 19966344 bytes

 

 

TL;DR || Great Rig, No problems with max graphics 60+ FPS before, now 60+ FPS without shadows 10-15FPS with.

[Remamian Takashi]

Update: went through and checked on more settings within secondlife. I can now have shadows on with Max Graphics, but the option 'Enable Rendering of Screen Space Reflections' must be off or the FPS drops again.

this feature allows for highly detailed reflections upon 'shiny' enabled surfaces. Basically allowing for true mirrored surfaces. This setting was enabled before, with no drop in FPS

[Remamian Takashi]

Update: Update: The sim, and current room i was in had every surface set to 'shiny' or 'specular' meaning there was more than 100+ surfaces that were needing reflections rendered. Cam outside of the room with Max Settings + Space Reflections and FPS goes from 10 to 55.

[Bobbie Faulds]

You do have to take that kind of thing into account. Another thing to look at is what the size of the textures is. Too many people use 1024 when a 512 or even lower will work. On a plain wall with just a color, why do you need 1024 when it looks exactly the same a 1 x 1. Same applies to jewlery...a band on a ring is so small, you could use a 64 x 64 or even a 28 x 28 and not notice the difference. The surface is too small, but you slap a 1024 x 1024 texture and you have lag contribution. Remember too that almost all the textures you see around you were created by the users. So they have to be loaded into your cache. Just a few things to keep in mind when your FPS drops...first thing, especially with the Interesting programming SL has implemented....lower your draw distance to 120 unless you are taking pictures...you don't need to see the next sim under normal circumstances.

[Rhys Goode]

When I have shadows enabled, I get somewhere between 5 and 50 fps, depending on the sim.  50, up on my building platform, 5 in a heavily landscaped or avatar rich environment.  Shadows do put a load on your machine.