Why is my FPS so low?

[Lethal Vidor]

I'm running a 64-bit OS AMD Athlon 2 X4 processor with 12 gigs of ram, and an Nvidia GEFORCE GTX 550 TI. I can run just about any games including Battlefield 3 on Ultra High. The only game I get under 10 FPS is this game. So my question; why is my FPS so slow on Second Life? 

I've spoken with other people who are running less gigs of ram, the same card, and get close to 100 frames per second. I've also ran different graphics booster programs like Games Booster and such. 

Why does SL always run so slow FPS wise for me?

[Lethal Vidor]

Oh - and it's an AMD AThlon 2 X4 640 processor. 

[Marigold Devin]

Second Life doesn't run like a game; it's totally different to WoW and Battlefield 3.

Your FPS could be slow because:

(a) you're on a wireless connection (never recommended)

(b) you are sharing your broadband connection with a lot of people, and that dilutes the wonderfully high speed your internet service provider assures you are getting.

© you are in a busy area of Second Life/wearing too many scripts/got your graphics set to Ultra and everything ramped up to it's highest setting.

Other replies will follow.

Welcome to Second Life Forums, Lethal. 

[Lethal Vidor]

It's definitely not due to other people using the connection and I'm not wireless. I'm also not far from the SL servers as my ping is usually under 100. 

When I put my graphics on low, it actually puts my FPS lower (which is odd). The scripts I'm wearing are very minimal.

[Marigold Devin]

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Lethal Vidor wrote:

It's definitely not due to other people using the connection

and I'm not wireless. I'm also not far from the SL servers as my ping is usually under 100. 

When I put my graphics on low, it actually puts my FPS lower (which is odd). The scripts I'm wearing are very minimal.

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I'm not convinced about this, but let's wait and see what other people come up with.

It does seem very odd that your FPS should go lower when you switch your graphics to low.

My forehead has frown lines in this moment. 

[Alicia Sautereau]

SL will make every pc come to a crawl depending the settings (inc playing with advanced settings)

Best thing to do is slowly reduce some settings to see what creates most of the lag on your setup
Shadows (lighting&shadows), draw distance, AA, etc

Then you have to consider your SL location, busy area? alot of textures? etc
There is no answer for such a general question  

 

*edit*
Try disabling shadows if you have that enabled 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I just love answers from people who are experiencing problems making statements such as:  "It's definitely not due to other people using the connection and I'm not wireless".

Here's my biggest problem with such statements.  You are the one who's having the problem.  You, apparently, have a pretty decent computer fully capable of giving more than 10 FPS (not the 100 you seem to be expecting but something in the nieghborhood of 20 to 40 which is more than enough to give pretty good fluid video).  How do you know that you are not "sharing" your connection with others?  Even if you are not wireless, your router (unless it's one of the few who is not) your wireless is sending and recieving wireless signals and anyone within range of those signals can jump on your connection (the non-technical term for that is "piggy-backing") unless you have your router secured (also known as "locked down").  It's common......it happens all the time.  And it will slow you down it that unauthorized connection is doing some heavy duty downloading (which also is common since that "piggy-backer" is not connected with anything that can be traced back to them.......it's your IP that's doing the downloading).  That person could be downloading all sorts of illegal content (including child pornography) and it's going to show that you (yeah you, Lethal Vidor, is the one doing it).  Is your router locked down and secure?  Probably not (I say that because so many people don't even know their network is wide open).

On that ping of about 100.  You say you are close to the severs.  There are two SL servers farms.  One is in San Francisco, CA and the other is in Dallas, TX.  The closest you can get to both server  farms is midway between San Francisco and Dallas........and that would put your pings well below 100.  I'm 400 miles (via highway.....probably a little further via the Internet route) from SF.........my pings run right at 45.  I'm about 1800 miles from Dallas and those pings run right at 85 to 100.  If you are close to the servers (by that I mean, at least, as close as I am) you should not be getting a ping of 100.

And now for a possible fix for your (apparently) slow connection.  Reboot both your router and you modem.  Unplug from teh electrical source for 3 to 5 minutes and plug them back in.  Reboot your computer to re-establish your Internet connection.  Those two devices (just like computers) need an occassional restarting to work well (and properly).

[Alicia Sautereau]

I just love answers from people who are expiriencing complexes and think they know everything with an arrogancy that makes anyone else shiver to ask for expertise

I`m about 12,000km from dallas with a ping of 123ms, 0 lag and at settings that would make your pc cringe, your point?

Every time i wonder why i keep coming back after awhile, but reading this, i remember what the reason was to stay the hell away

[Peggy Paperdoll]

You  just made my point.

"I`m about 12,000km from dallas with a ping of 123ms, 0 lag and at settings that would make your pc cringe, your point?"

I don't care what your settings are......believe me they won't make me cringe.  As I've told you several times over the months (or years?)  I have a decent, but far from high end, computer.  I experience no lag and the settings I use are more than good enough for me (depending on where I am on the grid anywhere from 20 to 75 or 80 FPS).  I don't dwell on bragging rights...........unlike some people.  

[Lethal Vidor]

Peggy - I'm sorry to see that your paitience is so short. 

There is this wonderful feature where you can look to see what your ping to the sim you are typically on is; it's called Statitstics. Under those statistics is a section called PING SIM. This number is almost always under 100. This is sufficient ping for any sim/server connection to a client. 

As far as my connection, are you kidding me? My router is secured and password protected. I most CERTAINLY know who is on it. I am the only one that uses it. I've ran plenty of speed tests. The connection is fine and it is not contributing to a low FPS. In the past, I have ran other machines at this same location, on the same network. My FPS was fine.

I have rebooted my router and modem several times in the past, and this hasn't fixed the frames per second issue.

Thanks for assuming it's my connection, but I can assure you, it's not. 

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

It's not your connection.  Then, the only thing left is your system.  It's not LL because I was just on and at a moderately populated sim with a draw distance set at 256 meter, graphics set at high (without shadows........I don't like the look) I was getting right at 45 FPS.  That's pretty typical for me.  I have pretty much the same CPU and graphics as you (Intel i5 and a GTX 550Ti 1 GB card). 

I know about the ping feature in the Stats bar.  A better test is an independant one such as http://www.speedtest.net/ .  An added feature with Speed Test's ping is that you get your packet loss..........packet loss will cause all sorts of problems. 

I don't know what to tell you.  The specs you gave (as limited as they were) says you should certainly be getting more than 10 FPS in the vast majority of sims in SL.  If you don't want to look at your network as a cause and you refuse to believe it's your system, then I'm afraid you will be stuck with what you got.

I have patience.........I really do.  But anytime makes a statement that they know for a fact it's not something (your connection in this case) yet they are having issues, then that tells me that, in all probability, that the person is closing their mind to a very realistic source of the problem.  I still think it's your network......but you don't.  So look at your system.  That's the best I can do.

[Alisha Matova]

Could be anything, really. But here is where I would start. Your PC: latest network drivers, latest graphics drivers. Try other viewers and or a Full delete and reinstall of LLs viewer, turn off background stuff, monkey with your gpus driver software.

In SL, drop all your attachments, even huds. Then hit the default button in preferences. Maybe fiddle with the viewers hardware settings.

 

Something will work. Unless it's something else. =)

[Tamara Artis]

What viewer are you using?

[Dora Gustafson]

I suggest you search this forum for "low FPS"
It is a question that pops up ever so often and each time it generates multiple answers
One of those answers may be what you are looking for

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Just a random thought or two. Are you using Nvidia default settings with Second Life or are you using game settings you've set up for another game? For example, I've seen mention that enabling Ambient Occlusion in the Nvidia contol panel lowers fps considerably in one game. Also, have you asked what graphics card driver other 550 Ti owners you've spoken to are using and installed it?

[Perrie Juran]

I too have a very slow frame rate problem and have been trying to solve it for several months now.

Sometimes the solutions to these problems are very simple.  As simple as toggling HTTP or Streaming VBO's on or off.  I myself just ran into the odd situation since Avatar Baking was moved to Server Side that on a busy SIM Avatars were taking 2 to 4 Minutes to render.  Turning off HTTP fixed that.  Why that is so I have no idea but FOR ME it worked.  Before the move to server side, HTTP was working better for me.

But moving forward and addressing your situation, first of all, for better or for worse, SL does not function like other games run.  And for better or for worse, that is the simple fact.  Those of us who are experienced know this.  We sometimes may not like it, but it is what it is.

If you want us to help you then you need to show some patience and respect and work with us.  We, and I include Peggy in this, are trying to help you.  When a solution isn't immediately obvious, we need to dig into the nitty gritty.  What's so hard about you running the ping test and posting the results?  This isn't about proving who is right or who is wrong.  This is about helping you.  If you want us to help you then you have got to help us to help you.  And finding the solution often times includes RULING OUT problems.

You said you are running a 64 Bit OS.  What's so hard about telling us what the OS is?  Linux?  Windows? Mac?  Something else?  There are experts here in all of these categories.

I have several months of experience dealing with slow FPS.  I may know something that will help you.  While it is probable that you know a hundred times more than me about computing, I still may know the one little trick that solves your problem. 

Simple enough?

 

[Nalates Urriah]

I'm not sure where some of the suggestions came from unless you have been posting in other threads...

You convinenced there is not a connection problem on your end. Now you need to check that there is not a problem on the SL server side. All the detail steps for testing a connection are here: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection.

The TL;DR check is to look in the Viewer Stats for Physics FPS and TIme Dilation. They should be 45 and 1.0. Below 30 and 0.8 and you can expect some slowing. A TRACERT will show if it is something between you and SL that is a problem.

To really know what the problem might be there is a load of stuff to check. So, when you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. Get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post.

We can then tell if it is a driver issue or a hardware problem.

You can read through Graphics Tweaking for Second Life to see what settings may be a problem for you.

You can get GPU-Z (free) to see if your video card is carrying part of the load. You can get SpeedFans (free) to see if the CPU or GPU is overheating and throttling back. System Explorer (free) will show you if load is spreading out between the 4 cores. It will also show you if the system is page faulting, writing memory to disk, which can happen if memory is being tied up by something else that is running.

Beyond these things, and these too actually, I'm guessing. I hope these clues get you started toward finding a solution.

 

[161488303349]

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Marigold Devin wrote:

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Lethal Vidor wrote:

When I put my graphics on low, it actually puts my FPS lower (which is odd).

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It does seem very odd that your FPS should go lower when you switch your graphics to low.



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thats actual true for some setups. Basic Shaders On runs faster than Basic Shaders Off. it does on my NV 230M

[Coventina Dalgleish]

Trouble shooting

To be done one at a time

Remove your router from the chain and direct connect to the net. Routers do develop problems over time

Move your cache from the root drive

Defrag the drive that contains the cache SL seems to fragment a lot

un install second life totally from your machine this will require the use of regedit to remove all the registry components

do a search for second life and linden in regedit be careful you can destroy the operating system look at each entry before you hit the delete key

find all second life folders through the search option and remove them

once cleaned re install SL but not on the root drive

Oh it also helps a lot to run the error check on any drive that has been touched by LL ))

run a speed test to dallas and SanFransisco and observe the results I normally get bad times from the east coast on a 20 meg line (4 to 8) where new york . chigago, and DC get 20 to 25 MBPS

 

check your bandwidth setting it should be set around 80% of the bandwidth reading you get from dallas and SF

 

SL uses KBPS vs MBPS used by the speed tests if you get a reading form the speed tests of 15 to 20 MBPS set the bandwidth at 1200 to 1800 I have never seen a performance difference setting it higher but it could be a problem area if the data is over running your connection

 

Do these one at a time and observe any changes there are many other areas in the game settings and the video setup that can also affect FPS

 

Find an empty sim with no load and observe the FPS

 

Another thing I have noticed lately  depending on the viewer  at the log in the fps is very low I do not do anything until everything has stabalized this sometimes takes up to 3 minutes especially with the LL and FS viewers, way too much eye candy to load

 

Try a 3rd party viewer such as Cool I do get the fastest stabalization and highest FPS from it

you will have to put up with its quirk though )) it never quite remembers what you were wearing and likes to stuff you with lots of extra items ))

 

Hope this helps