Should my FPS really be below 20 regardless of graphics settings with these specs?

[Aizen Wind]

Should my FPS really be below 20 regardless of graphics settings with these specs? I hear others have specs close to these, saying that they are always 100+ fps.. Is there something I am missing?

 

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz (2294.78 MHz)
Memory: 12248 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 670M/PCIe/SSE2

[Rhys Goode]

FPS results depend pretty strongly on where you are.  With my GTX 560M, I get 100 fps when I am up in my skybox with a friend or two.  If I am in a busy, nearly full (but unimpaired) sim, my FPS can easily drop to 20.  Usually only down to about 30 fps, even in a crowd, but it does depend on the sim.

Oh, and keep an eye on the sim statistices, crtl-shift-1, in particular sim fps, and time dialation.  An unimpaired sim will show 45 fps, and time dialation >~0.98.  If these numbers start going down because the server is overloaded, then your client will perform poorly, no mater how good is the graphics card.

[Aizen Wind]

[Orca Flotta]

Pretty adorable system you got there, Aizen, so let's look at something else to blame the fps on.

1) Yes, your FPS depends pretty much on the sim performance as already posted. ctrl shift 1 is your friend

2) What's your drawing distance? If you have it up to 512 or even higher all the time you'll see a significant drop in fps. Let's not forget that with doubling the DD your computer has to process 4 times the amount of data.

3) Keep your driver updated. Nvidia are always busy making them better. You can join their mailing list so you'll be notified as soon as there's a new driver available for your graphics card.

4) Your viewer!!! I just had to say byebye to my beloved Phoenix and switch to Firestorm in order to view 'web on prim' and noticed a much better fps rate right out of the box. It also renders much cripser but that's not the issue here

5) Last but not least take a look at your connection. I know my system is capable of much better fps but my connection sucks badly. Particularly when connecting to some exotic country like the US westcoast (it's where the Lindens are) my latency and data throughput becomes very poor. So I try to keep my dd to modest levels. 128 - 256 for activities out in the open, like sailing on open SL ocean, 64 when shopping or clubbing. Conduct a speedtest (to SF and to Dallas) and see if your ISP delivers what they promise and make you pay for.

6) Apart from that I find a fps around 20 is plenty good enough for smooth movements, fps 10 is still good when just standing around and chatting.

7) That picture, is that in Kingdom of Sand?

 

[Dora Gustafson]

Your graphics setting: Low, Med, High and Ultra matters a great deal.
The frame rate depends on how busy your system is.
High graphics setting and complex environment increase the load.

With you system set to Ultra, you should get at least 60 FPS when you fly high up where nothing is in sight

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Having more or less the same specs you have, same GPU, slightly faster i7 and slightly more RAM (16GB).

I suspect your connection. On an empty platform I can get over 200 fps with a good connection on ultra settings. A busy sim and they drop to 20. I absolutely can't imagine people getting 100 fps on a busy sim. So it could also be the places you visit.

It could also be the things you are wearing. 300 prim sculpted boots will cripple any system I bet.

btw, did you try the same system with windows 7?

And does your motherboard support PCIE3? If not, the 670 can't be used to its full potential.

EDIT, I just noticed you're on a laptop. You can't compare the 670M to a 670 (the one I have). It's still a very good card ofcourse, but benchmarked at just 40% of the desktop version. The desktop equivalent of your card (if you can compare apples and pears) is the GTX 460 SE.

videocardbenchmark.net

If you do get to run your card faster, make sure you monitor your temps, especially on a laptop.

[Aizen Wind]

So its perhaps mainly my video card because I am on a laptop?

 

As for the other responses, its regardless of my graphics settings which is interesting, from low to ultra, the fps only fits by 1-5, if even that.  I will try to push some more power into my graphics card.

 

And yes, this sim is kingdom of sands. Maybe one of you can TP there and see what sort of fps you get?

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

---

Aizen Wind wrote:

So its perhaps mainly my video card because I am on a laptop?

---

It's possible, but I don't think it's very likely. If the video card was the bottleneck I'd expect to see higher fps with lower settings.

 

[Rhys Goode]

I just went to the Kingdom of Sands sim.  And a nice sim it is, a very attractive build.

Anyway, when I TP'd in to the landing zone, I was getting 60 - 100 fps.  But when I TP'd to the main play area of the sim, my fps went down to about 20.  My fps fluctuates, depending on where I look and if I am moving.  If I stand still and don't change the camera, fps will pop up to 25ish, but if I turn and start waliking in a different direction than I had been looking, fps will drop to 16 or 18, then bounce back to 25 when I stop.  I am using the high graphics settings, 256 m draw distance.  If I were going to stay and play, especially if I were going to try some combat, I would probably reduce the draw distance to something less than 100.  

There were maybe 10 or 15 people scattered around the sim, not what I would call crowded.  The statistics for the sim itself look just fine, 45 fps, and no time dialation.  

[Aizen Wind]

Thanks! So it was the sim then. Yeah, its basically the only place I RP at, and didn't think to compare to other sims. I didn't think it was that busy to effect my performance so much!

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Slightly crowded area:

ultra: 25-40 fps or so

high: 40-50

mid: 50

low: >60 (vsynch on)

CPU use 18%

GPU use 40%

____________________________________

Second Life 3.3.4 (0) Jun 23 2012 19:35:46 (RestrainedLove viewer v2.08.03.03 (3.3.3.23744))

CPU: Intel® Core i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (3491.53 MHz)
Memory: 16276 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 670/PCIe/SSE2

_____________________________________

Even though the simowners warn people on landing about their script use, a lot of people have very laggy avatars, graphics wise. The avatar draw weight should be under 40k according to LL, I've seen plenty of people with a weight in the hundreds of thousands, up to well over half a million.

Graphical load on my computer doesn't seem to be that high though, I can see that in the temperatures. GPU didn't get any warmer than 50C, where it gets close to 70C when it has to work in SL.

I think your 20 fps is pretty normal then.