Assassins Creed 3 Performance issues on PC

[murkris118]

So got a copy of AC3 today and thought I would be having a blast of a time playing it for quite some time but I have been noticing awful performance with the game on my 680 coupled with a 2500k. When set to Ultra the game is very laggy at times especially during scenes in Boston. I dunno about other places but this is as far as I have played. The stalking through the woods picture I have been painting in my mind has not been enjoyable tbh. I get an average of 45 fps in Boston and in the snow covered woods near it with occasional 60 fps peaks. Have they screwed the DX 11 implementation in this game like the recent titles or will this be set right by a patch later on?. This is unacceptable imo especially when they took an extra month to do the so called "Polish" of the PC version.

Please feel free to post your issues on AC3 here in this post.

 

[Ryoohki360]

Reduce soft shadow one notch, it put everything on screen with soft shadows. SS kill performance, always did...

 

[Domingo]

I'll have to try this. Lower the AA helps a little, but it's still spotty. I was getting smooth as silk performance on the boat and at the opera house, but things bogged down in Boston. After Revelations (where I never saw any less than 60 fps) I assumed it had to be some kind of optimization issue.

 

[murkris118]

No difference even after decreasing shadow quality. not sure but starting to think is the game is demanding after all. My gpu usage is around 90% in the woods all the time.

 

[Q-BZ]

Update all drivers and all that usual stuff? Verify file integrity? Etc. ?

 

[dnottis]

Running on high, game runs great. I think people forget that Ultra setting is really for people with $1k in dual GPUs not single GPUs - its gives them a little extra to justify their cards. Single 680 @ +180core +400ram and 4600@ 4.7Ghz with 16gb ram.

Back off everything to high and see how it runs.

 

[murkris118]

Running on high, game runs great. I think people forget that Ultra setting is really for people with $1k in dual GPUs not single GPUs - its gives them a little extra to justify their cards. Single 680 @ +180core +400ram and 4600@ 4.7Ghz with 16gb ram.

Back off everything to high and see how it runs.

Really?... ooh... is it that demanding. If I can recall the recommended system requirements for this game was not high .....

 

[dnottis]

Really?... ooh... is it that demanding. If I can recall the recommended system requirements for this game was not high .....

Right, but everyone assumes that the recommended system requirements are for Ultra. They are probably for medium.

 

[zkalra62]

Its a load of BS that it is demanding. Its just lazy coding. Friggin Ubisoft is known for spewing turd-ware down PC gamers' throats for years now. Frogs need to be taught a lesson. We should boycott their damn games. I get same fps whether i go Single, Dual, 3 way or quad sli.

 

[murkris118]

The game environment and the technical detail is impeccable to be honest though. Just a shame they did not make it run at a stable 60 fps. I would have just loved that.

 

[Ryoohki360]

Its a load of BS that it is demanding. Its just lazy coding. Friggin Ubisoft is known for spewing turd-ware down PC gamers' throats for years now. Frogs need to be taught a lesson. We should boycott their damn games. I get same fps whether i go Single, Dual, 3 way or quad sli.

Yeah because AC2 and all the other one run so bad..

It's funny, as soon as a game doesn't run at 60FPS in 2560x1600 it's bad coding.... Do you realise that Soft Shadowing and Tesselation kill the performance of any games out there.

Just wait until the Next Gen (next gen Xbox and PS3) game are released on PC and run at 15FPS in 1080p, how many people will cry a river that their 3 monitor setup doesn't work well anymore..

 

[Colonel Sanders]

This game actually pushes the PC envelope in my opinion and is one of the best looking games I've yet played, period. Whining that it doesn't run at 60fps at Ultra settings seems a little silly when it looks like this. By the way, on my PC I haven't had any FPS problems. It runs at 60fps I would say about 75% of the time for me, and the worst (in the busiest areas of Boston, during a thunderstorm at night) down to about 45fps. And the nice thing is, in this game when FPS dips a bit, controls stay nice and responsive and the game still runs smooth and stutter free.

 

[Q-BZ]

Never had any performances issues with any AC game on my rig including this new one.

 

[murkris118]

I get huge drops in many places not just Boston, Frontier and few else. Dunno whether its because of my stock CPU or is it really a game issue that would be fixed soon. I really love this game as I have loved all AC games but this sucks tbh.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

I get huge drops in many places not just Boston, Frontier and few else. Dunno whether its because of my stock CPU or is it really a game issue that would be fixed soon. I really love this game as I have loved all AC games but this sucks tbh.

Well it's not a game issue because it runs fine for other people. I would say overclocking your CPU might be a huge help.

 

[murkris118]

Game seems to be insanely CPU demanding. Have my 2500k clocked at 3.8 and even with that I had to set Environment quality to High to get a stable 55-60 fps in most areas especially the woods. I dont see much difference between High and Very High but yeah, guess have to deal with it. The huge draw distances makes the CPU crawl and my fps drops to the mid 30`s. All is well now and I can really enjoy the game as its meant to be ..... because really my eyes are too sensitive and 40-50 fps just does not cut it for me as is the case with others. Anyone having issues try this out and set Environment detail to High. You would hardly notice a difference. Probably need a 3960x at 5 Ghz to max this game out and that too with a 680 .. The game does need some performance improvements though but nothing that cant be fixed with a patch or a driver update. Still felling uncomfortable with the combat system but I guess I will get used to it. Waiting for those continuous kill shots like AC II without getting my ass kicked in the middle .

 

[HamHB]

I just downloaded the 310.54 AC3 nvidia drivers.

Performance went up roughly 9-12%(I can absolutely feel it) High 40's to low 50's for me now. Desmond, isolated and non-crowded parts are 60fps the entire time now.

I also found my anti-aliasing sweet spot.

Remember ppl, for mid - -to - - high end video cards; as long as your vram usage isn't absurdly high, crank up the settings as optimal as you can, so your gpu doesn't act like a couch potato and just lays there, when it could be handling much more input than you had generally assumed.

Game seems to be insanely CPU demanding..

just something some other user said in another forum. I thought I'd share it over here.

It seems this game is very much CPU bound. I've determined that graphics settings have no effect on my framerate. I visited my BIOS and managed to eke a little more out of my aging i5-750, pulling it up to 4GHz even. This definitely helped, but I still get minor frame drops in Boston.

The good news is that this may be fixable. Looking at the task manager in the Boston harbor, I see core 1 spiking up to 100%, while 2-4 are at 70 or below. Maybe Ubi can improve the threading in a patch.

For now though, it looks like an overclockd i5-2500k is the absolute minimum for a 60fps lock in Boston.

 

[Nytegard]

I just downloaded the 310.54 AC3 nvidia drivers.

Performance went up roughly 9-12%(I can absolutely feel it) High 40's to low 50's for me now. Desmond, isolated and non-crowded parts are 60fps the entire time now.

Strangely enough, the beta drivers killed my performance. I was getting in the mid 40's before and it went down for some strange reason, although I got SLI capabilities with the game.

As other people stated though, it seems to be CPU demanding. My graphics cards are hardly stressed, while CPU 7 is working at full steam.

Sorry about the picture quality. Not use to Win 8, and not quite sure how to capture peak usage while the game is up and running without using my camera.

 

[Laffles]

What AA are you pushing, 4x?

 

[Nytegard]

What AA are you pushing, 4x?

That's with everything pushed as high as possible (TXAA), and really, it only dips into those frame rates during the most stressful of times. Strangely enough, if I disable SLI, the game actually gains around 20% more fps, which could explain why I got a drop with the new beta drivers (as the old drivers didn't support SLI with AC3).

*EDIT*

And as other people have pointed out, when I dropped my Environment Quality, the FPS skyrocketed. And I was getting the same FPS at 2560x1440 as I was on 800x600. This definitely isn't a graphics card pusher. But honestly, I can live with 60 fps dropping to 30 every once in awhile. I'll play some more to see if any worse hits come.

 

[HamHB]

That's with everything pushed as high as possible (TXAA), and really, it only dips into those frame rates during the most stressful of times. Strangely enough, if I disable SLI, the game actually gains around 20% more fps, which could explain why I got a drop with the new beta drivers (as the old drivers didn't support SLI with AC3).

*EDIT*

This definitely isn't a graphics card pusher. But honestly, I can live with 60 fps dropping to 30 every once in awhile. I'll play some more to see if any worse hits come.

But, i don't understand, my gtx 570 is getting a semi-hardcore workout in this game. The Vram is pushing almost at 1100 and it has gone as highest as 1150. I'm getting almost 99% gpu utilization most of the time. My cpu core is 80% usage, and the rest are around 30%'ish.

This game has to compliment the vid card and processor together for the game to run as smooth as possible. Either that, or some configurations are just meant to run shitty for this particular game

 

[Fooshnik]

Anyone got crossfire working properly? Enabled I'm getting 30fps in Boston, after making a custom profile and disabling it I get 40-60fps. While enabled both cards run about 40% usage, disable GPU1 runs about 90% usage.

CPU is running about 80% usage on a 2500K @ 4600.

 

[Nytegard]

But, i don't understand, my gtx 570 is getting a semi-hardcore workout in this game. The Vram is pushing almost at 1100 and it has gone as highest as 1150. I'm getting almost 99% gpu utilization most of the time. My cpu core is 80% usage, and the rest are around 30%'ish.

This game has to compliment the vid card and processor together for the game to run as smooth as possible. Either that, or some configurations are just meant to run shitty for this particular game
[/URL]

Well, it just seems like this game really isn't taking advantage of multi-gpu solutions. Hence why most ATI users get horrendous frame rates, and why I get better frame rates when I disable SLI. Even with the CPU, one of the cores is getting trounced, while the others are only at 35-45% usage.

What this means is that while yes, it is stressing out your card, you most likely have a single GPU solution, and that the game isn't distributing it's workload effectively. If one CPU or GPU is at 100% usage, it's no wonder why the frame rate drops, but if you have idle cores willing to do work, you could raise the frame rate quite easily, assuming things can be moved off the main cores.

*EDIT*

Just a quick video demonstrating SLI vs non SLI. I understand SLI will not scale twice as much, but it shouldn't be worse than a single GPU imho.

Also, just disabled Hyper-threading and my frame rate increased another 10%. With SLI & HT, getting about 34-38 fps. With both of them disabled, getting about 44-50 fps.

 

[crowat]

Running two 6950s 2gb (flashed with 6970 bios) in cfx gets me 15~30 fps in boston.

When I turn off cfx and run a single gpu I get ~40-45 fps...

I just re-installed newest drivers and CAP profiles and I get the same results...

 

[B!nd.]

I haven't tracked my FPS while playing yet but, I have everything maxed out with TXAA (1920x1080) and the frame slowdown in Boston is very minimal.

My GPU gets to about 99% usage while my CPU doesn't get higher than 91% but they never peak like that at the same time. I do wan't to overclock my CPU to at least 4 Ghz sometime soon. I think It will help with any type of dips I may experience. VRAM barely gets over 55%.

 

[SolitaryOne]

i notice a small drop in framerate when im in boston but other than that, i dont really drop below 50fps (max settings)

 

[byusinger84]

I've only noticed severe drops when it's snowing. Other than that, I've had pretty good framerates. I did setup a monitor and I did see that a lot of the time my GPUs are only getting pushed to around 50% at a time, however, there are times when that number will go into the 80%+ range showing that Crossfire is indeed working, though it's probably not optimized. I've tried custom Crossfire profiles to see if that would make a difference, but it did not. I have everything maxed @ 1920x1200 and have been very happy with the performance save a few, small dips below 25 FPS. Anything 25 FPS and above I can barely notice.

One thing I did notice, however, was that on my Core i7 2600K, Hyper-threading seemed to hinder the performance, especially in places with lots of NPCs. The solution was to use RadeonPro to setup a custom profile for the game and then set the CPU affinity to CPUs 0, 2, 4, and 6. This kept everything on the actual CPUs and helped quite a bit. Or, I guess you could simply turn Hyper-threading off, but this way is easier. Overclocking the CPU seemed to help as well (mine is only OC'd to 4.6 GHz). I also disabled Aero in my custom profile on RadeonPro since Windows kept complaining about GPU performance anyway. Every little bit helps I guess. :-p

 

[Domingo]

For my setup - I don't notice the spikes nearly as much in the wilderness. In Boston, the spikes seem to go from 60+ FPS to an immediate drop to 50-51 with any DX11 effects, right back up to 60 again.
In the wilderness, I'm usually at a pretty steady mid 50's, so that the spikes aren't as severe or noticeable.

 

[Deleted member 232162]

I was worried too about what people were saying, but when I started playing I noticed I was getting excellent performance from my 670 @ 1920x1080 all as high as possible, including TXAA. Getting about 4 5+ in Boston it seems...smooth all around.

 

[next-Jin]

The game runs like shit and it shouldn't. With HT on all 8 threads are almost maxed, same with just 4. There is an article mentioning that it is horribly unoptimized on the cpu and nothing is going to fix it unless they patch the game to better distribute the load.

No crossfire profile is bs but that's not the problem.

Sucks for everyone who actually bought it.

 

[Deleted member 232162]

The game runs like shit and it shouldn't. With HT on all 8 threads are almost maxed, same with just 4. There is an article mentioning that it is horribly unoptimized on the cpu and nothing is going to fix it unless they patch the game to better distribute the load.

No crossfire profile is bs but that's not the problem.

Sucks for everyone who actually bought it.

But it..doesn't run like shit?

 

[Q-BZ]

But it..doesn't run like shit?

Me either. I'm ultrad out at 1920x1200 without any issues.

 

[Domingo]

I'd say it's unoptimized, but it doesn't run THAT badly.
I just think there are some fixable quirks related to certain graphical effects...at least on Nvidia hardware. It's a long way from running as badly as many other day 1 titles do.

 

[Nytegard]

I was worried too about what people were saying, but when I started playing I noticed I was getting excellent performance from my 670 @ 1920x1080 all as high as possible, including TXAA. Getting about 4 5+ in Boston it seems...smooth all around.

AA does almost nothing for me in the game fps wise. the difference between 2560x1440 with every option on and 800x600 with every option on, but AA turned off is a whole 2 fps on my machine. It's the environment detail. Setting that down one notch increased my fps by 20+ in Boston. Why, if this is in the graphics option, is it what's killing my machine CPU wise while my graphics cards are only halfway working?

I removed the beta drivers and my framerate impoved significantly, even though the beta drivers are suppose to help things out. Is there anyone with Windows 8 who noticed that the NVidia beta drivers improved their framerate?

 

[next-Jin]

But it..doesn't run like shit?

If it drops to 35-45 fps that means it runs like shit, yes I know what I am talking about and no it's not my computer or the other couple hundred thousand people who have the same problem of being able to distinguish 30fps from 60fps.

Even if Crossfire or SLI profiles came out, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. This is the first game I have ever saw that forces a 2600k to use around 95% of all 8 threads yet, funny enough, when I drop down to 4 (or 3) it nets the exact same frame rate and lo and behold we are seeing around 95% workload across all cores.

The game is severely lacking in its handling of CPU thread management. It has been identified and reported to the devs by many. Now whether or not they do anything to fix it is anyone's guess. It's basically the same problem as GTA IV when it was released just to a lesser extent as it is still playable.

This is not to say it is a bad game, its just yet another god awful port. Frankly I can't believe they had the balls to say the PC version was going to be tweaked and perfected.

And before anyone comes in here to fight the good fight, you're wrong. You cannot go into Boston or the other few places with out your frame rate dropping for no apparent reason seeing your GPU usage at 30% and CPU usage being anything between 1-100%.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

So if AC3 is such an unopimized piece of shit, why are some of us playing the game maxed out without a single issue?

 

[murkris118]

So if AC3 is such an unopimized piece of shit, why are some of us playing the game maxed out without a single issue?

Just because the majority dont have problems does not mean that the minority should not as well. Unfortunately the few people that have problems fall under the minority including me ... so I dont think anybody can give rational reasons as to why you can max the game out and others cant. By the way I cant see anything wrong with our rigs as compared to yours in terms of raw horsepower.It is true that the game is unoptimized to some extent but not unplayable. I get a fluid 60 fps in all areas including Boston and NY if I lower the Environ quality to High, everything else maxed out which is the setting I am using by the way to play the game. Maxed out seems to create problems on my rig because of low gpu usage in some areas.

 

[next-Jin]

So if AC3 is such an unopimized piece of shit, why are some of us playing the game maxed out without a single issue?

You have issues your just not noticing it because to you 30 fps is playable. This happens often when console ports are released, people argue over what's playable.

To you GTA IV was playable at 30fps for instance to me I can't do it. I can see it slow down and start playing like ass. You can't directly compare this game to BF3 but it is similar to GTA in that the problem lies with the CPU.

When you get 30 percent GPU usage when looking around in town yet your CPU is maxing out all cores (it appears its only maxing one and spreads 1-70 percent load across the others) something is wrong. I'll have to find the article I read that went into detail.

And let's just face the simple fact that at 1600p in AC3 you're going to deal with black borders. That alone proves a very simple point of incompetence with the developers.

 

[Deleted member 232162]

AA does almost nothing for me in the game fps wise. the difference between 2560x1440 with every option on and 800x600 with every option on, but AA turned off is a whole 2 fps on my machine. It's the environment detail. Setting that down one notch increased my fps by 20+ in Boston. Why, if this is in the graphics option, is it what's killing my machine CPU wise while my graphics cards are only halfway working?

I removed the beta drivers and my framerate impoved significantly, even though the beta drivers are suppose to help things out. Is there anyone with Windows 8 who noticed that the NVidia beta drivers improved their framerate?

Would be nice to know this as well, if so, I'll drop my beta drivers like a brick. I didn't want to turn down any settings since changing a single notch anywhere makes the game look like shit, hah. I'll live with 40'ish frames in Boston. Works for me.

 

[Raudulfr]

Nah, game totally runs like butter. Yous all just wrong.

Because getting as low as 30fps with a maximum GPU utilization of 60% (6950) is so awesome. Totally NOT a sign of a poorly optimized sad excuse of a port. Nah.

Everyone knows only terrible games push the GPU to 99%.